Some things never change...
Let's take a journey through time shall we?
We'll start in the 1500s, when the conquistadors found their way to Latin America and found gold and more importantly they found a new group of people, the Aztecs, the Incans, and the Mayas. New people, with totally different cultures, different way of living, and what does the white man do? They wipe them out completely and take their gold.
Moving onto the 1700s, the pilgrams! White people escaping their homeland to come to America for religious freedom. They even get a warm greeting at Plymouth Rock by the Native Americans! Things are great, the Native Americans are helping these new settlers move in, get used to the new climate and help them hunt and what not. Everything was great, they ate turkey together and everything to give thanks to one another. But then what? More white people are coming over on ships, they need more land. They start moving west, taking the Native American's land until they are left with tiny reservations. Not to mention mass-murdering them.
Ahead to the 1800s, I guess white people had to sail around Africa on their trade routes to India and stopped by Africa for a pit stop. They see all these black people tilling the land and they think to themselves, "Hey! We could get them to do that for us in America!" So they whip them and force them to come to America to work in the field for nothing.
Of course this ended with the end of the Civil War, but for some reason the white man (actually we'll call them white Americans now) still believed he was better than the rest of the world, and arrogence soon took over. Seperate bathrooms, eating areas, bus sections, even water fountains for "colored" people. White America had to be an isolationist, because they are too good for the world. Hell they even rejected the metric system and adopted their own system that .00001% of the world uses (are there any other countries that use the US system?) Even through WWI and WWII America stood in the corner alone.
Where I'm trying to go with this is that people in America are extremely stubborn. ESPECIALLY white people. It's "America is the best!" "America this! America that! w00t AMERICA!" But if they just open their eyes for 1 week...all I ask is 1 week to show them the world, they will realize that there is more to the world than hotdogs, hamburgers, baseball, football, Ford and Dodge. I mean, if you don't like foriegn food, don't like foriegn cars, don't like foriegn culture, great, you have your opinion. However the thing that pisses me off most about white people in America is that they ACT like they are the shit. Ignorant shit like bombing Arabs, referring to Asians as "you people", and callin black people "N*g***s (even calling fellow white people the same thing). The most ignorant thing I think that's anyone has demonstrated to me was when some white guy came up behind me and was said "CHING CHANG CHONG!!!!". What the hell is that suppose to mean? I don't go up behind white people and go "PIZZA BREAD HAMBURGER!!!!!!" The worst part was that everybody around me laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. And then they cry foul when the guy that said it is on the ground with a rosy cheek and an imprint of my knuckles on his jaw like he didn't expect it to happen.
That got disorganized real quick...I think my rant on white people will end there.
P.S.- And its not that I'm racist, cause a lot of my friends are indeed white. It's just those ignorant white people who think they are better than everybody even though they live in a trailer park and don't bother to get an education while poor minorities are looking for every opportunity to learn (like Malcolm X who educated himself while in jail...that's dedication).
P.P.S- I had a day to think about this post...and the irony of it is, I try so hard not to be a fobby Asian, or be a thuggish African American, what the hell am I trying to be? I was about to write that I'm trying to act white but in all actuality I'm not. I think I'm just trying to be as well balanced as possible.
We'll start in the 1500s, when the conquistadors found their way to Latin America and found gold and more importantly they found a new group of people, the Aztecs, the Incans, and the Mayas. New people, with totally different cultures, different way of living, and what does the white man do? They wipe them out completely and take their gold.
Moving onto the 1700s, the pilgrams! White people escaping their homeland to come to America for religious freedom. They even get a warm greeting at Plymouth Rock by the Native Americans! Things are great, the Native Americans are helping these new settlers move in, get used to the new climate and help them hunt and what not. Everything was great, they ate turkey together and everything to give thanks to one another. But then what? More white people are coming over on ships, they need more land. They start moving west, taking the Native American's land until they are left with tiny reservations. Not to mention mass-murdering them.
Ahead to the 1800s, I guess white people had to sail around Africa on their trade routes to India and stopped by Africa for a pit stop. They see all these black people tilling the land and they think to themselves, "Hey! We could get them to do that for us in America!" So they whip them and force them to come to America to work in the field for nothing.
