They cannot be escaped and most of us make those judgment calls without even realizing we are making them. How many times have you found yourself on a darker street when you were alone, and felt yourself tense up at the sight of a stranger -- particularly one of another race? Maybe it doesn't even have to do with race as much as body type. If someone's dressed a certain way or walking/holding themselves a certain way -- most of us at least tense up a bit. We make a judgment call based on stereotypes at that very moment, with no knowledge of that individual or their background.
Those stereotypes, judgments, come from everywhere around us -- from the media, television, movies, parents, aunts, uncles, friends, advertisements, stories. We wouldn't feel the need to tense up if someone hadn't led us to those emotions in the first place. We are born into this world as trusting individuals, with little cause to hate or second guess anyone.
And as we grow up, we transform into judgmental people who often aren't even aware of their own hatred or misjudgments.
It's almost funny how blind people are to their own views of the world. So many of us claim to be open and understanding of multiple cultures, ethnicities, races, religions... but how many of us truly are as open as we claim to be?
Avenue Q, which won best musical in 2004, is a musical that uses Seaseme Street-esque puppets to hilariously (and often times, offensively) bring to life different issues adults face. Issues such as sex, relationships, careers... even internet porn are addressed in this brutally honest show.
Another issue Avenue Q addresses? You guessed it -- racism.
Photo property of Avenue Q. Taken by Carol Rosegg.
The Avenue Q song, "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" makes everyone who listens to it not only laugh -- but awkwardly aware of their own racism. The song brings more truth to one of the most difficult issues our nation faces than many songs have been capable of doing in recent years.
"Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" is a conversation sung between two characters -- Princeton and Kate Monster, with additional "neighbors" joining in on the song as it progresses. Princeton is an "average, white, fresh-out-of-college graduate" looking for work and living on Avenue Q. Kate Monster is a teacher who also happens to be... you guessed it. A monster.
A clip from the musical's official website..
Here is an exerpt from their conversation, where they even bring up judgements we make on a day-to-day basis on Mexicans in our community:
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Princeton and Kate Monster: Everyone's a little bit racist -- sometimes. Doesn't mean we go around committing hate crimes. Look around and you will find, No one's really color blind. Maybe it's a fact we all should face -- Everyone makes judgments based on race.
Princeton: Now not big judgments, like who to hire or who to buy a newspaper from -
Kate Monster: No!
Princeton: No, just little judgments like thinking that Mexican busboys should learn to speak goddamn English!
Kate Monster: Right!
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How many times have you been in a restaurant or in a drive-thru at your local Viva Burrito or Nico's or countless other places... wishing you service was done in understandable English so you could have confidence that your order was going to come out correctly?
I'm sure many of us would struggle just as much if the situation were reversed. I know I've never been good at learning second languages (and I've tried Spanish and German.) I'm not very proud to say.. after a year of Spanish and two of German... I can say very, very, very little. I can also understand even less when it's spoken to me.
The fact is -- just as the song proves -- EVERYONE'S a little bit racist. Including me. Yet trying to understand why we are that way -- and how we can change it -- all starts with acceptance.
After all, if we don't accept our own faults, we can never even begin to fix them.
"Everyone's a little bit racist -- it's true. But everyone is just about as racist as you! If we all could just admit, that we are racist a little bit, And everyone stopped being so PC! Maybe we could live in harmony!"
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To listen to the entire song, which I highly recommend, you can click here.
To purchase the album or for more information on the show, visit their website at www.AvenueQ.com.
To view all of the lyrics, you can visit allmusicals.com, which lists the lyrics to countless productions and numbers... including those sung on Avenue Q.
