From: clare@nynexst.com (Clare Chu)
Subject: Re: Asking someone his "nationality" (Today's "Dear Abby")
Organization: Nynex Science and Technology
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 13:07:13 GMT

In article <24877@dog.ee.lbl.gov> yjhbhc@dante.lbl.gov (Joe Huang) writes:
>Clare Chu writes:
>
>> That reminds me of some job advice I got from some older Asian
>> Americans.  First of all, if you have an English first name
>> and a Chinese middle name, don't put your Chinese middle name
>> in.
>
>> The reason is that if you put your full name, they might think you're
>> not "American" and throw out your resume without looking.
>
>> Secondly, if you don't have an English name.  Get one.  Adopt one
>> and use it on your resume.
>
>> George Shen or Bill Chen is perferable over Chen-Chung Shen or Wen-Toh Chen

  Hey before everyone gets carried away.  Remember this
  advice is from OLDER IMMIGRANT ENGINEERS WHO WORK AT
  DEFENSE CONTRACTOR IN UNCLASSIFIED POSITIONS.  Take it
  for what it's worth.  Most of these guys are retired, and
  never got to be managers.  They are hopeful that we members
  of the newer generation will not face the discrimination
  that they faced.  But remember, they worked during the
  height of the COLD WAR, and anyone who was born in
  certain countries on the BAD LIST, could not get a
  top secret (???) clearance.  Remember they came to this
  country at the height of McCarthyism.  Does anyone
  out there remember it?  I don't, I wasn't born yet.

  Part of the reason given for not being managers is not
  being cleared.  (Of course that was the reason given).
  And the biggest threat was to be send to the deep freeze
  room (if you're an alien), where you are isolated from
  anyone, no books or papers to take in and out of your
  desk, you briefcase checked, even watched when you go
  in and out of the bathroom.  They hired you if you're an
  alien and had scientific knowledge that they needed,
  but they kept a watch on you.  You are escorted by
  a guard as you walk into work (shouting "unclear,
  unclear, unclear") and also on your way out.

  Yet the irony is that the biggest spies were all the red-blooded
  Americans who got cleared easily.  Ha!  Johnny Walker, Chris Boyce,
  William Bell....

  ??? - stands for acronym for a class of clearances.
>
>I hate to get too negative, but this advice sounds pretty 
>pathetic to me. The overall message is that we should 
>camouflage our Asian identities to avoid possible rejection 
>by racists.  Among African-Americans, this tactic used to 
>be called "passing", i.e., making yourself appear white in 
>order to get ahead.  But I wonder, why stop at the first name, 
>why not also change your last name, or better yet, bleach your 
>hair and get some plastic surgery? After all, an interviewer 
>who doesn't like Asians can still tell your ethnic background 
>the minute you walk in for an interview.
>
>The flip side of this message is that Asians who don't try to
>camouflage can only blame themselves for being discriminated
>against. Pity the poor Asian immigrant who _does_ have a 
>different name, _does_ speak with a heavy accent, and _is_ not 
>familiar with American culture. So what if they're hard working 
>or competent, they don't know the American office culture, so 
>they deserve to get shafted, right ?
>
>Maybe it's because I still remember how it felt getting off 
>the boat in San Francisco, but I think the way to combat 
>racism is to promote greater tolerance and appreciation of 
>differences, rather than trying to make ourselves look and 
>act as American, i.e., white, as we can.
>
>> Finally, if you marry a non-Asian change your name and use theirs.
>  (I didn't follow their advice here).  My mom's cousin says that having
>> an American last name is a great advantage (she traded in Lui for
>> Jasinski,  I guess she didn't know about the Pollack jokes :0 )
>> Her sister traded in Lui for Ott.  Notice that none of these names
>> are ye olde English.  But my aunts thought they were more American than Lui.
>
>Another rationale for marrying a white man - it makes for a
>better resume!  What advice would you give for Asian men? 
>Should we also adopt our wife's names if they happen to be of 
>European descent? Boy, if this works out, in two generations
>there would be no trace of Asians left, except for those 
>immigrants and some pesky facial features that refuse to go away.

  This is advice from older immigrants who came here in the 1950s.
  Height of McCarthyism, Red China scare.  So if these women
  married men with European names, they didn't face the "hmmm I
  wonder if you're a Communist because you're Chinese" hysteria.
>
>More seriously, this "passing" phenonomenon may help to explain 
>the disparity in Asian male/female outmarriage. Since the 
>American culture is a male-dominant one where the woman 
>adopts the man's attributes more than vice-versa, a white woman 
>marrying an Asian would be burdened with various social
>disadvantages, whereas an Asian woman marrying a white would 
>be escaping hers.
>
>> Ver important: put in bold text at the top of your resume.  U.S. Citizen
>> if you're so lucky to be one.  They said that this will help
>> separate your resume from all the Yen-Ping Wang and Shao-Ching Chu
>> that are applying for the job.  
>
>Unless I've been living in the wrong country, I would have
>thought there were more Georges or Bills than Yen-pings and 
>Shao-chings. Let's be blunt about this tactic, the aim is not 
>to distinguish yourself from the crowd, but to avoid being 
>associated with foreign Asians. 
>
>> And also put your birthplace in
>> a prominant position so that they won't think you're naturalized.
>

  If you don't know what ??? means during the Cold War,
  then you can forget about being "cleared" if you were born
  in a "designated country".  

  China IS and STILL IS a "designated country", along with
  such pariahs as South Yemen...

  ??? - stands for acronym for a class of clearances.

>Gad, is this Asian American nativism or what ? Is being 
>naturalized something to be ashamed of?  Since America is
>a nation of immigrants, why make such a big fuss about birth 
>rights ? Besides, waving an American birth certificate isn't
>going to cut much mustard with people with a racial bent.
>Nobody cares that Ted Koppel, Henry Kissinger, etc. are
>naturalized citizens since they're white, but you can still 
>hear jokes about "our Japanese" Kristi Yamaguchi beating 
>out the "real Japanese" Midori Ito on Saturday Night Live.

  Just remember the older immigrants had more to deal with than you
  do today, and the ones even further back had it even worse.
  Sometimes it is instructive to talk to those who came before.
>
>Joe Huang


Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american