From: ajh@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Alan Hu)
Subject: Re: Perceptions, Realities, Perceptions
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 07:04:44 GMT

In article <78804@ut-emx.uucp> joe@astro.as.utexas.edu (Joe Wang) writes:
>In article <1992Aug28.084311.25693@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> ajh@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Alan Hu) writes:
>>I've met a lot of Asian Americans who *believe* they can pass as totally
>>Asian, as you can
>
	[Joe's anecote about passing as Chinese deleted for brevity.]
>
>This sort of thing happens quite often.
>

I was very careful in my wording not to impugn Joe's ability to pass as
Chinese, which I don't doubt.  Rather, the point was how unusual Joe's
experience is, much more unusual than most people believe because so
many Asian Americans have swallowed the myth that their genes somehow
magically give them cultural, linguistic, and political rights and knowledge
in some Asian country (and therefore, that they can't possibly be fully
American).

No one has bothered to respond to my post on this voluminous thread,
other than the out-of-context quote above.  I suppose this is because
I'm apparently moving at a tangent to the arguments.  The core, however,
I think is something like this:
	I interpret Joe's position as approximately:
		I'm Asian American, since I'm an American of
		Asian ancestry.  Therefore, I'm representative to
		some degree of what is possible or perhaps even
		common for Asian Americans.  However, all the
		self-styled Asian-American activists reject me, since
		I firmly and uncompromisingly insist that I'm *Chinese*,
		so I conclude that Asian-American activism is garbage.
	I interpret the Asian-American activist position as approx:
		The American power structure has systematically
		marginalized Asian Americans throughout history.  One of
		the most successful strategies has been the promulgation
		of the myth that *real* Americans are white, whereas
		Asian Americans have some sort of connection to Asia,
		so they're always foreigners, not to be trusted as real
		Americans.  Hence, we have situations like the internment
		of Japanese Americans during WWII (and racist naturalization
		laws, etc.).  As long as Asian Americans believe this myth
		and promote it by insisting on their foreignness, they are
		perpetuating the institutions that have held Asian Americans
		out of power.
I hope this is a reasonably accurate portrayal (and I'm sure people will
correct me if it's not! :-)).  Laid out, it's clear that both positions
are fundamentally sound.  Joe has a right to believe what he wishes, and
accurately portrays the world he knows.  On the other hand, his attitudes
do appear to play into the widely held stereotypes of Asian Americans as
foreigners who should go "back" to Asia, hence explaining why so many people
in this group so vehemently disagree with him.  The resolution comes from
realizing how unusual Joe apparently is.  Understanding this, Joe can pursue
his own agenda without attempting to universalize it, and the activists can
accept Joe for who he is without feeling the need to do damage control
whenever Joe talks about his unique, personal life experiences.

And with that truce, maybe we can move on to more important threads, like
what kind of hair gel white (and not all Caucasian) guys must be using to
make themselves so irresistable to Chinese-cu Oriental Girls (tm)...
						--Alan Hu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american