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  • in reply to: Why the chopsticks? #47211

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    Try using one, and only one, eating utensil to shovel down chicken, rice, noodles, beef, fruit and finger foods. You can use a fork to pick a chicken leg, but using a spoon for it would be silly. You can use a fork to roll up noodles, but with a spoon, the noodles just fall over. I can do all of the above with one utensil — the chopstick. I can also manufacture a chopstick with my own hands wherever I can find wood. I can’t forge a tin fork and spoon that easily.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Asian anti-integration #37119

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    Why is it that European-American communities seem unwilling to integrate with Asian-Americans? Why are jokes about Asians passed around by European-Americans? Lastly, why do American movies, television shows, and newspapers, ridicule Asian-Americans or treat them as ‘foreigners.’ People do not like to mix with others who do not respect them or welcome them.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Smarter Asians? #44507

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    Many people assume that Asians are smarter because they are often involved in science and math, study a lot and get good grades. I do not think any of these qualities makes a person smart. Americans seem to be acculturated to believe that people who do well in math and school are ‘brainy’ and ‘nerdy,’ which is unlike any other misconception I have ever encountered, having been born in Taiwan, raised in Papua New Guinea, relocated to southern California and now migrated to Chicago. Incidentally, I’m Asian-American, and I got a ‘C’ in calculus and am in the bottom half of my class in law school!

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Irish or just white? #46004

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    Yes, I agree. Except that, in America, if I told you I was Chinese, most Americans with Irish roots would not care, or even bother to remember. They just know me as ‘oriental.’ I do not like to be labeled by a characteristic either. You also have to understand that in America, you have many types of Americans from different ethnic backgrounds, so you have to develop a way to keep track of the diversity — so ‘Irish-American’ might be good. One problem though: it appears that in the U.S., most of the Caucasian population likes to call themselves ‘Americans’ and all other non-whites by their ethnic backgrounds only. The issues are just not so simple.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Personals Ads and Caucasian Women #25638

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    So far, with the exception of Crystal’s reply, the white female respondents to this question are pretty much conceding that they do prefer white males, but that such preferences are perfectly ok. That’s fine. But if that is true, then the fact that so many SWFs are looking exclusively for white males would mean that they somehow believe that white males are best for them — a preference, if you will. That just begs the question, doesn’t it? What is it about white males that white women feel they should date them and only them? I’m not white, and I don’t feel an ‘inbred’ pressure to date within my race. I still don’t understand why white females are especially sensitive to the ethnicity of their partners.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: #34261

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    John K., I agree with you. If a certain culture is the majority, then naturally, it would be the ‘norm.’ But you’re being too simplistic; the world is not fatalistic, and bad things happen because certain individuals cause them to happen. Why was Bruce Lee turned down for the role in the TV-series ‘Kung Fu’? Can you explain the phenmenon of ‘Blacksploitation’ films of the 1970s? Why is American network-television still incapable of portraying a healthy interracial relationship between a black man and a white woman? These racial or quasi-racist phenomena are not the result of culture-dominance being the ‘norm’ (as you say). Rather, they are the result of intentional bias — actual employment discrimination in the media market by casting directors and screen-producers. And incidentally, your example with India is off-the-mark. If you watch Indian or other ethnic television (such as Chinese, Assyrian, and Hispanic) you will notice that their shows are either dubbed-versions of white-American shows or shows which ‘copy’ songs and screenplays of white-American shows — often with actors and actresses who resemble white people. Take a look at Brazilian shows, and you will notice that the performers look white. Whiteness dominates both the U.S. and foreign nations combined. Is that the result of ‘cultural norms’? I don’t think so. It is more like the world-wide influence of white-Hollywood (even to foreigners) that ‘white is superior.’

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: No dates to speak of… #14350

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    I’m an Asian-American man. Unfortunately, what you say has not been my experience with African-American women. From elementary school to college, black women I’ve encountered have stereotyped me as brainy and expressed no interest. All the black women I’m acquainted with are either dating desirable white or black men, or are at clubs and disinterested in a relationship. As a result, I just let it go.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Why is the hyphen so hip? #16656

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    I have heard your concerns expressed many times by others as well. Your impression is that hyphenation is divisive, and I have to disagree. America, unlike England, has a history of xenophobia, isolationism, especially against non-European (or Non-Anglo) immigrants. Consequently, people of Asian, African, Indian, or Native-Plains descent have had a history of difficultly being accepted as true ‘Americans’ in this country. So you have a situation where you’ve got (1) white Americans; and (2) everybody else (non-Americans). Now, that’s divisive. The self-empowering act of saying ‘Asian-American’ or ‘African-American’ is just a way of saying ‘look, I’m American too, and my ethnicity is Asian…etc.’ Europeans are in the same boat — they are ‘European-Americans’ (a.k.a. white-Americans). In short, we are all Americans — but tracing roots from different parts of the world (for example ‘e pluribus unum’ on the American quarter means ‘out of many come one’). Can you honestly say that that is divisive?

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Reply To: Asian, male and confused #40187

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    Asian men stereotypically bow their heads and can’t stand up for themselves? You’re confusing strength with aggression — the classic East v. West misunderstanding. Lot’s of good strong men do not need to be aggressive and arrogant in their beliefs. They have inner strength — that’s a very Eastern concept. The need to have externally strong convictions, like a peacock flashing his feathers, is a Western-view, a Caucasian view which you espouse. The problem here is not just the stereotypes — it’s your own adoption of white-western values against the men of your own race. You are Asian yourself. It is beyond me why you would believe such stereotypes about Asian men when those very men are working hard not to stereotype you.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Asian, male and confused #24564

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    Teresa, an Asian female, recently posted her opinion on this issue. Teresa was just saying how negative stereotypes about Asian men has turned her off to dating them. I ask you now, how is an Asian man supposed to be confident toward any female, white, black, Asian or Hispanic, when such stereotypes are so prevailing? What I am hearing sounds like apathy. In the 60s, blacks were not allowed to the same quality of education as whites (low funded schools). In return, whites accused blacks of being less educated, and therefore, inferior. The same ‘table turning’ and game-playing exists here in this issue.

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    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
    in reply to: Asian, male and confused #16969

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    Teresa, if you met an Asian guy who was nice, attractive, and connected with you, and did *not* fit those negative stereotypes, you would still not date him. Similarly, if a white guy you met was a ‘nice guy’ and bowed down to everything, couldn’t stand up for himself, you might *still* consider dating him. The problem, really, is that you believe that certain races are socially more desirable than others. The problem isn’t stereotypes. The problem is your own need to be ‘assimilated’ into white culture, to fit in. Asian males are the ‘drag’ who keep you back.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Original Poster, Gender : M, Race : Asian-American, Age : 26, City : Chicago, State : IL, Country : United States, Occupation : Law Clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)