{"article":{"id":6442,"heading":"Racism on the Rise, Part 2: Chinese-Americans Face Prejudice (Again!)","author":"anonymous circulation","created":"2001-05-03 17:30:33","modified":"2005-08-15 00:33:39","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:33:39","article":"

When in doubt about China, look at the labels on your clothes and household items,

then read the following:

1. Subject: Village Voice Article on Spy Plane Backlash

In Media Merriment, Fine Line Between Humor and Hate Fun With China

by Chisun Lee





Universal Press Syndicate

Since a U.S. spy plane and Chinese fighter jet collided on April 1,

Americans have had more to laugh about. Members of the media have been

cracking all kinds of good ones about the funny little yellow people.

Some recent yuks, compiled by Asian American civil rights organizations:

\"I don't pretend to know who these Chinese people are. I know they're small,

maybe one or two feet high. I know they sound funny when they talk. I know

the

womenfolk have sideways vaginas. But underneath their scales, they're just

like

you and me.\" -Saturday Night Live host Alec Baldwin during an April 7 sketch

in

which he played a deranged marine trying to incite the 24 U.S. crew members

being held on Hainan Island to attempt a takeover of the entire nation.



\"I will be in favor of apologizing [to the Chinese] the moment they

apologize for all those menus they keep leaving outside my front door. . . .

I've got considerable sympathy for the Red Chinese-despite the fact that if

my dog were a member of the American crew, Jiang Zemin would have eaten him

by

now.\" -National Review Online editor Jonah Goldberg in his April 4 column.



\"Ching ching chong chong.\"-comedy troupe Capitol Steps in a skit at the

April 3 opening reception of the American Society of Newspaper Editors

convention. Hundreds of editors laughed as a white man, dressed in a black

wig and thick glasses, conversed in a made-up version of Chinese.

\"If I were president of the United States, I would declare war on the

Chinese, but not just because they held 24 of our folks on Hainan Island for

11 days. . . . We should unload the big ham on China because of all the

annoying artsy-craftsy crapola they manufacture and send over here. . . .

Real men wouldn't have to waste their afternoons slogging through craft

emporiums looking at faux leopard-skin hat boxes if it weren't for the

Chinese slapping together all of this garbage and unloading it over here.\"

-Austin American-Statesman staff writer John Kelso in his April 15 column.

\"The Chinese now say they are taking a hard stance. Now they say they are

going

to double the amount of MSG they put in our food.\" -NBC Tonight Show host

Jay

Leno on the April 4 show.



\"So now the Chinese have the spy plane and George Bush is playing hardball

with

them. He said not only does he want the spy plane returned, he also wants it

dry-cleaned.\" -David Letterman on CBS's April 4 Late Show.



A \"fry over\" was how talk radio host Don Bleu of the San Francisco area's

101.3-FM described the plane situation during an April 6 bit. Playing music

from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the background, he made prank calls,

seemingly to strangers in China.



Morning host Ray Lytle of WQLZ in Springfield, Illinois, declared he would

not patronize Chinese restaurants or play Chinese checkers until the U.S.

crew returned home. In one gag, he told listeners he was dialing numbers at

random for residents of New York's Chinatown. He mocked one woman, who

briefly

stayed on the line, for her limited English proficiency.

_____



\"Get a sense of humor!\" objectors to this brand of merriment are likely to

hear. Cracks about racial and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, and fat

or stupid people are, after all, just good, clean, all-American fun. By no

means should we suspect that the jocular dick-swinging-it's not incidental

that most if not all the jokesters are white men-disguises a morass of

social anxiety that in the face of a perceived threat can easily transform

to hostility. But the experience of Asian Americans has proved that for

minorities, mockery can work just that way. A new documentary about the

McCarthy-era persecution of suspected Chinese American communist

sympathizers-the Chinatown Files, whose New York debut this week at the

Museum

of Modern Art is eerily relevant-shows today's yellow-baiting is far from

fresh.



>From animated cartoons to newspaper headlines, popular messages dubbed

anyone who looked or sounded Chinese an oddity at best, at worst a threat.

With testimony from the FBI, historians, and victims, the film recounts how

thousands of Chinese Americans across the country-many of them U.S.

citizens-were systematically spied on, interrogated, jailed, and often

deported by government agencies, all in the name of national security and

democracy.



Racial humor is \"used a lot of times just to demonize certain people,\" says

documentary director Amy Chen. \"They're rendered despicable, and it's

possible to persecute them.\"



The butt of the joke gets isolated, shoved under a spotlight, and ridiculed

for being different. A vulnerable place to be, especially at times of

heightened international tensions when the U.S.'s very virility hangs in the

balance. (Much, incidentally, has been made in the news of China's need to

save face. There's less heard about the scramble in this, the land of

cowboys, football, and Rocky, to preserve another anatomical part.)

Those who dismiss the notion that a silly spy plane standoff could set off a

xenophobic explosion don't realize there's much more at stake than

aeronautics secrets.



