Cheung is a fourth-year American literature and culture
student.
By Raymond Cheung
Ms. Jones need not be so offended by the Daily Bruin editorial
(“Racist clothes justify Abercrombie boycott,”
Viewpoint, April 26). Her own rebuttal (“Comparisons of
ethnic struggles unfair, demeaning,” Viewpoint, April 29)
shows insensitivity and lack of knowledge regarding the issues
affecting Asian Americans.
She dedicates her entire article to debunking merely one
sentence in the Daily Bruin editorial ““ “Abercrombie
T-shirts depicting African Americans in derogatory, stereotypical
roles never would have made it to production.” Her view that
this statement was meant to “[minimize] the African American
struggle in this country” is misplaced. In fact, this
statement reaffirms the strength of the civil rights leaders and
organizations that have led the battle against racism in the past
through the present. A&F never would have made the shirts
depicting stereotypical African Americans because they knew it
would be deemed offensive due to the continual efforts of the
African American community.
Asian Americans just do not receive enough publicity for their
views to be widely known, despite the many advocacy organizations
who represent them.
So I say to Jones, do not take offense to the Daily Bruin
editorial. Instead, see it as a testament to all that has been
accomplished by African Americans.
I believe Jones would be surprised to learn that Asian Americans
and African Americans have more in common than she thinks. She
asks, “When African Americans were being lynched and hosed
down by the so-called majority during the Civil Rights Era, where
were the Asian Americans?”
I’ll tell you where they were. They were standing next to
those same people getting lynched and hosed. History books do not
tell of the Los Angeles massacres in 1871 or the Wyoming massacres
in 1885 when dozens of Asians were killed by mobs raging against
the “Yellow Peril.” When African Americans became
eligible to become naturalized citizens through the Naturalization
Act of 1870, Asians were declared ineligible through the very same
legislation. And although Jones may think the “Model
Minority” stereotype is an accomplishment, she merely needs
to pick up any Asian American contemporary history text to learn
its racist and marginalizing overtones.
African Americans do not stand alone in racial hardship. They
stand with generations of Asian Americans, Latino Americans, Native
Americans and others. Jones pontifically declares, “it is not
the focus of “˜black/white paradigms’ that detract from
the struggle of Asian Americans, it is the lack of activism on the
part of Asian civil rights groups.” As USAC candidates push
for an ethnic studies or “diversity” requirement, I
remind people of how ethnic studies was born in the first place.
Groups such as the Phillipine-American Collegiate Endeavor and the
Asian American Political Alliance joined forces with the Mexican
American Students Confederation and the Black Students Union to
form the Third World Liberation Front in 1968. The Third World
Liberation Front consisted of African, Asian, Latino, Chicano and
Native American students who rallied 34 years ago at San Francisco
State College and established the nation’s first ethnic
studies program. Without their cohesiveness and sacrifice, we would
not be having these debates over a diversity requirement at
all.
Unbeknownst to Jones, African Americans did not stand alone in
the Civil Rights struggle either. There are many Asian American
advocacy groups today, such as the Media Action Network for Asian
Americans, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and
the Japanese American Citizens League. As mentioned before,
although there are a great number of these organizations throughout
the United States, they do not receive the same publicity as
organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People. I am not downplaying the significance of the
NAACP; I am merely using it to show the incredible lack of Asian
American media exposure. This media yellow-out directly leads to
how the ignorant execs at A&F could have possibly thought that
those T-shirts would be “humorous” or endorsed by the
Asian American community.
Finally, Jones advises, “to gain sympathy from other
ethnic groups, one should not compare struggles between different
ethnic groups.” Understanding one another’s culture and
struggles is the first step. Declaring one ethnic group’s
struggle as superior to another is a step backwards. Instead of
instigating strife amongst ourselves, let us share our common
ground and work together toward our common goal.