From: jpak@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jim Pak)
Subject: Re: What's it like outside California?
Summary: Just fine, thanks
Reply-To: jpak@manute.sps.mot.com
Organization: Motorola Inc.  Austin, Tx.
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 20:02:12 GMT

In article <76084@apple.apple.COM> lin@Apple.COM (Judy Lin) writes:
>Since moving to America as a child, I've always lived in the San Francisco
>Bay Area. Except for short vacations, I really haven't been out of California.
>I am curious about the Asian American experience in other parts of the
>country.
>
>In California (at least in my experience),
>one encounters very little overt prejudice or discrimination. 

I think you may be generalizing a little bit even in that last statement.
I've lived in several places within California, although not necessarily for
long periods of time.  The rest of California is not necessarily the same,
Asian-population-wise or attitudes-toward-Asians-wise, as the SFBA or LA.
Remember, there's a whole large stretch of land between SF and LA, and also
to the north of SF, where you're not going to find too many Asians.  :-)

>People in general are very culturally and politically aware, and it's
>easy to make friends and interacting socially with people of all ethinicity
>(admittedly, my experience has been with college-educated professionals).

I don't think this should be a problem for you anywhere, as long as you're
open-minded and have a good attitude toward meeting people in general.  I've
had no problems meeting such people here in Austin.

>There are also many businesses that cater to Asian Americans needs, ie.,
>restaurants, book stores, groceries, theaters, etc.

This may be a trickier problem.  You can probably find "Oriental" restaurants
and one or two pretty good Oriental grocery stores in any town with a decent
but not high number of Asians.  However, if you have rather demanding taste
buds or grocery needs, you may not necessarily be happy with them.

If you're thinking about moving to a town with practically no Asians, then I
doubt you'll find anything more than a few Chinese restaurants, and probably
no Oriental grocery stores.  (On the other hand, I had a harder time finding
a Korean grocery store in the Berkeley/Oakland area than I have here in
Austin.)

As for bookstores and theater that have an Asian American focus to them, you
may be out of luck.  Again, though, it depends on how much of a priority
stuff like that is to you.

>Are other areas in the country as amenable to Asian Americans?

Maybe not *as* amenable, but IMO there are plenty of places that are just
fine for an Asian American to live in, as long as you don't expect it to
have all the ethnic cultural richness that the SFBA has.  If you can downsize
your expectations a little, or else if you can live a reasonably "mainstream"
life and be happy, I would suggest going for it and moving.

You know, the Bay Area has its own problems too, including too much traffic,
overcrowded (at least to me) conditions, ridiculously high housing prices,
relatively high crime rates, earthquakes, etc etc.

>How about attitudes toward inter-racial couples and mix-blood children?

This I'm obviously not sure about, but I don't think it's much of an issue
here (meaning Austin).  I'm speaking of interracial relationships involving
Asians, not black/white relationships.  Actually, I really don't think it's
a big issue period, except in scaa.  :-)  I know of quite a few interracial
couples here with one Asian partner; nobody I know seems to make a big deal
about it.  AF/WM in particular seems like no big whoop; it's rather common
all over America.

>What has your experience been like?

I moved to Austin from the BA thinking I'd just hate it, and for about the
first six months, I was right.  But it was really my own attitude and expec-
tations (and preconceptions regarding Southerners) that was the main reason.
I've grown to like Austin.  Although at times I have considered moving back
to CA, I'm not planning on doing so now, or anytime in the near future.
Again, it's a matter of what's *really* important to you and your family,
what's sort of important, and what's not that important.  I've lived most
of my life in areas without a lot of Asians, so it was a pretty easy adjust-
ment for me once I changed my own attitude.  Since you've lived in the SFBA
your entire time in this country, it may be different for you.  But maybe not.

I've noticed a few posts from AAs who have said that their old hometowns
(which didn't have a lot of Asians) have gotten better with time, or at least
it seems that way.  I think they have a point there.  I grew up in several
low-AA-concentration areas and had some problems with it, went to college in
a high-AA-concentration area, and have now moved back to a low-AA-(relatively
speaking)-concentration area.  I expected it to be bigoted and narrow-minded,
and have been pleasantly surprised.  I think the rest of America deserves a
lot of credit for updating a lot of their formerly ignorant or intolerant
attitudes towards Asian Americans in the past 15-20 years.  My experience in
Austin has made me rather optimistic of living anywhere in the States now.

No, I'm not saying there are no bigoted areas in this country, or that we all
still don't have a ways to go.

One more thing.  Since the BA is rather liberal in its attitudes across the
board, if you move to a more "old-fashioned", conservative area, you **MAY**
encounter more problems as a *woman* than you would as an Asian American.
Overt sexism may be more prevalent and annoying to you than overt racism.

Hold on, another thing.  I'm not a kid anymore, so I don't know if things
seem better the second time around (meaning living in a low-Asian-population
area) because adults are not as *overtly* racist as kids are, or because
America really has improved in the past 15-20 years.  My guess is both, but
I don't know.  I hope things still aren't bad for Asian kids, but I don't know.

>If one were to contemplate relocation, where would one choose, and where
>to avoid?

I personally would no longer be averse to moving anywhere in this country
primarily because of race.  If I were to avoid a certain place, it would
probably be because of non-racial factors instead.  Of course, I may yet
change my mind.  :-)

Hmm, maybe I wouldn't want to move to the *deep* South.  :-) :-)

>Thanks in advance for your reply!

No prob.

Jim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american