Re-Orienting...
So I was mulling over the Racism 101 I've been through the past few months of this year, having helped coordinate the Racebending.com protest against The Last Airbender and also from attending the Leadership Academy since some of the work was focus on racial/ethnic disparities.
One of the exercises at the Conference was called "Step into the Circle." During this exercise we were all supposed to stand in a big circle, and the moderator would read statements. If we felt the statement applied to us, we would step into the circle.
Some of the statements were things like, "Step into the circle if you were pressured to act a certain way based on the expectations for your gender" or "Step into the circle of you were the first person in your family to go to college." "Step into the circle if you have ever had to go without food for a meal because you or your family did not have enough money."
Anyhow, one of the statements was "Step into the circle if you have ever wondered if someone was treating you differently/poorly, because of your race."
And the results were really, really freaky. Pretty much everyone who was a person of color stepped into the circle, as well as many of the white people. But not all of them.
And I mean, you know and I know that being white doesn't make you immune to being discriminated against based on race. I mean, most white people I know from Irvine and UCLA have wondered if they were treated differently in an Asian restaurant. Or imagine Ken meeting my family... So I was really confused as to why not everyone was in the circle. Like, were they just oblivious to it?
And then it occurred to me that they were not necessarily from a diverse place like Los Angeles, and that perhaps they were not even AROUND people who were not of the same race as them for race to ever be a factor in being treated differently. Maybe they had never wondered about being treated poorly for being a different race, because they had never been different!
"Woman, why you sleep with gaijin? Protect your onh-nah!"
Ken and I watched episode 17 of Wolverine and the X-men (yes, we watch silly cartoons sometimes) the other day. "Code of Conduct" (click here to watch an awful clip.) It was painful. Whoever wrote this episode of television should be shot roundly mocked.
The Plot: Once Upon a Time, Wolverine was in love with a Japanese woman named Mariko. This must really have been very much once upon a time/a long time ago because Mariko seems to wear Japanese clothing from out of the 18th century and has virtually no personal autonomy or sense of agency to speak of--except she's still alive in the 21st century so go figure. Unfortunately, a Samurai named Harada wants to protect HER HONOR so he challenges Wolverine to a SAMURAI DUEL for her hand in marriage! Whoever wins gets to marry her, because that's how it works in modern Japan, guys! Especially with the Yakuza that control the ninjas and the samurai. And marriage duels are "the samurai way of the yakuza."
I want to know why in cartoons, Asian men always talk like they are yelling.
There's literally a scene where they're like: "YOU ARE GAIJIN. BLAH BLAH BLAH ONH-NAH BLAH BLAH SHAME BLAH BUSHIDO HONOR!"
Ken and I commented that this inevitably happens in shows--where the white "foreigner" meets the Asian chick and then suddenly there's some MAJOR SCUFFLE-AGE for HER HONOR (pronounced "ONH-NAH!") with the native males. Like on this terrible episode of LOST. We were snickering through the entire episode of Wolverine because of how formulaic it was. Too bad there isn't a TV trope for this.
I was also mulling over these stupid online spats I got into in 2005, where I argued with people about how it was inappropriate to call Asian Americans "orientals" since it's like calling African Americans "negroes", etc. People then did not get it, and it really vexed me. They really put me on the spot and I had to try and explain and justify why it was inappropriate, and when I did, instead of relenting they would put me on the spot for feeling offended. I know there are people who don't know that it's inappropriate, but people who do and just keep on using it after being asked to stop really vex me.
Today I realized that instead of explaining how it was dehumanizing and eurocentric I could have simply said that it's a matter of respect. "I don't like when you call me an Oriental. Most Asian Americans don't. Yeah, you reserve the right to call people whatever you want, freedom of speech, political corrected-ness is stupid, etc. etc. Fine. I don't call you a honky or a cracker. I don't like being called what you are calling me and I am simply asking you to label me something else. Your unwillingness to do so merely demonstrates a flagrant lack of respect for the wishes of an entire ethnic community. You choose to retain the privilege to determine what Asian Americans should be labeled as. Why are you so willing to ignore their request to be labeled by their definition of choice? I mean, is it that huge of a concession? "
I wish I had just said something like that, instead of allowing myself to be put on the defensive. Too little, too late, I guess.
One of the exercises at the Conference was called "Step into the Circle." During this exercise we were all supposed to stand in a big circle, and the moderator would read statements. If we felt the statement applied to us, we would step into the circle.
