The Onigiri's War (June 10,2008)

The Onigiri's War

By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

We are at war. These were the words that struck me after watching the movie Freedom Writers. A war that tortures the very soul of humanity, a war that is far beyond guns and bloodshed, a war that infiltrates our very core of existence. We are at war, and that war is discrimination. This is where it all started; the uprising of Black Americans, the revolt of commoner French, the rebellion of our native Filipinos. Even until now, although peace treatises are issued here and there, discrimination continues to whisper in a soft but piercing sound. Freedom Writers is the inspiring story of a high school English teacher whose class is literally a salad bowl of races; Latinos, Asians, Blacks and Whites. None saw commonality with their classmates, and so every day was blinded with slicing stares, deafened with vulgar offenses, and so every day was a clash of colors. But each got a story to tell, a story of their ongoing fight to survive, where to live the next day unharmed and without bruises is but a miracle.

I then wondered how people learned to discriminate, how people defined the other through their color, and how people become so attached to prejudice. It appeared that one might just be in one way or another, jealous. Whites tan their snowy white skin to look like Asians; Asians bleach their golden skin to look like Whites. This fad indirectly tells the story of hidden admiration that became rather negative and turned to envy that soon enough became concealed in discrimination. But discrimination doesn't only limit to colors, likewise are the clash in those of the same race. Within a single race, a separation of economic statuses, of academic achievement and family influences continue to be evident. There are qualities from that person, there are wealth and culture from that race that you would want to have for your own but couldn't accept and publicly tell you do, this then becomes the very root of discrimination.

In Fruits Basket, a Japanese manga, Tohru Honda said that all of us are like Onigiri (rice ball) and each of us has an umeboshi with a different shape, color and flavor but because it's stuck on our backs we can't see that umeboshi. The reason why people get jealous of another is because they can see clearly the umeboshi on other people's back. Truly, we become blinded by our own unique qualities that we tend to see the goodness of other people and more so intently look for the weaknesses of others and shower them with ridicule. The reason why we continue to do this, I presume, is because we wanted to be always on top, the superior, and the best but at the cost of other's inferiority and defeat. We discriminate each other because we keep on looking for the things we don't have, rather than those that are already under our noses.

A journal, a simple neat notebook this became the starting step for that English teacher's class to see the common war they are all in, the war they themselves created. Those students became the Freedom Writers, and amazingly enough, all of them graduated high school remaining to be friends regardless of color or race. The secret why they all stopped bickering at each other lies in the things they look for from one another. Once, all they saw were the differences among them, what made the other more special or less. Now, they continue to see the commonality, the line that connects them, what made them alike. They are still at war but, they are all on the same side. It is indeed human to get jealous and look down on others, but it is equally human as well to restrain ourselves from prejudice and give each other equal chances to prove that color, money, status aren't all that there is.

Discrimination has hurt a lot, enslaved many and continues to torture some more. Each of us has contributed a part to discrimination, and it is only us that could shatter it into pieces. Forgive my idealistic mind, but later on I want to venture my career as a nurse outside of the country and obviously enough, I am susceptible to be discriminated and as well as to discriminate. I wanted to work with my fellow nurses someday with clear conscience and healthy competition, whether they may be a fellow Asian or a White or Black, I hope that would not matter.

You are an Onigiri.

There is a beautiful umeboshi at your back.