What color is the brightest crayon in the box anyway?

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Racism is stupid. I'm not sure who the first racist was, but no, it wasn't necessarily a white guy and no, racism isn't only against blacks. Thank you for putting your stereotypes aside.

The logic (if any) that I can find behind racism is that it is/was some method of protection or survival of family or status. This idea is based on someone entering into a place and maybe being competition to an already full job market. 'What can be done to keep them from beating me at my job? I can make them appear as less than. After all, they look different than me, they very well could be less than...?' Or maybe there was less strategy behind it, and as with almost any type of change, a slightly different nose, eye shape, skin color etc. scares a person because they aren't used to this and don't know what it means....and it only grows from there. Some people have racism ingrained into their minds because 'momma always said it was that way, so it was.' While I'm a huge fans of moms and feel blessed to have a pretty smart one, parents can be wrong too. And thus, the importance of seeking out the truth of anything you are told or believe.

Racism is alive and well all around the world. It's not always extreme oppression, but my fellow Asian-American ETAs are having a different experience than I am because of the expectations that go with being of Asian descent, just as an example. When we were in the grocery the other night, Ray (who speaks Cantonese) heard the cashier saying about Lauren and I that if America was so great then why were we here. People often insult Athena because she looks Chinese but does not speak Cantonese. Filipinos are seen as a lower ethnicity here; many of them come here to serve in households.

Beyond racism on my mind, today I went to church and then out to eat with a lovely group of teachers from my church that teach at UMac (University of Macau). Two of the teachers are from the US and one was from Singapore and actually here doing research. I had bean curd and noodle soup at this very cheap restaurant. The bowl was the size of a cake bowl! Crazzyyyyy. But since most if it was broth, it was conquerable. One of the professors has connections at a local foster home/orphanage because she works in the psychology department at UMac. I asked her to pass my information along for the potential of volunteering on weekends. This potential has definitely made my day. :) This rainy nasty Sunday cannot be made nasty now! I will sing in the rain! ....okay probably not actually as my computer might drown.

Change the world. Start with your outlook (and no, that doesn't mean your email inbox...though that works too).