"Asian guys in my show? Not gonna happen!"

[Crackerbox]

Well there were few Asians in my community. I'd imagine in cities with a larger Asian population, based upon what I've read, that the social connections there tend to reinforce education as a priority. In rural life that was so, but heavily competed against by the preponderance of white Euro-Americans all around. Since the latter was diverse, then it tended to negate it.

There's a strong sense of guilt and shame placed upon Asians by their parents for not improving their lot in the successive generation. I wouldn't consider that anything to do with a sports car, would you? It's not a luxury but a quintessential necessity.

 

[jackelgull]

I am Asian American (of the Indian variety I know, but still Asian) so I know the burdens our parents put on us to succeed to the point that it becomes suffocating. But JR doesn't understand and he's not even pretending to understand so I'm okay with his pithy one liners.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

How is 'improving their lot in the successive generation' a necessity? If the generation is fundamentally flawed there won't be a successive generation, so just the existence of the successive generation proves adequacy and that no improvement is actually needed.

It's a nice option.

 

[jackelgull]

I don't think you get it. One thing Asian Americans share with Americans is the belief that your worth is decided by ow successful you are in life. There are no excuses and failure to achieve academic success isn't tolerable.

There are some parents who will disown their kid if they get a B.

 

[Narz]

One, it can lead to negative stereotypes (Jews are good with money, therefore they are rich, therefore they control the world)

Well Jews do control the world. I mean way out of porportion to how many there are. They probably control 10+% of the world (probably alot more) despite being .25% of the population. This doesn't make them evil necessary, but it is fact.

Stereotypes are always a losing scenario.

Not really. Stereotypes can be funny, stereotypes can be taken advantage of (if a girl thinks guys with glasses are nerds & you wear glasses use the glasses to get laid, chances are she's not a keeper if her brain thinks that way but sex is sex, a junk girl like junk food will tide you over til your next real meal).

Besides, even if we somehow get in everyone's brain & eliminate stereotypes based on race, gender, religion, age, etc. people will still stereotype based on their personal experiences. Generalizations are very useful, people shouldn't be taught not to make them, just to discard unfair or inaccurate ones.

 

[Narz]

How is 'improving their lot in the successive generation' a necessity? If the generation is fundamentally flawed there won't be a successive generation, so just the existence of the successive generation proves adequacy and that no improvement is actually needed.

It's a nice option.

From an evolutionary point of view you're right but most people want more for their loin spillings than merely to create more loin spillings (I'm sure you do too).

 

[jackelgull]

Or maybe they should be taught to judge people on things they actually do rather than generalities. If a stranger is walking towards you with a knife in the middle of the night, does it matter whether he's black or a well dressed white gentleman, wouldn't you still run?

 

[Tee Kay]

That's a stereotype. He could be selling knives.

 

[Narz]

Or maybe they should be taught to judge people on things they actually do rather than generalities. If a stranger...

If it's a stranger how am I to judge him based on what he's done?

Very rare are 'random guy with knife' situations, much more common are subtler patterns of behavior.

For example, some kid I'm teaching, if he's really huggy or unusually needy to me I can assume he doesn't have a dad at home. I might be wrong but haven't guessed wrong yet.

Everyone has boxes (stereotypes), just be conscious of them & be open to being wrong and expanding your box if necessary.

If you think about it mental-illness labelling is merely stereotyping (judging people based on a few mannerism & fitting them into a box based on that). The job of a psychiatrist is to fix you into the proper box so you can receive medication/therapy/shock treatment/whathaveyou based on what box most closely resembles what you are describing. It's a little more scientific than online quizzes but not much.

That's a stereotype. He could be selling knives.

He could be your chef, though if he was white or black in a sushi restaurant I'd run!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

From an evolutionary point of view you're right but most people want more for their loin spillings than merely to create more loin spillings (I'm sure you do too).

I'm fairly certain that my life is the absolute peak of what it is intended to be. So no, I do not ask my kids to improve upon it.

@Jackelgull...of all the things two cultures could have in common 'your worth is indicated by how successful you are' is without doubt a demonstration of 'the lowest common denominator'. If that is what your parent's generation has to offer then yes, improvement is readily available. Apparently still not necessary as they managed to produce you...and you rate pretty highly in my book, based on my limited experience of you here...so their generation is not fatally flawed.

