Asians a Racial Minority?

[epmd]

Whenever I hear anybody refer to Asians a "racial minority" I get a chuckle. How many billions of us are there in this world? We're the majority. Let's recognize this fact and consider ourselves the majority at all times. Discuss,

[Banana]

Racial minority in the united states, not world. believe it or not, Asian America is trying to set up it's own unique entity.

[tripostrophe]

See Banana's post. And it's entirely possible for a majority group to still be a minority, due to lack of political power, etc. e.g. predominantly Black areas struck by Katrina

[urbia]

Just look at any examples of race riots where Asians held economic power but little political power. It's not about overall numbers but how power is concentrated, or in this case, not.

[AngryABCGirl]

Whenever I hear anybody refer to Asians a "racial minority" I get a chuckle. How many billions of us are there in this world? We're the majority. Let's recognize this fact and consider ourselves the majority at all times. Discuss,

You ought to punch the chuckler, especially if said chuckler is Asian. Oh god I'm going back to America son. :frown:

[TB4000]

America is the only country that matters. Everyone on this rock we call Earth knows that. Get with it, buddy. If I decide to go back to Africa and it's learned I'm some heir to a throne, that literally means dick here in the states.

[LaiSteve66]

To everyone. This epmd guy is a Korean guy who grew up in Canada who has a hard time believing that Asian America deals with a lot of racism so don't be so shocked if he seems rather clueless or says something off the wall.

[nfemw]

Is it so different in Canada?

[epmd]

America is the only country that matters. Everyone on this rock we call Earth knows that. Get with it, buddy. If I decide to go back to Africa and it's learned I'm some heir to a throne, that literally means dick here in the states.

you're being serious here? the term racial minority implies actual numbers, even if there is political disenfranchisement, that is why blacks in south africa were called the "black majority" back when there was white majority rule. We live in a global world now and I in raw numbers Asians are the racial majority. I've lived in Asia and North America (both Canada and USA - Chicago area) and it this fact still registers in my head, that we are the racial majority in raw numbers.

to laisteve66: i don't know who you are but i assume you are from the fighting 44's website. dude people are normal outside of that website, leave the anger there. those guys gossip about interracial couples they see all the time LOL it was fun and sort of pathetic at the same time (while I was there)

[epmd]

^^ white majority rule = white minority rule

[hooligan]

The racial construct of Asian American or Canadian is unique to each country's racial constructs. I think it's been mentioned in the UK we're still called Orientals while South Asians are called Asians. As for Terry's comment, I think he was just being funny.

Worldwide, we're obviously not minorities, but within the context of how many of this board understands their identity, we're misrepresented, underrepresented minorities. People hardly care how they represent their communities and such.

[snailpoo]

you're being serious here? the term racial minority implies actual numbers, even if there is political disenfranchisement, that is why blacks in south africa were called the "black majority" back when there was white majority rule. We live in a global world now and I in raw numbers Asians are the racial majority. I've lived in Asia and North America (both Canada and USA - Chicago area) and it this fact still registers in my head, that we are the racial majority in raw numbers.

Huh?

Isn't your entire premise based upon raw numbers without contemplating the existence of borders?

Doesn't your supporting example specifically limit the raw numbers to the borders of South Africa?

What? Do you pick and choose when to recognize political situations and boundaries only when it supports your point, or do you just fail to recognize that subsets of the globe may have issues independent of the whole?

[epmd]

Huh?

Isn't your entire premise based upon raw numbers without contemplating the existence of borders?

Doesn't your supporting example specifically limit the raw numbers to the borders of South Africa?

