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Once there was the Ku Klax Kan (KKK), a group of white radicals who wanted to eliminate the black race. In the United States of America as Martin Luther King started a revolution, his opposition struck fear and anger in the hearts of African-Americans, trying to suppress their basic human rights. The power of good hearts fought hard for a good purpose eventually ended up overcoming white supremacy. Today there is equality among blacks and whites. They interact socially and professionally and for the first time ever in history, America has a black president.
You would not dream of instigating a racist launch against blacks without consideration about the consequences of doing so. In this modern day and age, it would be completely inappropriate and you would quite likely receive a lot of backlash on your campaign. However if you were to start an attack on Asians, that’s a completely story. Let’s keep it real here. Let’s be honest and let’s be frank. There seems to be a hierarchy in this world with the whites, blacks and Latinos at the top and the Asians at the bottom. How many times have you heard the words ‘gook’ ‘chintok’ ‘squinty eyes’ ‘ching chong wa’ ‘almond eyes’ ‘asian invasion’, etc. That’s your usual school yard bullying. But mostly, discrimination against Asians is subtle. There’s just a nuance of an undermining tone, a prejudice in facial expressions and body language. How about the stereotypes of Asians? The girls are prostitutes and the boys are geeks. And all Asians think about is money. Although racism against Asians is not that obvious, it is more prevalent than racism against other cultures. There is nothing that really can be done to stop the racism. It’s not that obvious, it’s not presented in the way the Ku Klux Klan did for the blacks. There are no nooses, no chasing, and no declarations of war. It’s happening in the schools as the little Asian girl gets called a ‘gook with funny eyes’ and is not deemed as beautiful as her Caucasian peers and gets left out in hop scotch. But of course, it’s not said out loud. It’s happening in the clubs, when all the white boys and black boys get all the gorgeous girls guaranteed and the young Asian man leaves with his head bowed in shame and a voice speaking softly in the background saying ‘your male appendage is not as big as white and black men’s appendages’. Sometimes that’s said out loud.
As said before, there is not much that can be done but to keep on living. The world has its ways. We have many things that still need to be fought so that we can all each achieve equal rights and respect and racism is yet another small obstacle to conquer.
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