The V’s, C’s, EE’s, A’s, and SA’s were all “draft dodgers” in one sense of the term 
Yeah, and when I was bicycling from Kenmore Square (Boston) to Arlington a few years back, three black guys (also on bikes) chased me and screamed racial slurs at me because I was in “their” neighborhood. Er, that is to say, their “'hood”.
I didn’t take it as an indictment of America, though. I took it to indicate that those three guys were assholes.
Things have gotten better now, though; Kevlar body armor is cheap and widely available.
[quote=“ckhcornell”]
I am an ABC, and if you are not White in America it is very different. I get treated like a foreigner sometimes. My friend who is also Chinese American was doing sailing up in Maine and some dude who owns the boat rental store said, wow, you speak English very well.
But then again, when I was in NYC, its interesting how I was driving in the street, and some random White guy cuts in front of me, sticks his middle finger up and says, go back to China you Gook. [/quote]
Gheeze man, you gotta grow a thicker skin. This kind of crap happens to everyone at one time or another, no matter color, religion, sexual preference, blah, blah, blah. How many times have I been in a bar and some guy starts talking about “faggot this, or faggot that” or telling me about some stupid faggot, etc.
[quote=“Flicka”][quote=“ckhcornell”]
I am an ABC, and if you are not White in America it is very different. I get treated like a foreigner sometimes. My friend who is also Chinese American was doing sailing up in Maine and some dude who owns the boat rental store said, wow, you speak English very well.
But then again, when I was in NYC, its interesting how I was driving in the street, and some random White guy cuts in front of me, sticks his middle finger up and says, go back to China you Gook. [/quote]
Gheeze man, you gotta grow a thicker skin. This kind of crap happens to everyone at one time or another, no matter color, religion, sexual preference, blah, blah, blah. How many times have I been in a bar and some guy starts talking about “faggot this, or faggot that” or telling me about some stupid faggot, etc.[/quote]
Not true. If you’re a white male of average height and looks, as I am, you this kinda shite doesn’t happen to you.
[quote=“porcelainprincess”][quote=“wolf_reinhold”]
There is no way you can compare a country where 99 percent of the people are ethnic Chinese to the US where it is a melting pot of peoples and languages. The United States is the only country where you can become an American. [/quote]
Erm…I might want to add Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, to a slightly lesser degree, Great Britain and France. No need to wear the ugly American parochial blinders on this forum.[/quote]
I don’t know about figures but there are certainly areas of Bradford and probably other British cities where the majority of people are of South Asian ethnicity.
Wolf said that it is only in America that immigrants can become the people of the new country, become U.S. Americans in that case. Like Maoman and Porcelain Princess, I would extend that to at least the other countries mentioned above. I know a lot of Asian and black people who consider themselves British and who are considered so by the vast majority of white British people they know; this includes both first and subsequent generations (probably the most significant immigration in terms of numbers took place in the 50s and 60s).
But I think it’s interesting that only Britain and perhaps Canada as well have taken seriously the concept of multiple identities. Especially among South Asians, many people feel that they have both British and South Asian cultural identity. Let us be clear what this means. In terms of citizenship, they are certainly British. That is, they vote, they pay taxes, they participate very actively in the economy and would support the country in times of crisis. But many also see themselves as having South Asian cultural identity in terms of family structure, religion and custom. The two identities are not contradictory and I feel that diversity benefits both local areas and Britain as a whole. This attitude is reflected in governmental policies which although at times are lumbering and clumsy, do a good job on the whole.
This is in contrast to many other countries with significant immigrant populations, which see assimilation as a goal. Examples are the USA and France. It seems that in these countries, some kind of minimising or forgetting of the original culture is a goal. Of course immigrants’ customs and culture have not died out and are thriving, but this seems to be despite the prevailing attitude held by everybody - government, ‘native’ population and immigrant population together - that assimilation is the only worthy goal. A Taiwanese friend studying in the UK told me that he knew quite a few ‘ABCs’ who were snooty towards him and certainly did not want to think about any shared culture they might have had. On this forum, Blueface666 was outspoken about ‘hyphenated’ Americans but it seems many people share his view that one is either ‘American’ or not. The French government and perhaps many French people seem to be wary of cultural diversity and I’m not quite sure whether the recent ban on headscarf wearing (and overt display of any religious symbols) in schools is really out of concern for human rights or for other, less tolerant reasons.
