I´m not a racista but...

In those odd conversations i have with shopkeeppers, cabies, acquaintances, whoever, i always get asked, naturally, "so what do think of Buenos Aires, do you like it?!". Well, i kinda do, i have had the usual ups and downs, and i´ve tended to say, yes it´s really nice here.. till one day i heard this one line one time too many - "Well at least there´s not much discrimination here.."!
JUA JUA, or ha!
My chauffeur, the last straw, seemed to follow this line, only to proceed into the conversation by telling me that yes, imigrants are welcomed, so long as they behave, because so often they just cause problems. How does the race discource do a twirle and before you know it, the non-racist is justifying his lucky country on the arguement that if there is a problem, if infact someone experiences discrimination, it´s their own fault and they should just adapt, conform, otherwise they´re just trouble makers and should go back where they came from... sound familiar?

I saw a short documentary recently posing the question, is argentina racist? One young white argentian man and one young swarthy/black argentinian man were given a set of identical tasks to complete. 1. stand on the same street and try to get a cab, cabs drive straight pass swarthy boy and offering white boy a lift everytime, swarthy boy couldn´t get anywhere at all. 2. ask for some spare change on the street, swarthy boy couldn´t get even recognition, let alone 5 cents, where white boy get´s asked, now is that enough for your bus ticket dear? Two and a half pesos. 3. They go for the same job, waiter, swarthy boy turns up for his interview gets told no one´s there to see him but they´ll keep his cv on file. It goes on..

There´s no end to this folks, for one reason or another, one reason worse than the other, fear and intolerance of difference breeds passion and identity in people in every single place i´ve been to.
I think i´ve got a long way to go before i can say i´m not a racist.