This Is Asian Privilege

Hidden Minority: the Asian-American Poor

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:36:35 -0500

Siu Cheung has vivid recollections of what it means to be poor in the District of Columbia. Now 42-years-old, the Chinese immigrant was the youngest of five children. Her family came to the D.C. metro area when she was six years old.

“I grew up in the ‘hood,” said Cheung who lived on Benning Road and East Capitol Street in Southeast’s Ward 7, not far from a District landmark, the Shrimp Boat Seafood restaurant. Her family shared a two-bedroom apartment, and she shared a walk-in closet as a bedroom with her sister.

“We knew we were poor,” said Cheung who went to school in the District and Prince George’s County, Md. “We didn’t know people who were rich. My clothes were always second hand, and the first time I went to a movie, I was 16 or 17 years old.” The family did not take vacations, and no one was there to help with homework after school because everyone worked.

Cheung represented a group of Asian Americans classified as living in poverty, a group seemingly invisible to the larger American society, which views Asians as prosperous, educated, and industrious.

But poverty among Asians is more common than people realize, reaching about 12 percent of the approximately 17.3 million residents of Asian descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2011, the census Bureau says the AAPI community made up 5.6 percent of the population (including those classifying themselves as Asian and one or more races.) The Bureau breaks down the overall poverty rate for all Asians at about 12 percent, and 8.7 percent for AAPI families. This number increases to 20 percent for female-headed households and decreases to 6.7 percent when it’s a couple.

The Asian poverty rate is higher than the national average in Montgomery County, Maryland, with an estimated twenty percent of Asians living below the poverty line. In 2010, the federal poverty threshold was set at $23,314 for a family of four. Overall, the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line in 2011 was 15.9 percent, a higher than normal figure resulting from the weak economy.

“We have to confront the stereotype that there are no low-income Asians,” said Surjeet Ahluwalia, executive director of the Asian American Empowerment and Development for Youth and Families (AALEAD), a District-based community organization providing enrichment programs to low-income Asian youth. “Of course, many Asians are successful but the common response from people is, ‘Are there low income Asians?”

Lack of information and the stereotype about the successful Asian American combine to affect Asians doubly. Many Asians are not aware of the work of organizations such as AALEAD or programs administered by the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia governments. And often Asian Americans are not targeted for assistance.

The result is that many families like Cheung’s suffer in silence.

Through years of poverty, Cheung said, her family did not apply for or receive any government assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) or Medicaid, which would have made their existence a bit easier. Life was tough. When Cheung’s family migrated here from Fujian, China in the 1970s, her neighborhood was largely African-American, she said, with no diversity. Residents were not used to seeing a poor Asian family, she says, recalling getting into “four or five fights to protect myself.” Things did get better for the family over the years, however. They adapted to their new life and community, and the family’s fortunes improved as they developed several restaurant businesses. (read more)

OC Company Boss To Asian Employee: You Can't Speak Vietnamese Even On Private Time

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:08:47 -0500

OC Company Boss To Asian Employee: You Can't Speak Vietnamese Even On Private Time :

surnameviet:

A veteran Orange County lab assistant who claims that his boss banned him from speaking Vietnamese anytime on the job—even on breaks or at off-duty functions—has agreed to settle his employment discrimination lawsuit prior to a scheduled 2013 trial.

This story is fucked up. You know what else is fucked up? The image they chose to pair with this article.

Share and Signal Boost!

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:22:23 -0500

Alright, internet. I have a project for you!

As some of you know, the East Coast Asian American Student Conference is coming up in February 2013. The ECAASU Conference will be hosted at Columbia University February 22 - 24. It is the largest and oldest Asian American student conference in the country and provides students and community members with opportunities to learn, teach, network, and become part of a wide-reaching family. I myself have grown unmeasurably through the ECAASU network: the White House youth summits, the conferences, my time as a Campus Ambassador, etc. I’ve met the most powerful and inspiring people through ECAASU, been a part of inspiring others, and developed my identity more and more each day.

The point is: ECAASU is a fantastic opportunity and New York City is the greatest place in the world. Some students for one reason or another may not be able to attend whether it’s financial need, ID issues, or something else. I’m putting a ‘Donation’ button on my page and will be accepting contributions that will 100% be going towards train tickets, bus tickets, flights, accommodations, and registration fees - whatever the students need.

If you’re someone who wants to go to ECAASU, please fill out this form.

