The Beauty Of Prejudice

I have been meaning to post this for a while now, but I either forgot or got too busy.

First, let me say that I think the word prejudice has gotten a bad rap. I think now when someone uses the word they mean something like this:

an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

instead of this:

preconceived judgment or opinion

If I am prejudiced against drug use, is that necessarily a bad thing? But I digress and that isn't really the point I want to make today. I am referring to the former definition, not the latter.

I feel like I have been a victim of prejudice... and I am glad. Living in Hong Kong, I am now part of the minority. Now, in no way does mean I completely understand what is like to be an African-American, a first-generation Mexican immigrant or even an Asian-American living in the U.S. However, I do realize I am on the outside looking in, maybe more so in some ways, especially linguistically (I can't imagine how many Chinese people I pass by that think, "why don't dem for-ay-NERS leant to speak ar langwage?! If ther gonna come here, dey oughtta learn ar langwage!"

But here is my point... I ride the MTR (subway) to work everyday and most of the time it is fairly crowded. Now most people prefer to sit if they can, but there are about 45 seat on an MTR car and 8 cars on a train and more than 5 million people using the MTR daily. Do the math. There is usually a rush to see who can get to the seats first and there is a method to the madness; end seats go first, then inside seats, leaving a spot in between. When the train is full, though, all the seats are taken.

More than a handful of times, I have been sitting when people entered the MTR walked toward the seat, saw me and decided to stand. Now I don't know if it is because I am white, overweight, ugly or what, but whatever the case is, it is too much for them to consider sitting next to me. Now if it is because I am overweight, fine. I do take up more space than most of the local and I will give them that. However, if it is because I am white, I could care less. I can lose weight, I can't not be white. But frankly I don't care, because their prejudice isn't hurting me, it's hurting them, because I am sitting (with more space) and they are standing. So you can think bad of me all you want because I am white, in the mean time I will be sitting... comfortably.