I'm a liberal guy. I've dated all races, embrace all cultures and voted for Barack Obama. I try not judge anybody. Howwever, stereotypes don't just pop out from thin air. For example, I am Italian and unfortunately some of us do in fact have blow outs, do steroids and fist pump at some club in Sayerville. There's an old stereotype that those of Asian descent are not good drivers- sure enough, my cousin once drove behind a guy that was eating rice with chop sticks while steering a Camry. As it turns out, Avenue Q was correct: everyone is, in fact, a little racist. On a regular basis, I find myself shaking my head in disgust as I see an individual demonstrate the biggest stereotypes of their particular background. Most recently, it was a Japanese woman with a camera on a very crowded 5th ave.
In addition to bizarre game shows and Anime, the Japanese are very well known for taking picture of everything while visiting America (Gung Ho and those Big Apple bus tours especially come to mind). Yesterday, as I was walking with my family on the way back from an all too crowded Rockefeller Center, I noticed this little kid, no older than 9, carrying a stack of hot pretzels up to his chin over to his dad, a street vendor. He was being followed by a wide-grinning, middle-aged Japanese lady who was incessantly snapping photos of him. Only this was not an adorable youngster helping his old man provide for his family, this was a little person/midget with a Clark Gable mustache working his job. In my eyes, he went from being a Kodak moment to being a guy who probably gets stared at around the clock, so I went about my business. Japanese lady with the camera didn't see it my way. This horrible woman literally followed this poor gentleman FOR BLOCKS and wouldn't stop snapping pics- it was on par with the paparazzi at it's worst. I am not a religious man so my moral barometer doesn't reach far, but I do live by some principles. One of them is to not harass midgets who sell pretzels. This despicable lady so enraged me that if you were on that street yesterday at around 3:45 you saw a little person being followed by an inconsiderate Japanese lady with a camera, followed by a screaming white dude trying to take pictures of this jerk to see how she felt being harassed. The only problem was that she fit into another Japanese stereotype: the woman had the reflexes and speed of her ninja ancestors. I run 5 days a week and I had no chance of catching her.
This story is interesting to me for three reasons: One, it argues the point that stereotypes exist for a reason, two, it shows how awful people can be yet third, the visual of a little person with a dapper mustache being chased by a stereotype is the classic example of "only in New York." I am about to enter my thirties- this is when a lot of people start to loosen their grip on their liberal ideals. I don't want to be one of those people but I find myself becoming just slightly more judgmental than I used to be. If next time I'm driving and the car in front of me is going 5mph and weaving all over the road, I will most likely assume it is the Japanese camera lady and curse her. I will judge her awful auto-handling skills and continue to obsess over her lack of compassion for the human condition. But then I will giggle to myself and thank her for giving me a classic New York experience. I love you and hate you, walking stereotype lady, be well.
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