What? Do you pick and choose when to recognize political situations and boundaries only when it supports your point, or do you just fail to recognize that subsets of the globe may have issues independent of the whole?

indeed "subsets of the globe have issues independent of the whole," i agree, i've noticed through the these asian internet boards that the US has issues completely different from up here in Canada, and our two countries are incredibly similar. i brought up the south africa example of the black majority because someone said that being a "minority" doesn't mean that the minority group is smaller in numbers.

whatever the case, i dislike this term "racial minority" as applied to us because like how maybe those people up there are saying it implies that a "minority" group is some how minor to a "majority" but if you look at our Asian ethnic groups, with the numbers we have and the massive history and culture and economic power we hold in the world (japan, korea, china) i don't believe we are minor to anyone. on a global scale we are no minorities. In the united states, it seems to me there is a lot of racism going on down there from reading internet forums, i'm not at liberty to comment on, because i don't live there and i haven't lived or been there since the 90s. bottom line, i'm a korean-canadian, don't call me a minority

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Regardless of how you define the term "minority" (actual numbers vs. socio-economic/political power), it's obvious that the use of "racial minority" to describe Asian people is confined to countries outside of Asia and not in countries like China or Japan or Korea or in like the context of the entire world.

[Paradox]

Huh?

Isn't your entire premise based upon raw numbers without contemplating the existence of borders?

Doesn't your supporting example specifically limit the raw numbers to the borders of South Africa?

What? Do you pick and choose when to recognize political situations and boundaries only when it supports your point, or do you just fail to recognize that subsets of the globe may have issues independent of the whole?
He does have a point though. Asians wield a tremendous amount of political and economic clout globally these days. It's just that a lot of asian-americans are too caught up in the very narrow context of America to understand the bigger picture. We should be using our multiethnic heritage to our advantage. I also don't believe America has the best standard of living or social structure out there. Standard of living isn't all about wealth and obtaining wealth neither is it about conforming to some highly racialized PC hyphenated standard of American.

We become much more than that if we apply ourselves.

[AngryABCGirl]

He does have a point though. Asians wield a tremendous amount of political and economic clout globally these days. It's just that a lot of asian-americans are too caught up in the very narrow context of America to understand the bigger picture. We should be using our multiethnic heritage to our advantage. I also don't believe America has the best standard of living or social structure out there. Standard of living isn't all about wealth and obtaining wealth neither is it about conforming to some highly racialized PC hyphenated standard of American.

We become much more than that if we apply ourselves.

This is very true- but it's important not to leave out segments of the population in Asian America that don't have ties to Asia and those who don't have heritage from powerful Asian nations. In terms of political power in America, Asians really don't have that much and haven't used economic powerful to an advantage, it's an uphill battle.

So, I do consider Asians in the US a racial minority by raw numerical numbers as well as politically and socially. Things from back in the days of Vincent Chin to current Anna Mae He to Southeast Asian deportations shows that Asians don't have all that much political power in the US, unless you're very wealthy.

In terms of being an Asian Am in Asia, I think housing wise I have access to a bunch standard of living in the US purely because of space and it's a lot cleaner, but socially and economically not really. I look forward to returning to that aspect of the US in a few months, a forced decision I've had to make this week for family reasons, but that's like the only thing other than I get to act retarded in public and it's okay. I can roll around in a giant bed in a giant room and drive a car with a gun in my glove compartment around instead of a moped. But I still really want to shoot myself right now because despite all the complaints I have about being in Taiwan, I'd rather stay here than deal with the retarded mofo-getry in the US, especially since I just got offered a new high-paying job. Oh well, family first right now. I'll be back.

But seriously though, for those who have the money and skills to start-up, there are lot of opportunities in Asia for a lot of Asian Americans to be taken advantage of to make good money and have a great lifestyle. I personally can't imagine spending the rest of my life in the US. Even as an Asian Am activist, I think I've learned a lot here I can bring back with me to work in the community that was time well spent.

[Paradox]

This is very true- but it's important not to leave out segments of the population in Asian America that don't have ties to Asia and those who don't have heritage from powerful Asian nations. In terms of political power in America, Asians really don't have that much and haven't used economic powerful to an advantage, it's an uphill battle.

The Asian-Americans who don't have the ability or feel the need to "connect" abroad are pretty screwed I think. They will have to deal with America (and the english speaking anglosphere) purely through a myopic racial lense. I feel sorry for these people because quite a few probably question their self worth everyday. The American racial/social hierarchy tends to wreak havoc on a person's self esteem if you find yourself on the bottom.

In terms of being an Asian Am in Asia, I think housing wise I have access to a bunch standard of living in the US purely because of space and it's a lot cleaner, but socially and economically not really.

