White Supremacy & You
“If you don’t understand racism/white supremacy, everything else that you think you understand will only confuse you.” — Neely Fuller Jr.
As Asians in the West, we’ve endured a lot. The history of Asian immigration to the united states has been underlined by the resistance and persecution of Asians, particularly Asian men, in America. From when we first arrived on these shores to the attempted legal genocide of our people, to the continued cultural and institutional oppression we face today, its real-world consequences affect our personal lives in our pursuit to find love or happiness, just like any other human being on the planet. It may not seem like it in the day to day lives, but our oppression is real. The discrimination and racism faced by many is not just in your head — it is living, breathing, and malignant, like a cancer threatening to metastasize at any given moment.
Whew, that’s damn heavy. So, who’s to blame for all this? Who’s responsible for our fall of grace? At one point, an Asian man was the sex symbol in America. Sessue Hayakawa was that man , who acted in countless movies where he was the lover and the villain; he was not type casted into any stereotypical roles. Hayakawa refused to adopt the negative stereotypes. He represented us human, and not as a stereotype. But those are from times of past, and there’s no question that right now, in the present that we face malice in this country, but the real question is: What is the source of this malice? Is it an individual? A group? A political party? A race?
It’s easy to blame and point fingers at white people, at “White people”, but that’s an oversimplification for the sake of convenience. Most White people just don’t care, and while some are even genuinely friendly towards Asians or have dated Asians, blaming individuals is too extreme. What you encounter at a day to day level in the real world, except during specific instances (e.g., “where are you really from?”, “Hey ching chong!”, etc) are minor instances of a larger issue. It’s important not to focus on these minor instances, or else you will overlook the forest for the trees. So, whose fault, is it?
30 years ago, there was an Asian American author and playwright from Berkeley, California (of course) named Frank Chin who identified the culprit. The enemy, to be clear, is not a White person. It is not even White people necessarily. It is Sauron, the shadow in the East. It is White Supremacy. Remember that? We talked about that in the last chapter.
White supremacy is a system of order and a way of perceiving reality. Its purpose is to keep whites on top and set them free, while minorities remain subjects and caged in the system. From Frank Chins, Racist Love:
Colored minorities in white reality are stereotypes. Each racial stereotype comes in two models, the acceptable, and the unacceptable. For Fu Manchu and the Yellow Peril, there is Charlie Chan and his Number One Son. The unacceptable model is unacceptable because he cannot be controlled by whites. The acceptable model is acceptable because he is tractable. There is racist hate and racist love. White racism enforces white supremacy.
The enemy is not a person, people, it is a SYSTEM. It’s fitting to use a quote from The Matrix, which most adequately describes this system here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXQozTxQSiE
“White Supremacy is a system, Neo, and that system is our enemy. When you are inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the very minds we are trying to save. Until we do, these people are part of that system and that makes them our enemies. You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, they will fight to protect it. White Supremacy is everywhere. It is all around us. Even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” — — Morpheus-senpai
Feel-Trip
Do you ever feel like you get along great with your white friends until the topic of Asian racism somehow comes up, and then your complaints fall on flat ears? Ever feel like a conversation is going swimmingly with an Asian chick until you mention WMAF? Ever turn on the TV, and enjoy Game 3 of the Cavs and Golden State, and realize that the only Asian dude you’ve seen flash across your screen is Ken Jeong? Ever notice how there seems to be nobody talking about Asian American history or the racism we face in school? It’s just ignored. Ever feel strange about even broaching the subject with those closest to you? Ever feel a slight twinge of guilt or embarrassment when you see yourself in the mirror compared to the images you see in movies and magazines? Ever feel embarrassed about your own embarrassment, and the need to drive those kinds of thoughts out of your head and self-medicate with videogames, or porn, or sports, or drugs/alcohol? That’s racist love. That’s White Supremacy.
If the system works, the stereotypes assigned to the various races are accepted by the races themselves as reality, as fact, and racist love reigns. The minority’s reaction to racist policy is acceptance and apparent satisfaction. Order is kept, the world turns without a peep from any non-white. One measure of the success of white racism is the silence of that race and the amount of white energy necessary to maintain or increase that silence. The ideal racial stereotype is a low maintenance engine of white supremacy whose efficiency increases with age, as it became “authenticated” and “historically verified.” Those stereotypes operate as a model of behavior. It conditions the mass society’s perceptions and expectations. Society is conditioned to accept the given minority only within the bounds of the stereotype.
