Who will be next?

More flags than brains in San Jose

This piece is by my partner, the self-proclaimed "Angry Asian Girl," reflecting on an anti-immigrant protest we went to counter on Saturday in San Jose.

I was angry today.  Mean, spitting, red in the face about to cry, angry. It was because of these racist, xenophobic idiots. Waving their American flags, preaching their desire to uphold fucked up laws, and smug in their belief that somehow a group of people are to blame for issues our government is clearly responsibly for.  In this case, it was an anti-immigrant group attacking undocumented migrants, but it could have been my people under attack.  It could have been targeting any group of non-white peoples.

I am from this country.  When someone today told me to go back to where I came from, I truthfully told them I was born here.  But I know that as soon as China – the country of my ancestors - does something to threaten the United States, I could start calling an internment camp my home.  I could have to register myself with all the other Chinese.  The Japanese were in interment camps in WWII (not the German immigrants).  The Arabs had to go to special registration.  It is unfortunately an all too real possibility.

Do you remember the spy plane incident?  The U.S. was spying on China, its plane went down, and China kept it a little too long, though they released the crew right away (you know the U.S. wouldn’t have done the same).  Immediately after that, outbreaks of racist attacks against Chinese occurred all over Middle America.  It is because of the threat of detention without cause, the threat of being perceived as smart and untrustworthy, crafty and cunning, that I protested against these racists today.  The fact they have no sense of humanity and are xenophobic morons doesn’t hurt either.

I know when I see them that I am looking into the face of my future oppressor.  These same people first hated the Arabs when they were the trendy group to hate, and now hate Latin@s because that is what is in these days. These people probably blame blacks for high crime rates. These people will hate me when China does something against the interests of the U.S. 

I am not Chinese enough to be even accepted by my own people.  I am a self-acknowledged Twinkie (white on the inside, yellow on the outside) that doesn’t speak the language and learned more about the culture from my white mom.  My Chinese-American dad instead taught me about the Chinese Exclusion Act and how our family got into this country “illegally” as paper sons.  But I look Chinese enough to be untrustworthy.  I look Chinese enough to be interned, to be registered, to be perceived as a threat. 

We as people of color and white anti-racists have got to stand up for our Arab brothers and Latina sisters.  They may be in the hot seat now, but you know it could be me - or you - that suffers the outrage of being blamed for something we are not even slightly responsible for.  Except for the indigenous, we are all descendents of immigrants or colonizers.

Comments

[Josh]

Right on sister!

[frak]

This is one the most paranoid, racist rants I've ever read. The anti-American,anti-white racism displayed is enough to completely justify and explain any heat the writer claims to get. The writer is also terrible uninformed when it comes to history. It's also very funny that this writer implies that Asian countries are more compassionate than America. Asian countries are responsible for some of the most brutal, inhuman and unspeakable horrors in history.

She writes that when she sees WHITE people, she is looking into the face of her future oppressors....THIS PERSON NEEDS SOME DEEP THERAPY AND TO ALSO BE CHARGED WITH A HATE CRIME.
MY question is..With an article like this...Why would any American who loves this country (and who doesn't suffer from mental disorder) want more people like that here?

[scott]

"Why would any American who loves this country (and who doesn't suffer from mental disorder) want more people like that here?"

Which part of "I was born here" in her piece do you not understanding. Let me guess, frak (or Dan?), you're a white man aren't you? And since you're white and she's only "half-white", you're "from here" and she's not? Dumb bastard.

So reflecting on white people who target Latinos (not white people in general, captain comprehension) and placing that within the larger historical context of US racial profiling, constitutes a hate crime? Do you not believe that the Japanese were interned? I mean, even Michelle Malkin admits to that.

What mental disorder do you suffer from - beyond being racist slime?

[Voice1]

awesome piece on the counter protest. and i gotta say...it's glaringly obvious to anyone who knows "Angry Asian Girl," or anyone with a head on their shoulders, that "anti-white racism" is about as far from her mind as anything.

oh, and another thing to point out to all you hitler wannabes out there..."anti-white racism" doesn't exist in this country. let's break it down a little. "racism" is a social (commercial, economic, educational, etc.) system set up whereby one group (in the US, it's the whites) wields undue power over the others (in the US, anyone of color), and is thus in a position to manipulate, exploit, oppress, repress the other groups. the most important characteristic of racism is POWER. for example, a black person cannot be racist in the US, because their race affords them no advantages, no undue power, no ability to manipulate, exploit, or repress other less powerful groups. a black person in the US can be hateful, prejudiced, any number of things, but NOT racist. only white people can be racist in this country, because white people are the only ones whose race gives them so much power.

'nuff said.

[adwred]

Awesome piece Angry Asian Girl - really beautiful and true. Take heart immigrants and those in solidarity have been in the streets and organizing everywhere.

[drydock]

While I generally agree the people in the photo are mostly likley a bunch of knuckle dragging racists let me deal with some of the rhetoric put out by leftists.

Firstly, immigrants legal or not, by huge numbers carried the American flag at recent protests. While I personally reject flag-waving, immigrants clearly don't see themselves as a bunch of victims the left patronizingly makes them out as.

Second, the old canard "only white can be racists".
Okay I know you all took ethnic studies 101 at New College, but let me inform you-- you're upper middle class professors are full of shit.

When a landlord of color evicts someone, when street thugs of color beat someone up, when Oakland's black superintendent tries to privatize the local education sytem these are all acts of power.

And Have you heard of Indian-American D'Souza? Well, he's an anti-black racist. He actually has power and affecs people's lives.

[Pat Buchanan]

what racist bs. I can't believe people here are so supportive of the author's anti-white racist horses*&t. Note, you need a non-PC history lesson, becuase at least half of ww2 interment prisoners were either Italian/German immigrants and/or American of Italian/German descent. Joe Dimaggio's parent couldn't visit their son's resturant becuase they were born in Italy. Opposition of illegal immigration is NOT Racism.

[scott]

I approved this useless comment simply so that I could rebut it.

The ludicrous claims that this is "anti-white" have already been dealt with here. Needless to say, as the author does not "essentialize" white people or whiteness, this piece can't be classified as "anti-white." In fact, the scumbag at the rally that told her to go back to where she came from was black.

Aside from that, looks like "Pat Buchanan" is about as factually accurate as his namesake. For your information, half of the internees during WWII were not German or Italian.

Hundreds of Italians were arrested in the months immediately after Pearl Harbor. By June of 1942, the total reached 1,521 Italian aliens arrested by the FBI. [21] About 250 individuals were interned for up to two years in military camps in Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. (Source)

and

Under the still active Alien Enemy Act of 1798, the United States government interned nearly 11,000 German Americans between 1940 and 1948. (Source)

So that would be 11,250 interned German and Italian Americans. Whereas:

Japanese American Internment was the forced removal of approximately 120,000[1] Japanese and Japanese Americans (62 percent of whom were United States citizens)[2][3] from the West Coast of the United States during World War II. While approximately 10,000 were able to relocate to other parts of the country, the remainder – roughly 110,000 men, women and children – were sent to hastily constructed camps called "War Relocation Centers" in remote portions of the nation's interior. (Source)

110,000 is not equal to 11,250 - just in case you weren't clear about that.

Anecdotally, my grandfather was a first-generation German American during WWII and had a difficult time finding employment given the anti-German sentiment. That didn't stop him from being anti-fascist and anti-racist. And it doesn't compare to being interned.

If anything, such experiences show the malleability and absurdity of "whiteness" - as well the real benefits that Italians and Germans enjoyed by being classified as white.