Halfbreeds
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The Half-Breed Problem is a tough one. As long as I’m not talking to closet bigots, I have usually felt the teaching-learning dynamic in discussions on racial issues is in full effect if the discussion stays on a black/white/brown/yellow level. When it turned to half-breeds and our issues though, I used to get real frustrated and it became difficult to not snap on people. These days I often just try to change the subject. It used to center around my own comfort with my identity, but these days, it’s something else. I feel the same way when the conversation turns to any fringe group whether I’m a member or not (like folks with “special needs,” folks who suffer occupational discrimination, etc.) But I trust this forum as a place where speaking out on this issue might actually bring about a glimmer of understanding and some empathetic response.
You see, I think a lot folks of color in this society have put a serious amount of thought into their own situation, but not much into other that of others. (That still kicks the shit out of most white folks who haven’t even put any thought into their own privilege.) So if you empathize, you can talk to them about the social topics directly relevant to them, but when it’s time to switch hats, the empathy just ain’t there. When it is, it’s not because they are from a specific group, it’s just because you’ve met an awesome person (note: if you’re scoring at home, they’re going to almost never be white, and it’s pretty unlikely to be a guy).
Even among us half-kids, the conversations can be pretty weak. We just don’t have race role models who we can look to for guidance. Similar to the historical plight of Asian Americans, there’s not much mainstream discourse about our identities. For us, often we have no one at all with a similar background to discuss and forge out our perceptions of identity. So each person pretty much has to trail blaze for him/herself. Unfortunately, most people of any background are not going to have the courage and confidence to pursue that. Across any demographic in the society, folks are more content on having their identity defined for them rather than seeking and fighting to define it for themselves.
People talk about how the lack of shared history in Asian America can make it hard to mobilize folks together, but it’s even more severe among mixed kids to the point where there’s no real community for us. Every person in society has unique experience, but for us, it’s a total crapshoot because there’s no consensus on what we’re supposed to be. A mixed family where the father is of Asian descent is going to be much different from one where the mother is of Asian descent. In some families, the parent(s) of color are going to want to foolishly try to assimilate (good luck with that one); in others they’ll be revolutionaries and impart that to their kids. To top it off, a few of us can pass for white, and it’s even easier for us than for real colored folk to sell out and get paid to make white people feel less guilty about themselves, so of course a lot of us are going to be white-washed (see Maxim’s Hot 100). But even if we go that route, when the time is right, white America is still going to whip out our ethnicity to render us second-class citizens when we come into competition with them or their kids. Even as white society categorizes us as “Mystery Colored Child,” Asian American communities perceive us as white and say “half-breeds are white-washed” and ask us “Why the fuck are you here?”
Sound like a cry for help? “Wahh, half-breeds are so oppressed, save us please!” Fuck that!
This is not the part where I beg for entry into the social, cultural country club of Asian America. I understand the need for exclusive, ethnicity-based mobilization in order to survive and build confidence in a country that favors rich whites. I understand that in order to deal with this institutional racism, we sometimes have to frame our actions in race or ethnicity-based systems. But in the end, if you truly believe that your 100% pure blood, your slantier eyed stare, and yellower skin makes you part of a natural social group, then you are worthless to any movement to break the chains that bind all people of color in the society.
This society tries to teach people (all people) that we ought to be judged on our conformity to the social order. We are taught to look for reasons to disrespect each other and then use them to stereotype and destroy those who stand in our way. Are you going to be complicit with that? Or are you going to follow MLK’s words (the real MLK, not the January whitewashed one that white America loves so damn much) and judge folks on the weight of their character? Let’s build a society where if you are the Barry Bonds of community organizing, you are embraced into every ethnic community because every community needs social justice. Let’s live out this principle in our own communities because Lord knows, the last thing other communities need are excuses to exclude Asian Americans. Let’s demand equal treatment and demand that our perspectives and ideas are heard out and treated with the respect they earn. And when we don’t get that fair treatment? Let’s get angry, but not “can’t see straight,” “bust a cap in random folks,” “get belligerent” anger. Let’s focus strategic, slow-burning anger like Malcolm did.
I’m not here to ask for pity, charity or condescending acceptance from either the white community or the yellow one. Why would you even think so? Do you beat on the door of white society so that you can grovel before them for acceptance if they ever take the time to acknowledge you? Are you angry because you want to be noticed and accepted and assimilated and then you can sit at the white kiddy table and use your slanty eyes to entertain the children? Hell no! Knock on the door to deliver a message to white America, “I am here, I am powerful and growing more so daily. I have the answers to all of your questions, like ‘How can I continue to watch Sportscenter twenty-four hours a day and feel good about myself without having to pop penis pills like they were Flintstone vitamins?’ or ‘If we really are the city on the hill, why do the colored folks who we are enslaving and killing not like us for the benevolent Gods that we are?’ You have one generation to throw down your institutions of racism that create illusions of eugenic superiority and gender subjugation and class oppression or I will use the skills I’ve acquired to crush you under the weight of your own contradictions. I will return your favor and reeducate your children in the way that you have tried to reeducate ours. They will see that the only hope for humanity is to kick out the bigoted leaders of this society and burn its institutions to the ground.”
Half-Breed warriors are not “Scrapping 22s.” We will not sit around and wait to be asked to the Triple-A social dance. We don’t want your charity or pity to “allow” us to join your activist circle. We will not say, “I’m sorry I’m more white than you, so I will gladly accept your gift of wisdom.” (This is not some sort of yellowed-out Thanksgiving myth.) In our halfness, we are blessed with the reality that the struggle doesn’t end when every colored group has their own separate-but-equal social circle: such a circle will ever exist for us. These circles are not worthless, as Asian America is a vital construct - they are a strategic means to a righteous end - but nevertheless, just a construct. I hope that one day, the fight will be over, everyone will be truly free to fly in the direction that they feel will fulfill them and we can together put a wrecking ball to these constructs.
In the meantime, dig in. The people this society has educated us to be will have to die and be reborn a thousand times before we even approach that day. Love and respect to all of the activist, teachers, artists, and courageous folks who daily sprint fearlessly into this battle in true Fighting 44 fashion.
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