From: jpak@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jim Pak)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Degrees of racism (was Re: Caucasians don't understand)
Date: 18 Aug 92 22:55:05 GMT
Reply-To: jpak@manute.sps.mot.com (Kinder and Gentler Jim)
Distribution: na
Organization: Motorola Inc.  Austin, Tx.

In article <1992Aug18.150104.1415@island.COM> fester@island.COM (Mike Fester) writes:
>What bothers me most about these sort of posts/rebuttals, is the tacit or 
>explicit assumption that "discrimination I suffer is worse than that you 
>suffer and here's why".

This is the only part of Mike's post I'd like to comment on.  I think people
make the "mine is worse than yours" arguments in order to point out that the
degree of racism you encountered matters.  Racism is not a binary variable.
Everybody experiences some, but the degree to which you experience it matters
plenty.  And I think that can make a BIG difference as to whether or not you
view things optimistically or pessimistically.  (Actually, optimism is not
a binary variable either.  So the degree of optimism in your outlook can
correlate to the degree of racism you've experienced.)

>I do not recall belittling Asian complaints about discrimination.

I've re-read your post, and I agree.

>I do recall mentioning that some of us HAVE been on the receiving end of
>such discrimination. And that some of us remain optimistic anyway.

Sure, but then I don't see why it shouldn't be "fair game" to analyze the
*degree* of racism you've encountered, not just that you've encountered it.

If I walk into a group of ex-football players, and *some* of them are groaning
about the injury they've encountered on the gridiron, and how they're not too
optimistic about the chances of sports in America becoming less injury-prone,
how do you think they'd react if I mentioned to the group, "When I played
tennis, I suffered injury too, and I'm still optimistic about sports in
America being less injury-prone."  Well, of course they'd be cynical!  They'd
want to know exactly what my injury was, whether or not I had "suffered" as
much as they.

Well, does that mean I couldn't have suffered injury playing tennis?  No, of
course not.  In fact, I have.  I would not be lying if I said, "I too have
suffered injury from my sport, just like you football players.  And I'm still
optimistic."  But that's a misleading statement, even if it's technically
correct.

When you mentioned your experiences in Japan, I think it touched the "cynical"
button in some of the posters (like Andy and Dwight) who have encountered
life in Japan and know that the experiences of a white person there is in
general not as "bad" as that of an Asian American here.  Think of them as
the ex-football players who find it hard to believe anybody playing tennis
could have been injured as badly as they.  (Well, since Dwight never reveals
his ethnicity, think of him as a neutral observer who knows the difference
between football and tennis and is therefore just cynical.)

Now, could you have experienced worse in your *individual experience* than
an AA living here?  Sure, much like a tennis player who got blasted in the
eye with an overhead or broke his leg could have suffered worse injury than
a football player who never hurt himself very badly.  But on average,
*knowing the nature of both sports*, most people would come to the conclusion
that football players in general get it worse than tennis players.  And hence,
the reason for the greater cynicism on the part of the football players.

If the tennis player really did get hurt worse than the typical football
player, it's up to him to explain what *specifically* happened to him so
that the others can have a greater sense of empathy (there's that word again)
for him.  If he doesn't go into the specifics of his injury, few of the
football players will believe he "suffered" anything close to what they did.

I'll take the race factor out of it completely.  Haven't you read several
posts from AAs here who have grown up in areas where open, anti-AA racism
wasn't nearly as prevalent?  And gee, no wonder they're more optimistic about
their outlook on racism.  No wonder some of them say they can't quite under-
stand the feelings of some of the AAs who grew up elsewhere.  I'm sure even
they experienced racism growing up, at least once in a while.  But the degree
to which they experienced probably was different.  And that matters.

No, it's not a perfect correlation.  Yes, there are people who have grown
up encountering lots of racism and still manage to be relentlessly positive
about things (just like there are football players who have broken nearly
every bone in their body and still think of their sport as nothing but
wonderful).  But there is *SOME* measure of correlation there.  Nobody can
dissuade me of that belief.

There are many things I've learned from this newsgroup, but one thing that
sticks out in my mind is the often much more "positive" outlook on things by
AAs who have grown up in areas where Asians were not looked upon as "strange."
Again, it's not a perfect correlation, but it's something I can't help but
notice.  And it's something I'll definitely consider if I ever have kids
someday and I want to know where to raise them.

Jim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american