Racist Rita

Rita is my cute Italian Language professor who (like many Italians) is not sensitive to ethnic diversity. Since most people in Rome are Italian, any Asian who looks "Asian" (meaning the main categories of "Asian" such as Chinese and Japanese and not Indian, like myself hehe) is automatically either lumped into the category of Giaponese or Cinese. They do not think that someone can be from Korea or Cambodia. It is as if they do not know that these other countries exist. I have talked to a lot of my Chinese friends here who are tired of being pointed at and called Giaponese. It seems as is Italians really have no how to handle diversity here. One girl who is "Asian" looking in the program was asked by a taxi driver "How can you be American when you are like this (He pulls the sides of his eyes back to create slanted eyes.)?" The girl was shocked and told her friend that she has not run into such ignorance since first grade.

I know that they do not mean to be offensive, but it is very odd coming from California. I understand this concept a society not being PC (According to US standards of PC-ness) because even in the Philippines people say "Negro" for a person of African descent/origin. They are simply not used to it. But after saying this I ask myself, "Wait! Rome is one of the hottest tourist spots in the world and it has been for years (centuries even)! It has been the site for pilgrimages and has housed many people from all over the world. Don't you think they would be more sensitive to other cultures?" I guess since most of these people are tourists and many other cultures do not take up permanent residence in Rome, that is why attitudes toward different cultures have not evolved into a PC society.

Back to Rita... Rita loves to draw pictures on the board. These pictures are usually cute drawings that correspond with a verb or noun we are learning. The other day she drew a picture of what she would do to someone who makes a grammatical mistake on the test. She drew a picture of a person being bonked on the head by a baseball bat which another drawing was holding. (She is obviously the one holding the baseball bat and we, the students, are the ones being bonked on the head.) This picture was funny and the whole class laughed. We moved on to going through our exercises and the Yui, a girl in my class who is Japanese, made a mistake in the grammar that she used to answer the question. Rita grimaced and modified the "bonked" individual to one that had slanted eyes and a ponytail. Charlene, my friend who is Chinese, said "Oh! She went there!" The class laughed at the drawings modification, but I think it might have been out of shock and nervousness because we are not used to seeing a PROFESSOR do something like that IN CLASS! Then Chris came in late to class. Chris is also "Asian" looking. She then modified the drawing a second time. She erased the ponytail and added a hood and glasses, but left the slanted eyes.

Don't think that after reading this that I am offended at all at any of the situations. I'm actually not and I laugh whenever I encounter anything that most would think as being "racist." I realize that here they do not have the PC sensitivity engrained into their way of life as we do in the US. It is just a bit shocking. I forget that I am totally perceived as "different" here and I'm actually perceived as different from the stereotype that they have of Californians. It is just one of the cultural differences that we have to deal with in Rome. So in conclusion I believe that Romans are not racist, they just do not know any better.