Last night, Tim Wise spoke to a crowd of approximately 200 hundred people at the First Church in Boston on behalf of Community Change, Inc., an anti-racist non-profit that has been educating and organizing for racial equity since 1968. I first heard Tim speak at Boston College as an undergraduate approximately seven years ago. At the time, I was very impressed by his rhetorical style and his ability to clearly articulate an analysis of systemic racism, white privilege, and the responsibility of people of color and white allies to do something about these issues. I was even more impressed with his speech last night and was professionally taped so hopefully we’ll be able to share it with people in the near future via our website (www.communitychangeinc.org) or through our library.
After the event, several of us took Tim out to dinner in the North End. As we walked across the street from our parking spot to the restaurant, I stopped in the middle of the crosswalk to make sure Tim who was talking to someone crossed to the other side safely. As I stopped and waited for Tim to catch up to me, a car pulled into the intersection driven by a young white male. He honked his horn, threw up his hands in apparent frustration and started to say something. Initially, I could not hear what he was saying, and I just looked at him while I waited for Tim. Approximately two seconds later as we exited the crosswalk, the driver and two passengers, also young white males, started to scream out the windows of their car things like, “get the hell out of the street.” However, instead of simply driving off, they started to laugh audibly and shouted, “Chink!” As Tim and I walked into the restaurant, I said, “welcome to Boston.”
Tim is arguably one of the most famous white anti-racist activists in the nation. He was appalled by the comment and we stared at each other in utter disbelief for a second before we were brought to a table in the rear of the restaurant. I tried to brush off the incident as no big deal but it hurt and I had to sit with that feeling all throughout dinner. In fact, I am still sitting with that pain as I type this reflection. No matter who I really am, I was reminded last night, yet again, how tenuous my place is in this country. To some people, I am still just a “chink” and no matter what I say or do, I cannot change the fact that racial epithets such as that still carry significant meaning in our country. Sure, I could have turned around and said something similarly negative to those three young men but you and I clearly know there is nothing I could have said that would inflict the same wound or cause a similar amount of pain.
This event and others like it that have occurred in my life remind me how perilous life can be for many people of color in our country. That one word did not cause me any physical harm but the cumulative affect of these incidents do have a long-term impact on my mental health and can affect my physical well-being in the long-run.
I was invigorated by Tim’s speech last night and hope that his zeal continues to influence me as a move forward from this incident. As an Asian American anti-racist activist with years of experience training and consulting on these issues, I feel well equipped to deal with this situation. However, I admit, it still sucks. If you’ve read this post until this point, thank you. If you have any thoughts to share about my experience or would like to share yours, please do.
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