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Content warning: White supremacy, racial stereotypes, violence
To the Chinese American Community:
My name is Eileen Huang, and I am a junior at Yale University studying English. I was asked to write a reflection, maybe even a poem, on Chinese American history after watching Asian Americans, the new documentary on PBS. However, I find it hard to write poems at a time like this. I refuse to focus on our history, our stories, and our people without acknowledging the challenges, pain, and trauma experienced by marginalized people—ourselves included—even today. In light of protests in Minnesota, which were sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of racist White and Asian police officers, I specifically want to address the rampant anti-Blackness in the Asian American community that, if unchecked, can bring violence to us all.
We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes. I grew up hearing relatives, family friends, and even my parents make subtle, even explicitly racist comments about the Black community: They grow up in bad neighborhoods. They cause so much crime. I would rather you not be friends with Black people. I would rather you not be involved in Black activism.
The message was clear: We are the model minority—doctors, lawyers, quiet and obedient overachievers. We have little to do with other people of color; we will even side with White Americans to degrade them. The Asian Americans around me, myself included, were reluctant—and sometimes even refused—to participate in conversations on the violent racism faced by Black Americans—even when they were hunted by White supremacists, even when they were mercilessly shot in their own neighborhoods, even when they were murdered in broad daylight, even when their children were slaughtered for carrying toy guns or stealing gum, even when their grieving mothers appeared on television, begging and crying for justice. Even when anti-Blackness is so closely aligned to our own oppression under structural racism.
We Asian Americans like to think of ourselves as exempt from racism. After all, many of us live in affluent neighborhoods, send our children to selective universities, and work comfortable, professional jobs. As the poet Cathy Park Hong writes, we believe that we are “next in line … to disappear,” to gain the privileges that White people have, to be freed from all the burdens that come with existing in a body of color.
However, our survival in this country has always been conditional. When Chinese laborers came in the 1800s, they were lynched and barred from political and social participation by the Chinese Exclusion Act—the only federal law in American history to explicitly target a racial group. When early Asian immigrants, such as Bhagat Singh Thind, attempted to apply for citizenship, all Asian Americans were denied the right to legal personhood—which was only granted to “free white persons“—until 1965. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japanese Americans were rounded up, tortured, and detained in concentration camps. When the Cold War reached its peak, Chinese Americans suspected of being Communists were terrorized by federal agents. Families lost their jobs, businesses, and livelihoods. When COVID-19 hit the US, Asian Americans were assaulted, spat on, and harassed. We were accused of being “virus carriers”; I was recently called a “bat-eater.” We are made to feel like we have excelled in this country until we are reminded that we cannot get too comfortable—that we will never truly belong.
Here’s a story of not belonging: On June 19, 1982, as Detroit’s auto industry was deteriorating from Japanese competition, Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese American, entered a bar to celebrate his upcoming wedding. Ronald Ebens, a laid-off White autoworker, and his stepson, Michael Nitz, were there as well. They followed Chin as he left the bar and cornered him in a McDonald’s parking lot, where they proceeded to bludgeon him with a metal baseball bat until his head cracked open. “It’s because of you motherf––ers that we are out of work,” they had said to Chin. Later, as news of the murder got out, Chinese Americans were outraged, calling for Ebens and Nitz’s conviction. Chin’s killers were only charged for second-degree murder, receiving only charges of $3,000—and no jail time. “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail,” County Judge Charles Kaufman said. Then who is?
Watching Asian Americans, I was haunted by the video clips of Chin’s mother, Lily. She is a small Chinese woman who looks like my grandmother, or my mother, or an aunt. Her face crumples in front of the cameras; she pleads and cries, in a voice almost animal-like, “I want justice for my son.” Yet, in all of Lily’s footage, she is surrounded by Black civil rights activists, such as Jesse Jackson. They guard her from news reporters that try to film her grief. Later, they march in the streets with Chinese American activists, holding signs calling for an end to racist violence.
Though we cannot compare the challenges faced by Asian Americans to the far more violent atrocities suffered by Black Americans, we owe everything to them. It is because of the work of Black Americans—who spearheaded the civil rights movement—that Asian Americans are no longer called “Orientals” or “Chinamen.” It is because of Black Americans, who called for an end to racist housing policies, that we are even allowed to live in the same neighborhoods as White people. It is because of Black Americans, who pushed back against racist naturalization laws, that Asian Americans have gained official citizenship and are officially recognized under the law. It is because of Black activism that stories like Vincent Chin’s are even remembered. We did not gain the freedom to become comfortable “model minorities” by virtue of being better or hard-working, but from years of struggle and support from other marginalized communities.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was accused of using a counterfeit 20-dollar bill at a deli in Minneapolis. In response, Derek Chauvin, a White police officer, tackled Floyd and knelt on his neck for seven minutes. In videos that will later circulate online, for three minutes, in a pool of his own blood, Floyd is seen pleading for his life, stating that he can no longer breathe. Instead, Chauvin continues to kneel. And kneel. Meanwhile, in the background, Tou Thao, an Asian American police officer, is seen standing by the murder, merely watching. And watching. And saying nothing as Floyd slowly stops struggling.
I see this same kind of silence from Asian Americans around me. I am especially disappointed in the Chinese American community, whose silence on the murder of Black Americans has been deafening. While so many activists of color are banding together to support protesters in Minneapolis, so many Chinese Americans have chosen to “stay out” of this disobedience. The same Chinese Americans who spoke out so vocally on anti-Asian racism from COVID-19 are suspiciously quiet when it comes to Floyd’s murder (as well as Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and countless other Black Americans who were killed merely for existing). I do not see us sharing sympathy for Black mothers who appear on television, begging, like Lily Chin, to see justice for their sons. I do not see us marching with Black protesters. I do not see us donating to Black-led organizations.
I do not see our outrage as White murderers, such as Vincent Chin’s killers, receive no jail time for killing innocent Black Americans. I do not see us extending any solidarity toward the Black protesters who have been sprayed with tear gas and rubber bullets—only a couple weeks after White COVID-19 “protesters,” armed with AR-15s, were barely even touched by policemen. Instead, I see us calling them “thugs,” “rioters,” “looters”—the same epithets that White Americans once called us. I see us, such as members of my own family, merely laughing off President Trump’s tweet about sending the National Guard to Minnesota, as if it were a joke and not a deadly threat.
I imagine where we would be if Black Americans did not participate in Asian American activism. We would still be called Orientals. We would live in even more segregated neighborhoods and attend even more segregated schools. We would not be allowed to attend these elite colleges, advance in our comfortable careers. We would be illegal aliens. We—and everyone else—would not remember stories like Vincent Chin’s.
I urge all Chinese Americans to watch media such as Asian Americans, to seriously reflect not only on our own history, but also on our shared history with other minorities—how our liberation is intertwined with liberation for Black Americans, Native Americans, Latinx Americans, and more. We are not exempt from history. What has happened to George Floyd has happened to Chinese miners in the 1800s and Vincent Chin, and will continue to happen to us and all minorities unless we let go of our silence, which has never protected us, and never will.
Our history is not only a lineage of obedient doctors, lawyers, and engineers. It is also a history of disrupters, activists, fighters, and, above all, survivors. I think often of Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese American survivor of internment camps who later became a prominent civil rights activist, and who developed close relationships with Black activists, such as Malcolm X. “We are all part of one another,” she once said.
I urge you all to donate to the activist organizations listed below. I refuse to call for the racial justice of our own community at the expense of others. Justice that degrades or subordinates other minorities is not justice at all. At a time when many privileged minorities are siding with White supremacy—which has terrorized all of our communities for centuries—I want to ask: Whose side are you on?
Eileen Huang studies English at Yale University. You can find her on Twitter @bobacommie and Instagram @eileenxhuang
All of those who have signed below have pledged to address/end anti-Blackness in our Asian American communities by committing to the following actions:
- Donating to Black-led organizations and Black Lives Matter activists in MN
- Protesting (either in person or on social media) against White supremacy and anti-Blackness
- Engaging in uncomfortable/difficult conversations with Asian Americans/non-Black people on anti-Blackness in our own communities
- Committing to educating yourself on anti-racist theories, actions, and histories that can help dismantle White supremacy
Click the following link of Google Form to sign your name if you are with us: [name, opt. affiliation]
Eileen Huang, Yale University
Isabelle Rhee, Yale University
Biman Xie, Yale University
Saket Malholtra, Yale University
Lauren Lee, Yale University
Adrian Kyle Venzon, Yale University
Michael Chen, Yale University
Lillian Hua, Yale University
Dora Guo, Yale University
Kevin Quach, Yale University
Pia Gorme, Yale University
Alex Chen, Yale University
Emily Xu, Yale University
Avik Sarkar, Yale University
Evelyn Huilin Wu, Yale University
Angelreana Choi, Yale University
Cindy Kuang, Yale University
Karina Xie, Yale University
Tulsi Patel, Yale University
Kayley Estoesta, Yale University
Renee Chen, Wellesley College
Sara Thakur, Yale University
Eui Young Kim, Yale University
FUNDS AND COMMUNITY EFFORTS TO DONATE TO:
Compiled by the Asian American Students Alliance at Yale.
FAMILY FUNDS:
BAIL FUNDS:
Los Angeles – People’s City Council Freedom Fund
Louisville Community Bail Fund
Philadelphia Community Bail Fund
COLLECTIVES, MUTUAL AID FUNDS, AND OTHER GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS:
Black Owned Business GoFundMe Thread
Women for Political Change Front Lines Fund and Mutual Aid Fund
335 评论
添加您的 →As a first generation Chinese who was naturalized to be an American citizen, you and your generation are the reason we are proud to be in this country! Trust me, many of us are standing with you and standing up against white supremacists!
I applaud your letter and your effort!
I feel very uncomfortable with your letter, Eileen. Please don’t generalize your parents’ racist behavior (if that is racist in your opinion) to the entire Chinese community. As a first generation immigrant here, all I see is our respect for hard work, including African Americans’ hard work. We disrespect laziness (whatever color of skin).
My 10-year old is also very angry with your letter. He clearly points out that your co-called privileged life comes from your parents’ hard work. Your parents give that to you, but it seems that you do not deserve that. He feels very upset for your parents.
It’s hard to understand why people are adding the opinions of their 10-year-olds to the comments. As if that child’s opinion should somehow shame the students’ at Yale? Ridiculous! Has your child studied at Yale, Harvard, MIT, or ANY IVY LEAGUE, KUN? Clearly not.
That was sarcasm, but the real truth is…people posting on here saying things like “we respect hard work, sacrifice…we are not lazy” are essentially MAKING A STEREOTYPE THAT BLACK AMERICANS ARE THOSE TRAITS AND DESERVE THE SOCIAL INJUSTICE THAT THEY RECEIVE.
Which is exactly missing the point. BLACK LIVES MATTER is marching and protesting for ALL THE BLACKS WHO WORK HARD, SACRIFICE, EDUCATE THEMSELVES, TAKE CARE OF THEIR FAMILIES despite ALL THE ODDS AGAINST THEM…AND STILL GET TREATED UNJUSTLY.
Take a look at this essay by a GOLDMAN SACHS Managing Director (successful!), MIT (educated!), NIGERIAN (immigrant!) on how HE HAS TO COPE WITH BEING BLACK IN AMERICA: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-05/goldman-sachs-executive-has-advice-for-white-colleagues
Then take all your comments about hard work, sacrifice, and “if only blacks would pull themselves up like we did”…and ASK IF YOU WOULD TRADE PLACES WITH HIM??
You asked “why people are adding the opinions of their 10-year-olds to the comments”, let me take a guess, maybe the 10-year old is not arrogant or self-righteous, maybe he respects his parents hard work, or maybe he knows not to over-generalize, or all of the above?
If you have not noticed, many comments here are against racism of any form, however we are strongly against the authors over-generalization based on her family and community and then paints entire Asian community as racists – would you or the author please address her stereotyping and discrimination against Asians first?
Lastly I don’t think been an Ivy league student makes you superior to others, especially given what is written here.
BTW your self-righteous is even worse than Ms. Huang’s.
Charlie – you clearly are so self-righteous yourself that you do not get sarcasm.
Plus, maybe the 10 year old just says whatever his parents say?
You may disagree with Eileen’s views based on her own family experiences and say she is generalizing, but her writing does not discriminate against Asians. In fact, that’s the issue that YOU have with her writing: that she is stereotyping the Asian American community as racist. Hence, she is NOT discriminating.
You stereotype Ivy League students as being “elite”, but when they don’t agree with your views, you suddenly discriminate against their judgement.
Everyone is guilty of stereotyping based on our own experiences.
How do you know that Eileen didn’t sacrifice her time and goals to help her parents in their businesses/work? How do you know that she didn’t help raise her parents raise her brothers and sisters growing up, giving up her own childhood freedoms and dreams? How do you know that just because she got into Yale that she didn’t work hard to get in because she had to live up to her parents’ expectations? That she’s not working two jobs at Yale while studying to pay for her tuition so she’s not a burden on her parents?
Truth is: you don’t know and can’t know. But you stereotype and generalize.
Your experience is as valid as Eileen’s. But to call her arrogant or self-righteous is to attack her tone or style of writing, not the validity of her arguments.
Try to take a step back and think about why you are feeling so angry and rushing to attack someone who you don’t know for having different opinions from you.
You made my day Stephanie. I’m so sorry I hurt someone’s feeling by calling he/she an “elite student”, and I’m so sorry I discriminated against his/her judgement!
I don’t think it makes sense to comment any further, but at least you are the first to admit the “generalizing” problem if I remember correctly
@Charlie Indeed. Stephanie (& many others on here) fail to present sound, anti-racist arguments. She says everyone “is guilty of stereotyping”, but she should speak for herself, as those who stand against racism should consistently fight stereotyping, no matter who it targets or how ‘valid’ it seems. It’s very obvious Eileen’s letter discriminates against Chinese-Americans, saying she’s “especially disappointed” in them, as their silence on these issues is “deafening”, and that “so many activists of color” support George Floyd protests, while “so many Chinese Americans” don’t. So…where’s the evidence for these inflammatory claims?
Here are some facts: a 2012 AALDEF poll (aaldef.org/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location/) noted that 81% of Chinese Americans voted for Obama, which was a higher % than 3 other groups of Asian Americans. Another poll (https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/sites/default/files/2016-09/Behind_the_Numbers-2012_AAPI_Post-Election_Survey_Report.pdf) had it at 69%, with the same ranking compared to other Asian American groups.
So all this begs the question: why single the Chinese out? I don’t want to demonise, but there have been hostile incidents against the BLM movement reported in the Vietnamese community (https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/black-lives-matter-billboard-houston-vietnamese-american-community/ http://wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/08/05/black-lives-matter-movement-stirs-painful-divide-in-local-vietnamese-american-community). But I don’t see other Asians bashing them as “the most racist”, and that’s fine, b/c this sort of talk only serves to exacerbate racism between both sides (& it has already been used plenty of times by both Asian & non-Asian groups to the Chinese worldwide).
Stephanie (& several others on here) fail to present sound, anti-racist arguments. She says everyone “is guilty of stereotyping”, but maybe she should speak for herself, as those who stand against racism do consistently fight stereotyping, no matter who it targets or how ‘valid’ it seems. It’s very obvious Eileen’s letter discriminates against Chinese-Americans, saying she’s “especially disappointed” in them, as their silence on these issues is “deafening”, and that “so many activists of color” support George Floyd protests, while “so many Chinese Americans” don’t. So…where’s the evidence for these inflammatory claims?
Here are some facts: a 2012 AALDEF poll (aaldef.org/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location/) noted that 81% of Chinese Americans voted for Obama, which was a higher % than 3 other groups of Asian Americans. Another poll (https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/sites/default/files/2016-09/Behind_the_Numbers-2012_AAPI_Post-Election_Survey_Report.pdf) had it at 69%, with the same ranking compared to other Asian American groups.
So all this begs the question: why single the Chinese out? I don’t want to demonise, but there have been hostile incidents against the BLM movement reported in the Vietnamese community (https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/black-lives-matter-billboard-houston-vietnamese-american-community/ http://wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/08/05/black-lives-matter-movement-stirs-painful-divide-in-local-vietnamese-american-community). But I don’t see other Asians bashing them as “the most racist”, and that’s fine, b/c this sort of talk only serves to exacerbate racism between both sides (& it has already been used plenty of times by both Asian & non-Asian groups to the Chinese worldwide).
Maybe you have seen inappropriate behaviors before, or maybe you think your parents are racists, but please don’t generalize to all Asian community, as many are victims of racism.
Please watch or read the book White Fragility, where it educates us all on racism. Racism is not an event, it’s a system; and it does not only happen with ill intention. It’s not about victim-blaming; it’s about being educated on history and gain understanding that transforms and propels action and change. So we are not immune to racism just because we have experienced being discriminated against. This is not to argue in anyway, but a plea for us all to be open to hear other narratives instead of reacting with defensiveness.
While we are open, we have to defend ourselves when someone throws false accusation on us. The author generalized the Racism behavior of her own parents/relatives/friends to be the behavior of Asian American. That is 100% incorrect and not tolerable. If she wants to say something about herself she has all the right to do it. But do not misrepresent other people and throw false accusation. She does NOT represent other Asian Americans. Also, this over generation reflects her lack of logic and her arrogance, which is very sad for someone in Yale. The reputation of the school is hurt for this kind of behavior.
100% support
Twenty years ago as a Republican delegate attending the Washington State Republican convention I told the party chairperson that we Chinese support Black civil rights because what they did helped us Chinese-Americans. The writer may have a point but do not tar all of us with the same brush – a form of racism.
While I support the message of the recent protests and the general message of this article to call for more support from the Asian community, I am AGAINST the tone of this article. These days I’ve seen too many younger generation of Asian Americans claiming their disappointment of the Asian community, to some extent I feel they are ashamed of their own racial identity. Despite the fact that this disappointment of Asians has no real support (and the fact that there are so many message about disappointment counters this claim), I want to say that first generation Asian immigrants received very different education and share very different cultural background than the younger Asian generation who received their education in US. Rather than voicing out you disappointment in your own group, I want to encourage all younger generations to get to know more about your parents and beyond, to really learn what formed their perspectives. Are their lifelong values really so wrong and disappointing? They might be outdated and go against the American values (duh they didn’t grow up here), but they are frankly an inseparable part of each and everyone of us Asians. While we are protecting the rights of racial equality, please try to understand and protect your own culture as well.
I’m a first gen immigrant and I disagree with you. 1. We live in the US and need to understand social issues and the history of it instead of asking those younger gen kids who have been educated on these matters to ignore what they know and sympathize with your ignorance on this matter. Systemic racism is an issue in this country. Reminds me of Trevor Noah, an accomplished black comedian said he was stopped by the police multiple times. How many times do Asians and white people get stopped by the police without any reason? 2. I don’t think the author is denouncing our values. I think she’s pointing out the “anti-blackness” sentiment that is more prevalent among first gen Asians. I have Asian friends that are making racist comments without even realizing it so I agree with her assessment on this matter.
Are you implying that being a victim of racism justifies one’s own racism? I don’t know how you can see that as a possible justification, especially after reading this piece. The underpinnings of American society and many of its private and public institutions/systems are on the basis of prejudice against minorities. One of the takeaways of this piece is that minorities like us Asian Americans should be aligned in the fight against racism and white supremacy with other minorities — instead we often rely on our proximity to whiteness to ignore these issues. Instead of looking at it like “look how much we have suffered from racism and how this can explain our actions” perhaps you can think of how you can try to change the system so that no one is victimized by racism in the future.
As a fellow Asian I understand the urge to say ‘not all Asians’ to defend and distinguish yourself from being a problematic one, but instead of saying it, show them instead. If you are not guilty then you have nothing to defend
This post is not meant to attack all Asians but it does bring up the critical issue of anti-blackness prevalent in MANY Asian communities and how we should recognise that and educate those around us. It’s on us to do better and not turn a blind eye. It’s true that Asians are also victims of racism as you said, but this post is specifically talking about the unjust treatment of Blacks in America where Asians often turn a blind eye. This letter does not take away any of the racism Asians have experienced and is not talking about that at all actually. It’s about us coming together and standing up for Black people as they have done for us.
I agree with a lot of what you said, especially on standing up for black people. However, the key here is, maybe the author did not meant to attack the Asian community, but she DID. She generalized the racism behavior of her parents/family/friends and claim the whole Asian American community act like that. Her irrationality and arrogance hurt our Asian community and cannot be tolerated. She should to correct her statement and apologize.
I agree with you, Flora! And like another person said, the author should Thank her parents’ hard work for raising her and sending her to Yale. The author should not generalize the whole Chinese community as bias on other minorities, that’s very very wrong and jeopardized the whole community. Please rewrite your reflection!!! Very upset on your article.
“Cannot be tolerated”??? This is America. Eileen is expressing her point of view, what she’s observed in the Chinese American community around her. This has nothing to do with her parents sending her to Yale or if she’s “jeopardising the whole community”. She is speaking her truth and you don’t have to like it.
Is she telling people to harm Chinese Americans? NO. She is telling people we need to speak up for social justice when we haven’t typically done it in the past because of FEAR. Stop trying to shout down people like Eileen just because they are sharing an experience that YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR!
Charlie, your comment is the perfect example of the point the author is trying to make. For too long Asians have turned the conversation away from other POCs who are suffering back to Asians. “But what about us, we are victims too.” Being racist and being a victim of racism are not mutually exclusive. Asians can be victims of racism AND racist towards others.
Firstly, many of my Asian friends stand firmly against racism, but let’s put that aside for now and look at some of the problems in this article and why so many are furious about it.
In order to prove her point, the author conveniently stated that “[there are] rampant anti-Blackness in the Asian American community” – Seriously? how could someone come up with this strong accusation against the millions that she never ever knew or spoke with? Do you have any data to support this? If I know one or even twenty-two Yale students who are, let’s say not so rigorous, am I going to conclude all Yale students are stupid? NO, I still have high respect for Yale because there are thousands that I don’t even know.
Most importantly, is this standard stereotyping and discrimination (against Asian though)? How is this different from saying “there are rampant crime/greed in XXX race”? Is it ironic to see this in an article supposed to be against racism and stereotyping?
I understand that the author grew up in a racist family and community, I would like to apologize to her on behalf of those people if I could, also for some of us who are not sensitive enough to this issue, we should do better and we could. On the same time, I think the author should stop spreading this article and apologize to the millions who has nothing to do with racism, because as the author pointed out, the image that “Asians hate Blacks” “could bring violence to us all”, your parents included.
p.s. I’m sorry if this comment looks harsh although I admire the author’s courage to speak out – I have higher expectation for an elite student, and I believe “racism” is a very serious accusation that should not be simply labeled to all Asians.
Do you have any proof that most Asian Americans are not racism? I know many Chinese Americans are racists against African Americans though, my own family included.
How difficult is it for people to understand over-generation? Is basic reasoning even taught in high schools here?
How hard is it to admit you made a mistake and apologize to the millions that you have offended?
The biggest failure of Chinese parenting is selflessly giving their children everything they have, without teaching them how much it cost them to earn it.
Privileged Chinese kids grow up with an inkling of how lucky they are, to get for free, the fruits of their parents’ labor.
That’s why they turn around and throw their parents under the bus. But you can’t really blame them; their parents didn’t really teach them any better.
子不教父之过
This letter is ridiculously racist, against the Asian community! Going to Yale turned the author into somebody who merely utters what others are saying! Zero independent thinking. Completely ignorant of reality as well as history.
Author, stop fabricating so-called facts. Stop spreading rumors about Asian community. Go back to history and do research on reality. Do not become a mere mouthpiece of the lefties. You are completely blind to the damage being done to innocent people across the nation by BLM. Very disgraceful!
And first and foremost, show some gratitude to your parents who worked very hard to send you to Yale. Instead of being blasphemous, go home and thank your parents for raising you!
Do you know what is actually the definitions of “racist” and “blasphemous”, Christine? It doesn’t’ seem like you are using the words correctly. Eileen is not espousing that any race is better than Asian Americans. So why is her letter “racist”? What is this “reality” that you are telling Eileen to research? BLM is the RESULT of damage done to innocent people across the nation. Because you don’t agree with what Eileen’s opinions, you decide to assert that she is a “mere mouthpiece of the lefties” and “zero independent thinking”. So why are your views so much more valuable or more rooted in “reality”? Get a grip.
Thank you Christine for your thoughts! I agree with you! Most of the Chinese American communities are very kind and generous. We are good citizens in the globe wherever we live and stand with people who are also kind and fair. We support Black Lives Matter protest but not destructions and robberies!
Stop generalization of Asian community. Your parents, relatives or friends are racists. Doesn’t mean every other Asian is! Creating a stereotype ot putting a label on a whole population is really dangerous! Like world War II. Labeling and pointing fingers cause division. Not wise!
I agree and understand with your point of view. I definitely see what you are feeling and where you are coming from. However there are many in the Asian community standing up against and voicing their opinions against these situations. Many just do so in different manners. Everyone has their own ways of supporting which you may have not seen.
Just because not all Asians are racist doesn’t mean we’re not obligated to call attention to Asians who are. While I know your intentions are good, and it’s true that there are people in the Asian community who are against racism, this comment distracts from the purpose of the letter—which is to focus on Asians who ARE complicit in racism by not standing with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Just because not all Asians are racist doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call attention to Asians who are. I know you have good intentions, and while it’s true that some members of the Asian-American community actively combat racism, this comment distracts from the purpose of the letter—which is to highlight the Asians who ARE complicit in racism by not standing with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sorry for commenting twice, the first one didn’t load for me.
Thanks for the great article. Even though I am a first generation immigrant from China, I can see but don’t understand why some Chinese are anti-other minorities. It is sad. However, I want to point out that anti-Blackness or anti-other minorities are NOT rampant in Chinese community, and those people who are anti-Blackness are still minority in Chinese American population. And when those people learn more about American history, they start to change their minds. Hope we Americans have less and less racists.
The reason Chinese Americans don’t sympathize more with the Black community is because Blacks commit so many crimes against us. No justice, no allyship.
