Hi Era,
First of all, I’m not a spokesman for Asian-Era, nor do I want to be. My experiences as a member of the diaspora is going to be wholly different than that of someone from the country of origin. However, that doesn’t change a lot of what I’ve seen on many, many threads when it comes to aspects of politics, society, pop culture, history and current events involving Asian countries, their cultures and the diaspora at large.
Second, I’m not here to make you feel bad as individuals. This is the best way I could come up with to attempt to get some of you to listen, and take seriously the issues that the members of Asian-Era discuss amongst ourselves. And it’s becoming a broken record, and the frequency of how often that broken record is being played is increasing.
Thirdly, please listen. It shouldn’t be the biggest obstacle, but it is. I know that this type of confrontation is uncomfortable and it might make you feel personally attacked, but in general, none of us in Asian-Era have really ever singled anyone out when we have our private bitch sessions. Unless, said commentary we are bitching about is uniquely egregious. Usually when we air our grievances in a thread, the shields go up and all defensive protocols are deployed and it really goes nowhere. At least, I don’t get the sense that Asian-Era feels like much progress is made, because, as stated earlier, we make a lot of “Here we go again” comments amongst ourselves.
I guess I’ll throw out a couple starter issues and maybe other people can add to them. I am not going to have all the answers and other members of Asian-Era are going to disagree with me, or have a different perspective or something to add that is just not part of my experience, or my story to tell.
But foremost, and believe me I’m admittedly a bad offender of this, let’s be constructive. Let’s be kind. Let’s not be condescending and snarky (I am almost always both.). There is no such thing as a dumb question. We should be able to ask questions safely, and we should be able to answer questions safely.
1. Asians as a monolith. This should be obvious, but it really isn’t. And when you unpack it, it absolutely isn’t. Everyone knows that there are individual Asian nationalities, and often within those contain different religions, ethnic groups, languages, etc. The easiest to parse is Asians v. The Diaspora. Obviously, there are Asians who live in their respective countries and those of us who are immigrants of varying degrees, 1st gen, 1.5, 2nd and so on. Even terms like Asian-American, which seems like it shouldn’t be broad, and on first glance would represent those Americans of Asian descent isn’t really enough. In that you have 3rd or 4th generation Asian-Americans, recent refugee immigrants, 1.5 gen folks like myself. It also broadly encompasses those who are Pacific Islanders, and South Asians. And the inherent definition as assumed, primarily is associated With East Asians, like Koreans, Chinese, Japanese. Both within the community and outside of it, we often overlook the issues of our South Asian, Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian brothers and sisters. Internally, we have a lot of colorism (amongst other issues, like anti-black bias) that we need to confront and deal with. Obviously immigrant populations to other countries have their own issues and circumstances that can be, but may not be, similar to my Asian-American experience.
So it seems easy enough, right? Speaking about a population in the country of origin shouldn’t step on the ties of the diaspora. That’s not necessarily the case either. I think a big reason for that is how much we are “othered” by the populations of our countries of residence. Asian-Americans in many ways are still treated as foreigners. It’s a major theme in terms of Asian-American identity where in we constantly have to prove our American-ness. Whether it’s by signing loyalty forms and going to serve in the military, or being asked what Korea we may be from, or being told how well we speak English. Also, many of us are 1st, 1.5 or 2nd generation immigrants, we live and we’re raised with a deep connection to our home cultures. So when criticism is levied at our country of origin, we are often just as affected by that as say criticism of our country of residence. However, and I can’t quantify it, and perhaps it is a learned reaction to our experience, the criticism of our countries of origin tends to feel a lot sharper than the criticism than what I leveled at our country of residence. And it might be unconscious on both sides, the one doing the criticism and the one hearing the criticism. But as one who reacts to the criticism, I think it’s a sharper knife and issues that may bleed over from other issues. Not being fully treated as an American here, so we turn to our origin culture to compensate for that denied acceptance and identity, attacks are still felt as if we are still citizens of that home country. But, conversely, members of the diaspora also sometimes take issue with being lumped in with the citizens of the country of origin. We have our own experiences that very much separate us from “natives,” and it’s sometimes hard for people to know how to navigate. A lot of pride is taken in our hyphenated identities, it’s sometimes an act of defiance, as “You can’t take my Korean heritage away from me, but I’m not going to let you define me as anything less than an American either.” And yes, it is different from someone saying “I’m Irish-American.” When that immigration happened a century or so ago. It’s not dismissive of the Irish immigrant experience or their issues. But that immigration happened 100 years ago, we are living our immigrant experiences right now.
