ADVANTAGES OF BEING ASIAN AMERICAN

or some the only downer to being Asian American is being lumped with all the whiners.
     The problems that afflict us? No different from those faced by all Americans, they argue. Vincent Chin? Won a barroom fight and was ambushed in the parking lot by a pair of drunken sore losers with a baseball bat. Happens to white guys too. Media stereotypes? Would you rather be cast as a beer-guzzling milquetoast with a spare tire and a perpetual sunburn? Not to mention being unable to jump, dance or multiply.
     Weigh the trivial irritations against the big advantages, exhort the upsiders. Like being raised in two-parent families that provide emotional stability, a solid educational foundation, a multi-cultural perspective and healthy eating habits. Like being seen as innately more intelligent, diligent and honest. Like having a full head of hair past 30 and never having to shave your back. Sure, the new immigrants have a rough time, they concede, but compare apples to apples. The Census Bureau stats show that U.S.-born Asians do as well as any group and better than most.
     So what's your take? Are we getting a raw deal or are we just too busy complaining to appreciate our many advantages?

(Updated )

Being strattled between two cultures is the worst feeling in the world. I'm in my early twenties and I'm guilty of being a banana and right now I'm undergoing the process of finding my roots. But right now so many asians are into Westernizing themsevles that I cannot associate with people who don't recognize my identity problem. The matter seems hopeless, I need some therapy, bad.

The Saint
   Monday, April 01, 2002 at 21:20:13 (PST)
Being straddled between 2 cultures (American and Asian) is kinda cool. I mean sure, it can lead to a temporary identity crisis in your teens and early twenties, but after a while you being to realize that you can combine the best of both worlds.

Heh heh. You become a banana!
Banana Girl
   Thursday, March 28, 2002 at 23:42:40 (PST)
I like being Asian just because I would be missing out on so much if I couldn't understand Chinese Pop. culture....
Beijing Angelique
   Saturday, March 16, 2002 at 01:00:03 (PST)
one advantage of being an asian american is the following headline in the seattle times:

"america beats kwan and wins gold!"
penelope
   Wednesday, March 06, 2002 at 01:08:33 (PST)
Check out the following link to see some of the advantages to being AA. Seems that AA's are the healthiest racial group in most measures of this recent study by the CDC, with the exception of tuberculosis rates. I wonder how the media can spin this to our disfavor? How can they cope with the notion that, despite all the jokes about bad Asian drivers, we have the lowest deaths by motor vehicle accidents rate, by far? Despite all the efforts of media to denigrate us and destroy our self-esteem, we also have the lowest suicide rate by far? What a failure this must make the media feel like! Looks to me like people looking for prospective mates would do well to choose AA's. Like Asian automobiles, we seem to run better and longer. By contrast, look at what genocide and utter domination has done for Native Americans, our closest genetic racial relatives in this survey. We cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by this society and the data shows that we are not. See the data at:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt23.pdf
Naki
   Monday, February 04, 2002 at 10:12:42 (PST)
well...i see that i have gotten some replies, but i don't remember exactly what i wrote.

regarding whether whites can be the target of hate crimes--i thought my post was about vincent chin being a target of a hate crime because he was asian american. if you are inferring that i meant that *only* ethnic minorities are targets of hate crimes and would like to argue otherwise, i have no answer. i don't recall making such a claim.

about solving hate crimes...i'm on a hate crime committee. i don't like to disclose too much about what i do on the internet. but yeh, i think i'm doing my part. trying to anyways. and we work with latino and black groups to break the barriers and misconceptions between the groups.

what is the way to battle hate crimes and violence which you speak of? korean killer? is that what kk stands for? i live in ktown too and am surrounded by crime. i know what it feels like to be intimidated.
penelope
   Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 18:24:03 (PST)

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