Their latest unnecessary protest, carried on after the cop was already arrested, has enabled the burning and looting of cities across America. Our very survival is in peril because of these rioters. No protests, however legitimate, justify the utter destruction of our economic life.
It is utterly sadistic, and unproductive, to say that because some Black people are in pain, it should be spread round to the rest of society. As if one person getting COVID means all of us should get it too.
Excellent: “No protests, however legitimate, justify the utter destruction of our economic life.”
Very sad fact: Seattle: CHAZ, one of the achievements of the BLM….
Very well written and well argued. “Black Americans participate in Asian American activism”, any source on this?
Vincent, here are some news articles. The links wouldn’t work so it might be a little more tedious to find them, but I hope you will take a look at them.
“Why Asian Americans should care about Black Lives Matter” ~~The Chronicle
“Black, Asian, and Hispanic House caucus chairs unite in ‘no tolerance’ for coronavirus racism” ~Nbcnews
“Video shows passenger defending Asian woman facing racism on New York subway” ~Nbcnews
Hope you take a look at these! 🙂
As a first generation American from China, I have heard many stories like this since I came to this country.
I strongly believe that we have to work together to bring justice when such tragedy happens, but I don’t believe violence can solve the problems.
I totally agree that we should not just focus on own history, but have a whole view of our society with different ethnic groups, and contribute our effort to make a more harmonic society.
I believe it would not be long before our Chinese community have a leader like Dr. King, not only fight for justice for African American community or Chinese community, but fight for justice of the whole society, in peace. And my hope is on people like you, to stand up and start to make a change on Chinese community’s leadership.
First, on generalizing, the author does recognizes their experiences are mostly from the Chinese-American community. Secondly, “as many are victims of racism” is exactly the point. The author herself was a victim or racism, being called a “bat-eater.” We as Asian-Americans must not be hypocrites – only choosing to see racism when its convenient and ignoring it otherwise.
Impressed by your letter Ms Huang. First rate.
There’s so much truth and self-reflection in this article, I really appreciate it. Hope for more dialogue on racism. No one is immune who has lived in the system in America. I have easily chosen to enjoy my social privileges while dismissing the suffering around me with the logic that they “have brought it onto themselves.” I have fallen prey to what the system and the texts wanted me to see and what they wanted me to forget. On one hand I saw, on the other I didn’t. It’s not fighting against any people group, nor generalizing. It is a dominant narrative being a white one, and we have all suffered injustice one way or another.
Brilliant letter! We should all be proud of having a young Chinese American student who stands much higher than all of us who are her parent generation. I truly like the saying to the effect the world is a better place because children do not listen to their parents who have a lot to catch up with their children. This is not dressing down of the parents but rather a compliment, Thank you for the great letter. We, as parents, should be really proud of you. This letter shows that you have already succeeded in the area of compassion, responsibility and vision. You have the whole world as your platform and stage to put your talent and love to play.
I applaud your effort and support the initiative of anit-racism. I just sent my son the poem of “First they came” by Martin Niemöller. On the other hand, I would like you to recognize that lots of Chinese people in US, Canada and China are not racist, they are helping the black people in many ways. Generalization may not be helpful, to either Chinese or black communities. There are lots of resources at Yale, such as many professors who are knowledgeable on this subject, and parents as well. Listening to other perspectives could be informative.
We Asian people stand with law and order!
Your language is similar to Trump’s, everyone has to pick a side. Our society is split because of that. It’s very easy to sit in a Yale classroom and talk about equal rights and liberalism. Please do what Helen Zia did, quit Yale and go to Detroit and be a construction worker, then come back and revise your essay.
Congratulations, Jack. Here’s my question: If Eileen did not go to Yale, would you take her seriously? Stop criticizing every aspect of her. Learn to look at things from her perspective. She is trying to share a new perspective. Please stop trying to bash a college girl for something that she believes in and start thinking about other ways to spend your time. Thanks.
We stand with good people, no matter what skin color they have, we don’t stand with bad behavior such as looting, burning police cars etc., no matter what skin color they have. Please draw you conclusion on what they do, not their skin color.
Dr Martin Luther King once said that “rioting is the language of the unheard”. We see it in the US today and we see it around the world in places like Hong Kong, where people feel oppressed and like they have no voice. The vast majority of the protestors now are not black and they are not rioting. They are asking for meaningful societal change so they no longer have to fear for their lives, the lives of their children, and their friends. You’re right, it’s not about their skin colour. But it’s very easy to dismiss the protestors as rioters because that would seem to absolve us of our responsibility to take action and to speak up against social injustice. “Oh, they brought it on themselves because they broke the laws,” seems to be the justification here. Let’s be better than that.
Please draw your conclusions from reality, not tunnel vision. While the news media is reporting about looters and protestors as though they’re the same group, that simply isn’t true. The vast majority of protests are peaceful, and often it is police officers who instigate violence; this can be seen through numerous videos of atrocities on Twitter. Here’s a brief video compilation of police using completely unjustified violence: https://twitter.com/whyadore/status/1266960236432130050?s=20
In other videos, it can clearly be seen that white people and undercover police officers are taking advantage of the situation through looting; the former because they think it’s fun to destroy property and don’t actually care about the cause, and the latter because they want uninformed people like you to denounce the Black Lives Matter movement.
Here’s a video of white people breaking windows while a black woman begs them to stop: https://twitter.com/thejordynbrown/status/1266633436359344136
Here’s a video of an undercover cop at a protest in Minneapolis: https://twitter.com/dyllyp/status/1266107862918377472
Even if the majority of protests weren’t peaceful, don’t you think it’d still be justified for black Americans to riot? After all, peaceful protest in the past never succeeded in ending police brutality. Bear in mind, these protests are not just about the horrifying murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery; they’re the product of centuries of racism and systemic oppression. Racism didn’t end when slavery ended or when Jim Crow laws ended; it only became more hidden. Read up on mass incarceration during the War on Drugs, redlining, and death penalty victims, and maybe you’ll understand why black protestors aren’t showing “bad behavior.” They’re only reacting to a system that has dehumanized them since their ancestors were brought to America in chains.
Are you from Mars? ” …and maybe you’ll understand why black protestors aren’t showing “bad behavior.”
Looting /robbery HAPPENED in Seattle by BLACKS and others, and just search “CHAZ”
Fight for freedom, freedom to speech/press, and freedom to think and to choose and to read!
Search for truth, and only truth will be able to set you free
You obviously lack the knowledge of the History of the Chinese people. The Chinese people are the most diversified people in the world after thousand-years of intermarriage between different races. You did not know one of the emperor Dima Shao was half Siberian. You obviously lack the knowledge of the Chinese culture which was formed after the dark Shang Dynasty. From Zhou Dynasty, the Chinese people adopted humanity as their culture. Human is the most valuable thing between the sky and the earth. Human life is not be taken regardless of race. Please do not represent Chinese Americans.
So what, Melinda? Because we are the most “diversified race” that by default Chinese can’t hold racist views? Chinese government has been brutal to even its own people through out the centuries. Han people are the most homogenous race. Be honest Melinda. Don’t accuse Eileen of lacking knowledge of Chinese history when you gloss over all the awful things that have happen in China. China is not alone in this. Every culture has its racism. Eileen is just calling out on our own racism during this critical time in America and asking people in her community to speak up and speak out against what’s happening to Black Americans.
You paint such a lovely picture of Chinese history, Melinda. Neglecting to mention all the cruelties and atrocities China has inflicted on its own people over the centuries. What does “Chinese people adopted humanity as their culture” even mean? Chinese Han people are the most homogenous race. What is the diversity you are talking about? If we are so diverse and so supportive of humanity, THEN LET’S ALL SPEAK UP FOR BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Melinda has clearly decided to gloss over whole chunks of Chinese history. Including all the times when China has subjugated and was cruel to its own people.
Han Chinese is possibly the LEAST homogenous ethnic group and the world’s largest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese.
Not to attack Chinese people, but you gotta get your facts and history straight people! Stop making it seem like somehow Chinese people are above everyone else and incapable of racism. IT’S JUST FICTION.
Eileen’s article is about asking the Chinese American community to STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT OF RACIAL INJUSTICE AND INEQUALITY IN AMERICA. Not to support the rioters. Not to support the violence. She had the courage to speak up about her own experiences and like it or not, MANY OTHER CHINESE AMERICANS have shared her experiences.
So Don’t Be On Here LYING about how Chinese Americans don’t hold racist views against other people…Blacks, Indians, Hispanics, Whites. THE RACISM IS THERE AND IT’S REAL. EVERY CULTURE HAS RACIST VIEWS.
BUT NOW INSTEAD OF JUST ATTACKING ONE OF OUR OWN for her “privilege”, her “racism”, WHAT WILL YOU DO? Sit by and watch while more Black Children are torn away from their families, falsely accused, arrested, imprisoned or killed? Stay silent while Black Fathers and Mothers are stopped by police and profiled, or subjected to violence, while they are working and struggling to keep their families intact?
OR WILL YOU NOW FINALLY STAND UP AND SAY NO!
Instead of sitting behind the safety of your computer to spend your attention attacking a college girl. COME ON PEOPLE!!!
What’s your point? Of course Chinese people are diverse. What are you even saying? When did she EVER say that Chinese people aren’t diverse? Don’t pretend that Chinese people are faultless, perfect human beings. Asian Americans have been racist. Sorry to burst your ignorant bubble. I don’t even understand the point of you posting this, unless you’re just looking for some excuse to attack her through any means possible.
In general, this is a great letter！However, generalizing that all Chinese Americans are racists is incorrect, as your parents cannot represent all Chinese Americans!
This article is racist and discrimnatory. How dare you generalize that the entire Asian-American community holds prejudice against African-Americans? You cannot speak for an entire race of people. Just like how you cannot generalize that all the police are bad. There will always be both good and bad people within a group. Personally, I am an Asian-American that is invested in George Floyd’s murder and it is insulting for you to claim that just because of my race, I am remaining silent and not sharing my sympathy to the black community. I know many other fellow Asian-Americans who are actively protesting on the streets right now. Your article is detracting from the efforts from members of the Asian-American community who are involved. So please, although the Asian-Americans that you see seem to not care about Black-Americans, do not generalize that sample size to the entire population of Asian-Americans. I sincerely request that you make changes to your letter.
Clearly there are a lot of “NOT-RACIST” Chinese Americans commenting on this article here and on Wechat.
BUT THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF ONES WHO ARE BULLYS!!!
Look at some of these comments toward Eileen…saying, “we’re not racist…you are!”, or “your parents should be ashamed of you for being so ungrateful”, “drop out of Yale”, to “you don’t know Asians/Chinese/Chinese History” and “clearly you are not one of us!”.
SHAME ON YOU ALL. You are not what you espouse yourselves to be. Your self-righteous condescension and attacks SPEAK MORE LOUDLY ABOUT THE CHINESE AMERICAN CULTURE and COMMUNITY than the original essay. SHAME ON YOU ALL!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and calling out an important moment in time for all people, including Asian Americans, to stand up and act.
I would like to note that the concept of “model minority” which you refer to multiple times is an idea started by white Americans to contrast and stratify different minorities. It is also used to pit one minority group (Asians) against another (Blacks). The term itself perpetuates a stereotype that white Americans want Asians to fit into (smart and hard working but docile rule followers) while using it to bring down other minority groups (why can’t…. (Blacks, Mexicans, etc)… be more like them).
Please be careful you do not fall into that trap and stop using the term to do exactly what it was intended for.
Dear Eileen, if your parents have racism against African American, then criticise them. You have no rights to say all Asians are racists and we do not owe everything to them. A Yale education should teach you not to overgeneralize.
Just want to echo Charlie’s words here: it is somewhat irresponsible to generalize the behavior of some members to the whole community.
I would agree that many of first generation Asian immigrants didn’t realize that they were discriminating, yet I believe it was also caused by the poor education they’d received — they didn’t have a chance to learn democracy when they were in their living. In US, they tried to make a living with their extraordinary hardworking and hence missed the opportunity to learn more either.
If you want to move them, you should try to understand them and find out the values we share together instead of scolding them for being racism. I believe they are all reasonable nice people and if you talk with your values and beliefs in mind they would accept your ideas eventually; on the other hand a condescending attitude only makes matters worse.
As a well-educated, gifted and privileged person, you should have taken more responsibility, shouldn’t you?
Well written!!
Would it be possible to start a collection of translations to this letter in different Asian languages? I think that would be a very powerful and helpful resource
I am not your “ We Asian Americans” who are all “anti-black”. Please substitute “I” for “We”. Sorry to hear that you grew up in an “anti-Black” environment. But it’s not my experience. Saying “We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-black statements and stereotypes” itself shows a certain level of racism to both Asian and black, let alone Blackasian ppl.
大外宣 小粉红
Thank you, Eileen! This is great!!!!
I fully support your effort of fighting against the racism. I disagree with you by pointing a finger at Chinese Americans. As a matter of fact, a lot of Chinese Americans stand up to fight against racism, together with African American and Latino community. People go beyond talking and donate, work with them directly to improve. Chinese Americans did not go to the street, with their good reasons. Chinese Americans as a group don’t have a voice in the US society. I hope the second generation can build a positive image for our Chinese Americans. I strongly suggest you to write down the positive stories, such as people came from poor families and worked hard to get to their positions. I fully believe that those positive stories can inspire the other communities and improve our society as a whole.
pointing a finger or just trying to start a conversation? in order to improve our society and our community, we need to talk about the ugly things too. i’m chinese american, not black, but i went to protests because i believe that we all need to work together to end racism and police brutality. even though there are a lot of chinese/asian americans who are fighting for justice, there are also people like peter liang, who shot an unarmed black man in nyc and we need to talk about people like him too.
You make a good point!!
I totally agree! Encouraging Asian American community to participate in race to racial equality is what we should be doing, but pointing fingers at what we didn’t do is not the way to go! Asian Americans worked extremely hard to have the place where they are today, they earned it with hard work and that’s why the younger generation can attend universities such Yale, to have the ability to write letters as this one. Every culture deals with situations differently, there is not wrong or right way. Many Asian Americans believe that actions speaks louder than words, what we do with our lives collectively changes the society. Protests and activism also proof to be very helpful way to bring change, such as effort lead by MLK, but in many Asians hearts, they know only when they become the best version of themselves to show the world who they are, is when they can earn the respect of others, and that’s how some decides to live their life’s and maybe stay silent. But does that make them wrong? In my view, they choose the a different path, and history shows that while Asians are victims of racism, we sometimes choose to stay quiet, but overtime, there are some improvements in the Asian community because they have proven to be good citizens and make positive contributions to the American society. While the recent pandemic are putting Asian Americans in a difficult situation, I do think this shall pass.
This is the belief of many Chinese American communities. That as long as we do and be the best that we can be, “white” or mainstream America will accept us and look up to us. But this belief has been shattered many times. 1882 was the Chinese Exclusion Act. This is after many Chinese came to US to help build the transcontinental railroad. 1924 Act Immigration Act allotted ZERO quota for immigrants coming from Asian countries. Then there was the internment of the Japanese Americans, many of whom even fought for the US in WW2. ONLY in 1965 did the US open to immigration from Asia. Even now, we still suffer the effects of racism from the very top leader of the US. Racists do not suddenly respect you because you are successful. They think they are superior because of the colour of their skin. We need to wake up and realize that our successes DO NOT PROTECT US FROM RACISM.
Agree！ She is a racist against her own race. What entitled her to point fingers at the entire Asian community? I can tell she knows very little about being an Asian.
“We Asian Americans“ in your article doesn’t represent me, I am a Chinese, have legal right to view too.
Why is everyone so defensive about that? If it doesn’t apply to you, then you should know in your heart that you are on the side of justice for BLM.
Crying out “Not all Asians” is pointless. If you have a “legal right to view too,” whatever that means, Li, then why don’t you publish an article and share it with the world? Let’s see how you do.
You have some good points here. But “the rampant anti-Blackness in the Asian American community ” is a false statement. I am not sure if you grew up in an anti-blackness family, even yes, your own case still cannot picture Asian American as a whole, this is basic logical issue.
我想对作者说，你觉得亚裔骨子里歧视黑人，那请说清楚是你们家的亚裔会这样，不要认为自己代表了所有亚裔。
Hi,
Not entirely sure what’s your intention but wanted to comment that I myself did not grow up in the discriminating environment you described. None of my Chinese-American friends grew up in the environment you described in the article. I feel it is very unfortunate that you had to grow up in a political incorrect / racist environment but that does not represent majority of Chinese-American’s ideology / belief. Myself and a bunch of my friends who are also Chinese-American grew up in this country would much appreciate it if you do not include us in your reminiscence as if it was true for all of us.
I find the accusatory nature of your generalizations excessive and pointless. I can’t say whether your parents are racists or not (that’s for you to decide), but you simply cannot apply your personal observations to the rest of the Asian-American community. No figures. No statistics. Just a collection of unreliable anecdotes and speculation that may very well be objectively incorrect. To me, that’s irresponsible writing. At least where I’m from (as a first-gen Asian-American), I’ve seen a much more fervent reaction (donations, activism, protests, etc.) over George Floyd’s death than anti-Asian COVID-19 sentiment.
Think carefully about what you’ve written here. Be careful not to pollute your well-intentioned message with stupidity. The right thing you should do is to regret behind closed doors (闭门思过).
That said, I concur that we do need to support Black Americans.
I think only your parents are racists. As far as I know, my friends and I do not have the bad behavior as you described. Please do not represent of Asian people which make you arrogant and ignorant.
Your ccp ! You must go back your home of evil ccp !
I applaud your passion, courage and deep reflection. But the bias /bigotry you mentioned in this essay does not represent the majority of Chinese Americans I have interacted with over the years. Such generalized characterization of Chinese Americans will only divide the community, in particular at this inflammatory time.
What kind of friend circle your family is in so they are anti-Black? Your family should feel ashamed. But Asian community is not anti-Black. Generalization make yourself a racist. I suggest you withdraw from Yale so an African American student can take your position to get the education he/she deserves, or donate the tuition your parents are paying for you to BLM and work to pay your own tuition, or buying a house to be neighbors with African Americans so your kids can grow up with them together.
As far as I’m concerned, your family is the one who should feel ashamed, Linda, by your rude behavior to a complete stranger. Withdraw from Yale? Your aggressive words are completely uncalled for. You can disagree with the author without personally attacking her.
Linda didn’t attack anyone. She just feel betrayed by second generation Asian Americans who don’t feel grateful for their parents’ sacrifice and hard work. Eileen is just throwing all Asian parents under the bus and blame first generation Asian parent for everything bad. This is just self focused and I will think twice about how to educate my kids. We would like them to be different, be grateful and respect their parent’s sacrifice, hard work and legacy. Don’t Asian parents have something great to talk about?
Does “respect” and feeling “grateful” mean she should stay silent about the problems? I don’t see where she’s throwing “all Asian parents under the bus” or blaming “first generation Asian parent(sic) for everything bad. Linda is most certainly trying to publicly shame Eileen and misusing the word “racist” in her attempt to make Eileen feel that she is wrong for speaking out. Asian parents teach that obedience is the price that children should pay for the sacrifices and hard work of their parents. But what if the parents are wrong? What if a community is wrong?
Being grateful and respectful to parents for their hard work and sacrifices does not translate to the needs to agreeing with them on problematic views around racism and human rights issues.
The author did not blame everything bad on the first generation, but simply pointed out to those who have been ignorant around these issue.
There is no need to allow your anger to misinterpret the central message of an essay.
The author is attacking the whole Chinese American community.
Please remove this racist article!
Linda, here’s the definition of racism.
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
How is what she wrote racist? SHE IS CHINESE. When did she EVER say that a race is superior? Name it. I dare you.
Honestly, this is so irritating reading replies on how she’s “racist”. What is even going on through your minds? How is she being racist? She is going off of FACTS. She has included her own experiences, obviously, but there are FACTS saying that Chinese people have been racist! Just because people have been racist against us doesn’t mean that we’re suddenly exempt from being racist towards anyone else.
If you can answer me how she’s being racist ACCORDING TO THE ACTUAL DEFINITION OF RACISM, then talk more. Otherwise, I don’t understand why you even posted this.
Why did you change the definition?
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
She is displaying discrimination against Chinese, although she is a Chinese. That’s why she is a racist.
I applaud the authors for standing up and calling out to the Asian community for unified support of civic right advancement along with the black community. I stand by you and others to seek justice for George Floyd, and firmly stand against white supremacists. Our community needs more leaders and future leaders of civic activism so that we won’t fall victims of racism any more. Unfortunately, I sense your stereotyping Chinese Americans similar to your parents and relatives stereotyping African Americans. It is unjust to generalize your view on your parents to all Asian community, similar to your parents generalized their view on selected few to all Black. Although it could be your personal view, this is NOT politically correct. The stereotype is harmful for our community’s image, and should stop.
I also think your biased statement of ‘we owe everything to them’ is unfair and insensitive to all the Asian Americans, including Lily Chin, and countless other Asian Americans who fought for minority rights in the past century. Not to mention the numerous exemplary Asian Americans who contributed greatly in elevating the social status of minorities which in turn propelled civil rights advancement. After all, legal framework can only provide the basic foundation to fight prejudice and discrimination, breaking dated stereotypes and more active participation in all social and political ranks are needed to truly eliminate discrimination against Asian Americans. It is human nature.
I agree totally with your comments
Asian is never exempt from racism. In most cases Asians are the worst in the racism chain. Asian does not own anything to African Americans. What Asians get today is never a given. What Asians have earned are from their hard works accumulated from several generations. Black live matters. Asians life also matters. Everyone’s life matters! What you urge people to donate to any organization, please make sure you know what they really did. Not what you think, or what you heard they did. Do real research and present the facts first.
Can’t be said better! Finally someone says something that makes sense.
Tragedies happen to white people too. Stop using generalization. And I’m also an Asian, and I don’t agree to what you wrote in your letter. Again, maybe your parents are racist, mine are not. Stop using generalization and see people, not color. Thank you. (And I’m sure your family appreciate your letter)
Calling for standing with our African American fellow citizens is a good noble call. However, please don’t you ever generalize your parents’ racist sentiment to all Asian Americans. Vast majority of the Asian Americans I know (myself included) are not harboring anti-black sentiments, nor racist. Please don’t label the whole community, which you as a young 20 some years old cannot fully understand or comprehend.
This girl can not judge the Chinese as community. Maybe her parents are racist, we are not
Stop anti-Asian. Stop representing for all Asian. Speak only for yourself. People should respect all hard working less complaining people, no matter what color they and they are.Color of skins are only genetic defined.
Please withdraw your letter. You are endangering our lives by announcing to the whole society that Chinese parents are racists.
Hello Huang, I support you for standing with black community to fight against racists. Good cause.
Quote, “We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes. I grew up hearing relatives, family friends, and even my parents make subtle, even explicitly racist comments about the Black community”.
Thanks for sharing your family’s story. I don’t understand why a racist family like yours could ever get admitted to Yale.
That’s your racist family. Please stop generalize all Asian American families because my family isn’t like yours, and my friends families are not like yours either.
If you feel guilty being raised in a racist family, be it. But don’t label all Asian American as racists, because we are not. Don’t blame your guilt on hundreds of thousands Asian American families, because you don’t know us. You only know your parents and your relatives who are racists according to you.
Labeling Asian American as racists just proves you are racist just like your parents. Your parents were disgusted by Africa American and you are disgusted by Asian American.
You think you are a Yale student so that you’re better than us and you can teach us lessons. Unfortunately it’s the opposite. You will regret for what you said today. I suggest you print your article out and read it again in 10 years 20 years. You will feel what I feel today.
[…] 英文版 […]
Wow. Even while recognizing that defensiveness is a natural response when being confronted with your flaws and asked to take a look in the mirror, it’s hard not to be angry reading all these comments. Truly nauseating how many of these comments are not just ironically proving the author’s points, but doing so rudely and disrespectfully. “Drop out of Yale”??? Really?!
As an Asian American on the ground in Minneapolis watching all of this unfold in front of my eyes (who DID grow up with an explicitly racist Asian family and can confidently say every single Asian friend I have has implicit racial bias, myself included), thanks for your bravery in contributing to the dialogue so publicly Eileen. For every one hateful comment, know that there are two people like me who are inspired and encouraged by your words.
Amy, you are the “Woman!”! Chapeau. Ms Huang has proved Yale wise to have accepted her. Congratulations to both Amy and Eileen. Brava.
The critical comments are not hateful. The article is actually kinda hateful, generalizing the whole Chinese American community, pitching one group against another, demanding Asians to take side… When you say people are racists, ask yourself if you really understand the word, and if you really understand the people.
There are plenty of people here who aren’t 20-some-year-olds and who do understand the circumstances that Eileen is writing about. As if age somehow prevents you from having views that are wrong? The level of condescension in some of the comments here…implying that somehow Eileen is ungrateful for all that her family has sacrificed to provide for her…how dare she cast “shame” on to the image of Chinese Americans…is sadly disappointing yet characteristic of the Chinese cultural perspective. “SCRUTINY IS NOT THE SAME AS CRITICISM.” If you’re NOT RACIST, then you are ANTI-RACIST. In which case, you should SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST RACISM. If you think somehow you are protected from systematic racism as a Chinese American because you worked hard and sacrificed…don’t you think there are Black American families who’ve done the same things and still worry about their sons being stopped and killed by police just driving home in the family car? THAT IS RACISM. So what will you do about it? Is it enough to say, as long as I’m feeling safe (for now) it’s fine for others to be victims of violent racism? Black Americans speak up and actively protest against racism. NOW WILL YOU?
I admire your courage to speak out the anti-black discrimination in Chinese-American community. But don’t be discouraged. There are many Chinese-Americans, especially younger generations like you, who understand racism and are willing to stand up with Africa-Americans to fight with all racisms.
Most racists don’t admit that they are racists. I saw many angers in wechat towards your post, and some will come here to bully you. Be prepared and don’t be discouraged.