No guarantees on providing full funding, but I want to help and I’m sure the Tumblr community wants to help send some awesome students to a conference on social justice!

Note: I am not affiliated with ECAASU and this is not an official ECAASU post or project.

angrygirlcomics: rebloggable per request of...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:31:28 -0500

angrygirlcomics:

rebloggable per request of nomoretexasgovernorsforpresident

November 21, 2012: "Ringleader" of hazing and abuse that led Pvt Danny Chen to take his life given 15 days and a demotion.

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:10:23 -0500

November 21, 2012: "Ringleader" of hazing and abuse that led Pvt Danny Chen to take his life given 15 days and a demotion.
November 21, 2012: Red Dawn releases into theaters.
November 21, 2012: Twitter erupts in series of racist, anti-Asian tweets.

I see you, Amerikkka... I see you.

"UC-Berkeley professor Elaine Kim’s documentary “Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded” details the..."

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:45:48 -0500

“

UC-Berkeley professor Elaine Kim’s documentary “Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded” details the frictionless path by which pop fantasy transitions into real-world perception, with troubling real-world consequences. And, as the documentary points out, the same slippage that conflates media fictions with flesh-and-blood people also imposes imagery emerging out of the “exotic East” on Asian women in the West.

“Asian women as prostitutes – the oversexualization of our image – we have to live with that history,” DeAnza College Asian-American studies professor Christine Chai says in the film, which goes on to point out that virtually every Asian-American woman, regardless of how independent, educated, successful and strong she might be, has at one point or another found herself uncomfortably boxed into a stereotype by those whose primary exposure to “Asian” culture comes from cinematic blockbusters and pulp bestsellers.

The price can go far beyond discomfort. DePaul law professor Sumi K. Cho has linked the Asian-woman-as-prostitute stereotype to what she calls “racialized sexual harassment,” professional exploitation rooted in the expectation that Asian women are culturally amenable to sexual advances.

”

- Jeff Yang, “Asian-American Women Pay Price For Lurid Rumors About Actress Zhang Ziyi,” CNN 6/2/12 (via racialicious)

[tw: sexual assault] Dephanie Jao | Hunting for Asians

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:10:13 -0500

[tw: sexual assault] Dephanie Jao | Hunting for Asians:

spaceykate:

There are some things you expect to happen to other people — stuff you hear on the news and you think, “Man, that’s bizarre!”

It’s never supposed to happen to you.

On Sept. 28, when I saw two of my friends walking down Locust Walk, all I was expecting was an hour, perhaps two, when we could casually talk. We shared what was happening in our lives, our classes, our work. We were three Asian graduate students — two international, one American — sharing boring stories about our boring lives.

Then around 9:40 p.m., we found ourselves approached by a group of five people. There were three women and two men — all white. They introduced themselves, explaining that they were part of a Drexel sorority event. Some sort of relay. A scavenger hunt. In order to complete this event, they needed our help. The prize for completion was $300 and they wanted to win.

“We need to hook up with three Asians.”

For a moment the three of us looked blankly at each other. We were shocked, for one. Was this really happening? Had they just casually placed Asians as an item in a scavenger hunt?

“Are you guys drunk?” I asked. No, no, they said, eyes wide. Of course they weren’t drunk.

After that, things happened fast. Without asking for our permission, the group tried to separate my friends and me from each other. One woman had a camera. There was a flash. During this time we heard reassurances. Shouts. Don’t worry, we need to take pictures as proof, but it doesn’t have to be real. We aren’t going to post this anywhere.

One woman tried to instruct one of my friends to make poses. Put your hands across your chest. Turn this way. Smile. Another woman tried to pull the other friend away, but he resisted.

Suddenly, I found myself alone with somebody’s arm curled painfully around my neck, forcing me to face sideways. It took a second before I realized that the arm belonged to a man and while he forced my head closer to his, he slowly bent his head toward mine, mouth open, ready for a kiss. I could smell the beer on his breath.

That was when I realized. I flung my arms upwards, forcing his arm off me.

“No,” I said. “No, we’re not doing this. No.”

The group tried arguing with us for a bit. The man who had tried to kiss me even tried to grab another passing woman. But in the end, they finally left us alone.

Of all the possible things that could be said about what happened to us, one thing was certain: it should not have happened. Not just the fact that the group approached us, but the whole event itself. It was horribly dehumanizing. All of us felt like we had been treated like animals, like convenient pieces to be picked up as a part of a collection. Asians are not Pokémon to be collected.

