I'll be frank - I had no idea what I was going to post about when I opened up the blog today. I don't feel like I've been getting into many of the articles and chapters we read lately, so I decided I should read the other posts and see if anything you guys had posted seemed like something I could explore as well. So, I think this post isn't really a response to Teresa's post, but maybe a bit inspired by the topics she brought up.
I grew up in a city that had a large population of Asian-Americans, and I think many non-Asian residents there at least had a basic familiarity with the Asian-American community that was thriving in the city. Types of food, acknowledgment that there were different ethnicities of "Asian", familiarity with hearing Asian languages spoken out-and-about, among other things, come to mind. However, after coming to college, apart from the much smaller population of Asian-Americans on campus that I'm used to, my non-Asian friends seem to have a lack of understanding and, at least in my mind, respect for Asian-American culture on campus. (Culture seems like the wrong word, but I can't figure out a good way to put it otherwise.) Conversations in which I mention that I'm studying Japanese at Pomona inevitably lead to someone talking about sushi; International Festival is exciting for my friends because they get to eat lots of tasty food, none of which they've heard of before; it's super cool that I'm in the taiko club here, but it's not super cool that any of my friends are doing it because they're Asian or Asian-American and it's more "normal" for them to be in a club like that. (Gosh this is such a disjointed train of thought, my bad. It's kind of like I'm just spewing words.)
So I guess I'm wondering, in conjunction with Teresa's thoughts about the Asian-American community itself at Scripps... what can I or others to do increase the dialogue and understanding between Asian-American and non-Asian-American students on campus? Is it something that others see as a problem?
I agree with Skyler completely on this issue. However, at the same time, I think this is a problem that is present in every community whether they are Asian American or not. I was also raised in a majority Asian American community where the diverse nature of the community addressed every racial issue with a comedic undertone. No one took things seriously. Even among Asian Americans, hobbies and activities known as the 'norm' for them were not regarded as a great feat. For example, if an Asian American plays the piano it's not a big deal , but if a Caucasian did so, it would be "cool". At the same time, in my high school there was a step team and for the African Americans in it, it was normal but when an Asian American was the head captain, everyone was ranting about how cool she was and she deserves much 'props'. When someone was caught doing something strange, no one would forget to add "but they're white" and then everyone nods their head as if that was the perfect explanation for their behavior. Wherever we go, people's lack of knowledge regarding the issues of race leads to these various examples of how people chose to react. How we can change this, I really don't know. However, I hope that we will be able to achieve a level where we can stop using our race or ethnicity as a characteristic that determines a person's existence rather than just another fact from our biological identity.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, before I came to America, always thought that representatives of the Asian culture is mysterious or at least attractive. Perhaps this is the wrong understanding of itself. Have little experience here, I was more or less disappointed. No everyone here cares about other cultural although US is a very diversity society.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the shallow opinion of Asian culture mixed with too many misunderstandings. Stereotypes and discrimination more or less shocked me. I am not an innocent child, but the United States on the world stage the image is always displayed great and wisdom so I have too high expectations. As a friend from South Africa said many students asked her which country in South Africa.
Thanks, China is always in the newspaper headlines. However, how about for other countries? Always substitute the Chinese culture to their culture and maybe is a way lack of appropriate respect.