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Asian-GAF: We're all the same, like Stormtroopers |OT| |AT|

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Cybit

FGC Waterboy
Did we all just catch up on watching Colbert Report and have decided to take out the number one threat to America - BEARS?
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
Serious article time: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/...why_families_self_segregate_and_what_can.html

White and Asian students in California schools self-segregate. That’s a pity—and a problem.
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“Many white parents say they’re leaving because the schools are too academically driven and too narrowly invested in subjects such as math and science at the expense of liberal arts and extracurricular activities like sports and other personal interests. The two schools, put another way that parents rarely articulate so bluntly, are too Asian.”

Reading that article was a bit like accessing a cipher. It swiped away the coded rhetorical veneer that I had so often heard preached at my school. The administrators at my school, largely white, had spoken for years about limiting competition, decreasing stress, preventing students from skipping math levels. Around me, I noticed that almost all the parents or students complaining about the policies were Asian.

It wasn’t until I read the article that I was able to recognize the code words that the administrators used were, intentionally or unintentionally, aimed at countering an “Asian” school. I don't mean to suggest any covert or overt racism on the part of my school administrators. They are not racist. But what their words and policies did show was a lack of understanding of Asian academic drive. At my school, we were inoculated against the evils of doing things for college applications, counseled to lessen our workload, reminded that true meaning in life was found not in academic success but in “personal worth.” I heard the phrase “self-esteem” so much that I wanted to throw up every time an inspirational speaker waltzed into our school.
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“Why would you discourage a child from taking harder classes if he believes he can do it?” my mother asked.
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And you could see it at the school. Walk into an Advanced Placement Calculus BC math course and you’d have a hard time finding a white person, besides the (wonderful) teacher. Walk among the Asian students at lunch, and you’d hear some pretty racist things said about white people. There was a somewhat famous SAT tutor in the region who told a white student, a student known for being extremely intelligent, that he was pretty much Asian.

This didn’t reflect so much on the tutor as on the culture, because people agreed with him—the white student didn’t play football, he didn’t party, and his friends were almost all Asian as well.
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White kids played football, smoked weed, and hooked up on the weekends. Asians studied and took Instagram photos at McDonald’s. (Interestingly, though, the Indians at my school were said to have a pretty raucous party scene. Cannot confirm, as I was never invited.)
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I think this was largely why high school was so incredibly boring. Self-segregation made the group of friends I hung out with largely mirror images of myself—high-achieving Asian Americans who weren’t 100 percent socially inept (more like 40 percent). It seemed there was no point in getting to know anyone, because they had the same cultural experiences, which was good for mutual understanding, I suppose, but utterly terrible for any sort of exchange of ideas or backgrounds.
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My high school, academically top-of-the-line, illustrates one of the many absurdities of a country populated by different cultures and yet seemingly still possessed by that primordial urge to seek those whose skin color is the same—which goes to show once again that what is natural is not always good. In the end, we self-segregated because it made us feel more comfortable. And we lost out on all sorts of chaotic cultural interactions that might have happened in between.
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It's notable that the writer himself goes to Harvard, though, so as much as he criticizes the focus on academics, in the end he is reaping the benefits of the seed sowed by that paradigm.
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
backslashbunny said:
He also mentions a blurb about self-esteem, which I suppose is good, but IMHO the US emphasizes self-esteem and personal worth way too much, and that's why so many people are bad at school (like, just bad, compared to other countries), and fat.
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I definitely agree with this. We have such ridiculously high self-esteem and notions of personal worth here that it teeters on the border of flat out narcissism. The easiest example to point to here is those anti-vax morons, where they believe their own beliefs and cursory understanding of chemistry trumps the knowledge of actual doctors and researchers who spend their careers studying these things.
 
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SRG01

Member
My own experiences: I went to a high-up academic school with a small population, so self-segregation didn't really occur. The issue of self-segregation would most likely show up in larger, mixed-academic schools whereby there's enough of a population to allow for this effect.

I think it's similar to small working-class towns in Canada, whereby people of all races and cultures have to interact because the town is too small population and size-wise for the separation to actually occur.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
backslashbunny said:
Interesting article, thanks.

I actually want to note that I think all colors tend to self-segregate. I don't have any personal experience with this, but it did seem to me like (at least in high school) people stayed with "their" color more. It was a little better in college, but not by much.
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Especially in the modern facebook / social media era - I think. It's so easy and you still have a very full social life with the ability to connect with so many people so easily.

backslashbunny said:
I especially like the last paragraph. I think it's true for some people (definitely for me), that I self-segregate because I'm more comfortable with other Asians. It doesn't just extend to academics... it reflects in a lot more aspects of life. How I view things. How I interact with parents, with my family. How my priorities are. The actions I do, the way I think... a lot of times, other Asian Americans "get it." There's no need to explain what I mean.
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backslashbunny said:
I know you quoted this Sept, but I wanted to emphasize this. I guess there are a lot of interactions we miss out on. TBH though, I feel like since I was raised in America/ the US, there's not a lot of cultural interaction between myself and white people that I missed out on. I think I'm aware of what they are; I just don't have that much of an interest participating in them, or I already do. I mean, the articles says it's sports, drugs, and sex, which is kinda demeaning to define as "white." ("White kids played football, smoked weed, and hooked up on the weekends.") He also mentions a blurb about self-esteem, which I suppose is good, but IMHO the US emphasizes self-esteem and personal worth way too much, and that's why so many people are bad at school (like, just bad, compared to other countries), and fat.

