From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: American History
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 02:21:43 GMT

In article <921223.162045.amiller@almaden.ibm.com> amiller@almaden.ibm.com
(Alex Miller) writes:
>In <1992Dec23.224728.13487@leland.Stanford.EDU>
>underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
>>By the way, "late 1960's" is 24+ years ago.  Things have changed a bit
>>since then, haven't they?
>I think people are too busy just trying to make ends meet.
>They don't worry much about racism until it hits them in the head.
>I was more optimistic back then.

Actually, I disagree; there is more reason to be optimistic now.  Sure.
Life is isn't perfect, it isn't fair.  However, these is less discrimination
today than there used to be 24 years ago.

I consider the fact that the executive and legislative branches of gov't
apologized for the violation of the civil rights of Japanese-Americans
to be progress.  Sure.  It was late, but the apology was offered.

>I used to think I had my act together, but I carry around
>prejudice and ignorance, just like my friends and family.

We all have prejudice; I don't know of anyone who doesn't have prejudice.

>...
>When I traveled and worked in Europe I had a very hard time
>adjusting to the idea of Black-French, Chinese-Dutch,
>Japanese-Peruvians, etc...  I couldn't understand that a Black
>person could not be either American or African.

That get's back to the basic idea which I indicated several months
ago.  Namely, a Black-ge can be French-cu and French-ci; in other words,
French-ge != French-cu.

I presume that Mr. Miller has overcome that bit of prejudice.  I applaud
him for his ability to recognize that the belief in "French-ge = French-cu"
is racist and for his ability to overcome that bit of prejudice.

Mr. Miller has done far better than many bozos who refuse to recognize
that assuming "-ge = -cu" is racist and bigotted.  In fact, these bozos
insist that a Martian-ge will always have a bit of Martian-cu in her
simply because she is Martian-ge.

(I don't need to name any names; we all know who the bozos are.)

>...
>Last time I checked, Clinton hadn't appointed any Asian Americans
>to a major post in his cabinet.  I know that Leon Panetta, for
>example, isn't the "business as usual type."  Time will tell.
>...

Nothing is likely to happen until the Japanese-American groups do what
I proposed.  Namely, they should _ask_ President-elect Clinton to consider
the nomination of a Japanese-American as National Science Advisor.  This
is an _extremely_ reasonable request, given the tremendous overrepresentation
of Oriental-Americans in the sciences and engineering.

I am confident that there are a number of Japanese-Americans who are
well qualified for such a position.

I originally proposed this idea about 3 years ago.  Back then, it fell
on deaf ears; this time, it has probably also fallen on deaf ears.
If Japanese-Americans don't tell President-elect Clinton their desires and
hopes, how can he possibly guess them?  He cannot act to fulfill them if
he doesn't even know what they are.

Note that numerous groups have been demanding that Clinton appoint so-and-so
of so-and-so gender and ethnicity for so-and-so position.  Amid all this
noise, how can he possibly help Japanese-Americans if we don't speak up?

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Jinsei no imi wa nan desu ka.                Sister, can you      |   \|  |`
Shitte itara oshiete kuremasen ka.           spare a coin?        |    | -+-
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Copyright 1992.  Disclaimer:  1 + 1 = 3                           |
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american,ca.politics,soc.motss