Your last paragraph (oh ... you edited, it's not your last paragraph anymore. hahaha) resonates with me so much. I think racism against Africans, Latinos and Jewish people aren't as uniformly rejected as what you've said suggests; most of the time it still, unfortunately, needs to be radical, a la Dior's John Galliano saying he loves Hitler; people can still safely make jokes and play on stereotypes (and this goes for every ethnicity). But I agree that there's this complete lack of respect and understanding, and even confusion, towards Asian Americans standing up for themselves. It has a lot to do with the fact that racism in American history (and there is a lot of it) is barely covered in history classes; I don't recall learning about Asian Americans until fifth grade (and even then, this was likely because living in California, our textbooks discuss the transcontinental railroad and the Gold Rush in much more detail), and most of my peers have never learned about Asian Americans in school. I think that culturally we tend to just
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I completely agree with most things you've written here. The behaviour that people are displaying lately regarding Japan (I'm still reeling from the fact that anyone would bring up Pearl Harbor. Really? The whole fucking war and two atomic bombs wasn't enough "retribution" for you and now you think Japan deserves to be punished more? Really? And yet at the same time I'm not surprised, because ugh, people. Fucking people.) and that goddamn Alexandra Wallace video. Like, did you see that one of her professors is defending her? Just. Like, I definitely think people shouldn't try to fight her racism with sexism and ableism, because, well, counterproductive much? But everyone who is calling her out on her grossness is right. I don't care about her privileged white girl tears. The lady will sit the fuck down, because no.
At the same time, I want to address a part of your post that is upsetting to me, as a Latina. Racism against Africans and Latinos is taboo. Antisemitics are quickly denounced. Why aren't we being held to the same respect
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No, thank you for taking the time to call me out on it; that's really not what I meant to imply and I chose really poor wording (it's so late SOBBING
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Thank you for clearing up what you meant there. Obviously I can't speak for what the Asian community does or how they behave, but at least now I understand where you were coming from.
Annie, I'm really really glad that you've posted this and that you've started to become more aware. Like kipling mentioned, I think a lot has to do with the omission of Asian American history in the mainstream American history discourse. I distinctly remember as a child when we were learning about the Civil War and the civil rights movement that I was glad I was Asian... because I thought only black people had to face racism. Clearly I was naive then, and growing up in a very diverse and integrated community, I never had to face the "ching chong" thing, the pulled back slanty eyes thing, etc. so the only other way I found out about the systematic institutional and cultural marginalization of the AA community is through the Internet
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