I am sorry that your parents were such racists. You definitely taught them a great lesson. However, I don’t think you can claim anything for OTHER Asian parents, though. If you need help teaching your parents more, I believe many Asian parents can help.
terrific that this letter has been translated into Chinese! and with photos https://chineseamerican.org/p/31574 What a great way to be able to talk about a difficult subject when language is a barrier
Racial stereotyping is indeed common and Asian Americans are not immune to it. I believe all human beings, regardless of skin color, harbor some racial stereotyping thoughts to various degrees. I completely agree that we as a society should fight against racial discrimination against African Americans and other minorities. Stereotyping is different from discrimination. From my experience, some first generation immigrants do sometimes show a lack of sensitivity (or political correctness) in the language they use when they talk about race to family and close friends. This is partly because they came from a mono-racial society without prior education on this topic, and partly because of language barrier. However, I do not believe this is a common or ubiquitous phenomenon. When I hear racially insensitive language from friends I would point it out, and people always appreciate it and think it is a great learning opportunity. It is quite rare from my experience. Besides, people who occasionally say insensitive things are not necessarily racists – and certainly NOT to the level of discrimination, which is a crime. For example, the “racist talks” you mentioned in this letter, are they outrageously harmful things or just petty casual small talks? Not that we should tolerate the latter, but certainly the intention can be quite different. Personally, I feel this letter is trying to over-politicizing an issue, and I particularly do not like the warning of violence in the opening paragraph of this letter. So some Asians you know said insensitive things, and it will bring violence to entire Asian race? Wow, do you imply that all Asians are bad racists who deserve violent punishment, or do you suggest that some African Americans will bring violence to people who did not commit any crime? It sounds like a threat, and racism in its worst form!
Please don’t ever generalize your parents’ racist sentiment to all Asian Americans！Majority of us don’t fit into the stereotype you falsely labeled on us.
There are 17 million Asian Americans in this country. How many of them have you spoken to before you made a generalized statement?
I’m sorry that you seemed to grow up in a toxic environment with toxic parents. However, please do not generalize your sad experience to accuse ALL Asians as racists. In fact, in the systematic racism in America, Asians are one of the most suffering groups.
Where were you when the NYC mayor proposed to remove specialized high school tests and by extension, taking away the opportunity for many poor Asian American students to receive quality education?
Where were you when officer Peter Liang was being persecuted?
Where were you when California promoted SCA-5 to impose racial preference in school admissions to discriminate Asian American students?
Where were you when Asian businesses were looted by unlawful rioters in the past few days in many cities?
Where were you when Asian Americans were called virus and violently beaten on the subway by criminals?
Did you write anything to condemn the racist behavior against Asians?
Instead, you chose to virtue signal by calling all Asian Americans racists when the entire country has agreed on George Floyd’s injustice. Your logic is flawed and your opportunistic race baiting behavior is shameful. I hope and pray that there is no more violence to small businesses owned by Asian Americans because your letter is inviting violence towards the Asian American community.
I also feel sorry for your parents who raised such a self-loathing daughter who clearly feels insecure with your own identity. Your character is not defined by an article you write but by your prejudice towards your own Asian American community.
“We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.” Since you go to Yale, please provide appropriate (not anecdotal) evidence to support this conclusion. Otherwise this is a perfect example of racism against Asian Americans.
To generalize is never the right course, as people are good and bad, from all races. Everybody is racist to some degree, the real problem that people are fighting is to counter the government and the police force so strong now that they can get away with any sort of action. People of all races are tired of mistreatment, as I agree that all the minorities need to stand up together.
Minorities need to stand together, I support the authors view.
strangely, Chinese people around me do not speak racially disparaging language. I guess my Chinese friends and I all understand to treat people by who they are instead of which group they identify with.
I feel sorry for the environment you grew up in, but your relatives don’t represent Chinese American as a whole. sadly, more or less, you take after them, and your racism target is Chinese American. if you want to be anti-racism, please learn from step one – an individual or a small group doesn’t stand for a bigger group.
What a lie! You think and share racist thoughts to your family everyday. Do you have one black friend? Have you talked to your black neighbor to REALLY get to know them? Or you’re in your own bubble? How would you feel if your son or daughter wanted to marry a black person?
Please do not represent all Asians in America. My family are not racists and never hold any prejudice against African Americans. Maybe your friends and your parents are. We all know the danger of generalization. If you feel like “educating” others, please keep it within your own circles. You do NOT have the right to represent all Asians in America and accuse us as being “anti-black”.
Also it seems ridiculous that you only select comments that praise you. You do not even dare to hear all opinions.
What on earth? The top comment is full of replies degrading Eileen for her opinion. Check your facts.
We stand by the law and order, not judging people by their color. Please do NOT generalize that Chinese Americans are anti-black. If it is true for your parents or the people you have encountered, you may reach out to them and make a change.
To be sympathetic and stand up with minorities is the right thing for Asian Americans and any other races. It is a good point. I agree with you that everybody should fight against White supremacy. But, please try to respect the listener’s feeling when you present your point. I am disappointed in…. I don’t see… I urge you to…. this is not an encouraging way to talk with our kids, our parents and anybody. Respecting people’s thinking and behaving is as important as respecting George Floyd and any other people’s life.
We did benefit from black community’s civil right movement and I condemn the police brutal force in strongest term possible. However, the author is making an “either or” argument that divide us and disregard Asian community’s hardworking, obedient spirit, which is nothing wrong. Asians did relatively better among minorities not just by hardworking, of course we owe blacks sacrifice. It should not be either / or, but BOTH! Learn from MLK and Ghandi, violence only bring more violence and not peace. We Asians can help African communities with education, jobs and health related issues and they will do better! Please don’t defame your Asian parents and communties as by standers and selfish group. We want to help but there has to be more than donation and riots! Think about it why single mom % increased dramatically within black community over years? Why drugs and guns keep haunting them? Did politicians really do some reform systematically for black families (not just school, which is far from enough!) Let love and light come and drive darkness and hatred away!
Stop generalizing your own family and friend circle’s racism sentiment to the entire Asian community! Just because you come from an affluent community, you can’t ignore the fact that so many Asian Americans are working their ass off struggling to live a better life. You can’t pretend you don’t know their stores and restaurants get robbed in the black neighborhoods, their kids get bullied in school, themselves become targeted crime victims. As Asian Americans, we stand by law and order!
As a young Chinese American grow up and educated in the US, I hope you think before act. This incidence of tragedy is a very unfortunate accident. My deepest sympathy goes to the victims family. Like I said the victim in this case could be a white, yellow or anybody. I don’t this this will justify any strong protests or violence right now. Young people think, think why this becomes such wildly spread protest. Could it be who ever behind it is using this incidence to get more people infected with COVID,stop reopening of the country and influence the presidential election. Think who is laughing at the US chaos now, the PPC of China, George Soros, and those international groups who hate America!
Please do not generalize racist comments within your small inner circle (your parents, your siblings and your relatives) to the whole peace loving and hard working Asian community.
The author is making a huge mistake by taking specific racism behavior of her parents/family/friends to make a broad universal statement on the whole Asian American community. Her lack of understanding, irrationality and arrogance on representing the Asian American community is purely shocking. This kind of behavior is hurting Asian community and the author needs to correct her statement and apologize to all of us who were misrepresented by her. While there is a lot of good stuff in her letter, when she throws a false accusation on us, we have to defined. BTW, I stand up for black people’s human right, because that is the right thing to do, not because they helped us before.
“We owe everything to them?” Where is this sense of entitlement coming from
A bit of your background would help me understand your stand better. Sort of you are naive.
Ms. Huang. I appreciate your effort to write such long letter. Unfortunately your logic seems to be wrong. To me as a data engineer, your sample data(your parents are racists as you said in your own letter) is too small which could not represent the whole Chinese American community. I encourage you learn some logical thinking and have some basic scientific approaches before you write arrivals or letters. Also Please don’t represent me and my kids and my family who are not racists to anybody at least. Thank you.
Ms. Huang. I appreciate your effort to write such long letter. Unfortunately your logic seems to be wrong. To me as a data engineer, your sample data(your parents are racists as you said in your own letter) is too small which could not represent the whole Chinese American community. I encourage you learn some logical thinking and have some basic scientific approaches before you write articles or letters. Your letter actually may bring damages to Chinese Americans. Also Please don’t represent me and my kids and my family who are not racists to anybody at least. Thank you.
Hi Elieen, as a reader, I appreciate your letter and expressing your point of view. As a mother and a daughter, I am sad to discover there is minimum appreciation that you have shown in your words – appreciation to your family / parents. Please accept my apologies if your parents are not responsible at all and have not really devoted to support you.
I think I could partly understand your feeling. The news make you sad about people who has not be treated with justice – I feel the same way and want to act on it. However, have you treated your parents with enough empathy? Do you think you have stand in your parents’ shoes and try to understand why they are who they are today? Everyone grows up in different environment. It is the people you have met, experience that you have gone through, and books that you read made who you are today. Your parents might have a different point of view because the experience that they had. Please don’t hurt the ones who love you.
Dear Eileen and Yale students who co-signed the letter to Chinese American Community,
In the midst of Covid 19 pandemics, political conflicts between China and USA, and the heartbreaking death of George Floyd, the world that we are so used to is at the brink of breaking down.
As a first generation immigrant that moved from China to the US 20 years ago, and father of a teenager daughter, I appreciate your letter which set me thinking.
It is encouraging to see that younger generation like yours are demonstrating compassion, courage, and eagerness to make this world a better place. The young generation have much more access to information than I had when I was your age. I always amazed and impressed by the kids here in the US on how they develop their own views about this society. Therefore, I respect your point of view. As a privileged, selective group of elite students in an Ivy league college, you seem to fully appreciate your status and are willing to share your fortune with the underprivileged people.
However, as Baltasar Gracian put it in his book, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, one should “avoid the fault of your nation”. I’d like to express my opinions relating to this sensitive topic for discussion as well.
It is very unfortunate that you grew up hearing “subtle, even explicit racist comments” by your relatives and parents. It seems to me an example of failed education even they, I assume, utilized all they could and helped to get you to Yale. It should never be about the color of people’s skin, it is all about the people’s characters. Yet, merely based on your personal experiences, you are labeling the whole Chinese American Community with “ anti-Black statements and stereotypes”, isn’t your statement itself a stereotype?
It always bothers me when people shout out “racist police officers”no matter what happened. In the case of George Floyd, Police violence? yes. But I am not ready to call the White and Asian police officers racists before I see the evidences that show their actions are racially motivated.
You are right about the message, We ARE the model minority. Not because we are doctors, lawyers, and/or other overachiever. It was because we established the culture of pursuing self-made American Dream with or without the racism against us. We take our childrens’educations as our highest priority and we choose sacrifices for the goal no matter we are rich or not. If you did not have to go through starving and lack of clothes during your childhood and you did not need to worry about money en route to Yale campus, good for you. You are privileged and your parents paved the way for you as most of Asian parents chose to do.
However, many of my generation came from humble grass roots and many of the earlier generation of Chinese immigrants came to the US with a few bucks in their pockets. They chose to work their way to success and save every penny for their children so they can go to college. It has everything to do with culture, nothing to do with race. You saw the fact that many Chinese Americans ended up in affluent neighborhood. However, I encourage you explore their experiences on how they get there.
There is no doubt the African Community has contributed tremendously to the equal rights of minority communities. However, Dr. Martin Luther King wanted non-violent, peaceful route, and he said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” As I have observed, African American community has more privileges in jobs, even with lesser qualifications thanks to the Affirmative Actions. As a matter of fact, there are more reverse prejudices against other races in job markets and college admissions nowadays.
Chinese community has also contributed tremendously to the equal rights for minorities but the efforts were in a much more peaceful and quiet way. It is true that the Chinese community did not take the street easily due to its culture. They tend to be less involved in the political activities. These might be the areas that the Chinese community shall improve. However, the contributions to the society are in many forms and in many ways. These passive approach toward politics does not mean that Asian Community shall feel guilty for what they have achieved.
It is unfortunately that you did not see the outrage for Vincent Chin by the Chinese Community. Chinese Community did not carried by African American Community’s painstaking and struggles. Both communities supported each other. Please look up the history, the Vincent Chin case ignited the push for Asian American rights and it is part of the contribution by the Chinese community in civil rights movement.
When you brought up Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, I felt that there is a deeply rooted bias and overlooking of the facts. Trayvon Martin case was between two minorities. You may argue the legitimacy of use of weapon by a minority Hispanic resident, there is no evidence it was race motivated. The facts of Michael Brown case were well investigated. I encourage you to research the case profile. Many people kept silence because they don’t believe it was a racial discrimination.
It also bothers me that there are countless other Black Americans who were killed merely for existing. I don’t think it is factually accurate. Let’s take the color of the skin out of the equation, you will see that it was law and order against crimes. Data shows more White criminals were killed by law enforcement than Black. There are many article and data available relating to crime rates. I encourage that you look up the data and do the research.
Racial discriminations still exist in the US. White supremacy still exists in the US. It is definitely necessary that we voice out and against any racial discrimination and don’t forget Affirmative Action. However, when it comes to George Floyd case, I believe it is about police violence and I don’t see any evidences relating to race. I am not ready to call anyone racist before there are evidences showing the White and Asian policemen are racially motivated.
The law enforcements are facing tough situations all the time and they put their lives on the line for the good of the society. This case shall be investigated without bias and I believe that the truth will come out. However, standing on the moral high ground and playing race cards will not be helpful.
Lastly, the main reason that many of us decide not to support BLM and the protest activities was because we believe that this movement has been politically motivated. There are increasing evidences that some people in the backstage are provoking violence and there are political agenda which is not something we shall support.
My letter does not mean to lecture nor educate. It meant to inspire thinking. I don’t want to change your opinions. Not everything is about races. What we should do to help Chinese community? What we should do to help the African American community? What are to virtue and what held back these communities from more success? What are measures that the society can take to help these communities? No matter what your answers might be, I don’t think playing race cards in every situation is the solution that can solve the problems.
Recently, an Asian high school girl was cyber bullied because she did not put a supportive message to the protests. As your way to put it, her silence is “deafening”to some of her classmates and friends. So they gang up and pressure her to be in the same camp as them. Don’t you see something wrong here? She has a right to keep silence because she does not believe it was a race issue. The reason that we came to the US is because this country was built on freedom of speech which is in the first amendment of US constitution. Please look around you, if you are living in such an environment, your quest is on the wrong path.
Actually, NM, your assertion is not accurate. Black Males in America have more than 2x the risk of being killed by police than White Male Americans in the US. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/08/police-officer-shootings-gun-violence-racial-bias-crime-data/595528/ Black Americans in total make up just 12.6% of the US population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race. This is why there are more White Americans than Black Americans killed by police in total. But the likelihood of a Black Man being killed in America by police is still much much higher than for a White Man. This is NOT just because White Americans follow the law. So you see, NM, people are diving in the research. MANY MANY MANY people have dived into the research.
I encourage you to watch this brilliant talk given by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative at the 2018 Skoll Foundation Conference: https://youtu.be/q0A4f0r62XU
You saying that “the main reason that many of us decide not to support BLM and the protest activities was because we believe that this movement has been politically motivated” is EXACTLY the point. This is a political issue and a political movement for all the political parties. Even if you choose not to get involved in supporting the moment, you are making a political judgement. Chinese Americans have stood by not speaking up politically for too long. On this issue, we must speak up to protect our future and not just spend time on here promoting ourselves as not being “racists” and berating a young woman for not “respecting” her parents enough to stay silent. If you don’t stand for equal justice, it might not be there for you when you most need it.
Facts.
1. Black males do commit more crimes . In particular, George Floyd has a lengthy criminal record and most of you, Eileen Huang included, are not aware of it.
2. Police brutality is a problem
3. Politicians and activists do like to exploit the situation for political expediency
Wait, Mary Lagult…
When you say “Black males commit more crimes” as a “FACT”…
1. You are STEREOTYPING, GENERALIZING and making a RACIST STATEMENT.
Do ALL Black males commit more crimes than ALL ASIAN males? Everywhere? All the time? If so, please show us the factual proof.
The thinking behind your statement has been disproved SO many times in so many ways that I hope everyone reading here can see the ludicrousness of this statement. Not to mention its hypocrisy.
2. You’ve said enough times here about George Floyd’s criminal record, which he served his time in prison for. But ACCORDING TO THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES that still means he has a right NOT to be killed by police during an arrest. Especially when he is not resisting arrest.
What if the police had arrested the wrong George Floyd? Killed an innocent man during arrest? This is exactly the reason for laws like we have.
3. Politician expediency is a problem if it’s a) against the constitution of the United States, b) against the will of the people. BLM movement doesn’t seem to fit any of those.
You need to stop, Mary Legault. You have a right to share your thoughts here, but honestly, given the racist nature of your opinions, no one cares much what you say any more. 🖐🏼✊🏼
I can’t be racist . I am black.
I feel sorry for her parents. They completely failed her education despite the fact she went to Yale. Wait for her to throw them under the bus like in Chinese Culture Revolution.
I’m wondering how many Asian Americans have you spoken to before reaching the following conclusion?
“We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.”
I don’t have any problems with African Americans and I haven’t heard my friends expressed any anti-Black messages. Is your behavior considered as racial stereotypes as well?
I feel everybody is equal and race shouldn’t be a factor when considering what’s right or wrong.
As America Chinese, I (including my friends) we don’t have any racism toward blacks and any other races. You only present yourself and your parents. My parents never educated me have racism toward any races. My parents educated me to express love and compassion to other people no matter what races. So please don’t misleading other people that the entire American Chinese race have racism to other people cause we never did and will never do.
Where did she get the conclusion: Asian Americans are anti-black? No, we are not! All I can say, even she is a Chinese by birth, she DOES NOT know Asian Americans as a community.
“We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.” Where do you live? This is NOT what’s going on in my community, so I would appreciate you stop using the term “We Asian Americans”… you are writing an letter base on your own experience, but the term you are using is misleading. Learn to be responsible PLEASE.
“We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.” Dear Ms. Huang, do you realize that you yourself are a typical racist by writing down this sentence?
Thank you Eileen, what better time than now to have a conversation about race in America, and encourage people to find their role in all this.
I fully agree with you that we should support the African American community and try to end racism. But please… what you have seen does not represent the vast majority of Asian Americans. I have many Asian American friends, and I assure you that they do not harbor racist sentiments against African Americans. At all. By generalizing what you’ve seen towards an entire community, you are being racist towards your own race (and yes, that is an actual thing).
And also let me remind you that we are Asian Americans. Key word: Americans. We, along with all other Americans, DO belong in this country. Those who believe otherwise need to check their facts. And yes, we owe a lot to African American activists for bringing us the rights we have now. But “everything” is perhaps an overstatement. Being a student at Yale you should know that getting into Yale is no bed of roses. Is your own hard work not involved? Give yourself a bit more credit.
Eileen, thank you for your thoughtful essay. I agree that given what is happening, now is not the best time to be focusing on the sufferings and prejudice faced by the Asian American community. But I would also like to offer some context to your rather sweeping accusation of racism among the Asian American communities, especially with regard to the older generation. For generations Asian Americans have been caught in the crossfire of racial conflict between black and white Americans. When Rodney King was brutally assaulted by 4 white police officers in 1992, a riot quickly ensued. While national guards were deployed to guard places like Beverly Hills, Koreantown was blockaded off together with the poor neighborhoods and left to burn. When refugees from Asia came to the US, they were placed into the poorest neighborhoods with the highest crime rates. They were left to fend for themselves. How can they not be wary? How can they not be fearful? As immigrants Asian Americans carry with them historical and cultural baggages from their home country. Many Chinese Americans, for example, are shocked by the stark resemblance between the Cultural Revolution and the echo chambers that exist within certain extreme groups in America. The race issues faced by Asian Americans are a lot more nuanced than your simplistic portrayal of the Asian American community. I suggest you read the essay by Elaine H Kim, “Home is where the Han is: a Korean American perspective on the Los Angeles upheavals.” That would be a good start.
I’m sorry that your parents made subtle, even explicitly racist comments about the Black community. However, I’m afraid you are making the same mistake as your parents, by generalizing this racist behavior onto the whole Asian American community. Your parents should apologize to the African American community for their racist comments. And you, should apologize to the Asian American community by indicating that all Asian Americans are as racists as your parents.
While I recognize the importance of intersectionality and unity among POC regarding the rampant race-related crimes being committed today, it is incredibly counterproductive to detract from the efforts of countless community activists and organizers from the Chinese-American community in order to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Advocacy is never a zero-sum game, and lecturing our community’s elders about changing their values is not a productive way to increase support and dialogue. Instead, it is important to recognize the dual struggles that Asian-Americans face, with not just heapings of racism from white people and other POC, but also accusations of privilege from both sides. The Asian-American struggle is a unique one, and we must keep in mind that no one else has our interests at heart. It is critical to prevent outside forces from co-opting our fight for justice, especially those who are deeply racist against us regardless of their claims of “not being able to be racist.” Marginalized communities should stand together against racial violence, and this letter does nothing but rip our communities further apart. The privileged and myopic authors of this letter do not speak for our community; we must never allow these individuals to victimize our entire community just to placate the social justice mob that they are trying their hardest to appease. We must stand up for ourselves.
Eileen, you should be shamed on your racist parents, friends and relatives! However, please do not generalize your small circle of racists to all Asian community! You may need to go out of your racist circle to find these hard working struggled Asian immigrants as they are striving to put food on the table and support their children to study hard to be successful! Your racist circle might be elite and except from these hard working Asian American. Dividing only fuel hates!
When the gun carrying white people protested against Covid19 quarantine, I, like you, did not like them. I was hoping they would be arrested for endangering the public. But they did NOT break any laws, right? Therefore I could not call them thugs. I called them stupid. When looting started during the recent events, exactly why can’t we call them thugs and looters?
Hi Eileen, you mean well, but the words truly hurt someone like myself or the majority ppl in the Asian community who are not racist. When you use your family to represent the whole Asian community, I found it’s hard to believe the rest of what you wants to deliver. And the unfair judgment from a highly educated Asian American makes me wonder what our community did wrong, and made you anti your own community this much. If you have time, please step out of your circle and explore what is the real Asian community and stop the stereotype judgement.
We all have racial bias. Whether we choose to acknowledge it as wrong and unjust and make the effort to be actively anti-racist is the difference. If your immediate reaction is to say “not me,” I strongly urge you to reflect and ask yourself why. I am able to admit my attitude towards others is unfair at times and part of a systemic problem. Are you?
Thank you for the letter. It resonated strongly with me and speaks to the struggle I am facing with my parents in this moment as well.
I’m a second-generation Asian American; my parents were of the immigrant generation. My family does not subscribe to racial stereotyping; my parents and I choose to judge each person by the quality of their individual character, regardless of their ethnicity or social standing. When I try to look at this issue from the perspective of one who grew up in a racist family or a racist Asian American community, I understand how easy it is to agree wholeheartedly with Eileen’s letter, to view many comments in this thread as selfishly defensive, and to feel anger towards the Asian American community as a group. But when I look at this issue from the perspective of one who grew up without experiencing much racism in the immigrant generation, and from the perspective of one of the immigrant generation — and I acknowledge that this is the perspective I am more familiar with — I see how easy it is to feel hurt, unappreciated, and wrongly accused.
The black community has allowed us to live in a changed and better world; their lives and deaths, their civil rights activism has helped the Asian American community in a way we will never fully appreciate or understand. We owe everything to them. Our parents, the immigrant generation, came to America with little more than cents in their pockets; they gave everything for us, their children, and their sacrifice is something we will never fully appreciate or understand. We owe everything to them. Neither of these are debts that can be repaid so easily.
Let us not look down on our Asian heritage with contempt. It’s not a heritage merely of obedient doctors and lawyers as you describe it, but rather one of hard work, perseverance, and enduring love for the next generation. It’s a heritage of hope in a better future. Our parents’ sacrifices have allowed us to study in schools like Yale. They have allowed us the freedom from want and the resulting leisure to stand up for what we believe in — yes, even to stand up for the oppressed and discriminated-against. Some Asian parents have racist attitudes, which threaten to poison our comprehension of the precious and good parts of our Asian heritage. Don’t let it. Their racism does not negate their love which they poured out for us. Just as it is wrong to identify entire communities with unilateral labels, it’s wrong to identify individuals with such labels. All humans are broken, crippled individuals. Let us cherish the good, and gently correct the bad; let us help our parents and help each other reorient more wholly towards what is good.
That said, since our parents have painstakingly laid the groundwork below our feet so we may stand up for what we believe in, we must not let it go to waste. We need more than spark unrest and civil disobedience — we need “more active participation in all social and political ranks” as Goose the Shepherd commented above. We ourselves need to participate in the system we denounce — to change things for the better, not to destroy them. I’m not advocating that we be “obedient” lawyers, doctors, and engineers, blindly obeying the constructs history and society have set in place. Rather, I believe we must be active members of our community, we must ask ourselves whether our actions and behavior reflect the ideals we truly believe in, we must have courage to voice our beliefs out loud. Our Asian-American heritage comes into play even here. Hard work, perseverance, and love are most necessary in standing up for the oppressed.
Standing on the side of justice does not have to be radical or dissenting — it does not require being a “disrupter, activist, fighter, or survivor,” in the face-value definitions of those terms. Arguably, we can cause greater change by performing our daily civil duties. Voting, engaging in conversation with our peers, making friends outside our comfort zones. Yes; by getting to know a fellow person of color; by spending time with someone different than us; by understanding that person as an individual, yet also as a member of a people with a rich heritage, just as we each have a multifaceted Asian American heritage. Love and solidarity is as simple as personal relationships. And personal relationships go so much deeper and last so much longer than radical unrest and disobedience.
We should not do these things because we owe anyone anything. We should do them because it is THE RIGHT THING to do, because injustice is WRONG. Keeping score, thinking in terms of what we owe and is owed to us — only generates resentment.
“_Whose_ side are you on?” is not the right question to be asking, it does not have the right attitude. Rather than picking sides between people, we must pick sides between injustice and justice, love and hate. We must ask ourselves what we truly believe in, and if our actions reflect that. We must ask ourselves _what_ do we stand for — “_What_ side are you on?”