Of course this ended with the end of the Civil War, but for some reason the white man (actually we'll call them white Americans now) still believed he was better than the rest of the world, and arrogence soon took over. Seperate bathrooms, eating areas, bus sections, even water fountains for "colored" people. White America had to be an isolationist, because they are too good for the world. Hell they even rejected the metric system and adopted their own system that .00001% of the world uses (are there any other countries that use the US system?) Even through WWI and WWII America stood in the corner alone.
Where I'm trying to go with this is that people in America are extremely stubborn. ESPECIALLY white people. It's "America is the best!" "America this! America that! w00t AMERICA!" But if they just open their eyes for 1 week...all I ask is 1 week to show them the world, they will realize that there is more to the world than hotdogs, hamburgers, baseball, football, Ford and Dodge. I mean, if you don't like foriegn food, don't like foriegn cars, don't like foriegn culture, great, you have your opinion. However the thing that pisses me off most about white people in America is that they ACT like they are the shit. Ignorant shit like bombing Arabs, referring to Asians as "you people", and callin black people "N*g***s (even calling fellow white people the same thing). The most ignorant thing I think that's anyone has demonstrated to me was when some white guy came up behind me and was said "CHING CHANG CHONG!!!!". What the hell is that suppose to mean? I don't go up behind white people and go "PIZZA BREAD HAMBURGER!!!!!!" The worst part was that everybody around me laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. And then they cry foul when the guy that said it is on the ground with a rosy cheek and an imprint of my knuckles on his jaw like he didn't expect it to happen.
That got disorganized real quick...I think my rant on white people will end there.
P.S.- And its not that I'm racist, cause a lot of my friends are indeed white. It's just those ignorant white people who think they are better than everybody even though they live in a trailer park and don't bother to get an education while poor minorities are looking for every opportunity to learn (like Malcolm X who educated himself while in jail...that's dedication).
P.P.S- I had a day to think about this post...and the irony of it is, I try so hard not to be a fobby Asian, or be a thuggish African American, what the hell am I trying to be? I was about to write that I'm trying to act white but in all actuality I'm not. I think I'm just trying to be as well balanced as possible.
posted by A. Nguyen at 11:24 PM
2 Comments:
If Alan feels the need to write about his feelings towards whites, then so be it.
Maybe it is just me, but I did not come across any statements in Alan's "rant" that claimed "Caucasians" are the only race enslaving and oppressing others.
And you mentioned skepticism and mistrust from blacks towards whites ... When is the last time you have been followed through stores by security? When is the last time a woman clutched her bag and crossed the street as soon as you made eye contact? When have you been given freedom, but still been a slave to the system?
To me, it seems you have been absorbed into the Caucasian movement. From your logic it seems that we as minorities should just sit back and let the Caucasian activist take care of everything. We shouldn’t use our freedom to write what we want; I mean we only fought for it, and left our families and entire lives to live in a country with freedom.
But then again you made so much sense when you told Alan to think of all the strawberries. Alan please don’t rant, you might make the white people mad. Then they won’t be nice to us anymore and keep us around as token “strawberries”.
I don't need to poke anymore holes in your argument ... you've done enough yourself.
First of all, I think I should apologize to Alan for throwing the word "rant" around. It carries a much more negative connotation for most people than it does with my friends and I, and I've grown accustomed to that.
Anyway...
Hmm, so I've never been followed by security? Not so. People aren't suspicious of others because of their skin color, not rational people anyway. There are other plain visual indicators.
The divide between different groups of people and their behavior should not be viewed as racial, that is plain nonsense. A more suitable indicator is culture.
I can't speak for all, but my own experience with those who subscribe to the culture that dictates t-shirts to the knees, bling on the teeth and how respectable you are is based on how many times you've been shot or stabbed has been less than pleasant.
So while I don't clutch my purse tighter when I walk past a person like that (Because I don't carry a purse), I do have a, what I believe to be reasonable, reluctance and even anxiety when it comes to dealing with them. That's a fault of my own, but one based on much more than race.
I mention caucasian activists not as a solution, but instead as merely an example of white people who are not arrogant and ignorant. Unfortunately, I think there is enough arrogance and ignorance among caucasians so that anything any activists do will be symbolic at best (though symbolic acts can start huge things).
I think you misunderstood my strawberry analogy. That's ok though, I think I phrased it the right way, if not in the proper context.
Wrapping things up, I didn't respond to Alan's blog as an offended white person demanding an apology. I just wanted to mix it up a little bit. I'm sorry if I've offended you in the process.
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