Can we tackle the friction between us?

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

EDITOR'S NOTE: Columnist Bob Welch is attending an ethnic studies class this fall at Lane Community College. This is one in a continuing series.

The bulk of my Ethnic Studies 101 class recently has been about ethnic and racial friction around the world. Wanting to keep my column focus more local, I'm offering, instead, some response I've gotten from readers:

From a woman regarding a piece on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II: "Your entire column - and probably your professor at LCC as well - missed a most important point about all the inequities which have been perpetrated on various ethnic groups throughout the history of the U.S.: We have changed our ways and the flaws you point out are not official policy of government in the U.S. today."

Comment: I agree our government has made strides in racial equality. But the moment we believe we have somehow "arrived," as governments or individuals, is the moment we're doomed. The idea that we can somehow ship history off to a historic disposal site - and be rid of it forever - is appealing, but unrealistic. And, in the end, unwise.

From a man regarding the same issue: "In Anthropology 101 you learn pretty quickly that judging someone's actions by your own culture may give some perceptions of a problem (ethnocentrism). In this instance judging us older folks and our scared reactions to the Japanese ... against the modern thinking that now prevails ... may require a footnote to be inserted in these stories about the mistreatment of Japanese American people. All this is not to say that we were correct. We were scared to death and reacted that way - wrongly (as it appears now) or not."

Comment: You're right. It's far easier, from the safety of decades removed, to wag fingers at the actions of others. And yet history repeats: the sudden backlash against Middle Easterners in America following 9/11 echoed the backlash against Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That we didn't send all Middle Easterners to internment camps suggests maybe we're learning something.

From a Springfield man: "The majority here simply don't care about race issues, since they see no significant infringement on their way of life from the low percentage of the area's minority population. (They) would become more resistant to the topic of race and to the diversity issues (if) the minority population swells and especially if they foresee some infringement upon their comfort zone."

Comment: Agreed. Much of this area's subtle self-righteousness when it comes to race is based on that exact reality: that there's little opportunity for people's prejudices to be tested. But that is changing and will change more: the Hispanic population in Oregon has grown 144 percent in the past 10 years. In 2000, the white, non-Hispanic population comprised 70 percent of the nation; in 2050, that demographic is expected to be only 53 percent. What then?

From a Eugene woman who, last month, found anti-black and anti-Hispanic leaflets wrapped in plastic bags, weighted down with rocks and left in her driveway: "Inside, the vilest, most hate-filled racist `jokes' imaginable. I remain calm, until the police dispatcher asks me to read the flyer to her, and then I break down and my husband takes over. You see, my children are beautiful and brown and we've walked this neighborhood since they were toddlers, and we've always felt safe. Until now."

Comment: Never underestimate the cowardliness of hate. Sometimes it's in-your-face bigotry, in this case offered by The Tualatin Valley Skins, whose swastika-studded Web site is listed on the fliers (www.nukeisrael.com). Sometimes it's subtle, disguised as something political or economic or religious.

But overcoming it begins with the realization that it's there. And it will only get worse if we pretend it's not.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at [e-mail].