Racial stereotypes are designed to operate as a “model of behavior” which conditions mass society’s perceptions and expectations of how minorities are supposed to behave. How do minorities react to these stereotypes? Well, it’s a delicate balance of balancing acceptance and oppression in regards to each stereotype. So, what’s an example of this? The most common stereotype for Asian Americans is the model minority stereotype.
What is the acceptable part of this stereotype? The acceptable part of this stereotype is the image of the hard-working Asian, who works hard, excels academically, is smart, wealthy, docile, submissive, obedient, and uncomplaining, which work together to produce an image associated with a stereotype in society. In the face of society, and the white supremacy; we become the perfect behaving minority in the eyes of many.
As a minority group, this stereotype has become accepted by Asian Americans, the positive qualities of this stereotype have led us to believing that we have gained acceptance into society, and satisfied with this, we as a group have become complacent with this stereotype. It has become authenticated and verified over time. This stereotype is good, isn’t it? No, it isn’t. There are real effects to this stereotyping groups of people. When we hold the image in society that we are doing well as a group, things like casual racism faced by Asian Americans become ignored and dismissed. We are lulled into a sense of false comfort — that the social issues that persist as part of being a minority are overlooked, because this positive stereotype leads many to assume that racial issues & discrimination is not faced.
This stereotype deceives us into accepting the status quo , and becoming complacent with our lack of any form of political agency , because it presents a false reality that “Asian Americans are doing really well in our current ways” The model minority myth is essentially a story you would tell to children that if you play by the rules (i.e. conveniently it is set by the white elites), be a middle class worker, toil hard, don’t complain, do not become a political/social threat/nuisance to the elites, be satisfied with what you have, you too can live the Good Life™ and be “successful”. The characteristic of the model minority is more heavily associated with non-threatening form of success.
Middle class income, not rich entrepreneurs. Book smart, not street smart. The model minority guy/gal is not a leader or rebel, but a worker and follower. “You can’t have a model minority who have political agency and social awareness, else s/he might actually gain a form of success that is threatening.”
It is a myth favored by people who want to maintain the status quo and are getting annoyed by the “troublesome” minorities constantly fighting for their rights and empowerment. It is essentially them saying,
“Look at those obedient and hardworking Asians. They aren’t so busy yelling against discrimination and challenging the status quo all day. They are rich and successful and middle class. See how you should play by the rules like them, if you want to imitate their success.”
Stereotype are essentially divide-and-conquer strategies between minorities. They are used to sow discord among minorities to prevent them from focusing the important issues, like breaking down barriers faced by their groups. But for Asian Americans, we have walked right into that trap of accepting the stereotype.
Only being accepted within the bounds of the stereotype? Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, in actual documented scientific research!
Prescriptive Stereotypes and Workplace Consequences for East Asians in North America
What happens when East Asians try to defy stereotypes? We get shut out. This study articulates the difference between descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes, and why racial stereotyping is so harmful.
While descriptive stereotypes are beliefs about how a racial group differs, and prescriptive stereotypes reflect beliefs about how a racial group SHOULD differ. Our descriptive stereotypes, drawn from the model minority myth, portray us as cold, competent, and passive. This research shows that any violation of those beliefs results in increased racial hostility and aggression towards perpetrators. Asians that “break stereotype” in the workplace by demonstrating warmth or dominance, i.e., so-called “leadership” behaviors, face not only ostracization from their non-Asian colleagues, but also from other Asians that have internalized the stereotypes!
The stereotype operates most efficiently and economically when the vehicle of the stereotype, the medium of its perpetuation, and the subject race to be controlled are all one. When the operation of the stereotype has reached this point, where the subject race itself embodies and perpetuates the white supremacist vision of reality, indifference to the subject race sets in among mass society. The successful operation of the stereotype results in the neutralization of the subject race as a social, creative, and cultural force. The race poses no threat to white supremacy. It is now a guardian of white supremacy, dependent on it and grateful to it.
Most of the time, Uncle Chans/Anna Lu’s are just normal, everyday people. They go to work, they pay rent, they attend Happy Hours, they fall in love, etc. But sometimes, they’re not normal people. Sometimes, thanks to social engineering and the constant Clockwork Orange style cultural brainwashing that takes place in the West, they transform into Agents of the Matrix that is White Supremacy. But don’t just take my word for it.