I agree with this as well. The American dream was really during my parent's era when they immigrated. Since then social mobility and opportunities for new immigrants has dropped off significantly. I find that wealth is being centralized with individuals and families who have only had access to the opportunities to create it. America isn't all bad but the citizenship and the ability it gives you to travel and do business is worth much more than actually living in the country.

[AngryABCGirl]

The Asian-Americans who don't have the ability or feel the need to "connect" abroad are pretty screwed I think. They will have to deal with America (and the english speaking anglosphere) purely through a myopic racial lense. I feel sorry for these people because quite a few probably question their self worth everyday. The American racial/social hierarchy tends to wreak havoc on a person's self esteem if you find yourself on the bottom.


The majority of Asian Americans are screwed then? And you can say this about nearly any other minority group in the US too. That's kind of presumptious and ignores the gains in civil rights movements and other social movements in Asian American history. I don't think Asian Americans are that doomed and we're doing pretty darn well in establishing our own communities with more and more political power in many areas in the US. Although I agree if you're the only Asian kid growing up in an all-White neighborhood, there's the most likely chance you're gonna have problems. But even people I've met from those backgrounds don't question themselves everyday and are okay with who they are and how they're gonna move ahead in life. There's actually a lot of aspects of Asian American life I'm looking forward to that's waiting for me back in California- like multi-cultural pan-Asianism and a strong sense of social consciousness and Asian Am night life.

Call it corny and maybe because I'm past the stage, but I don't really consider my racial, ethnic, and gendered-being number one in my life in determining my self-worth as a person or my personal abilities. Yes there's discrimination. Yes if you don't have a healthy view of your racial, ethnic, and gender-being you're gonna have low self-esteem, but it's not the end all and be all in the end.

[Paradox]

The majority of Asian Americans are screwed then? And you can say this about nearly any other minority group in the US too. That's kind of presumptious and ignores the gains in civil rights movements and other social movements in Asian American history.

Yep, I stand by my words. I think Asian-Americans are second and third class citizens in the anglo world, females and males in that order. This type of pity party activism doesn't elicit results. I'm not being "down" on Asian-American issues, I just feel that it's fact. You can't compare the type of misdirected activism AA's do now with the movements of blacks or hispanics who didn't have an overseas powerbase to work from. AAs comes across as feeble because the vast majority of AA's play right into the system socially, economically, and through marriage. The mentality is downright subservient.

I don't have much sympathy these days for an AA movement mainly because I think the solutions lie elsewhere. We should build up a serious overseas asian economic powerbase in asian countries. Then we can change the perceptions of the anglo mainstream through sheer economic and political dominance in a global context. The Asian-american pity party doesn't go anywhere..the very message it sends across is that AA's are weak and are forced to play within the anglo world's set of rules and beg for quarter. This may have been the case in a post or pre ww2 world but it just isn't the case in the modern era where a anglo dominant superpower can get its ass stalemated by a few guys with IEDs.

Call it corny and maybe because I'm past the stage, but I don't really consider my racial, ethnic, and gendered-being number one in my life in determining my self-worth as a person or my personal abilities. Yes there's discrimination. Yes if you don't have a healthy view of your racial, ethnic, and gender-being you're gonna have low self-esteem, but it's not the end all and be all in the end.
I think the dominant culture in a country shapes a person much more than you assume.

[AngryABCGirl]

I think you're right a large number of Asian Americans play into the system all the ways you mentioned, but I think a lot are moving away these days. Don't be so quick to jump on the Asian female has it so easy bandwagon though, I really doubt the ability of most Asian American men and men in general to understand gender discrimination and the double burden Asian American women face as double minorities. I don't really consider White guys hungry for Asian women or Lucy Liu gets to be some degrading TV segment a step up, in fact in most ways I consider it a step way down. I'm not saying the Asian male has an easy piece of cake by any means and have very unique issues, but the oppression olympics game is a dangerous one to play there and a lot depends on if said male or female is straight or not and is also very decisive.

