The Box -
All too often we are put into what I like to call "The Box". What I've experienced quite a bit in the south is that people aren't able to clearly define where I belong. I don't quite fit into any stereotype cleanly. Asians know I'm Asian, it is the rest of society here that are baffled. I've walked into rooms and made the entire room pause. Now I know I'm sexy but really, not that sexy. :) Now here is where I become politically incorrect. I suggest you avert your eyes if you don't want to read it. It is my personal belief that people are surprised that I don't have some sort of first generation accent, frankly many in the south where I live do. As if I'm supposed to speak English with an Asian inflection. I've lived in various places and I'm just one of those people whose
vernacular and speech rhythms changes by region; nothing drastic but it
changes. People are constantly surprised that I don't sound like I come
from the nail shop or dry cleaner. ( I told you to avert your eyes.) When I call home, my brother teases me that I "sound haole", after talking to him for awhile I fall into the rhythm of home. Someone once told me that it's because I am not firmly rooted in who I am. My personal belief is that it *is* rooted in my personality but for a different reason entirely. Onward!
The most common question I'm asked when I say I'm from Hawai'i is: "Are you Hawaiian?". Do I look Hawaiian? (Of course I never say this out loud.) sidebar: I'm also "fluffy", okay this is a reference to Gabriel Iglesias
and his comedy, basically I'm full figured and have kinky hair. The stereotype of Hawai'i is heavy and kinky hair. I know this question should not bother me, but it has started to after being asked too often. I realize that this question is generally asked in ignorance and there is no harm meant in it. However, it points to a vast cultural ignorance of another state; and we've been a state since 1959. So I do my best to be an ambassador and not be annoyed. It is in a way though, a box. How are we as a county still so culturally ignorant of one another? Everyone is expected to assimilate although America has no official language and no official religion. To some degree or another the majority expects everyone to assimilate to Christian values, feel free to pick your religion of choice that loosely follows these tenets; otherwise keep your heathen religion quiet. Okay, the word heathen may be going too far but not by much for some.
One does not need to go to Hawai'i to gain knowledge of the state and our unique history. Yes, a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center would be nice but not necessary. (This is not a plug.) Just as people do not need to remain ignorant on the culture of others. I am always at a loss on why people do not realize that America is already a melting pot of other cultures and not just on St. Patrick's day. Everyone who has ever immigrated here has brought something of their culture and its made its way into the mainstream. From the foods we eat to holidays we celebrate, it is everywhere we look. And yet the majority chooses to ignore this. Why? I keep asking myself this question.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
The Pass
Aloha No!
The Pass -
I read an article recently about the internment camps a few months back and I didn't think to save the link at the time. It was difficult seeing the pictures seeing the pictures of "No Japs allowed" spray painted on signs and wondering how that must have made people feel. The Nisei were signing up for the Armed Forces, determined to prove how American they were, fighting for a country that did not trust us and for many outright hated us. It is a common experience we have with African Americans, a country that hated them and yet they were willing to die proving that they were American.
The internment camps were during a time of segregation. One Nisei's account was of riding a bus, a time when African American's sat at the back of the bus. So they went to the back. The bus driver told them that only coloreds sat at the back and to move towards the front but they eventually sat in the middle. There was a bit of confusion as to where to sit. She said that in retrospect she wished she sat in the back. In my mind I guess we were the yellow devil that America was at war with but somehow less evil than African Americans.
It is what I like to refer to as "The Pass", we are seen in most instances as non-threatening. To the outside world we have assimilated into American culture and are no real threat. The majority of people are not really aware of Asian Civil Liberty groups. According to the 2010 Census a snapshot for the last decade, 2000 to 2010 census numbers the "Asian alone or in combination" category shows relative to the total population numbers we have experience a significant growth of 46% expanding numbers by 11.9 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2010. The total population being 281,421,906 and 308,745,538 respectively.
Is it because our civil liberty groups are a little more "quiet" than other groups, make up a smaller portion of society or because we have "assimilated" so well?
I have not done a lot of reading thus far for Asian Ethnic Studies and have started to dip my toes into it. What I have found out thus far is that during the 60's our people were there fighting for civil rights. Which leads me back around to the question, with the war, internment camps and civil rights, how are we not seen as a threat? Please make no mistake, I don't want us to be seen as a threat, I simply wonder about what appears to be an anomaly. I realize that during the Jim Crow era because our numbers were concentrated primarily on the west coast that the majority of the laws were based there; could this be the reason that more laws were not created elsewhere? A simple perception on lack of need, we were simply not in other parts of the country in larger numbers; i.e. no threat.
Perhaps across the rest of the nation we were just too few and far between to really worry about.
The Pass -
I read an article recently about the internment camps a few months back and I didn't think to save the link at the time. It was difficult seeing the pictures seeing the pictures of "No Japs allowed" spray painted on signs and wondering how that must have made people feel. The Nisei were signing up for the Armed Forces, determined to prove how American they were, fighting for a country that did not trust us and for many outright hated us. It is a common experience we have with African Americans, a country that hated them and yet they were willing to die proving that they were American.
The internment camps were during a time of segregation. One Nisei's account was of riding a bus, a time when African American's sat at the back of the bus. So they went to the back. The bus driver told them that only coloreds sat at the back and to move towards the front but they eventually sat in the middle. There was a bit of confusion as to where to sit. She said that in retrospect she wished she sat in the back. In my mind I guess we were the yellow devil that America was at war with but somehow less evil than African Americans.
It is what I like to refer to as "The Pass", we are seen in most instances as non-threatening. To the outside world we have assimilated into American culture and are no real threat. The majority of people are not really aware of Asian Civil Liberty groups. According to the 2010 Census a snapshot for the last decade, 2000 to 2010 census numbers the "Asian alone or in combination" category shows relative to the total population numbers we have experience a significant growth of 46% expanding numbers by 11.9 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2010. The total population being 281,421,906 and 308,745,538 respectively.
Is it because our civil liberty groups are a little more "quiet" than other groups, make up a smaller portion of society or because we have "assimilated" so well?
I have not done a lot of reading thus far for Asian Ethnic Studies and have started to dip my toes into it. What I have found out thus far is that during the 60's our people were there fighting for civil rights. Which leads me back around to the question, with the war, internment camps and civil rights, how are we not seen as a threat? Please make no mistake, I don't want us to be seen as a threat, I simply wonder about what appears to be an anomaly. I realize that during the Jim Crow era because our numbers were concentrated primarily on the west coast that the majority of the laws were based there; could this be the reason that more laws were not created elsewhere? A simple perception on lack of need, we were simply not in other parts of the country in larger numbers; i.e. no threat.
Perhaps across the rest of the nation we were just too few and far between to really worry about.
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