Spike Lee is annoying, but if we are going to teach kids "Social Studies" instead of US History, "Do The Right Thing" should be required viewing.
Posted on 02/23/2012 10:58:01 AM PST by presidio9
Though Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer-winning columnist for The Washington Post, is a serious and highly sophisticated man, I was disappointed by a recent column in which he compared the United States and China.
In eloquent terms, Robinson asserted that the Chinese, right now, look more unsentimentally at their problems and are not bluffing the world about taking them on, no matter how large, intimidating and deeply dug in by custom they might be.
Robinson suggests the Chinese seem to be addressing their most important natural resource, which is their population, as we are not — as proven by the depressingly shallow nature of American political arguments.
Fair enough, as far as it goes.
But Robinson does not mention something about China — something that an honest assessment of its strengths and weaknesses should not ignore.
For at least 20 years, I have heard stories from Americans who speak Mandarin, have traveled to the Asian country and have tales about Chinese bigotry against black Americans and Africans.
Yet this reality is barely whispered in our diverse media circus.
I have no doubt there are thousands upon thousands of decent Chinese and Chinese-Americans who, having known the sting of prejudice themselves, harbor no ill will toward African-Americans. But let’s not deny a stubborn cultural problem when it is staring us in the face.
Here are examples of what I have been told.
One Irish-American friend fell in love with Chinese culture and learned Mandarin. Often in New York’s Chinatown, he heard this answer when Chinese New Yorkers were asked by those from the mainland what New York was like: “Fine. But too many black people.”
A friend who does business in China and travels there at least six times a year was questioned by a Chinese cab driver who claimed that Chinese people were amazed that George W. Bush had chosen Condoleezza Rice to represent America to the world.
Why? “Because she is black, quite an embarrassment; it dishonors your country,” was the cab driver’s answer.
Another frequent business traveler to China was recently in a Hong Kong bar with college-educated, upper class, very successful men who were supposedly well-educated.
After a few drinks, one said to him upon seeing a black person on the bar’s television, “They need to wash more. That is why people do not like them.” When it was explained that black people are not that color because they are not clean, there was a nodding silence followed a bit later by, “I still think they need to wash more.”
These are just stray anecdotes, you say? Well, I invite and hope to encounter some defenders of Chinese adherence to transcendent humanitarian beliefs.
I actually expect to hear nothing other than accusations of supposed black American paranoia.
Robinson and others are right when they call out the dog whistles of disguised racial bitterness by Republican candidates trying slyly to draw the votes of Southern rednecks. Racism is real in America, and it frequently hides in code words.
But let’s be clear: A broad admiration for certain facets of Chinese culture ought not conceal the fact that bad racial attitudes there may be at least as pervasive as they are in the United States.
There are those who would have us assess individuals not as being human types, but as being examples of what we’re told to genetically expect from a given ethnic group.
That is an impulse that all of us — across skin tones, ethnic cultures and political systems — must continually expose and fight.
It takes a lot of education to persuade people to ignore the obvious. That human beings are naturally tribal.
Spike Lee is annoying, but if we are going to teach kids "Social Studies" instead of US History, "Do The Right Thing" should be required viewing.
Of course I have met some Asians who think white/anglo/Europeans are just one step above blacks.
Not saying all Asians are like this but the ones I have met from other countries tend to have an air of superiority.
Not sure how the regular rank and file Asian person feels.
Guess what? There's no way on earth we can make the Chinese ashamed of being racist. Better to accept the reality, and remember that while they think badly of black people, that doesn't mean they think all that well of white people either.
“Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer-winning columnist for The Washington Post, is a serious and highly sophisticated man,”
One of the seven warning signs that an article should not be taken seriously....
Yeah, words like "tolerance" and "inclusiveness" and "diversity."
Spike is a skilled film-maker. Too bad he is so angry.
I have had several Chinese-American friends confide to me that in general San Franciscans of Chinese ancestry hate blacks. Generally speaking, they think that blacks cause the most trouble on the streets and on the buses, that blacks commit more theft and violent crimes, that blacks don’t study and try hard in school but rather disrupt the classroom and interfere with everyone’s education, that blacks receive a disproportionate share of welfare and affirmative action benefits, and that blacks are more racist against Chinese than whites are.
What do you say to someone who thinks all this?
So they have a negative opinion on folks that have a culture that is generally degenerate and unacceptable to the majority of the civilized world?
How racist of them!
The Chinese —the Han—in the 1700’s thought themselves the most civilized people in the world. And maybe they were right. They have now clawed their way back to the top. Quality is as quality does.
[ It takes a lot of education to persuade people to ignore the obvious. That human beings are naturally tribal. ]
Democracy is indeed tribal.. you know Mob Rule by mobsters..
Thats why the US Constitution does NOT have the word democracy or democratic in it anywhere..
Its by design.. democracy is tribal and primitive.. even supercilious..
Amazing that Americans have been brain washed to think democracy is a good thing..
Democracy is tribal governance.. With Chiefs and wanna be Chiefs..
Some call it the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”..
But it is a dictatorship of mobsters.. sometimes with a gaggle of Mobs..
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx
There is more than one kind of tribe. Madison’s Federalist #10 reminds us that every legislature is composed of interest groups. The tribe of lawyers is the most numerous, and their only interest is in moving the levers of power. They own the courts, and the Courts now drive the legislatures, and give the bureaucrats their heads.
The article is right that Chinese don’t think very highly of Blacks, consequently they have contempt for Obama and the fact that the US elected him president.
But the thing is, Obama’s presidency has confirmed to them all their prejudices. He is exactly the weak, ineffective, and bumbling president that they expected him to be based on his skin color.
I’ve been around the barn a couple of times, and my observation is that many Americans with an African ancestry are profoundly bigoted and racist. The only group of people with a bigger racist streak are Native Americans.
You’ll never see that in print, though.
I was curious, so I did a little research. In the 2008 election, the Asian vote went 65% for Obama, with 27% voting for McCain. Not sure who the rest voted for. Maybe Jackie Chan. It turns out that 27% of all Asian Americans are of Chinese origin.
I would add a joke about how I'm liking Chinese Americans more and more all the time, but, in my experience, Japan has the more xenophobic ethnicity. My best friend, who is Vietnamese, tried to marry a Japanese girl, but her family wouldnt let him. He was gaijin, you see.
Here’s hoping that you have had the pleasure of one or two close black friends in your life to disprove the rule for you. Even better if they can’t dance and suck at basketball.
My oh my. Such huge overstatement.
They just got busted over here a couple of weeks ago stealing industrial secrets.....
Great imitators.
Indians are the same. I used to work for a Indian couple. Come to think of it, Africans are the same as well.
Logically speaking, why would one or two deliberately selected individuals disprove a general rule concerning a population of millions?
Wouldn't it take hundreds of randomly selected individuals to do that?
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