I have a feeling that most people are going to laugh at this, but I don't care.

I experienced an incredibly traumatic event a few years ago that I still can't get over. I was in class in an Ivy League university when a black female student made an incredibly discriminatory remark about Asian victims in black neighborhoods. When another Asian student defended himself, he was immediately thrown out of class and marked as a racist. I also defended myself by writing the teacher an angry email. They threatened to expel me for that.

I tried to take action. I reported the incident to the media. Newspaper editors laughed at me, and one of them even said, "I have trouble believing you because it's impossible for so many white and black people to be that cruel". Other editors just ignored me. Yet, these same newspapers had published articles talking about discrimination against blacks, Jews and other minorities. Asians were completely ignored.

Then I read this:
-live urls are not allowed in your usergroup-

This has been an ongoing series of traumas throughout my life. Even in public school, black students would frequently pick fights with me (solely because I was Asian) and when I defended myself, I was always regarded as the aggressor. And even after having worked so hard to get into a great college, this black girl continued to harass me because of my ethnicity. It's like it's not bad enough Asians have to face so much racism in low-income neighborhoods; she was making light of it. And on top of that, I nearly got expelled for defending myself, which would have ruined my life. None of the white and black students who saw the fight even understood why Asians would be so angry. These same students are probably hanging out at bars and bullsh*tting with their friends without any understanding of the harm they caused to me and my entire ethnic group. They probably don't even remember me.

I know it happened years ago and I should be over it by now, but I'm not going to lie to myself. I'm not over it and I never will be. I have been working so hard to get into a position of power where I can actually do something against these horrible people, but it feels like no matter how hard I work, I'm not getting into a position of power.

I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. Maybe I just want other Asians to know that whites are not the most discriminatory people out there. More so, I'd like to know how other Asians cope with it. I can barely get a night's sleep without waking up and obsessing over how I nearly got expelled for being a victim.

Hey, it's not a laughing matter...so I'm not going to laugh at you. Anyways, I'm really sorry that you have to go through such an experience. To be honest, I'm really shocked when I read this post.....However, I think your thoughts are a little bit narrowed after a misfortune chain events of discrimination....what I can advice is that maybe you should not focus too much on how these people have discriminated Asians, but reflect on how you have handled the situation. Maybe you could handled the situation differently so that people don't view you as an aggressor in this issue.

Go to one of the Asian student associations of campus and tell them to raise a fuss about the whole deal. Better yet, take your story to an Asian run newspaper. They probably expect an Asian to crawl away in silence if they ignore you so show'em how much hell you can raise.

You are being incredibly vague so no one can give you an honest answer

1. What exactly did she say?
2. How did the first asian guy respond?
3. What did you write in your email?

Actually, I just realized a link in my first post doesn't work. If you want to find the article I was referring to, it is called "Black Racism" and it's written by Ying Ma. I and many Asians have had the exact same experiences that she had.

To answer the second responder's question, it did not occur to me to take it to an Asian student group to raise hell. Even if it did occur to me, I was not in a position to do so because the dean asked me to drop the situation or I would get expelled.

Also, I did try to raise hell because in later classes, I would actively promote discrimination against both blacks and whites. Ironic that they also tried to expel me for this too, when I was just giving them a taste of their own medicine.

A lot of people would tell me that two wrongs don't make a right or that I should use civil protest, but I completely disagree. There are times when you have to be brutal.

Watcher:

1. This was in a film school. The black student wrote a script for a movie in which some black kids robbed an Asian lady. She was treating it as a joke and looked like she was having a good time doing it. She even smirked at me.

2. The first Asian guy called her a negro. A lot of people are going to say that's not right, but considering my experience with black people, I say it was totally justified. Also, the white students immediately ganged up on him and had no understanding of why we were angry.

So you are in film school and a black student wrote a script in which a group of black kids robbed an asian woman and you too offense to that? Maybe there is something I am not understanding/getting. If anything she is making the black kids look bad since they are, well, thieves. Did she say "chink" or "gook" or anything like that? Why did you have such a strong reaction?

Now the first student resorted to name calling or at least tried to denigrate her based on her race. Big no no, especially in a school setting.

What did you say in your email?

I took offense because the black student was making fun of Asian people who were getting robbed in black neighborhoods. In fact, when questioned about this, she responded, "Well, it's pretty much true. And I do live in an African American neighborhood." She said this with a smile as though it was no big deal. How does she know that I or other Asians in the class don't know someone who was robbed by blacks? This is why I was and still am very angry.

