Cambridge Racism

All this talk of the Obama Beer Summit reminds me of my own brush with racism in the fair city of Cambridge, Mass.

I was in my first couple of weeks of law school and was hanging out with a couple of other Asian American guys (actually, one Asian American and one half-Asian, half-white Canadian) in Harvard Square. As a Southerner, I was sort of an oddity among my Asian American peers, and I was being asked all sorts of questions about what it was like growing up in the supposedly racist South. I'm actually proud of my Southern roots, and I was explaining to my new friends that the South was no more racist than any other part of the country. In fact, I argued that in so far as Southerners interact more with people of other races than do folks from other parts of the country, the South is actually less racist than other parts of the country.

My friends didn't believe this could be true, and protested my attempt to favorably compare the South with what they considered to be the much-more-enlightened Northeast. Just then, a pickup truck pulled up next to us. Inside were a bunch of guys who looked to be in the 18-24 demographic, all white. They stopped beside us to shout some racial epithets of the "ching-chong" variety and then abruptly drove away. The three of us were left standing there in shock.

I generally enjoyed my three years in Cambridge, and I don't recall experiencing any episodes of racism more blatant than that incident in Harvard Square. But the experience did reinforce my belief that all people -- regardless of color or geography -- are fairly similar. And one thing that we share is a distrust for those that are different from or unfamiliar to us. You can't get rid of that over a couple of beers. But it's a start.