From: ajh@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Alan Hu)
Subject: Re: Perceptions, Realities, Perceptions
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Distribution: soc
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 07:27:20 GMT

In article <78805@ut-emx.uucp> joe@astro.as.utexas.edu (Joe Wang) writes:
>In article <1992Aug31.130508.3353@nynexst.com> clare@nynexst.com (Clare Chu) writes:
>>  They've got to accept us for who and what we are. 
>
>My problem is that it seems more difficult for AA activists to accept
>"who I am" than it is for most white people I have met.  

Sure.  Your world view and self-image, on this issue, is completely non-
challenging to mainstream America.  Mainstream America, when it sees a
non-white/non-black face, expects you to say "I'm Chinese" or "I'm Iraqi"
or whatever (witness the Dear Abby thread a while back).  You are happily
satisfying this stereotyped need by insisting your Chineseness while
down-playing any notion of Asian America.

Unfortunately, most "AA activists" implicate this particular stereotype
as being a powerful one excluding Asian Americans from any real power
or security in the US.  Thus, to the really militant AA activist, your
saying "I'm Chinese.  I'm Chinese even though I was born in America."
is as horrifying (and as dangerous) as an Asian American woman saying,
"I really prefer white men, especially when they beat me."  In both
cases, an Asian American appears to be confirming the racist stereotype
that mainstream America holds so dear.

>
	[Clare's challenge about Joe's relatives, and Joe's vision
	 of a race-blind USA deleted.]
	[Clare's self-pride challenge and Joe's annoyance deleted.]
>
>I'm Chinese, and I'm completely unwilling to compromise on this fact.
>If "the powers-that-be" asked me to give up the slightest bit of my
>"Chineseness" in return for being a "American," I'd tell them to get
>lost, because that's completely unacceptable to me.

If the US government insisted on an oath of loyalty for continued US
citizenship from all Oriental US citizens (and not from white people)
(and given the climate of this country, I wouldn't be surprised if
we'll confront this tragedy some day soon), and if this oath required
you to forswear any allegience to any other country, including an
insistence like "I'm Chinese", would you give up your citizenship
(on the grounds of not renouncing your identity as Chinese, rather than
out of moral outrage at situation)?

>
>The fact, however, is that I've never been in a recent situation in
>which the establishment has asked me to stop being Chinese, and no
>white person has recently challenged my identity.  (Again, this may be
>because I stay in academic circles a lot, and people are more
>broad-minded there.)
>
>But I've been accused several times by AA activist of not respecting
>myself and of not being proud of who I am.  As a result, I have found
>myself defending my identity against AA activists more often than
>defending against "the establishment."
>
>Strange isn't it????????

Not if you think about it.  See above.

>
>>  I ask this of not just Joe Wang, but a lot of other Asian Americans 
>>  who think that they can give up who they are and become someone they're not.
>
>Wo shi mei-guo chu sheng de zhong guo ren.
>Ni ne?
[Translation:  "I am an American-born Chinese.  And you?"]
>

Me?  I'm an American of Chinese ancestry.  Therein lies the difference.

						--Alan Hu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american