From: lulu@ucrengr.ucr.edu (david lu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Caucasians don't understand
Date: 16 Aug 92 02:59:05 GMT
Organization: University of California, Riverside

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.

I'm Asian, and I have an optimistic view on racism.  But then
again, I live in California.  Things could very well be different
in other parts of the US.  Still, I believe that while racism
exists, its becoming a thing of the past, fast.  I'd say give
racism another 50 years, tops.  I know.  Most of us will probably
be too old to enjoy it by then, but we're just born too early.
Blame your parents.  :)

>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". 

This I believe.  If you think racism is bad in the US, you
haven't seen anything yet.  Whites are discriminated much more
severely (and openly) in many parts of Asia.  Maybe this is
because there aren't that many whites in that part of the world,
so the native Asians tend to look upon them with fear and dis-
trust.  I just came back from a visit in Taiwan, and while I
loves everything else about the country, it pains me to see that
whites are sometimes made fun of and ridiculed in public and in
the media.  I was on a bus in Taichung, and this white man,
blonde hair and all, got on the bus.  He wasn't on the bus for
three minutes before the third of the bus around him, including
the bus driver, starts to talk about the westerner in native
Taiwanese.  The westerner kept silent throughout all the talks,
so everyone just assume that he can't understand Taiwanese.
Well, later the westerner asked the bus driver, in perfect
Taiwanese, what the next stop was.  The driver, somewhat taken
off guard, told him.  The white man then got off on the next stop.

Good for him, I thought.  I've been on the receiving end of that
kind of treatment before, and I root for him.

I guess all of this is not really that relevant in this group.
The point is that we should all keep an open mind about racism.
Sure, we should always speak out against blatant violations on
an individual's rights due to racism, but don't try to pick on
something that doesn't exist.  The US probably has *the* best
racial integration society in the world.  Be thankful of that.

				- David

-- 
---==lulu@ucrengr==---  just another bewildered college undergraduate.
David T Lu, Amateur Thinker: lulu@ucrengr.ucr.edu, {ucsd, uci}!ucrengr!lulu
"I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle."
					- Arthur Dent, Hitchhiker's