“You’re such a racist”

So I’m almost through my first official week of work – yee! It’s been both an old and new experience, what with spending time with old co-workers/friends, meeting new people, and a crash-course in what I’m going to be doing with the rest of my time there. Again, it’s just nice to be making that paper and being able to pay for my student loans and healthcare.

Anyways I was at my desk today listening to some Lauryn Hill (yee!) while doing my required reading for training when I overheard two of my co-workers discussing this picture. The pregnant mom, a Filipino, was commenting on why the mother and baby weren’t brown and the other co-worker, a white guy, called out “racism” against white people. Earlier that day we were discussing how another co-worker was the typical “twinkie,” the term for an Asian/Asian American who “acts white.”

What did I learn today? That people talk hella smack against each other in the workplace and that I really need to distance myself from that. But the most important point that I got out of it is that despite race being such a taboo topic in any kind of conversation, I think that it should be discussed out in the open a lot more. Because a person isn’t born racist – a person is raised that way. Obviously there are prejudices that develop from past experiences but if you can’t talk these prejudices out (with an open mind of course), how in the world are we ever going to go past the taboo of calling out racism?  I am not without my prejudices, but just listening to people (which I do best) makes me hope that one day discussions about the feelings of race occur in a more frequent manner so that discussions like these never happen.

Other than that work has been chillin’. Except for the bitch work. But that’s what I get for being 1) the newbie and 2) the bunso (youngest in Tagalog) of the bunch.