It is interesting that many Chinese-Americans will not join in the Pro-Tibet rallies. Why not, you wonder? Are they all so awful, have they all been so indoctrinated that they simply cannot contemplate that Tibetans civil, not human, let's call it something that Americans can relate to in their own past, civil rights, are being violated?
The short answer: no. Chinese-Americans, or rather, American-Chinese, get it. Of course they are offended. They think it's wrong. So why don't they join in the debate?
Because pro-Tibet rallies that critique Chinese people are often shorthand for racism against Chinese.
How, you ask?
Let's begin with some basics. Ever notice a white person criticizing Tibet? Think about this. Do they have a lot of American-Chinese friends? No? Number one, then.
Number two, why not? Because they assume that all Chinese people must be bad, because their government, and let's face it, white people always say it's your government since they immediately forget that lots of Chinese people have been here for generations. They're still not American, hence the term American-Chinese, rather than Chinese-American. So, alright. They don't have any faith that these people have any critical thinking skills and can critique the Chinese government. Even though per capita, there are more Chinese people born here and abroad who have professional jobs than Euro-Americans, per capita.
Third, let's see. When was the last time a Chinese person born anywhere suffered from racism, I mean of the institutionalized kind that makes them feel if they are violated even verbally, they can't say anything, they just have to swallow it because otherwise people will just say, "Oh, you're being too sensitive." Yesterday? Okay, so yesterday that just happened. Sanctioned by the community, who doesn't want to hear that you're just too sensitive. You're just being too "touchy." That's right. Institutionalized racism.
Soo, that person next to you complaining about all those civil rights violations occurring across the world? Does she or he care about how the civil rights of that Chinese person standing next to them are constantly being violated, flouted, or otherwise ignored?
And does that person care about how Latinos, so often just "Mexicans" as if it's a dirty word, are being exploited? How their labor is exploited but the government won't legalize them. So they can be exploited and then deported conveniently, to whatever country they come from, when we're done exploiting their labor? Does that person crying "Foul" about Tibet care about them?
Do you see those people demonstrating in the streets? In San Francisco? In Los Angeles? Anywhere? About the poor black man caught smoking pot forty-five years ago in the South and is still in jail? Along with hundreds of his now compadres? Or protesting the government, yes, the federal government, initially introduced drugs to South and East L.A. to keep the black people down who were finally feeling their civil rights? Do you see them protesting that, and all the ills that have resulted from it? Do you see it?
I heard from someone that after all, there isn't a ranking of these kinds of social ills. The one is as bad as the other.
No. They aren't. If it's happening in your own backyard, that's worse. Because you have to take care of your own house before you go pointing the finger at how someone else's is corrupt. Something American's are soo good at doing: pointing the finger elsewhere. Can't think about how we still oppress people here.
It's so much easier to point the finger at China and Tibet. It's not an issue of condoning heinous civil rights violations abroad. It's about doing something about the heinous, continued civil rights violations here, in the U.S., of the poor, disadvantaged or just plain colored people.
If you're so worried about civil rights violations, shut up. And do something. Here. In your community. With your government. Protest that. Or are you too racist or bigoted to care about the poor people in the South? The disadvantaged colored people in the cities? And the exploited migrant women and men picking all your vegetables?
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