hey nick, i got a story for you that i think you might find vaguely amusing. :) what's up? * Al-Azif listens last night, as i was being passed by a bunch of fraternity pledges, they started yelling... it was incoherent until they were practically next to me, when one of them jabbed his finger in my face and yelled, "GIVE US BACK OUR GOD DAMN SPIES!" heh sheesh and as they kept walking, they kept yelling more, and the only other thing i caught was "JUST CAUSE OUR FUCKING PLANE LANDS IN YOUR FUCKING COUNTRY DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN HOLD OUR GOD DAMN SPIES!" hopefully, they were at least drunk one hopes... if they were sober, that would make it worse. * Al-Azif nods the girl who i had stopped to talk to was actually bothered, but i find that i can't really get angry, i'm just somehow combined stunned and yet amused. was she Chinese as well? she was really angry and apparently spent several hours last night telling people. Korean, but you think they cared? * Al-Azif nods yeah, I hate that somehow, i just thought you might find this little anecdote interesting. * Al-Azif nods mind if I share it on the page? go ahead. I might just post our conversation and let people come to their own conclusions i just find it amusing to remember that no matter how long we live in this country (hell, i was born here, and i'm Taiwanese) sometimes people always assume terrible things. is it okay to use Sertrel, or should I change it? I know how you feel * Al-Azif was born in the US, too mmm... i don't mind. oh, speaking of which... i need to get my name reactivated on your boards. ah okay are you in any Asian-Student associations? it's funny, though. brought back memories of high school... yes, i am. if you see a girl named Jennifer Wang, keep an eye out for her :) she'd be a freshman LOL. she's my cousin gotcha. :) i'll remember that. anyways, it sucks you had to experience that and I'm glad you took it so calmly I probably would've done something stupid i suppose i was just more momentarily stunned, and took it so calmly cause it was just a shock. and yeah, that brand of ignorance was a lot more prevalent at the high school level especially from my own personal experience that's because the idiots tend to filter out at the college level. * Al-Azif nods i guess i was half amused because, gosh, in high school it was just "god damn chink, go back to china, ching chang chong" or shit like that. yeah, at least their racist concerns are a bit more worldly ;) but here, wow, they actually use contemporary public events to harass people! heh I remember being really disappointed in humankind in high school I can pinpoint the exact time, too did you ever see the movie "Demolition Man?" yes, i did... remember that scene with Wesley Snipes in the museum? when he asks someone how much they weigh before slamming them through glass? no, no it's earlier on, when he first walks in there's an Asian family there looking at an exhibit and he walks up to them and yells some nonsense words like "ching chong chang" whatever wow. i don't remember that... and, of course, they walk away terrified but the part that got me was when people in the audience started laughing oh god. now THAT sucks. and I just had that sinking feeling in my stomach anyways, that was one of my moments of disappointment in my fellow man i suppose i just moderate emotions too much through thought. back when I was naive enough to think that everyone had redeeming points last time i really felt the minority thing becoming noticeable again you're a lot more like my older brother that way I tend to take it a bit harder as I'm more sensitive than he is i wrote down a dismal theory about "groups" you wrote about your short fuse in high school... * Al-Azif nods VERY short fuse but continue about your group theory my theory was that groups exist almost entirely for the sole purpose of discrimination... hrmph i got disenchanted with the Asian students organization here when i realized it stratified... that's an interesting idea, and it's definitely got merit at the core I think it may be a bit of oversimplification, but you did get at the bottom question: Why do people form groups at all? the leadership was all the same type of people, and ultimately, the social events that the group promoted were towards a specific core of the Asian students here. :) i was one of those erased back in the day. gotcha how many posts did you have? rough guess 50? okay something like that... gotta ask my friend Brian to do it I wasn't exactly sure what he did and I don't to go banging around without a clue ah, okay. i told a friend of mine who wrote to his friends in that fraternity, and both of them apologized. * Al-Azif nods i suppose it's good that even though it won't change things, they apologized. at least someone was willing to take responsibility even if it wasn't their fault * Al-Azif nods sort of... biological imperative to mate... in these groups, compatible males hang around each other to go to compatible females... * Al-Azif nods the idea is that even though for each compatible female you find, you'll have more direct specific competition as a group, you're more likely to find someone that you're compatible with. * Al-Azif nods or not even mating, just friendship. I was president of the Asian Club on campus for a year here and I know what you mean by stratification i take it you were a little different than your predecessors? well, I tried to be at first but as I realized the folly of a lot of what I was doing, I just did a very average job what's sort of discouraging is that there's infighting, the ABCs are different from those who were born in China/Hong Kong/Taiwan EXACTLY and then they're all different from the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Thai... not to mention possible frictions between Chinese and Koreans, etc. oh hell yeah. right not to be stereotypical about girls from Hong Kong but I learned to really dislike them :P LOL. i hear you, though. 