Personally, I think it would have been more interesting if I got to interact with the other two major PoC - chicano/as and blacks. Part of the problem of a highly competitive, wealthy school (divided between white and Asian), is that the other two colors didn't appear because a large portion of them are simply too poor to afford to live in these places. The author mentions meeting a white girl interested in literature. That's completely different than actually interacting with someone from a totally different background--someone that wasn't privileged, or spent his/her childhood in fear of their parents being deported, etc. Someone that had to work in the fields after school.

But still, thanks for the article. It's always worth remembering the dangers of self-segregation. (Also contributes to the whole "other" problem that we run into a lot in the US.)
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SRG and I had similar upbringings, where the town (central IL for me) was too small to self-segregate based on anything but maybe interests. We didn't have a high-academic schools (schools were based on city maps from the 1900s IIRC) - so I think it is why I might have fairly different views on cross-cultural (appropriation, for instance) than many other asians. Moving to Seattle has shown me the difference in being Asian growing up in an area with a fair amount of asians versus growing up Asian where you were one of a handful of Asians.
 
C

Cybit

FGC Waterboy
backslashbunny said:
/something white women are stealing all our men.


@Cybit- I don't care about cultural appropriation. Like I explained in the kimono thread, that doesn't even personally bother me. I'm annoyed at the idiots that are unable to open their narrow little brains and attempt some measure of empathy for others. :<

But yeah, we all have super different experiences, and articles like that area always interesting to read for people that grow up both in and out of that life.
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Lol, the missus is white, so she is part of that stealingz all yer menz business. :D :D

Heh, Appropriation was just the last big topic of discussion (that was not food) that I could think of - which is why I referred to it. :D

The empathy thing is a pretty good point - my personal little soapbox / pet theory has been that we're not wired to empathize properly over online communication - hence the "don't read the comments" jokes / nature of the internet to some extent. I do think that our kids will probably figure it out a lot better than we did (I wonder whether telephones were similar for earlier generations versus us).

It's been weird and fun and insightful to read through the thread and see how folks who grew up on the coast / in heavy asian communities see the world compared to myself - one of the best things (for me at least) in this thread. (I also don't eat meat, so most of the food is lost on me, alas). Once again, the bunny strikes! (for those who are newer to the thread - Bunny is the one who convinced me to create this thread).
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
backslashbunny said:
/something white women are stealing all our men.
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Futurama-BenderPimpStrut-1.gif
 
C

CapNBritain

Member
Self-segregation is something I definitely understand. But personally, I don't think I've ever consciously done it over race. Instead, I've done it over things like lifestyle/class. For example, almost all of my close friends went to college. Almost all of them are decently well off. Almost all of them are socially liberal. Almost all of them are stable, friendly individuals who have their lives together.

I have one friend who is a little more rough around the edges. He's a bit loud, crude, and backwards in his ways of thinking. He's also a drama magnet due to poor life choices. For the longest time I resisted becoming his friend. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I felt a little superior to him. He's just not the type of person I would associate with, and it was only after years that I began to really see him as a friend.

I think that for a lot of people their culture means a lot to them, but it isn't super important to me. So for some it might make them feel better to hang out with people that look like them or eat the same food as them, or what have you. Always seemed weird to me though, and I actively resisted being absorbed into the all-Asian groups that formed in college.
 
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Seductivpancakes

Member
Gully State said:
I haven't had time to watch the documentary but that thread...smh...I'm just going to put this article here..

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/us/sex-trafficking/index.html

As if the US doesn't have problems with underage sex trafficking..
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Well honestly that thread wasn't as bad as I thought. At least last I checked.

At the end of the Vice documentary, they do mention its not a problem Japan has, but they're focusing on Japan's unique twist to it the issue.

Maybe Vice needs to make a lengthily documentary on sexy slavery in the USA. After all its on the home front, and it doesn't seem to be discussed in great detail but US news media.

backslashbunny said:
I'm in, as long as you pull in a few of the hookers from Magic Mike :p
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But of course. Its our party.
 
G

Gully State

Member
Seductivpancakes said:
Well honestly that thread wasn't as bad as I thought. At least last I checked.

At the end of the Vice documentary, they do mention its not a problem Japan has, but they're focusing on Japan's unique twist to it the issue.

Maybe Vice needs to make a lengthily documentary on sexy slavery in the USA. After all its on the home front, and it doesn't seem to be discussed in great detail but US news media.



But of course. Its our party.
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Yeah I was commenting strictly on the thread itself. On a separate topic..I dunno what's scarier..Pop GAF or Kpop GAF. It's like they're speaking a version of English where words are pronounced and spelled the same but mean entirely different things.
 
