On my book tour, I have to be very good natured about all the racism and ignorance that I encounter because if I got angry at every single incident, I would wear myself out. It is difficult enough just to keep up with the schedule, with no sleep and no time for regular meals between book signings and press appearances. My nerves are completely shot, I have no coat or hat, and I just broke a nail!
People ask me what it was like to make “Charlie’s Angels,†and I have to force a smile and remind myself that they don’t know better, and they are trying their best to be friendly. But it isn’t funny to me, and it is starting to make me very depressed. It is not enough that there are so few Asian American women working in the entertainment industry. There has to be veiled and outright hostility towards the ones who are here.
But the countless interviewers and talk show hosts would not ever view their comments as being hostile in the least. They cannot comprehend the fact that they might be racist because they are so used to racism it feels like a second skin, the one they can feel comfortable in because no one judges the color of it. No one would ever dream of mistaking Mary J. Blige for Faith Evans, even in jest – especially in jest. Anyone who would infer that P. Diddy was actually Big Daddy Kane would be immediately fired, and likely banned from broadcasting forever and ever. Yet is somehow is totally okay to ask me why I left “The View.â€
This week, we are remembering the remarkable life of Rosa Parks, and I am once again incredibly moved at the scope and power of the Civil Rights Movement. What I want to know is – how do we get there? If only it were possible to mapquest equality. “When you get to democracy, turn LEFT.â€
Although racism still exists in a very real way for African Americans, white people have the sense to do it in private. It is not acceptable to be openly racist towards black people, but it still seems to be open season on the rest of us: Asians, Latinos, gays, lesbians – pretty much all other minorities. Learning the history of the Civil Rights Movement, committing to memory all the steps along the way is the only thing I can think to do in trying to somehow recreate it today.
I was on a radio talk show where an African American woman called in to caution me about comparing the Civil Rights Movement to the fight for gay marriage, but it isn’t like you can possibly conflate the two struggles. Injustice is injustice. It is that I wish to learn from example, for us to take the great strides made by African Americans in this country and use them like a map to take those remaining behind the lines of inequality to freedom.