Read this before you read the rest of the take: Politics aren’t black and white, everyone is different. It’s not a matter of what side you are on, it’s a matter of how much you support said side or whether you even support a ideology to begin with. There are many people who are independent as in they are on their own side. As for the liberals, also known as progressives in Europe, I know not all liberals support the same thing, some liberals are more moderate, some show utmost support for liberalism and others are radical. As you read this, just know that I’m not lumping all liberals into a single category. I’m not a liberal, I’m politically independent but registered as libertarian.
Brief history of Asian-Americans: Asians have been arriving on the Americas since the 1700s believe it or not. The first Asians who set foot on the Americas, arrived in New Spain which is present day Mexico and eventually assimilated with the local population, intermarried and even dispersed into other Spanish controlled territories of what would one day become other Latin American countries. However, the first Asians to arrive on the US, arrived between 1850 and 1910s. The second wave arrived in the 1960s. And even now in the 21st century there are still Asian immigrants migrating to the US.
The fight for civil rights: Asian Americans have a reputation for being docile in the face of discrimination but this reputation is uncalled for. Asian-Americans have been fighting for civil rights many years prior to the official civil rights movement of the 1960s. Whether it be through labor strikes, lawsuits, boycotts etc. the Asian American community did it all to ensure that they acquired fair treatment. But the radical liberals seem to forget this, they assume that the fight for civil rights didn’t begin until the 1960s. They will usually ignore all the contributions Asian-Americans dedicated to civil rights. If you want to know about the endeavors of Japanese-Americans specifically, you can read about them here and here.
Radical Liberals labeled Asians as privileged/model minority stereotype: While most of the prejudice and discrimination show to Asian-Americans by the liberals is usually subtle. There are occasions where the radical liberals outright show their true colors. Not that long ago a hashtag was published that said “Asian prviledge”. Not surprisingly many Asian-Americans were not happy about it. The same people who claim to fight for the rights of minorities are also putting down certain groups of minorities.
Based on height? Historically, Asians were known for being the shortest of all races. And considering how tall stature is put on the pedestal based on many misconceptions which I covered here and here Asians have taken the full brunt of the ridiculous attitude known as heightism. Even nowadays that Asians have grown taller than their ancestors , Asians are still stereotyped for their shortness as if shortness is supposed to be a bad thing. Even with all these “body acceptance” movements promoted by the radical liberals, none of them vouch for people on the shorter side.
Assuming it’s “okay” to show prejudice against Asians: Whenever someone of a different race is made fun of, there’s an uproar. It goes viral on social media, makes it on the news etc. but when a Asian is on the receiving end of racial jokes, everybody laughs and nobody says anything, even the radical “anti racist” liberals take part in it. I’m sure you’ve all heard people make fun of the stereotypical Asian accent.
subtle discrimination: I’m sure you’ve all heard of the lawsuit that was taken to court a few weeks ago. A group of Asian-Americans decided to sue Harvard based on how Harvard was said to be rating Asian students lower in personality. That’s not all, google was sued by a YouTube recruiter not that long ago because it allegedly stopped hiring White and Asian men. the rumored reason being that Google only wanted to hire people who were “underrepresented” which is ironic considering that Asians are the most underrepresented race.
Radical Liberal dominated Hollywood underrepresenting Asians: I’ve criticized Hollywood before here. It can be argued that Hollywood has fallen from grace in recent years. Usually due to it’s poor quality content, political promotions and even the underrepresention of Asians. Hollywood is notorious for treating Asian actors and actresses like cannon fodder. There are occasions where Asians did manage to get on the big screen with decent roles but in recent years Asian talent has been brushed aside in exchange for other “underrepresented” groups.
Radical liberals Brush Asian-American history under the rug: Whether it be Asian-American military history, civil rights activism or other contributions, Asian-American history is usually brushed under the rug by the radical liberals. For example, why is the 442nd RCT always excluded from WWII video games, Hollywood movies and history books? Also, hyperdiffusionism is another problem that tries to steal Asian culture from Asians. In my opinion, history books need an entire chapter that talks about the 442nd RCT, MIS and the Japanese-American women in the Women’s army corps.
