Sick with Fear

I just came from a “conversation” about health care reform. It was actually one of the best discussions of the issue that I’ve ever heard. There were conservatives, moderates, and liberals, but everyone was respectful–everyone listened, everyone gave other people a chance to speak, everyone was polite. No one came to blows. I feel like I should be excited that people can actually sit down and speak intelligently about this thing. And yet I feel like I want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Just to get this out there, I am for health care reform. I support a national health care plan for people that covers those who cannot afford private insurance and that gives people another option. From a humanist perspective, I think that it’s the compassionate thing to do. People are suffering and need care, well, we should give it to them. From a patriotic perspective, I think we need better health care in America, because our availibity and quality of care lags far behind other developed nations. From an economical perspective, I think that we need health care reform now, because our economy is tanking. Yes, a national health care plan will involve costs, but it will also create a healthier work force. A healthier work force is a more productive workforce. A more productive workforce means a more productive economy.

Admittedly, I’m not as well-informed on this issue as I could be. And trust me, we could all be better informed on this issue. The bill is on line right now for anyone with access to the internet to read. (I have not read it yet.) In fact, I’m not going to give anyone an excuse to have not read it. You can read it right here: http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf. It is currently 1018 pages long. (This is why no one has read it. I’d be willing to bet that the representatives who are going to decide if it passes or not have not read it. This means that our leaders are about as informed on this issue as the general public is, and that’s just sad.) However, I have talked to someone else who has read it and let me clear up a few misconceptions:

1.) There are no death panels. No one is going to say that after a certain age, people must opt for euthanasia. (Arguably, some people might say that the insurance companies themselves are now acting as death panels, because they decide what kind of care is available to people and what they will pay for. If you need a surgery to save your life, but your insurance won’t cover it, some people could argue that your insurance company is acting as a “death panel.” Keep in mind also, I’m a liberal, I’m coming at this from a liberal bias, and I’m in a depressed mood right now, so my mental filter that keeps me closer to the center is not as active as it usually is. So if I sound a little pissy and a little down on private insurance companies, that’s why.)

2.) The national health insurance plan will not cover illegal immigrants. To recieved national health insurance, you will have to be a United States citizen. ‘Nuff said.

3.) No one will be forced to accept the national health care plan. If you’re happy with your private insurance and you want to keep it, you have that option. Also, there will be no government fines if you decide to keep that option.

4.) If we accept national health care, we are becoming socialist. First, I must ask: What is wrong with being socialist? Why is that such a bad thing? Why does the word “socialist” strike fear in the hearts of Americans? I honestly don’t know. I will say this: our economy already has elements of socialism in it and it has from day one. We are a mixed economy (meaning that our economy has elements of socialism and capitalism) and we have been for centuries. The idea of the government controlling aspects of our lives and our economy is nothing new. The military is socialized for God’s sake! Our education system is socialized. Our health care system already has elements of socialism in Medicare and Medicaid, which will still be in effecti, by the way, if the national health care is enforced. And let me reinstate, that public health care will be an option. No one is going to force people to accept it if they want to continue being covered by their private insurance.

So, why am I so depressed about this issue? I’m not sure. Partly I’m depressed because I can’t believe how ridiculous some people are being about it. The nation seems to be paralyzed with fear, though fear of what I’m not sure. Are we afraid of the government? Why? Are we afraid of the costs? We shouldn’t be. Like I said, the healthier the citizendry is, the more productive our economy is going to be. I don’t understand what people are afraid of. Death panels? Like I said, there are no death panels. Are we afraid of paying taxes? Guess what, we live in a society. Putting money into that society that helps society as a whole, and each individual is part of society. What I’m saying is that when you pay taxes, that money comes back to you in making this a better country to live in.

And yet we’re still afraid.  And that’s not a good place for a nation to be. Fear makes people panic. It keeps them from thinking clearly. It makes them clutch on to whatever they think will save them and make them safe again. And often, what we first clutch at is not the thing that will save us. I’ll be honesty, even I’m afraid. I’m afraid that this reform isn’t going to go through. I’m afraid that Obama is going to look like a failure and I’m afraid that people are going to lose faith in him. I’m afraid that, despite the change in regime and the Democratic majority in power, I’m going to continue living in a country run by the conservative right. (Like I said, my mental filter that usually keeps me from saying blatantly prejudiced things against Republicans and conservatives and other groups like that, but my mental filter just isn’t running today. If you are a conservative and are against health care reform, you’re welcome to put me in my place and leave me a comment.) I’m afraid of my own party failing on me. To be honest, I’m just as scared as everybody else.