Erica W.
MIT c/o 2020
Thank you for such a well-written and compassionate comment. Could I have your permission to publish your comment on a wechat platform? I think it would be great if more Chinese Americans can hear your point of view as a second-generation Chinese American. If you are interested, please drop me an email to [email protected]
PLEASE EMAIL YITAO at [email protected] to tell him what you think of his letter on https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8VT8aUHDHcb-pmOIztwfFQ.
BECAUSE WE _DO_ UNDERSTAND THE MEANINGS OF THE WORDS “RACIST” AND WE GREW UP WITH THE PEOPLE, YITAO. After all, isn’t that why we went to Yale, Harvard, MIT and all the best schools?
Stop trying to bully Eileen and the other students by painting them as ungrateful and ashamed of their culture on CHINESE SOCIAL MEDIA. WE SEE WHAT YOU AND OTHERS ARE DOING. DO YOU NOT SEE THAT IT IS THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS IN THE UNITED STATES THAT HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR CHINESE AMERICANS’ HARDWORK & SACRIFICE TO SUCCEED?
YET, what if that foundation excludes Black Americans?
If you won’t speak up against the systemic racism the country is facing now like so many have already, WE WILL.
Please don’t represent all Asians! I appreciate any hard working people, regardless of their races. I worked in a top diversified company, and have many African Americans good friends. I support the protest for GF, but I don’t support any looting. For your letter, I agree your point of anti – racism.
But I don’t agree the part saying that Asian has the so called ‘previlige’. You grew up in a nice neighborhood, went to good schools, you don’t need to pay your tuition by yourself, that’s because the hard work of your parents, or even your grandparents. Do you know how hard the life for a first generation immigrant? Do you know how many Asian parents are willing to secrified their own needs for their children? This is not previlige at all! If we really want to find any previlige, the only previlige for Asian is their tradition of hard working and never giving up in difficult situation.
I shared your letter to my 14 year old, and my 12 year old, both of them disagree the previlige part from your letter. Although they are younger than you, they know the hard life of Asians, they know how to appreciate their family’s hard work and their ancestors good old tradition.
I applauded your courage to expose your own views of being racism learned from your parents and relatives and likely yourself. Please stop over generalized your bigotry view to all chinese community. Chinese American have been part of american fabrics for centuries. They do not owe anyone! please stop using guilty trip to blanket all chinese community! The death of George Floyd is a huge manmade tragedy that deserves justice and change in the justice system. Police brutality has to be condemned and held accountable on every case! However, these facts do not give you a higher moral ground to belittle chinese community, which is an another type of racism- self imposter syndrome to project your own inadequacy and poor self acceptance to your heritage. You can do whatever you want to advance your moral superiority and equality in this fractured world. please do not blame and over generalized your views to other chinese Americans. Thank you so much!
You can only represent yourself not “ WE Asian American”. I feel sorry that you grow up in an environment that your family , friends and your parents have the anti- black American statements and I think you should talk to your parents why they think that way. Most of Asians treat people equally no matter what color, please stop representing “ OUR Asian Americans”
Amy Lin, get to the point. Stop attacking others because they are expressing genuine anger toward bigotry and stigma by a previleged Asian young woman toward her loving parents and supporting community. BTW, her previlege was derived from the hardworking and selfishless support from her parents, not something she has earned by herself and can freely squander.
The author is not in a position of and should not under any circumstances be pointing her fingers at the broad Asian American community as racists purely based on her limited interactions with her parents and their friends. If she insists on doing it, she is clearly a racist and she is a divider of the community.
Being previleged is not an excuse to show how justified you are to point fingers at your parents and Asian Amierican community. Being previleged is something you should be extremely grateful to your parents and their sacrifice. You should feel lucky to be raised by such parents and grow up in such a community. You should use your previleged environment and attendance at Yale to amend the distrust of different races, but not to further divide and plant distrust among them.
I personally feel the author is a person with extreme ideologies that will not make the situations better but further pushing people into confrontation.
Hello Eileen,
I am a Chinese immigrant living in Canada but happened to see your post in the Google result by accident. Being in Canada I guess our living environments can be different in many ways. But I feel like sharing my experience and prospective to you, and other Chinese people as well.
I started off as an international student 10 years ago. Maybe as a fob 😛 – is that what some Asian Americans call the foreign students who do not assimilate well into western society? Also what makes me a bit different from my fellow Chinese students is my sexuality – I am gay. Also, despite the fact that parents are wealthy, I actually come from a broken family – I may elaborate that later.
I moved into dorm and made some friends from different backgrounds. Unlike some other Chinese students I did not have prejudice at all at the beginning. Like for once, I was eating lunch with my humanities Chinese classmate, when the resident assistant, who is an African guy, walked by. I said hi to him and my classmate, who I actually did not like for some reason, said “How come you have a black friend?”
You may think this totally proves your point. But hell no, I got more things to share.
The second month since I was in Canada, my friend, who was paying someone a visit near the school at around 2 pm on a Saturday, got robbed.
The mugger threatened him with a knife and took his phone.
I was actually very fearful. I did hear about safety issues before I came to this school but did not take it seriously. Now it really happened around me. I feared the next victim would be me.
Later, I read on the school bulletin that a student’s laptop was stolen in the library; student tried to catch the thief; however, the thief pulled out a knife at him and he had to see his laptop gone.
And what race do you think they are?
I swear I did not have any prejudice before then. But I found myself unable to look at black Canadian students like before. Please pardon my fear. I was not brought up in a multicultural environment like Asian Americans are. And I never heard of classmates getting robbed in China (FYI it was not the safest city in China and there had been some flashers around my senior high school tho. I felt very sorry for the girls. But later in life they seemed to be able to joke about it…? )
Now some may think “Ha, this guy turned into a racist”. But no, after I took up the courage to talk to some black students, I realized my fear was pointless. The students were just as cool as me.
I looked in the same way at everyone again.
Semester was over but I continued summer school. So did the resident assistant which I mentioned below. He was totally a good guy and I liked him!
We welcomed a lot of international students into our dorm, most of whom are Chinese. That kind of matched the stereotype eh 😛 I did not have much connection with them.
Till one day, one of a girls, cried to me, saying that her friend was robbed of her iPhone, in the school food court.
And one girl in a group I had a buffet with, told me she was robbed when waiting for a bus (on campus). She comforted us by saying “don’t worry! As long as you give your cash to the mugger, you’ll be fine)
This school is notorious for security. Receiving safety bulletin about someone getting dinged has become a routine for many of us. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating. I did know that sometimes the suspect race was showing as Asian, white or latino. Yes, everyone can be a criminal right..?
That is not much to say about my schooling here after this, as it would deviate. I did not have a good time there anyway – poor administration on top of bad security but that’s a long story. I graduated and got a job. It did take me quite a while as I was not very well prepared for job hunt at the time of graduation etc. I tutored some students before my job. One kid from Shengzhen was a total headache – a spoiled brat. He liked to go off tangents during tutoring. Once he said something about the Chinese village he lived in before he moved to Shengzhen and spat out some derogatory terms of the villagers. I tried to correct him but he would not listen. Later some black girls came by where we tutored and he started some racist crap against them again, like “I don’t like them. They are disgusting”. I got very angry as his racism was outrageous. I was like “hey you can’t say things like that. They are people just us. You don’t even know them. How can you say they are disgusting?? They don’t need your likes” blah blah
I thought I would always be a racism fighter, not as radically as some of you are but can serve as a little bridge between people. I spoke for the Persian customer who the Chinese supermarket staff the Chinese staff ignored etc. But I was wrong.
I got addicted to Caribbean style BBQ chicken. I made a local boyfriend. So I bugged my boyfriend to take me to somewhere to eat that. We came to this resto in a neighbourhood where it’s usually located. The staff was kind of cold. I did not take it seriously but when we was eating, another guy walked in and the staff perked up right away. I did not feel too comfortable but forgot about it.
… till I ordered at a Caribbean restaurant. It was in a very affluent neighbourhood and their food was so good. I ate there so many times. But that day, the guy working them greeted me with ‘yes’. Fine, rude, but whatever. I continued to the checkout, the cashier was really nice to the guy before us. I thought she was a nice lady. A nice person would bright up your day right?
To my shock, her smile was immediately gone when she saw me.
I don’t know how I offended her. I tried to smile to her but she remained apathetic.
When I walked out of the store with my food, I realized my race could very likely be a factor, so was the last incident that happened to me and my boyfriend. I was very upset.
Please tell me another possible cause.
I did not go back to these stores. I do not want to see their eyes again. Yet I did post reviews, describing my experience online. I know I need to speak for myself.
Since then, I wasn’t so interested in racism and such. I know it totally exists tho so I started paying more attention to politics and all. After all I would become a citizen one day. Politics would concern me. I noticed that on the political spectrum, a lot of people are really insensitive. I once worked at a big firm. The younger workers there, regardless of race, could be so radical. They made everything about race and called everyone and everything racist. It was at the tip of their mouth. It so turned me off and invalidated or weakened whatever they said to me.
I noticed also, it is always white vs black, with Asian, Indian and other races stuck in between. The leftist throw “racist”, “white privilege” and “bigotry” without any hesitation.
I still make friends with every single one person around me, as long as they are good person. I date people regardless of their race. I smile to everyone who is friendly to me. I don’t ask for trouble. But I know, a part of me, is really disgusted by most of the radical views on racism.
I don’t agree with some of the biases some immigrants have, Chinese or not. Even once a South Asian uber driver, who was very nice to me, said he would not let his daughter marry black or muslim guys. Yes sounds wrong too. I was stunned myself (shrug) he did told me his unpleasant experience with them. I was thinking “hey shouldn’t your daughter pick who she likes??”
But I am also indignant about this double standard of the mainstream leftists when it comes to racism and police issues. Some races can be racist towards other races and play victim when it is not in the least necessary. This is just not right. For instance, one black girl in my current university, when people were accusing one white student’s racist behaviour towards black students, she got upset even though everyone was with her. She said something like “you just want racism to go away. You don’t care about black liberation or such”. I was like “what????”
Also, since when being white is a sin? Asian are most times out of the picture but I see you try to put us in the frame, which actually confuses me. You see Asian community as privileged but what about the sweat they perspire for hard work? What happens when Asian was discriminated against and people were fighting for it? Maybe it is neglected, ignored, or swept under the carpet by some people but as a Chinese, I would not forget it.
I appreciate the opportunities Canada gave me, and I admit that Canada and the US protected the ‘disadvantaged ones’ better. I am a LGBT member, and I suffer from anxiety/depression and am on prescriptions. I receive extra benefit from the government so I am really grateful of that. I would love to help those who are marginalized and such. I appreciate the people who have fought for our rights But I don’t tolerate arbitrary violence, double standard, sensationalization or dramatization! That’s what the protesters are currently doing around the North America and they are hurting innocent individuals. The opportunists are doing whatever they want to damage the city. There are bad cops which I totally agree but, overall they keep order in our society. I cannot imagine a society without law and order. Like, why could some of the lefists generalize the police, or whatever you do to your Chinese community? There is some bad apples in the tree but that does not mean all apples are bad. Selectively picking your target is just wrong.
I send my wishes to my black friends in Canada and the US. But I want violence to end too. Same with many of my black friends.
I hope you don’t find my writing unbearable or too long. I just hope to get my point across, despite the fact that English isn’t my native language. I try to provide as many true events as I can, as I don’t want to be ‘subjective’. I will leave it to you, and any other readers to judge.
All the best with your future. And stay safe during the Covid.
Regards,
Mr L
Did she care to read and respond to your story ? Not a chance
Generalization is actually doing the opposite. Keep emphasizing stereotypes of color just push the society to the extreme, and more hatred. Defend the justice to the most should be the right way.
Instead of protesting on the street and destroying properties and small business, we should knock on the doors of elected officials to demand changes.
The politicians get our black cousins’ votes, and then do nothing to improve their lives. This is the real systematic problem.
If the politicians really care about our black cousins, they would have enacted laws and have made systematic change of law enforcement that will treat our black cousins and us as one of them.
It is easy to show up on the street but it will take a lot of collective efforts to hold elected officials responsible and make system change.
We must vote and hold our elected officials accountable.
Please listen to many others disagreements. Your views are very flawed and very prideful. Your parents racist sentiments should not be used to generalise the entire Asian American or Chinese American community. Do you know the number of tragedies and difficulties and bullying Chinese immigrants who are trying to make a living are subject to?? Now maybe not, because I know you are born into privilege. What about the others who try to fight their way to top, and succeed doing so after so many setbacks from the black community? I am a supporter of BLM, because w/o them, we cannot fight for All Lives Matter. Good intention, but you are a very close minded individual.
Your parents would regret to raise a daughter like you had you guys lived at the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution because I am pretty sure you would be one of those Red Guards who betrayed their parents and sent their parents to jail.
Newsflash. THIS IS AMERICA. THIS IS NOT CHINA, THIS IS NOT THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION. I’m disgusted how you are using history in a place that is not where she lives to try and belittle her. This is absolutely ridiculous.
As a Chinese American, I feel very grateful to be in this country and the system is very just relative to other countries. While you are screaming about one man’s injustice, you chose to ignore entire race getting persecuted. Look at North Korea, Hongkong, Kumer rouge, Mao’s murder. Tibet, Urgur. Why don’t you write something about their plight. That is FAKE justice from the left and it is poisoning kids at school. I tell my kids to follow the US constitution and be appreciative and grateful to be born in this country. It is not perfect but you wont find anything better on this planet.
Oh here we go with all the whataboutism. How do you know she doesn’t care about other injustices in the world? I think that says something about yourself if you make that assumption. If you are actually an American then you have the responsibility to fight against injustices in this country. You are either for Black lives or you aren’t.
“It is because of Black Americans, who called for an end to racist housing policies, that we are even allowed to live in the same neighborhoods as White people.” Big {{citation needed}} on that one. Post-WW2 redlining overwhelmingly targeted African Americans, and only occasionally Asians; and since the 1970s Asians have had the highest home ownership rates of any “minority” / non-White group: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennawang/2018/05/31/asian-americans-post-largest-gains-in-homeownership/#12b88b494a64
Also, ‘living in the same neighborhoods’ isn’t even a virtue in of itself, considering the
ignorancedegenerateness of the average American (such as 84% of them in 2014 unable to identify Ukraine on a map: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/americans-dont-know-where-ukraine-is-still-want-to-intervene/360287/)Final thought: I realise this is not a dissertation, but in an article heavily mentioning “Asian Americans” as a whole (and not just Chinese) it is disappointing to see no mention of Koreatown LA during the 1992 Rodney King riots nor the event’s seminal importance to Korean American identity
Elieen Huang: do you have any solid data to show the Chinese American are all living in a “privileged” life and social status? if not, how can you generalize the entire group people (at least 4M) based on your personal experience, and you also called them “racist” and represent them without permission . This could be a serious Law suit.
Yep…here you go: https://dqydj.com/income-by-race/
Asian Americans have the highest average and median income in the US as of 2018. Hope that helps for your lawsuit, Echo.
Joshua, you are perpetuating a common misconception. If you break down median household data by country of origin, India is the highest, obviously. Many people are surprised, Filipino is number two. Chinese are way down near the bottom. Many are trapped in low skilled jobs, but working very hard to promote their kids.
Income inequality is rising amongst Asian Americans.
But what’s your point? That Chinese /Asian Americans are not “privileged”? We are stuck in the same position as Black Americans?
Would anyone like to change places?
Is it the rule now that higher salary means more privileges?
To May…yep. Pretty much HIGHER INCOME MEANS MORE “PRIVILEGES” in America today.
Privileges like higher life expectancy (check!), more likely to be able to make bail if you’re ever arrested (check!), more able to afford your own lawyer and not a pro-bono lawyer if you have to go to court to face charges (check!), more likely to have access to WiFi and a computer / phone line (check!) to meet your legal requirements if you are arrested and put on probation, better able to afford a home and not be homeless!!! Plus, more optional leisure time (check!), better educational outcomes for your children, higher pensions in retirement…
Do you need more examples?
Everyone is talking about how ridiculous you guys are selecting what comments to show. Your system has been showing Amy Lin’s comment “6 minutes ago” forever already. It’s fake. How can you lecture others on racism when you guys are manipulative and dare not even show the real feedback? LOL. Most Chinese are laughing at you guys.
Not this one. I’m Chinese and I’m not laughing. I stand with Eileen. Looking at many of the comments here, clearly other Chinese do, too. You’ve posted several rude messages on here to Eileen and her classmates, with nothing constructive to add to the discussion. How are you not ridiculously manipulative?
You are stereotyping Asians. Maybe your family live in an affluent neighborhood but there are plenty of Asians who earn minimum wage. Remember you are surrounded by rich kids whose parents can afford Yale. Be careful what you write. This is not the time to become famous.
Does Asian life matter?
Where on earth do all these condescending words come from?? The author Eileen Huang is a miserable mixture of inner conflicts. Blindingly worshipping Black community to a point to betray her parents and relatives by portraying them as racists, meanwhile feeling inferior in front of white people by holding them as the common enemy to all people with colors. But what really disgusted me is, when facing her only race, she suddenly became superior to most, and thought she was qualified to educate and lead by degrading and stereotyping Asian Americans as obedient docs and lawyers. Who’s the one narrow-minded? Who is the real racist?This article is a piece of total self-hatred and repulsiveness.
It’s okay for Asians to join the peaceful protest but they must not join the riot. Those rioters are destroying their own country.
Please speak for yourself (shame on your racist parents), but I and all Chinese immigrants around me are not racist, my husband works for government, 90% of his colleagues are hard working African Americans, they talk about anything, how to work overtime, which school is good for kids etc. As a first generation mom, your letter does remind me to change the way I’m raising my son, I and my husband should stop working so hard and save every penny to give him a better life (privileged life), my husband and I had a long talk after reading your letter, and we now realize we can’t squeeze our life to spoil our kids, they won’t appreciate, even the worse they will feel guilty. From today, I will slowly tell my son that how I survived from working 40 hours at restaurants as waitress while attending college, how I survived from preparing next day finals in restaurant kitchen. And see if he still feel we, Asian is privileged.
I would first like to commend Eileen on expressing her opinions through this letter because it takes courage to speak out about such sensitive topics. I believe we need more people like Eileen who are willing to start conversation and challenge what is comfortable in exchange for what is righteous. I thank you for sharing the story of Vincent Chin; it is a story that I had no knowledge of before today. It is a story I am glad to now know because it is a revealing story about what needs to improve and an inspirational story about a time of solidarity between minorities. As a racialized community in America, it only makes sense that we should stand in solidarity with our black brothers and sisters when we witness them suffer due to the color of their skin. The undeniable fact that they have stood up for us during our own struggles only intensifies the need for us to support the BLM movement.
However, I must credit my knowledge of this article to my mother, who brought to my attention that there was some negative feedback. Before reading this article, I was blindly ready to defend it. I understood that it called for the Asian American community to act, and I wholeheartedly support that message. But after reading this letter several times over as well as the angry comments, I want to make some gentle suggestions as to why I think some audiences are upset.
One theme in the comments that I agree with is the over-generalization of the Asian American, and specifically the Chinese American community. I am not invalidating any individual’s experiences and observations of racist behavior around them. Those experiences are proof that improvement can be made. However, my experiences with the immediate and direct Asian community around me is different from yours. The majority of Asian Americans (many of them Chinese Americans) that I know have taken to social media to express how recent events have caused them to confront anti-blackness in the Asian community; I see them sharing so so so many links to petitions to sign and places to donate and resources on how Asians can become better allies.
I understand that you write from your personal experiences, but it appears to me (and probably other readers) that you failed to acknowledge that these are your personal experiences. By denouncing implicitly that you have seen no Chinese Americans take action, you not only discredit those who you do not see and are putting in effort to be allies, you (I assume unintentionally) glorify yourself as one of the very few Asian Americans that are capable of doing the right thing. To some, that does not feel encouraging. It feels dividing. I believe explicitly calling out Chinese Americans further divides us. Trying to inspire solidarity in a way that makes readers feel attacked and divided is not effective. Believing that you are not attacking a group does not mean they will not feel attacked.
Instead of antagonizing Asian American community members, I suggest challenging the culture we grow up in. Show how obedience and collectivism ultimately does not work in individualistic American society to combat injustice, how conforming to our white counterparts does not allow us to escape racism. I would like to think any hesitancy to speak out is due to believing that “minding our own business” and “not causing trouble for others” is considered virtuous and not due to a desire to be racist.
Explain that the model minority myth does not benefit anyone but white supremacists. The model minority myth is a construct created by white supremacists and used by white supremacists to divide us. The model minority myth denies persisting racial discrimination against Asian Americans. The model minority myth is detrimental to the many, many Asian communities that are not affluent, do not have access to education, and do not live in safe neighborhoods. The model minority myth is used to mask institutionalized racism and keep Black Americans and Latino Americans from climbing the socioeconomic ladder. The model minority myth is primarily utilized to pit Asian and Black Americans against each other.
Find a way to make people realize that not actively oppressing or not being racist individually is not enough because we still live in a SYSTEM that is racist; therefore, we must actively be anti-racist and confront racism outside of ourselves.
Challenge ideas, not people. And in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“The majority of Asian Americans (many of them Chinese Americans) that I know have taken to social media to express how recent events have caused them to confront anti-blackness in the Asian community; I see them sharing so so so many links to petitions to sign and places to donate and resources on how Asians can become better allies.”
really, Isabelle? Please show me a few examples that giave you the impression! Definitely not here because I see an angry mob of anties and uncles in denial!
Eileen, what you wrote is mostly true. Asian Americans do owe a lot of our rights that are hard won by Black Americans. I want you to know that the level of racism that Asian American females endure is not only different but also is orders of magnitude in degrees that Asian Americans men suffer. I want you to keep your eyes open when Black Americans perpetuate the stereotypes of Asian men to be weak, cowardice, fearful, small-penised, short, lack leadership strength, and on and on; they act on these stereotypes not only in words but also in behaviors—beat up Asian kids, terrorize Asian kids in schools and playgrounds, bully Asian colleagues at work, make fun of our cultures, languages, and accents, loot and vandalize Asian Americans businesses. Black and White Americans do all that and more TO Asian Men. TOGETHER. You as an Asian female has no idea what that is like and I don’t expect you to. When you criticize the people who raised by sacrificing so much, be gentle. It hurts deep.
So well written! And I’m so proud of you! I’m a naturalized American citizen who grew up in China. I did NOT come to this country just to have a “good life.” I came here with the hope that a republic of the people, by the people, for the people, regardless of their colors, will survive and thrive. In these darks days I see hope in you.
[…] Letter to the Chinese-American community […]
Racism does not just occur along racial lines; Asian, African, Hispanic, Latino, etc. It also occurs within racial groups. My maternal grandfather is a case in point. My family is of Polish origin. My great grandparents immigrated to the USA in the 1880s. My maternal grandfather was first generation American (b.1893); I am third generation American. When my grandfather tried to get a job, he was turned-down because he was Polish. He eventually lied about his last name and claimed that it was Schmidt; a German name. He got a job; there were no paper applications or background checks in the 1910 to 1920 era. Eventually, they found out that he lied, but by then he had proven he was a hard worker, and let him stay. He eventually worked his way up to foreman, over a period of 40+ years.
My point is that discrimination and racism know no color boundaries, or race boundaries. Racism is a Human malignancy that affects everyone, even those that believe that they are not racist, or that their parents were not racist; you just need to dig deep enough, and engage in fearless introspection, and admit the truth when you find it. Racism is a Human malignancy must be destroyed where-ever found, by the individual that finds it; when internal to that individual, or external as this article so well articulates.
In many, if not most cases, racism derives from stereotypes; Asians are all STEM geniuses, Africans or Hispanics driving a Mercedes must be criminals, Italians must have family connections to the Mafia, etc. These are all stereotypes, and they are all viciously wrong!
Racism will not disappear until each and everyone of us faces the ugly truth that there is racism inside each of us, even if we refuse to believe that it lies deep inside of us. Racism will not disappear until each of us expunges the last remaining vestige of stereotypes from our conscious and unconscious being. Every time a stereotypical thought bubbles up from deep inside to something you see or hear, that is racism, and you are responsible for identifying it, as such, and questioning where it came from, and expunging it from your being. Without everyone destroying the hidden racist artifacts that lives in each and everyone of us, and then consciously treating everyone else with dignity and respect, every second of every day, racism will remain a Human malignancy long into the future.
All the “not all Chinese” comments are utterly typical. If you’re Chinese American and you post a defensive comment like that, chances are you don’t actually care about black people.
Talking about stereotyping…. good example.
This is horribly disgraceful. Way to overgeneralize and degrade your own people. Keep in mind that you don’t represent the Yale student
body, you don’t represent Chinese Americans, and you don’t represent the Asians in this country who definitely haven’t contributed to any of this racism that you rail so hard against.
“We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.” Speak for yourself, but Asian Americans aren’t the ones who created the transatlantic slave trade; Asians aren’t the ones who perpetuated institutionalized racism for hundreds of years.
“We Asian Americans like to think of ourselves as exempt from racism.”
Absolutely not. Many Asian Americans grow up being called racial slurs and being bullied for the shape of our eyes. Many Asian Americans are stereotyped for being nerdy and meek.
“After all, many of us live in affluent neighborhoods, send our children to selective universities, and work comfortable, professional jobs.” Wow. In your argument against racism, you still managed to perpetuate racism in the form of the “model minority myth.”
I found this most ridiculous. Propagating hatred in name of love; demonizing Asian people in name of anti-racism. A black person who commits a crime is his own problem, why do you generalize whatever improper personal behavior to the whole Asian people? Where is your logic?
So quickly point finger to the Asain community. Not only generalize the Asains but also generalize the African Americans. Maybe you should question yourself why you try so eagerly to align with the white elites at this time? When was the last time you stand by the Asain community? Call me diffensive or uncomfortable. But ask yourself why you are so uncomfortable because you are Asain?
The author is arrogant and self-righteous. Propagating hatred in name of love. Demonizing the whole Chinese community is a practice of racism, whoever does it is a racist, even though the perpetrator is a Chinese American.
