Every Asian-nay-everyone should read this.
(Inspired by the commentary on this post)
For the purposes of anti-racism struggles, that’s all you need to go by.
Yes, the term, “colored” is not normally associated with Asian people these days, but it was definitely used to label people of Asian descent in this country in the past. We have been and still are the targets of White racism:
Believing the fallacy that people of Asian descent are not authentically or legitimately ‘Colored’ or ‘People of Color’ is wrong because:
1) It ignores the long history of racial discrimination and persecution of Asians in the U.S. (e.g. the Chinese Exclusion Acts, the Japanese-American internment during WWII, explicit campaigns to drive Asians out of the American West, the lynching of Asian Americans. (Which is something that is not commonly known due to the fact that many Asian and Mexican victims of mob violence in the 19th c. were classified as ‘White’ in official records*)
2) It ignores the history of White European imperialism in Asian countries, which intersects with White racism against Asian immigrants in White-majority countries. I assure you that White imperialists certainly did not view Indians, Chinese, or Vietnamese as being anything other than ‘Colored’
Imperial map of Asia, source of map
White European man receiving a pedicure from South Asian servants
3) It plays into the White racist divide-and-conquer strategy.
Even a brief look at the history of race/ethnicity in U.S. law alone makes it apparent that a key aspect of White racism has been the classification of non-Whites according to (white-defined) categories.
Those hailing from Asia (as well as the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Latin America) have been legally categorized in a myriad of ways—very occasionally as White, but more often as non-White (e.g. Ozawa v. United States, United States v. Thind). In general, Asians have occupied a strange ethno-racial limbo as ‘Other’ (e.g. the Census prior to 1870). As far as Whites were concerned, Asians might not have been ‘Negros’, but we certainly weren’t White either. Our otherness made us targets for discrimination and violence, and—because our right to citizenship has constantly come under attack—we’ve historically had as little recourse to the protection of the law as African Americans have.
Massacre of the Chinese at White Springs, Wyoming (source)
Yes, Asian people have (somewhat more recently than you think) enjoyed certain perks due to our ethnicity/race compared to Black and AmerIndian people (e.g. ‘the model minority’). But that’s just a more recent aspect of the divide-and-conquer strategy, which the White hegemony has used to pit minorities against each other so as to distract us from the real problems facing our communities.
And yes, some Asian people are complete racist dicks to those who aren’t Asian or White, but that’s internalized White racism. If you’ve been kicked and beaten by your master for years, then suddenly given a few scraps from his table, would you throw them in his face? Or is it more likely that—as beaten down as you are—you’d give in to Stockholm Syndrome and play along? (To be clear: that’s an explanation for Asian racism, not an excuse.)
Even so, incidents of Anti-Asian bias (e.g. Vincent Chin, Wen Ho Lee) and straight-up racist violence occur frequently enough these days that Asians are hyper-aware of the fact that many—including non-whites—don’t view us as Americans, let alone ‘Colored’. We’re simply foreign ‘others’.
So if White is grudgingly treating you OK, while Black and Brown seem to hate and distrust you, then whom do you ally yourself with? More importantly, who benefits from this apparent alliance?
In the American black-white paradigm of race relations, ‘others’ like Asians get shit on no matter which side we’re on. So the Asian internalization of White racism makes a twisted kind of sense as a survival strategy, particularly if your natural allies (other victims of White racism) are treating you like foreigners and even equating you with the oppressor himself.
My point: Asians’ conflicted, sometimes tense, relations with African Americans and those who have been historically, categorically considered ‘Colored’ is an artifact of White racism. This means that if you exclude Asians from ‘Colored’ solidarity against White racism, you are reproducing a highly successful strategy of White racism.
Let that sink in for a minute.
To conclude: Anti-Asian exclusion from POC solidarity movements is ignorant, wrong, and just plain stupid. Asians’s current role as a prop of White racial supremacy is not our doing, just as our historic role as the foreign ‘Other’ is not our doing. The peculiar place of Asians in race relations today has been the result of the intersection of White racism, xenophobia, and imperialism. It is a mistake to think otherwise.
TL;DR: Questioning the identity of Asians as “people of color” reinforces White racial supremacy.
(Source: downlo)
So many Americans are anti-Obama these days. Millions of people watch Fox News and actually believe the gibberish being spouted at them. It’s only recently that the Tea Party seems to be taking a break from their hate parade. The whole Republican party seems dead-set on “de-throning the socialist king” or something along those lines.
Everyone should click over to this website just to get a taste of what has been accomplished in the past 2 years. There’s more where that came from, beginning with the DADT Repeal.
Today I’m proud to be American and a member of the Armed Forces. And I don’t say that nearly enough.
I had no internet over the weekend, so this is a bit of late news, but a good one, nevertheless.
Here’s a direct quote from Gawker.com user S.A.Tan which I found especially poignant:
“Because I can’t be bothered to reply to Freerepubs, Glenn Beck’s crew, and FoxNation, I’ll preach to the choir:
1. Gays in the military will not cause America to go backwards. Gays have been in the military THIS WHOLE TIME. They just get to talk about their partners *openly* when you talk about your hetero gf/bf in the foxhole.
2. Why is it always the 10 lbs of ugly in the 5lb sack that are worried that the gays will hit on them in the service? These are the same douchebags who think all women want them. I’m from a military family, I’ve seen some of you boys - you’ve got the face of a scrotum and the personality to match. NO ONE wants you. Gays have standards baby, and even in war, you ain’t it.
3. If you are so flipping unhappy that the gays get to serve their country, I suggest you winch yourself out of your La-Z-Boy and march down to the local recruitment office. You love America so much you can’t stand to let others proudly serve? YOU dodge bullets in some God forsaken Hell hole for a few years. These people are making the ultimate sacrifice for your bigoted self, and every other American out there. They are TWICE the men and women you will ever be.
4. I believe in God. Please stop using one singular line from the Bible to castigate an entire group of people, or I am going to be forced to call you out on the rest of Leviticus and see how well you stack up against the Holy Word.
5. The arguments made right now about gays serving are the exact same ones made in the 50’s when the military was desegregated (it will harm rank cohesion, people won’t be able to trust one another, etc). It was a bullshit stall tactic then, and it is now.
6. For as much as some of you outright hate the gays, you should be *happy* that more of them will get to fight and die in our pointless wars, while you get to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Nothing like genocide plus war theatre to get the old motor running, eh fellas?
7. Fact is, most of these ‘faggots’ are more men than you will ever be, and that just eats you up inside. The fact that a dude can be strong, decisive, powerful, and love another dude confuses and probably tingles your loins in a way you don’t like to think about. Well man up, Sally.
They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re saving your country.
Get Over It.”
