Didn't think it would happen in SF

I'm reposting a blog entry I wrote back in August 2006 (posted on my previous blog site) because of a recent incident (in SAN FRANCISCO, no less) where some drunk racist ignorant idiots were yelling something really stupid at my friend and me, pretty obviously because we are Asian.

Being Asian American (posted August 17, 2006)

A friend (Asian American female) recently returned from a trip through Prague and Budapest and recounted her surprise at encountering some ugly racism, directed unabashedly and unashamedly at her and her travelling buddy, a South Asian female. She was actually called a chink to her face - the incident was so surprising that instead of getting angry, she felt like it was more of a shocking social observation of the Czechs (where she experienced the brunt of the racist remarks/acts). We wondered - what makes people think it's ok to do that? I know that minorities of different racial/ethnic backgrounds battle different stereotypes and prejudices, but sometimes I think that the racism that Asians face (not just in the US, but worldwide) is the most insidious, because it is such that people/nations feel like they can bully us around and we will just take it - no one is afraid of us (and while I know it's not PC, I think that some minorities are feared - i.e. it's much less likely that a non-black would call a black person a racial epithet than it is that a non-Asian person would call an Asian person a racial epithet because people are afraid of black people - whether on an individual level because of some stereotype about that person's strength or violent tendencies or membership in a gang, etc. or on a group level because black people have historically come together to fight for their civil rights and their right not to be treated as inferior). While I'm not endorsing the notion that it's ok to be afraid of someone because of their ethnic/racial background, I think causing fear in someone at least gives you some sort of power over them (warped as it is), whereas if they don't fear you AND they discriminate against you, you are just powerless. The majority praises our powerlessness by calling us the "model minority." Because we work hard. We get good grades and don't end up in juvenile detention or prison. We aspire to be doctors and lawyers, but don't really challenge the power structure by aspiring to be politicians or activists. We don't have a Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle that pokes fun at white people and actually gets them to laugh at themselves. We don't make a big hullabaloo about discrimination at work or school - we sometimes actually believe that if we are just diligent enough and work hard enough, people will see past the color of our skin and reward us in correlation to our merit.

And then. Someone calls you a Chink. They yell "sayonara" or "nihau" when you walk down the street. They make a kowtowing gesture toward you as you walk by. And while they may know that calling someone a Chink is wrong, they actually think it's ok to yell greetings in whatever Asian language they can think of at you, no matter what Asian ethnicity you actually are. Funny, because it doesn't work the other way around. I don't yell "guten tag" to a white person or hello in Swahili to a black person on the street.

I know that sometimes people really are just trying to relate to you somehow and have no malicious intentions. Like when I was travelling to Montgomery and was waiting for my connecting flight in Atlanta. In my limited experience, southerners tend to strike up conversation with anyone, anytime, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. They're friendly. So this white man who was waiting for the same flight started chatting with me, asking me what took me to Montgomery, etc. Then he started relaying a story about how when he started his very first job, twenty years ago, he went to training and there was this Vietnamese man. I waited for an explanation, or a punchline. But that was it - once, twenty years ago, he met a Vietnamese man. Uh huh. I realized he was just trying to connect with me somehow and it seemed pointless to be offended when someone is just trying to be nice. But honestly - wouldn't it be absurd if it were the other way around and I had said to him - "I used to live in Virginia and I had this neighbor, and he was white. Are we relating to each other?"

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"Racism isn't born folks, it's taught. I have a two-year old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list." - Denis Leary