C

CapNBritain

Member
backslashbunny said:
Ah, yes, separation by class.

I think that also causes a LOT of tensions and problems, and contributes to racial separation, because of the economic status of a lot of other minorities.

Man humanity is hard @_@
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I think that for me personally, it's a separation of attitude, demeanor, and lifestyle. I just naturally gravitate towards people that act and think and live the way I believe people should.

Of course, now I've become more aware of how someone's upbringing really shapes who they are, which naturally brings class into the discussion, which then brings in race. At least for me personally, the reasons for segregation don't come from a racist, or classist root, but are still inextricably linked to those ideas.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
backslashbunny said:
Someone in that Asian thread about Asian men being "feminine."

c03fd5535fbd16198fa944.gif
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TBH i've come across a few western people thinking this way :<

Specially after seeing the East Asian boys in K or J Pop/ Drama/ Idols.




They need to witness more Asian delicious men!!! But I guess it does not help that the most popular pop culture icons from
East
Asia are associated with overdressed, waif-built, teenage boys. x____x

I present my Asian mancrushes !!!!

takeshi_kaneshiro_011.jpg


takeshikaneshiro.png


1ff94d3d9f8601ceb0ed36f97c8d6a0f.jpg


327974_original.jpg
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SRG01

Member
YesNOnoNOYes said:
TBH i've come across a few western people thinking this way :<

Specially after seeing the East Asian boys in K or J Pop/ Drama/ Idols.




They need to witness more Asian delicious men!!! But I guess it does not help that the most popular pop culture icons from
East
Asia are associated with overdressed, waif-built, teenage boys. x____x

I present my Asian mancrushes !!!!
Click to expand...

The second one looks like Asian Antonio Banderas!
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
Yesh, I think it is to their loss if they narrowmindedly box people into silly stereotypes !

I can appreciate different aesthetics, though, like bunbuns, I also have my turn-ons :> But at the end of the day, personality >>>>>>>>>>>>> looks. TBH~
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
I've been lurking that looks thread pretty hard. Now I know what a bunch of people look like.

EDIT: This one guy flat out is Adam Levine. 6/10 to vadrigar, though, of course.
 
S

SRG01

Member
If you guys want to read more about race and dating, you should read Dataclysm, which is the follow up book to the infamous OkCupid interracial dating infographic. It's an extremely good book, and there's even a really hilarious section which details the most frequent words each ethnicity uses in their profile. And spoiler alert:
Asians overwhelming use 'simple' in their profiles... and I've witnessed this truth first hand :eek:


@YesNo: Are you back from HK? No food pics???? :(
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
SRG01 said:
If you guys want to read more about race and dating, you should read Dataclysm, which is the follow up book to the infamous OkCupid interracial dating infographic. It's an extremely good book, and there's even a really hilarious section which details the most frequent words each ethnicity uses in their profile. And spoiler alert:
Asians overwhelming use 'simple' in their profiles... and I've witnessed this truth first hand :eek:


@YesNo: Are you back from HK? No food pics???? :(
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YESH im back!

But pics are stuck in the mobile and i needs to find the cable to hook it up to the compie and I think Septimus ate it

:<

ok ok will try this weekend to proffer food pic sacrifice for the Asian Cthulhu God of Food Pronz
 
S

StMeph

Member
YesNOnoNOYes said:
Asian Cthulhu God of Food Pronz
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Then, whispered Chan, those first Asians formed the cult around small plates which the Great Ones showed them; plates brought in dim eras from dark stars. . . . The time would be easy to know, for then Asians would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all Asians eating and studying and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to eat and study and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
StMeph said:
Then, whispered Chan, those first Asians formed the cult around small plates which the Great Ones showed them; plates brought in dim eras from dark stars. . . . The time would be easy to know, for then Asians would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all Asians eating and studying and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to eat and study and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.
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*trembles in awe and fear*

Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Plus you can upload phone...

Welcome back though :p
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I cannot... I'm not savvy like that :<

BUT! I've gotten a hold of some pics now :D

Heres my offering to the Cthulhu God of Food Pronz~

First is HK streets at night:

qyYC7tw.jpg
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Square melon at HK supermarket:

IMf9F40.jpg
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Beef noodle soup, at one of those small street-side tiny restaurants (this was very yummy! the clear soup was tasty~):

ZnQea7D.jpg
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Who could visit HK and not do yum cha! Not I!

4Zyyqpm.jpg
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We had other dishes too (chicken feet, more dumplings, stuffs i cant pronounce names of) but I got too busy stuffing my face with food so didn't pic :x Forgive me, Cthulhu~



Then, HK streets at daylight:

YqgozP5.jpg
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And here's something very, very bad for the heart (these was to KILL for, amg):

jQ0wAzL.jpg
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Abalone with clear noodles:

1myaVlk.jpg
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Soft shelled crab salad:

l8n0vNJ.jpg
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Fish maw soup and Lamb curry:

rXb8qCu.jpg
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Okies, that's it for now. I have to check my GF's phone for more XD
 
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