100% and that, of course, is disturbing in itself that I'm forming a bias against people who are ethnically Chinese as well i think it's inevitable though. people only become tolerant under adversity. yeah sad statement about humanity, ain't it? isn't there some saying, "in the foxhole, you don't care if the other guy is black, white, red, yellow, man, or woman, just if they'll save your ass in a firefight." let me find that Bob cartoon one sec something to that effect. http://www.angryflower.com/astero.gif seriously, the Chinese all become one only when white people are watching us, we'll unify against that. * Al-Azif nods actually, I've noticed more tensions with Asians and blacks all the Reagan era crap of labeling Asians as "the model minority" obviously, that didn't lie well with blacks and Lations, et al and there's the debate about assimilation whether we're losing touch with our roots or "selling out to the Man" admittedly... i don't think ASA and Diya (South Asian association) get along with the Hispanic groups or the black groups... the sad thing is no matter how much other minorities see us as "assimilated," things like what happened last night prove that's not the case * Al-Azif nods but 10 bucks says if i told blacks or Hispanics, they'd find that they may secretly or not-so-secretly harbor the same feelings against Asians right now politically. well, the Chinese have been a fairly persecuted people right up there with Jews and Native Americans people "forget" that though. and that, of course, embraces America's love of the culture of victimhood somehow the present is supposed to erase things like that. * Al-Azif nods in most people's eyes. yeah, racial reparations is a whole evening's worth of discussion by itself i guess it's cause for most of us, our parents didn't emigrate until after most of the persecution was over. * Al-Azif nods it's a lot to think about *sigh* arguably, you can trace the Holocaust survivors and their families, which is why reparations there make sense. sometimes I just get sick of thinking about it, but it's not something you can escape people completely uninvolved aren't demanding money. * Al-Azif nods but it bothers people to think that someone could be hurt from something that didn't happen to them or their immediate family just because it affects how everyone looks at them. right well, I've made a lot of comparisons between Jews and Chinese I don't know about you, but I had *a lot* of Jewish friends growing up they had The Holocaust, we had The Rape of Nanking similar cultural emphasis on food, family, community i just think that money can't solve anything. i didn't, i grew up in Louisiana. i had the choice between Catholics and Baptists. :) but similar prejudice from others against everything thinks Jews and Chinese storekeeprs/restaurateurs are up to something er.. Jewish and storekeepers heh. it never matters how long you've been there. * Al-Azif nods your face will always betray you. right, that's what I meant by it's something you can't escape even if you don't want to be considered as Chinese others will still think of you that way even other Chinese. sometimes ESPECIALLY other Chinese. * Al-Azif sighs yup and of course when Chinese leaders protest or say things to this effect, they look like whiners because as a whole, the Chinese are a very successful minority it certainly looks like it doesn't it... which then makes life hard for ALL Asians. yup what dismal, sad, shit. yeah let's talk about something else :P but it did feel good to vent to someone who'd understand exactly what I was saying I'm not saying my non-Asian friends are bad, or anything LOL. i know what you mean. just a lot of the stuff would be totally over their head it's just something that someone who isn't part of a minority won't ever understand. * Al-Azif nods trying to talk about the experiences you've had to someone who won't ever feel that never works. Arthur Ashe (tennis legend) had a really good saying I can't remember exactly what he said, so I'll paraphrase "Being black is like having a second full time job" I take that saying to apply to all minorities but that being said, there's no place I'd rather be a minority than the US oh yeah. as bad as it gets, it's better to be a minority here than anywhere else true enough. at least here there's dialogue. exactly everywhere else they pretend that "tolerance" is enough and don't want to talk about it. that's why, honestly, I don't think I could ever seriously date a non- Asian I can't be like some other second-generationers and totally deny my heritage and pretend there's no difference because, really, there is sad statement, perhaps... yeah sucks having all this baggage, don't it? ;) there IS a difference, and anyone who thinks there isn't one is going to get a RUDE awakening. * Al-Azif nods eh. maybe it's not "baggage" per se. i think it's just a "carryon" :) heh true dat on the airline of life, there's "baggage" and then there's "carryon" :) :) let's go back to #avalon nice cathartic talk yeah. it was... talk to you later. * Al-Azif is going to post this on the page tomorrow * Al-Azif nods i'll be curious to hear what others have to say... me, too it's hard to see who's minority or not through only names and aliases. hopefully, it'll spark some really good discussion on race relations well, I can tell you there are quite a few Asians in the BBoCS ranks well, that's good. okay, enough of this depressing crap let's go talk about pr0n ;) indeed. :)