Asians are stereotypically perceived to be less likely to fight back when faced with incidents of racism. That still doesn’t make it OK.

Even though what happened may not have been the result of racial hatred, it was still racism. Racism occurs whenever people are viewed as less than full persons because of their race. The group that night did not see us as people or as students — but as items who fit a convenient category on their scavenger hunt: three Asians.

It took us two days to gather enough courage to report the incident to the police.

Thinking back, I wonder: What would have happened if all of us had been international students? Would we have reported the incident?

There were many inconsistencies in the story the group told us that night. For one, why were there men at a sorority event? Which sorority, if there was indeed one, had created the event? Were they even from Drexel? Did they approach anyone else?

The perpetrators will probably never be caught. Though cameras caught parts of what happened, they only caught silhouettes. So where do we go from here? What will the Penn community do in response?

Dephanie’s a friend of my partner and has asked for help spreading this article around. So please reblog this everywhere! Universities are notorious for hushing this sort of thing up; the more people who know and speak up about it, the harder that is. Thanks!

Asian-American Voters Voting Largely Democratic

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 03:20:21 -0500

Asian-American Voters Voting Largely Democratic:

generasian:

It’s official! Politicians, bloggers, newspapers, and writers all over the States are taking notice of the growing influence of Asian Americans on American politics. Usually, when politicians talk about “the minority group”, they’re usually referring to the large Hispanic and African-American minority, but according to this article and others like it, it’s high time they considered Asian Americans with a heavier weight. Compared to 20 years ago, Asian-Americans seem to have made a drastic, significant shift over from the Republicans to the Democratic camp. More than 70% of Asian Americans voted Democratic in this election.

Hey Romney, guess you should have been a little less anti-China and a little more pro-Asian Americans, huh?

reallifedocumentarian: 18mr: As we celebrate the gains our...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:36:28 -0500

reallifedocumentarian:

18mr:

As we celebrate the gains our community made this election cycle, let’s not forget there’s lots of work to do. In our communities, in our country, in our daily lives. Not sure if you saw this xenophobic flyer that got mailed to voters in Ohio — but check it out.

The recent xenophobic flyer mailed by the Ohio Republican Party to voters prior to the upcoming election is deeply disappointing, infuriating, and unacceptable.

We ask for a pledge to end the use of xenophobic rhetoric, as well as an apology for the offensive materials distributed.

The “Betty Sutton is Taking our Jobs to Go” flyer utilizes racially-charged language and imagery that play on prejudices against Asian Americans, specifically those of Chinese descent. While it has been common practice to attack China in this electoral cycle, capitalizing on xenophobic rhetoric for political gain has long-term implications that negatively affect the APIA community.

The scapegoating of Asians for the effects of a changing economy has already culminated in the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin. Chin, a Detroit-born Chinese American, was beaten to death by two laid-off auto workers who blamed the loss of their jobs on the thriving Japanese auto industry. His death was the result of racial fear-mongering for political gain.

Elections should be issue-focused, without resorting to unfair and inaccurate comparisons. Using stereotypes to demonize and scapegoat one group of Americans at the expense of substantive debate must not be tolerated by the community at-large. We call upon all political parties and candidates to present their cases with respectful, inclusive dialogue.

It is our hope that, in the future, the Ohio Republican Party will engage in constructive dialogue, not the production of xenophobic rhetoric which targets a specific group of individuals.

Sincerely,

Johnny Wu, OCA-Cleveland President

Ready to go to work and deliver on the promise of this election? Sign on with Johnny Wu here: http://bit.ly/cmonOHIO

Fuck the yellow peril shit that comes with election season and racist assholes hiding behind patriotic capitalism as their defense….

Photo

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:02:00 -0500

anarcho-queer: New York City Officials Ignore Devastated...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:37:52 -0500

anarcho-queer:

New York City Officials Ignore Devastated Chinatown, Advocates Say Income And Race Is To Blame

“Income and race have a lot to do with the situation that we’re in, I went by Wall Street last night and all the lights were on, the buildings were empty, there were christmas lights on the trees and it was absolutely crazy because we had just left here [Chinatown] and it was pitch black,” said Helena Wong in an interview with The Nation.

Wong is the executive director of the Chinatown-based organization CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities.

