I was thinking; don't faint
Reading http://kouji-mustang.livejournal.com/ 's journal entry, I was thinking about the whole 'community' thing; i.e., Latino community, LGBT Community, etc. Of course it ended up a discorse. Have fun, don't eat the cat.
It seems wherever you go there's a dominant group, a hated group, and a 'oh-i-forgot-they-existed'/other group. In my High-School in FL, the White US-born descendants (not the immigrant or first-gens, who were cool) hated the Latinos. The Haitians were left completely alone. There were no Black Americans I knew, and the only other Asian was a Filipina who spoke fluent Spanish, hence becoming one of the Latino group.
Kansaishin- I was just as 'too white' there as I am 'too Asian' in most areas of the U.S., including here. (Though I'm too white for other "Pure-Japanese" a.k.a. Chinese+Ainu+Korean+Russians).
California- Depending on where you are, White, Black, or Latino have the stronghold- of course, leading to turf-showdowns. There are Chinatowns in Oakland and SF, which I've made the Oakland one my hang for the past 5 years.
Sure SF has a Japantown...but it's mostly full of Chinese anyway (my reason for going there was once to speak to others from back home...now I only go there if I wanna go to Kinokuniya, which has books in Japanese).
The biggest reason for the lack of Asian groups or whatever is 2fold:
I. Black Americans, as well as White Americans, have English in common. The Latinos have this in Spanish, though dialects differ, it seems that a native speaker from Ciudad de Guadalupe could converse with a Colombiano. It seems, though, that Latinos, like Asians, congregate in certain areas of the U.S. It could be a geographical thing.
II. The period of drastic emigration from Asia, pacific rim, anyway, was mostly the 20th century. The Gentleman's Agreement, and one like it for China, happened just after the Gold Era. As WW2 started, people like my grandparents came here to avoid the war...things didn't go too well, and people like them went back (not as many as I'd thought, though). Since Hon Kon returned to China, and in Japan for a good while now, though, the emigration rate has hella slowed. This means not only less people for imins like me to talk to, but less of the group as a demographic.
This goes back to what I was saying to my cousin yesterday; that people don't 'like' something out of 'the normal'. I'm currently being HUGELY harassed-some blatantly racist- where I live. E.G., using my legal name instead of my Americanised nickname and having rhymed it with a certain stereotype Asian dish, calling me that instead of my name. Mind you, this is all media B.S. that fuells stereotypes...or at least I think.
It seems wherever you go there's a dominant group, a hated group, and a 'oh-i-forgot-they-existed'/other group. In my High-School in FL, the White US-born descendants (not the immigrant or first-gens, who were cool) hated the Latinos. The Haitians were left completely alone. There were no Black Americans I knew, and the only other Asian was a Filipina who spoke fluent Spanish, hence becoming one of the Latino group.
Kansaishin- I was just as 'too white' there as I am 'too Asian' in most areas of the U.S., including here. (Though I'm too white for other "Pure-Japanese" a.k.a. Chinese+Ainu+Korean+Russians).
California- Depending on where you are, White, Black, or Latino have the stronghold- of course, leading to turf-showdowns. There are Chinatowns in Oakland and SF, which I've made the Oakland one my hang for the past 5 years.
Sure SF has a Japantown...but it's mostly full of Chinese anyway (my reason for going there was once to speak to others from back home...now I only go there if I wanna go to Kinokuniya, which has books in Japanese).
The biggest reason for the lack of Asian groups or whatever is 2fold:
I. Black Americans, as well as White Americans, have English in common. The Latinos have this in Spanish, though dialects differ, it seems that a native speaker from Ciudad de Guadalupe could converse with a Colombiano. It seems, though, that Latinos, like Asians, congregate in certain areas of the U.S. It could be a geographical thing.
II. The period of drastic emigration from Asia, pacific rim, anyway, was mostly the 20th century. The Gentleman's Agreement, and one like it for China, happened just after the Gold Era. As WW2 started, people like my grandparents came here to avoid the war...things didn't go too well, and people like them went back (not as many as I'd thought, though). Since Hon Kon returned to China, and in Japan for a good while now, though, the emigration rate has hella slowed. This means not only less people for imins like me to talk to, but less of the group as a demographic.
This goes back to what I was saying to my cousin yesterday; that people don't 'like' something out of 'the normal'. I'm currently being HUGELY harassed-some blatantly racist- where I live. E.G., using my legal name instead of my Americanised nickname and having rhymed it with a certain stereotype Asian dish, calling me that instead of my name. Mind you, this is all media B.S. that fuells stereotypes...or at least I think.