Some of the statements were things like, "Step into the circle if you were pressured to act a certain way based on the expectations for your gender" or "Step into the circle of you were the first person in your family to go to college." "Step into the circle if you have ever had to go without food for a meal because you or your family did not have enough money."
Anyhow, one of the statements was "Step into the circle if you have ever wondered if someone was treating you differently/poorly, because of your race."
And the results were really, really freaky. Pretty much everyone who was a person of color stepped into the circle, as well as many of the white people. But not all of them.
And I mean, you know and I know that being white doesn't make you immune to being discriminated against based on race. I mean, most white people I know from Irvine and UCLA have wondered if they were treated differently in an Asian restaurant. Or imagine Ken meeting my family... So I was really confused as to why not everyone was in the circle. Like, were they just oblivious to it?
And then it occurred to me that they were not necessarily from a diverse place like Los Angeles, and that perhaps they were not even AROUND people who were not of the same race as them for race to ever be a factor in being treated differently. Maybe they had never wondered about being treated poorly for being a different race, because they had never been different!
"Woman, why you sleep with gaijin? Protect your onh-nah!"
Ken and I watched episode 17 of Wolverine and the X-men (yes, we watch silly cartoons sometimes) the other day. "Code of Conduct" (click here to watch an awful clip.) It was painful. Whoever wrote this episode of television should be shot roundly mocked.
The Plot: Once Upon a Time, Wolverine was in love with a Japanese woman named Mariko. This must really have been very much once upon a time/a long time ago because Mariko seems to wear Japanese clothing from out of the 18th century and has virtually no personal autonomy or sense of agency to speak of--except she's still alive in the 21st century so go figure. Unfortunately, a Samurai named Harada wants to protect HER HONOR so he challenges Wolverine to a SAMURAI DUEL for her hand in marriage! Whoever wins gets to marry her, because that's how it works in modern Japan, guys! Especially with the Yakuza that control the ninjas and the samurai. And marriage duels are "the samurai way of the yakuza."
I want to know why in cartoons, Asian men always talk like they are yelling.
There's literally a scene where they're like: "YOU ARE GAIJIN. BLAH BLAH BLAH ONH-NAH BLAH BLAH SHAME BLAH BUSHIDO HONOR!"
Ken and I commented that this inevitably happens in shows--where the white "foreigner" meets the Asian chick and then suddenly there's some MAJOR SCUFFLE-AGE for HER HONOR (pronounced "ONH-NAH!") with the native males. Like on this terrible episode of LOST. We were snickering through the entire episode of Wolverine because of how formulaic it was. Too bad there isn't a TV trope for this.
- Me: Man. Where's the epic battle for my honor?
Ken: Huh?
Me: You know! Mah OHN-NAH!
Ken: Oh. That.
Me: Yeah. You are GAIJIN!
Ken: What? You're not even Japanese!
Me: You better be careful, or my brother will fight you. To protect mah onh-nah!
Ken: Oh. I could probably take your brother in a fight.
Me: But could you take him in...dueling pianos?
Ken: ...probably not.
I was also mulling over these stupid online spats I got into in 2005, where I argued with people about how it was inappropriate to call Asian Americans "orientals" since it's like calling African Americans "negroes", etc. People then did not get it, and it really vexed me. They really put me on the spot and I had to try and explain and justify why it was inappropriate, and when I did, instead of relenting they would put me on the spot for feeling offended. I know there are people who don't know that it's inappropriate, but people who do and just keep on using it after being asked to stop really vex me.
Today I realized that instead of explaining how it was dehumanizing and eurocentric I could have simply said that it's a matter of respect. "I don't like when you call me an Oriental. Most Asian Americans don't. Yeah, you reserve the right to call people whatever you want, freedom of speech, political corrected-ness is stupid, etc. etc. Fine. I don't call you a honky or a cracker. I don't like being called what you are calling me and I am simply asking you to label me something else. Your unwillingness to do so merely demonstrates a flagrant lack of respect for the wishes of an entire ethnic community. You choose to retain the privilege to determine what Asian Americans should be labeled as. Why are you so willing to ignore their request to be labeled by their definition of choice? I mean, is it that huge of a concession? "
I wish I had just said something like that, instead of allowing myself to be put on the defensive. Too little, too late, I guess.