“What we’re seeing is no officials are coming here, there are no translated documents, there’s no FEMA, Bloomberg isn’t here, no ones invested any resources in to this community and there are other communities as well that aren’t Wall Street and aren’t Time Square and it’s pretty clear that it’s profits over people right now,” Wong went on to say.

The video was shot and produced by Francis Reynolds at The Nation.

CAAAV is currently accepting donations for flashlights, batteries, food and bottled water. Visit their website for more information.

rafsimon-murderer: fascinasians: knowledgeequalsblackpower: et...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:50:32 -0500

rafsimon-murderer:

fascinasians:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

ethiopienne:

white people

look at your lives

LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES

Hell yeah. My people REPRESENT!

asians vote conservative? cant hear you over the fail

rafsimon-murderer: msavignon: NY1: Grace Meng Wins Seat In...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:45:07 -0500

rafsimon-murderer:

msavignon:

NY1: Grace Meng Wins Seat In Congress, Becomes First Asian-American New York Has Sent To Washington

SO MANY ASIAN LADIES MAKING HISTORY! THE FIRST DISABLED PERSON IN CONGRESS, THE FIRST ASIAN FROM ILLINOIS, THE FIRST HINDU LADY, THE FIRST NEW YORK LADY!!

herocountry: 20th anniversary of Yoshiro Hattori’s murder fascinasians: On the evening of October...

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:20:00 -0400

herocountry:

20th anniversary of Yoshiro Hattori’s murder

fascinasians:

On the evening of October 17th, 1992, (18th in Asia) a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student named Yoshiro Hattori went with his homestay brother, Webb Haymaker, to a Halloween party organized for Japanese exchange students. With a love for classic American movies, Hattori was dressed up as John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever. The boys arrived at the wrong house just a few doors down. Hattori rang the doorbell as the wife Mrs. Peairs saw them from the side door and called her husband to get a gun. Rodney Peairs opened the front door holding a gun with a laser sight and told the boys to freeze. While Haymaker ran, Hattori turned around and said, “We’re here for the party.”

Right out of The Terminator, Rodney Peairs, a six-foot-two armed man, shot the 130-pound Japanese teenager dressed up as John Travolta. If Hattori had dressed up as Olivia Newton John instead, would he have met the same fate?

I seem to recall I had read somewhere that one of the Paeirs made a comment about “a Jap at the door” before picking up the gun. For years, I contemplated about the possible racist motivation behind the murder that has fascinated me since I first heard about it. Perhaps it was because I too was a “foreign student.” Imagine me being in Baton Rouge dressed up as a witch knocking on the Paeirs’ door. Would I have met the same fate?

That Halloween of 1992, I had just arrived at Yale and was completely buried in poststructuralist theory and frozen yogurt and I didn’t hear about the story until months later. That Halloween I dressed up in drag and went out with some English graduate students. Harvey, a queer PhD student, was also in drag. That night, we might have been presenting an academic paper somewhere on campus. I remember that Harvey was accosted by some New Haven locals for being in drag before getting back to our dorm.

When I went to Hong Kong for Christmas break, everyone was telling me about the story of this Japanese boy who got shot in America.

“I didn’t hear a thing about it!” I exclaimed. “All I knew was Clinton got elected and we stayed up in the dorms glued to the television screen until Bush congratulated Clinton.”

“You aren’t scared in America?” asked my friends.

“I do love horror movies, you know,” I flippantly replied, half-believing in the story they told me.

Hattori’s story stayed with me until years later when I got on-line and was able to research about the murder. In the age of microfiche and lack of internet literature, it was very difficult to research into expired news on top of all the research and reading I had to do as a graduate student.

Of course, the grave injustice was that Rodney Paeirs was acquitted after a seven-day trial. In a civil action, Rodney Peairs was found liable to Hattori’s parents for over half-a-million dollar damages that they used to fund two charities in Hattori’s name—one for American high school students wishing to visit Japan, and the second to lobby for gun control.

To the world, the real American horror story comes from a good old shot of mundane ignorance in America.

(Note: The correct name is actually Yoshihiro.)

My mother told me this story when I was young (it must have been around the time of the actual murder or only a few years after now that I think about it) as a warning not to trust white people.

fund this: hyphen stories on richard aoki and hawaiian prisoners

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:03:23 -0400

reallifedocumentarian:

h2wong:

If you didn’t know… Hyphen is an award-winning nonprofit publication, run by an all-volunteer staff. Most of the contributors work pro bono, but Hyphen is currently trying to raise some money to pay writers, photographers, multimedia producers and editors a modest stipend for a couple of special projects.

