Everything I Needed to Know About Racism I Learned in Amerika

By Ryan Yokota

Growing up Asian in upper middle class white suburbia in Southern California has been a truly educational experience. Through personal life experience I have been privy to the fundamental tenets of racism in Amerika. Yet through my experiences I've learned not only about oppression but I've also learned about the resources available to de-colonize my mind, and the importance of learning one's history on the road to self-empowerment.

From my earliest childhood, I remember pretty well the kids who'd come up to me and call me names or use their fingers to make slant eyes at me or taunt me because I was different.

I remember one incident in particular when I was walking down the street to get back home and some kid rode by on his bike and yelled out "Hey, you stupid Jap!" and then rode on past before I could do anything in response.

I remember also the ways in which none of my school books ever talked about my people, or ever talked about the nation or even continent that I came from until we got to World War II in modern U.S. history, and it was then that I learned that I was the bad guy.

I also remember watching television and never seeing a single positive Asian role model to look up to, unless you count Long Duc Dong from Sixteen Candles, or the cast of Gung Ho, or that Asian guy in Revenge of the Nerds. I used to think Bruce Lee and Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid were pretty cool in some respects until kids came up to me screaming "Hiyaah!" and asking me if I knew Kung-Fu.

Needless to say I learned how to survive and hide my Asian-ness and in many ways integrated into the rest of mainstream white society. I found myself repressing anything that could be regarded as stereotypically Asian, hiding my glasses, and disassociating myself in every way possible from anything relating to my culture and people. As I grew up, I felt in many ways ashamed of my heritage.

Eventually as I grew up and went to UCLA, I thought I left all vestiges of racism behind me. Little did I realize that I had much more to learn about racism and the manner in which it would continue to effect me.

For example, I remember during my first year here when I was walking back to my apartment and two college kids rode past me on a scooter and one yelled out "What does 2pi equal to?" as if I, being Asian, would automatically know such an answer.

I also remember another incident in which some friends and I were walking back from Westwood and some kids in a car rode past me and one yelled out "Hey Nip!" just like the kid in my childhood, and rode off before I could respond or counterattack.

And here I thought I'd left it all behind me. But some people never change, and the same racist, insecure, and fearful little children that used race to try to keep others down became racist, insecure, and fearful adults who will continue to use race not just to oppress people, but also to take advantage of them, and to feel superior to them.

The college curriculum even further reflected the type of one-sidedness of perspective and eurocentricity of my earlier grade school experience. As an English and History major, I had to take certain classes as prerequisites for my major, such as the History 1 series (Western Civilization) or the English 10 series (British Literature). These classes, forced on me as prerequisites, never spoke about my experience nor validated my familial struggles in Amerika, instead reflecting the type of Eurocentricity and bias inherent in most college curriculums. Just as in grade school, no hakujin (white people) ever had to learn my history or anything about the Asian peoples, although I always had to learn about the hakujin and his civilization.

And so it was that I began to de-colonize my mind, primarily through self-education. I soon realized that people throughout my life have attempted to put me down, and I realized that the best way in which to counter that oppression was to learn about the reasoning behind such ignorance in order to understand the roots of such fear and hatred and to strengthen myself with the weapons necessary to end such oppression. There was no use in disassociating myself from my own ethnicity to try to become "white" when no matter how much I tried I could never be accepted in the white society. I would always be Asian and instead of repressing my heritage perhaps I could learn how to revel in it.

I soon began to learn about my own familial experience, from my great-grandfather's internment in the Japanese-American concentration camps in Fort Missoula and Rohwer, to my grandparents situation in surviving through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Through Asian-American Studies classes and other classes that taught me about my culture, I soon found a greater appreciation of my people, and began to feel pride in the history of my ancestors' struggles in Amerika. Through relationships with other people of color I found out that my experiences bore similarities in all other minority experiences, and that all people who suffer in Amerika carry a common struggle in overcoming the oppression of the dominant society. Finally in taking an activist stance in attempting to overcome the problems that continue to face, not just Asian Pacific Islanders, but all people of color in Amerika today, I have found the means not only to work through my experiences with racism but also to ensure that no one will ever undergo such situations in the future.

I don't feel that my experiences are unique. Rather, they seem part and parcel of the experiences suffered by all minorities in Amerika today. The important thing to realize is the manner in which such acts of discrimination and racism play into and inform much of the reality of Asian oppression especially when one steps out of such racially diverse areas as Southern California. According to a recent report put out by the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, and described in an L.A. Times article, "at least 30 Asian Americans died in 1993 as a result of crimes in which racial motivation was suspected or proved" in the United States. Furthermore, among the hundreds of nationwide crimes against our people, "some 11 cases of racially motivated assault, 11 of vandalism, and 10 of harassment, threats or hate mail were recorded in 1993 alone" in Southern California along with some "14 homicides suspected of carrying a possible racial motivation." The article also discusses the manner in which 21% of Southern California Asian residents reported that they had been the victim of a hate crime in a recent poll, as compared with a 12% rate among whites, a 14% rate among African Americans, and a 16% rate among Latina/os.

We must begin to consider and deal with the fact that we as Asian Pacific Americans have borne the burden of racial oppression since we first stepped foot on these shores, and that we continue to be victimized today. We must learn how to defend ourselves in the case of such actions against us, beginning by fortifying our minds and spirits with the knowledge of our oppression and then by taking concrete steps to deal with such situations. We must begin by arming ourselves with the weapons necessary to defend ourselves. Let us then bring such situations to an end, once and for all.

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