Stereotypes and Speaking Out

Today, I discovered a jewel.  While visiting my daily blog reads, I came across a blog with accompanying Pod-Cast titled Addicted to Race.  Wow!  Today, I learned that there exists many voices that speak out against derogatory images and blatant stereotypes of Asians.  Further, the perspective offered, was like sitting in an Anthropology class, it was great!

The authors are two American women, both from a mixed Asian background, who provide one of the most candid and interesting perspectives on race in America, or America's obsession with it, from an Asian-American perspective.  Being raised in Decatur, Alabama where a large Asian population does not exist, for a large part of my life, race in America consisted mainly of Black and White relations. 
It wasn't until I attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) that I began to really understand that the bigger picture isn't simply Black and White (pun intended--for you hehehe Ken, the pun master!)  However, at UAB, I also became aware of the perception of Asians  (this terms includes students from India as well) being the model minority."  For those of you not familiar with this term, it is the idea that Asians in America are the perfect example of a minority group in America overcoming challenges such as inequality and discrimination in order to reach levels of equality and success.  Further, this "model minority" term is often used as a tool to compare with the "problem minorities," such as African-American and Hispanic Americans, who, although supposedly provided the same opportunities as Asian Americans, are still unable to achieve like their Asian counterparts.   

So, at UAB I became aware of this idea as I interacted with Asian students.  I noticed that many of these students believed in this idea and as a result, when the issue of diversity became a focus on campus, the Asian student leaders often refused to participate on the grounds that things were equal and fine, seemingly oblivious to the blatant stereotypes constantly being perpetuated against them.  Thus, as a result of these UAB days, I simply resolved that when it came to race relations in America, Asian students simply did not feel want to involve themselves.  Just as long as their grades were fine and their parents were middle-class, they weren't going to make a fuss. During this time, I began to feel that Asians were always passive when it came to such issues.

Now back in the day, this really pissed me off.  However, over the years I simply learned one of the most important lessons of being an adult--"There will always be an opinion different from you own.  Instead of becoming upset like a child, try to learn and take something away from the other person's opinion..."  I also had to re-learn the childhood rule that my mom often repeated to me, "Takara, you can't always have your way, so get over it!"  (Ahhh, mom's blatant words of wisdom and just plain common sense.  Thanks.)  Anyway, while I learned to accept these things, I just wondered to myself why Asian-Americans were often the target of blatant stereotypes, just like African-Americans and Hispanics, however they seldom expressed opposition.  For example, the exoticism and "mystique" of the Asian woman, the asexual and effeminate image of the Asian man, the turban-wearing and convenience-store owning images of men from India, and the kung-fu and karate-kicking images of Asians in movies, often left me asking, "Don't they care?"  Well, to answer my own question today, yes they do!  While I have yet to meet them in person, I am comforted to know that there does exists people who refuse to accept these images.

Living in Japan, I have often been confronted with my own stereotypes of both Japanese men and women.  Before living with my host family in Tokyo, and later my host family here in Sendai, the only ideas I had of Japanese families came from mass media.  You know, the movies and the books written by foreigners providing their personal interpretations on the "culture" of Japan and the behavior of Japanese men and women.  As a result, I labeled Japanese women as passive and weak, I labeled Japanese men as only caring about their jobs and neglecting their families, I labeled Japanese kids as being super-smart geniuses in school.  (Dayum!  I hate to admit it, but it's true...  These were a few of my stereotypes.)  It's funny because now, I have a really cool Japanese friend whom I can talk to candidly about such stereotypes and we actually play a game and laugh our asses off.  We name every culture/country and just say silly stereotypes that we've often been fed and jut laugh...  Not at the stereotypes, but at how dumb they sound!  Here's a few stereotypes of African-Americans that I've been told: 1)  All African-Americans ride around in old pimped-out Impalas with Hydraulics playing loud music.  2)  African-American women always move their hips like a belly dancer and have big butts.. WTF?  3)  African-Americans live in the ghetto and everyone carries a gun  4)  All AMERICANS do drugs  5)  African-American like to hold up make letters with their fingers such as "West Side" 6)  African-American men all want to be pimps-- WHEW!!  Hilarity aside, this is one of the reasons why I chose to come to Japan.  Somebody has to serve up a hearty helping of reality.

To all of you reading this I offer this advice, if you really want to know about a culture, GET YOUR PASSPORT AND GO!  There is no substitute for the real thing.  As for me, from the real thing (my host families and close Japanese friends) I have learned that in Japan there exists tremendous diversity.  So, DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! 

You guys really have to hear the Pod-Cast, it's great!  --And no, you don't need an iPod to listen you just click on the link it it plays like a song on right there in your browser.  (You should really here them talk about Asiaphiles!!!  Finally, Asian women who refuse to be exoticized "china doll" that so many Western men view them as!)

Below are a few interesting links:

Asian-Nation:  Asian History, Demographics, and Issues

The Model Minority

Angry Asian Man

Addicted to Race

Peace!

Takara

Comments

[kikiandlala]

Ugh, those Asian Student Leaders. Problem with those dudes is often times they get to be where they are because no else wants the job. So you tend to get people who are either really egocentric; looking to flesh out resumes; or only tend to be inbred by hanging only within their own ethnicity.

This kinda reflects in that they don't have a large following even for a small population. It's rather like the LDP gov't of Japan. They keep winning but most people in Japan don't like them. However, with some strategic bribing to rural communities and voter apathy elsewhere-they end up "repping" everyone.

[Craig D]

Hello Takara,

Interesting topic. I encourage anyone that is interested in learning other cultures to get a passport too. People of color that are born and raised in the US tend not to be interested in traveling aboard. So many US residents never travel aboard. Because of this lack of exposure, alot of people will be left behind as the world develops into a global system. By the way, GP celebrated her 75th birthday at the Cheesecake Factory this past weekend. Keep up the good work.

Craig

[Khalif]

Hello, first I would like to say nice blog. I've been searching around for more African-American blogs to read and I came across yours. I'm definitely going to be keeping up with this. The last thing that I wanted to say was that you may want to check to permissions on your blog feed. I clicked on it to add you to my feed reader, but it appeared in my Firefox browser as if the execute permissions hadn't been set on it. What I suggest is logging into your blogs server, navigate to your .rdf feed file on try right clicking on it. A box should pop up about gathering info on the file. If you click that it should take you to a box where you can check the permissions that are enabled for the file. User should be Read, Write, Execute; Group and Others should be Read and Execute. If you can't find anything on your server for allowing you to set the permissions of files, check with the administrator of your server and inquire.

Other than that, like I said, great blog. I'm definitely adding you to my bookmarks!

Khalif
http://snakebytes.blogspot.com
http://viperteq.com

[Robby]

Were there any dating options in Japan for African-American women...with Japanese men or other races and cultures?

[zen]

Swoop,
The last I heard you were giving up this blog and doing the podcast thing. I got turned on that you were back writing.

Good post, how true the best way to learn about a culture is to get involved in it. Not to just listen to the heresay.

As far as school (from another post) education is something that should never stop. My mother who is 80 is still taking classes.

The mind needs to be worked it is another muscle and like all muscles need to be excerised ( yet another post )

Anyway, I'll be checking in from time to time now that U R back.

ganbatte

Zen (aka Shaolin from BT)

[samuel welsh]

were are all Gods kids , lets be family.