\"Asian Americans are becoming the sacrificial lamb to secure the U.S.'s

position as the superpower of the world,\" declares Sin Yen Ling of the Asian

American Legal Defense and Education Fund. \"They are positioned as the

domestic threat-foreign, unassimilable, loyal to the motherland.\" Fanning

the flames of anti-Asian suspicion, she suggests, is a way not only to boost

patriotism among the masses but also to divert attention from such gaping

chinks in the nation's ideological armor as booming prison numbers and

racial profiling in law enforcement. \"It goes back to the U.S.'s being the

greatest, the place where everyone should be happy to be living,\" Ling says.



Shock jocks didn't know they could be so deep. Well, their profundity

remaining up for debate, it's safe to say their shenanigans do contribute to

a general atmosphere where it becomes acceptable to mock or do worse to

people who look and sound a certain way. What sets members of the media

apart from some yahoo holding court in the local bar is the power to reach

millions of eyes and ears and \"give the sense that this stuff is OK out

there in popular culture,\" according to Asian American Journalists

Association national president Victor Panichkul. He argues that commentators

should therefore take care to \"express an opinion intelligently, without

resorting to pejorative racial stereotypes.\"



For every prank executed by the media, civil rights groups suspect, there

are dozens that Asian Americans experience on a more intimate level in

workplaces, on buses, in the streets. Not even Capitol Hill is immune,

according to Diane Chin, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative

Action. Recalling a recent gathering of civil rights organizations where

Senator Dianne Feinstein spoke, Chin paraphrases the senator's words: \"The

mood

in Washington is increasingly anti-Chinese. You need to do something about

that.\" Chin says, \"I think of her as one of the most conservative Democrats.

That that's what preoccupied her, as a civil rights issue, was fascinating

to

me.\"



Even before the current diplomatic crisis, recent controversies involving

Asians, such as the Wen Ho Lee case and campaign financing scandals, helped

fuel

a \"media hysteria\" that documentarian Chen says carries distinct

overtones of 1950s alarmism. Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA)

national president George Ong is frustrated that even decades later the

\"forever foreigner\" suspicions about Asians haven't lost their potency. \"I'm

a third-generation American, and there's talk of us being sent back to our

own country. This is our country!\" he exclaims. \"How dare they say we should

be

sent elsewhere.\"



During times like this, advocates counsel, Asian Americans should be on the

alert. According to the most recent audit of anti-Asian violence, which

covers 41 states, 486 incidents occurred in 1999, up 57 from the previous

year. \"A lot of the research around hate violence indicates that the

beginning is the dehumanization of whatever group it is. There can be a

correlation drawn between when a group is cast as \"other,\" or demonized with

whatever stereotypes work against that group, and hate crimes against that

group,\" says Chin.



The current climate reminds more than one observer of the 1982 murder of

Vincent Chin. Two unemployed white auto workers beat the Chinese American

man to

death with a baseball bat, allegedly having mistaken him for being Japanese

during a time of strong popular frustration over what was perceived as an

encroaching Japanese economy. As memorable in some circles as the Rodney

King or

Amadou Diallo incidents, the killing is famous for having galvanized a

nationwide Asian American rights movement.

The less obvious costs of anti-Asian sentiment can be even greater. A

history of popular intolerance and government scrutiny effectively stunted

Asian American political organizing for decades, activists say, rendering

the community even more vulnerable to attacks. Persecution is no less

possible today, they argue.



\"I would certainly not be surprised\" if government agencies were \"looking at

people's allegiances\" as a result of the tensions with China, says First

Amendment activist Kit Gage, who coordinates the National Coalition to

Protect Political Freedom. \"It's so easy to justify,\" she says, in light of

the 1996 anti-terrorism act that granted the FBI sweeping powers to

investigate even constitutionally protected activities. With Arab Americans,

she explains, the FBI are routinely \"going to people's offices and

workplaces, asking about their attitudes toward the Middle East.\"

According to Gage, \"word will spread\" of the government's probes, \"and it

has a nice chilling effect.\" She points out that it is perfectly legal for

anyone-visitor, resident, or citizen-in the U.S. to express pro-China

sentiments.



But the true space for such free expression, according to the OCA's Ong, is

narrow, given that even contributing to the Democratic and Republican

parties is tougher for Asian Americans. In the wake of the China-related

campaign finance commotion of the 1990s, he says, \"The whole Asian American

community suffered.\" Asian Americans \"were singled out because of what

happened,\" and \"you had to furnish proof that you were an American citizen\"

to

make a donation to the major parties.



Comedians and columnists will continue to insist they mean no harm, that

their yellow humor is all in good fun. They can't imagine what kung pao

cocker spaniel has to do with political persecution and racist violence.

Would that these jesters existed in a vacuum, where racy speech never had

racist consequences.

_____



Research assistance: James Wong



Tell us what you think. editor@villagevoice.com



E-mail this

story

to a friend.



