Choose to Take the Journey

Do I think race exists?

Yes.

Does being a member of a particular group tend to confer certain advantages and disadvantages?

Yeah, I think so.

Do East Africans really make the best runners and Vietnamese the best poker players?

Probably.

Just google it. It’s unnervingly hard to attribute their success to vague reasons like “peer approval” or “cultural legacy.”

But I’ve also met Ethiopians that couldn’t run to save their lives and Vietnamese who have lost their livelihoods in a run at the tables. See, even if there truly are genetic, physiological, and neurological disparities between groups, that doesn’t guarantee YOU anything. You are still an individual.

I remember my surprise the first time I took the SAT’s. My English score was flawless while my math score was shamefully low. I use the word “shameful” because I’m Asian and getting such a low score truly did bring shame to my family. But wait! If I’m Asian, shouldn’t I be good at math and bad at Engrish? At least that’s what I believed. Math had always been an uphill struggle, social stereotypes notwithstanding, while English had been a summer stroll. Yet because of my preconceived notions about what I should and shouldn’t be good at, I ignored evidence to the contrary. My belief regarding my math skills had motivated me to study harder, but when it came to English, I had sold myself short. If not for my rude awakening in high school, in college I might have traded in Nabokov for Newton, my chiasmus for a compass.

If there’s something you want to do, don’t let stereotypes influence your decision. Just because whatever group you identify with has traditionally not had much success in a certain area, that doesn’t mean that you won’t. If people always did that, we would never have black golfers like Tiger Woods, white rappers like Eminem, or Chinese basketball players like Yao Ming. The world is full of ugly ducklings, black sheep, and purple cows. So treat each person you meet as an individual. Because they are, just as surely as you are.

//Do you think you’re an exception to the rule?  Please share below.