The first student was merely giving her a taste of her own medicine. When I later wrote scripts discriminating against blacks, I too received extreme hatred. They did not exhibit such hatred towards the black student for discriminating against me.

I can't tell you exactly what I wrote to her in the email because I don't remember exactly, but it was not nice.

I suppose what makes this even more troubling is the fact that whenever I try to defend myself against blacks, even if I do it civilly, I am regarded as a racist. I have received death threats from people who were not even black just for trying peacefully to say that blacks are very hateful towards Asians. I am having trouble coping with how perverse it all is -- to receive death threats for peaceful self-defense.

If the dean asked you to just forget the whole thing then I'd contact the Asian American Justice Center in Washington D.C. You have rights.

I don't know Technoknight. You said she lived in a black and I assume poorer neighbourhood so she wrote about what she knows. And in black neighbourhood most of the thieves (as well as teh victims) are, well, black. And thieves usually pick the easiest target and in her script it was a asian woman. Was she praising or glorifying the thieves as some type of Robin Hood type characters? Was the asian woman painted as a "nefarious character"? I still don't get it. And I don't see how she was discriminating against you either

You on the other hand wrote scripts with the express purpose of denigrating blacks. Sounds like 2 different situations

As far as "peaceful self defence", just what were you defending yourself from? Someone else's homework?

Thanks, xiaolongbao. I did not know they existed. Hopefully, they still care because this incident happened a long time ago.



She was not praising them, but was treating the whole thing like a joke. As I said before, had I done the same thing to a black student, the class would have hollered death threats at me. Also, the teacher said at the beginning of class, "Do not use stereotypes." Then she allows this to happen? That's just plain disgusting if you ask me.

I'm talking about defense in general. Black people regularly walk up to Asians and start fights for no reason other than the fact that we look different. Like I said, whenever I point this out, I am suddenly regarded as "evil" and stormed with threats of violence. You would think I'm exaggerating; I wish I was.

Unless you are holding back something I still don't understand the anger on your part. Was there any negative stereotyping? So far from what you have told us there hasn't been any except for her portraying young black kids as thieves. Sounds to me like yo might have over reacted based on previous bad experiences with this individual

Now I don't know where you live but I think that you are exaggerating when you say black people regularly walk up to asians and start fights for no reason. Where does this happen? I think this would have been all over the news.

I've read the whole entire thing. I myself don't understand why you're taking it so definsively.

So what if people make fun of others, it happens every single day. Face reality, people have been thru alot worse. You are just blowing this out of proportion.

Lets face it, you're in a Ivy Leage College, prestige and gotta keep their reputation, of course they'll dismiss it. Simple logic. Racism happens every single day.

To me, that was a small little joke/prank(don't even know what the joke is). After all we readers still don't know exactly how they made fun of asians. Yes they stole from an asian lady. And? It's definitely not something new. Was the girl trying to portray the asian lady in a too sterotypical role that's not the least bit true? It's a script, it's not real. They do that with blacks/whites/hispanics/etc too on the media. This was just a script, it's not on the media.

Have you seen the movie American History X? There's a huge example.

You're too angry to try to let others know exactly what happened. Calm down. Write and explain. Don't let anger cloud you.

I don't live in a place where African Americans will go up and start fights with asians at all, mostly all the AAs are nice, unless provoked. It just sounds a bit weird.

You should be scared of death threats, take it up to the dean, DROP the racism that happened in class but do let him/her know about the threats. Either that, take it to the police, but Id still let it go, as you said, it's been a long time. Why would you chose to live your life in anger?

The problem with what you're saying is that Asians are discriminated against way out of proportion compared to other people. Whereas other people have both positive and negative portrayals, we're constantly thought of as foreigners and weaklings. From my experience, Asians are actually very strong, except for the fact that we do not have a presence in the media.

I guess if you're not angry, you're not angry. That's your stand. But my stand is that I won't tolerate BS, from blacks or otherwise. Again, I referred everyone to the article on black racism by Ying Ma. Her experiences are almost identical to mine.

There are two types of tolerence, one is to let it go and not let it phase nor affect you.
2 is to be just as bad as they are.

Who lives a better life? You want traumatic? Try 18 yrs straight of racist comments and people trying to jump you and you're a girl. My bf tells me to not go to these threads about racism, cuz it brings up alot of pain.

