While watching this hilarious episode of Frasier, I began to realise I was the couple with the "giant schnauzers". No, I haven't got a huge nose. I don't have a big anything in fact. What struck me was the way they were treated.
Like Rozs expectant baby's grandparents, I have something that is unavoidably noticeable, something that some people have a sensitivity to (conscious or not). What it this thing? My difference in race. Ok, I don't get people just randomly laughing at me because of it, but it is something that many people seem to bring up and they can't see you outside of a very small stereotyped set of ideas and assumptions about Asian people. Just like the big nose couple, it is all they see and they simply can't get beyond that shallowness. I can literally pin point the moment people pause when they meet me. There's always a hesitation, I feel like there's something wrong with me. Does that mean these (often white) people are uncomfortable around people of different race/colour? Why? I don't get it. This is London, one of the most racially, culturally diverse places on earth.
It's like they see only the dominant difference, and not all the other subtle things that make up a person as you would if you were meeting a white English person. The way they're dressed, the way they talk, mannerisms. It's still shallow, but at least it is a start to something more human. Instead, I get reactions that don't seem to go beyond race, and then gender. With Asian, my gender is inherently connected to my race. Stereotypes abound within western culture.
