Both of these men are of Asian decent but have decided to adapt black culture as their identity. The one of the left, as many Asian Americans today are adapting black hip hop culture. Many do so in their way of dress, slang, and learning to Americanize themselves more. I can only assume it is because of the unfair oppressed stereotypes in America. It is becoming more common, especially in media that Asian Americans are adopting black ethnicity culture, probably stemming from the racial oppression that Black and Asian culture have experienced.In the documentary we were assigned to watch it says that there were only two races, black and white. Well if Asians are being told that they are not at all white, they may as well feel forced to adopt black culture. Yellow may be a safe zone for them, as well as Asian Americans taking a stand and saying they wont be in the black or white category, but instead make a category of their own, where they feel like they can be themselves. I think that Asian Americans deserve to identify with whomever they want and not be forced in a particular category, but this is what makes the powerful people in our society most comfortable and people go along with it because they don't know any better.The article "Neither Black nor White focuses on the movie "Do The Right Thing" where movie fiction has some truth to real life. The movie exposes some of the racial discrimination that Asian immigrants/Asian American face when they come to America and live in inner cities.The article "Neither Black Nor White gives credit to the film because it exposed it viewers to the real life outcomes in inner cities across the nation regarding race relations. The movie "Do the Right Thing" shows an Asian grocer in the middle of a riot in Los Angelos, in the process of the Asians store being vandalized the grocer yells out that he is black. Now the problem lies in between, because of the Asian economic status from owning a grocery store black people don't see the grocer as black, and because of the economic status white people don't see the grocer as white.This sort of problem leaves Asians confused because truthfully Asians are neither black or white. However the racial discrimination leaves Asians and blacks feeling less than equal to their white counterparts. The racial divides are tricky in many ways. Majority of Asians IQ match their white counterparts, as well as most Asians economic, and social status matches their white counterpart more closely than black, so this may cause Asians to code switch. Depending on the situation, environment, and people Asians are usually put in a predicament where they switch who they more closely relate to black or white.The biggest problem with the whole idea, is that race relations is only narrowed down to black or white, when there is more than black and white people. Our country current race relations approach eliminates acknowledging any other minority besides black. Every minority is not black, there are Latinos, Native American/Indians, Asian, pacific Islander.I understand that blacks have been the largest minority group since the beginning of our country, however i believe that our country needs to do a better job including other ethnic groups in equal treatment. In turn all minorities in the country have been treated unfair, which cause them to ralate to black people because the unfair treatment is similar. At the very least they feel as though black people can understand and respect Asians. Asians as constuctive blacks to me is a sign that progress is not being made, because they are still forced to identify with a group based ethnicity and lack of rights and unfair treatment.
This bothers me because i it back and think what will it take for all minorities, all women, all gay, all handicapp people have the chance to be treated and respected fairly and solely on their character, and not their outer physical appearance, or preference.
No comments:
Post a Comment