One is a feature story and multimedia on Hawaiian prisoners who are “exported” to a desert prison in Arizona, thousands of miles away from their families and roots. The other is an in-depth story on former Black Panther Richard Aoki and recent revelations about his life. Here are some more details on the Aoki story:

Hyphen editor and writer Momo Chang and contributor R.J. Lozada are working on a story about Richard Aoki, a former member of the Black Panther Party. In August, the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets published a story stating that Aoki was an FBI informant. Since the news came out, there has been an explosion of reactions, mostly from Asian Americans, leftists, scholars and historians.

For this project, Hyphen would like to provide more context about Richard Aoki’s life and explore issues such as Asian-black relations, hero worship and other themes in a reported, in-depth story. You’ll hear directly from those who knew Aoki, as well as Aoki himself in newly released audio, as part of our nifty multimedia package.

We hope to provide a balanced report about Aoki and the recent news by including a variety of perspectives, providing more context about his life, the recent findings and other information from our own investigative efforts.

Here’s some more information on the Hawaii story:

Eloy is a sweltering, dusty prison town in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. It’s also home to more incarcerated Hawaiians than any other places in the U.S.—including Hawaii. It’s part of a long process of prison outsourcing that began in the 1990s. Delbert Wakinekona was one of the very first Hawaiian prisoners transferred out of state. Over 40 years, he made his way through a series of prisons, eventually landing in Eloy.

The stark change in landscape, from the islands to the desert, is just part of the shock for prisoners like him. Time and again, studies have shown that contact with friends and family helps to lower recidivism rates but for many of these Hawaiian prisoners, visitations are an impossibility; a $2,000 trip to a desert penitentiary is a hard financial pill to swallow for most prisoners’ families.

This two important stories could really use your support. For further information, and to make a contribution, go the the campaign pages here and here. And for more information about the awesome journalism Hyphen is doing, visit the magazine’s website here.

If i weren’t broke, I’d be donating… maybe next paycheck. y’all should help donate too :-)

Made rebloggable by request

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:55:28 -0400

Asked by Anonymous:

have you heard of the cleveland school massacre?

I haven’t, but for anyone who’s interested, here’s more info. Thanks, anon!

fascinasians: photo courtesy of the Asian American Justice...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:41:00 -0400

fascinasians:

photo courtesy of the Asian American Justice Center Youth Advisory Council.

Share and post your own! WHY DO YOU VOTE?

Like/reblog. Pledge to vote. I’M WATCHING YOU!

have you heard of the cleveland school massacre?

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:23:00 -0400

I haven’t, but for anyone who’s interested, here’s more info. Thanks, anon!

"FAT FOR AN ASIAN:" THE PRESSURE TO BE NATURALLY PERFECT

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:57:13 -0400

"FAT FOR AN ASIAN:" THE PRESSURE TO BE NATURALLY PERFECT:

eschergirls:

I’m not fat — by American standards. I am considered slightly chubby for an Asian in China. I’m 5’1” and about 100 pounds, give or take five pounds depending on whether it’s New York Fashion Week or final exams week at Columbia. Everyone assumes I’m naturally petite because of my Asian genetics, but the truth is, I count my calories like Ebenezer Scrooge counts his gold coins and run and do yoga like Lululemon is paying me. The moment I “let myself go,” the weight bounces back.

I try not to talk about it, though, because the moment I do, someone always says, “Shut up, you’re Asian. You have genetics on your side.”

That’s the problem — Asian girls are suffering from body image issues and eating disorders because they try to hold themselves up to the expectation that Asian girls are naturally slim. In fact, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Diane von Furstenberg said, “It is great to design for Chinese women, because they have great bodies. They are slim and have tiny waists, so it’s nice.”

Elizabeth Harker recently wrote the most amazing piece about being a fat foreign girl in China, in which she discovered the difference betweenpang, which means fat in an almost affectionate way, and fei, which is the adjective my mother uses to describe fatty pork dishes. Asians are open to talking about weight — they’ll force-feed you when they think you’re too thin and they’ll shame you when they think you’re too fat.