It’s a lot, and I now I haven’t covered all the bases. But please keep this in mind when addressing those issues. I honestly think it will cut down on a lot of poorly directed posts.
2. Authenticity/Right to Speak
Basically, this boils down to, who has the right to speak on issues or topics regarding Asians, the diaspora, the culture, etc?
Short answer: Anyone really.
Longer answer: The issue arises when posts are made speaking for Asians, the diaspora, etc. with the assumption authenticity of experience and assumed expertise.
The assumptions generally seem to arise from the following areas:
A. Perceived or real experience based on education/assimilation of information.
B. Secondary exposure to a culture as an outsider.
C. Interpersonal relationships with those of Asian descent.
None of the above reasons, regardless of how well intentioned, give you the authority or right to delegitmize the experiences and statements that Asians and members of the diaspora bring up.
Many of the issues tied directly into the treatment of Asians as a monolith. Often the information/education is based around the country of origin, and is absent the perspectives and experiences of the diaspora. Or the information gathered is through then lenses of media, which despite being ubiquitous, can also be a distorted lens. And finally, relationships, which again, is not indicative of a broader experience or perspective, and can be biased by that person’s own experience/biases.
And it’s not that having those experiences, education and knowledge is bad. The issue come when issue brought up by Asian-Era are dismissed out of hand because “Your use of Asian language is grammatically incorrect.” Or “When I was teaching English in...” And “I’ve been with my partner and my partner says...”. I fee like it’s not necessary to explain how incredibly disconcerting it is to be told that our experiences and issues only matter when validated though a non-Asian lens. Often it feels like those qualifications are inserted to assert some sort of ownership or belonging in Asian culture or the diaspora (No, btw.). Or that it’s makes you more authentically Asian than us (Hard “No.”)
OK, that’s already a lot and I’m going to leave it at that to see where discussion takes us. Hopefully in constructive directions and a greater understanding of how language is used and perceived, and why those of us in Asian-Era react the way we do. It sucks that a lot of us have to retreat to a private forum in order to speak freely about these sorts of things. It sucks even more that we discuss the same issues of repeated toxicity towards issues we bring up.
First of all, I’m not a spokesman for Asian-Era, nor do I want to be. My experiences as a member of the diaspora is going to be wholly different than that of someone from the country of origin. However, that doesn’t change a lot of what I’ve seen on many, many threads when it comes to aspects of politics, society, pop culture, history and current events involving Asian countries, their cultures and the diaspora at large.
Second, I’m not here to make you feel bad as individuals. This is the best way I could come up with to attempt to get some of you to listen, and take seriously the issues that the members of Asian-Era discuss amongst ourselves. And it’s becoming a broken record, and the frequency of how often that broken record is being played is increasing.
Thirdly, please listen. It shouldn’t be the biggest obstacle, but it is. I know that this type of confrontation is uncomfortable and it might make you feel personally attacked, but in general, none of us in Asian-Era have really ever singled anyone out when we have our private bitch sessions. Unless, said commentary we are bitching about is uniquely egregious. Usually when we air our grievances in a thread, the shields go up and all defensive protocols are deployed and it really goes nowhere. At least, I don’t get the sense that Asian-Era feels like much progress is made, because, as stated earlier, we make a lot of “Here we go again” comments amongst ourselves.
I guess I’ll throw out a couple starter issues and maybe other people can add to them. I am not going to have all the answers and other members of Asian-Era are going to disagree with me, or have a different perspective or something to add that is just not part of my experience, or my story to tell.
But foremost, and believe me I’m admittedly a bad offender of this, let’s be constructive. Let’s be kind. Let’s not be condescending and snarky (I am almost always both.). There is no such thing as a dumb question. We should be able to ask questions safely, and we should be able to answer questions safely.
1. Asians as a monolith. This should be obvious, but it really isn’t. And when you unpack it, it absolutely isn’t. Everyone knows that there are individual Asian nationalities, and often within those contain different religions, ethnic groups, languages, etc. The easiest to parse is Asians v. The Diaspora. Obviously, there are Asians who live in their respective countries and those of us who are immigrants of varying degrees, 1st gen, 1.5, 2nd and so on. Even terms like Asian-American, which seems like it shouldn’t be broad, and on first glance would represent those Americans of Asian descent isn’t really enough. In that you have 3rd or 4th generation Asian-Americans, recent refugee immigrants, 1.5 gen folks like myself. It also broadly encompasses those who are Pacific Islanders, and South Asians. And the inherent definition as assumed, primarily is associated With East Asians, like Koreans, Chinese, Japanese. Both within the community and outside of it, we often overlook the issues of our South Asian, Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian brothers and sisters. Internally, we have a lot of colorism (amongst other issues, like anti-black bias) that we need to confront and deal with. Obviously immigrant populations to other countries have their own issues and circumstances that can be, but may not be, similar to my Asian-American experience.
