To Like Or Prefer?
I got approached with, “Are you a food blogger?” last night at The Good Luck Bar.
I was spotted - nevermind that he was already with another food blogger and whom I didn’t see until later. But there were a lot of questions. Sometime during the ensuing “conversation” I felt bombarded by something that came out of nowhere: “You don’t like Asians, do you?”
What?
I’ve thought about it and thought about it. I admit: There are jokes I crack about K-clubbing. I am not an expert in ethnic, hole-in-the-wall establishments in the SGV and though I would love that, I am located in the heart and center of Los Angeles - the home of too many tuna tartars. No, my friends aren’t all Asian. But does that mean I don’t like those of my own continental ethnicity? It made no sense. But I got it; I am a UCLA grad.
I realized he meant, “You don’t prefer Asians, do you?”
No. I can’t say I do.
I’ve been on the side of being “unpreferred” my entire life - to lack empathy (and that is to fail to take action) on behalf of the “unpreferred” would be by its very definition cutting out the premise of my life’s experience. The first half of my life, I wasn’t white enough; the second - I wasn’t Asian enough. The gift is the opportunity to have been on both sides of the fence and situations in which it was necessary to build strength of character. You don’t grow when you’re comfortable.
I dislike most people indiscriminately.
