This is so damn true

I immigrated to the US from Asia after completing graduate school here. I was not socialized to be meek and compliant and always give all the credits of my hard work away. Boy did the backlash come. And that was in Uber liberal San Francisco among the card carrying woke activists. You know, those who wrote books, speak at conferences and style themselves as progressive thought leaders.

Repeatedly in meetings, when I pointed out the pitfalls of a proposed course if action, before I could even get to some solutions and alternatives, I would be cut off and topic changed. Some time, a white guy would make the same point literally 10 minutes later and everyone will listen with rapt attention and call him a hero. Other times, the shit that I foresaw happened, I get blamed for it, and guess who then fixed it and everyone took that for granted.

There are two things that sadden me as I adjust to the realities of living in this country.

One, often times, other Asians don’t come to each other’s defense. It’s almost as if they are afraid they’ll be identified as Asian if they stick up for other Asians. After reading this article, I understand it more. Asians born here are trying to hold on to their barb wired blanket. I used to prioritize talking to other Asians when there were networking events. Then I learned from them that it’s a bad idea because it makes us less desirable as networking contacts for others in the room. Since I speak English with an accent I don’t even have access to that barb wired blanket and I honestly can’t say I want it. It seems designed to make and keep Asian meek, compliant, and willing to give the credits of our hard work away.

Second, African Americans do not see Asians as allies. I had previously assumed since both had to endure different forms of racism, we are natural allies. But I know now that many see me as “white adjacent" and will dismiss me out of hand. I used to go to anti-racist meetings and talked about building coalition across all racial lines and the goal of equality for everyone. I was labeled a racist because I did not toe the line that black voices trumps other minority voices and black agenda trumps other agenda. Isn’t the idea that one entire group of people is less deserving of attention than another entire group of people based only on the color of their skin the very definition of racism?

More importantly, if you only want equality for one group then you are not against inequality. You merely want to become part of the ruling and exploiting class.

So I’ve come to realize that the idea that one is more of a victim than others is the mirror image of the barb wire blanket of lesser victimhood. The both function to preserve inequality and exploitation, first by making us compliant and second by making sure even if one group manages to make the ascend, they will studiously work to preserve the same structure.