An Immigrant's View of American Racism

 I am a woman originally from the Philippines but has lived in America for almost 54 years. I was not forced or coerced by the American government to come and live here.  I wanted to come.  My father who had spent a lot of time in this country and with her people told us many stories about the United States, the home of the free and land of the brave.  He told us about how the freedom of the individual was valued here, about how one’s success in life is limited only by how much he wanted to work for it.  He told us about the system of laws it had that was far superior to what other countries had.  Most of all, he told us about Americans, God’s people, and how they honored Him.  Though he talked about how rich America was, that wasn’t his main thing.  He mostly talked about the people, how kind and generous they were.  Oh, yes, he mentioned some racism.  One night he was mugged by 5 big black guys on the street of one city he visited.  But good came of it.  Providentially, a man of God from a nearby rescue mission came to his aid and introduced Him to the Savior who died on the cross for him.  Through this witness, he accepted the Gospel that he shared to his family and on which he raised his children.

 

When I came to America in 1969, we found out that my father’s stories were true.  We were welcomed by an all-white church in San Bruno, California that loved us to pieces.

 

Even while still in my birth country I had many Caucasian American friends, and definitely more here. I married into a white American family almost 50 years ago, who've treated me with nothing but love and respect. We have been blessed with two married children and 6 grandchildren.  In my relationships with other races, I realize that race is only one of the issues which might cause problems, there may be other reasons like my own faults or the other person's personality problems. 

 

I recognize that there are genuine cases of racism such as when a co-worker of another race to whom I was reaching out with friendship told me she couldn't be friends with anyone outside her race.  I have also met it in the workplace.  Once I applied for a job and on the phone interview, I was told that I was exactly the person the company was looking for and was asked to come to their office that same afternoon.  However, when I got there, one look at me and I was told they had hired someone else that morning.  I certainly took this as racism.  But I moved on.  Whether it was my skin color or the shape of my nose or my being short was their reason, I would not allow myself to dwell on this rejection.  I dusted myself off and I refused to be bitter and angry about this.  I went to Kelly Girls for whom I worked a number of months.  I was sent to different jobsites that included a black realtor company, 3 hospitals, a university medical department, an Anesthesiologists group, an accounting firm, and a manufacturing company.  Somehow, at the close of my assignments, all of them offered to hire me permanently!  It didn’t seem to matter to them that I was brown, short, with a funny-looking nose and spoke English with an accent.  One hospital director told me that he was firing his secretary so he could hire me.  Now, you see why I can forgive the racist company.  For one racist company there were 6 that wanted me and there was Kelly Girls that trusted me and gave me the opportunity to work at prime assignments.  The manufacturing company had me in their legal department and the lawyer I worked with became my friend. She would send me home with detergents and sanitizing bleach, etc., which they manufactured.

 

On our second year of marriage, Don and I left for Indonesia to do missionary work.  We joined 10 White American missionary families.  I was the only non-white in the group.  A couple of months after we arrived, we attended our first conference with the missionary families.  On the opening night of the conference, to my great surprise, I was asked to give the opening prayer. I will never forget this act of total acceptance from our white missionary families.  To this day, more than 40 years later, we still keep in touch and the children whose parents have passed on, keep in touch with Auntie Raquel and Uncle Don.

 

I can go on and on with stories of both rejection that were tinged with racism and warm acceptance, but I won’t.  I’ve smarted when I fell victim to racism, but I would not allow it to poison the good that I have been shown by far more White Americans in many different ways.  Racism, as envy, jealousy, pride etc. all come from the depraved human heart and until that heart is changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ no genuine change can happen.  The human heart cannot be legislated to love.  Only the entrance of the love of Christ into the heart can change it.

 

Racism is being used to divide this country and to turn Americans against each other. It is a classic weapon - divide and conquer. I refuse to jump into the racism bandwagon. I cherish the diversity of races of my friends and community. I am not a Pollyanna, but I simply refuse to be used by anyone to turn me against my fellow Americans by goading me to anger.  I belong to the family of Americans who love this country and her people. In my family, we have differences with each other, but we don't allow the differences to make us dislike and destroy one another, because we are family.  We belong to each other. When one is hurt and pained, all the rest of us are pained and hurt.  Why would we want to hurt and pain each other?