From: yjhbhc@dante.lbl.gov (Joe Huang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Caucasians don't understand
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:41:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: dog.25494
Reply-To: yjhbhc@dante.lbl.gov (Joe Huang)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.106

In article <1992Aug14.155011.2853@island.COM> fester@island.COM (Mike Fester) writes:
>In article <1992Aug12.183617.21725@inmet.camb.inmet.com> lrq@fanny (Robert Quan) writes:
>>
>>Why is it that a majority of the non-orientals (caucasians) that post here
>>all tend to have an optimistic view on racism.  
>>How can anyone who doesn't know what it feels like to be harassed based on
>>there race/culture understand.
>>It seems to me that anyone lacking first hand experience at being the
>>receiving end of extreme racism and be able to offer advice hypocrites.
>
>There are, however, some of us who have lived in other countries, and have
>friends who have lived in other countries. Outside the US, and a few European
>nations (though not, by any means, all), discrimination on the basis of race,
>creed, color, sex, etc, is not only the norm, but legal. Some of us, Mr Quan,
>HAVE been on the receiving end, yet we still maintain "an optimistic view". 

I feel compelled to make a comment here. Being an expatriate American 
gives some, but definitely not all, of the experiences of a native-born
or an immigrant Asian American. (1) you go abroad as an adult armed
with the knowledge of your differences, (2) unless you threw away 
your passport and renounced your citizenship, you are buffeted
emotionally and, in a crunch, physically, from whatever unpleasant
incidents that may occur, (3) you do not "invest" heavily into that 
country (like citizenship, language, culture, attitudes) only to 
find yourself less equal because of race, and (4) reality being what 
it is, Americans abroad are treated better than foreigners are 
treated here.

Speaking of the healthy optimism of expatriate Americans, my 
experiences from living in Korea and Japan are that Americans whine
as much as anyone when the shoe is on the other foot. Despite the
advantages I mentioned above, a constant thread among my American 
acquaintances was how they were never quite accepted, how they were
stared at or singled out, and how the XXX were all racists deep down.  
When I mentioned to one friend that he was getting hypersensitive 
about trivial slights, his reaction was "well, you don't know what 
it's like, because you look just like one of them.." (sound familiar??).

Among my Peace Corps coworkers, I've seen the whole gamut from 
complete immersion to total freakout, and keep in mind that was 
a volunteer two-year assignment with the State Department behind 
our backs.  So, it's hard for me to swallow that Asians are 
"whiners" and whites are healthy optimists.  It's seems more 
accurate to say that white Americans have an optimistic view only
about their own racism, but not about that of others.  

As for the level of racism, it seems strange to congratulate 
the "U.S. and a few European nations" for being less discriminatory
in light of past history and the continuing racial tensions in 
these countries (I hope I don't need to go into gory details). 
From my travels, I frankly cannot say that there is more or less
racism in these "enlightened countries" compared to elsewhere.

Joe Huang
Xref: sparky soc.culture.asian.american:8132 alt.culture.us.asian-indian:512