Actually I don't recall mentioning my race, and indeed I did so intentionally because it would have given it a bias. Because you (and you're not alone, so don't get all senstive about my picking on you) don't know the difference between race and nationality, and I believe it is you're the one who hasn't a clue as to how people of Chinese descent have been victimized and discriminated against. Certainly at least from your perspective, it all happened before you were born, and with the waves of recent immigration, possibly before your parents or grandparents arrived in this country. And no doubt, since your birth, you've probably never known racism as it once existed in this country, other than possibly through some filtered history books.
Much as I'm becoming aware that you may be very much of a lost cause and are hopelessly lost as a "banana" as I believe is the appropriate term in the Chinese-American community, I'm not going to waste a lot of time on this other than to list a few points about 'being Asian'.
1. All people who are classified as being Asian racially are not Chinese, or Chinese-American. There are other countries in Asia besides China. There are also people in countries like Viet Nam, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, and India who are considered of Chinese heritage.
2. There was a Chinese migration, mostly peasants and laborers that came to the U.S. from the mid 1800s until just before the Chinese Exclusion Act. Descendants from those immigrants are well into their 6th and 7th generations as Americans, and no doubt some of their cultural heritage has been lost, people from those families are more likely to have Chinese as a second language if they understand it at all. These are the people whose families have known real discrimination, the Baby Boomers from these families are now starting to become today's senior citizens. Some of them aren't too knowledgeable of their heritage either. But for racial purposes, they would be Americans by nationality and Asian/Pacific Islander by race
3. There are also the Americans of Japanese descent who migrated to the US in the late 1800s and later, many of whom became prisoners of war in their own country during WWII. These families are also well into the 5th, 6th, and 7th, and have bravely stood up for their country regardless how their country treated them. Count the heroes of the US Army's highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion in this group. Last I heard people from this group were mostly classified by the Bureau of the Census as Asian/Pacific Islander
4. There are people who would be classified as Caucasian who are citizens of Asian countries (not just working there, but actually citizens.) Their nationality would be reflective of their citizenship and they may have adapted the culture and would consider themselves to be of that culture. These people could be Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Singaporean, Taiwanese, by nationality, I don't know if those countries classify by race, but in the US they would be classified as White/Caucasian.
5. There are couples of Asian racial heritage, in the United States, who have adopted or raised (e.g. Foster Family Program) children of various racial backgrounds and these children may have been raise in the cultural traditions of the adopted parent's heritage. Children who are products of this upbringing may indeed consider their cultural heritage (and rightly so) to be Chinese, Japanese, or whatever the parent's cultural heritage may have been.
6. There are people from various Asian nations who have immigrated to or have come to the US as refugees, during a more recent wave of immigration that started in the early 70's, most would be classified as Asian/Pacific Islander by race.
7. There are people who are racially Asian, who are not natives of what is considered today's Asia, but rather natives of the former Soviet Union and are now citizens of the countries that have formed following the downfall of the USSR.
8. And since Chinese seems to be of your cultural heritage, there are also people in countries outside of Asia other than the U.S. who are of Chinese heritage, they might call themselves, Canadians, British, German, French, Mexican, Brazilian, etc.
I'll give you a hint, I'm in one of the 8 groups, if it's important for you. Personally I don't care.
I believe it is you who may not have the good fortune to have avoided having to live the lives of those who made your Asian experience in this country so much more comfortable than theirs. And I'm sure those abused immigrant railroad workers who were sent over a cliff held only by a frail rope to light a stick of dynamite and hope to get back up before it blew (ever hear of the term "Chinaman's Chance", that's where it came from) would roll over in their graves if they heard you spewing the rhetoric of the descendents of those who sent them over those cliffs.
I'm afraid that you, sir, do not only don't know "every darned thing about whites" but also could benefit from learning a bit more about your own heritage and those who have suffered on your behalf so that you wouldn't have to.
And yeah, I know a few Asian people. Also people from just about every part of the world. It kind of comes from living in this area. And I own a few firearms too.
270winchester said:
Brigheyes, from what I have gathered you are not Asian, but just a very, very PC person that lives in San Jose. So why not tolerate us without resorting to name-calling? You keep saying that you know people who are Chinese/Asian or of Asian descent, but with all due respect, you do not live their lives and you do not experience the kind of junk they go through in America.
I do not pretend I know every darned thing about whites in America or the African Americans, because I do not live their lives. So please stop with the condescending tone toward those of us who speak from our own experience just because you know some Asian people or have traveled to Asian countries.
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