My First Racial Incident

I've lived most of my life in the Southern U.S., and most of my life in the South was spent in Alabama. As every American knows (or should know), Alabama is famous for its history of discrimination against minorities. However, in all my years there, I've never experienced any direct racism of any kind. Maybe I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who didn't judge me by the color of my skin. My experiences in Alabama (hey, everywhere I've lived) were pretty good on that front.

So, when a female student called me the closest Japanese equivalent of the n-word in one of my classes during a recent short stint at a high school in northern Osaka, I have to admit that I was very shocked. I never actually heard her say the word; the class in question was pretty noisy. I would have never known that anything had happened if the regular teacher of that class hadn't called me later and told me. According to the teacher, the girl was trying to get my attention in class. She used the term because she thought it was a friendly gesture. After the class, the teacher and the principal of the high school confronted the girl and told her that such language was unappropriate. I was surprised and disappointed to hear all that.

What happened after that was very awkward for me. I had a meeting outside of school with the principal and teacher, who both apologized to me in person. Then, when I returned to the school, I had another meeting with the teacher (who apologized again) and the girl who said the word. She was a pretty young woman with a great smile - someone you don't expect to utter racial slurs. She looked embarassed and ashamed to have said what she did, and she gave an authentic apology. She went as far as to promise to study more about African-Americans and minority groups in general. I don't know if the teacher put her up to that or not, but the student certainly made a sincere effort to show that she was sorry. I told her that I forgave her, but what she said had hurt me very much, and I hoped that she would show more consideration in the future.

In the end, I suppose the whole incident did some good. The teacher and principal decided to use the incident to develop what they called a "civil rights education" program to teach not only the students, but the teachers on how to show the right respect towards other races. As for the girl, I've heard that not only is she really trying to learn more about other cultures, but her grades at school have risen dramatically (especially in English class). Me? Well, I don't hold any grudges about that. It wasn't something that was said out of hate; it was just ignorance. I'm sure she's not going to say that word again. Yeah, I was disappointed, but I've moved on. If anything, the incident helped make me stronger as well, because it caused me to reaffirm who I am and what I represent.