During the time of the civil right movement, there are so many White people participated in the movement. Without their effort, the movement would not have been successful. Ignoring their contribution and generalizing white people as slave owners and anti-black is wrong.
In fact, right after the Floyd case, the leader of Asian American community along with the African American community sent out an open letter condemning the racist crime by the 4 police officers. The author is arrogant, ignorant . I am worried that the article will mislead the two communities into future conflict.
It is sad to see so many Yale elites to side with this ill-informed viewpoint. Think of the possibility that they might be the group of people who will manage this country …. They can give better future for both communities?
That’s great that you are at this time, supporting the rights of White Americans against being discriminated and stereotyped as “slave owners”, Hongbin Deng. *eyeroll* REALY??
How many of the White Americans would willingly trade places with any Black American in the US today? For that matter, how many Chinese Americans would willingly exchange places with a Black American today?? If you can’t understand why the WORLD is standing up for BLACK LIVES MATTER movement right now, then you are really not paying attention. 👏🏿👏🏼👏🏽👏🏼👏🏾👏🏿👏🏼👏🏿
Pathetic virtue signalling from second generation “Asian Americans”, itself a made up category with next to no analytical value, who want to fit into the American culture wars. Don’t believe for a second that your ritualistic self-flagellation will save you.
I know that you are getting a lot of hate right now especially from Asian parents or older generations. But, to me, and hopefully the younger generations, this is inspiring and motivational, giving us a chance to do better than our parents or grandparents. Thank you for being brave enough to share this and I apologize for all the hate you’re getting. Please know that people stand by you in your message. Be safe. Thank you.
As a first-generation immigrant, naturalized Chinese American, and a parent of two US-born children, I ask you please, DO NOT generalize your “relatives, family friends” and your “parents” racist comments and opinions to the entire Chinese or Asian Americans. All races in the US contributed to the growth of the country and the society including Chinese Americans. Even during the time of “Chinese Exclusion Act”, the fight by Wong Kim Ark in the US Supreme Court establshed birthright citizenship. This was also presented in the “Asian Americans” documentary in case you missed it. Your claim of “we owe everything to them” or any similar claim of one race owing “everything” to another, by itself, is racism to be honest.
I stand with you in fighting against racism and injustice, as other Chinese and Asian Americans do. Among many other reasons, most of us first-generation immigrants experienced and suffered from much severe injustice system before we came to this country. I encourage you, as part of studying the history, study the history where your parents and your grandparents used to live. You will understand why Chinese and Asian Americans feel the pain today no less than others. Chinese Americans need to be more active in social and political activities. However, stereotypes and blaming are not the way to achieve your goal.
Bravo, Eileen! So glad you are speaking out and being a leader to call on us to follow. Supporting one another (regardless of skin color) where social justice is concerned is our most basic responsibility while living in a multiracial society. All too often we forget we are persons of color in this majority white society, and we are considered as forever “foreigner/immigrant” no matter how many generations we have made this country our home, and how “American” we think of ourselves to be.
For all too long, Black Americans have been on the front lines of brutality, and injustices in many respects. Never before am I so proud of you, the young generation of Chinese Americans. Your description of keeping distance from or looking down upon African Americans among many in the older generation Chinese Americans (of which I am one) is right on. There are so few of us who try to speak up but are usually drowned out by the dead silence and disapproval glances of others. Such attitude perhaps partly due to the culture that teaches the best survival strategy is to not make a wave, retreat and hide or blend in, we shy away from stepping up or be vocal.
I sincerely hope George Floyd’s death will finally see the beginning of overwhelming support by Chinese Americans, and hope that our deeds will bear witness to our willingness to stand up for and shoulder to shoulder with Black Americans. At the very least, let’s reflect on this awe inspiring story about the owner of an Indian restaurant that caught fire in Minneapolis: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/31/my-familys-restaurant-caught-fire-protests-let-it-burn-oppressive-systems-with-it/
There are plenty of people here who aren’t a young 20-some-year old, who do understand the community Eileen is describing and why she’s doing it. The level of condescension in the comments here are disappointing yet recognizable from a Chinese cultural perspective. As if age somehow stops you from holding views that are wrong. Some comments imply that Eileen is ungrateful for all her family’s hard work to get her to where she is today…that somehow she is bringing shame to her family (and to all CHINESE AMERICANS) for raising the issue of us keeping SILENT AGAINST OBVIOUS RACIAL INJUSTICES against Black Americans. “SCRUTINY IS NOT THE SAME THING AS CRITICISM.” If you’re not racist, then you are ANTI-RACIST. In which, case, SPEAK UP and SPEAK OUT AGAINST ALL RACISM. There’s also a fair amount of concern in the comments on protecting “the image” of Chinese Americans…in case of what? In case Chinese Americans somehow become victims of racism? WE ALREADY ARE. If we can’t trust the police to treat a Black American with respect, what makes us think they will be required to treat a Chinese American with more respect and dignity? Think about it for a moment. Your answer will tell you a lot.
I very much like Eileen’s stance on support black community, and I agree with most of her points.
However, just because Eileen observed something from her own family doesn’t necessarily mean she is qualified to represent all Asian Americans: “We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.” Please stop. If she is trying to compare Asians here to the majority, this statement does not seem right from what I observed for all my surroundings.
Agree with her some points but don’t generalize the bias to the whole Asian community.
[…] authority looming over protesters. I have read the heartfelt plea of a self-proclaimed, privileged Chinese-American man asking for his community to get off the sidelines and take notice of the injustices that afflict […]
I am a Chinese American who remembers what it was like during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and lived through it. I am proud to be Chinese, but I also came to America to have FREEDOM…freedom of free speech, freedom for my children to grow up without living in fear of their families being torn apart by the government, freedom to have fair legal systems and accountable police.
There are a lot of comments that either fall into the camp of “HOW DARE SHE IMPLY WE ARE ALL RACIST” or “HOW DARE SHE BE UNGRATEFUL TO HER PARENTS‘ HARD WORK AND SACRIFICE”.
EILEEN is entitled to share her experience. JUST LIKE THE MANY FIRST GENERATION CHINESE AMERICANS who are sharing THEIR OWN EXPERIENCES…WHICH ARE MOSTLY LIMITED TO AFTER THE 1960’s.
Most Chinese Americans who arrived in the 70’s, 80’, 90’s do not REALIZE THE PRIVILEGES THAT WERE AFFORDED TO US BY THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT fought for by mainly black Americans. Even though Chinese Americans came to the US and worked hard to create success, doesn’t mean we weren’t privileged to do so. To have our families structures intact and know our family histories with links to our ancestral language and cultures is a privilege. To not be descended from slaves torn from their ancestral homes is a privilege. To not see children of our communities FALSELY accused of crime, then thrown into prison or even worse…that is also a privilege. To be able to drive in your own car to your own home without having to worry about being pulled over by police is a PRIVILEGE.
To be FREE OF ALL THESE TYPES OF INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMAS that Black American communities have been subjected to in the US is a PRIVILEGE THAT FOSTERED SUCCESS FOR MANY CHINESE AMERICANS. BUT THAT PRIVILEGE DOES NOT PROTECT US. Just because we follow the rules DOES NOT protect us from all forms of systemic racism and abuse. We’ve learned that from the Japanese Americans who were rounded up into internment camps during WWII. Of course NOT ALL POLICE ARE RACIST, just like NO ALL CHINESE AMERICANS ARE RACIST as many have said. BUT…a community that DOES NOT SPEAK OUT AGAINST RACISM is NOT the same as ANTI-RACIST.
None of us condone the violence inflicted on George Floyd, his family, his community. But WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT NOW? Will you be Anti-racist? Will you FINANCIALLY SUPPORT the groups listed in Eileen’s post helping those falsely accused of crimes or arrested for peacefully protesting? Will you VOTE out those officials who support and even protect racism against Black Americans, all the while only paying lip service to the requests of Chinese American communities? Will you step in and SPEAK UP next time you see a Black American being mistreated by police?
OR WILL YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU?
THANK YOU!!!!
Fighting against racism is not just black people, all races have participating in the process, including white people, and of course Asian American. The war to emancipating slave could not be won without the white people participating. since then people from all races have been contributed to a more racism-free society.
I was totally depressed and heartbroken after I read this letter. Lots of bad memories came back to haunt me. It reminded how I have been treated and discriminated when I first come to USA. You are hurting a lot of Chinese’s feelings. You are very very lucky to have a chance to study in such a privileged college which your parents and most of the first generation Chinese have no chance to even dream about it! My English is not good enough to express how I really feel. Only can share this link to you.
https://www.wenxuecity.com/blog/202006/77170/1734.html
This is ridiculous. First generation chinese immigrants back in the 60s 70s worked low paid jobs in chinatown. Their income and living enviorment aren’t any better compare to the black coummunity. I mean they can’t even help their kids with English homework, where as african Americans spoke perfect english. Despite all this, their(chinese immigrant) kids were still able to graduate from high school or enter college. Black people just being lazy and spent majority of their time on playing instead of doing school work, then systemic racism for stopping them from getting education. Black people always have excuses for all this and use the race card to their advantage. They get angry when you say all live matter” because to them, only black lives matter. (no wonder why half of the hate crime against asians are black)
Thank you, razos. Because you have finally written down for everyone to see the fundamental racism that Eileen has been alluding to in her essay. Look at what you’ve written. Because calling Black Americans “lazy” and using “race card to their advantage” is EXACTLY the views held by many in the Chinese American communities. Eileen has just shined a light on these views, which has angered a lot of the Chinese Americans who have posted their comments here. If half of the hate crimes against asians are made by black people as you assert, who make up the other half?
I really like your letter and all these people in the comments complaining about you generalizing the population is exactly what is wrong with us. We are so self absorbed and focus on our issues. This is about the black community and how we can be better allies but all they see is how you are complaining about Asians. These people need to learn what it is to be a good human and not only focus on themselves.
If Eileen was born in the Culture Revolution, she would be one of those red guards screaming on the stage and mercilessly sending parents or relatives to the jail.
No, Ling Dong. Eileen would be one of the ones intervening to help block the red guards…while you seem like you would be one of the ones keeping silent and doing nothing.
That’s just your imagination. If your parents lived through the Culture revolution, ask them.
Take a look at this video of police in Buffalo pushing over a 75-year-old man in their way during a peaceful protest for Black Lives Matter: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-who-appears-be-pushed-police-buffalo-protest-stable-condition-n1225451
Then think about who are the ones now that are keeping silent against police brutality. It’s not Eileen. This is only one out of many similar videos. Not all police are bad, but when we have police that are acting brutally to not just Black Americans, but also elderly White Americans…when will Chinese Americans be affected? Again.
No one supports or advocating for the rioters. But if the Chinese Americans think we are somehow protected and don’t need to speak up now…NO ONE WILL SPEAK UP FOR US later.
I agree a lot with you. I also agree many points with Eileen. But I don’t like her accusation to the entire Chinese American community. And I don’t like her 大义灭亲 attitude. You don’t have to raise up yourself by putting other people down!
you got that right!
Eileen is a Black Guard of 2020 . LOL
The point of this article wasn’t to downgrade all asian to racist, but more like a waking call to asians to not fall into the pattern of racism.
[…] studying English, and I’m one of the presidents of the Chinese Students Association. I first read Eileen’s letter a few days ago, and was—as many of its readers were—stunned by its eloquence and poignancy. For […]
When y’all say, not me! I’m not racist! Y’all probably are racist. And don’t come saying oooh but Asians face racism too! IT IS NOT ABOUT US RIGHT NOW. Check y’all privilege and be anti-racist
EXACTLY BLM. There’s a lot of viruses and disease out there yet right now most of us are focused on Coronavirus.
Are we as Asian Americans only suppose to support BLM once we have extinguished all racism against ourselves? That’s just not going to happen. We focus so much on the challenges of our immigrant experience in the US, yes, it’s true. But there are people like the Mayor of Atlanta who are just 5 generations from descendants of slaves. What about the challenges of their experience? Why are we speaking out against the injustices they face?
John Rawls said once: “The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.”
WOULD YOU TRADE PLACES NOW WITH A BLACK AMERICAN?
back peddling, aren’t you? Eileen said ” We Asian Americans have long perpetuated anti-Black statements and stereotypes.”
I don’t know about you, but I can not find a single public racist statement by a Chinese American in the US that is anti-Black. However, Jimmy Kimmel show in 2013 showcasing kids’ table comprised of 2 white kids, 1 black kid and 1 Asian kid. White kids were saying kill all Chinese. Black kid was saying build a wall to keep all Chinese out. Except for the Asian kid, all three kids said no when Kimmel asked if the Chinese should be allowed to live. Imagine a TV show that allow people to say those things against other races. Kimmel would have been fired in no time.
Remember the rap by YG aka Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson?
The following is the Lyrics:
First, you find a house and scope it out.
Find a Chinese neighborhood, cause they don’t believe in bank accounts.
Second, you find a crew and a driver, someone who ring the doorbell. And someone that ain’t scared to do what it do.
Third, you pull up at the spot. Park, watch, ring the doorbell and knock.
Those are PUBLIC racism which went unpunished.
Racism exists. No doubt about it.
It is one thing to call for standing with African American Community to protest against racism. It is another to put up the accusations on the whole community based on individual experiences.
Just scroll through the comments here and you’ll find plenty of anti-black stereotypes examples offered by Chinese Americans, Michael L. Maybe they haven’t been publicly spoken before, but we all know that they are there and prevalent in Chinese American communities.
Every culture has racist views. Thanks for telling us that “racism exists”. Recent events seem to make that obvious. Here’s Jimmy Kimmel apologizing for the TV segment you mentioned: https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/29/showbiz/jimmy-kimmel-china-apology/index.html
Chinese American groups were upset about it and organized protests. Well, in Minneapolis, the POLICE actually killed a Black American. Are we going to stand together and speak up for the Black American community?
You can’t wake up people with merciless and false accusation. You can’t convince people without enough evidence. You can’t generalize YOUR own experience to the entire Chinese American society. Do you know there are so many studies, efforts that have been done to help African American? What do you learn from that? Have you ever spent time to listen to Chinese American’s side of stories? Do you really know why we stay away from the protests? Have you ever stood up for Chinese American when they were treated unfairly, and miserably? You are accusing the Chinese American Society to please African American. Girl, you can’t show off your “Justice” and “Compassion” by defaming anyone, especially the first generation. I expect Yale elite to unite the Chinese American and African American Society, not to widen the gap. You brought immeasurable disaster to the Chinese American Society. I request you to openly apologize to Chinese Americans.
Is there anti blackness or racism in the asian community against african americans? Yes. We need to do better. What is rarely talked about is the anti asian sentiment in other people of color. There are many violent crimes against asian americans that are committed by people of all races, yet I rarely if ever hear about that being talked. We need to discuss both!
Obviously, Eileen Huang’s upbringing is very sheltered . She is just trying to be politically correct. She got more than she bargained for. Sometimes people just have to learn their lessons the hard way.
Eileen:
50 year-old Korean American/Canadian here. So, so proud of you for your letter. I am wholeheartedly in agreement with everything you wrote. I wonder if you happen to know of anyone with a Korean translation of your letter, which would be just as helpful for Korean Americans to read.
We already added a link on this page to the Korean translation of this letter.
While I commend the author for bringing out some of the points, not all Asian households feel the same. Two points to clarify:
1) “After all, many of us live in affluent neighborhoods, send our children to selective universities, and work comfortable, professional jobs.” You are only referring to those that have jobs and become affluent. There is a larger majority of Asians that live in poverty.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/07/12/this-racial-group-has-biggest-fastest-growing-income-divide/
2) It is not only due to “Black activism” that the Asians gained their rights. Back in the 1800’s, the Asian community took the US to court to gain equality.
https://www.history.com/news/chinese-exclusion-act-yee-shun-legal-rights
This forum is depressing because it once again shows how divided Asians are. The author is simply making the larger point about Asians overall needing to recognize how far this country has come in terms of equality as a result of the changes driven by African Americans, and we Asians should be more thankful and just be more vocal in our support of BLM. It’s really not necessary to nitpick a generalization – by definition, it doesn’t capture 100% of all possible views. Go find something more productive with your time.
As an Asian-American, we need to actively support Black’s racial activities. They are our role model.
What the heck are racial activities , Sunny ? Anyway, your parents and peers will be very proud .
I like how so many people get so offended by this letter but at the same time their comments confirm exactly what the author points out. Yes anti-Blackness is a huge issue in Chinese communities. I grew up in mainland China and live in the US. I feel bad for the author putting so much time writing this letter because many people care more about saving “face” than admitting the issue. They will use whatever excuses and whataboutism they can find to deflect and cover their racist bias, just so that they can make themselves feel better and justified of their own racist views.
You can disagree with your parents, but don’t criticize them in an open letter . Hope you learned your lesson, the hard way.
Miz Huang, as a mother of a Yale student and the first generation of Chinese immigrant, I applaud you for your passion and courage; I am proud of you to challenge your own community to rise to the occasion; I am with you and support your call to fight with the African American against racism. Yale should be proud of you as one of their students.
I am thrilled to see our younger generation of Chinese community like you who determine to be better than their parents, who seek their life goals not just about their own comfort but aspire for social justice and racial equality. Do not get discouraged from those hateful comments on your letter. Your words are powerful, and you are brave. Now it is time for the Chinese community to reflect.
I do agree with you that racism against many groups of people, including black Americans, is a problem that needs to be addressed and fixed, and that progress toward equality is an ultimately desirable goal. With that said…
Are you serious about all of this? Your fellow Chinese and Asian Americans are being threatened, beaten, stabbed, and BLAMED for a pandemic that they had no control over and your only words of condolence to them is that they’re not doing enough to stop racism in this country? I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that you seem to not have empathy for people who are currently at the center of racist attacks in this country or your brutally misguided generalizations of white people as a whole as oppressive overlords who want nothing but to hegemonize African Americans and Asian Americans. Here are some things that might come as a surprise: The people who participated in the Civil Rights Movement weren’t just black; there were whites too—a ton of them. If that guy Tou Thao hadn’t been Asian, Floyd would have still (sadly) passed away. The Asian Americans in St. Paul are now on the brink of fear for their lives because one of the officers in Floyd’s incident happened to be Asian, and you’re using him as an example to show that Asians AREN’T DOING ENOUGH to fight racism?? Look, we have no voice in this country; the media aren’t going to come to defend us when something bad happens. Why would they? What’s in it for them? Know why hate crimes against Asian Americans are under-reported in the media? Because we’re invisible to them—We have no power to defend ourselves let alone power to intercede on behalf of black Americans. And in a time when vandalism and assault on Asian Americans is ever prevalent, guess what—most of the perpetrators are people who are black. So if you’re going to generalize “black people” as leaders of equality and parade “black people” as Civil Rights leaders, then you can’t just state the good and ignore the bad—with your logic, “black people” should also be the perpetrators of anti-Asian racism we see on the rise today. But of course—we’re more mature than to generalize a whole group of people. We would rather see each person as an individual regardless of skin color, and so we shouldn’t parade anyone for being a certain race—or think any less of them, for that matter. That isn’t how we procure equality for everyone in this country—something we all want to have. We have to avoid generalizations and learn to treat each other respectfully as human beings. And so I urge you to do so, the job that you have failed to do in your letter.
A final statement: Your views do not reflect the those of the Yale community, or Chinese Americans, or anyone you purport to be. Your views stem from your biases and generalized view of the Asian American community.
孩子，
看了你的公开信，实在是为你，也为你的父母伤心。为你父母伤心，是因为我真心希望你没有用你的真名写这封公开信。如果黄艾琳真的是你实名，那么全世界马上就会知道你父母是谁。你作为儿女，公开把你父母称为种族主义者，你知道这个称呼的分量吗？你让你父母以后怎么去处啊？他们背着自己女儿所扣上的帽子，怎么去见同事和朋友啊？你在美国大学里天天学什么西方社会的隐私概念，难道你就没有想到你父母也有隐私权吗？他们在你面前坦言他们的看法，是他们对你的信任。无论观点如何，家庭里面都是可以探讨的。你现在这样做，和文革中子女将父母揭发出来，导致他们被批斗，有什么区别啊？
为你伤心，是因为你自己难道就没有想到，你这样对待你的父母，你的朋友们不会问自己你是否有一天也会对他(她)们也这样啊？所以，有哪个有正常头脑的朋友会再信任你啊？有哪个男人会信任你，对你讲他的真实想法啊？所以，谁以后去和你结婚啊？真的有人娶了你，你们夫妻之间的信任怎么搞啊？如果哪天你也有了孩子，你回想起自己对父母的行为，以及孩子效仿你的可能，你又怎么可能去和自己的孩子交心？因为他(她)哪天也把你揭发了怎么办？所以你这一辈子怎么过啊？你真是幼稚到没法再幼稚了。
为你伤心的第二是，如果说你的看法是绝对真理，那自己为了真理去牺牲也值得，关键是你的那个看法也和你的做法一样，幼稚不堪。你那封公开信的写法，明眼人一看就知道是美国极左派的路子，实在是拾人牙慧罢了。这个路子就是枉顾事实，只管自己的意识形态。你说美国黑人被美国白人警察，白人至上主义者无情枪杀？孩子，你去看看是谁在杀美国的黑人。如果你不知道，我可以告诉你。美国芝加哥经常仅仅一个周末就有50多黑人被枪击，其中10多人死亡。这仅仅是一个城市，一个周末。还不算其它大城市，比如说巴尔的摩。如果按照人口比例算，如果北京也是同样的谋杀率，一年要死1万多人。这么多黑人被谁杀的？不是美国的白人啊。事实上，按照美国的统计数字，美国白人警察射杀非白人嫌疑犯的比例，要低于美国非白人警察射杀非白人嫌疑犯的比例。看清楚了吗？也就是说，美国警察中，非白人警察射杀其它种族的人的比例要更高。所以，无论是大范围来讲，还是警察执法中来讲，杀黑人最多的不是白人，是黑人自己啊。这样的数字并不难找，你在写公开信以前，为了你父母的名誉，为了你自己的严谨，就不会做点功课吗？
你说黑人在美国受系统性的歧视，如果真是系统性的，全面的，那么黑人就不会有成功的例子。但是，黑人在体育，音乐，艺术，政治上的明星比比皆是，你看不到吗？杰克逊，休斯顿，奥博拉，科比，乔丹，韦斯特，一直到美国总统奥巴马，你怎么解释这个 “系统性” 啊？一个全面的系统性的歧视会让一个被歧视的人当上总统？奥巴马当选，按照人口比例，没有绝大部分白人投他的票，他是无法当选的。你看不明白这里面的道理吗？
那么美国黑人整体上为什么落后于其它种族？其中一个原因就是虽然美国体制是开放的，但是真正能够整体提升一个种族的办法就是教育。也就是说，光靠体育，音乐，艺术，政治是不行的，整体的提升需要这个族群的人大部分地，持久性地受到良好的教育，进而能够整体性地找到收入较好的工作。而正是这一点黑人有待改进。黑人的家庭结构目前是 70-75% 为单亲家庭，主要是黑人女性抚养孩子。这个绝对无法做到对孩子持久性的，每日每夜的监督，无法做到不间断地和校方配合，在财政上也无法做到对孩子们的长久支撑。而亚裔的成功恰恰就是这方面做到好。但是，如何建立和维持一个长久性的婚姻和家庭，这个只能是由这个族群的人自己去解决。国家，尤其是民主国家，是没法把枪架在你脖子上，逼着你去如何如何在家里行事的。
所以说，孩子，如果你真的要为黑人挣权利，最有效的办法不是公开骂你父母，而是去那些少数族裔的社区，去和当地的社区人员，教堂人员，学校教师发展关系，开设咨询，提供资源，让黑人的家庭保持完整，帮助他们的孩子上好学，做好作业，最终优秀毕业。也就是说，真正有用的事是一步一步，没有任何名利，脚踏实地走出来的。不是你上街游行三天，写封公开信骂骂人，拍拍屁股走人就可以做到的。
孩子，我给你咨询一下吧。你的这封公开信，说到底，就是不自信。自己要把自己融入到所谓的美国主流社会里，所以你才会无视自己族裔成功的经验，谩骂自己的父母，盲目地跟在他人后面重复他人喊过的口号，好像这样贬低了自己，你就会得到所谓主流社会的接受。孩子，你还是多过几年再出来混吧。
To Niki S. –
1. None of these students who wrote the essay are YOUR CHILD. Don’t talk down to them. You try to demean their views because of their age. I don’t think history is on your side.
2. You might hold the opinion that what the students wrote is not filial, but that doesn’t mean it’s not accurate. Please don’t confuse the two. And such a ridiculous accusation to say that now no one will marry her because they can’t trust her. IF YOU REALLY FELT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT EILEEN SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT, it says a lot about your small-minded views of the world in 2020!
3. You’re right about more White Americans being killed by police than Black Americans IN TOTAL. But you neglect to look at the percentage of Black Americans in this country relative to the total population: 12.6%. So looking at the total numbers (you don’t have to take my word for it…DO YOUR RESEARCH AS YOU SUGGESTED), Black Americans are 6x more likely to be killed by police in their lifetime than White Americans.
4. Stop trying to accuse people of being “brainwashed” by the left-liberal-universities/politics. If so, what side are you on? This isn’t left or right politics, this is HUMAN RIGHTS. Black Lives Matter IS SUPPOSE TO SHOW that not just African-AMERICANS’ lives matter, but that the lives of ALL BLACK PEOPLE MATTER. People all around the world know this. That is why we are seeing BLM protests around the world in support of America.
Maybe you meant well in your comments above, but I think your response shows the mentality of many Chinese American parents today and highlights the great divide on why you refuse to see what many of your children have been trying to tell you for years.
Yes, Niki S went overboard . Her comments were brutal, and condescending, but not completely without merit.
Eileen humiliated her parents/relatives in a public forum.That is a No No in Asian values . Let me tell you this,
ASIAN VALUES MATTER ALWAYS!!!