And that’s not a good place for me to be either. Admittedly, maybe I should be positive. I just came from an environment that was diverse and yet welcoming and willing to talk about the issue rationally. Maybe I should have more faith in the American people. Maybe we’re not the headless chickens that the media makes us out to be. Maybe we are thinking about this issue in a calm and rational way, we just don’t realize that there are other people out there who are thinking in the same way that we are.

So what should we do? Well, we need to talk about the issue, I think. We need to talk about it with our peers. We need to talk about it with people who have private insurance. We need to talk about it to people who are on Medicaid. We need to talk about it to people who have no insurance. We need to see it from other people’s perspectives. We also need to learn about the issue from people who have a better knowledge of it than the average citizen. We need to listen and read. We need to be informed. We need to read newspapers. (Note: newspapers, not a newspaper. Reading more than one paper will give us a broader perspective on things. Admittedly, I don’t always do this. I tend to stick with the New York Times, which I know is not always a good thing.) We need to listen to politicians and decide which side makes the most sense to us. We need to read the bill for ourselves and find out what’s actually in it. We need to research what the health care situation in our country actually looks like now. We also need to ask ourselves, most importantly, I think, about why we feel the way that we do about the issue? What cultural myths and ideologies influence people’s thoughts on health care reform? What beliefs and values does our society have about this issue? Are these beliefs and values correct or do they need to be changed? Do these cultural myths and ideologies have a solid foundation? In other words, we need to think critically.

So I encourage everyone to go out and really examine the issue. I know that I should be doing this, and I’m encouraging other people to do so as well because I know that if I tell others to do it, I’ll force myself to do so too. Don’t believe something just because your pastor or your mother or your teacher or your best friend said it. Examine it. Look into it. And definitely don’t believe something just because I said it.

Queer Theory from the Japanese

Yesterday, we had a little talk with the students about GLBT issues, mostly because sexualities that deviate from heterosexuality are not discussed in Japan, and we wanted the students to know that for the most part in America being queer is okay. (There are still some prejudices out there, but apparently, compared to Japan, America is much more accepting of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism.) Part of the reason that we had this discussion is because there are a few students whom we suspect might be queer, and even if they aren’t, we also want the students to realize that making fun of people for being gay will, largely, not be tolerated in America.

 It was only after we’d discussed what we were going to say to the students that I googled gay culture in Japan. (Normally, whenever I’d want to know about something, Google would be the first place to look, but my time for computer access has been limited.)What I found was enough information and controversy to write several volumes of books.

 To highlight some interesting facts:

 1) In Japan, there is no moralizing about how heterosexuality is “right” and homosexuality is “wrong.” Instead, the focus is on individualism versus collectivism. America is an individualistic society in which the needs of the individual are valued before the needs of the group and everyone is encouraged to be different. In Japanese culture, the needs of the group are valued before the needs of the individual. Everyone is encouraged to sacrifice for the group and practice conformity. Being homosexual/bisexual/transgendered is seen as “wrong” not for any moral reason, but because being queer is a way of being different, which is discouraged.

 2) There doesn’t seem to be much comprehensive education about GLBT issues in Japan. The Japanese often confuse homosexuality with transsexuality and transgenderism. The Japanese program assistant even said that some Japanese people are probably homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered but do not realize that they are because these issues are not discussed openly in their culture.

 3) The Japanese actually have a history of sexual openness and acceptance, as seen from some of their ancient literature and art. The arrival of Western ideas seems to have made queer behavior a taboo.

 4) There is an openly gay section of Tokyo, but most Japanese homosexuals remain in the closet.

 5) In some ways, the Japanese are more accepting of homosexuality than Americans, as long as a person does not advertize his/her homosexuality. However, being openly queer can lead to shunning. In America, this would not be seen as a horrible punishment, but in Japan, people have been known to commit suicide because of exclusion from a group, as would be expected from a collectivist culture.

I didn’t have much time for research, but towards the end, I started to find some articles that delved more deeply into queer culture in Japan than the superficial surface articles in Wikipedia. One article that I read focused on the colonialism of western homosexuality—meaning that western ideas of what it means to be queer are being forced on nonwestern cultures.

