Ack, ack, ack, ack, ack! The "Asian community" is up in arms again because of some comment some stupid non-PC Austrailian golfer made. This is annoying. Here's the link .
I'm annoyed for many reasons:
1) As an Asian American, I recognize that the community doesn't really do much in the way of speaking out when it publicly discriminated against. I agree with a lot of the commentary that's flying over the lists about how we keep getting trampled on because we don't do anything. This time (unlike the time with the Abercrombie T-shirts) I actually think this woman made a real racist comment. I don't think she actively hates Asians as much as she was venting frustrations and picked a convenient scapegoat, but her comment was undeniably racist. However, the community response is really annoying. We're going back to that old debate of why aren't we speaking out? why can't we have more of a spine? why do we let this happen... talk talk talk talk. Well talk fizzles quickly. In fact the "analysis" of why we have such miserable traits is pretty weak too, floating more along the lines of "we're boneless, that sucks" rather than "we're boneless and need more goddamn calcium". Instead of speaking out we talk about speaking out as though it were some specimen that had to be analysed. And then as what could have been a mass public outcry fades, we get all indignant that our issues are being ignored. Yep, it's a tough world boys and girls and some people need faster reflexes.
2) I can't stand that people feel the need to WHINE about being discriminated against. Like it's something they can't help and that by telling their own little comfort group that it's the case they get over their own little upset. Well that's all well and good but it doesn't do anything. And that sort of uselessness is aggravating to me.
3) The damn people who think that Asian Americans are the only minority actively discriminated against are amazingly frightening. Just because affirmative action actually acts against Asian Americans (who get on average better test scores than their white counterparts) doesn't mean that we should be weeping. For crying out loud, we want a balanced playing field, not one skewed in our favor. If we have an economic advantage, we're going to have to sacrifice some of it if we want a higher social standing. It's a tendency of self-righteous bigots who think that they are the most important people in the world to think that the only person who is ever insulted is himself. Well, to be quite honest, that's not true.
4) Really, people. She was a participant in a sport that people barely knew existed, ranting because she wasn't happy. People get worked up over the simplest things. I understand that feeling but then brooding over it is really annoying. And feeling the need to wave it in everyone's face like "hey look at this, people actually do discriminate against Asians." I think it makes us look like big crybabies. But hey, we're spineless... that's our job!
Now, I posted something to the chat list to try to explain why I think Asian Americans are so easily trampled on... less of a way to go forward as a pretty insightful explanation (OK, so it really wasn't that insightful but still). I've copied and pasted it below:
Honestly guys, it's not because Asians don't speak out... it's because they
speak out to the wrong people and they don't speak out soon enough and as a
collective. They will e-mail and call each other, talking only to people
in their little comfort groups but no one will confront the public. Why?
It has a lot to do with an indecision in the political stance. After all,
the Asian American community isn't a community in any real sense of the
word. Sure at Stanford there's Okada and the A3C but really, outside,
there's hardly unity among the Chinese American crowd, much less between the
Japanese and Koreans. What does that mean? Well no one's going to stand up
in defend the rights of Asian Americans. Why should they carry the burdens
of such a large group, most of whom they don't even identify with? Secondly
the different groups have entirely different political agendas so they don't
even vote as a collective. So the politicians don't give a damn. We all
know from the 1960s that the black community is now a community and vote
together... and the Latino community is unified not only by physical
proximity but also by language (I can't wait to see Bush try to speak
"Asian" to please the Asian vote).
Furthermore, it's hard to even show we're being discriminated against. It's
like Asians are the anti-minority sometimes... the stats don't show
discrimination against Asians as far as test scores and college admissions.
Workplace discrimination is hard to prove, especially since having an accent
is a perfectly good excuse not to hire someone... and I'm not even sure if
there's workplace discrimination at all. So the only place Asians get
discriminated against is in little things like T shirts and snide
comments... and then people get all confused because they got the impression
that Asians don't care about discrimination or that we shouldn't care
because we're about as nondiscriminated against as can be.
Couple this with an unwillingness to speak out, and you've got the
impression we're always trampled on. But I think the response is not to
rant and rave about these little things in our little communities. The
answer is to write an angry letter and then to stop brooding over it. It
only breeds hard feelings. Maybe if we teach the Asian community to make a
swift early and bold strike (and then to STOP mulling over it), it would be
better. After all, you MUST realize that it was a white man (or non-asian
at least) who noticed this blatant racism -- he was the observant one.
Maybe if we were a little less reactive and more proactive; if we could
express collective disapproval as opposed to having it sent out across
e-mail lists and mulled over like academics, we'd get further in the world.
My rant is running a little low on steam so I'm going to stop now.
Good night.
--C.