Closet racism

After five weeks of hanging out with these European students, I’ve noticed that by and large these kids are way more racist than the comparatively cosmopolitan Philadelphia college students I’m used to. Now, as a young white male, I can damn well sound racist if I want to, given that it’s often necessary to participate in insult culture in socialization processes. That said, all the time I miss the aim of racist jokes these kids make! While it might be a language barrier thing, and I’m just bypassing these kids because I’m trying to hard to anticipate their meaning, rather than just sit back and treat them like conversational equals, I really think it’s that have a greater inclination to make racist comments than the vast majority of my American peers.

During a conversation discussing this, I was told by one of the kids that he thought I was faking the whole “I don’t get racist jokes” thing in order to sound more tolerant, thereby giving them a better impression of Americans. I retorted that perhaps his English just sucked, and that’s why I didn’t get the jokes. Then another student piped in with this very telling axiom:

Everybody’s a closet racist. Except, you know, for those who aren’t—the people who are just openly racist.

So perhaps I am trying too hard to sound cultured and not bigoted when around these kids. But it’s also a possibility that their societies are, for the most part, in a similar position to where the U.S. was a century ago. Immigration is at an all-time high in Europe, and I don’t think their traditionally monolithic cultures have adapted to the sudden influx yet. This is pretty much the only advantage American mainstream culture has over the European mindset. I hope Americans make the most of this distinction.