Why Am I Here?

Socially constructed values for race are not universal. My time in England has proven that to me. While I am aware of the situation in the United States in regards to race, my understanding of the situation in the UK did not measure up. I do know of racial bias existing in the UK climate, I knew that racism towards members of society existed, especially in regards to people who either were immigrants, or children or grandchildren (or even great-grandchildren) of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, whether they hailed from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, or Sri Lanka. The extent of the discrimination and tension was not immediately clear to me. While hearing the racist comments from British peers, or seeing anonymous posts on Yik Yak were disturbing, they generally came across the same way these comments appeared in an American setting to me at first thought. Without knowing how to intervene or to call the racism, especially as a foreigner, I was unwilling to dive headfirst into the social constructs of my host country, with the American stereotype of uninformed, loud, and meddling firmly imbedded in my mind as something I truly wished to avoid. I didn’t understand (and I still don’t) the extent to which this racism impacts members of the marginalized groups in England until I was talking with a professor, a student from the Philippines, and a student from Pakistan.

The professor asserted that racism in the United States was less impactful than racism in England. I asked him how that could happen. We had been discussing the trend of police brutality towards unarmed black men such as Michael Brown, and their unjustified murders. This professor, despite his knowledge of these events, still felt that America was less racist than England was. I asked him how he came to that conclusion, or to what in his experiences pushed him to that understanding. He told me of how he, his brother, and his father visited the US in previous years, and had vacationed there In his travels, never once was anyone in his family accosted by police, TSA, officials or civilians, and their experiences in the United States, despite being from a foreign country (England) were much smoother than they were at home. All of them citizens of Great Britain faced more harassment and alienation from their own government and peers than the Americans. I wasn’t sure how to handle this new understanding, but from his explanations, the US had a better handle on race relations than England did, despite the blatant murders of black citizens, or the existence of groups like the KKK, facets of American society that would not exist in England. This was an eye-opening experience for me. It made me uncomfortable to think that by largely remaining unaware of the UK’s understanding of race I was unconsciously adding to the stigmatization of British people. That when I am treated better in England than Englishmen are, there is an insidious undertone of discrimination I am actively participating in, when I do not call it out or seek to do what little I can to help. On the same token, as an outsider, I am subject to the same microscope when I make myself known, and may inhibit the social progress necessary if I alienate further myself from the population. While this conversation was not easy for me, it did serve as a clear reminder and lesson in both how I operate in the United States and in Great Britain.