Weather for HeadphonesThe personal blog of Chungyen Chang | ||
Recent Postsriversthis is about college fatigue
half-asleep Perpetuating and Ending the Race Myth.A long time ago - well not so long, just a couple of hundred years back - some white men decided that they would start a rumor. A terrible rumor. They said that black people were inferior. At first, it was just some bad gossip, and then African slavery rolled along and suddenly the white man had justification for chaining people up, making them shit on themselves in ships, and greasing them down like hogs for the auction block. Fast forward a few hundred years later, and there was a war over those chains. A few years after that war, the white man was still telling this bad rumor. The black man, the negro, they said, was mindless. They were savages, bred in the jungles of Africa and driven by animalistic desires. They used this myth, the race myth, to justify separate bathrooms for "Colored" people and for White people. Then a bunch of the "savages" got together and decided they would get angry. And they did. But they did it without throwing a single stone, and the white man in the white house said, "okay, 'seperate but equal' is wrong". And things got better. Fast forward to today. Racism is still around, we've just learned to hide it a little better. But last week we elected a new president, and he's black. People are still whispering names - dirty names, ignorant names, hateful words - under their breath, but for now, they've retreated back to their caves to lick their wounds. Yet this same election which has already brought about so much change was also the same election in which a massive population - the 10% in the United States who are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trangendered, or Questioning - was marginalized and reduced to a statistic. Someone - a whole lot of someones - decided it was okay to put the Gays in the back of the bus. I've been listening to this song recently. It goes: Sleeping is giving in, -Arcade Fire, "Rebellion (Lies)" Photo by sleepycat Yesterday someone said something to me, and it was based on another race myth, one that we don't often recognize, because there aren't many people here to recognize it. There is an Asian Race Myth. Rice eating, karate-chopping, peace sign flashing, KAWAII puffy cheeks, anime, manga, samurai seppuku gaijin HAI konichiwa domi arigato delicious sushi "fascinating", "unsual", "different", "strange", the exotic east, tight pussy, small dicks, squinty eyes, black hair, sexually inadequate/repressed/predatory men, Fu Manchu, kimonos, dojo, Jackie Chan, Kung Fu, bruce lee, dumplings, chopsticks, ching chong chinaman, chink, harajuku girls, gwen stefani, buckteeth, "me so solly" BULLSHIT. Hey look! There are more countries in Asia than China or Japan! They're all have their own, distinct cultures. They look different, they eat different foods, they speak different languages, they live in different places, they believe in different things. They are all different. If I fit some quality of the race myth, if I become a social statistic, am I marginalizing myself? If a black person listens to rap music, are they a social statistic? If a mexican eats tacos, is he a social statistic? If an Asian person eats rice and digs railroads, are they a social statisic? Or are they just people? Am I just being me? Why should I allow what other people think influence my decisions? I've thought of taking karate lessons before, but the idea of fitting into that stereotype has stopped me flat. I once took ballet, but I stopped because I hated the way I felt - like a stranger, like the odd one out, like someone who didn't belong. But now that I think back on it, I loved it. I listen to music that a lot of people have never heard of, but I don't share it because I'm afraid that they would think I'm weird, or strange, or different. I've thought about majoring in Asian Studies, but I have this big fear of getting stuck among all the Japanophiles, the people who speak pseudo English and their huge, lifelong dream is to travel to Japan, because it's so "fascinating" or "different". If there is one thing that I've had enough of, it's people who make assumptions and think I'm something I'm not. And honestly, there's something cruelly ironic about an Asian studying Asian Studies. I might as well cut myself open and take a poke at all the organs to see how they work. But then that gets into the question of whether or not I am really justified. Yes, there are tons of people who have an extremely narrow scope of Asia as just Japan, and the cute anime and the KAWAII and the bullshit Japanese schoolgirls and cosplay. But I am an Asian American, and I have a responsibility. I am a minority in this country, and so I am now in a position of power to represent all Asian people, regardless of which specific country they are from. If anything, the potential of having people with positive stereotypes about me should be an incentive to go into Asian Studies, because I have the ability to challenge those stereotypes and change minds. So do I fit into the streotypes? Yes. Am I a statistic? Yes. That's okay with me, because that's who I am. I have a confession to make.Sometimes I see people, and I am overwhelmed by this desire to kiss them. And you know, it's funny, that we all share these common desires and wishes, but we're so disconnected from each other. Because when it comes down it, every secret is about wanting some sort of happiness. One day, one person decided that it was okay to separate the black people from the white people, the people with scars from the people without scars, and the people with certain beliefs from the other people with certain beliefs. And we've followed along with it for thousands of years without ever stopping to ask, "why?" Why? We often think of love as just between two people, or within the family. Yet I look all around me, and I find so many things to love about other people. So why can't I kiss someone if they are beautiful? Does anyone else feel this way, or am I just the odd one out, the one who loves too much? lovea friend of mine posted this the other day on Facebook.
Just thought that was worth sharing, Woof Contest Picks for 10/31Poetry Prose / Fiction Brought to you by PlotDog Press with the Serial Suspense "Intervention" Presenting the finest of the writer’s blogs by the bloggers who write them. Highlighting the top 5 posts as chosen by the October 31, 2008 WOOF Contest participants. Want in to join the next WOOF? The next contest ends November 7. Submit a link to your best writing post of the last 2 weeks using the form at the bottom of this page. Participants, repost the winning link list within a week and you’re all set. nobody homei'm cold and i'm in a strange place and there's laughter through the walls and i don't want to be an adult anymore, i just want to go home and sleep. |
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