By the way, a nuance in JR's one liner that you might consider...ownership of a sports car, or other high dollar and somewhat useless ornaments, is a commonly accepted tangible demonstration of this 'success' of which you speak.

 

[JollyRoger]

Do you want to expand upon that? Are you saying that Asians can't make a sports car? Are you saying that some of the posts are made by uneducated people? Are you brave enough to qualify the statement or hide behind a weak allegation?

It was a one liner that has nothing to do with automotive engineering or the education achievements of posters here.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

From some of the posts here, it appears that education is the Asian equivalent of a sports car.

Do you want to expand upon that? Are you saying that Asians can't make a sports car? Are you saying that some of the posts are made by uneducated people? Are you brave enough to qualify the statement or hide behind a weak allegation?

Is Crackers brave enough to even try to explain how those two leaps of bizarre connection came from JR's remark? Asians can't make a sports car? What orbit did that fall into left field from? Might as well as him if he was trying to say popcorn grows wild in wheat fields.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Well Jews do control the world. I mean way out of porportion to how many there are. They probably control 10+% of the world (probably alot more) despite being .25% of the population. This doesn't make them evil necessary, but it is fact.

What does control the world mean? And what's proportional?

Not really. Stereotypes can be funny, stereotypes can be taken advantage of (if a girl thinks guys with glasses are nerds & you wear glasses use the glasses to get laid, chances are she's not a keeper if her brain thinks that way but sex is sex, a junk girl like junk food will tide you over til your next real meal).

Besides, even if we somehow get in everyone's brain & eliminate stereotypes based on race, gender, religion, age, etc. people will still stereotype based on their personal experiences. Generalizations are very useful, people shouldn't be taught not to make them, just to discard unfair or inaccurate ones.

What I meant by stereotypes was the racial ones, or anti-Semitic, not necessarily generalizations. Its silly to think we shouldn't generalize. What is bad to generalize someone based on affiliation, genetics, or community without knowing them (my terrible and in-eloquent attempt to describe what's being discussed in this thread).

 

[Crackerbox]

From some of the posts here, it appears that education is the Asian equivalent of a sports car.

Do you want to expand upon that? Are you saying that Asians can't make a sports car? Are you saying that some of the posts are made by uneducated people? Are you brave enough to qualify the statement or hide behind a weak allegation?

Is Crackers brave enough to even try to explain how those two leaps of bizarre connection came from JR's remark? Asians can't make a sports car? What orbit did that fall into left field from? Might as well as him if he was trying to say popcorn grows wild in wheat fields.

Buddy, I'm braver than you could possibly imagine.

I thought he either dropped a word or was making a common wisecrack made from 1970-1985 or so about Japanese imports being crap automobiles. That especially happened due to the decline of Detroit and in spite of Japanese vehicles employing people domestically and producing a vehicle that stood up over years.

I thought he was either saying:
" it appears that [your] education is the Asian equivalent of a sports car i.e.inferior but wasn't sure. As I think of a sports car as a nutty luxury item, then it really made no sense as to every Asian I know, an education is one of the basic aspects of the core of their being. As such, it's a necessity, because without an education, the average American wouldn't give us the time of day. We're that alien to them. The only reason they put up with us is largely due to the preponderance of Asians in fields like Medicine.
....
You do realize that making a one-liner like much of the posts around here, especially in what's a discussion thread and not just fluff is entirely cryptic. Some of it outright offensive like Jews taking over the world which comes right out of the Protocols of Zion nonsense.
....
Yeah, I completely understand that "Don't bring home a B crap." That was my experience too. I even had teachers pull that with "Come on, _____. Asians are smarter than this. You can do better." Imagine getting it from your teachers and from your parents.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Buddy, I'm braver than you could possibly imagine.

Just had to separate this part out so that I could respond to the rest without hysteria making it hard to type.

I thought he either dropped a word or was making a common wisecrack made from 1970-1985 or so about Japanese imports being crap automobiles. That especially happened due to the decline of Detroit and in spite of Japanese vehicles employing people domestically and producing a vehicle that stood up over years.

