It had been more than two weeks since I last saw the video on one of the UCLA student showing her hatred toward Asian people. And I am Asian. So I couldn’t help but have her voice clearly repeating in my mind. I will not even try to “recap” what she said to critique if she was right or wrong because thousands of people already made videos to respond to it.
And you as the reader can decide about it. I tried to forget about it since I know for the fact that not everyone is the same. But I can’t bring myself to believe she is the only one who feels that way.
So, how many other people out there feel the same way as her toward Asian or any other ethnic group in general? That question kept coming up in my mind almost every time now when I stand in front of an American.
“Am I talking too loud?”
“May I pick up my parents’ calls in case of an emergency at home?”
“How am I going to speak English with my parents in front of Americans when my parents hardly understand it?”
“How should we as a “horde” of Asians learn American manners? What are the differences between American and Asian manners when I know for sure my parents taught me to be kind and respectul toward others even though they are not from the same background?”
For the last seven years I tried to create a beautiful image of the generous American society and I made myself believe that it was real.
It took such a long period of time for the beautiful Miyako City in Japan to be created; but within seconds, the whole masterpiece just swept away by the massive thoughtless tsunami. Just like that, this young lady destroyed my dream about the generous American society by her words, simple but hurtful! Not to mention that her words actually came back to bit her in the back. I dare not to speak of her name because I am afraid that I would have a very bad impression on the people with the same name for the rest of my life.
Yes, she is young. Yes, everyone makes mistakes at least once in the life time. Yes, everyone deserve the second chance and to be forgiven. But can she be forgiven if her apology toward people who she hurt did not come out from her mouth with any sincerity? The second chance can only be offered if the person with the mistakes sincerely asked for it and seriously proved that they deserve it!...
Quyen Nguyen
Communication Studies
Wilkes 2012
I took me really a long while to put my thoughts about your article into words. It was really difficult.
ReplyDeleteWell, but coincidentally, the brown egg in your picture express most of my though: "meh, annoying."
I always have a very different opinion about the topic. Not only for discrimination toward ethnicity, sexual orientation or background, but also for hated speech, envy, gossip and all sort of hated thought, they are just pitiful people in my opinion.
Think about it. If you were someone who never knew about the video, never felt that you were being discriminated, you would still be every happy, living your normal life. Or if you acted like me, ignore those hatred and even feel sorry for the girl, you may have found that the video is hilarious and entertaining as an example of a really bad joke. In the other hand, the girls is the one that suffers a whole lot more than the one she mentioned in the video. She the one who got angry, couldn't study, spending whole day long for unrighteous thought, trying to speak here voice out then receive tons and tons of critics. In short if could you ignore the video and lived your normal happy life, you would see that she was basically pitiful.
In today's society, there is no place for those kind of hatred thoughts. Those who have those thoughts are called flawed, wrong, immature, "politically wrong" as the girl put, and are isolated. Few listen to them and most of their life time they retreat to their corner, or their little society, to get angry with themselves. They may say ugly things, but only themselves will hear that. People who are being discriminated, hated, gossiped have nothing wrong. They can live a normal joyous life, can even overcome being discriminated, hated, gossiped to become even more successful. The one who is "right" is you, the one who is "wrong" is her. So why get angry with her? Feel sorry for her instead!
I still have plenty of thoughts about the topic that I can yet put into words. But, to put in a nut shell: words could hurt more than a sharp knife, but one could also harden their shell toward the knife while being open toward the rest of the world. One could turn back and fight with the hatred people then get scars, or one could ignore those hatred people , be lovingly with the world, show the world that one is awesome and being protected by caring people against those hatred people.
Your choice, my choice, our choice on how to act against her. I made my choice to feel sorry for her. I will even show my hand to her, offer helps and offer her to hang out with my friends, if she apologies properly and really means it.
Oh, and I know that there still people who badly suffer mentally and physically because of those hatred thoughts and acts. I know many people are still having a very difficult life being discriminated.
This is only my opinion toward hatred thoughts that would not harm you mentally and physically if you could simply ignore them.
This girl is in no way, shape, or form a representation of what it is to be American. She is however a representation of ethnocentrism, bigotry, and udder stupidity.
ReplyDeleteYou say that you have to try not to think about if other people feel this way. I am one of many people that literally became furious after hearing what she said. I became so mad, upset, hurt, that I almost started making obscene comments about her. And if I would have done that I would have been just as wrong as she was. She is lost. And forgetting that this is a country built by the culmination of foreign people, ideals, and ideas would cheapen our long standing history.
We as a nation, one in which you are now an equal part of, were given the statue of liberty in 1886, and she too was from a different country but now makes a home here in the United States. And one thing is for sure- when you think of the statue of liberty- you think of the United States of America. On the statue of liberty it reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” It’s pretty clear that if we were a nation founded with the same ideals this blonde haired girl from UCLA seems to have, we would never be as strong and diverse as we are. I was lucky enough to be born here, but that does not make me any more American than anyone else that decides to come and make their life here.