If you disagree, I won’t bother to call you a racist, but don’t call yourself an Asian because you don’t have the basic prerequisite.
In addition, Eileen gave too much credit to Jesse Jackson for supporting the Justice for Vincent Chin movement without doing any research.The driving force was Helen Zia, which Eileen did not mention.
Yes, police brutality is a real problem, especially against black people, but jumping on the politically correct bandwagon to honor someone with a lengthy criminal record is either naive or shameless political expediency.
Finally, I suggest you can google to find out the story about the Korean Town riot in LA around the 1992-1993 time frame and the NYC subway vigilante Bernard Goetz in 1983.
Those who don’t learn from history are damned to repeat the mistakes from the past.
Many of us grew up watching the LA riots on TV. We remember Rodney King. We understand the frustrations, anger, and pain of the African American communities around the US, MANY OF WHICH DID NOT ATTACK ASIAN BUSINESSES. There were also those in the African American communities who volunteered their time to help Korean businesses clean up after the riots.
That was also nearly 20 years ago and the brutality of the police against Black Americans is continuing if not expanding to other minority groups.
So you miss the point of the Black Lives Matter protests. It’s not just for George Floyd.
It’s also for:
Central Park 5 who were just boys and falsely imprisoned for years for crimes they didn’t commit:
Steve Lopez, 14,
Antron McCray, 15,
Kevin Richardson, 14,
Yusef Salaam, 15,
Raymond Santana, 14, and
Korey Wise, 16.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/19/us/central-park-five-where-now-trnd/index.html
For Breonne Taylor, an EMT was shot in her own home by police who raided the wrong home
https://abcnews.go.com/US/breonna-taylor-kentucky-emt-allegedly-killed-police-executing/story?id=70657850
For Clifford Grover, a 10 year old boy who was shot by police in the back
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/nyregion/fired-at-queens-boy-fatal-1973-police-shot-still-reverberates.html
The list goes on and on. For generations.
It’s clear now that George Floyd wasn’t killed because he was resisting arrest. Witnesses at the scene also say the same.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/27/video-does-not-appear-to-show-george-floyd-resisting-arrest/
So I suspect there’s some prejudice in your comments above. Imagine if these were Asian families who had to cope with continued trauma at the hands of those who are suppose to protect us.
Don’t call us naive. Our eyes are wide open.
Don’t shame us by telling us we aren’t Asian. We know who we are and the price we’re paying to speak up.
Listen, smart guy X, you forgot to mention that
Under newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City announced a settlement in June 2014 in the case for about $40 million.[82][83][84] Santana, Salaam, McCray, and Richardson each received around $7.1 million from the city for their years in prison, while Wise received $12.2 million because he had served six additional years. The city did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.[85] The settlement averaged roughly $1 million for each year of imprisonment that each of the men had served.[86]
As of December 2014, the five men were pursuing an additional $52 million in damages from New York State in the New York Court of Claims, before Judge Alan Marin.[67] Speaking of the second suit, against the state, Santana said: “When you have a person who has been exonerated of a crime, the city provides no services to transition him back to society. The only thing left is something like this—so you can receive some type of money so you can survive.”[67] They received a total settlement of $3.9 million from the state in 2016, with varying amounts related to the period of time that each man had served in prison.[87]
Would you call Bernard Goetz a racist ? Mr /Ms X ?
Mary Legault’s posting is clear for everyone to see the problems.
“ The city did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.”
NYC locked up 5 young teenage boys for more than a total of 40 years and DID NOT have to admit to doing anything wrong.
So the Central Park 5 got $1million for each year of their lives. For most of them, they’ve spent the MAJORITY of their lives in some of the toughest prisons in America. WITHOUT HOPE OF GETTING OUT OR BEING FREE. They did not admit to something they didn’t do just so they can get out early on parole. They were savagely and repeatedly beaten, tortured and WORSE as young teen boys.
Would you trade $1million a year for your child to experience that? Or for yourself in exchange for the money?
Everyone who knows the story of Central Park 5 knows you are not just being ridiculous…you are flat out now arguing something stupid.
I did say that the City of NY did not admit any wrong doing. I did not say the compensation was sufficient to compensate what they had to go thru. Guess it was stupid to remind you of the compensation details, but smart or convenient for you to leave the full details out so that they can get more sympathy..
That is the point, Mary Legault.
If the compensation WASN’T sufficient for the lack of equality in our justice system for black children to be falsely abused and imprisoned and for a black man to be openly killed on the street by police officers while NOT resisting arrest…then what are you arguing for?
Are you willing to exchange places with a Black American today?
This is why BLACK LIVES MATTER movement isn’t just about George Floyd! It’s a protest against all the police brutality and injustice in our society right now.
Nobody left out any details above! Just read more closely!!
Girl, you rock! As a parent and father of 2 kids, I am so proud of you. I hope that my kids will be as bold and courageous as you are when they go to college. As a ethnic group, we Asian Americans need to stand with African Americans and all Americans to fight for a more just and euqal society. Igore the negative comments from people who are still in denial. Be proud of yourself!
Are you delusional? You write about being called Oriental in the past tense. I am still called Oriental to this day.
Oh dear Elieen, thank you for sharing this. Thank you for pointing out a problem in our Asian community. It is so sad to read all the hateful comments.. I only wish I have the courage to say something without the fear of backlash for being an ungrateful daughter and a privileged student. I wish one day I will be a mother who gives my child the freedom to have his or her own opinions without attacking her. Please do not let the harsh comments get to you. Have compassion for the haters. True Democracy is being able to express ourselves and allowing others to express as well.
What’s wrong with you? This was the most privileged, delusional, and egotistical piece of writing that I have ever read. Complete waste of my time. Never put words in other people’s mouths. Go back to your parents and stop disgracing your own race. These are the people that Yale admits? Seriously?
What’s wrong with you? If this was such a complete waste of your INCREDIBLY PRECIOUS TIME, then don’t even bother posting anything. She’s not disgracing her race at all, she’s simply sharing her own stance and her own experience. Wow. I’m really disgusted by some of these stupid comments.
Ms. Huang and her over-previliaged proud Yale friends should ask this question: how do a future you raise a non-privileged child who would not say you are a racist and your friends in general are not racists? At the same time, we as a community should protest police cruelity and support average Joe’s rights, of all races, for Asians are a group of people most oppressed, in education, job, dignity and opportunity, by all othe races in this country. Ms. Huang pointed her fingers to the wrong direction, unfortunatly.
As a mother of a Yale student and the first generation of Chinese immigrant, I applaud you for your passion and courage; I am proud of you to challenge your own community to rise to the occasion; I am with you and support your call to fight and solidarity with the African American community against the systemic racism, and protest against the policy brutality. Yale should be proud of you as one of their students and your parents should be proud of you for your courage.
I am thrilled to see our younger generation of Chinese community like you who determine to be better than their parents, who pursue their life dreams bigger than their own comfort, and aspire for social justice and racial equality. Do not get discouraged from those hateful comments on your letter. Your words are powerful, and you are brave. Now it is time for the Chinese community to reflect.
I personally ask author (and fellow Yale students) not to criticize the entire Chinese community based her own observation. Your friends or your parents may be racists, but do not draw a conclusion that we all are indifferent and racist against other people of color. Very often we are the victims and targets of the other minority of colors. We all demand justice to all people, earn respect through our hard work and social contributions, but not by looting business and attaching or killing innocent people. Author and fellow Yale students need to learn more about our values, history, and heritage. We as parents came to America without much advantage but with a dream for better life and raise our children and give them our best for them to get best education possible. It is a shame to see that you turned against us without good understanding our own community, you failed your parents, unfortunately.
One can only hope that this is not produced under duress of any sort, implicitly or any otherwise. If it is written as a genuine reflection of a young naive mind, then ample time must be allowed for life’s lessons to take root.
As for the #BLM movement, casual observers sometimes do wonder that the liberal leftists controlled schools teach the students not to use the word “black” to describe certain ethnicity with ancestral roots in Africa. Instead, this whole group of people are referred to as “African-American”. So when the #BLM started, why DIDN’T these liberal leftists change the name back to “African-American Lives Matter”? After all, they are NOT concerned about lives of black people in Africa or elsewhere, but centrally focused on the lives of African-Americans in the USA. If they followed this usage only because it had already been sanctified by the African-American communities themselves, then they are either once again applying double-standards OR have lost the mind OR showed they too, lacked moral character in correcting wrongs.
Whatever the case may be, to redress this issue on naming is relatively easy. To show double-standards is bad, simply start the new re-naming game or movement of changing #BLM back to “African-American Lives Matter”. To show they have a clear mind, launch another 20 year (with possible 4 possible extensions, each lasting another 20 years) war explaining how that name change is necessary. To show they too have moral characters as they too often bill themselves for without any warrant whatsoever, remember to act soon next time when any new loaded slogan is brewed out of the black community instead of turning a blind eye simply because the offenders or espousers are blacks themselves. Crimes in wrong word choices or usages are just as bad as criminal deeds themselves, right? Nay, crimes in words are worse, by an order of 5 or 10 at least, for crimes in words corrupt peoples’ minds, rendering them defenseless against the senseless usages and harmful ideas.
But upon reading your entire article, I have to give it a grade of D or F, not because what you said is wrong, but because they are far far from enough.
Let me explain. Your article reminded me two prominent pieces in Western literary history: The Emperor’s Old Clothes and An Immodest Proposal. For brevity reason, I’ll only focus only on the latter, but I’ll have make some necessary changes so your letter will read like an updated version of the latter.
If the problems in the black community today is truly caused by “systematic discrimination”, what better ways are there to redress the root cause of this than marrying into the poorest black communities that need the most help most urgently? As a paragon of liberal minded Ivy League students, you should step forward and speak out loudly and proudly, so your voice can be heard on Main Stream America. What I mean by marrying into is this: let the schools or local & state government be the match makers in matching up unmarried liberal minded Ivy League students with the best available marriageable materials in the poorest black neighborhood, i;.e, poorly educated healthy strong decent enough young black men and women so each can share the best that the other party can offer: money, education, influence and high IQ are exchanged with good physical traits. With stable jobs and income for the newly established cross-ethnicity families, what incentives are there for them not to behave as good as they possibly be? What other chances are there for them to get free lifelong meal tickets? True, they have to pick up their part of the bargain, but I see no reason whatsoever on the possibility of THEIR lack of interest. Similarly, those few fortunate black students are encouraged to marry into the poorest white communities so their gene pool can be improved quickly. For people who are neither black and neither white like yourself, they have a bit more freedom in choosing, they can choose partners from either the poorest black or the poorest white communities, just not anyone with identical or similar ethnic background. Such cross-ethnicity marriages ought to be paid by the state and eulogized to the end of time as the differences between blacks and white, between haves and have-nots will be quickly minimized within a generation or two in America. Then and only then, ever-lasting inter-racial peace can be achieved.
With a proliferation of such cross-ethnicity families, systematic discrimination in the judicial system would quickly come to a complete halt as well: now that there are so many cross-ethnicity families, favoritism to one one race or another is simply impossible as practically an overwhelming % of families will have both the black and white components or are multi-racial to begin with. Then and only then, ALL of us can be judged on our own deeds and actions as the color of our skin looses any implication of meaning in the courts of America.
Be bold, be brave and God bless you and your family!
I agree that we should be having conversations to raise awareness about the current situation, and that we should definitely not be perpetuating racism.
However, 1. I think that it is unfair to say that our whole group is racist when you don’t know all of us and 2. I think that it’s unfair that, assuming that we had racist beliefs, that we would ALL be so dumb that we would not have questioned these racist beliefs by now and revise them as we see fit.
I think that it is NOT fair to state that “we Asian Americans” as a group are racist. I personally have never heard of anything similar to “I would rather you not be friends with Black people”, and have had several African American friends while growing up. My first friend that I remember is African American.
Even if someone did tell me that, I would ask, “why?”, and we would have a discussion about it so that we could understand each other’s perspectives. People have told me some shocking things about other situations, and I’ve asked “why did you say that”? and we had productive conversations afterward.
I think that is it rude to assume that all of us are racist, and even if we were at some point, that all of us have STAYED that way throughout all of these years without questioning our beliefs.
I think that you could have made your point about encouraging awareness, discussion, and action about this situation without making extremely harsh, yet not properly supported, accusations to a large community.
A+ Eileen! Thank you for being so brave and making a stance. You have woken up the Asian American community…just look at all these comments! As for the bullies out there whose own children couldn’t get into Yale, just know they could NEVER write something so eloquent at your age.
All kidding aside, I am married to an African who majored in EE and graduated from Wharton UPENN. He is a corporate executive and grew up w maids, nannies, and security personnel. All these LIARS in many of these comments who say they’re not racist are kidding themselves. I have seen what my husband goes through as a black male…getting pulled over by cops bc they didn’t believe the Porsche was his (never got a ticket), flight attendants who triple check our tickets bc they can’t believe we are in first class, and of course, experiencing my own family’s racism. All my aunties and uncles asked my parents why I would marry a black person. I bet you can imagine how much convincing I had to do with my own parents…until they met him and heard him speak. Every baby boomer/1st gen Asian American has prejudice and we ALL stereotype…because that’s human nature. We are designed to protect ourselves.
I ask how many of you who commented in the baby boomer/1st generation even have black friends? How many of you had a negative thought cross your mind when sitting/standing next to a black male who is wearing a hoodie? You don’t think you’re a racist until it’s too close for comfort. What if your son or daughter married a black person? What if you were robbed…would your first thought be that it might be the black neighbor’s kids or that shady black delivery person you recently saw? Shame on you who write things like “You don’t speak for me bc I’m not a racist,” that’s the biggest lie of all. You are the reason people like Eileen have to wake up!
This moment right now is such an important time for us to all WAKE UP and acknowledge America’s ugly past. Blacks were brought to America with force, unlike us Asian Americans, who came here by choice…most likely to provide a better life for our children. And let’s not talk about the rude comments people have made about my babies…”Oh she’s so light, so beautiful!”
Bless you Eileen and your family! I expect great things from you in the future. You are already an exemplary leader and role model to us ALL and the reason your generation will save us.
To the Yale Student(s):
Eileen (may I call you by your first name?), I must first commend your honesty in writing this piece, especially in sharing your own personal experiences. I truly believe you meant well and your intentions were to rally our community. I think you did bring up some great points, but unfortunately the message your letter hoped to send became buried under sweeping generalizations and a rather distorted view of society. Instead of uniting us, your letter (perhaps unknowingly) inflamed communities and strewed divisiveness. Looking at your letter critically, I (and as others already have…) must question many of the ideas you highlight.
Right off the bat, your letter likely incited fury at deeming “racist White and Asian police officers” and extending your message from Chinese American communities to “rampant anti-Blackness in the Asian American community”. These are bold statements to make. I agree to a certain extent that anti-Blackness does exist within Asian American communities – though not manifesting in the way your letter implies (“violence”). Rather, I see anti-Blackness emerging through implicit biases and mainstream media that is determined to contrast Asians with other minority groups in the U.S. Your letter actually speaks of implicit biases, of “subtle, even explicitly racist comments about the Black community.” (By the way, I can’t help but wonder if you ever sought to engage with their remarks? I will address this later when talking about your pledge link.) Your letter speaks of deeply ingrained ideas that were uttered by the people around you, but it does not speak of where these ideas came from.
Your letter goes on to interpret their ideas to claim “We are the model minority…We have little to do with other people of color; we will even side with White Americans to degrade them.” Your letter seems to suggest that these ideas originated from Asian Americans, as if we were the ones to create and believe in the model minority myth. As you may be aware, this myth was not naturally constructed by Asian Americans. It is a powerful racial rhetorical strategy by American mainstream media for using us as a racial buffer. A buffer to blame racial inequality on people of color, instead of structural issues. A buffer that prevents Asian Americans from achieving equality. The model minority myth extends from deflecting the blame onto people to color to framing diverse, disparate Asian Americans as a monolith. Unfortunately, your letter reinforces the prevalence of this myth with your statement: “We Asian Americans like to think of ourselves as exempt from racism. After all, many of us live in affluent neighborhoods, send our children to selective universities, and work comfortable, professional jobs.” This line of thinking is exactly what the strategy aims to do: focus on the wealth, the health of the few while erasing the wide range of inequalities that exist within Asian communities.
There is a lot to unpack in these two sentences of your letter, and I must start by acknowledging how I myself use “Asian American” cautiously. I would not presume to speak for others. I bring this up because I noticed your letter frequently refers to “Asian Americans” interchangeably with “Chinese Americans”. But, there’s no need to hide behind the moniker “Asian American”. It’s okay to go ahead and specify “Chinese American” if that’s what your letter meant. Interestingly, the implied association of “Chinese” with “Asian” was brought up eloquently by poet (and editor and professor) Cathy Park Hong in her new book “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning”: “They think Chinese is synecdoche for Asians the way Kleenex is for tissues. They don’t understand that we’re this tenuous alliance of many nationalities.” (Pg. 19) I included the title of her book so that others may read it if they are interested and so that others may look up the quote themself. On that topic, I noticed your letter quoted her writing out of context: “As the poet Cathy Park Hong writes, we believe that we are “next in line … to disappear,” to gain the privileges that White people have, to be freed from all the burdens that come with existing in a body of color.” She did indeed write we “next in line … to disappear” but your letter neglects her clarification: “We will not be the power but become absorbed by power, not share the power of whites but be stooges to a white ideology that exploited our ancestors.” (Pg. 35) Contrary to your letter’s interpretation, it does not mean we will be free. Our racial identity will continue to be used against us, just like the model minority myth.
Just like your statement: “After all, many of us live in affluent neighborhoods, send our children to selective universities, and work comfortable, professional jobs.” I’m not quite sure how to respond if that is an honest belief you all harbor. This sentence embodies the very perception of the “successful” Asian American, of the model minority myth that the media pushes to pit us against other minorities. Because, after all, Asian Americans are doing great…right? Because there surely exist no Asians living in lower-income neighborhoods, no Asian high-school drop-outs, no Asians struggling to find work? Because somehow most Asian Americans can be categorized under this umbrella of societal “success”? What about the wide income gap in Asian American communities, the mental health crisis, the lack of resources for Asian refugees? Eileen, to be upfront, you do not have to look far to realize that this statement is an extremely sweeping generalization. It is a generalization that has tormented our community for years, a problematic framing of us that I find unfortunate to see you repeat in your letter.
Let’s assume what your letter says is applicable to many members of Asian American communities. These traits can, will and were, be used against us. Yellow peril – a media discourse, a racist project to subjugate Asians – goes hand-in-hand with the model minority myth. Frank Wu reflected on this: “To be hard-working is to be unfairly competitive. To be family-oriented is to be clannish, ‘too ethnic,’ and unwilling to assimilate.” (Wu, 1995) All these positive attributes you believe lead us to think we are “exempt from racism” are but a facade that is easily flipped to negative attributes, as we saw with the rise of anti-Asian racism in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I can tell you are aware of this too, of “We are made to feel like we have excelled in this country until we are reminded that we cannot get too comfortable—that we will never truly belong.”
You wrote a fantastic paragraph on how “However, our survival in this country has always been conditional.” You had a lot of significant sentences (“We were accused of being “virus carriers”; I was recently called a “bat-eater”), but I do find your example of Bhagat Singh Thind an interesting choice because, as you may already know, he was trying to argue that he was Caucasian based on the ethnology of the time. (And in 1920, the lower courts indeed ruled that Asian Indians are “white”, but that’s another story.) He was not exactly arguing for Asian Americans to become citizens; he was arguing to be seen as white. I see parallels between his case with your letter. Both appear to be progress for Asian Americans, but this is progress within the boundaries set by colonialist thinking. That is, thinking we must fit into the established narratives, that there is no place for Asian Americans in the conversations of this country. Earlier in your letter, you wrote “The Asian Americans around me, myself included, were reluctant—and sometimes even refused—to participate in conversations on the violent racism faced by Black Americans” and you went on to list atrocious crimes against African American communities. What about conversations on the racism faced by Asian Americans? You acknowledge “Even when anti-Blackness is so closely aligned to our own oppression under structural racism” and share Vincent Chin’s story, but yet only briefly mention the anti-Asian hate crimes during COVID-19.
You claim (and this claim has been questioned by others): “Though we cannot compare the challenges faced by Asian Americans to the far more violent atrocities suffered by Black Americans, we owe everything to them.” In response, I must emphasize: racism is not a competition. This is not the Oppression Olympics, there are no winners here. This claim likely distorted the message your letter was trying to send, because it minimized the pain faced by Asian Americans. You were right in that we cannot compare. Your letter brings up history quite often, and so I ask how can we compare the massacre of Chinese immigrants during the Rock Springs Riot? What about the murder of Vincent Chin? How can we compare Anna Ng recently being bashed on the head with an umbrella? Are these incidents not considered violent? We cannot compare. (This is not, in any way, intended to say that African American communities do not suffer. I name these occurrences to illustrate briefly the history of violence against Chinese American communities – and this is not even considering the magnitude of violence across other Asian American communities.)
As for the claim that “we owe everything to them”, this suggests that civil rights are a zero-sum game. Your letter implies our gains must come at the sacrifice of African Americans – but this is putting the onus of civil rights at the expense of their sacrifice. Unfortunately, this implies that it is only through their work that we achieved progress. You wrote “It is because of the work of Black Americans—who spearheaded the civil rights movement—that Asian Americans are no longer called “Orientals” or “Chinamen.”” (and may I add, “Mongolians” though we are still called “chinks”, “gooks” among other slurs.) You are right to say that African Americans lead the movement, but your letter neglects to mention our Asian American activism. Asian Americans were inspired by the Black Power Movement and Indigenous activists, holding our own movements alongside other people of color. Asian American activists protested with the Black Panthers in the 60’s. I could go on; we can consider how the Naturalization Act was first extended to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent” and how Asian Americans, Native Americans continued to fight for citizenship. But I won’t, because as you write later in your letter, “[Our history] is also a history of disrupters, activists, fighters, and, above all, survivors.” As you acknowledge, some of us fought, and are fighting, for our rights. We are the ones who remember Vincent Chin, we are the ones who remember our stories. We fight together with other minority groups, we form relations to stand up for all of us. Your claim glosses over this and instead attempts guilt-tripping the community in a rather misguided attempt to encourage solidarity.
In this attempt, you write “I see this same kind of silence from Asian Americans around me. I am especially disappointed in the Chinese American community, whose silence on the murder of Black Americans has been deafening.” I questioned earlier if you had actively engaged in “uncomfortable/difficult conversations” (from your pledge) with the people around you and I must again question your use of “I do not see us.” I am not aware of your situation, and you may have indeed spoken with the people around you. But, given how you described your background, I must ask if maybe the circles you associate with are a fragmented representation of the community. You may not see Asian Americans standing in solidarity, but I (and other commentators) do. Most Asian Americans I see are voicing their support, and interestingly those most vocal now did not speak on anti-Asian racism from COVID-19 – contradicting what you see. Some did not extend outrage to the Asian communities they identified with, but many of them are expressing solidarity with African Americans. I wondered why, but reading your letter, I remembered how we may doubt our own lived experiences of racism. (“We Asian Americans like to think of ourselves as exempt from racism.”) We may believe the lie that we have it easy, that racism is indeed a competition and we must have come out the victors in the U.S. This internalized doubt would affect how we react to discrimination against our own communities. We may stay silent – out of fear, out of hesitance that what we experienced is bad enough to say anything about. But, perhaps we are both generalizing.
You “urge all Chinese Americans to watch media such as Asian Americans, to seriously reflect not only on our own history, but also on our shared history with other minorities.” I support your recommendation, but I am curious if there’s more than just watching. I haven’t mentioned myself much in this reply to you, I now defer to my experiences. The two of us: we watched the same media, read the same books, and are aware of the same histories, but yet the reflections we took with us are vastly different. Maybe it’s our upbringing, maybe it’s the differences between us. I’m not in an “elite” college, I’m not expecting a “comfortable career”, I’m not the model minority. I’m the Chinese American you glaze over, hidden under the gauze of deemed privilege. There are many others like me, who are still struggling and who you do not seem to see just as you do not see Asian American activism (both in the past and now).
I personally felt your call to action was strongest here: “We are not exempt from history. What has happened to George Floyd has happened to Chinese miners in the 1800s and Vincent Chin, and will continue to happen to us and all minorities unless we let go of our silence, which has never protected us, and never will” – this is very meaningful and powerful. It’s a pity the rest of your letter didn’t support a lot of the great messages you had. You “refuse to call for the racial justice of our own community at the expense of others. Justice that degrades or subordinates other minorities is not justice at all.” I find this quite ironic when your letter appears to be asking for solidarity at the expense of degrading Asian American activism, of guilt-tripping the community. According to your own words, this is not justice. Your letter has an oxymoron: “At a time when many privileged minorities”. I will allow for the concept of intersectionality here – assuming that some people within minorities have more advantages on the basis of gender, religion, etc. – but one does not usually associate “minority” with “privilege”. Your letter divides us into either being with you or “siding with White supremacy” and you “want to ask: Whose side are you on?” I hope to ask that question to you.
As I mentioned, your letter has thrown communities into disarray instead of bringing us together. If people in this community are indeed just like your parents, relatives, and family friends, is this letter meant to convince them to join other people of color in solidarity? You say “I see us, such as members of my own family, merely laughing off President Trump’s tweet about sending the National Guard to Minnesota, as if it were a joke and not a deadly threat.” If we are all indeed the silent majority or “laughing” off threats against protestors, is guilting the community the way to solve deep-embedded biases? Eileen, I leave these questions for you to ponder.
Lastly, I couldn’t help but observe that you linked a pledge where one can commit to “engaging in uncomfortable/difficult conversations with Asian Americans/non-Black people on anti-Blackness in our own communities.” Others have already asked you, and I will question too: have you all sat down at your own dinner tables and talked about this issue with your families? That’s the most difficult step, and again, I am not sure of your family situations but our own homes seem like a good place to begin to spread awareness. I appreciate your sharing of the activist organizations, though I must ask why your letter only urges for donations? Your letter and pledge assume I, and others, have the monetary capacity to donate. I believe support can also be in the form of signing petitions, contacting our governmental representatives, or even watching YouTube videos. Here’s a link to a YouTube video by Zoe Amira, with all proceeds to Black Lives Matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCgLa25fDHM. I will not “urge” others to watch it, just to consider watching it if you do support the cause.