Plus really any person who isn't White is a second class citizen in the Anglo World, it's not just our own pity party. It's not like our lives have to totally and utterly suck cause of it. I think a lot of Asian American self-hatred is what makes it worse though feeling like they don't have their own space in America. In a way I think having a need to prove Asians as strong, even using Asian political power is evident of that kind of self-hatred. I admit I've felt this way before, but I'm kind over it and don't feel the need to prove Asian women are strong or Asia is strong or hey Asian men are good in bed even - cause I know alla that already. Yeah wielding it in a political context is different, but it's not something that has to be destructive of self-worth, at least to me.

Don't forget Asian Americans marched along side Blacks and Latinos in the civil rights movement and fight for things like the rights to ethnic studies together and many landmark immigration laws involved Asian Americans. Unfortunately historical circumstance and inter-ethnic strife and tension (ie Malcolm X being held by Yuri Kochiyama after he was shot is kind of conveniently left out of everything) have penned us in a model minority hop sing role and kind of overlooks that.

I know I come from a very urban Californian, very Bay Area, and a strong ethnic studies mentality though to balance Chinese economic outlook and current lifestyle. I'd be a total Asian American hippie activist type if I wasn't born into a transnational business background. Yeah I'm trying to eat my cake and have it to. I don't see the movements as feeble because I've witnessed changes and inroads in a lot of grassroot efforts to those on larger scales such as in media to those on the individual level, but judging from this board there's only a few people that have had similar experiences to me, although I have to admit it was dumb luck and circumstance I got involved in Asian American movements and such, maybe I just have the change the world underdog bug in me which is why I pull long hours doing volunteer and slave labor work for a non-profit foundation in Taiwan and started doing other work on the side for the $$$ because I can earn a ridiculous amount with a US passport like you said, but I could be making more and living larger, but maybe I'm just like this.

But just to let you all know ethnic studies, ie Asian American Studies, has been moving more toward transnational politics and the Asian diaspora returning so to speak. Ie in an activist sense such as people raising money in the US to build schools back home, migrant flows, etc. I don't consider Asian Americans all that pathetic or devoid of history and identity by any means and to look for Asia for the all the answers, that really just gives up agency to a white structured society to me. But I gotta admit a lot of Asian Americans are really fucked up in the head because of American racism in ways maybe I have no way of totally understanding because I never have the whole minority experience- and everyone is free to call me out if they feel like they need to. But I'm a believer that when people are educated about the situation of their lives, they can work to free themselves from the prison and oppression in their minds.

I agree that Asian Americans can make a lot of inroads allying with powerful Asian nations- hell that's how I've been able to be very socio-economically privileged in my life. But that ability comes from having heritage from a rich Asian nation and being born into a family that pretty much was destined to do well,, allowing me the education to work internationally- and I don't mean just a degree, I mean language and culture and the time and space to figure out the ropes- someone who isn't 1.5 gen-er couldn't do this without coming from a privileged background and I realize that. In other words I acknowledge my background is really wants been able to give me current and future success in Asia and it's just something that's been given to me.

A lot of Asian Americans don't have those advantages and don't care for them. I mean, what I'm gonna tell the Hmong Americans I lived with before to go back to Laos and establish businesses? There's a bigger chance they're gonna face a firing squad. There's plenty of working class ABCs who haven't been able to get a Chinese education like me and they're not gonna be able to get it making ends meet who don't have the capital or know-how to start out a life in Asia, let alone looking at say Filipinos and Cambodians as well who don't have the Asian powerhouse advantage factor. I mean you gotta afford the plan ticket and money to start off in Asia for pete's sake. I have some really proud Japanese American friends who had family that have gone through the internment experience and really respect that history more than being a part of Japan. I can't relate to that at all since so much of my life and identity is about Asia, but I really respect that too.

The point I'm trying to make is what you're talking about requires a certain class background that a lot of Asian Americans, hell the large majority, are not a part of. I'm lucky to be part of it, and it's pretty much assured me a good life for my taking- but it's not the case for most Asian Americans, including most of my friends back at home. Plus seeing how middle class people in Asia struggle and how much they have relatively in comparison to middle class Asian Americans, I'm kinda okay with the racist ethnic crap that exists in America as long as we're moving forward and not backward- which is the way I see it now. I'll admit I feel this way because I've had a good if not ideal Asian American experience that a lot of people don't get to have- Asian American life isn't that bad and the pathetic pity party a lot of people parade around has a certain about of baselessness.

