On Diversity, Oppression, and Slam Poets

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to arrange my thoughts regarding our discussion in 409-Diversity today. Being slightly shy, I with-held from making my thoughts known during class. What also made it difficult to share what I was thinking was that I didn't feel that it was coherent enough to present to the class without being confusing for all those involved. Now that I've had a bit of time to gather my thoughts, they are still a little confused, but, I think I'll share some of them here...

The videos that Shari showed us in class today were provocative. There is no doubt of that. What some people commented on during class that was especially interesting to me was the anger-hatred side of the slam poets that were featured. While it is "slam" they questioned the value of expressing that anger and whether it was helpful or hurtful for the artist's cause. I tend to agree that the anger is unnecessary because I question whether it's the stereotypes that they take issue with or because they experienced all of this themselves. I surely haven't experienced all that, but maybe they have.

Being of Chinese descent, but having been born in the US, I've grown up with some of those stereotypes that were expressed in the video - all Asians look alike, we're smart - good at math and science, hard working, work at the cleaners or own family restaurants, that we have squinty/slanty eyes with no double fold (although this is not actually true of me I have really big eyes for an Asian AND a double fold ;)...) that the men appear more feminine, that we have difficulty expressing an strong opinion, etc. But it was never to the same extreme. I understand the perspectives that some of these artists have but find it difficult to relate to them even though we are of the same racial/ethnic background. Strange isn't it?

I've known for a very long time that I am very much American and am extremely comfortable around "white people" because that is what I'm familiar with. The community I grew up in was 95% white ...and I'm actually a little uncomfortable in large groups of Asians. It's not that I'm not proud of my heritage - on the contrary, I love that my parents chose to send me to Chinese school to learn the language (even though I hated it at the time), that I eat Chinese food, that I celebrate the lunar new year, and that my eating utensil of choice is chopsticks. Despite all this though, when I visited China, they immediately labeled me as American. Where do I fit in then?

So do I feel the oppression of white (male) American society? No, not really. Maybe it's that I've been oppressed to the point that I'm blind to the oppression. But I don't really believe that that's the case. I've had the fortune of growing up in a good family that was financially secure, with more positive stereotypes than negative ones surrounding my race/ethnicity. But even the pressure placed on me as exemplified by those positive stereotypes were placed on me more by my parents than by society. It seems to me, that being of Asian descent, oppression is kind of a more invisible force than it would be for another minority group. But then again, maybe I've just been living in a bubble and it's time to open my eyes to all the "bad" out there in the real world. I'd like to think that the world is good even if I know it not to be true. It's hard for me to separate out oppression/stereotypes/racism when they are not apparent to me as it is to some of the Slam poets in the video. I guess I'm still trying to sort all of this out, and seeing how I view myself and others in this situation.

This is by no means entirely comprehensive of my views on the topic, but just what has been on my mind since this morning. Feel free to comment or ask questions! I know I don't speak a lot in class, so if you're interested, just let me know :)

p.s. If you read all of that, I'm impressed!