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24
September, 2001
YOU ALL LOOK ALIKE ... DON'T YOU?
The ongoing attacks and harassment against people who are perceived as being Middle Eastern are worrisome on a couple of levels.
| Erin (and many Japanese Americans), who is fourth-generation and was born in Los Angeles, has been told "You speak English so well!" |
Perhaps it's time for all of us to look within ourselves and think how prejudice has colored our lives even in small ways. I know I have made racially-motivated decisions in the past - I've crossed the street when I've seen a group of African American men walking towards me, and I've decided not to purchase a home in certain neighborhood because it was "low income," which translates to racially not up to par. I've fallen prey to the sense of racial superiority that is all-too-common with Japanese, from thinking Japanese cars and other products are innately better to believing Japanese culture is somehow more "pure" than any other Asian culture (even though in fact Japanese culture is a mongrel adaptation of mostly Chinese and Korean cultures).
I may not be able to change some of my prejudices, but at least I'm aware of them, and will admit to them. And, I don't feel a bias against Middle Easterners, even after the terrorist attacks of September 11.
Which brings me to the second thing that really worries me about the harassment of the past couple of weeks - the inability of people to distinguish one race from another. A Sikh man from India was killed at an Arizona gas station last week, presumably because he "looked" Middle Eastern (Sikhs wear turbans, while Hindus do not). South Asians have been lumped with anyone who might be from the Middle East because of their dark complexion - never mind that not all Middle Easterners or even all Muslims support the terrorists.
It's worth remembering that Islam is a religion of peace with roots that intermingle with Christian and Jewish faiths. It's worth remembering that all the nations of the Middle East with the exception of Iraq have spoken out against the attack on the US.
But to some Americans, it's easy to attack anyone who appears to fit their notion of a Middle East terrorist. To them, if you are Middle Eastern (or South Asian), "you all look alike."
When I was younger, I used to joke with my Caucasian friends, telling them they all looked alike to me. I did that because even as a child, I heard that phrase used towards me and other Japanese.
Most of the problem is ignorance, there is no doubt about that. But a recent study at Stanford University found that in fact, it is difficult for people of one race to tell apart people from another race. By monitoring brain-wave activity while Caucasian and African-American subjects were shown people of both their own and the other's race, scientists found that same-race recognition was much stronger merely because people are more familiar with the facial features of their own race. So there is scientific basis for the "you all look alike" mentality.
Still, we can't use that as an excuse for prejudice. In these increasingly globally connected times, just because you look like you're from one place does not mean you were born there, or that you even have much of a connection. Japanese Americans know this fact deeply, because of the experience of Internment during World War II simply for being of Japanese heritage. Even more recently, Erin (and many Japanese Americans), who is fourth-generation and was born in Los Angeles, has been told "You speak English so well!" as if just because she looks Japanese, her English should be poor. I'm sure many Asian Americans have suffered this insult.
Even people of one race need to be careful about making assumptions about others of the same race. I grew up feeling that I could tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Korean and people from other Asian countries by their facial features. According to the Stanford University study, I am typical in my ability to distinguish various Asian features. But increasingly, I find it's difficult to be sure about who is what and where they may have come from.
For months, I assumed the family that owns one of my favorite restaurants, Peking-Tokyo Express, was Vietnamese. Erin and I have become regulars, and gotten to know brother and sister Tommy and Melissa and their mother, who runs the kitchen with her brothers. We heard their story, fleeing as refugees from Vietnam in the late 1970s and their journey to Denver to establish a family business. The restaurant's menu includes Chinese and Vietnamese food, with a selection of Thai dishes. I have always ordered the Vietnamese because I think it is "authentic," not to mention delicious. I've told everyone I know about this brave Vietnamese family and their great eatery.
Much to my embarrassment, though, I recently found out that they are Chinese, or more accurately, Chinese Vietnamese (like Japanese American).
When Erin asked Melissa her last name, so we could introduce her to a Vietnamese couple we were dining with, she said "Wong." "Wong?" - not a very Vietnamese name at all!
It turns out Melissa and Tommy's grandparents moved to Vietnam from China decades ago, and so they grew up feeling more Vietnamese than Chinese, though they can still speak Chinese (the main language in the restaurant is Vietnamese). They suffered like any Vietnamese family in the wake of the Communist takeover, which is why they became part of the "boat people" refugee movement to the US. Now they are as American as I am.
I was humbled by this case of mistaken identity, and have learned that even with other Asians, it's not easy to tell what ethnic heritage we all hail from. We do NOT all look alike - nobody in the world looks like everyone else of their race. And it is up to each of us to work harder to keep that in mind, and to treat everyone we meet as an individual, not the sum of a set of attributes.
I for one will try like hell not to pre-judge people again, whether they are of Asian, African, Hispanic, Caucasian or Middle Eastern descent.