When I came back from my first year of college in New York, my mother whispered to me, “You’re a little fat now.” When I fell on my butt during cheerleading practice, my dad said to me in the car, “I wonder if it’s because you’re fat for an Asian.”

The first time I realized I was “fat” for an Asian girl was when I was 10 years old, on a trip back to China to visit relatives. A distant cousin whom I had never met before grabbed my arm and said, “Hao fei,” which, roughly translated, means, “So porky.” Since that day, I stopped wearing short sleeves whenever possible because I was afraid others would notice my “porky” arms.

In Chinese culture, eating is seen as a form of affection and commitment to the family, so I always ate every meal, every single kernel of rice in my bowl. But I also felt fat and unfit to be the “perfect” Asian girl, as I compared my body to those of my fellow Asian American girl friends. When we would go out to eat and drink — a group of petite Asian girls — I knew I had to work out more and eat less the next day to make up for the amount I ingested with my friends. I’ve spent countless Friday nights in college, feeling completely inadequate because every single Asian girl I met was thin and beautiful with porcelain smooth skin, like Asian girls are supposed to be. I started to wonder if I was the only Asian girl who felt this way.

My metabolism just can’t keep up, but no one believes me.

“Asian girls eat like football players but they just don’t get fat — it’s great,” remarked a guy friend, as I picked at my spinach salad.

This past summer, over cocktails (400 calories, I counted), a fellow Asian girl confided in me, “When I was at my lowest weight, 98 pounds, I ate only two yogurts a day. I was so miserable, but I had to — how can you be Asian and not be thin?” For many Asian girls, being thin is imperative; being a fat Asian — or even an Asian of “normal” weight — basically implies you’re a glutton who managed to out eat your own superfast metabolism. To be an attractive Asian girl, being thin is supposed to be a given.

All Asian girls are supposed to look like Korean pop stars, right?! P.S. These are the Wonder Girls and I really like them.

I spent much of my life hating my body because it felt imperfect for both Asian standards and Western standards. I wasn’t skinny or tall enough to look like a fashion model or busty enough to be a swimsuit model, and I wasn’t petite and cute enough to look like a Korean pop star. As a little girl growing up in an immigrant Chinese household in America, I never thought I was pretty. I wasn’t considered beautiful in either of the two cultures I considered part of my identity. I spent the first half of my life wishing I were a beautiful white girl, and the second half of my life wishing I were a beautiful Asian girl.

My friend Elaine Low wrote an article for Mochi (an online magazine for Asian American girls) called “Diagnosing the Asian American Disorder,”which explains: “‘It’s meaningful that a white woman can turn on a TV and find a broad range of characters, but Asian Americans are portrayed the same way over and over again,’ said Dr. Teresa Mok, a clinical psychologist who treats a lot of college students. ‘For someone struggling with self-esteem issues, this reinforces the feeling of invisibility.’”

I’m aware that body image isn’t an issue specific to Asian women — but the interesting thing I’ve discovered is that being Asian — or any minority — makes you harshly critical about your own image. You don’t get to see yourself much on TV or in magazines, and when you do, you get frustrated if you don’t fit into that perfect airbrushed image.

I’ve done my best to be the perfect Asian daughter — getting straight As in high school and attending an Ivy League university, for example. I, and many of the Asian girls I’ve talked to, have expressed the pressure to be “perfect” in every single way — whether it’s because society expects you to be as the “model minority” or your parents expect you to be as the “precious daughter.” I never let myself be happy with the way I looked; after all, if I could work for perfect grades, why couldn’t I work for a perfect body?

I told a white classmate about how casual it is for Asian parents to make comments about their children’s’ weight. She frowned and said, “That would not be okay in my household. That would not go over well.” It’s a cultural disconnect I’m still trying to grapple and understand.

I don’t think I’ll ever be thin enough to satisfy my family. I don’t think I’ll ever be thin enough to satisfy society. And unless things start changing from the inside, I don’t think I’ll ever be thin enough to satisfy myself. As of right now, I’m still spending hours every week, working off the calories at the gym and measuring my portions on the kitchen scale. I’m still trying to be the perfect student, daughter, and human specimen — as futile as that may be, I feel that it is expected of me. I know all experiences — and body types — are unique and I’m not speaking on behalf of all Asian women, but I know I’m not the only one.

I wanted to reblog this because it came up in the comments of my last ED post, somebody saying that they felt a lot of pressure to be thin because they were Asian. It’s something I completely understand, though I never had to deal with that specifically since even before my ED I was what people would consider to be thin.