Call out your Asian or white friends for laughing at an Orientalist joke on Family Guy. Talk to your Asian or white co-workers about how strange it is that no Asian man rises above mid-management and dare to suggest racism. Grab dinner with your female Asian friends, and bring up your dating woes and the sneaking suspicion that you’re being rejected for the color of your skin. I promise that afterwards, no matter how non-religious you are, you will believe in demonic possession.
Fighting the Good Fight
So, what can be done? How do we fight White Supremacy, when it’s not an individual or a person, but any individuals or persons at any given time whenever they become co-opted by the system?
One: Know that the White Supremacy exists and that the White supremacy is not some conspiracy theorist theory. It is alive and kicking and it is among us.
Two: Stop seeking acceptance from white people and practicing the concept of self-hate. Stop internalizing stereotypes, even if they seem positive and beneficial, because these stereotypes were not created to benefit you, but the power structure that is White supremacy.
For the subject to operate efficiently as an instrument of white supremacy, he is conditioned to accept and live in a state of euphemized self-contempt. This self-contempt itself is nothing more than the subject’s acceptance of white standards of objectivity, beauty, behavior, and achievement as being morally absolute, and his acknowledgment of the fact that, because he is not white, he can never fully measure up to white standards.
Three: Do not ASSIMILATE or ADAPT or advise other Asian brothers, and your sisters to get along with whites. They are not the borg , and Asians must stop being servile house chinks working hard for their white masters. We are all humans, why should we be treated differently? If whites do not treat you equally like a human being, then you shouldn’t either.
The stereotype, within the minority group itself, then, is enforced by individual and collective self-contempt. Given: that the acceptable stereotype is the minority version of whiteness and being acceptable to whites creates no friction between the races, and given: fear of white hostility and the white threat to the survival of the subject minority, it follows that embracing the acceptable stereotype is an expedient tactic of survival, as selling out and accepting humiliation almost always are. The humiliation, this gesture of self-contempt and self-destruction, in terms of the stereotype is euphemized as being successful assimilation, adaptation, and acculturation.
Four: Don’t be silent. It’s time we stop policing ourselves. It’s time we stop getting paid off with tobacco and beads like the African guards at Elmina Castle who kept the slaves in line with AKs bought from Whites. Many people may tell you that you have a “victim mentality” or that you are “whining” and full of “bitterness” when you speak to others about our issues. But the fact is that being a victim is the reality that we live in. The correct way forward is understanding the situation and resolving to fight it, NOT denying reality like a battered housewife with a black eye quietly cooking potroast for her abusive husband. If we stick our heads in the sand, then the problem will never be fixed.
White racism has failed with the blacks, the chicanos, the American Indians. Night riders, soldier boys on horseback, fat sheriffs, all these agents of racism did destroy a lot of bodies, mess up minds, and leave among these minorities a legacy of suffering that continues to this day. But they did not stamp out the consciousness of a people, destroy their cultural integrity and literacy sensibility, and produce races of people that would work to enforce white supremacy without having to be supervised or watchdogged by whites. They remained proud of who they were. Asian Americans must strive to do the same.
Finally, Always Be Angry. Hatred works. Anger works. Don’t listen to what you learned in elementary school, anger is the appropriate and ONLY response to a race of people who, whether consciously or unconsciously, are pursuing or pawns of an agenda to subjugate and/or exterminate every colored person on the face of this Earth. You don’t have to wild out on the streets, or climb a bell tower, or even lash out at the White people you know in real life — but you better hold on to that rage and awareness because it’s the only thing keeping you from slipping into a numb state of subservient melancholia that will ultimately choke the spirit and life out of you and all our people born and raised in the West.
“The covert and prolonged expressions of hatred had the effect of liberating black, red, chicano, and to some degree, Japanese-American sensibilities. The hatred of whites freed them to return hate with hate and develop their own brigand languages, cultures, and sensibilities, all of which have at their roots an assumed arrogance in the face of white standards, and defiant mockery of the white institutions, including white religion. One of the products of these cultures born of overt racist hatred was a word in the language for white man, a name loaded with hate. A white man knows where he stands when a chicano called him “gringo,” or a black man called him “honky,” “Mr. Charlie,” “ofay,” “whitey,” or an Indian calls him “paleface.” But whites aren’t aware of the names Chinese-Americans and Japanese-Americans have for them. And it’s not a little embarrassing for an Asian-American to be asked by a curious white what we might call him behind his back.” Frank Chin , Racist Love