But in addition to all this, I'm also a bit suspicious of how Asian nations approach their diasporic populations-which has been changing and shifting in historic conditions- Vietnamese and Chinese just an example in constantly shifting government policies. For me personally, I don't see the whole Overseas Compatriot crap the Taiwan government sponsors as particularly advantageous to me other than a tax break and they serve up a bowl of manipulation to those less careful and cynical than I and a history of overseas types getting taken advantage of that makes me very suspicious. Maybe it's because I'm not all that into China and it's Taiwanese suspicion, but I don't prefer to not have an Asian country represent me and the context of my life in the US, I got that based covered.

I admit get to live a very nice lifestyle in Asia and have the best of everything and travel extensively that i don't have in America. I get the great if not the best service at fine international restaurants and expat haunts, but I can still go out to a local noodle stand after in Chinese countries and have total access. I can work and do business anywhere, people respect that I'd an educated "Asian from overseas" and congratulate me for all this crap I didn't do much for and "wow you're a woman and doing all this?"

There's a lot of respect and access that most Asians in America don't have that they can in Asia, and I admit it can be very intoxicating and seductive and I understand this allure firsthand. I'd admit in Asia I've never been more prouder to be an Asian American in some ways, but honestly after awhile, a lot of it has fallen kind of flat and seems pretty fake and artificial. Most of it is bought by money and a US passport, and I don't know, maybe that's just not good enough for me. I enjoy living in a safe country where I don't have to carry a bottle of mace around where I can blend into the background and not worried, but I gotta admit the fine dishes I get at some of the finest restaurants here never carries the same feeling or tastes as good as cheap noodles I get in an some ethnic ghetto in the US sitting in a table full of socially conscious people wanting to do something for the communities says something about the good parts of Asian American life if you get what I'm saying.

If anyone read all that- I salute you.

[Paradox]

I think you're right a large number of Asian Americans play into the system all the ways you mentioned, but I think a lot are moving away these days. Don't be so quick to jump on the Asian female has it so easy bandwagon though, I really doubt the ability of most Asian American men and men in general to understand gender discrimination and the double burden Asian American women face as double minorities

I don't believe my point was in jumping on asian-american females. Let me emphasize _Asian-american_ because the non western asian women I meet abroad don't carry the extreme inferiority complex and mental/cultural baggage i've seen on the westernized ones. However, I believe that women in America are probably the most empowered out of anywhere in the world. Even though many Europeans have laws regarding women the culture has expectations for women that aren't necessarily found in the U.S. anymore. I'm sure there's gender discrimination but compared with the REST of the world it's great.

Plus really any person who isn't White is a second class citizen in the Anglo World, it's not just our own pity party.

While that may be true to some extent I don't feel asian "minority" rage has much of a direction. In fact it's often lampooned by other minority causes because it's so directionless and random in its outrage. It seems like asian activists ignore the much bigger picture in favor of kneejerk activism over small peculiar causes. For instance, you can't have a cohesive APIA feminist cause until you address the huge gender rift between the Asian-American community that exists today or the root causes behind it. It's impossible unless you clean up the dirt at home. You also can't point out mocking logos or slogans on t-shirts until you address the general atmosphere of racial humiliation and denigration daily against AA's in anglo societies. It's like slapping at a gnat biting your arm while a rabid dog is chewing your leg off.

In a way I think having a need to prove Asians as strong, even using Asian political power is evident of that kind of self-hatred. I admit I've felt this way before, but I'm kind over it and don't feel the need to prove Asian women are strong or Asia is strong or hey Asian men are good in bed even - cause I know alla that already. Yeah wielding it in a political context is different, but it's not something that has to be destructive of self-worth, at least to me.

You're looking to deep in this. I am definitely not trying to prove anything. I am completely self interested in watching my investment and personal life grow in Asia. If I do become economically influential I would not donate towards pet Asian-american activist causes. I would take a George Soros approach to things and invest my money in economic and political authority that will best maintain my racial, cultural, and ideological interests. By association this will benefit all Asians worldwide but it's definitely not done by waving around poorly written protest boards and I find funding and planning such ventures to be a waste of time.

