white

Not the most PC of titles, but it introduces my thoughts of today; since I went to the Greyhound bus station (aka. the dirty dog) to buy my ticket to Toronot, while wearing a suit (on way to conference) of all things, and whilst queueing (aka. waiting in line) heard a short afro-american woman screaming behind me into her mobile (aka. Cell phone) about how long the line is every sunday and how she is always waiting in line, and always missing buses (though, she was presumably exaggerating -if its like this way every week, surely she knows to get here earlier?). Then when an employee asked down the line who was waiting for a bus to New York or somewhere else because they were leaving soon, and those people who skip to the the head of the line, she would always ask about the Acron bus, or if she ould get the New York bus, and whether it would get her to Acron quicker. So funny. To top it off she then commented that in the future she might start buying return tickets to save her teh trouble of queuing to get her ticket home (you think?)

Of course most of the people waiting for tickets or their buses were all ethnic minorities; and since my conference is full of smart academic people (mostly from north america) and some business people, they are also predominantly white (though the hotel staff aren't of course) -I had a quick 2 minute chat to the bar tender who didn't think the Mayor of Cleveland (a speaker at the conference) was doing jack sh*t to help the city.

This all brought back memories of my visit to see Ricki Lake being filmed 5 years ago in New York City (hilarious -the topic was afro-american women complaining about their brothers dating white women and asking why afro-american women were not good enough for them) as well as many other experiences from talking to Katy's (my former grilfriend who i was staying with at the time) extended family and friends as well as my work colleagues (I worked for 5 weeks in a small carpenttu/building firm) and others. At the end of my 3 months in the USA I returned to University and was asked to give a short presentation of my trip to Council Exchanges (who I had gone through for the visa etc.) next recruitment of people for their educational exchange programme. I explained how great America is, how much I love the people who are so friendly and how hard-working most people are, how immense the country is it is hard to grasp that some people there just don't need to leave it.. etc etc. I also mentioned in reply to a question that what surprised me the most was how racially segregated USA is (I was living in the mid-west remember, not in a place like New York City).

I wasn't saying it in a negative way specifically, but when some of the 'white' people said that many of the afro-americans were just happy living off benefit, for example, it is not just an opinion but also often a matter of fact -in that area that a large % of afro-americans do live off (unemployment) benefit. There were some riots a while back where a white cop shot an afro-american because the cop thought he was pulling out a gun. He wasn't -the cop was criticised for prejudice, and some riots began. From a British point of view at least, many people in the UK probably feel the same.. to some extent it is natural: a fear of people or things that are different to ourselves. To some extent it is based on stereotypes, which our brains have to use as shortcuts in life to help us make decisions (i studied it in psychology), whether we like to stereoptype people or not. This is of course a long, and unanswered discussion that could go on. Anyway, my point is that USA is still like that.. and the UK is also similar (but our minorities are still more minor).

I find it interesting reading about the possible theories for solving the UK and Europe's racial and immigration issues, with discussions around integration, cultural identity, assimilation etc. I don't know what the solution is.. some sort of compromise I suppose. But I think that some people go to America, see opportunities and take them; some go there and don't. Others, unfortunately, are unable to grasp those opportunities because they are already at a disadvantage (hence positive selection and quotas etc).

All of this comes to my mind as I am now coming from China, where almost nothing is the same as USA. Even the ethnic minorities within China are only 4% of the population, let alone the few foreigners. Everywhere there are chinese people. In America there is sometimes everywhere black people, sometimes everywhere white people, sometimes everywhere mixed people... but those 'times' can easily be labelled. Dealing with ethnicity, diversity, immigration etc. is really not an issue in China (apart from small attempts to support the current 55 ethnic minorities within China); though it is such a huge issue in Europe especially. Such a contrast.

Today ended with the best speech I have ever heard from Ray Anderson, Chairman of Interface Inc, explaining how he has created the largest carpet tiliing company (which depends on nylon and oil as raw materials apparently) in America and the most sustainable -explaining how he did it, how it has all been based on 'new thinking' and innovation and how by 2020 his company will have absolutely ZERO impact on the environment, and then after that it will start to have a purely positive impact on the environment. It was almost an hour long but was captivating. Then I went to the local bar with my cousin (who I am staying with) and met Sarah (attractive bar tender, he he) and Tom (local 50+ drunk artist). Such contrasts to China!