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squinty eyes = not white person

10/14/2009

5 Comments

 
I realized today that I’ve skipped a step.  I write a blog about class, privilege, and race.  Like all folks, my experiences and life are an intersection of many identities.  One of those identities is of a person of color.  But I’m reminded that “person of color” is not an identity that all Asian folks identify with.  Today another Chinese person asked me, “Wait, are we considered people of color?”  So am I a person of color?

It made me pause. I had no idea where to begin.  And I realized mostly because I probably hadn’t sorted it all out in my head yet.

If we start at the beginning, the issue lies in what it means to be a “person of color.”  Logic would say that it would be anyone that is “non-white.”  If that’s the case, then, yes, we are folks of color.  But I think most people would probably take issue with that being a satisfactory answer.  Are Asians somehow different than other people in that category?  It’s not like we’re like Black folks.  We’re over-represented in academic institutions.  We are the model minority!

I lied. I didn’t start at the beginning.  Why does the term “person of color” exist anyway?  Why has the dichotomy of “White” and “non-White” been chosen?  Why not “Latino” and “Blacks, Whites, Asians, etc.”  The United States and its current power structure was founded by white, European culture.  That is the norm that was set from the beginning.  The point is, “people of color” is a political identity, held by the common experience of living outside the dominant group.

And while racial minorities, women, and LGBT folks have made impressive gains since that time, the fact of the matter is, most of that power still lies in the hands of straight, white men.  They are still the norm.  They are still the default.

I think that where Asian folks sometimes struggle is that our story is different from other folks of color.  Our land was not stolen.  Our ancestors were not enslaved (though we do have a history of being exploited for labor).  We don’t share a border with the modern day United States.  And our experiences of being non-White in this country are different.  We’re not stereotyped as violent.  We’re considered the model minority and over-represented in academic institutions.  The mainstream understanding of Asians is that we’re successful.  To put it bluntly, people don’t know if Asians are people of color because “Hey, we’re doing so well, we might as well be White!”

I know this to be true: people naturally look out for their own.  Whether through overt racism or simply having a higher level of comfort, the phenomenon of nepotism is hardly questionable.  We might be over represented in medicine, but we’re underrepresented in almost every other place.

Overall, white America still sees us as “other.”  How many times have you heard “Where are you from?... Well, where are you REALLY from?” Or how about the replacement of all the Asian guys in the movie “21” with mostly white actors? Or how, earlier THIS year, a politician proposing that Asian folks all adopt American names that are “easier to handle” for voting and paperwork? And the number of times that I’ve watched older, Asian folks get talked at like they’re mentally deficient because they have an accent?  And Lisa, a past coworker of mine who has a bachelor’s degree in hospitality from an American institution but still makes less than $1,000 a paycheck in an area whose cost of living is one of the highest in the country.  Management says that her Vietnamese accent is too strong, but our French, white, male, straight Director of Food and Beverage has an accent so thick that I have to ask him to repeat himself several times a day? Or the fact that even compared to black folks, a benchmark that people use to mark discrimination in this country, we’re underrepresented in politics and even in academic leadership where we’re supposed to be the most successful! [Committee of 100's 2009 report: full, key results, someone telling you the point.]

What would happen if a terrorist cell in Asia bombed somewhere in the States?  Would hate crimes rise based on simple physical characteristics?  We’re on the safe side of “other” right now, but I don’t think it’s necessarily permanent.  Even among liberal folks who are supposed to be better at this race stuff, why I hear so much about boycotting Chinese goods due to human rights violations but nothing about the myriad of other countries that do so as well?

I will make another accusation.  I’ve noticed a trend: it’s the Asian folks who were born in America and are highly educated (the “model minority”) that question our belonging to the “people of color” political identity.  “Yes, we are culturally different, but we are not oppressed.”  So let’s look at the “model minority” stereotype for a hot second.  Where did that phrase come from? It was coined in the 1960s during the civil rights movement through anecdotal research (I know, a contradiction in terms).  It was used by the government then (and currently, in my opinion) to fracture folks of color and to argue that racism should not be a barrier to success.  In other words, this idea of all Asians being the “model minority” is this weird, political, inaccurate myth that’s been completely fabricated. [even wikipedia agrees. or here. or here.]

And it’s been to our detriment in so many ways.

The one that upsets me most is that we buy into it.  In the midst of our personal successes, we, members of the “model minority,” those of us who are fortunate enough to have made it to medical school, have forgotten and been shielded from others in our community. We’re in our own little bubble and have left unrecognized the folks that are not ourselves and not our family members.  But we could have been them and they could have been our blood.

Who will look out for the folks that comprise these statistics if we don’t?  Does the fact that a visible portion of our population has been successful mean that we’re institutional equals?  Because I don’t believe that my congressman sees it that way.  I don’t think he imagines folks that look like my family when he pictures his constituents.

Real racism against Asian folks exists.  It manifests itself differently than for other communities of color, but it exists.  And sometimes I worry that not only has the mainstream decided that this is not the case, but also that we believe it as well.
5 Comments
Tim
10/15/2009 01:00:56 am

I agree "people of color" = "racial minority", and that includes all races that aren't identified as part of the majority.

I think ideally, American culture will slowly move away from having and thinking of 1 majority/dominant race toward a more pluralistic mentality where people are recognized as different, but skin color isn't the primary thing used to understand them (replaced instead with cultural background, worldview, etc.). At that point the terms 'racial minority' and 'people of color' will make less sense and will drop out of common usage. And it will help that whites won't technically be a majority anymore, either.

