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NO MORE MR NICE GUY
In 1994 David Fukuto donned a ninja outfit and entered a seminar room at the Torrance Holiday inn where a dozen off-duty cops were attending a meeting.
As if to underscore what might appear to be a pandemic of Asian violence, not long thereafter in nearby Manhattan Beach, an Asian man was identified as the prime suspect in the killing of a police officer who had stopped him for a traffic violation. Without warning the suspect had shot the officer and fled the scene. Posters bearing his likeness was plastered throughout the South Bay. Suddenly the Asian Americans in the area, always presumed to be law-abiding and trouble-free, found themselves drawing wary looks from local cops. STUDENT PROTESTS Not all Asian American act alone in asserting themselves. Recently at the University of Chicago the dismissal of a renowned Corean studies professor prompted a vigorous petition drive. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) led by Guy Aoki organized a protest against Falling Down, in which a frustrated Michael Douglas smashes the window of a Corean-owned grocery store, and against Rising Sun, which seems to reinforce certain stereotypes about Japanese intentions toward the U.S. This renewed Asian assertiveness seems to transcend national boundaries. Nations once dominated by the United States on economic and defense issues are no longer so compliant. "Japanese Learning to Say No," blared a recent Los Angeles Times headline. American demands for certain trade-opening moves were answered with, "Totei doi dekimasen, there's no way I can agree to that." This response discomfited even the translator assigned to the Japanese trade representative. "I was a bit scared about interpreting it because the language was so clear," he recalled. |
In March after Secretary of State Warren Christopher called to task Chinese authorities over so-called human-rights violations, the representatives of Asian nations told the U.S. that it was "wrong-headed, arrogant and not in America's interest to use trade leverage to try to influence China on human rights." China called the U.S. to task for its extreme aggressiveness in negotiations. North Korea had long since adopted the same hardline stance in dealing with Western nations and their allies over nuclear weapons inspections. They even went as far as to threaten Japan over its support for inspections. The Japanese were "digging their own graves," warned the North Koreans.. Is this nothing more than a coincidental convergence of events? On the other hand, are they the tip of an iceberg of deep resentment built up over decades of silently suffering the insults, intentional and unwitting, heaped on Asians by whites heedless in their smug security as the dominant race. If so, we may soon feel the full force of the phrase, No more Mr Nice Guy.
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