Don't forget Asian Americans marched along side Blacks and Latinos in the civil rights movement and fight for things like the rights to ethnic studies together and many landmark immigration laws involved Asian Americans. Unfortunately historical circumstance and inter-ethnic strife and tension (ie Malcolm X being held by Yuri Kochiyama after he was shot is kind of conveniently left out of everything) have penned us in a model minority hop sing role and kind of overlooks that.

The problem is their activist causes are not ours. Asian issues line up rather poorly with black and hispanic causes. They are fighting centuries of deprivation, poverty, and social decay of their internationally isolated communities in the U.S.. The countries where they come from are in shambles, they have no other outlet but to form political protest groups to appeal to the sensibilities of the white majority. The same situation does not really apply to Asian-americans who can expatriate to any asian country as long as they are resourceful about their decisions. We can also use our economic clout abroad to shape our futures in America. Even if there is racism if we spread enough business and political clout abroad we can directly pressure anglo interests into coinciding with our own. I'm looking at the global context. The white dominated world that has been created in the last 500 years is starting to see cracks. There are non-european countries who are gaining an incredible amount of influence. As asian-americans we should be in prime positions to parlay our skills and knowledge into expediting the process.

I don't consider Asian Americans all that pathetic or devoid of history and identity by any means and to look for Asia for the all the answers, that really just gives up agency to a white structured society to me.

I don't believe it's "giving up" anything it's going somewhere to build up clout and then using opportunities in all the places where the western world burned its bridges.

But that ability comes from having heritage from a rich Asian nation and being born into a family that pretty much was destined to do well,, allowing me the education to work internationally- and I don't mean just a degree, I mean language and culture and the time and space to figure out the ropes- someone who isn't 1.5 gen-er couldn't do this without coming from a privileged background and I realize that.

I don't believe you need to be privileged to live and succeed abroad you just need to be resourceful and determined. I am not a native Thai person or ethnically related to Thais yet I could easily integrate myself into this culture simply because of a little cultural background knowledge and racial similarities. We can chameleon in pretty well and even if we can't we can use the "overseas asian" story to our advantage.

I mean, what I'm gonna tell the Hmong Americans I lived with before to go back to Laos and establish businesses? There's a bigger chance they're gonna face a firing squad. There's plenty of working class ABCs who haven't been able to get a Chinese education like me and they're not gonna be able to get it making ends meet who don't have the capital or know-how to start out a life in Asia, let alone looking at say Filipinos and Cambodians as well who don't have the Asian powerhouse advantage factor.

I know several asians from "poorer" countries of origin who have gone back with a western education and skillset to start up extremely profitable ventures in the developing economies. It doesn't matter how "poor" the country is it's what niche you can discover there. Also, like I said if you can't make it work in one asian country you can probably do it another as long as you have the right motivation and resourcefulness.

[AngryABCGirl]

I don't believe my point was in jumping on asian-american females. Let me emphasize _Asian-american_ because the non western asian women I meet abroad don't carry the extreme inferiority complex and mental/cultural baggage i've seen on the westernized ones. However, I believe that women in America are probably the most empowered out of anywhere in the world. Even though many Europeans have laws regarding women the culture has expectations for women that aren't necessarily found in the U.S. anymore. I'm sure there's gender discrimination but compared with the REST of the world it's great.

In many ways women are much more empowered than women in most of the world, and it's something I really appreciate about the US especially being out here. Although I'd argue a lot of the Northern European countries are less male-oriented than the US- mentioning this because I lived there briefly. But I've met enough fucked up in the head Asian American females and seen enough studies - including that statistic Asian American women aged 15-24 have the highest suicide rate among females in that group. I wouldn't say we have it easier, if any. I'm very cynical of gendered assimilation arguments of being positive. I know I call out the whole women and men argument on this board all the time, but it's something people gotta be on check off and my way of closing the gender rift.


If I do become economically influential I would not donate towards pet Asian-american activist causes. I would take a George Soros approach to things and invest my money in economic and political authority that will best maintain my racial, cultural, and ideological interests. By association this will benefit all Asians worldwide but it's definitely not done by waving around poorly written protest boards and I find funding and planning such ventures to be a waste of time.