This idea had never occurred to me before. I’d never given much thought to how Western ideas of homosexuality were being forced on other cultures, but, from what I read, that seemed to be the case, depending on the writer’s viewpoint, of course. Part of the problem seems to be that the Japanese conception of homosexuality comes from their pop culture, which portrays all gay men as cross-dressers and all lesbians as butch. A Japanese man might admit that he is sexually attracted to other men, but he wouldn’t identify himself as “gay.” In Japan, “gay,” means a queen. A feminine woman who desires other women wouldn’t identify herself as a lesbian, because she isn’t butch.

Of course, not all American gays are queens and not all American lesbians are butch, but isn’t that still the stereotype here in America? For instance, I once met a man who was gay, but I never would have guessed because he didn’t fit the stereotype of the effeminate gay man. He didn’t lisp, prance, make dramatic hand gestures, or look overly neat. In fact, he had a deep voice, a sturdy stance (he was a sports writer whose special interest was in football), understated gestures, and casual dress. No American would have guessed that he was gay.

 And ultimately, that is his right. He can define his homosexuality in whatever way he wants; he can decide for himself what it means to be gay. And people of other cultures should have that same right. They should be able to decide for themselves what being homosexual or bisexual or transgendered means for them and their culture.

 For instance, when we American PAs (program assistants) suspected that some of the students might not be straight, our immediate goal was to out them. Of course, we weren’t going to confront them and force them out of the closet, but we believed that if we let them know that they had a supportive environment in which to come out, they would come out of the closet. And we saw their coming out as a good thing. In America, we tend to believe that whatever you are, you should be open and up front about it. We believe that coming out of the closet is better than staying in it, whatever your closet may be. I know that I often feel guilty for still not having told my friends that I’m no longer a Christian. I feel as though I’m not being honest with them.

 In Japan, however, the focus is not on someone’s individual personality and preferences. The focus is on maintaining harmony within the group. So, in many circumstances, it is perfectly appropriate not to share information about yourself, and doing so is not seen as being dishonest. This includes information about one’s sexuality. One article that I read said that even though the Japanese do not talk openly about homosexuality, their “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy works quite well in their culture. People are free to be queer as long as they do not advertise their difference from the heterosexual majority. To Americans, this would seem to be repressive, but some gays point out that the openly queer culture in America and the stereotypes that it sometimes supports can also be repressive in its own way.

 While I admit that there is some truth in that, I still feel that there should be a place for people who want to be openly queer. They should not need to fear open hostility (which they are often confronted with in America) or shunning (which they are often confronted with in Japan). Japan’s policy of keeping homosexuality quiet might, in some ways, be appropriate to their culture, but I still feel that homosexuals and bisexuals should be granted basic rights that straight people take for granted, such as the right to marry someone of the same sex and the right to be free from discrimination because of their sexuality. Of course, how I believe this should be done might just be the colonialist in me talking.

Ultimately, though, how the Japanese handle their queer culture should be left up to them. Japanese queers should be allowed to define for themselves what their homosexuality means in terms of themselves personally and in terms of their culture. I feel (hope) that the general trend of global culture is progressing in such a way as to become more understanding of queers, but that progress is slow. While I might feel that coming out of the closet is a way to speed that progress, at the same time, every individual should decide for him/herself when coming out of the closet is appropriate. And different cultures should be able to decide for themselves what coming out of the closet means and how it can be done appropriately within the context of their cultures.

 Obviously, this is a very complex issue, but I’m glad that this experience has made me aware of it, and I will be paying much more attention to it in the future.

Debunking Racism

“If we all could just admit/That we are racist, a little bit/Even though we all know that it’s wrong/Maybe it would help us/Get along.”—“Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” Avenue Q (watch the full song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA)

 I’ll admit it: I’m a racist.

 If you read my post a few days ago about how the Sakae program is going (which I have since deleted), you’ll remember that I made some comments about the Japanese students’ accents. Now, I admit that I was tired and a bit crabby when I wrote that post, but still, racism seems to be something that comes out at our worst moments. During economic downturns (like the depression that we seem to be stuck in), hate crimes are on the rise. People need someone to blame for their troubles, and immigrants seem to be popular scapegoats. During good economic times, someone might not care that a nonAmerican gets a certain job, because there are more than enough jobs to be had. However, when times are tough and work is scarce, a lynch mob might form when someone outside of the narrow WASP category gets work while the “poor” and “helpless” white man is being kept down by the “impure” races.

