I was at the bank today when a woman barged through the doors wailing. Be it that I live in a Chinese bubble, everyone in the bank, the tellers, managers, customers, were all Chinese [American]. The woman had apparently withdrawn 2300 dollars in cash from Chase bank and wanted to transfer it to another bank. She left the vicinity and returned thereafter because the teller at the other bank claimed that the bills in her hands were counterfeit. The woman was frantic and threatening the teller at Chase that she'd call the police. The teller, oblivious to the woman in front of her, continued with her work and pointed her towards the manager. The customers on the line, including myself, were shaken. How can a big brand name bank give out fake bills? The woman approached the bank manager, and was ignored. The manager continued with her phone call and did not move from her seat even after she had hung up, completely ignoring the woman waiting in front of her desk. The woman began to scream, yelling injustices in two Chinese dialects. Go ahead, call the cops, the manager said, not once raising her voice.

I was appalled and stared at the scenario before leaving the bank. I forget sometimes how different things function in Brooklyn, compared to the comfortable Upper West Side (Manhattan) services that I've grown to spoil myself with while away at school. I obviously do not know the whole story, and my portrayal of the events may or may not have been accurate, but it reminds me of how differently we treat one another because of our shared heritage, or lack thereof. In this case, it seems in my neighborhood at least, Asians treat "Americans" much more respectfully than their fellow Asians. In restaurants, banks, bookstores, and all kinds of shops, I've witness the odd tendencies and injustices that Asians commit against one another. The bank manager knew the customer could not speak English, and regardless of her incessant threats that she'll dial 911, we all know the woman would not have been able to communicate her woes to the operator. The manager was right that nothing can be done about the bills. The woman had left the bank and no one knew if she could have swapped the fifties before returning. However, the complete lack of professionalism the manager displayed makes my head drop in agony. Had this woman been an "American," would the manager have acted differently? Had this woman known English, would the manager at least have the decency to glance at the complaint. Why is it that when Asian Americans provide service to fellow Asian(s) [Americans], we observe such a discrepancy? Why do we kiss-ass whites while downplaying others?

I've always hated it when people tell me that Asian Americans lack the unity that is necessary for a movement. I resented it because a part of me knew it was true. Behind the model minority myths, and the stereotypes, we're so torn between those [Asian Americans] who believe that we can rise in American society as we are now, and others who realize that we need the political empowerment to justify our existence as just Americans. While we do boast high percentages of our population in professional careers, (e.g, doctors, lawyers, etc), I feel we are a long way from social progress in that sense. While many professionals acknowledge, embrace, and attributes parts of their success their backgrounds, many do not.

Recently, I've also become quite angry about the 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' casting issue. Many have called us racists for opposing an all white cast when the producers and the director have stated repeatedly that they only picked the best persons for the job. However, they fail to see the real issue. There are so many talented Asian American actors out there, and rarely do we see an opportunity open up for them on the big screen. Most of the scripts written in Hollywood do not call for an Asian lead, but I feel Avatar had that potential. The discussion then becomes an argument over whether the main protagonist of the series was indeed Asian. Many feel because of the ambiguity of anime, the characters can be anything. Well then, my argument still holds. Never can an ethnic minority play a white man's role, so when an ambiguous role comes along, why won't you give the Asian man a chance?

Well in the end, the movie was a flop and I'm quite tired from bickering with people on these forums. Why are we targeting a single movie? Why do we not put more Asian Americans in power in the movie industry to increase our own representation?... But as it turns out, Asian Americans hold a good number of seats in the industry.

Quoting from Hollywood and Asians: Do we really need more Asian Americans In Positions of Power?:
"We're our own worst enemies....We're taught to assimilate, to not make waves, to be followers. Maybe once we're allowed into that exclusive club, we wait to fit in so badly that we don't want to give the impression that we're favoring "our own," sometimes to the point of going in the opposite direction and making an effort to reject our community."

Maybe I'm going too far with this, but it does set up for quite a bit of discussion.

Oh, the Grand Old Party. They have provided me with so many great hours of pure entertainment. Recently, they have launched a new site titled 'America's Speaking Out' intended to 'connect' the public with congress so that the national law makers can understand what America truly wants. Obviously, the republicans have no concept of internet trolls and forum gunners. The website has been getting tens of thousands of views within hours, showing us that America is definitely speaking out. So what do Americans really want?

