As an Asian American, I am always torn between two worlds. As a UU of color, I feel the same way. And at no time do I feel it more than when I am with my family.
Amongst my UU friends, most are highly educated, listen to NPR, disdain popular culture, shop at places like Whole Foods and local farmers markets, and eat at fine restaurants. My folks and my brother are reasonably well-educated, but that's about where the similarity ends. They watch popular television, love professional football, shop at Safeway, buy what is on sale, and happily eat at fast-food and the other cheap restaurants that saturate the San Francisco bay area. They would not know on which side of a place setting the bread plate goes, nor would they care.
This week, my family has been visiting me and my new home. There were any number of rich historical and cultural sights we could have seen or nice restaurants we could have eaten at. Yet, what were the highlights of my family's visit to DC and the East Coast? CiCi's Pizza Buffet and Walmart.
Knowing my brother's penchant for pizza and for cheap food, I had planned the trip to CiCi's, where you can get all the pizza, pasta, and salad that you can eat for five bucks a person. Even my parents were impressed by this deal. But I was surprised by the request to go to Walmart. You see, in San Francisco, where land is expensive and the population very liberal, there are no Walmarts. So I looked up the nearest Walmart on the internet and loaded the family into the car. It turned out to be a "Super" Walmart. Gigantic. And for the next couple of hours my parents poured over ridiculously cheap dvds.
The irony is that my family in SF lives amongst people who could be UUs. Educated, wealthy, liberal, and disdainful of things like Walmart. Yes, I know that there are valid social justice reasons to despise Walmart. (I don't shop at them myself, which is why I had to look up the location.) But social justice isn't the only reason why UUs dislike Walmart. From Disney to Las Vegas to L.A. to McDonald's to the NFL, there are good reasons to object to all of these things. But are there good reasons to look down on them?
When does social conscience become classism and elitism?
Yes, I know that McDonald's is harmful to my health and destroys the environment, but every time I walk into one, it reminds me of my family. When UUs put down mainstream American culture, they remind me that my family would not feel comfortable amongst them, my Chinese family and me who have yearned to be mainstream. And it reminds me that I am not always comfortable with many UUs either.
