<Begin Segment 6>

HH: To what extent were you aware of racial and ethnic prejudice during this time?

WW: To what extent was I aware of ethnic prejudice? That I think is almost impossible to answer. There are some attitudes that you're almost born with if, like me and like you, you grew up as a member of a minority community. And pretty early on, I took it for granted that people would have certain attitudes towards me because I was not like them. Very, very early, I decided I didn't give a damn about it, I didn't care one way or another what they felt or what they said. And so far as I was concerned, I was essentially invisible in my ethnicity. I dealt with everybody on equal terms. And I think that resulted in a reaction of people who were just dealing with me in the same way. So in answer to your questions, did I feel any effect of ethnic prejudice, the answer is not really very much.

HH: I'd have to say then that you know these things exist, prejudice and bigotry exists, but as far as you're concerned, you would minimize the importance of any kind of prejudice or things like that in your life.

WW: Well, I don't know what things helped me and what things hurt me. My ethnicity, I'm sure, helped me in many, probably crucial moments, and I'm sure hurt me in similar moments. But these things take place in, somewhere in Neverland, you see, it's happening around there. And what you do is find yourselves in, what I do is I find myself in a position where I either can't accept what I find, or don't want to accept what I find. And almost always, I think I was able to live with whatever situations I found myself in. And I am convinced that doing so, I helped myself a lot more than I hurt myself.

HH: Is that something that could be generalized to other people as well, do you think? People who are members of other ethnic, racial minorities?

WW: Well, can that be generalized? No, I don't think so. I think either you're born fortunate enough to be unconscious of other people's attitudes towards you, or being able to be unconscious of other people's attitudes towards him, or you cannot. If you cannot, no matter anything I say will not help. But I had a number of things I worked extremely valuable. One, I grew up in a family, my father was a college graduate. He was well-respected in his community, he's well-known, and I think he was paid enough so that we were never uncomfortable in any way. When I went to college, I could go to college, if I wanted to commute and take the train every day, I could do that. After a while, you owned a car, and if I wanted to drive across, I did that. I think that kind of life develops is a fairly smooth shell as it were, a hard shell. And whether for good or for bad, very little got through.

HH: You were able to go about your business.

WW: Yeah, I just go about my business. I liked to think that I'd treat everybody as they are.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.