2. In light of the recent events regarding the US spy plane that went down

in

China, I came across an interesting article in today's morning SF Chronicle.

It's pretty startling to me, a person of Asian-American descent, that this

survey \"was conducted before the recent collision between a U.S. spy plane

and a

Chinese fighter jet off Hainan.\"



http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?file=\/c\/a\/2001\/04\/27\/MN199998.DTL



3. Racial Hate Crimes at Duke

Two racially motivated harassment\/hate crimes have been recently committed

against Asian Americans at Duke University (details at bottom). For your

safety

and education, we feel that all members of the Duke community should be

aware of

these two events. We hope each of you will take a pro-active stance against

this harassment and violence by encouraging the formation of a clear and

well-publicized racial hate crime policy and protocol, and initiating

dialogue

about race relations and University support for Asians and Asian Americans.



The details of the two incidents follow below:



CASE ONE

An Asian American woman was walking to her dorm room

on West

>Campus late at night last week. A large number of

>men saw her

>and harassed her by shouting that she return the spy

>plane,

>referring to the US-China spy plane stand-off.

>

>CASE TWO

>The chemistry test of an Asian American freshman

>mysteriously

>disappeared the day of the test; however, an unknown

>person

>forged his name on the top of another student's

>test. A week

>later, on returning from a weekend trip to

>Washington DC, he

>unlocked his room and found that his room had been

>rifled and a

>large sum in cash had been stolen. On his desk was

>his freshman

>yearbook, open to the page with his picture. His

>picture had

>been crossed out with a red pen, with the note \"it's

>time to go

>home chink.\" He also received two threatening

>e-mails - one

>full of racial slurs (pasted below) and the other

>with an

>article regarding a decapitated man. Since then,

>the campus

>police have conducted a half-hearted and sloppy

>investigation of

>the matter. The officer assigned to the case failed

>to

>interview the student until a month after the

>incident, when she

>had come to a dead end and was ready to meet with

>him to close

>the case. At this meeting, she accused him of

>forging the

>entire crime, threatened him with 2 years of jail,

>and tried to

>force a confession out of him because \"it's less

>work\" for her.

>

>WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS EXPLICIT AND

>OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE.

>

>The threatening e-mail to the student, sent from

>over soon

>[over666soon@hotmail.com], with the subject line

>\"blessed the

>virgin

>mary.\"

>

_________________________________________________________________________

>

>the question is simple

>yellow wetback, dont fuck around so much with the

>situation.

>keep it cool fo shizzle my nizzle.. u lucky enough

>to be gong to

>skoo here u shit licking wetback chink.. the day

>will arrive..

>eat ur heart out with a fuckin bottle of soy sauce

>.. we dont

>welcome YOUR KIND here u Littllee nigglet... go back

>to

>shainghaI and fuKkIN stay out of the mother fuckin

>land of the

>U S of A. things aint so EZ ne-more mr hotshot?

>thErE goez Ur

>\"A!\" in chem, easiest mutha fukkin course atDOOK,

>and im gonna

>PreVAil mutha fucka. you are mine soon. watch yOUR

>BACK,

>JAcKKKKKK 666 66

> perhaps its tim.e... u pray... im GONNA ENjOY

>EATING ur

>fuckING bRAINS PuNK.. I NEVER FUCKIN LOSE AITE

>

>PAYYYCEE IN MIDDLE EAST

>

>

>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------

>

>As a result of these incidents, we have the

>following list of

>concerns for the University:

>

>(1) A clear and well-publicized University policy

>and protocol

>on racial hate crimes, distributed and taught to

>RAs, ACs, and

>Campus Police; and published on the web

>(2) Additional support to OIE, ICA, and CAPS to

>increase their

>visibility on campus

>(3) Provide funding for events to raise awareness

>about racial

>hate crimes, both on a local and national level

>(4) A thorough investigation into the conduct of the

>officer in

>charge of case two; if misconduct is found, issue

>the

>appropriate formal reprimands and actions, including

>a formal

>apology from the officer to the victim (5) A

>thorough

>re-investigation of case two and all parties

>involved, including

>a detailed examination of each stage of the first

>investigation, under the guidance of Sally Dickson,

>Dean of the

>Office of Institutional Equity

>

>Please help us support awareness of racial hate

>crimes by

>forwarding this e-mail to any interested parties. If you would

>like to offer advice or support, please contact

>patty at

>pic2@duke.edu.

>

>- patty chen, asa president, and christina hsu, asa

>vp political<\/http:><\/http:><\/http:><\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"The following series of small articles concerning growing prejudice against Chinese and Asian\r\nAmericans circulated on the web recently. These are the consequences of the\r\ncurrent adminstration's ridiculous red-baiting with China (to take our minds off \r\nother things like the economy and Jenna Bush's drinking habit), so absurd considering\r\nthat China still has favored trading status with the U.S.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/05\/racisep97ej.txt","filesize":"16.2 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/05\/6442.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}