David Cong's Lazy Space

We all know that America has its full share of racists:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45928926/ns/business-retail/t/papa-johns-apologi
zes-chinky-eyes-receipt a Papa John’s Pizza employee uses a Chinese racial slur to a person of Korean ethnicity.

That pales in comparison to the slaughter of Vincent Chen, and more recently, the suicide of a Chinese-American soldier, serving in the US Army, named Danny Chen. His picture was recently featured in a web posting of Chinese-Americans who died in the Iraq War.
http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/stories/ethnic-chinese-american-soldiers-who-died-in-the-iraq-war.html

Much of the Chinese netizen reaction has not been kind. The netizens made these people out to be “mercenaries”, “traitors to their kind”, or simply didn’t think of them as Chinese at all. This is sad. Their fervor in making all-encompassing statements of smearing these people are no different than the Red Guards of the past.

Now, if you want to criticize Asians who have forsaken their roots, and look down upon the immigrant population, you would have a point. To lump all Asian Americans as such, shows no difference from the oppressors the aforementioned Asians faced. Most of these people serving in the US Army were born in the US, or brought over when they were young. So in other words: They had no choice where they were born, or where their parents would take them.

I am especially offended, being a minority who has lived in a suburban area devoid of any Asian contact, and faced all sorts of treatment at the hands of a majority race. I grew a lot of hatred towards groups of races other than mine. That feeling was tempered, when I moved back to a place with other Asians, and rediscovered this one golden truth: No one race has a monopoly on idiots and assholes.

Maybe if some of these netizens with angst would actually spend their time protesting questionable government and corporate activities, or take the time to help out defensless people:

To add something. In the last century, there were many overseas Chinese (born and raised overseas) who helped fund efforts to either overthrow or reform China in some way. The result, is that the last moncharchy was overthrown. This could not have been achieved without their help. Back in those days, Chinese were willing to return to China to change things for the better. By excluding these same people from participating in China, they’re essentially casting them aside, and excluding them. In effect, keeping the status quo.

Reading this article:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9461848-dismal-prospects-1-in-2-americans-are-now-poor-or-low-income

And it had this quote:

Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income — about 57 percent — followed by seniors over 65. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

Just what the heck do “non-Hispanic whites” stand for? Why not “non-Asian whites”? I mean, there are “white Asians” (http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=2981 , http://volokh.com/2011/07/29/asians-as-white) supposedly. I guess “non-white black” is just too obvious, maybe. Then of course, where do the “white Hispanics” fit in? Or what about the Asian diaspora that live in Latin America and other parts of the world before immigrating to the US?

If we’re going to be racist and classify people, at least allow them the chance to call themselves something they identify with. Yes, if the Trekkie is a Level 5 Klingon linguist, I believe he should be allowed to call himself a Klingon if he wanted. Heck, we got a lot of random Americans who can’t speak a lick of German, or Italian, but every time Rammstein’s “Du Hast” is played, everyone’s claiming German ancestry (“I’m 1/32 German!”). Or when anyone talks with their arms flailing about, like the inflatable tube man…

Well, “Ich bin mehr deutsch als du bist” and “Non sei italiano!”_{How’s THAT for Google Translate?”}

我今天終於明透地發覺我為甚麼會恨這份工作。我當初以爲我可以幫助我以前的同胞們。可是幫他們，要幫一下他們的夫人，跟他們的家庭打交道。這也是總部命令的。他們覺得我們忽略了這些家庭，忽略了這些婦人之心的人。當初以爲能夠克服自己的自閉性行，讓我從辦公室裏面逃出去到外走盡天涯海角，認識一些豪傑英雄。天真！

今天早上，我上司要人在十一月十八號，做一些班外的活動。我一字不提，卻被她選到：

上司

阿江，你要不要參加這個活動？

我

好呀。我所謂。

到底是怎麼樣的活動我不知道。因爲我早沒心留意在會裏面。我只知道不是那種認英雄的活動，而是要繼續跟那些夫人和他們的孩子，家庭站在外面，吃著西北風，還要擺出虛僞的笑容。

還是那一句：“攀龍附鳳”