Dear Readers,

The questions are as follows:

1. Name

2. Plans after graduation

3. Favorite hang out spot(s) on campus

4. Things you wish you knew earlier in your college career

5. If you had the power, how would you remedy the current oil 'spill'?

6. Additional comments

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say a quick shout-out about an event that's coming up: an Asian American Health Disparities Panel! Hosted by AAA, the event's happening next Friday, the 12th, at 7:30pm in the Satow Room in Lerner! As posted on the Facebook event page (linked here):

Health disparities are NEVER on the Asian American agenda, even though the average American household spends over 15% of its income on health care.

We will grow to comprise over 5% of the American population in the upcoming years and yet the Asian American voice is one of the most neglected minority voices in the United States. Health disparities are a hush-hush topic that households try to avoid, and the lack of sufficient national research studies done to support the present Asian American population is a cause for concern. Our main goal with the panel is to try to stir that sentiment, that voice!, to hope and encourage more studies done in this field.

The panelists include Ms. Alexandra Belcher, Dr. Ming-Der Chang, Dr. Shobha Krishnan, Dr. Dennis Yi-Shin Kuo, and Director Rebecca Sze.

Everyone on the board is really excited about this: we'll be exploring issues like cervical cancer and Hep-B rates, mental health, health care access, and stereotypes that may perpetuate these issues. Come on over, and bring your friends! This should be very interesting.

=) Annie

Hey, loyal readers of the blog! I know I'm late (two weeks late now, to be precise) to call out the New Year, but just wanted to say that as a new semester approaches, we at the BLAAAG and on the Asian American Alliance surely want to wish you all a good year! We will be quite busy, and with a whole lot of resolutions for 2010 (blogging more, anyone?). We will be getting ready for ECAASU soon, holding different panels such as an Asian American Health Disparities panel, holding our second Crossroads conference for Asian American high-schoolers, and much more! And I'm back from Hong Kong, ready to start a fresh semester at Columbia, as will other contributors to the site. Keep it moving! (And soon, we'll be able to say Happy New Year once again: the Lunar New Year, that is! It falls on Valentine's Day this year.)

Hey, this is Annie from all the way from Hong Kong. Yes, I am abroad, as a former AAA member asked my good friend and Barnard VP for AAA, Ai-Lin today. But wanted to bring forth an article that hit the front page of the NYTimes Page today. This has been happening for years: Mandarin is eclipsing Cantonese as the dominant spoken language in Chinatown! An influx in the Mandarin-speaking population as well as an increasing interest in learning the Mandarin language have shifted demographics. Cantonese, for those who are unfamiliar with Chinese languages, is a dialect of Souther China; Mandarin is the official language of China, and the two are quite different dialects. While the written characters are the same for the most part, the dialects are such that a Cantonese speaker may not understand a Mandarin speaker, and vice versa. In addition, many of those in Chinatown are Taishan speakers: Taishan is a dialect of Cantonese which Cantonese speakers may not understand!

Now why am I concerned? Part of it is a personal reason; Chinatown is where I was born and raised, and still consider home today. I've grown up using my broken Cantonese/Taishanese to buy groceries, wander around, talk to my parents, etc. Put in context, my parents are Taishanese, and speak Cantonese. My mother speaks a bit of Mandarin, while I believe my dad does not understand it at all. As the article mentions, historically it was Cantonese speakers who immigrated to this country and made lives here. Chinatown, especially, is a place where one can make friends, connections, a living, and generally have all you need-- without learning another language. We've seen problems at the voting polls because of language barriers and limited resources (side note: you all should consider helping AALDEF on Election Day with its Poll Voting Survey! more information is linked). This already underrepresented group (albeit increasing in awareness and political clout) is beginning to be alienated from its home, Chinatown!

