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Bule, Sounding Racist and White Terms Only

I have never lived abroad yet despite I have many foreign friends who visited Indonesia and are living in Indonesia. One thing that the most unexpected that I experienced is calling "bule". The word that I'd heard since I studied at Wonosobo when Dutch people came. And, now, still, everyone calls foreign who visits and lives in Indonesia are bule. I know what it means and in many reasons.


In KBBI (Indonesian dictionary), bule is meaning bulai (the albinism) and white people who are from Europe and the United States or westerners. So, what is the point that you can catch on to? Yeah, bule is white people only. It looks what I saw in the reality and even was a tour guide who help Deaf British visitors during their visit to Indonesia. Indonesians tend to ask for a photo with them and of course, foreigners will do but mostly not because of private reasons. But, in my analysis, mostly white people only Indonesians ask for a photo. So, I had to ask them not to interrupt foreign visitors and just go and it always happened when I was a tour guide for foreign visitors. I have a friend who is a Japanese American who has her family raised in Kentucky, United States. She isn't a white person and she is an Asian American. She got never the same treatment during her studying in Indonesia and even when I and she were having dinner at the restaurant, no one called "bule" to her and I was like, "Oh maybe because my friend is fluent in Indonesian.". I texted a Chinese American who we met in a virtual message and she also had the same treatment when visiting Indonesia. "No one called me "bule" or seemed me was like just a local person as Chinese Indonesian does, despite I'm American." She said. "But, I love visiting Indonesia. Jakarta is the first place that ever I visited," she said about her experience visiting Indonesia. If three foreigners who are American visit Indonesia, which are white, black, and Asian. Indonesian would ask for a photo with them as usual but who is the first gets it? A white person, which a clear answer because in Indonesians' minds, bule is meaning white people so they will come to a white American and not other Americans meanwhile other Americans are holding US citizenship and were raised in the United States as a white American does. So, if time goes back and bule that really has never existed, maybe white people just get the same treatment as foreigners who aren't white when visiting Indonesia and like they will never get asked for a photo, which like that, don't you think?

I wrote a post about bule on Medium and you can go "Is That Bule Means A Racist Word in Indonesia?". I don't like calling bule because I'm not a white person and that word is created for white people only. So, I feel humiliated because of the color of my skin-- I'm not a white person-- which white people only or whiteness. I don't care about white people either and am not obsessed with the color of skin. White people are just as human as we and other races do. So, bule sounds racist and represents white people only. We are living in Indonesia so why are still obsessed with calling bule because white people only? I know the history and where "bule" comes from. In the past, Indonesians called "bule" were referred to as Dutch people but in the passage of time, the description of "bule" that shifted as meaning white people and everyone who has the color white. it sounding inferiority, isn't it? Ben Anderson, was an Irish historian and political scientist who made the "bule" word popular in Indonesia. 

God commands you love each other as He loves you. God creates something that has different races, cultures, languages, and traditions because He loves them. So, why do you still want to segregate based on the color of your skin, and we are living in 2022? Bule doesn't represent the diversity and equality of race. I don't care about white people either. So, I prefer calling it "foreign" or "orang asing" instead of because orang asing doesn't represent what the color of the skin is and it's pretty clear. Orang asing that which gets the same treatment as a foreign, no matter what the color of your skin is. If you want freedom, you suppose not to call them bule anymore. So, please stop calling bule! Call them orang asing.

I wish it will come awareness to Indonesians and foreigners who are living and visiting Indonesia. For Indonesians, I am going to make a translated blog into Indonesian. I want to increase awareness about it. That's my hope because freedom should be owned by all people not just white people or certain people, and everyone has the same chance and equality of race. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, mixed, or whatever does not matter and we are humans who were created by the Lord to be loved as He loves you. That's important!

Thanks, everyone!

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