Rambling on Racism

         Everything has a hierarchy it seems.  There is always a list of justifications and allowances placing one group of people above or below others on differing scales.  Gender, religion, sexuality, financial status.  What is becoming more and more startling to me through my life, which has become more and more prevalent through the little bit of reading that we have done for this class, is the hierarchy of races through racism.  What I mean by this is the allowances that are allotted and accepted due to race.  The stereotypes that are accepted and acted out by that race.  I am constantly trying wrap my head around why people want to not only exist within the negative stereotypes of their race, but also take pride in them sometimes?
        Do these stereotypes exist because their is truth in them?  Or have the people been told this by the ruling class, society and the media for so long they just believe it is true?  Or maybe they just have given up on trying to prove everyone wrong?
         I personally feel that ignorance on all sides of the equation has brought to life these expectations of all races by society.  It has caused bitterness and distrust.  What I find interesting about all this though, is that the only racism that has the spotlight in this country is the white on black.  This, of course, comes from the societal guilt of this country about slavery.  What this leaves out is all the other racial tensions, and at times it seems to give black racist an automatic pass on racism.  If they want to insult Hispanics, Asians, Indians or even whites, it is much more easily shrugged off.  Racism can come from any side and on all forms, and should be never tolerated or accepted.
      What this has placed a wedge between black Americans and other minorities inadvertently.  The Korean and Asian Americans constantly are reminded of their non-whiteness, meaning non-acceptance, during the 1992 riots because the government did not come to protect them, their families, their businesses or their homes, unless they luckily enough were already in a predominately white section of town.  They were left on their own along with all the other minorities.  They were left out of the group that the police were supposed to "serve and protect."  They were subjected to a different kind of misjustice then the other races.  This is why so many of those Korean store owners still wanted justice for Rodney King, even though the media tried make it appear as if it were a Korean/Black race issue, instead of the favoritism the law had for whites in LA.  They saw and felt their non-acceptance and lack of justice by the LAPD as well, and they knew that what was the real issue, even though many of their stores were burned and looted by blacks, Hispanics and poor whites, they also knew the white stores were protected by the LAPD.