And it's not just a problem in Chinatown; this has worldwide implications for whole groups of people who've lived their lives with only one language. In Hong Kong already, there are schooling shifts to teaching Mandarin and English, as Cantonese is not as widely used, primarily only used in Southern China. (The Chinese dept. at the University of Hong Kong, on a side note, only teaches beginning Cantonese to exchange students, while Mandarin is available through an intermediate level). Now I am not saying demographic shifts or the teaching of different languages are a bad thing; Chinatown was once a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and I understand completely the role of cultural diffusion. What I am saying is that something needs to be done to make sure these communities are not alienated and eventually endangered or exploited. This is especially applicable to the Asian-American community, which has such a diverse number of languages. I understand it may be inevitable that Chinatown shifts in languages as more Mandarin speakers arrive in America, but yeah, I'll be helping my dad translate throughout. I just hope that if and when Chinatown and other places like it change, as is inevitable, that others will be helping those like my dad, my fellow Chinatown-ers and those beyond its limits.

Hi,

As a PhD student in counseling psychology at Columbia University, I am currently working on my dissertation regarding the Asian American experience with racial microaggression (a contemporary form of racism). I was wondering if it would be possible to send out the survey link/following email through your listserv/blog or post it on your website?

Survey link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ejZ2mHdOih8PuAUYMz5yoA_3d_3d

Thanks for helping to further research on racism against Asian Americans!

Annie

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Asian American participant,

As a PhD student in counseling psychology, I am currently recruiting Asian American participants for a study on experience with racial microaggression. The data collected will assist researchers and educators in understanding how Asian Americans experience modern forms of racial discrimination.

Your participation is completely voluntary and confidential. There is minimal to no physical or psychological risk involved in this study. The survey should take about 20 minutes.

Survey link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ejZ2mHdOih8PuAUYMz5yoA_3d_3d

Please forward this survey link to as many of your Asian American friends/family/colleagues/listservs as you can and ask them to forward this on.
If you have any questions about the survey/research, feel free to email me at ail2103@columbia.edu.

Thanks in advance!

Annie

I am utterly stunned and captured by Varun Gulati's (SEAS '10) response to a column posted in the Spec by Rajat Roy. In his column, Roy makes some strong criticisms regarding the existence of "cultural" groups on Columbia's campus, and how they can sometimes be too insular to merit their funding.

Race was, is, and always will be a divisive issue on this campus. However, we have created a new word that doesn’t spark as much controversy but means essentially the same thing to the layman (and yes, even though we are Columbia students, we, for the most part, are still laymen). This word has some truly nefarious implications, and at Columbia, we have seen how big an issue it can be.

This word is—“Culture.”

I am not joking. “Culture” is causing more harm than good at Columbia. Let me clarify—culture in and of itself is inherently good. Every person needs to be cultured and be exposed to other cultures. However, Columbia does “Culture” in a way that only hurts the overall community. It wouldn’t cost that much in terms of man-hours or money to rectify this situation. In fact, changing this could increase the amount of money available to all students.

And Gulati puts him into perspective.

From the explicit identification as “cultural” within each constitution, cultural groups under the Activities Board at Columbia received only 4.4 percent of student life fees for clubs, the equivalent of less than $7 from each undergraduate. Especially in recent years, these groups have made extraordinary efforts to create collaborative programs and outreach to the entire Columbia community with little funding, contrary to the insinuation that an organization’s “worth” is entirely dependent on its funding.

Through five major cultural showcases in the 2008-2009 academic year, nearly 3,000 students, families, professors, administrators, and New Yorkers were given a glimpse into the communities that make up the diverse cultural fabric of Columbia University. The real problem here is not the lack of open cultural events, but the unawareness and apathy towards these hundreds of events. Ultimately, this causes the perpetuation of repulsively ignorant statements, including “’Culture’ is really a definition of insularism where people of the same group can meet and hook up.”

Bigoted generalizations such as these inappropriately dismiss the genuine interest of the thousands of students who engage in events thrown by the cultural organizations, none of which are exclusive in membership or attendance. To label these groups’ funding needs as unworthy or their intentions as incestuous is oppressive and insensitive. [emphasis mine]

Though Roy does give examples of "cultural" groups that, in his view, make good use of their funding allocations, I can't view as legitimate the argument that "insular" groups don't deserve their funding. What kind of campus culture would we have if we could only experience the "cultures" of those who could successfully market and sell them to their peers? Shouldn't we also value the groups whose priority is to support constituencies that experience a lack of resources or representation?