Distinction and Discrimination

Living in a multicultural centre like Toronto makes it easy for one to regard the issue of racism as a thing of the past. Others, spurned by such prejudice often make the erroneous stance of equating lack of discrimination with lack of distinction. To not judge a book by its cover does not mean to pretend the cover doesn't exist.
As all of you (most of you should) know, I am a Canadian-Born Chinese (CBC). This means that I speak, read, write and understand English to an equal, if not better, proficiency as my Chinese. This also means that despite the North American clothing and decent education, I will still be regarded as an oriental male.
Now, having been obsessed with some sort of discrimination for the better part of my life, I've become familiar with certain concepts and motifs that crop up. I've noticed certain people (who shall remain nameless) who are hyper-sensitive to any hint of racism to the point of (what I personally find) idiocy. When asked to describe a person, they will give height, weight, body-type and shape, age and gender, but will consciously refuse to mention race. This is sheer idiocy, in my opinion, because if I want to know if I've met someone, I'm very likely to notice the approximate realm in the world whence this individual (or the individual's forefathers) came.
To consider the converse, let us assume that it is racist to identify the race of an individual. (So I am racist for describing someone as being Swahili, or Russian, or Malaysian, because it clearly does not serve any purpose in helping to recall the physical characteristics of the person.) And if one is to be non-discriminate of race, then one must also be non-discriminate of others -- of gender, because that would be sexist. So we cannot mention the sex of the individual in question. Because clearly, when we do, we've already imposed certain biases and stigmas that we associate between sex and personality. Therefore, we cannot also mention "trivial" things, such as height and weight, for who are we, that such superficial things would matter? We certainly aren't authoritative judges of beauty, certainly, and therefore cannot be as prejudiced as to describe someone as being "tall" or "fat". And we definitely cannot comment on the clothes one wears, because that is superficiality to the extreme. Fashion changes by the minute, and who are we to discriminate between those who can and cannot afford good taste in clothes?
What, then, do we have left to use to describe a person? Personality, clearly. Because it is obviously personality that one first notices when meeting a person. And obviously people would always give out personal details at the first meeting.
Hopefully you gleaned my point through that emotional, sarcastic rant.
It is NOT racist to identify one to be of a race (if only by appearance). I may be Canadian, but I certainly *look* Chinese (unless you're one of those asian-racists who insist that there is a *clear* distinction between the east-asian countries, in which case you might think I'm Japanese or Korean). Is it racist to have a culture? Is it racist to speak another language? Please...
Now, there are times when it *can* be racist to call someone by their race. Here are some examples of what I find to be acceptable and unacceptable statements involving a person's race:
1. a) Have you met Tom? He's my age, jewish, and about 5'8, with blue eyes, and short, gelled-back hair.
1. b) Bah, Tom's always trying to save money; he's Jewish!
2. a) I'm not sure if I've met Nancy. Is she the one from Ethiopia?
2. b) No, I'm not friends with Nancy; I don't have any Ethiopian friends.
It should be obvious which ones I find acceptable and which I don't but just in case, the first of the two sets (that is, the a) lines) are fine to use, in my opinion, whereas the b) lines are slightly dangerous ground.

Now, that was a very long introduction to the actual topic I wanted to write. Having established that racism is a bad thing, but that culture is a good thing, consider what happens when you mix the two. CBC literati sneeringly label Caucasians with East-Asian interests as sinophiles or japanophiles. Chinese parents of CBC's call their English-proficient children "bananas" (yellow on the outside; white on the inside).
Despite the alleged antiquity of racism, most of us still retain a curious sentiment concerning those of culture. It doesn't "seem right" when one of Chinese descent is instructing an English class in a Canadian highschool. It's "just wrong" when a Russian gentleman is tutoring CBC children the many characters in the Chinese written language. A Japanese TA's authority on the language is discredited because he is not Japanese. Caucasian students are discouraged from taking Korean because they "can never be Korean".
Where does this ideology come from? Why does it exist? Is there a genetic correlation between the knowledge of the (very arbitrary) rules of conduct for any given culture, or the linguistic knowledge of any given language? No. It just requires a degree of intelligence and some memory, two things that every race possess.
But sadly, these arguments only have a hope of being heard in such an open place as here in North America. The Japanese couldn't care less if you had an IQ of 300 and PhD in English; if you aren't a [natural] blonde-haired, blue-eyed caucasian female, odds are, they don't want you teaching English in their classrooms.
It's just lucky for most of us who are enamoured by other cultures (invariably the older, ancient version of that culture), that most older cultures share many common points. Parents of these older cultures are all considered "conservative" -- a term that seems to be internationally recognised. The jokes of saving money equally applies to the Indians as it does to the Chinese, as it does to the Jewish, as it does to the Russians. Why? Because we were there when war waged through the world. We weren't idling by in our infancy while the rest of the world slowly slaughtered itself, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike and become the world's leading economic power.
*cough*
Politics aside...
Yes, the world is slowly becoming more multicultural. Even if most of China isn't used to seeing a caucasian on the streets, the Chinese still recognise that English is pretty useful to use in the world outside their [very, very large] borders. Almost all countries of note have tours available in almost any language imaginable. And yet...
How would the people react if I, a Chinese, were to start dressing like an English gentleman? What if I somehow managed to marry the daughter of a Duke or Earl and became an English noble myself? Somehow, I doubt the British public would be so forgiving. It's all very well for me to know the history, culture and language of England better than most of the English would, but yet it would be unacceptable for me to actually live the part. For whether I have a British citizenship, I still wouldn't be English.
It's reassuring to see how far we've come in the past century. Here is a poem written by Thomas Burke in around 1920, called An English Gentleman:

I determined yesterday to become English gentleman;
And I have this morning bought a bowler hat.
I have bought brown boots and a suit of rare blue serge,
Which the affable one who supplied me with it
Spoke of as Natty, and added his assurance
That I would look Quite the Gentleman.
I have bought white collars and many-coloured ties,
And a walking-stick and a blue-spotted shirt.

Apparelled thus, I strolled this evening down Pennyfields,
And the old men came out with expressions of no-kindness.
They made ugly mouths,
And passed words one to the other of a derisive nature.

But I am young Quong Lee,
Who write verse in the English tongue,
And am quite English gentleman.
And English gentleman
Not suffer himself to be disturbed by hooting of owls.