Not long ago, I landed on a Facebook site called Indonesian Americans Forum. I've mentioned it already, I believe. Actually, I was invited to this site by an Indonesian-American friend as a token bule or honorary Indonesian, I guess. I mentioned as well that I was surprised and discouraged to see the bigotry among these immigrant Americans. As with any site crowded with Trump cult folks, trying to reasonably debate, or merely state a fact, is pretty much a hopeless pursuit. Responses come generally in the form of insults or imbecilic memes.
Every once in a while, a more progressive, and more polite sort of Indonesian reader will chime in in response to one comment string or another. This particular conversation involved the black lives matter movement.
Richard Boughton, she wrote, these people will never get it. Thank you for being a voice of reason here on this page full of bigots. Ashamed to call them my people.
Well, I appreciate that. I am ashamed of them, too. They make me feel sad and discouraged, and I can't help but see their descent into crudeness and hatefulness as a product of America itself rather than of the country they came from.
Perhaps they are merely afraid of black people, and their fear comes out as hate. There are very few black people in Indonesia. There are dark skinned foreigners, but very few black westerners. What they see here of black people is what they see in the movies, which is mostly gangsters, thieves, gun toting criminals. And rap artists, with their crude lyrics and glorification of violence. They walk into the movie that is America, knowing all about it from YouTube and the big screen. And here in America they hear the reassuring, equally paranoid and racist voice of Donald Trump. See? No one likes these black people. Not even the president.
They are afraid. And fear is the soul of bigotry.
Every once in a while, a more progressive, and more polite sort of Indonesian reader will chime in in response to one comment string or another. This particular conversation involved the black lives matter movement.
Richard Boughton, she wrote, these people will never get it. Thank you for being a voice of reason here on this page full of bigots. Ashamed to call them my people.
Well, I appreciate that. I am ashamed of them, too. They make me feel sad and discouraged, and I can't help but see their descent into crudeness and hatefulness as a product of America itself rather than of the country they came from.
Perhaps they are merely afraid of black people, and their fear comes out as hate. There are very few black people in Indonesia. There are dark skinned foreigners, but very few black westerners. What they see here of black people is what they see in the movies, which is mostly gangsters, thieves, gun toting criminals. And rap artists, with their crude lyrics and glorification of violence. They walk into the movie that is America, knowing all about it from YouTube and the big screen. And here in America they hear the reassuring, equally paranoid and racist voice of Donald Trump. See? No one likes these black people. Not even the president.
They are afraid. And fear is the soul of bigotry.
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