I thought he was either saying:
" it appears that [your] education is the Asian equivalent of a sports car i.e.inferior but wasn't sure. As I think of a sports car as a nutty luxury item, then it really made no sense as to every Asian I know, an education is one of the basic aspects of the core of their being. As such, it's a necessity, because without an education, the average American wouldn't give us the time of day. We're that alien to them. The only reason they put up with us is largely due to the preponderance of Asians in fields like Medicine.
....
You do realize that making a one-liner like much of the posts around here, especially in what's a discussion thread and not just fluff is entirely cryptic. Some of it outright offensive like Jews taking over the world which comes right out of the Protocols of Zion nonsense.
....

Even with explanation I find your leaping ability absolutely astounding. You are claiming that you thought it was a genuine reference to pre-1985 cars? Man, if I went to that kind of length to find something to be offended about my head would have exploded long since.

Fortunately I don't go out of my way to be outraged by nothing. Maybe I don't type quite as fearlessly as you do.

 

[warpus]

Well Jews do control the world. I mean way out of porportion to how many there are. They probably control 10+% of the world (probably alot more) despite being .25% of the population. This doesn't make them evil necessary, but it is fact.

Dude, Jews definitely do not control the world. It is a lot more.. complicated than that.

 

[Crackerbox]

Just had to separate this part out so that I could respond to the rest without hysteria making it hard to type.



Even with explanation I find your leaping ability absolutely astounding. You are claiming that you thought it was a genuine reference to pre-1985 cars? Man, if I went to that kind of length to find something to be offended about my head would have exploded long since.

Fortunately I don't go out of my way to be outraged by nothing. Maybe I don't type quite as fearlessly as you do.

Could your post be more off the mark? Is English your primary language?

A common bigoted thing to say during that period was that everything the Japanese made was inferior. It used to be said by Americans that the Japanese couldn't create anything, only made cheap copies. I thought he was making the same kind of wisecrack that was common to that period when Detroit imploded. It has nothing to do with cars made pre-1985. Hooboy. It has everything to do with a tremendous bias against the Japanese.

Do you know anything about the history of Japanese-American relationships? It's been an extremely weird one over the years and post-WW2 and after the rebuilding of Japan. During the early eighties something like 7 of the top 10 banks were owned by the Japanese. The dollar to yen exchange rate varied so greatly that overnight many Japanese became extremely wealthy as they converted their money into American real estate.

This exacerbated the perception of the Japanese and there were lots of political cartoons that returned to the subhuman depiction of them not seen since WW2.

So when a statement like that comes up, then any Asian from that time period will look at it cross-eyed and think, "Oh Brother...here it comes."

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Dude, Jews definitely do not control the world. It is a lot more.. complicated than that.

Near as I can make out the world is pretty much out of control, but that just may be my perspective.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So when a statement like that comes up, then any Asian from that time period will look at it cross-eyed and think, "Oh Brother...here it comes."

I get it. You are so wound up in thirty year old slights that the mere mention of automobiles marks the speaker as a racist. Despite the fact that to the vast majority of people the entire concept of Japanese cars meaning poor quality is so archaic that even trying to make such a crack would require significant effort in explanation since no one but you would even get it. Pretty funny stuff.

 

[Crackerbox]

I get it. You are so wound up in thirty year old slights that the mere mention of automobiles marks the speaker as a racist. Despite the fact that to the vast majority of people the entire concept of Japanese cars meaning poor quality is so archaic that even trying to make such a crack would require significant effort in explanation since no one but you would even get it. Pretty funny stuff.

Nope! It persists today. Are you even bothering to read the topic, watch the videos, and even read a link, to see a persistent depiction from the time of the Yellow Peril as Asians immigrated to America to PRESENT DAY with the bizarre depiction of Asians in America?

Why not actually forget whatever you think is going on and listen to the Asians who have experienced this nonsense? Why not actually read and learn about it?

I know, that would challenge your world-view too much.

It's not a 30 year slight. It's over a fifty year slight that still happens on a weekly basis in America. The whole point is to try to raise some awarenes so that some Asian kid that's ten years old doesn't have the same crap happening.