But the “oh you’re lucky, you’re Asian, you’re naturally thin!” thing I’ve heard a lot. Along with “oh, you’re lucky, you’re Asian, it’ll be so easy for you to transition and be beautiful!” or the more transphobic version: “Asian men make the best women” (as an ex boyfriend told me right before I dumped him.) Or etc etc… because our media has this idea that all Asian women are thin, and feminine, and Asian trans women are cis-passing, beautiful and thin.

Even in the comments of this blog, somebody wrote that manga art was an accurate version of how Asian women look like because we all have baby faces. A Japanese pop star was offered as proof. And that’s generally, what people remember, because Asian people aren’t individuals in white western society, and we’re represented by only a select few aesthetics. So if people only see East Asian pop stars with child like faces and thin bodies, well that’s what East Asian people should look like!

Much like women, in general, in our pop media are represented by only a few body types. And it’s an extra pressure that women of colour, and specifically, in this case, East Asian women face. And all the assumptions and non-support we get because “oh you’re Asian, you don’t need to worry about that!” or how “lucky” we are to be Asian women (cis and trans) because of the exotification and stereotypes surrounding us.

While I don’t struggle with the pressure to fit this idea that all Asian women should be skinny, I do struggle with my fear of aging and my face looking old. I realized the other day my internalized racism, where I could see many kinds of beauty, young and old in white women’s faces, but in Asian faces, I could only see “old and wrinkly” or “young, puffy and child like”, and even though I know that’s not true, it’s just so embedded in how the society I live in views East Asian women.

And it’s obviously not just me, since as I said, I’ve had people say that, and people even comment on this blog arguing that this is the norm for East Asian women. And when you stereotype a “race” as being “naturally” like XYZ, no matter how positive XYZ is supposed to be, you’re also telling (consciously or not) every individual of that group that they need to measure up to that standard, since after all it’s how we should be “naturally.”

It also ends up creating an environment where any of the issues we face relating to the “positive” stereotype, gets erased and dismissed. For example, the woman in the above piece had her body image issues ignored because of the idea that Asian women have hyper metabolisms and we’re always super thin. And when I was early in my transition, I faced a lot of dismissal of my fears, body issues and dysphoria by white trans and cis women because of the idea that all Asian trans women are just super beautiful and cis passing.

Nobody’s “lucky” to be trapped in a box where we can’t be individuals.

"In order to address the limitations of the cultural argument, researchers have focused on important..."

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:51:20 -0400

“In order to address the limitations of the cultural argument, researchers have focused on important structural factors such as immigration history, economic context, and opportunity structure to explain Asian American achievement. For instance, it has been argued that selective migration of post-1965 immigrants—namely, those entering under professional status—favored those who are coming with a higher education level and from higher socio-economic backgrounds. That is, Asian American children’s educational success can be largely attributed to those who are coming from Asian families who were middle-class professionals in their country of origin. Researchers have also underscored ethnic economies and networks as important means for Asian Americans to achieve social mobility. Although ethnic economics have been historically formed as a result of racial and social barriers, as well as lack of access to the primary-sector-market economy, researchers argue that this avenue allows Asian immigrants to gain important economic and social resources for first- and second-generation immigrants.”

- Jamie Lew, Asian Americans in Class: Charting the Achievement Gap Among Korean American Youth

The ‘ethnic economy’ described here reflects one explanation I’ve seen for why Asian Americans experience the longest terms of unemployment.* If Asian Americans are more likely to be working in ethnic enclaves, employed through family and community networks, then the failure of those subeconomies within the broader economies would lead to unemployment and difficulty finding work outside that ethnic economy.

But research shows that disparity hits harder the more educated an Asian American is. White workers with the same education level are just not as hard hit; it is suggested that Asian Americans with relatively low educational attainment are working jobs that are deemed appropriate for immigrants, so their foreign-ness (regardless of their ‘actual’ foreign-ness) do not work against them as much.

This dovetails with how even though Asian Americans have to be more qualified (whether it’s test scores, grades, degrees, experience, etc.) than their white peers to get accepted into the same schools / hired to the same positions.

*One factor to remember is that we measure unemployment only among those actively looking for work, so these numbers do not reflect those who have given up on looking for work for whatever reason.

(via coupleofmycravings)