May I Take Your Picture?

There is something about this week that has brought my asian-ness into light. I'm not sure what it is. I haven't rolled into the office wearing anything super FOB-y (like socks with flip flops, blouses with sweatpants… or anything my mom wears to the grocery store). I haven't been walking around with a camera attached to my hands asking to take everyone's picture. Christ - I haven't even brought in Korean food for lunch! What is with this week?

It started off with me receiving an e-mail from my boss asking me if I'd be interested in attending a particular event as a representative of my company. It is a recruitment event taking place at my alma mater (and incidentally - it's where I am currently going to grad school… does that make it not my alma mater anymore?). He started off the e-mail saying that he knew I was a past student of that University so thought perhaps I'd be interested in talking to some students about my experience at my current place of employment.

Okay, no big deal. It makes sense - I went there and I can still connect with today's youth. I'm hip.

As I scrolled through the e-mail, I saw this:


Hhhmm… I hate to be the girl who cried, "Wolf!" or in my case, "Asian Girl!" but COME ON! A diversity event? An Asian woman holding a globe? There are 2 other individuals in my group that I'm thinking were not presented with this offer. Regardless, I wasn't offended. I found it to be hilarious and I actually accepted the offer. I'm happy to reach out to my people and let them know, that even though we're minorities, white people will always feel like they have to hire us… you know, so they look "diverse".

As I was coming down from my laughter of that incident, I had another one yesterday. Another manager (okay, more like supervisor) and I were chatting about cooking. This person is taking an interesting cooking course that I'd like to sign up for whenever I get the opportunity.

This person is now learning to make sushi. Vegetarian Sushi. Very cool. I mentioned that I really wanted to take the class in the summer and this person actually said, "Oh - well maybe you'll have a better time understanding the teacher than I do."

Hmm… okay.

"She's Japanese. The accents are like Korean ones, right? She just speaks so fast."

I'm not sure what expression I was making. I was in shock. Really? Didn't you take a DIVERSITY TRAINING CLASS? This is the same person that reprimanded me for accusing a co-worker of being a homophobe. Yes yes… it was a bad move on my part to say it. I know that now! But you'd think that the person who's very PC wouldn't say things like "Koreans and Japanese are the same, aren't they?" to me.

Oy. Next thing you know, one of my ex's fathers will pop up out of the blue and tell me I look like Ann Curry again.

My 2 Cents

Okay, so The Mr called me this morning and was all, "Did you read Smack's response to a commenter?!" and I was all, "what are you talking about?" so I had to check it out for myself.

First, if you don't read Smack's blog, you really should. She's hilarious and I like to live out my make-believe NYC life through her.

So, I went back to her blog to see who was stirring up trouble and came across a very long comment exchange. You can read it all here.

I'm not going to comment on the fact that this guy is making a lot of assumptions and just seems like an overall turd because eh, that's not what made me mad and I think Smack's response was fabulous. I'm usually more of the, "Oh yeah? You're a stupid fat head!" responder.

What really made me mad was this statement:
You’re beautiful and white and, from the looks of it, have had the good luck to have been one of the astronomically small proportion of people born in a prosperous western nation.

Yes, she's beautiful and white. So what? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this guy is a minority. Actually, based on his statement of "As an illegal immigrant, sometimes itinerant, and former ballet dancer, I know where your coming from"... I know he's a minority. And these, my friends, are the types of people I loathe. (note - I copied and pasted his statement. I know how to properly use your and you're... and I don't even have the strength to comment about the being an 'illegal immigrant').

I am a minority. I am fully aware of my ethnicity/race everywhere I go. Regardless of what anyone says, nobody is color blind. I know when I'm the only one with a hint of color anywhere I go. Its who I am.

What I don't do is sit around and feel put upon because I happen to be a minority. Yes, I may have to work a little harder to get promoted or seen (but that's an entirely different story and I think its more to do with the fact that I'm a woman) or to restrain my anger when other people think its appropriate to make jokes about accents and mannerisms of my culture. But I don't sit here and think that all white people have it easy and therefore couldn't possibly have anything to complain about. That's crap.

I had a flashback to a contractor I worked with recently who actually said, "That's why when white people aren't successful, I say its their own fucking fault. They've had everything handed to them on a silver platter." At that moment, I was embarrassed to be a minority. Its this thought process that keeps a divide between races. Its this thought process that doesn't help this nation, this WORLD, to progress forward. And it doesn't just lay with color. I see it all the time with sexual orientation and it really gets my panties in a bunch.

So after reading the "put upon minority"s comment to Smack, I wanted to track him down, kick him in the balls and tell him to SHUT THE FUCK UP because its people like him that make it harder for people like me. People like me who believe that we're all capable of CHANGE, of moving forward, of progressing. Because without this hope, what the fuck is the point of doing anything?

Stupid turd!