Eileen, thank you for sharing your viewpoint. I critically review your letter not to attack you personally, but to bring a different perspective and to give context to some of what you said. I hope you and your family stay safe, wishing you all the best.
As an Asian American growing up in lower class America where my parents own a Chinese restaurant, we experienced a lot of racism. I’ll let you guess which minority group were the most racist and had the most anti-Asian things to say…
To Answer Will’s Question:
Like this former Navy Captain and his wife: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/navy-captain-racial-slurs-facebook/index.html
Or this guy pushing a 92 year old Asian man: https://youtu.be/jQTZvPpmU_E
Or this guy crossing out Corona on his speech to say “Chinese” virus instead: https://www.truthorfiction.com/trump-crosses-out-corona-on-virus-prepared-remarks-writes-chinese/
Don’t blame you. We are all a product of our experiences. But if you are growing up in a “lower class” (your words) neighbourhood with mostly African American residents, chances are the people you experience racist acts from will predominantly be African American.
I grew up in a very white well-to-do neighbourhood. Have been called “oriental”, asked if I eat dog, called “chink”, not invited to friends’ family events, asked if I’m really Chinese why am I so tall, told that Chinese people can’t do_fill in the blanks_, told numerous times that so-and-so in someone’s family adopted a child from China. These may seem insignificant to you, but I assure you, the racism was very much there. It was the financial “successes” that we had that protected us from experiencing some of the racism to our faces. We just saw the evidence of them behind our backs or whenever some White Americans wanted to “put us back in our place”. Except these were financially successful, educated and well-to-do people with none of the social disadvantages that African Americans experience in many of our inner-city neighbourhoods.
So racism exists across races and cultures.
I’m sincerely sorry for the things you and your family have had to experience, Will. They are a byproduct of the neighbourhood you lived in and not solely because of the perpetrators’ race. I know because I experienced them, too.
Time to be ‘not sitting on the fence’
To everyone who is writing, “NOT ALL ASIAN PEOPLE”: if it doesn’t apply to you, great. Send this to your friend. You don’t need to debate this because we all know what this letter is real and true pithing the Asian American community. You’re all projecting on things you’ve done, said, or perpetuate in the past.
This should be renamed as “The Boba Liberal’s Manifesto”
You a young lady is still a follower of BLM movement, hope you rise up as a new leader & with your own political message “Chinese Livies Matter Too” in near future.
I am surprised at the conclusion you reached after watching the documentary “Asian Americans”. Respect and status in society never comes with outside world, is always gained through one’s hard work. Every race everyone should look within first before criticizing others.
The Asian “privilege” (i.e. no extremely negative systemic bias against Asians) came from many other Asians who came before us, got taken advantage of, but didn’t/couldn’t/didn’t want to fight back, somehow moved on with life and continued to work hard to achieve their dreams. It is not a “privilege”. It is a social credit from the earlier generations. Use it well, and never mistake this as a privilege. The only privileged group is the majority group.
PS – thanks for raising a voice. First step to being political active. But like many other posts said, voice in a responsible way that doesn’t dive the community. There is a long road ahead of us.
First of all, I would like to say: BRAVO, EILEEN for writing this! This is an exceptionally well written letter. I did not know many of the facts that you shared, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. I stand by your opinion, and wholeheartedly respect and admire you.
To the people that are bringing down Eileen, saying she is a “traitor”, saying to her to stop generalizing Asian Americans:
Let me clarify a few things for you.
1) EILEEN DOES NOT KNOW YOU. She does not know of your experience. She is not making an attack towards you personally. So to people that are saying, “I haven’t done anything! Why are you saying that Asian Americans are doing this?”, please understand that she is not an all-mighty God, who sees all. She is simply sharing her opinion based on what she has read.
2) Do some research, and learn that us Asian Americans HAVE discriminated against black people/African Americans. This much cannot be changed. No, you might not be racist, but that doesn’t mean that we as Asian Americans are perfect human beings that are faultless.
3) Just because this is not going on in your community DOES NOT mean that it isn’t going on somewhere else. Think about the George Floyd incident, and the Asian officer, Tou Thao. He stood by and watched as George Floyd died, as George Floyd choked out his last words. Think of that experience before you say that these incidents don’t happen, that Asian Americans are never racist.
4) The term “we Asian Americans” doesn’t point to you specifically. She is making note of the fact that SHE HERSELF is Asian American. Would you read this and really take it into consideration if a non Asian-American wrote it? No! It would be like a white person saying that the n-word is okay to use.
5) I noticed a comment saying, “Learn to be responsible”. What the heck? Where in her letter does it show that she is “not responsible”? Please provide some proof before you put someone down.
6) She is not a traitor to Asian Americans. She is simply pointing out her own views on this. Personally, I believe she is extremely brave for writing this. She knows that she will receive backlash from people saying that she is a traitor, that she is a “banana”. Yet she writes it anyway. I give props to her for doing this.
7) Just because we are a minority ourselves, that DOES NOT give us a free pass to do racist things. We might be discriminated against. But let’s not stoop to others’ levels. To those of you who think, “I am a minority myself! I have experienced racism!”, you probably do not know the EXTENT that black people have. Let me share with you some FACTS, because you seem to ignore the facts that she puts in her letter.
First: Black people, during slavery, were treated as ANIMALS. Read it again. ANIMALS. Not like pets, who are pampered. Like LITERAL ANIMALS. Their suffering went unheard. Their cries of help reached deaf ears. They were not educated, they did not know how to reach freedom. They were whipped to death, ripped to shreds by dogs, tortured for simply trying to write a letter, killed just for knowing how to read. They were separated from their children, forced to breed by their masters. Read the book Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen. It’s very short but very, very educational.
Second: You might think, “Well, Asian Americans were treated badly too, yet we have gone so far!” Let’s look into some history. During slavery, black people were not educated AT ALL. They did not know how to read, how to write. Many of the African American/black people living in the US now are their descendants. Black people have started from ROCK BOTTOM and clawed their way to the top, giving us a black president. They have gone through HELL to reach where they are now. And slavery wasn’t that long ago! After slavery ended, there were MOUNTAINS of segregation, Jim Crow laws. Please do some research on them, and then think to yourself, can you tell a black person that their troubles are the same as yours? No.
Third: Here’s the deal. Asian Americans have gained a good reputation because the ones that came here from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Burma, Laos, etc. were educated. They got here by education. The black people were brought here against their will, turned into mindless slaves. They did not get here by education, they got here because of supremacists who decided that just because of skin colour, they would be tortured for hundreds of years. They got to where they are now by sheer hard work and willpower. Think Barack and Michelle Obama. They got to where they are because their parents put education first. However, as I’ve said before, many black people did not have the same opportunities of education, and that is why they have not gone as far as Asian Americans have AS A WHOLE.
8) Eileen is a human being too. She has feelings. Do not put her down for sharing her own opinion. I notice that she is not doing that to you. Her sharing the fact that her family has been racist is very brave. Do not attack her for this, as she doesn’t have control over her family’s words. Many Asian families are racist. That is the harsh truth, and to those of you who choose to turn a blind eye to this, I will say it again. MANY ASIAN FAMILIES ARE RACIST. If you want to simply shut this part out of your mind, go ahead! Live in ignorance! Why should I care! Why should Eileen care! Why should anyone care that you are too ignorant to understand that MANY ASIAN AMERICANS REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THEY CAN BE RACIST TOO? This is the harsh truth. You might not be racist. Your family might not be racist. But many Asian Americans are racist. Have any one of you encountered through your community not one person who has said a racist comment? No!
Honestly, please think about this from her perspective. She is not writing this as an attack to you. NOWHERE has she said that all Asian Americans are bad. She is simply trying to show us a new perspective on this point.
I apologize if this was long. I greatly respect Eileen and what she wrote, and I hope that before you go hating on her, respect the fact that she took the time to write this, to hopefully educate some people, all while knowing the risk that she would be hated by Asian Americans. Do not tell her that she is ignorant, for she is opening the eyes of many. Do not tell her that she should withdraw her application from Yale, as she deserves it. Do not tell her that she is a disgrace, because she, quite simply, is NOT. If you don’t agree with her, then you don’t. Share so in a respectful manner, and acknowledge the fact that she took the time to share with you some facts.
There are way too many Chinese students at Yale. I suggest that those who support the BLM movement, should withdraw from Yale and give the spaces to black students. I am sure they agree since they are all agents of social change.
Supporting BLM doesn’t mean that you should withdraw from Yale. They are deserving of the spot just as much as anyone else. Besides, withdrawing from Yale would not increase the ratio of black students very much. If anything, the college applications should take race into more account. “I am sure they agree since they are all agents of social change”? What? How does that make sense? If you earned your spot working hard, why would you give it up? I totally agree, that Ivy League universities should have a higher black ratio! But telling Chinese students to withdraw is not good either.
I got it. Do as I said . Not as I do . Must be some kind Constitution Amendment., eh ?
I got it . Do as I said. Not as I do. Hypocrisy is alive and well among Chinese Students at Yale
I agree. As the eleventh commandment says, Thou shalt practice what you preach.
[…] sought help with each other to have certain terminology, “scripts,” letters (such as this one from a Yale student), or videos (like this Trevor Noah with subtitles) translated for […]
I agree 100% that we, Asian Americans, need to stand with BLM. We need to work with other POC to take down this racial hierarchy that has negatively effects minorities with Black Americans the most negatively. The obvious problem address in the Asian American community is anti-blackness.
However, we should also include subconscious white male supremacy as another problem in our community. When we subconsciously adopt white male supremacy, we enable the same white male privilege that perpetuates systemic racism. I think there are two problems to address when discussing our role in the BLM movement: anti-blackness and our propensity to subconsciously buy into white male supremacy. I just don’t see the latter called out as often.
[…] sought help with each other to have certain terminology, “scripts,” letters (such as this one from a Yale student), or videos (like this Trevor Noah with subtitles) translated for […]
Racism or cliché on minority exist in every country. I am French in China, and it is the same.
Some are really nice, and some are afraid, and agressive with others.
Most of Chinese are in China not “friendly” with African, (politically language).
The white supremacy debate is “racist” by definition.
I have a french culture, all men born egal and diversity make richess of a country.
Grade A+, homework well done!
Is this the right site to discuss a “homework” of a student? At least, it is a modified version of homework
Note that a student, either in a private or public school/university, is greatly constrained by his/her/* teachers/professors/advisors; and of cause, a “public letter” of the student, is subject to the mercy of PC: Political Correctness; as well.
Point to ponder: Is AA (Affirmative Action) fair /just? It was the de facto law of the land for many years. Did it work as intended? Ref: CA, MI, WA.
Fight for freedoms: freedom to speech & press, and freedom to think & to choose & to read; and freedom to reject being misrepresented
Search for the truth, and only the truth will be able to set you free
I am amazed by the authors’ arrogance and lack of critical thinking. Really feel bad for the kids’ parents. I’m they have invested a lot to send their kids to Yale.
Hi Eileen :>
I definitely agree that we should protest more for the George Floyd incident. I watched the video of Floyd being killed mercilessly by the police officer, and I for one, am equally horrified and disgusted by the treatment he received. We Asians may not have been out protesting as much as other communities, but that DOES NOT mean that we like to ‘degrade’ black people and we like to side with white Americans. We are our own race. We neither side with white Americans nor do we side with the Black Americans. We side with ourselves, and what we believe is right.
Also, regarding the Vincent Chin incident, there has been no reaction, no support given to it. I think the Asian community need to protest for themselves first, before protesting for others.
Thankyou for reading this! 😀
It is a dead issue, idiot .
[…] of his 7th grade class spelling bee—or, if those don’t ring bells, then probably from the open letters we wrote to the Chinese American […]
Dan Povey is a world renowned expert on speech recognition, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University. He was a victim of political correctness. He was so fed up with the toxic environment in US, he went to China. Below is a link to his farewell message to his students/researchers.
https://www.danielpovey.com/leaving
Update, August 16th,2019: I will now no longer will be working for Facebook. I was to start Monday the 19th as a full-time employee; they told me yesterday, Thursday the 15th, that that was not going to happen. Technically they did not rescind the offer; I would be allowed to work for them as a full-time contractor for a period of up to 6 weeks while (with my co-operation) they would conduct their own investigation into what happened. My FTE offer would be dependent on the results of that investigation. Meanwhile I would be excluded from Facebook property. I declined that offer; the whole thing was giving me déjà vu. Interesting tidbit: about half an hour before the phone call from their HR person, I got this accidental chat message from someone with the job title “Diversity Operations Programs Specialist”. Which to my mind exposes their claim that it was purely a “safety issue” for the lie that it is.
Of course I knew that leaving this page up would almost certainly be the end of my job at Facebook. Everyone around me was begging me to take it down; but I said, how can I tell others to man up and then be a coward myself?
In case anyone is curious, my plan is to work for a Chinese company and maybe get a part-time position at a Chinese university.
Update, October 28th: I have signed with Xiaomi and will be moving to Beijing sometime in November 2019). The arm of the American left is long, though… some of China’s biggest internet companies had concerns about potential US political blowback if they were to hire me.
Leaving Hopkins
Everyone,
I am leaving to take a private-sector job in Seattle, starting August 19th. I will still be working with my students and collaborators here remotely. As you’ll see from this letter, I have been fired from Hopkins effective the 31st of August. I had arranged a backup plan beforehand, so will be leaving a bit earlier. Please don’t blame the Whiting School or Andrew Douglas for this; this comes from higher up. You’ll see from the letter that I am not supposed to communicate with (almost) anyone at Hopkins… technically I am just putting this on the web; and if you find it, you find it.
I don’t expect all this will come as a surprise to most of you, given that three months ago I organized a counter-protest against the student occupation of Garland hall, and a number of people were extremely triggered about that; but I thought you might like a little background.
What was never in dispute is that, being frustrated as the prospect of a long siege at Garland where our computer servers live, I organized a group of what I called “counter-protesters” to try to regain control of the building from the students. This was on the evening of May 8th; there was a scuffle and I was carried out of the building by the protesters. They then made allegations to the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), saying that I had attacked them. The OIE seems not to have been able to substantiate the allegations that I attacked the protesters, but university leadership still decided that I still needed to be fired. (The attached letter claims that they are still investigating… I think most likely the true story is either they found the protesters were lying or realize that they’ll never know what happened).
What the administration seems to be saying is that I put the students in danger by bringing outsiders into what could have been a dangerous situation. You’ll see that the letter states that I believed the group I brought with me “could become violent”… the actual conversation with their lawyer went like this: after I stated that everyone was under strict instructions to not retaliate if attacked, I was asked whether I was confident that they would be able to follow those instructions no matter what happened; and I shrugged.
So essentially I am being fired for what might have happened, while the students are getting off scot free for things that actually did happen. They actually made false allegations against me, both in public (on Twitter) and to the university authorities. They actually attacked me and hurt me; many of you saw the big scratches on my back. They also threw a lot of punches at the people with me, who showed admirable restraint, although I understand one punch was thrown by a person in my group. They actually shut down Garland and inconvenienced thousands of people, requiring the fire department to cut open the doors to get them out. But they suffer no consequences. Am I sensing just a liiiitle bit of a double standard? I mean, obviously faculty will be held to higher standards than students, but that’s nowhere near enough to account for the difference in treatment.
Where could this double standard come from? Well, obviously there’s the fact that they were protesting for a left-wing cause, and I was opposing them. I’m not convinced that that’s enough to explain it, though. My feeling is that this mostly has to do with underrepresented minorities, specifically black people (and trans people). There seems to be nothing that Americans, or American institutions, fear more than being accused of racism (or similar ism’s), which leads to ridiculous spectacles like what we’re seeing here, where such a huge organization can be paralyzed by a handful of deluded kids.
Now if I had known in advance that everyone inside the building was black (that was what I saw; although from media coverage it seems that there may have been a white trans person in the core group)— I wouldn’t have gone ahead with the counterprotest. I’m not an idiot; I know that as a person who demographically ticks all the ‘oppressor boxes’, I would have to be severely punished for opposing such a group. I miscalculated by trusting the coverage in JHNewsletter, which seems to have given a false impression of the demographics of the protest; their photos showed mostly white people. Now many of the people sitting outside the building were white, but that seems to have been window-dressing; they were just bystanders and didn’t do anything except take a bunch of cellphone video. All the people that I saw fighting and screaming were black. If it were simply a matter of difference of opinion I expected that Hopkins would at least pretend to be even-handed; but once race and transgender status enter the picture I don’t think that’s possible any more.
I’m aware that it’s a huge violation of social norms for me to say publicly that I think whites, or males, are being discriminated against1. As far as I can tell there are three specific circumstances in which it’s acceptable for a white male in left-of-center America to allude publicy to these types of double standards:
To justify them
To advocate for their adoption
To deny that they exist at all
Clearly what I am doing here doesn’t fall into any of those three categories. But the truth is, I left the bounds of left-wing respectability quite some time ago.
1. Some people seem to be taking this statement out of context. This is not a blanket statement that white males are discriminated against in general, just in the context of campus politics.
White males in this environment seem to be expected to constantly atone for their existence by telegraphing their exclusive concern for every demographic group but their own, like a neutered puppy-dog or some Justin Trudeau man-child. It’s pathetic, in my opinion; and I don’t accept it at all. I am not prepared to apologize for being who I am. I don’t think that empathy should preclude critical thinking or basic self-respect. I don’t accept that a person should have carte blanche to disrupt everyone’s lives just because of their minority status; and I don’t feel it’s right that I should be fired just for opposing a group whose victimhood makes them politically unassailable. This might sound very controversial to some people here, but to me it seems like common sense.
After writing the words above, I can hear in my head a chorus of marginalized voices crying: “But.. but.. but.. we’re triggered!” “Hate!” “White supremacy!” “Transphobia!” and demanding special protection. I expect that some people will characterize my plea for equal treatment as an incitement to genocide. Let them. Unlike some people here, I have the mental strength to not be manipulated by these kinds of histrionics. I don’t need the approval of victim groups to bolster my self-esteem; and I’m capable of weathering a little outrage. (The fact that I have career options helps, obviously). There’s a difference between tolerance and cowardice; there’s a difference between broad-mindedness and self-hatred; and no-one should claim they are bravely defending ‘oppressed classes’ when in reality they are just too timid, self-conscious or mentally feeble to stop themselves from being manipulated by their advocates. Males educated here in America seem to be uniquely supine in this regard. Is it something they put in the cafeteria food?
Perceptive readers may see the above as an appeal to masculinity. Yes, that’s essentially what it is. The obvious response, for a progressive, would be to put the adjective “toxic” in front of that word “masculinity” and throw it back at me. OK. I’m aware that in the progressive world male is bad and female is good, just as in Orwell’s “Animal Farm” it was “four legs good, two legs bad”. To round it out you can add: “non-white good, white bad”; “diversity good, uniformity bad”; “majority bad, minority good”; “powerful bad, powerless good”, and so on; and you have a nice little moral system, one that may be perfectly self-consistent. Now, I view moral systems as arbitrary and subjective: it’s just a particular assignment of people, actions, thoughts, events, artifacts and so on, to the categories “good” and “bad”— typically reinforced by myths or cherry-picked facts, and held together by some more general principles or concepts. So from a certain abstract point of view, the progressive moral system as on the same footing as any other.
What I do find very odd, though, is that any straight white male would buy into it. It’s the same as if a gay Jew were to join the Nazi party and begin endlessly apologizing for his ancestors having lent money to Aryans at too-high rates of interest; and agreeing that he needs to recognize his “problematic Jewishness” and “toxic homosexuality”, stop talking, and make space for Aryan voices to be heard. He might even take pride in having acknowledged the uniquely cancerous and exploitative nature of the Jewish people, despite being one himself. So is this person virtuous, or is he just too-easily manipulated? You decide. I know we’re approaching cerebral-haemorrhage territory here, for left-of-center readers, but it’s true: there are many things said by American progressives where if you replace “white patriarchy” and “women of color” with “Jewish capital” and “Aryan youth”, and add a picture of a blond boy and a swastika or two, you’d have a very serviceable Nazi propaganda poster. Think about it.
Of course, there are differences. Genocide of one gender by the other, or of a more-powerful majority by a less-powerful minority, is perhaps not historically common. The point is, the language used to describe the more-successful demographic (Jews in Nazi Germany; white males here) is similar; and the psychological states of the people involved are no doubt similar as well. This isn’t about moral equivalence; it’s about that hypothetical gay Jew’s reaction to being told that his demographic characteristics are “problematic” and “toxic”. Do we see him as virtuous and strong, or as weak? Suppose we say that he’s weak. What is it about a white male social justice warrior today who’s constantly “checking his privilege” and “making space for minority voices” that might make us admire him? Yes, white males now are overrepresented in some respects; but so were Jews in early-20th-century Germany— much more, in fact. See “World on Fire” by Amy Chua, which says, IIRC, that they had a 10-times-larger-than-average income; and according to this they seem to have been 25-fold overrepresented at the top tier of business. (Hitler might have been a little bit triggered by that). So what exactly is different? Our guy might have been in more physical danger; but doesn’t that give him more of an excuse to act the way he did?
I’ve heard the objection that unlike the situation today, the Jews were not oppressing the non-Jewish Germans. My response is that oppression is something that’s in the eye of the beholder. No-one today would suggest that they were— not in polite society, at least— but at the time, many Germans felt that they were being oppressed. If you apply the logic of today’s progressives, where differences in outcomes are automatically assumed to be the result of some kind of bias, I find it difficult to see how you’d argue that there was no oppression of any kind. Today, even a 10% salary difference can lead to cries of discrimination; a factor of 10 is much harder to ignore.
You might also say that the Nazis were wrong about the Jews being bad (or at least, worse than non-Jewish Germans), whereas it’s actually true that white males are bad; and that history proves it. But that’s a subjective judgement, because facts alone can never tell you what’s good or bad unless interpreted within a moral framework. And if you use a moral framework that was constructed with the specific goal of proving that women and non-whites are good and white men are bad (because it originated in women’s-studies and black-studies departments at universities), then that’s the conclusion you will reach.
By singling out these academic disciplines I certainly don’t mean to tarnish all women or black people. In fact, I feel that in the long term those academic communities are doing a disservice to the people they represent, by taking extreme positions that inevitably cause a backlash. Black people seem to be generally more sensitive to this concern than whites, as you can see from their greater support for moderate candidates in the current Democratic primary. Whether that’s because they perceive it more clearly or because they actually have skin in the game, I don’t know.
I also want to be clear that I’m not in favor of any political or cultural movements that are animated by resentment. The choice isn’t, and shouldn’t be, between demonizing one demographic group or demonizing the other. But to join a movement that’s specifically against one’s own group? That’s retarded. Man up, America! You’re better than that. Leave that ideology to the man-haters and racial agitators that generated it, stop apologizing, and start living your lives!
Anywho: as for me, I may not have my job, but at least I still have my dignity and my independence of thought. I’ll leave you with some words of Bob Dylan:
I ain’t sorry for nothing I’ve done
I’m glad I fought, I only wish we’d won
Please send my regards to the OIE, and say that, thanks to them, my career prospects have greatly improved.
Sayonara!
PS I am aware that some people are trying to “cancel” me and get me fired from my next job. See if I care! I have lots of other career options. When this whole thing started I told my friends, if the worst comes to the worst I can always go to China or Russia. I’ll tell you this, though: whatever happens, I will never apologize and I will never back down. I know the normal script is that I am supposed to get down on my knees and beg, “Please accept me back into your midst, liberal America! No way. Fuck you.
PPS They have now posted some video of the incident. Misleadingly captioned, but if you look at the video itself, and bear in mind it’s what they felt was most advantageous to release from the much larger amount of video they collected, it doesn’t really bolster their story that I attacked them. For me the funniest part is where they ominously zoom in on— da da da dah! — a Guns’N’Roses t-shirt. Like it proves we’re white supremacists or something. Dudes! Guns’N’Roses isn’t even metal; it’s just mainstream hard rock. Plus I’m pretty sure that Axl Rose is Jewish. Did you guys even realize that it was the name of a band? (shakes head). Also: when they say I am pulling on one of their people, I believed I was pulling on the arm of the guy with me in the blue shirt. When I freeze-frame the video, it does actually look like the hand of a black person; I might have been confused.
PPPS As you can see from how this document starts, it was intended to be read by some of my colleagues at Hopkins, as an attempted workaround for a ban on communicating with them (we’ll see whether Hopkins will decide to advance the date of my termination as a result of that). I did not provide any public link to it, and didn’t really intend for it to go viral. But now that it has gone viral I don’t plan to remove it, because I would see that as backing down in the face of pressure from ideologues; and that’s not something I would do.
Afterword written August 12th: Some people seem to be interpreting this statement as motivated by anger against Hopkins, or against specific demographic groups. While I’m certainly not happy about my treatment, that is not the primary intent; in a sense they were doing me a favor by firing me. I don’t even have that much interest in the legality or rightness of my firing, or the details of the events themselves, or the specific groups involved. This is about a broader cultural issue in the Western world, and the United States in particular. White people, and particularly white males, seem to be presented with a choice of either hating themselves, or hating others; and the left is then surprised and outraged when they choose the latter. I am saying: that’s a false choice. Respect for others doesn’t have to be at the expense of respect for oneself, and demonizing the majority is just as dangerous as demonizing minorities.
Contact
The Center for Language and Speech Processing
Hackerman Hall 226
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
dpovey AT gmail DOT com
Back to my homepage
(Axl Rose is extremely not Jewish. His bandmate Slash, aka Saul Hudson, is half-Jewish and half-African-American, though.
Message for Eileen Huang
You could get your father fired from his job sine you revealed in public that he dislike black. do you feel comfortable with that ?
of course, she does
A letter from a UC Berkeley Professor to his/her colleague
Dear profs X, Y, Z,
I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.
In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them. In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls, and institutions.
