Racism Can be Subtle

Racism can be subtle. Often prejudice is so frequent, it is barely audible. Even when whispered or expertly woven into conversation, this barb’s effects are felt by those being targeted. Those inflicting the sting can be completely unaware of their offense, believe it or not. Certain catch phrases, whether they should be avoided or not, remind some one that is different that they are in fact so, and should never forget it. For instance, jokes directed at race, even when made from one friend to another to diffuse tension, can be annoying reminders that that friend is the “odd man out;” the abnormal entity. Whether intentional or not, the slightest reference to a greater social issue can be prejudice. Outsiders are meant to feel uncomfortable; in this mentality, if they are always different then they can never replace the native.

            During a routine check up for her first born child, Jasmine is confronted by the hysteric internal conflict of a fellow patient. Although possessing the same basic parts needed to perform the task of childbearing, this relation of Jane’s has apparently exceeded her prime and is desperately clawing at any faint hints of hope. As this older woman sits, lamenting her current and fixed dilemma, she critiques Jasmine and her unearned benefit of youth and fertility. Assuming Jasmine doesn’t recognize a pop-culture reference to a well known “Ricky doll,” the woman recounts her predicament in condescending tone. When comparing herself to Jasmine, the barren patient uses the label, “you,” as a broad generalization grouping the main character with not only younger women, but also with those nations that generally require less “higher” education of their women as a whole. Assuming education as a much nobler cause, the woman explains the delay of her attempt to start a family. Eventually, the woman accuses Jasmine of being pregnant, a side effect of youth, and Jasmine reflects on the premature aging process her life experiences have imposed. She feels old (Mukherjee 34); these reminders of her segregation are age-inducing.

            Here the audience is exposed to Jasmine’s perception of her niche amongst the rest of American society. Throughout this episode, she is constantly reassuring the frazzled patient, and even in this position of desperation, the other woman acts as though she is above Jasmine in some way. Jasmine is very aware of this subtle condescendence. She feels a connection to her native land and seems not to distinguish, as her companion does, the difference between herself and, “… one of ‘them’,” (Mukherjee 33). The “them” in this instance refers to the uneducated, underprivileged members of the immigrant population. All though it does not feel as if Jasmine counts herself as an explicit associate of the illegal sweat-shop workers, she does appear to think of them as her direct relatives in the larger family of foreigners. She is defensive of them. The manner by which certain Americans speak of “outsiders” alludes to underlying assumptions about Jasmine and foreignness as a whole.

            She parallels her personal experience with pregnancy to that of a native of America. This elderly woman expresses feelings of greater failure due to her infertile condition. In her eyes, Jasmine is an indistinguishable face in a sea of easily impregnated young, foreign women. This scene could just as easily have been centered on an incident in a grocery store. The older woman could have been a poor American born girl, the same age as Jasmine. The element of the native resenting the foreigner for more than what obviously separates the two, such as an ethnic stereotype, would still be present in the store setting. This episode is simply another instance in a series of Jasmine’s process of comprehension in the midst of her new surroundings.