Racism.

In this post I'm going to tackle the difficult topic of racism. The basis of this post is that I was caught unaware of what constituted as racism in the US. As my ethnicity, nationality, sex, religion or sexuality has never prevented me from doing things I want to do, I might not approach the topic with the same sensitivity that someone with these experiences might.

Travelling the world makes it obvious that people behave differently in different countries, have different customs and cultures, and also look different. This can lead to stereotyping people, which often is a source of common humour ("An Englishman, a Scot and a Irishman walk into a bar..."). Stereotypes can sometimes help you to interact with people (e.g. because of the stereotype of Brits talking about the weather you know that it's quite ok to talk about the weather to a Brit), but occasionally, they lead to negative assumptions about different groups of people. And that's where the problem lies - no one wants to be unfairly judged because of their ethnicity / nationality / gender / religion / sexuality.

Although the First Amendment grants the right to even extreme opinion and religion here in the US (e.g. Ku Klux Klan and Westboro Baptist Church), the workplace remains extremely politically correct and racist comments can lead to immediate firing. At the university, I have seen numerous posters stating that we work in a "Hate-free environment", which is a sentiment I fully agree with. But what I was surprised about was what actually is perceived as racism or even "hate"?

Friendly jokes that point out differences between people are racist. Even if you told a joke about Mexicans to a Mexican person and he found it so funny that he went on to tell it to all of his Mexican friends who also loved the joke... you would still be racist.

Acknowledging differences is racism. Being different might mean that you are not equal. Reminding someone about the fact that their family is not originally from the US might make them feel like second class citizens. (I would not want people to think I was from the US. Also, if you look far back enough, the white Americans are not originally from the US either.)

Anything hinting at a difference is racism. Asking a Chinese-origin San Francisco-born person if they had a recipe for fortune cookies is racism. (Fortune cookies were originally invented in SF anyway!)

Hence, it seems, curiosity is racism. How do you ever learn about other people's customs and culture if it's racist to imply they are somehow different? I would definitely feel that people were being ignorant and unfriendly if I came from a different background to everyone else, and no one ever asked me about my culture.

And then the obvious follow-up question: What is not racism?

Ignorance seems to be the key to not being racist. They call it "colour-blindness", pretending that there are no differences. I find this quite problematic, because cultural differences do exist, and in my opinion, acknowledging them makes it easier to communicate and work together. Why can't we be different but still equal?

Also, positive discrimination is not racism. If everything is so much about ignoring the differences that might make people unequal, why are there grants for different ethnic minorities and women? Why do success of bigger NSF grants depend on having members of minorities being funded with the money? (Why could they not offer equal schooling for everyone so they actually would have equal opportunities?)

I find all of this very confusing. I believe in equality and equal opportunities, but ignoring the differences is difficult for me. I understand that there are people who do not actively choose the role of being different (e.g. travel) and people who have been teased or even bullied about being different. But still, acknowledging that we are all different is not hateful. I hadn't considered it racist before - for me racism is about attaching a value judgement to the difference, the most common of them being "people of my group are superior to others".

But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. At the workplace I will try and avoid trouble by avoiding saying things considered racist or hateful by the American scale. Because at home, it's my constitutional right to write these blog posts with my opinions on Americans and hint that they might be different to Europeans!

Red tape.

I've got experience from all the papers you need to fill in when moving to a new country to take up a job from a couple of countries now, and I have to say that America has been worst. First of all the visa. For Australia, the visa application can be done completely online, whereas the US visa required my employer to sign papers, fedex them to me so that I could take them to the embassy in person, which was a five star experience with lots of queueing, double security checks and a two-minute interview where I got asked the same questions as online. And now that I'm here, I cannot leave America (or rather, return) without having my visa-form signed by my visa officials.

Luckily enough, I have a fully furnished place to stay for the first two months here in Davis. Finding an apartment has been stressful, and apparently almost impossible outside the usual Davis annual lease cycle from September 1st to August 31st. The apartment complexes are suitably used to international people without credit rating coming to the country, so I didn't have provide extra references or deposit, as my appointment letter was sufficient to prove that I actually hold a job and have enough money to pay my rent.

However, I needed to pay my deposit and my first rent with a cheque. My bank (see below) didn't give me any personal cheques, only temporary ones. The temporary ones are not good enough, so I had to go and buy a money order from the post office. Money orders cannot be paid on credit, and as my American debit card was blocked (see below) and my international debit cards somehow check as credit here, I was forced to bike quite far to get cash (and pay all too much for withdrawing from an international account) to buy the money order. Oh America, the promised land of paying with a card, except for rent. And oh Davis, the promised land of cycling, where everything is so near but always so far if you don't have a car.

When it came to opening my bank account, the bank was understanding and willing to hold my money for me without any extras but without monthly fee either. However they completely forgot to send me my proper debit card (to replace the temporary card given to me when I opened my account), and then when I inquired about it they blocked the card I had. It took me a week to get the debit card with my name, and a realisation that not all of my mail is reaching me when the pin code never arrived. Luckily the pin code can be re-set at the bank with an ID and a signature, something that could not be done in Europe. However, I have grown to dislike Bank of America and how their service is so sugar-coated but useless. Also, they have the slowest website in history, making internet banking much more difficult than it should be. I'm considering changing banks as soon as I find the energy for it.

So the postal system is happy to deliver a variety of letters that have previous tenants' names on them, but not mine. I've tried to rectify the situation (by adding my name to the post box with large letters), but I've already lost the trust on the postal service here. Also, to send international parcels, you need to fill in the customs forms online (including the weight of your parcel!) before going to the post.

Phone company (AT&T) wasn't too enthusiastic with the services I wanted, but agreed that I could have a pre-paid sim card that I cannot use for international calls or texts. It really makes me miss the Australian phone company (Vodafone) who gave me the best pre-paid sim card ever - it couldn't distinguish between calls within Australia and outside of it! It's never been so cheap to call home!

For obtaining my health insurance I listened to various people's advice for a couple of hours and applied online. Seems to be in order, except the confirmation will be by post (I really wish this one comes through).

So for the things I need for my new apartment. To get electricity and gas, I need to fax the company. And I need to pay a bigger deposit as I don't have the social security number yet. To obtain a social security number, I need to go and visit an office that is open only six hours a day, only during work days, and is located in Sacramento. To get to Sacramento is only 15 minutes by car, but by public transport, I hear it takes two hours to reach that office. Somehow I haven't found the motivation to do all that quite yet. And also, depending the source of information, I might or might not be eligible for one.

For getting internet connection for my new apartment, I tried to shop online, but one of the two big providers (Verizon) didn't think they could provide my location and told me to call them, and the other one (AT&T) had ok prices and options, but required either social security number or a driver's licence number to shop with them online. And obviously buying from their shops the deals are $20 more expensive per month. Awesome. I really need that social security number.

It's not that things just require me going back and forth, and without a social security number (which I might not be eligible for) some of it just seems impossible. But also everything is worded in a very difficult language. My lease was 46 pages long. It turns out that I really need to take a renter's insurance, as if someone hurts themselves in my apartment, I have to pay for their medical bills. It's one crazy country with that respect.

And then there's obviously the consideration to buy a car, and to get a Californian driver's licence, but that can wait until I have all of the above sorted.