“You are a racist pig”

“You are a racist pig” said the young African American man. To me. Outside the amc theatres, Riverside. “You guys don’t help no body”, he added.

Not ‘selfish’, not ‘dumb’, not ‘dork’, not ‘looser’ but ‘racist’.

I murmured “Thanks man!” with a sarcastic smile. It didn't infuriate me.

He was trying to sell a newspaper that was available for free to pay for his shelter.

I looked around. He approached few other movie goers. No one had the time. He however kept his opinion about them to himself.

I took a cab and as it pulled off I started thinking. My overwhelming gratitude towards him, whether it reached him or not, came from my weird position in the complex American social stratum.

Where are we actually placed in the American society? We-the H1, L1, H4, L2 or business visa holders. We are not students. We come here to earn in dollars and hope that we can save enough to buy that coveted car or pay off the home loan. When the sons of the soil seem homeless (for whatever reasons), we the brown skinned seem to have enough money to pay for movies or take a cab. Does it not sting them? Isn’t there an underlying stream of displeasure towards this group?

I believe there is. And it comes to surface when such opinions are expressed. Coming from a land of racial discrimination under British rule that our forefathers so vigorously fought and being labelled as ‘racist’ by another race that had the worst history of racial segregation across the world I thanked him again, albeit sarcastically, in my mind.

I always felt that the ‘racists’ have the power – economical, political and/or societal and then the ability to misuse that power over the subjugated race. So that day in front of amc theatres, did that African American man just give me – a ‘desi’ trying hard to save some dime, living at the mercy of the US immigration office, the acknowledgement of the power that I have over him? Power because I am probably more educated than he is or that I have a shelter?

But then in all probability even if he heard my ‘thanks’ he would not have understood where it came from. Simply because he had learnt since he was a child that labelling someone ‘racist’ is probably the worst swear word that can be used in post-apartheid America. And he just used that.

This, I feel is the root to why the African-American population although has come a long way fighting so many odds still has a higher probability statistically of going to prison (16.2%) than a Hispanic (9.4%) or a white (2.5%) in America. Can education uplift people from its slumber just as I wish for the majority of my countrymen? Or should I just go back to amc theatres and tell him how the Indian community distributed free food to homeless people this Pongal and was attended mostly by African-Americans?

Or should I just let it go? Since I am here for a short-term do I just close my eyes and ears and let it pass by? Or do I try and do something? The bigger question probably is how do you fight ignorance?

So next to next evening, in the Laundromat when the middle-aged African-American lady shouted at my friend over a laundry basket and said “Who do you think you are?” I looked into her eyes and said politely “A fellow human being just like you.”

She stopped immediately.

I think it’s time to pay a visit to the DuSable museum of African-American history…and learn more.

History has always interested me. And I always wanted to learn more about what people make of their sufferings.

Believe me brother, I despise 'racism' just as you probably do too!