In the wake of the offensive Jesse Watters’ Chinatown interview broadcasted by Fox News a few days ago, Michael Luo, a Chinese-American who works at the New York Times, wrote an open letter to the New York Times, detailing his experience of him and his families being yelled at to “Go Back to China” in New York City. After reading the article, I went to the Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo, to see how the Chinese netizens reacted to the incident. Surprisingly, not a lot of Chinese netizens showed their sympathy to Luo’s situation. Some of them said they were disappointed because Luo didn’t embrace his Chinese identity in the letter.
“This is caused by going abroad blindly. Locals don’t recognize you. And you can’t return to your hometown either.“
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“Okay, going back doesn’t sound bad. China is no worse than the US…”
As far as I am concerned, the situation shed lights on two issues in the U.S. One is racial discrimination and the other one is how to find your own identity as a minority in the U.S., even if you are born here.
After having been living in the U.S. for more than six years, I began to understand the society better. One problem that was deeply rooted in the U.S. was racial discrimination. And this problem was originated from its history. Even though the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery in 1864, the idea of “separate but equal” was introduced by Jim Crow laws in the 1870s. These laws increased discrimination and caused legal separations among different racial groups. While Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks became some of the historical figures to fight back against racial discrimination during the Civil Rights Movement, more than 140 years have passed, discrimination still exists and has become a prominent social issue.
From Ferguson to Baton Rouge to Black Lives Matter movement nationwide, racial discrimination has become such a prominent issue in the U.S. Right after Luo’s open letter, The New York Times launched a campaign called "#Thisis2016" to fight against racial discrimination, which specifically focuses on Asian American’s experience of being mistreated because of their race. The video opened with Luo’s unwelcoming experience and highlighted a group of Asian Americans from different professions sharing their experiences of being discriminated because of their race.
“About two weeks ago, a New York City subway conductor intentionally slammed the door on my ribs, and said ‘You’ll be deported soon.’ This is 2016,” said Syl Tang, a futurist said in the video.
“Doorman, assuming I am a delivery guy? Because I am holding a plastic bag. This is 2016,” said Eugene Ko, a marketing manager in the video.
“A former boss said she always hired Asians because they make the best workers. this is 2016,” said Monica Noh.
From the article, I could also sense that Luo had some trouble embracing his Chinese identity. This made me wonder what some ABCs view themselves in the U.S. and the question of how to better fit in in this melting pot.
“Maybe you don’t know this, but the insults you hurled at my family get to the heart of the Asian-American experience. It’s this persistent sense of otherness that a lot of us struggle with every day. That no matter what we do, how successful we are, what friends we make, we don’t belong. We’re foreign. We’re not American.”
Of course, in the eyes of many Chinese, Luo is an American. He was born here, speaking perfect English, holding American values and having grown up receiving American education. However, why he still felt that he was the “other” people and “don’t belong” to the U.S.? If not the U.S., where else could he or many Asian Americans belong? They probably can’t speak Chinese or understand the Chinese culture like native Chinese do. So are they Chinese? Or somewhere in the middle?
This reminded me of a blind date organized by an Asian American students organization three years ago when I was a student at NYU. I didn’t expect much in terms of finding a boyfriend or something. I just went for fun, out of curiosity. Most guys at the event were Asians and some were ABCs (Asian-born Chinese Americans). Based on the rule of the game, each guy took turns to change seat so that they could talk to every girl and girls had to ask one question to the guy seating across them. “If you were to compare yourself to a fruit, what kind of fruit would you say?” I asked. “Banana,” the guy said. “Why?” “Because I am yellow in appearance but white inside,” he said.
How to fit into the society more successfully? One can either accept changing his or her self to fit in or finding his or her own identity and apply his own strength. In my opinion, the latter can lead to a greater success. Leehom Wang, a famous pop song singer who was born in Rochester, New York, chased his music dream in Taiwan after graduating from Williams College. He released his first award-winning album Revolution under Sony Music Entertainment in 1998 and sold over 10,000 domestic units in the first week of the release. Combined his background in the U.S., his perfect English and his handsome appearance, he gained fame quickly in the Asian market. Coco Lee, a Hong Kong-born American singer who was the first and only person with Chinese ethnicity to perform at the Oscars, developed her music career in mainland China and was well-known among many Chinese audiences.