Many cogent objections to this thesis have been raised by sober voices, including from within the black community itself, such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly. These people are not racists or ‘Uncle Toms’. They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalizes the problems of the black community onto outsiders. Their view is entirely absent from the departmental and UCB-wide communiques.
The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians. Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.
A counter-narrative exists. If you have time, please consider examining some of the documents I attach at the end of this email. Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black.
Would we characterize criminal justice as a systemically misandrist conspiracy against innocent American men? I hope you see that this type of reasoning is flawed, and requires a significant suspension of our rational faculties. Black people are not incarcerated at higher rates than their involvement in violent crime would predict. This fact has been demonstrated multiple times across multiple jurisdictions in multiple countries. And yet, I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department’s apparent desire to shoulder the ‘white man’s burden’ and to promote a narrative of white guilt.
If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it’s fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews.
None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. “Those are racist dogwhistles”. “The model minority myth is white supremacist”. “Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime”, ad nauseam. These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse. Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are, common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department.
Increasingly, we are being called upon to comply and subscribe to BLM’s problematic view of history, and the department is being presented as unified on the matter. In particular, ethnic minorities are being aggressively marshaled into a single position. Any apparent unity is surely a function of the fact that dissent could almost certainly lead to expulsion or cancellation for those of us in a precarious position, which is no small number.
I personally don’t dare speak out against the BLM narrative, and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriat, the UC administration, corporate America, and the media, the punishment for dissent is a clear danger at a time of widespread economic vulnerability. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type.
The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people. There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims, no public silences, no heartfelt letters from the UC regents, deans, and departmental heads. The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution.
Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is. No discussion is permitted for non-black victims of black violence, who proportionally outnumber black victims of non-black violence. This is especially bitter in the Bay Area, where Asian victimization by black assailants has reached epidemic proportions, to the point that the SF police chief has advised Asians to stop hanging good-luck charms on their doors, as this attracts the attention of (overwhelmingly black) home invaders. Home invaders like George Floyd.
For this actual, lived, physically experienced reality of violence in the USA, there are no marches, no tearful emails from departmental heads, no support from McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. For the History department, our silence is not a mere abrogation of our duty to shed light on the truth: it is a rejection of it.
The claim that black interracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn’t led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively. Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices – as do Nigerian Americans, who incidentally have black skin. It is for historians to point out and discuss these anomalies. However, no real discussion is possible in the current climate at our department. The explanation is provided to us, disagreement with it is racist, and the job of historians is to further explore additional ways in which the explanation is additionally correct. This is a mockery of the historical profession.
Most troublingly, our department appears to have been entirely captured by the interests of the Democratic National Convention, and the Democratic Party more broadly. To explain what I mean, consider what happens if you choose to donate to Black Lives Matter, an organization UCB History has explicitly promoted in its recent mailers. All donations to the official BLM website are immediately redirected to ActBlue Charities, an organization primarily concerned with bankrolling election campaigns for Democrat candidates. Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades; the ‘systemic racism’ there was built by successive Democrat administrations.
The patronizing and condescending attitudes of Democrat leaders towards the black community, exemplified by nearly every Biden statement on the black race,
all but guarantee a perpetual state of misery, resentment, poverty, and the attendant grievance politics which are simultaneously annihilating American political discourse and black lives. And yet, donating to BLM is bankrolling the election campaigns of men like Mayor Frey, who saw their cities devolve into violence. This is a grotesque capture of a good-faith movement for necessary police reform, and of our department, by a political party. Even worse, there are virtually no avenues for dissent in academic circles. I refuse to serve the Party, and so should you.
The total alliance of major corporations involved in human exploitation with BLM should be a warning flag to us, and yet this damning evidence goes unnoticed, purposefully ignored, or perversely celebrated. We are the useful idiots of the wealthiest classes, carrying water for Jeff Bezos and other actual, real, modern-day slavers. Starbucks, an organisation using literal black slaves in its coffee plantation suppliers, is in favor of BLM. Sony, an organisation using cobalt mined by yet more literal black slaves, many of whom are children, is in favor of BLM. And so, apparently, are we. The absence of counter-narrative enables this obscenity. Fiat lux, indeed.
There also exists a large constituency of what can only be called ‘race hustlers’: hucksters of all colors who benefit from stoking the fires of racial conflict to secure administrative jobs, charity management positions, academic jobs and advancement, or personal political entrepreneurship. Given the direction our history department appears to be taking far from any commitment to truth, we can regard ourselves as a formative training institution for this brand of snake-oil salespeople. Their activities are corrosive, demolishing any hope at harmonious racial coexistence in our nation and colonizing our political and institutional life. Many of their voices are unironically segregationist.
MLK would likely be called an Uncle Tom if he spoke on our campus today. We are training leaders who intend, explicitly, to destroy one of the only truly successful ethnically diverse societies in modern history. As the PRC, an ethnonationalist and aggressively racially chauvinist national polity with null immigration and no concept of jus solis increasingly presents itself as the global political alternative to the US, I ask you: Is this wise? Are we really doing the right thing?
As a final point, our university and department has made multiple statements celebrating and eulogizing George Floyd. Floyd was a multiple felon who once held a pregnant black woman at gunpoint. He broke into her home with a gang of men and pointed a gun at her pregnant stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children, playing no part in their support or upbringing, failing one of the most basic tests of decency for a human being. He was a drug-addict and sometime drug-dealer, a swindler who preyed upon his honest and hard-working neighbors. And yet, the regents of UC and the historians of the UCB History department are celebrating this violent criminal, elevating his name to virtual sainthood. A man who hurt women. A man who hurt black women. With the full collaboration of the UCB history department, corporate America, most mainstream media outlets, and some of the wealthiest and most privileged opinion-shaping elites of the USA, he has become a culture hero, buried in a golden casket, his (recognized) family showered with gifts and praise.
Americans are being socially pressured into kneeling for this violent, abusive misogynist. A generation of black men are being coerced into identifying with George Floyd, the absolute worst specimen of our race and species. I’m ashamed of my department. I would say that I’m ashamed of both of you, but perhaps you agree with me, and are simply afraid, as I am, of the backlash of speaking the truth. It’s hard to know what kneeling means, when you have to kneel to keep your job.
It shouldn’t affect the strength of my argument above, but for the record, I write as a person of color. My family have been personally victimized by men like Floyd. We are aware of the condescending depredations of the Democrat party against our race. The humiliating assumption that we are too stupid to do STEM, that we need special help and lower requirements to get ahead in life, is richly familiar to us. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to deal with open fascists, who at least would be straightforward in calling me a subhuman, and who are unlikely to share my race.
The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating. No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies. A whole generation of black children are being taught that only by begging and weeping and screaming will they get handouts from guilt-ridden whites.
No message will more surely devastate their futures, especially if whites run out of guilt, or indeed if America runs out of whites. If this had been done to Japanese Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Chinese Americans, then Chinatown and Japantown would surely be no different to the roughest parts of Baltimore and East St. Louis today. The History department of UCB is now an integral institutional promulgator of a destructive and denigrating fallacy about the black race.
I hope you appreciate the frustration behind this message. I do not support BLM. I do not support the Democrat grievance agenda and the Party’s uncontested capture of our department. I do not support the Party co-opting my race, as Biden recently did in his disturbing interview, claiming that voting Democrat and being black are isomorphic.
I condemn the manner of George Floyd’s death and join you in calling for greater police accountability and police reform. However, I will not pretend that George Floyd was anything other than a violent misogynist, a brutal man who met a predictably brutal end. I also want to protect the practice of history. Cleo is no grovelling handmaiden to politicians and corporations. Like us, she is free.
Why would you throw your community under the bus? Bring violence to them? 85% of violent crime in San Francisco is black on Asian crime. Do you mean 15% more? Chinese Americans are being hunted and you write this groveling letter subjecting your parents to potential targeting. It’s unfortunate that your loudest voice is one that sacrifices her community to be virtuous. Good luck Chinese Americans!
Dear Eileen and all,
Very wise words and good thinking. The article made me think about the cohesiveness needed amongst the Asian and Black communities within America to send an even more empowered message for the anti-racism acts.
Even though that’s the case, may I add few points of thoughts:
1) It’s become a norm to see African Americans together with Caucasians in all sorts of media forms in America; however, this is still far from the case for Asians.
For example, some of the highest paid actors and singers: Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Beyoncé, and tons more, are all celebrated upon all Americans no matter the color. Also, Barack and Michelle Obama. Nothing else needs to be said.
Now I ask: name some famous Asian actors and singers aside from Jackie Chan that can match the popularity of the ones above.
Andrew Yang, the closet Asian ever to be running for the American presidential race, is only good enough to be top 8.
2) Aside from movies and digital media, the same applies for mass media advertisements.
No matter what advertisements you see today, they consist of Caucasian and African American models, and they fit together very naturally in all sorts of circumstances within the editorial stories. However, It is very rare to see an advertisement consisting of Asians, and even if it does, it’ll be a side character in the background.
It’s almost as if American advertisements with Asians as the main leads only apply to China mobile phone sim cards.
3) The above points illustrate the standing of Asians within the American society amongst White and, yes, Black Americans.
The amount of famous, successful, and beloved Black Americans in America are abundance. But Asians within the American society still majorly lack representation both in terms of popular media or in the corporate world.
I’m afraid as Caucasian and African Americans are mixed together to become one America, the Asians amongst them will still stick out like a thumb no matter in what situations, be it in entertainment, political, or professionally.
It seems like what Cathy Hong said might be right, that Asians will “disappear” within the White society, but the term “disappear” in this case will mean “disappear into irrelevance”.
Sincerely,
Vincent
Here is a link to the open letter. It’s like a nightmare that here in the US even a professor has so much fear to make his/her voices heard in public !!!!!!
Do no evil!
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/uc-berkeley-history-professors-open-letter-against-blm-police-brutality-and-cultural-orthodoxy/
Suppose you guys are all aware of the story of the UCLA Accounting Professor ?
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/group-defends-ucla-professor-suspended-after-refusing-to-reschedule-final-exam-for-protests/2378471/
My Chinese friends said that this BLM Movement reminded them of the Cultural Revolution in China from 1967-1976 where tens of millions of people were persecuted, humiliated or harassed into suicide. . Schools and universities were closed with the college entrance exams cancelled. Over 10 million urban intellectual youths were sent to the countryside to be reformed. Many students turned against their parents .
I certainly hope this is not going to happen to this country, but the atmosphere, if you know what I mean, is very very toxic.
This bring me to the question I raised to Eileen Huang before . Her post here is going to put her father’s job in jeopardy .
This place is not China in 1960’s, and I think you worry too much about the protest and Eileen’s activist work. America is not a deep state.
[…] minority, particularly visible among Chinese web users abroad, are pushing back. A Yale junior’s open letter urging Chinese-Americans to support black activists was translated and spread widely on WeChat, a […]
[…] A Letter from a Yale student to the Chinese American Community […]
Where do we begin… ‘Asian American?’ — are they a recent immigrant? Child of immigrants? Here as long as anyone else?
Are they living in or near Black neighborhoods? Are they in a shared professional space? Or is there not a Black person in sight?
What is their sub-culture, if they/their parents kept it? What is their economic class? What is their political disposition?
I can take these with any group (including other Black people) and somewhat accurately determine where they sit on these issues.
These are niches, and arguments here are between people of different niches inside the Asian ethnicity, and cross-race with Black niches.
The writer is speaking about her own niche in the Asian community and you can’t completely blame her for not realizing that.
Many outside that niche won’t understand why she’s doing something so seemingly brazen, and I’ll share observations on why this is.
These types of actions tend to be taken by people in niches which tend skew either on the non-immigrant or young-aged side.
These people know, either from experience or greater access to information, what America’s true demons are.
They know clearly that their place in society is not secure, and when Blacks fought for civil rights, Asians got the same protections.
Watching the times, even before the US/China tensions and COVID-19, they been working hard to build bridges.
Sadly, this bridge-building work is drowned out by things coming from other niches, even those outside/overseas these days.
In many cases these niches share no contact whatsoever, but most non-Asians group them by skin color and nothing else.
‘Asians got the same protections’ — I said that in the past tense intentionally. The Black niches which build bridges are scarce today.
Immigration reform saw millions of Asian immigrants pour into already troubled and resource-deprived Black communities.
The ignorance of most immigrants to domestic situations and the hostile environment they left meant this relationship just couldn’t work.
Aside from abject poverty (if applicable), the American environment is equally hostile. The only difference is what groups are targets.
I’m sure you’ve all seen recent videos of police SUV’s ramming into people, and police pick-up trucks dropping off stacks of bricks.
How is this different than the thuggish behavior which is taking place in protests overseas. The American way is just out in the open now.
Immigrants are slowly (or not so slowly) learning what other niches knew: they are a target, and things are slowly rolling back in time.
There are bans in academia based solely on Chinese nationality; education was one of those hard-won civil rights.
Yet, not many Black people are standing up for Asians in these times, that is an indisputable fact. Is it that hard to grasp why?
The last time we did it, we got a fistful of crap. But, when push comes to shove, many of you guys have somewhere to run.
If it’s of any solace, we have nowhere — Sub-saharan Africa is being gang-raped by 3 continents + MENA.
I support all you guys quit school and give these opportunities to black students. What a wonderful way to support them with your action!
That’s right! Blacks deserve a chance, you got a higher SAT score but so the fuck what?
you don’t have to endure the same hardships as they do.
I too urge all Asians who support BLM to stop working so hard and getting such high scores,
Give These Opportunities To Blacks.
After reading this, I found your judgements and generalizations are not supported by the fact that you provided. And if you analyze the statements you made based on evidences, the logic is weak. That’s why many people are hurt and defensive about your letter. No one wants to be categorized and generalized by race. I appreciate your effort to speak out for asian Americans, but I do see there is a long way to go if you want to be a leader to unite other people, because then no one care about whether if you are young or from which university. You need to form you own idea and think deeply based on the research and information you get from the trustworthy sources, and speak out the things that you truly believe. Try not to be an accomplice of white supremacies and fall into the traps by them to first self shame our own race then shift the attention to cover the real problems.
This is survey data from Pew Research:
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/psdt_06-12-20_protests-00-10/
A similar proportion of Asian adults say they have attended protests compared with Black adults.
A higher proportion of Asian adults say they have donated, and a lower proportion have shared or posted on social media compared with Black adults.
The biggest differences in participation are by age and political orientation, not by race.
Eileen, your courage is inspiring. This is so personal, touching and humbling. I wish I had taken the time to educate my parents. Thank you. I can’t appreciate my gratitude enough.
“educate my parents”, self-righteousness at it’s finest.
pay your parents back for their expenses of raising you first.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8435033/India-says-soldiers-mutilated-beaten-death-Chinese-soldiers.html
Affirmative action is prevalent in the US. People like Eileen Huang are concerned that if too many Asians get good education like they do, then they will have a hard competition to find a good job. So they want to cut down the supplies of Asian talents.
Wow! There are many angry comments! I support BLM and applaud young people like Eileen who have conscience and compassion to make the world a better place for all people. Some readers twist her view and see it as offensive towards all Chinese Americans while she just sincerely wants to be a better person to do some thing helpful to the world. We should be so proud of her being a young generation who can makes a difference. Many misunderstanding and misinterpretation shown here speak the truth that racism is often invisible, embedded, and hard to be recognized. Let’s open our mind and listen carefully to these young people! When scolding and saying mean things such as you should give your Yale position to a black student is out of decency. Why people are so angry about what she says and start to attack her? I see hatred, envy, and racism here. I see ignorance and arrogance here. There are problems here.
TO 温故知新有容乃大, or whoever you are.,
Speak for yourself, when you say people are out of decency if they disagree with you. I rather you set an example first before you start labeling other people.
Have you ever done any volunteer work in a black neighborhood ?
Have you ever lived in a black neighborhood ?
Have you ever been mugged in a subway ?
Have you ever donated money to those bail funds ?
To Indira, I would like to answer your questions, but may I ask you do you do things on your list? If you don’t, does that mean you can use the language I consider as “out of decency?” These are things I have done: I hired African Americans at work. I donated money to many organizations. I marched on the street many times, this time with BLM protest in my town.My neighborhood has great diversity – Asian, White, Latinx, and of course Black. I also have many African American coworkers and friends. Luckily, I never got mugged in a subway by African Americans if that what you want to know exactly, but I got mugged by 3 Asian teenagers on a long sharp blade point at my own neighborhood. They took my $20 bill and a check. My husband used to encountered an African American man who hid his knife at his back and asked him if he had money, he gave him $50 and that man left. I still think justice and equality should be earned by being nice and understanding. Language is the first thing we put out there for people to comprehend, so we should use it carefully. Also, I disagree that Ms. Huang’s language is offensive.
Big Deal !
saying ” I also have many African American coworkers and friends” is kinda racist you know, according to some liberals.
As a first-generation Chinese American/immigrant and a university professor, I am so so so proud of you speaking out, Eileen. Please disregard those noises and groundless naive accusations. I know so well how racially biased our community is and how the exam-oriented educational system has produced so many well-decorated and yet poorly cultivated, brain-washed “college graduates” think about and behave towards other minorities. I personally have talked to so many Asian Americans, especially Chinese, and I can assure you that what you describe in the letter cannot be more true. The only thing I can say to you is to pursue your dreams and be a different Asian American, a unique one.
How many Chinese have you talked to for you to make this generalization? 1,000? 1,000,000?
Aren’t you a racist yourself for saying these?
What more sad is that you are a racist against your own race.
I have seen statistics that Blacks have a much higher crime rate than other races, am I allowed to make a generalization based on that?
And, your are a university professor, so the fuck what? what dose that have to do with the issue we are discussing?
I am a first generation Chinese immigrant who has lived here in the US for 22 years, of which 2 years were in NYC, where you encounter people of all skin colors. I had very positive interactions and impressions of some black people, I had also very negative and bad ones. I personally will not judge a black individual by his skin color. I don’t know what your parents/relatives/friends said that made you think Asians are generally “anti-black”, but I do know and do not deny that, Chinese people often express their dislike of the high crime rate and high dependency on welfare in the black community. I rarely (maybe never, but cannot be so sure) heard anybody around me (Asian or not) say black people are inferior. Is that racism? Does talking about much higher crime rate in males than females make us sexists?
Regarding standing by the BLM movement. First, I agree we Chinese immigrants in general should participate more in movements seeking more justice and equality. But many of us think this BLM movement has been hijacked by some extreme lefties to deepen racial hatred and mask their inabilities to address the true underlying issues. Are we allowed to have this opinion? Does holding that opinion mean “anti-black”? BTW, articles like this remind many of us of the Cultural Revolution in China, where any opinions, comments, even thoughts not aligned with the “great cause” are condemned with various big labels and can lead to harsh punishment, including death. That put even more suspicion into many of us about the true nature and direction of this movement.
I applaud your courage to speak out on something that may backlash from your Chinese community. But please also hear them out if you truly want to help address the social issue, not just want to simply feel good about it. They are not all dumb or evil, trust me.
There is NO courage in expressing left-leaning ideas in Chinese Community, cuz conservatives won’t cancel a human being for one’s views, and their Chinese parents will love them no matter what.
Let’s see if these children dare to oppose the liberal mob.
[…] earlier this month, her open letter, “A Letter from a Yale student to the Chinese American Community” provoked a rare debate in the Chinese community in the U.S. and on Chinese social […]
In general what I’ve noticed from reading the comments and some other forums:
People who don’t support the author: conservatives, first generation Asian immigrants, STEM or business majors, upper-middle and upper class people, more educated/successful, strict tiger parents who attended Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, Shanghai Jiao tong etc
People who support the author: liberals, usually children of hard working immigrants who didn’t have to experience the same hardships, non-mainland Chinese (ex. Hong kongnese, Taiwanese etc.) social sciences/humanities/arts majors, lower class to lower middle class people, less educated/successful
Just my unbiased observation
People who don’t have to endure hardships or don’t have to work tend to have ideas that sounds virtuous but impractical or even harmful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtFKIPugsok
The fact that you think BLM is a grassroots movement really undermines everything else in your letter as uncritical regurgitation of Mao’s Third World Movement Party Line.
I feel sad that Eileen Huang has completely missed the point. Common perceptions of Chinese immigrants versus native-born African Americans differ because each of us is a product of his or her personal experiences. Our experiences lead to our perceptions. There is no one who holds the view that certain types of pigment are bad. But there are many who hold the view that certain types of behavior are bad. Provide the next generation with a different set of personal experiences, and those perceptions will change. The fault lies not with people who have developed a perception based on their personal experiences, but with the behavior of those who may have caused others to have negative personal experiences. For examples of this, just go to Twitter and look at recently-posted videos.
Is true and I agree with the author. There are racists asians just as there are of any other race! But certainly wouldn’t generalize that sentiment to all Chinese.
And to all those quite Asians not out protesting with the blacks, whites, browns etc just remember this:
….FIRST THEY COME….
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out… Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out… Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out… Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me… and there was no one left to speak for me.
White supremacy hates anyone who is any other color/race/culture/religion/etc other than their own!
Your time will come soon enough!
I know this is a silly question, but does “first generation immigrant” mean you were born in the US or you immigrated? If you were born in the US you are not an immigrant, if you are an immigrant then “first generation” is redundant. I don’t intend for this to be mean but I can’t follow a number of the comments because this term is confusing.
“First generation immigrant” means an immigrant was not born in the US.
[…] 2. 增加微信上的進步派論述。傳統的中國媒體例如電台、報紙和電視仍然是人們得知新聞的主要來源。但是，我們也需要投資在微信等手機策略上。右翼華裔既然能成功用微信散播他們的虛假資訊以及組織華裔社群，就反映出微信有潛力讓進步派組織者做同樣的東西。只要微信沒有被封禁，進步派華裔組織必須盡快在微信上建立影響力，因為微信正成為眾多華人移民的主要資訊來源。為了增加我們在微信上的市場佔有率，我們需要一些貼近大眾文化的訊息和內容去對抗一個充斥著保守派新聞的平台。CRW Strategies LLC和Chinese for Affirmative Action已經建立了一個新的進步派網上內容創作中心。我們都見證到一些成功：兩方都在創作更多的中文教育內容上，以及為了確保ACA-5(提案16）在加州能被投票而在微信群進行大規模信息傳播上都有舉足輕重的地位。還有一個由華裔大學生發起名為「微信計畫」的新項目，已經開始以一篇在微信上被瘋傳的回應佛洛依德謀殺案的公開信，挑戰微信上的保守主義論述。 […]
1. Over generalization is a form of Racism, since you are so against racism as you claim, maybe you need to start with yourself;
2. You got your privileged life because of your parents hard work, and now you are selling them out, painting them as racist bigots just to fit in better with liberals, how pathetic, I feel extremely sorry for your parents;
[…] recent debates during the Black Lives Matter protests, when Yale student Eileen Huang published an open letter on WeChat to Chinese Americans of her parents’ generation, calling for solidarity with Black […]
[…] A Letter from a Yale student to the Chinese American Community […]
Just wondering what kind of neighborhood or surrounding Eileen grew up in and also whether or not she, her family members, or people she knows, has ever been attacked by a black person. If not, then will be difficult for her to understand the possible origins of the anti-black sentiment many older Chinese/Asians have. I feel that many older Chinese/Asian Americans fear black people rather than hate them. The reason for this fear is because of the encounters they have had with black people throughout their lives. My family lived in what was considered to be a “bad” neighborhood while I was growing up. When I was 9, I went to Walgreens with my brother (10 years old) and we got mugged by 2 black kids who were our age, and who ran over to and handed their stolen goods to an older black teen. When my older sister was in high school, she was listening to music on her iPod while waiting for the bus, then got punched in the face by a black guy who also tried grabbing her iPod. When my younger brother was a freshman in high school, he was jumped by a group of black teens while walking home. My mother had was robbed by 2 black men after she parked the car outside our garage. My aunt (real estate agent) was taking pictures of the exterior of a house she was trying to sell, then got her purse stolen by a black man. This is just my family–1 Chinese family. How many other Chinese/Asian families have experienced something similar? Why were we only attacked by black people? If white people were the ones who did these things to us, then we would have been fearful, wary and cautious of white people. For some people, it is because they have a lot of negative interactions with black people. You may have been very lucky to have never had such interactions, but it is not okay to dismiss them as nothing. Just as black people are cautious and fearful of white people, because of their past negative interactions, many Chinese/Asians also are cautious and fearful of black people because of past negative interactions. Not justifying racist behavior, but rather, just explaining that they have an origin, and it didn’t seem that the author understood that he own parent’s feelings toward black people also have an origin and that it would serve her well to try to dig a little deeper to understand their experience rather than just judge it. Unless she is able to understand where they come from, how would she be able to help them process and undo the negative effects of their past experiences?
I have to tell the point of view of this Yale’s student is quite interesting. But even better was the following debate in comments. Thank you for that even I read that after the battle.
[…] May 2020, a Yale undergraduate named Eileen Huang wrote an open letter following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Writing on a blog called Chinese […]
[…] May 2020, a Yale undergraduate named Eileen Huang wrote an open letter following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Writing on a blog called Chinese […]
Questions for Eileen
（1）How much do you know about your parents? Do you know how much hardships they have gone through in order to provide you a shelter life? Do you know how much they have given up as the first-generation of immigrants? Do you know their values?
（2）About crimes and black people, do you know there is a heavy overlapping of crime and poverty and black people have the higher percentage of poverty in society? This is not a makeup story. Go to any prisons and see for yourself.
（3）Have you realized that you are the product of the culture that your parents have given you — the culture that values family, hard work and independence? Have you realized that you have a slim chance of ending up where you are now if you grew up in a black household, headed by a single parent?
As a beneficiary of a Chinese culture, Eileen turns her back biting the hands that fed you. This is a lesson for all Chinese parents. It’s our failure to bring up offspring who appreciate the sacrifice that we make for them. I think we all should learn a lesson here. 有恩不报非君子！
Your blog post was the highlight of my day. Thank you for brightening my inbox with your thoughtful insights.
Your blog content is always amazing, informative, and a joy to read! 👏