 Of course, you don’t have to be part of a lynch mob to be a racist. Most of us agree that hate crimes are terrible things. We gasp in horror when we hear about cross burnings on the news. If a foreign exchange student is teased, we bemoan (rightly) how ignorant Americans are of the rest of the world. Guess what? We can still be racists.

 Racism doesn’t have to be that big. It can be much more subtle. It can be thinking that someone isn’t as smart as you are just because that person has a different accent. It can be holding onto your purse just a little bit tighter when you pass a black man in the street. It can be complaining about road signs written in English and Spanish. (To any American who has a problem with this: Go to a big Chinese city like Shanghai or Beijing. There street signs, restaurant signs, and advertisements are written in at least four languages—Mandarin, Japanese, English, and German. Sometimes more. And you don’t hear the Chinese complaining about it.) It can be thinking that the Native Americans are a legendary people who lived in America a long time ago. It can even be well-meant at times. For instance, if you speak Standard English normally, but greet a black person by imitating Ebonics, that’s a form of racism.

 Often, I like to think that Americans aren’t that racist, but after spending several days with the Japanese Sakae students, I’m beginning to realize my own racism.

 Guess what? That’s okay. Admitting that I have biases, that I buy into stereotypes, and that I make quick and often unfair judgments about people is fine. We all do it! We’re surrounded by it. The other American program assistant (PA) and I were watching an episode of Family Guy in which the Griffin family breaks Lois out of jail and goes on the lamb in…Asiantown! The other PA and I looked at each other with a mixture of amusement and horror. “Do you feel racist?” I asked him. “Yes!” he answered. My point: racism is everywhere. It’s built into our society. (By the way, he is writing a blog about his experiences in the program at http://www.ctlgsakae.blogspot.com/. Forgive him if he doesn’t update it very often. We’ve all been very busy these past few days.)

 Before the Sakae program, I probably would have watched this Family Guy episode and analyzed it from an objected, distanced, English-major point of view. I would have applied postcolonial criticism and planned a paper discussing how Family Guy both deconstructs America’s Asian stereotypes by self-consciously calling attention to them and yet also supports these stereotypes through humor.

 Post-Sakae, however, I couldn’t see the episode that way. I couldn’t laugh at it. All I could think was, “This is wrong.”

 It’s wrong that all Asians look like Jackie Chan. There are thirty-one students in this program, and they all look completely different. I could never mistake one of them for the other. They all look too different, and they all also have different personalities. Some of them are tall. Some of them are short. The bone structure in their faces is different. Their eyes are different shapes and hues. Their body types are different. Their hair styles are different. They don’t look the same.

 It’s wrong that all Asians don’t pronounce their r’s and l’s correctly. One of the students actually speaks English with a thick British accent. And even though we think that the Japanese pronounce those letters incorrectly, in their language, they don’t. In Japanese, the letters r and l are rolled together so that they sound a little bit like both letters at once. (I really can’t explain what this sounds like. It’s a bit like the v being pronounced like b in Spanish, but it’s also different.) The fact that this sound really doesn’t exist in English makes the Americans seem a bit ruder, because we can’t correctly pronounce some of the Japanese students’ names. Confusing “playing” with “praying,” might be a minor mistake, but incorrectly pronouncing someone’s name is a bigger mistake.

 And what right do Americans have to criticize how the Japanese speak English in the first place? Most Japanese students start learning English when they are ten years old. When do American students start learning Japanese? Most never learn it.

 So, I know all of this. I know that I tend to stereotype groups of people based on their race. I also know that these stereotypes are wrong. Does that still make me a racist? Yep. However, the difference between me and a member of the KKK is that I know that my racism is wrong, and I’m willing to work around it. I’m willing to admit that I need to learn about different cultures and different races. I’m willing to get to know people of other races and relate to them on a level that goes beyond race. I’m willing to see them as human. I’m willing to admit that no race is superior to the other because race is actually not biological at all but is a social construct.