The attack on Asian males: Out of all the races, Asian males are the ones who receive the brunt of disrespect from the radical liberals. Asian males are often portrayed as “feminine” individuals. “Metro-sexuality” is often associated with Asian males. It’s a stereotype that has been popularized as a result of the rise of k pop and J pop culture.
Asian men are often viewed as being “oppressive” towards women as well. This is why the liberal dominated Hollywood often times depicts women overpowering swarms of Asian men. Examples: Lucy and Wolverine 2013.
Crocodile tears: Whenever an Asian person is a victim of an injustice, hardly anybody cares. For example, where was the outrage when David Dao was violently dragged off the plane? No where to be found, most people simply made memes out of it and laughed about it. Now compare to the Starbucks incident where people posted angry posts on social media, had protests and it was even called racism. Obviously what those two men went through was bad, no denying that. But one has to wonder, how many of the few people who were outraged by the United airlines incident were merely showing crocodile tears.
Asians have conservative/traditionalist values: Obviously the radical liberals aren’t going to like this. Even though radical liberals are supposedly about “tolerance”, they don’t like Asians embracing conservative/traditionalist values. There are several Asians who support the Republican Party.
Reasons why Asians are an easy target
Asian-Americans make up only a small percentage of the population: I don’t know the exact numbers but I do know that Asians are one of the lowest in population size. The fact that Asian-Americans are outnumbered, makes them an easy target for the radical liberals.
Asian-Americans are divided: Unloke other races, Asian-Americans are divided in many ways. Whether it be due to grudges based on historical events, political ideologies, competition etc. Asian-American’s don’t see each other as fellow Asian-Americans. There are Chinese-Americans who erroneously associate Japanese-Americans with those responsible for Nanking. When’s the last time you heard of Polish Americans hating on German-Americans for the invasion of Poland? I never have.
Racial clashes: There are incidents were Asian-Americans clash with other races. For example the Peter Liang case. Incidents like cause people to unfairly generalize all Asians.
Negative Asian Stereotypes
As I’ve said above, Prejudice against Asian Americans has been made socially acceptable. Whenever this is brought people try to defend it by saying “we are just joking around” or “They are all positive stereotypes” but fail to acknowledge that there are negative ones as well. Let’s not forget that stereotypes are hasty generalizations.
Stereotype 1, Bad drivers: A stupid stereotype that makes no sense at all. I’m part Asian myself and I guarantee you that I’m one of the safest drivers you’ll ever meet.
Stereotype 2, Weaklings: Another generalization, This originates from yet another generalization that all Asians only eat foods that have insufficient protein and thus are unable to build strength. All you have to do is go and meet Asians who exercise a lot and or do a lot of sports to see how erroneous this is. I know plenty of Asians who smash this stereotype. One of them is built like a tank and can pitch tank shells. There are many Asian athletes out there who’ve also smashed this stereotype, whether it be toppling giants in full contact sports, winning gold medals in the olympics and so on.
Stereotype 3, Difficult for Asian men to find a date: Despite Asian men being considered “undesirable” by beauty standards, it by no means implies that all Asian men have hard when it comes to dating. I’ve had many women show interest in me before, in fact some even fetishized me for being part Asian. Let’s not forget that one of the first male sex symbols in Hollywood was Japanese American, his name was Sessue Hayakawa.
Stereotype 4, Racists and arrogant: Much like how people like to call Whites racists, Asians are also occasionally called racists. Based on the fact that many Asians proudly embrace their culture. While it’s true there are some Asians who are legitimately racists, they do not represent every Asian. Much like how the racists of other races don’t represent said races.
Stereotype 5, Foreign until proven otherwise: Asian-Americans, even those of us born in the US are usually viewed as foreigners even though we are Americans. This stemmed from the idea that Asians are trying to “take over” the US. Keep in mind that FDR once said “Americanism is the matter of the mind and heart, Americanism is not and never was a matter of race or ancestry.”
Summary: Everything mentioned above is why Asian-Americans and liberals aren’t on the same page, even though not all liberals are hostile towards Asians. The actions of the radical liberals still hurts the relationship between Asians and liberals. This is why many Asians who were once alligned with Liberals are now in exodus from liberalism and moving towards other political ideologies like conservatism.
Other sources: http://www.kulturemedia.org
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