Being adopted as a baby into a white family in a
predominately white neighborhood gave me a unique perspective
growing up. This perspective which started off as amusement at how ridiculous people
can be, quickly turned to disgust and fear at how less than human people can treat me. When people first meet me they
usually think one of three things: I’m an international student, I don’t speak
English, or I’m a Californian. Can you guess which scenarios are the most
common? If you guessed the first two, you are correct! Let me start off by
saying I have no problem with being a person of color, in fact I take great
pride in my ethnic heritage even if I am not actively celebrating it. I do,
however, have a problem when my ethnicity is the only thing people see and take
into consideration. The worst part is that most of the time people do not
realize they are being offensive or inappropriate. These kinds of situations are almost worse
than blatant racism because people can truly believe that what they are saying
is okay and socially acceptable. This is
primarily because of how society standardizes behavior and views of Asian
people.
“Wow your English is really good.” This quote is one of
the many instances I get to remind me of how much of a stereotype and poster
child I am to many of the (white) people I meet. This line and also the very
endearing “is it true that Asian people ____.” Asian people….? Do what? Eat dogs? Worship
dragons? I’m sure I’ve heard them all by now. It is difficult to call people
out when they use lines like these because they are always able to pull the “well
I didn’t know that!” card and use their ignorance as a cushion against owning
up to their lowkey racism. I particularly blame lack of good media
representation because, honestly, that’s where most stereotypes and offensive clichés
come from. I obviously can’t control what parents tell their kids but at least
with fair representation in TV shows and film, maybe some of those teachings
won’t be so enforced. Asian
representation makes up about 2-4% of all speaking characters in media (Qiang).
Of this percentage most of the portrayals are extremely problematic as they
reinforce racist stereotypes. I invite you to think of all the Asian characters
you have seen on TV or in movies and name me 10 of them that have not been:
computer or math experts, “nerds”, terrorists, exotic dragon ladies, sweet obedient
good girls, or broken English speaking foreigners.
This is a societal issue that needs to be addressed at a
very early age and solidified through good representation across all platforms.
We need to teach that this kind of behavior is not okay and not just a “difference
in opinion.” And by “we” I mean all people of race and ethnicity. It takes everyone
saying that this is not acceptable and correcting bad behavior when confronted
with it for the message to get through. Asian individuals should not have to be the
sole educators and enforcers to racial comments, other people need to take responsibility
as well. Inaction can be just as harmful as saying something.
Sources
Qiang, Ashley. " When
Asian Americans Appear On TV, It's Usually As One Of These Racist Stereotypes." News.
Slantnews, 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
" It is difficult to call people out when they use lines like these because they are always able to pull the “well I didn’t know that!” card and use their ignorance as a cushion against owning up to their lowkey racism." Not only do I find your phrasing amusing, I think this is a very interesting point to bring up. People, in my experience, are consciously aware that racism is bad and that they shouldn't act that way. But there is also this sort of adversarial mindset when racism is pointed out to people, where instead of apologizing, as you say, they claim ignorance and fail to learn from the encounter. There is such an eagerness to get away from the subject that any semblance of improvement fails to be made. Very interesting post!
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