One pitfall for idealistic liberals; it doesn't help to change the language before reality. So even if you want to see an America in the future that has no 'minorities' like I do, it doesn't help to just ignore the fact that it is a real part of our social structure today.

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Ari
10/15/2009 12:00:47 pm

Hegemony, my friend, hegemony.

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quinn
10/15/2009 12:21:06 pm

Please correct me if I have misunderstood you, but these are my thoughts and questions arising from your entry (pardon the length -- I'm avoiding studying):
I recognize that there is racism against Asians and Asian Americans because I have seen it happen to friends. I also see that the line is becoming fuzzy in many respects (maybe just in the areas I have lived, but I've lived in 6 U.S. cities in the last 6 years so I'm going to generalize) when it comes to part-Asian heritage, as well as part American Indian, part Latino, and part black. Yet you seem to easily divide into Us and Them, so where does "brown" start and end? Does it depend on people claiming their cultural identity? If so, then is it really "playing into the model minority stereotype" if someone doesn’t claim their cultural identity or relate to it? That seems like a personal decision, to me. Or is it externally determined in how people see and react to them? Though I think minorities of all sorts seem to be trying hard to avoid this and empower themselves by strongly reclaiming their own respective identities.

Another thing -- I do ask where people come from when they have an accent, because people are usually proud to talk about their heritage and their home country and family. And I like to know the heritage of my Asian friends because it helps me understand their relationship to family and to life, things that affect our friendship and define them as a person. I guess I'm asking, Jess, how do you picture an ideal society dealing with these issues? Where do you see the lines between acknowledging differences and ignoring differences both on an individual level and societal level? And isn't identity a personal choice?

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Jess
10/17/2009 05:12:55 am

Hey Quinn,
Thanks for the thoughts! I think you raise some really interesting questions that are important to tease out in more detail. These are some of my thoughts:

The first thing that I want to say is that yes, absolutely. Identity is an individual choice. How each person choses to identify is their own personal decision and it's never wrong. However, I do think there's a difference between assumed identities and chosen identities. I guess my point to those of us who identify with the “model minority” stereotype is that it might be assumed rather than chosen.

What I'm trying to point out is that the evolution of each identity can vary in its genesis. Some we choose for ourselves and others we take on because we are taught them. Most have a few elements of both. For example, many LGBT folks talk about how their own internal struggle with coming to terms with being queer. When some folks begin, the identity that they have as LGBT is so influenced by societal pressure that they have their own self-hate. I would perhaps call this an assumed identity – an identity that is taught to us. For many the journey ends with an identity with more individual assertion. And that could mean anything from redefining their own queer identity in the positive terms that they'd like or even deciding that the messages of living a queer lifestyle is wrong are correct. Maybe that was a cumbersome example.

I guess what I'm trying to say to Asian folks of privilege: don't let your own privilege blind you from the realities of the situation in the United States. Do you believe that we're a model minority because of your own privileged experience in addition to what mainstream media indoctrinates you with? Or do you believe that we're the model minority after recognizing these things?

Also, in terms of dividing “us and them”... I think it's a difficult question. It's a tactic that I think can be both constructive and deleterious depending on its purpose. To begin with, I personally separate cultural and political identities. For example, if we lived in an ideal world where racism not longer existed, I would still identify as “Chinese” but not necessarily a “person of color.” “Model minority” is also a political identity. There is not a “model minority” culture in the same way that there is a Chinese culture or Cambodian culture.

The idea of “model minority” has been used to discredit the existence of racial barriers for folks of color in the states. So when I say “playing into” I mean that some folks haven't actually questioned what exactly the “model minority” means and whether or not that's actually true. I would assert that it's a lie that even we have fallen prey to. And ultimately it's to our community's own detriment.

And so once you think about the idea of “person of color” as a political identity, I think the confusion of how bi/multi-racial folks fit in is less confusing. You can still identify as culturally white and say, Latino, while at the same time identifying politically as a person of color. This holds true for uniracial folks as well. You could identify as “black” without identifying as a “person of color” in a political sense.

And finally, as opposed to inquiring about where folks are from when they have an accent. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. Like you said, many of us are proud of our backgrounds and I agree, it's personally important to me that my friends understand my own cultural background in terms of understanding me as a person. However, what my blog was alluding to was the implication that is often part of the question “where are you really from?” which is different than “where have you lived, where are you from, and where are your ancestors from?” “Really” implies that when I say CT, I am not actually from there and that no matter what citizenship I carry, I will always be “other.” Additionally, I would probably guess that all folks, not just folks with accents or who are non-white, have things to share about their family and their heritage, etc. Ultimately, unless someone in the States is Native American or Mexican, we should all warrant the follow up, “but where are you REALLY from.” But I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen to most white folks.

Anyway, I'm not sure I addressed all the points in your comment... but I guess that's a start. Thanks for the comment, it's pushed me to really clarify my own thoughts more. What do you think?

Reply
quinn
11/4/2009 12:22:46 am

was also thinking, not exactly responding but your other post on relationship argument re: identity made me think....

i think white people sometimes don't like to choose an identity (and avoid it or never even think about it and don't easily understand the naturalness and Need of some people to choose an identity and unify within that) because they've never had to before. it's just foreign. like they (me, we) identify as smaller things...athlete, etc. instead of larger things. i HATE filling in the white bubble on census reports..i'd rather leave it blank or refuse to reveal. maybe i'm weird, though...

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