This is a great article and speaks a lot of truth. Even I, at times, have found myself falling into the trap of discussing Asians with a stereotypical lens in place. It's really easy to do because nobody calls you out on it, but that doesn't mean that it's okay at all.
It's always freaked me out how in the US Asian-Americans are considered meek and mild. I'm curious how that started and has continued since from my experience in some parts of the UK and Canada, not even your Albertan red-neck buys that b.s. However since my own country is full of fail I probably just have been lucky so far. This actually brings me back to back when I could tolerate Oprah and they were talking about race and they (the audience, guest-members and Oprah included) literally ignored the one Asian student they chose as guest. It was very disturbing.
It's probably because of the "model minority" bullshit, like the (wrong, so wrong) idea that we're well off. I've had people tell me to my face that Asian-Americans have "nothing to complain about" because we apparently have it so good compared to blacks and Hispanics. So there's this idea that because we've been relatively successful, we're immune somehow from "real" racism, so it's okay to use casual slurs around us. Although these people will still take offense at the word "cracker", so I don't even know what that's about.
On the mothership, someone posted an article about Jeremy Lin that talked about the "soft bigotry of low expectations." The (white) article writer talked about how Asian men have it so much worse than Asian women, because people have good stereotypes about Asian women (we're nice and smart) and even though positive stereotypes can be stifling, it's nothing like what Asian men go through!
(The writer also talked about how some Asian women might complain about being considered asexual, which tells me that he really didn't have a clue about Asian stereotypes at all.)
If America has the stomach, it should even watch the tape of the WNYW morning show in New York where one of the anchors, upon hearing a reporter list Lin's physical attributes, asked, 'What about his eyes?'
What the.... did this seriously happen??
I can buy that that one reporter who used "chink in the armor" on air was, as mentioned in the article, simply throwing out a cliche without thinking, as it's not an especially uncommon idiomatic expression. But someone actually mentioned his eyes? Fuck you.
gpoy i was like "shit, that eyes comment? i missed that" and then i realized how sad it was that i missed such an offensive comment BECAUSE OF HOW MANY THERE HAVE BEEN
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Half-Korean here!
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This actually brings me back to back when I could tolerate Oprah and they were talking about race and they (the audience, guest-members and Oprah included) literally ignored the one Asian student they chose as guest. It was very disturbing.
Reply
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Reply
On the mothership, someone posted an article about Jeremy Lin that talked about the "soft bigotry of low expectations." The (white) article writer talked about how Asian men have it so much worse than Asian women, because people have good stereotypes about Asian women (we're nice and smart) and even though positive stereotypes can be stifling, it's nothing like what Asian men go through!
(The writer also talked about how some Asian women might complain about being considered asexual, which tells me that he really didn't have a clue about Asian stereotypes at all.)
Reply
What the.... did this seriously happen??
I can buy that that one reporter who used "chink in the armor" on air was, as mentioned in the article, simply throwing out a cliche without thinking, as it's not an especially uncommon idiomatic expression. But someone actually mentioned his eyes? Fuck you.
Reply
i was like "shit, that eyes comment? i missed that"
and then i realized how sad it was that i missed such an offensive comment BECAUSE OF HOW MANY THERE HAVE BEEN
fuck this shit
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