I don’t want to make a big thing of this. I think that there can be advantages to both approaches and I’m sure it’s arguable that some immigrants to the US feel more accepted by and really a part of the host culture than do some immigrants to the UK. But on the whole, I feel that acceptance of multiple identities can make a country and its people stronger and more mature. There seems to be some fear in host countries that immigrants are not really loyal citizens and would run off somewhere if trouble started (with 2nd and subsequent generation immigrants, the question has to be asked; where would they run to?). Perhaps it is because of this fear that assimilation is promoted so fervently. I think that on the whole this fear is ungrounded and that the majority of legal immigrants to both assimilation-minded and diversity-tolerant countries are loyal and productive members of society. (I don’t know much about illegal immigrants and anyway that’s another subject.)
Well, originally we used to call American immigrants to Canada “Loyalist cowards fleeing faster than Benedict Arnold.” 
It’s a bit ignorant to call all of middle America “white”. The Midwest, maybe, except for the urban centers. But in the rural South it’s mostly half white, half black. And in most of the Southwest it’s half Anglo, half Mexican. And scattered throughout the country are plenty of places where it’s half white, half Native American. And of course there’s Hawaii, which is half East Asian, half other folks. And if you count Jewish as non-white, there’s the Big Apple - half kosher & non-kosher.
And everyone in California is an immigrant. There aren’t any second-generation natives. :mrgreen: It’s the place where everybody who isn’t settled down in a square peg in the rest of the country, all those folks from Tallahassee to Des Moines, they all move out there to reinvent themselves and/or make money.
And yeah, as far as slurs go, almost everybody gets it from time to time. I can’t bother to count the times I’ve gotten ribbed about rednecks and incest and the Dukes of Hazzard from fellow Westerners here in Taiwan when I mention what state I’m from. I don’t mind it all that much, hell, half of those stereotypes about the South are just the truth…same as half the stereotypes of most any other group. As long as it’s taken with good humour and isn’t mean-spirited, there’s nothing wrong with it. I mean, people here on Forumosa have great fun making lists poking fun at Taiwanese culture all the time. Yelling, “Go back to China, gook!” is a perfect example of what I’m not talking about, though. But getting offended every time someone makes an ethnic joke is just being hypersensitive.
For example, take this recent flap over Conan O’Brien’s Insult Dog.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … a_conan_dc
Sheesh! This is even more of a non-issue than Janet Jackson’s tit. Some people seriously need to get thicker skins and a life.
There is a slight difference. Someone cannot ‘change’ their race. If I were in America, I wish I were White. Then I’d have more opportunities to do what I wanted. Hell, if I wanted to do acting, look at the amount of opportunities I’d have as opposed to being of Asian descent and having a majority of stereotypical, minimalized roles.
There are lots of glass ceilings that are apparently not very clear to many White Americans. I’ve had to point that out to some of my friends at Cornell. Ok, given the fact that a lot were probably brought up in a very White community, they probably did not have much thought of races anyways. And I’d also have to point out that there are less Jewish Americans than Asian Americans in Asia. However, clearly Jewish Americans have ‘melt’ into America and have done quite well, which I believe is partly do to their more assimilated appearances. Asian Americans however, have not, even though they have been in America for over 150 years.
Be glad you’re Asian. Your grandchildren or GGchildren may have a chance in the future to come 
[quote=“ckhcornell”]There is a slight difference. Someone cannot ‘change’ their race. If I were in America, I wish I were White. Then I’d have more opportunities to do what I wanted. Hell, if I wanted to do acting, look at the amount of opportunities I’d have as opposed to being of Asian descent and having a majority of stereotypical, minimalized roles.
[/quote]
Cornell, that’s a terrible attitude to have. To wish you were white? Don’t you realize how much the skin cancer factor goes up if you have white skin? Have you ever seen how horrible a white person’s skin looks on a hot, humid Taipei day when they’ve been walking outside? Not pretty. Sometimes I wish I was going to win the lottery. I am sure lots of white men wish they were Asian so they could get laid all the time without the guilt trip and requirement that you are 100% faithful to your wife that you get from growing up in the West.