 Genetically, you have more in common with someone of a different race who is the same height as you than you have in common with someone of the same race but of a different height. And since we all share 99.9 percent of our DNA with every other human being in the world, biologically, we’re all pretty much the same. So, where does race come in? Race was actually an invention of Western people to justify the African slave trade and colonialism. (This doesn’t mean that racism wasn’t around before in some form, but this is when a lot of our contemporary ideas about race start to come up.) Before, people judged other cultures as inferior because they had different religious traditions. But, as black slaves began accepting Christianity, abolitionists began pointing out that there was something wrong with treating your Christian brothers and sisters like beasts of burden.

 However, people were unwilling to get rid of their slaves and stop enforcing their own systems of government on foreign peoples, so they had to come up with a new reason to feel superior. Western whites tried to justify their prejudices with pseudoscience and flawed logic. People who were not white were incapable of higher thinking, they said. People who were not white were only fit for grueling, manual labor. People who were not white did not have the mental capacity to be properly educated. However, the reason that people who were not white were this way had nothing to do with biology. It was because of the environment that white people placed them in. Black slaves seemed ignorant to educated white men because the educated white men did not provide the black slaves any way to be educated. Whites created a self-fulfilling prophecy by making bogus assumptions about people of different races and then creating conditions in which those assumptions became true…some of the time.

 Unfortunately, even though our scientific understanding of biology should have done away with racism, our fears and prejudices are still with us. A lot of us know that these prejudices are wrong, but we don’t seem to know how to get over them. Now, I think I’ve found a solution:

 One of the things that I hoped working for the Sakae program would do would be to confirm my theory that getting to know more about something or someone makes that thing less scary. So far, this theory y seems to hold true. At the beginning of the program, I was terrified of meeting the Japanese students. They were all sitting in the common room of the dorm for dinner, and they were all chatting away in Japanese, which I do not speak. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to understand them. I was afraid that they wouldn’t be able to understand me. I was afraid that they wouldn’t like me. I was afraid that I would do something that would offend them.

 But, I took a deep breath, smiled at them, and started talking. I showed interest in them and their culture. I showed interest in them as people. And they have returned the favor. I’ve taught them about American culture, and they’ve taught me about Japanese culture. I’ve helped them speak English more fluently, and they are teaching me some basic Japanese. I’ve gotten to know them, and I’m not afraid of them anymore. I know that with a little patience, we’ll be able to find some way to understand each other.

 As I’ve gotten to know the students, I’ve stopped seeing them as Japanese.  That’s not to say that I don’t still realize that they are Japanese. However, when I look at them, I don’t think of them as just Japanese. I might think of one as an excellent percussionist, who also happens to be Japanese. I might think of another as a good baseball player, who also happens to be Japanese. I might think of another as a serious student, who also happens to be Japanese. In other words, I have a more complete understanding of them as people. Their nationality is still something that I recognize, but it isn’t the only defining factor of who they are to me.

 The only way that we can get past our own racism is to interact with people of other races. We need to learn more about their cultures and customs, as well as who they are just as people. We need to be open to the idea that not everyone looks like us or behaves like us or values the same things that we do. That’s okay. Neither group has to be wrong or right. We just need to accept that we will have some differences. If we are aware of these differences, it can make getting to know people of different races easier and less scary.

 We need to know what our initial assumptions about people of different races will be, and we also need to be open to adjusting those assumptions, because when you meet people of different races, a lot of your initial assumptions will change. And, trust me, they will change for the better. But if we’re going to go about changing them, we have to first recognize that they exist.

Fourth of July Food for Thought

I realized that the Fourth is almost over, so you’re probably reading this on July Fifth. So, think back to your picnic and fireworks and patriotic dities of last night and consider  this quote:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”–Edward R. Murrow

I consider myself a patriot, although if anyone were to ask me about America and what I think of it, I would probably give a long list of things that America needs to change about itself. Why? Because I care about America. I tend to think of myself as more of a citizen of the world, but I am also a citizen of what is still (though who knows how long) the most powerful country in the world. And, as we all know from the Spider-man movies, (say it with me) “with great power comes great responsibility.” If America wants to hold any respect, if it wants to use its power for progress and not tyranny, if it wants this world to be a peaceful and prosperous place, then it needs people who will be critical of it. Loving your country does not mean asserting its greatness no matter what it does. Holding such an attitude, that asserts that America is perfect just the way it is thank you very much, will not encourage this country to progress and change and grow.

So, while we reflect on all the things that we love about our country just the way it is, we should also be honest with ourselves and its faults and think of ways to improve it. To me, this is the heart of patriotism.