generaltojo
Mar 11th, 2005, 09:37 PM
A friend of mine gave me a package of Simpsons trading cards, which included those fake tattoos you water on your arm.
She specifically pointed out one of those tattoos to me: it was of a yellow fist with the words LOVE and HATE on each side, and underneath was the phrase YELLOW POWER. We both laughed, and made two statements:
1. "What on earth were they thinking???"
2. "Dude, you should get that tattooed on your arm permanently for irony value."
It was fucking hilarious.
But then it got me thinking. Is what I believe in really "yellow power?" A lot of people say it is.
And I gotta say... no.
I see a lot of Asians in the community with one solution to white racism. "Look to China," they say. "China's on the rise. As soon as they're on top, the yellow man will be on top." Some Asians, running into whatever problems they may have over here, say "screw this" and go back to the motherland, for a career, for acceptance, for belonging, for a wife. They go "back"... even though some of them have never been there before.
And that's fine. Everyone is free to do whatever they wish, of course. And everyone is free to think whatever they wish. And I think these guys are copping out. Running away. Running from who they are.
I dread the day that China will come to prominence. Not because I begrudge them or anything like that. But because I know full and well that the first people who'll pay for it are the Chinese over here (and, because they look the same, other Asian Americans will receive the rich runoff like gravy off an overfilled boat.) Far from gaining benefit from it, we'll be the first ones thrown up against the wall by The New Improved Patriot Act.
Happened back in dubbleya-dubbleya two. Japan, Japanese Americans - what's the difference? And that all important distinction - lost - resulted in a lot of fucking lockups, in Arkasas, or Oklahoma, or inland British Columbia. Don't say it won't happen again, because it can and it probably will. It's the nature of what it means to be Asian in this country - you're either not taken seriously (e.g. the geek stereotype) or you're a threat (e.g. the yellow peril.) Asians who think that linking themselves superflously to Asia will save them - these are the real "yellow power" freaks - are deluding themselves.
So I guess that's why I'm so passionate, so vehement, so fucking FIRM about leaving old world prejudices behind, and about developing a true, stand-alone, contemporary Asian American identity. We need to, in order to weather the coming storm. We can't just run away from who we are, or cling on to some distant power that cares about you as much as the current power. I have a family friend who was screwed in this way: got sick of white racism here, went back to the motherland during the cultural revolution to serve in it. And promptly got accused of being a "rightist," and very nearly got thrown in jail - got out of the beloved motherland with his skin barely intact. Some fucking loyalty they have to their own kind there, huh?
Not all of us are able to or want to run back to the Middle Kingdom. And why the hell should we? We built this goddamn country as much as any other people of any other race or ethnicity.
Developing a real notion of being Asian American is the key to claiming our birthright to this country. It's a macrocosm for a quest that each and every one of us, regardless of ethncity or gender or faith or sexual orientation, are on from the moment we're born: the quest for ourselves. Being comfortable in our own skin. Being comfortable with our own expectations, and no one elses. Especially those expectations laid on us by mainstream white culture, or other Asians.
You know. Just being yourself. A pretty simple notion. But quite possibly the noblest one there is.
She specifically pointed out one of those tattoos to me: it was of a yellow fist with the words LOVE and HATE on each side, and underneath was the phrase YELLOW POWER. We both laughed, and made two statements:
1. "What on earth were they thinking???"
2. "Dude, you should get that tattooed on your arm permanently for irony value."
It was fucking hilarious.
But then it got me thinking. Is what I believe in really "yellow power?" A lot of people say it is.
And I gotta say... no.
I see a lot of Asians in the community with one solution to white racism. "Look to China," they say. "China's on the rise. As soon as they're on top, the yellow man will be on top." Some Asians, running into whatever problems they may have over here, say "screw this" and go back to the motherland, for a career, for acceptance, for belonging, for a wife. They go "back"... even though some of them have never been there before.
And that's fine. Everyone is free to do whatever they wish, of course. And everyone is free to think whatever they wish. And I think these guys are copping out. Running away. Running from who they are.
I dread the day that China will come to prominence. Not because I begrudge them or anything like that. But because I know full and well that the first people who'll pay for it are the Chinese over here (and, because they look the same, other Asian Americans will receive the rich runoff like gravy off an overfilled boat.) Far from gaining benefit from it, we'll be the first ones thrown up against the wall by The New Improved Patriot Act.
Happened back in dubbleya-dubbleya two. Japan, Japanese Americans - what's the difference? And that all important distinction - lost - resulted in a lot of fucking lockups, in Arkasas, or Oklahoma, or inland British Columbia. Don't say it won't happen again, because it can and it probably will. It's the nature of what it means to be Asian in this country - you're either not taken seriously (e.g. the geek stereotype) or you're a threat (e.g. the yellow peril.) Asians who think that linking themselves superflously to Asia will save them - these are the real "yellow power" freaks - are deluding themselves.
So I guess that's why I'm so passionate, so vehement, so fucking FIRM about leaving old world prejudices behind, and about developing a true, stand-alone, contemporary Asian American identity. We need to, in order to weather the coming storm. We can't just run away from who we are, or cling on to some distant power that cares about you as much as the current power. I have a family friend who was screwed in this way: got sick of white racism here, went back to the motherland during the cultural revolution to serve in it. And promptly got accused of being a "rightist," and very nearly got thrown in jail - got out of the beloved motherland with his skin barely intact. Some fucking loyalty they have to their own kind there, huh?
Not all of us are able to or want to run back to the Middle Kingdom. And why the hell should we? We built this goddamn country as much as any other people of any other race or ethnicity.
Developing a real notion of being Asian American is the key to claiming our birthright to this country. It's a macrocosm for a quest that each and every one of us, regardless of ethncity or gender or faith or sexual orientation, are on from the moment we're born: the quest for ourselves. Being comfortable in our own skin. Being comfortable with our own expectations, and no one elses. Especially those expectations laid on us by mainstream white culture, or other Asians.
You know. Just being yourself. A pretty simple notion. But quite possibly the noblest one there is.