From: mds4101@sigma.tamu.edu (SZETO, MARVIN DEAN)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Will America fall?
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:41:00 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.asian.american
Distribution: na
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Apr8.005256.4868@leland.Stanford.EDU>, underdog@leland.
Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes...

>The FBI report from the New York Times noted that the Chinese gangs
>were on the upswing as the most dangerous Asian gangs in this country.
 			^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>They have started to move from preying on other Chinese to non-Chinese
>Americans.
Looking at this quote, it says "most dangerous Asian", not "only Asian".  I
would infer from this that other Asian gangs exist in this country.  However,
Mr. Joe later says that there are no Japanese or Korean gangs.  What is then 
left over?

I would think that Vietnamese gangs would be the most dangerous Asian gangs in
the U.S.  I personally know several people who were killed by Vietnamese during
a robbery.  I don't have a bias against Vietnamese because there is a large 
number of them here at A&M and I like most of the ones I know.  My fraternity
big brother is also Vietnamese.

I believe that the FBI has confused Vietnamese gangs with Chinese gangs. Why do 
I think that the Vietnamese gangs are so bad?  Because they are the most recent 
immigrants to the U.S. and have been most affected by the moral decay in 
American inner cities.

I think that the majority of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigants came over
before the 1980's.  The morality of the U.S. was better then; they worked hard;
sent their kids to college, and are slowly assimilating into mainstream middle
class America.  I feel that the 1980's saw large increases in poverty and 
crime in U.S. inner cities for all races.  As recent immigrants, young 
vietnamese had no money and were exposed to the gang concept from their 
association with poor blacks, hispanics, and whites in their neighboroods.  To
these new immigrants, gang activity was how they perceived the U.S. to be and 
that is how they are attempting to assimilate.

They increase in gang activity for all races is tied in with the increases in
crime, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy.  It is a shame for a country with
the wealth of the U.S. to have such a problem.  I'm not going to try to solve
this problem in this post because it is a complicated problem that no one has
been able to solve yet and I haven't researched it.

>Chinese gangs in the USA should be compared against other Asian
>gangs in the USA.  The FBI report made no mention of either Korean
>or Japanese gangs in the USA.  Why?  Could this have something
>to do with the virulent Chinese culture?
No, the increase in gang activity is a socio-economic problem in the U.S. and
has nothing to do with Chinese culture.  Please see my explanation above.

>As I've said before, the model minority concept might apply to
>the Japanese-Americans and Korean-Americans, but it certainly doesn't
>apply to Chinese-Americans.  A visit to Chinatown should convince
>you.  (I've been told by a couple of Chinese to stay away from
>Chinatown, a very unsafe place--"thanks" to Chinese culture.)
Every Chinatown I have seen is poor.  Why?  Because once anyone in Chinatown has
made enough money to move out, they move to better areas of town.  In the south,
most Chinese I know operate small grocery stores in poor black sections of
town.  Most used to live in or next to the store.  I have noticed a trend to
buy a house in a more upscale section of town and commute to the store.

Mr. Joe has said nothing about the other gangs in the U.S. (black, hispanic,
white, etc.)  I'm sure that the number of gangs for these other groups is
larger than the number of Asian gangs.  What % of Chinese does he believe are
in gangs?  I am Chinese, does he believe that I am in a gang?  If he does, then
I warn him to back off or I'll call my buddy Don Corllione from the Mafia to 
call his pal Mr. Ito from the yakuza to arrange a little "present" for Mr. Joe's
bed.  (If you don't get this joke, ask someone who has seen "The Godfather")

"Don" Marvin Szeto
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american