I joke a lot about my race. My father is Chinese. My mother is American. I like to say that I had a unique upbringing - that I was raised on tofu and grits. Or, since I am a blood descendant of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, I like to joke that I am a Chinese red neck. I joke about how smart Asians are and how, since I am only half-Asian, I am just smart enough to realize that I am not very smart.
Why the jokes? They are jokes that have developed over the years as preemptive strikes against my insecurity at being a racial minority.
I first heard the word "chink" when I was standing outside my elementary school on my first day of kindergarten. I didn't know what it meant only that it was something bad and that, by extension, I was something bad.
Slurs like chink and "squinty eyes" and various others hardly defined my youth but they were always there and always to be feared, reminders that I really wasn't part of white America.
Compounding the problem, however, was the reality that I wasn't part of Chinese America either. I remember going to China for the first time when I was in fourth grade thinking, ahhh, ok, now I am going to go someplace where I will just blend right in. Not so much. The Chinese kids on the street stared at me and looked at me and I knew right away that they saw me as more white than Chinese.
Throughout my adult life, probably because I've joked so much about my race, my white friends joke with me about it too. There isn't any maliciousness behind it - they just play off of my own jokes.
But there are things that hurt. A family member who looked at our youngest daughter saying she looked like Chairman Mao. Hello? Would you say a white kid looked like Hitler?
But I say nothing and my very white wife says nothing. We say nothing because it isn't polite and because matters of race are sensitive and we don't want to rock the boat and because it just isn't done.
After Barack Obama's speech today, however, it is ok. It is ok to talk about these deeply conflicting emotions and concerns and fears and hurts I have about my own race. And my case is so tiny and miniscule compared to what black Americans experience on a daily basis. I know but a tiny shadow of a shadow of a racism that black American endure.
Sen. Clinton was wrong when she said a speech wasn't an accomplishment. Today's speech, like King's "I have a dream" speech is an accomplishment. It is a speech that opens a healthy dialogue about race by acknowledging the racial realities that exist today.
People may not like what Obama had to say but he spoke the truth even if that truth offends. The key thing, however, is that Obama did not end his speech in despair. His speech was one of hope, of saying that things are better now and that matters of race need not be unspeakable problems. And that is an accomplishment.
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I beg to differ as I was also married to a different race. What does my daughter call herself, she wants to consider her upbringing unique as well but how does she identifies herself, "I am white" no "I am Indian" (Asian). Well she is neither full bred white nor Indian. When one is curious of her identity she says, one parent is white and one is Indian and I am an American. She and I never considered ourselves the "minority" that is a word that people inflict upon themselves. Whether minority or majority, we are people, we are Americans. There is no way that Sen. Obama can justify what his minister said. Obama sat in that Church for 20 years and neither you nor Sen. Obama can tell me that this was the first time these things were said. It was said before and Sen. Obama did nothing about it, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
This is a free country and it’s might be ok to speak about how you feel inside but as a Senator listening, if my minister was saying that to me, I would have denounced him a long time ago. Sen. Obama said his minister said things that all of our ministers or Priests or Rabbis would say, well my Priests and Rabbis don’t do that sort of thing and have the congregation applauding. This country has housed and fed millions of people here and abroad, no one who lives here has the right to speak evil of this country let alone a minister.
On another note, speeches are not accomplishment or achievement. If speeches don’t bring about success then they are not accomplishment. Speeches are remembered and followed and admired. When something is gained from speeches then something has been accomplished. Mohan Das Gandhi gave speeches and his words spoke volume and he succeeded. He gained independence for a great nation from the very powerful British Empire. Not to belittle anyone, I agree with Sen. Clinton.
every priest, rabbi and minister I have ever heard has said things that I find reprehensible - a moment of anger or revenge cloaked in the Scripture and said out loud. If you haven't heard it - it was because it echoed with you - atta boy Rev - we're in tune with our anger here - we're all guilty of such things. the self righteous finger pointing toward Reverend Wright from Christians is simply a way of avoiding something in ourselves. I sat and listed all the priests, bishops, ministers, rabbis and lay preachers I have heard over the years last night - could only remember about 40 and I know there have been at least dozens more. the minister who brought me into Church when I was 8 - talking about a woman we all knew - veiled, but vengeful. The priest who brought me into the Catholic church - misogyny was his middle name I think. The priest who married us - liked teenage boys - we found out much later. The minister who brought us through adolescence - embezzled funds for years. The minister who spoke at my dad's funeral - made terrible remarks in the sacristy about the "limp wristed" organist. The rabbi who taught me very basic Hebrew - remarks about Palestinians I find beyond the pale. They are human beings - tuned into our anger, our biases and we become angry if their anger doesn't match ours. Listened to several of Reverend Wright's sermons over the past few days. Would you want to be remembered for your moments of rage, of anger? I don't think this was his style - it took a lot of research on the part of either Hilary or Republicans to find those sermons. there are lots of young kids doing that kind of work right now - finding anything that might in someway to destroy another candidate. Heck, one of my kids got a job offer for such a research job - she decided it sounded like "bottom feeding". Whatever Reverend Wright said - it just made some feel like - at last I have a reason to reject this Obama character - and I'll feel really holy in doing it. I'm sure that there are those in the Obama campaign looking for stuff about McCain and Clinton. But - this little mob gathering scene is little more than that. Christianity and being American are not even close to being the same thing - they can be connected, but often are not. His remarks were wrong and have been rejected. I just don't know any saints in the ministry, the priesthood or anywhere else for that matter. Just people - flawed people who learn lessons by their mistakes - and then there are those who accuse. the word for such people is related to the word 'satan'. We're all guilty of that energy.
This whole controversy smacks of political opportunism, certain people just looking for something to smear Obama with, even when it was not his own words! What Rev Wright said was disgusting, but so is a lot of the hate speech you hear on TV and the radio from white evangelists. Where is that outrage?
I think Obama should be praised for not following the lead of this preacher, but setting an example with his life that hatred is not a part of his thinking.
I sure would be upset if I were to be held accountable for every mean-spirited, foolish thing the people in my life have spouted!Obama has responded with honesty and insight and that should be the end of the finger pointing. He has challenged to lift the discourse to a higher, more productive level and that should be the lesson of this whole episode.
The second great demographic story in America in the 21st century which everyone forgets (after the Latino population explosion which obsesses everyone, especially conservatives) is going to be the massive increase in multiracial people like you, Tiger Woods and Barack Obama.
Someday in your lifetime (I'm an optimist about your disease), you will either be able to see lots and lots of younger people who "look like you" did at this stage in life or -- maybe even better -- the concept of "look like you" will lose meaning, as it already seems to be among the ultra-multiracial Generation Y.
BTW, the writer of the above (i.e., me) has a grandmother who grew up on the Cherokee Reservation in western North Carolina, and has many Native American features (although I basically grew up "white").
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