Don't put words in my mouth that asians are more discriminated, I know better than that. I doubt you've ever been discriminated by your own race.

Your preception is too skewed. Asians in the media are alot better than the old days, where have you been? You're constantly looking at things to reinforce your negative thinking. So what, people from Germany, Russia, France are all weaklings too along with us Asians? wow...aren't they stupid? Least you know better. You know there isn't any way to change others preception. They'll just think you're stupid for saying something they dont' agree with. This happens every day even if it's not about race, but inequality with males and females, the poor and the rich, etc...

What happened to the asian sterotype that we're all smart? There's a positive. Asians have a lot of style as well. Isn't that positive as well? What happened to the all asians know martial arts? Means we can defend ourselves no? How's that weak? Even though none of these are completely true, sterotypes are reinforced in the media and people stupidly trust the media. Lots of people do Envy asians. I'm looked at by a friend of mine that I'm absolutely smarter than her and alot of other people. I'm not as smart as she preceives, she doesn't want to hear the truth even if I tell her. She says I'm lying or messing around with her. So okay, I'll leave it as that.

Asians in the media, given some do show the poor side and it's true, but alot of asians are shown being better off then alot of others. There's another positive.

People aren't showing that they know it, because they don't want to admit it that someone else is better than them. I'm not saying either one of us are better then the other. It's a pride thing. Get over it, life would be so much better if people were not battling for dominance constantly. The younger you are, the better you show sterotypes, the older you are you don't want to be challenged and by the time you're so much older, those sterotypes are just about concrete.

If the joke was soley on the asian lady being robbed, it's because she's female. She's automatically deemed to be weak. What female isn't? If it was a male, he probably wouldn't have been so much easier to be made fun of in the script. Not to mention, not knowing english is even much worse.

If someone punches me in the face and I punch him back, I'm not as bad as him. The same thing applies to when blacks/hispanics start with me.

I've gone through many more years of discrimination, and I probably had similar experiences to you. I know that these subjects bring up pain, but would you rather walk away from it, or would you rather do something about it?

I don't recall putting words in your mouth. I merely said you do not sound angry, and you have every right to feel that way. I however, am trying to damage people who deserve to be harmed, which is the only way we will ever be thought of as equal in this country. I just have trouble coping with this constant rage I feel.

Brush it aside.
Seriously, racism will continue to exist as long as everyone is still different.
You cant stop it, a person will believe in what they wish to believe in.

i agree that racism is a horrible situation, but really what can you do?

so forget it.

Right, but like I said, it's disproportionately meted out against Asians. And I can do something about it. I am trying to gain power in the film industry so that I can portray us more positively and harm people who harm us. Two wrongs do make a right as far as I'm concerned.

No offense, but your approach seems like giving up. There is something other Asians can do to defend themselves -- become a journalist, get into movies, get into politics. I'm sorry, but if you're not defending yourself, you are partly responsible for your own pain.

First, hitting someone back is being as bad as him. Be wiser and smarter to cope with these situations. And, what's worse, you're getting in troubles as you keep doing that. Don't be surprised then.

Second, you're going nowhere if you wan to fight agaist racism with ANGER and VIOLENCE. Racism is already violence.

Third, I think that you should move on. You're mad at something you can't control, and it makes you feel angry, maybe later cynical (if it's not already the case). What's good about keeping that state of mind? Does it make Black people feel concerned or question their attitude? No. You almost have been expelled from your university.

I'm not American, I don't know what's going on there, but I guess discrimination about Asians is something also linked to American history...I mean by that that Whites and Blacks have been in America much earlier than Asians (I don't mean Native Americans), and have had many tough ethnic and racist issues such as slavery, etc. So racism against Blacks is more shocking in Americans' minds...I'm not justifying anything nor anyone, I'm just saying what it looks like for me, this discrimation thing in the US. Therefore discrimantion agaisnt Asians is "new" (in the country). So people don't react as much as discrimination against Blacks.
So what should you do? Calm down, and then go to an Asian association to make things slowly change, without being aggressive and mad. And then, people may look at you differently, maybe believe you and side with you.
Here, in European countries, I think it's different (at least in my country). Discrimination and racism are still here, like everywhere, but there's not such "hatred" where I live. Inmigrants here arrived almost all at the same time...so they all are discriminated. More and less, the less White they look, the more racists remarks they get.

Peace.