I can understand how you feel about this, but I also look at it as a pretty upper-class detached mentality as someone who donates money to Asian American non-profits- mostly to organizations for Asian American women and domestic violence shelters that specialize to minorities. I don't really consider my money going to buying necessities for women leaving abusive households a waste of time. I'm a person pretty committed to social change anywhere though. My plan with life is pretty similar to yours, earn money here and take it back home with me and change things, but I'm a lot more invested in Asian American life than you are. I just might be cynical because I don't like the way things are going politically now in Taiwan and see it as money going down the craphole here if I were to support it and rather bounce over to Hong Kong or Singapore or China as soon as I can. I guess it depends on what we care about.


The problem is their activist causes are not ours. Asian issues line up rather poorly with black and hispanic causes. They are fighting centuries of deprivation, poverty, and social decay of their internationally isolated communities in the U.S.. The countries where they come from are in shambles, they have no other outlet but to form political protest groups to appeal to the sensibilities of the white majority. The same situation does not really apply to Asian-americans who can expatriate to any asian country as long as they are resourceful about their decisions....

Sorry the paragraph was hella long. I have to say this depends on what social demographic you come from. For someone like me, yeah my issue don't have much to do with a lot of traditional black and latino causes. But a lot of Asian Americans on the lower socio-economic sphere, a lot of their social struggles they have more in common with the Black and Latino communities they live with. I don't think most protest movements appeal to white sensibilities at all, but that's all you'll see in the media.


I don't believe you need to be privileged to live and succeed abroad you just need to be resourceful and determined. I am not a native Thai person or ethnically related to Thais yet I could easily integrate myself into this culture simply because of a little cultural background knowledge and racial similarities. We can chameleon in pretty well and even if we can't we can use the "overseas asian" story to our advantage.

I know several asians from "poorer" countries of origin who have gone back with a western education and skillset to start up extremely profitable ventures in the developing economies. It doesn't matter how "poor" the country is it's what niche you can discover there. Also, like I said if you can't make it work in one asian country you can probably do it another as long as you have the right motivation and resourcefulness.


I have to disagree with you on this after seeing how many Asians live in squalid poverty and receive shit educations and can't even write a sentence in a college paper. I don't really buy the whole bootstraps argument and believe that because someone is Asian they can go to any Asian country and be successful. Someone not from a business background, say a teacher or a doctor has a much better life and career in the US. Hell there's huge chance I can be taken advantage of and the sad fact is in a lot of places in Asia White business person can do the same thing with even greater success. I understand that because I have an Asian face people automatically relate to me more on a certain level, but on certain levels it can quickly become a disadvantage is what I've learned. That's my experience, and I still see your argument as pretty class-biast and rather inapplicable to many Asian Americans and it's not really what they want.

[peta9]

asians are still a minority in the states but it's equally and strategically important what clout you have in asia and the rest of the world.

[JesusIsmyFriend]

Minorities isn't defined by numbers in population or wealth, it's about whose in power.

[VV o n g B a]

Minorities isn't defined by numbers in population or wealth, it's about whose in power.don't really get the logic here. a minority is a group out of power and majority is group in power? lets say the chinese exercised a considerable amount of influence in southeast asia. are they now a majority even tho they comprise a rather small % of the population?

i suppose if u widen ur scope to ... the entire world, then that might still make sense. but it isn't very useful if u are only concerned by local issues.

[JesusIsmyFriend]

don't really get the logic here. a minority is a group out of power and majority is group in power? lets say the chinese exercised a considerable amount of influence in southeast asia. are they now a majority even tho they comprise a rather small % of the population?

i suppose if u widen ur scope to ... the entire world, then that might still make sense. but it isn't very useful if u are only concerned by local issues.

Locally? as in where? there are places with a significant amount of Asians/HIspanics/Blacks in many areas yet are considered Minorities. Washington DC is a good example of that. The growing number of Hispanics in CA is also one too. Chinese in SE Asia has nothing do with it because the topic is Asians as a "racial-minority" and Chinese isn't classified as a "Race" in the U.S.