So it seems easy enough, right? Speaking about a population in the country of origin shouldn’t step on the ties of the diaspora. That’s not necessarily the case either. I think a big reason for that is how much we are “othered” by the populations of our countries of residence. Asian-Americans in many ways are still treated as foreigners. It’s a major theme in terms of Asian-American identity where in we constantly have to prove our American-ness. Whether it’s by signing loyalty forms and going to serve in the military, or being asked what Korea we may be from, or being told how well we speak English. Also, many of us are 1st, 1.5 or 2nd generation immigrants, we live and we’re raised with a deep connection to our home cultures. So when criticism is levied at our country of origin, we are often just as affected by that as say criticism of our country of residence. However, and I can’t quantify it, and perhaps it is a learned reaction to our experience, the criticism of our countries of origin tends to feel a lot sharper than the criticism than what I leveled at our country of residence. And it might be unconscious on both sides, the one doing the criticism and the one hearing the criticism. But as one who reacts to the criticism, I think it’s a sharper knife and issues that may bleed over from other issues. Not being fully treated as an American here, so we turn to our origin culture to compensate for that denied acceptance and identity, attacks are still felt as if we are still citizens of that home country. But, conversely, members of the diaspora also sometimes take issue with being lumped in with the citizens of the country of origin. We have our own experiences that very much separate us from “natives,” and it’s sometimes hard for people to know how to navigate. A lot of pride is taken in our hyphenated identities, it’s sometimes an act of defiance, as “You can’t take my Korean heritage away from me, but I’m not going to let you define me as anything less than an American either.” And yes, it is different from someone saying “I’m Irish-American.” When that immigration happened a century or so ago. It’s not dismissive of the Irish immigrant experience or their issues. But that immigration happened 100 years ago, we are living our immigrant experiences right now.
It’s a lot, and I now I haven’t covered all the bases. But please keep this in mind when addressing those issues. I honestly think it will cut down on a lot of poorly directed posts.
2. Authenticity/Right to Speak
Basically, this boils down to, who has the right to speak on issues or topics regarding Asians, the diaspora, the culture, etc?
Short answer: Anyone really.
Longer answer: The issue arises when posts are made speaking for Asians, the diaspora, etc. with the assumption authenticity of experience and assumed expertise.
The assumptions generally seem to arise from the following areas:
A. Perceived or real experience based on education/assimilation of information.
B. Secondary exposure to a culture as an outsider.
C. Interpersonal relationships with those of Asian descent.
None of the above reasons, regardless of how well intentioned, give you the authority or right to delegitmize the experiences and statements that Asians and members of the diaspora bring up.
Many of the issues tied directly into the treatment of Asians as a monolith. Often the information/education is based around the country of origin, and is absent the perspectives and experiences of the diaspora. Or the information gathered is through then lenses of media, which despite being ubiquitous, can also be a distorted lens. And finally, relationships, which again, is not indicative of a broader experience or perspective, and can be biased by that person’s own experience/biases.
And it’s not that having those experiences, education and knowledge is bad. The issue come when issue brought up by Asian-Era are dismissed out of hand because “Your use of Asian language is grammatically incorrect.” Or “When I was teaching English in...” And “I’ve been with my partner and my partner says...”. I fee like it’s not necessary to explain how incredibly disconcerting it is to be told that our experiences and issues only matter when validated though a non-Asian lens. Often it feels like those qualifications are inserted to assert some sort of ownership or belonging in Asian culture or the diaspora (No, btw.). Or that it’s makes you more authentically Asian than us (Hard “No.”)
OK, that’s already a lot and I’m going to leave it at that to see where discussion takes us. Hopefully in constructive directions and a greater understanding of how language is used and perceived, and why those of us in Asian-Era react the way we do. It sucks that a lot of us have to retreat to a private forum in order to speak freely about these sorts of things. It sucks even more that we discuss the same issues of repeated toxicity towards issues we bring up.