Will all due respect, I can only hope you are a recent college grad, slightly frustrated because you didn’t hit the big time the first few years out of college, and have not been able to live up to your own goals or those imposed by your family. I hear a lot of Asian Americans bitch about acting oppurtunities in the States, but there could be a lot of other reasons for that. Asians still only make up less than 5% of the population–not as big of talent pool as the white population, which makes of 77% of the US population. (Check it out on nationmaster.com) There could be other factors–pressures and attitudes by Asian-American parents that their children do anything BUT work in art or show business. And actor who has been nurtered and studied the craft all his life will certainly find more doors open to them than one who, years after college, decided to stop doing what his parents want him to do. And keep in mind, for every famous actor, there are billions of other actors who are scraping along by doing plays and commercials their whole lives.
[quote=“porcelainprincess”]
Not true. If you’re a white male of average height and looks, as I am, you this kinda shite doesn’t happen to you.[/quote]
you’ve obviously never seen the Budweiser commercial sppofing a bunch of preppy types trying to say “Wassssss-up”. Have you now ya silly cracker?
Chou
[quote=“mod lang”]For example, take this recent flap over Conan O’Brien’s Insult Dog.
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … a_conan_dc
Sheesh! This is even more of a non-issue than Janet Jackson’s tit. Some people seriously need to get thicker skins and a life.[/quote]
I watched it on television. For those of you who care to know, Conan O’Brien is a talk show host (think Johnny Carson, you’ve heard of him surely?) who decided to do a week of shows up here in Toronto. The fawning, obsequious natives treating this like the second coming have been, quite frankly, an embarrassment. Toronto loves to harbour pretensions to world class status, but if it were ever in doubt ('cause if you have to ask…), it is no longer. People here have been preening themselves like pimply debutantes hoping to catch the eye of the high school quarterback, and the end effect is that we’ve been played for rubes. The provincial government actually contributed $500,000 of our money to get him to come here.
Cringe.
About the offensive Insult Dog in Quebec: it was frat boy inept, wilfully demeaning, and finally, lame. A lot of American humour does not travel well, especially if meant for American ears back home, even if only partly (he was hamming it up for the Toronto audience in the studio as well).
The only people to come out looking good in all this has been les Quebecoises. The kerfuffle barely registered there–either they’d never heard of Conan O’Brien and don’t care, or they laughed it off.
Because they don’t care.
Kewl.
Oh, come on, Porc. “Rue des Pussies”? That was FUNNY. :mrgreen:
And now for a traditional Canadian riddle:
Q: How many Canadians does it take to change a lightbulb??
A: One, unless a ladder is necessary to reach it, in which case a second is needed to hold the ladder steady.
The glass ceiling exists for everybody. Being disappointed because your prospects in real life don’t match up to the dreams you had in college is a normal experience for most people in their 20s. Only a tiny, small percentage of people make it to the “top”. “Most men live lives of quiet desperation,” as Thoreau said. The difference is that, in America, if you’re an ethnic minority, you have a ready-made excuse for your failure. You can always blame your normal feelings of young-man anger and frustration on the ‘system’. If a white guy doesn’t get a job, he has only himself to blame. If a minority guy doesn’t get a job, it’s because he’s not white.
[quote=“MaPoDurian”]Oh, come on, Porc. “Rue des Pussies”? That was FUNNY. :mrgreen:
[/quote]
Like I said, a lot of American humour does not travel well. Voila.
yup
conan is a fucking shithead. No country in the world pokes fun of other countries like America does. On almost every Late night show, no matter which one, racial references, nationality stereotypes are so fucking prevalent. Don’t they have anything else to joke about other than making fun of countries?
Taiwan and Korea don’t do this. It just shows how fucking stuck up Americans are…
Taiwan doesn’t do this? Hah… what was that show I was watching last night… the one with the foreign guests.
And one of the questions was… People from which country have the worst body odor? Also, which country has the most disgusting people…
Now these were taken as serious questions, although jokes were made on the side. In America you would never see anything like that.
In America TV is a joke and understood as a joke.
Other people in the world are just too pussy and delicate to take a joke. You got broomsticks up your ass or too busy cleaning crumpet crumbs from your trousers. Toughen up… and then you can talk shit to America.
I beg your pardon? I don’t think ckhcornell has any association with dear old Blighty, and I’m absolutely certain that he’s not a jolly betrousered crumpet-scoffing English fellow, for crikey’s sake old chap!
who are you nikeh? What channel and show were you watching? Are you sure it wasn’t in Japanese or another language, maybe you misunderstood…
Truth is American humor = racist humor (period).
[quote=“Nikeh”]
And one of the questions was… People from which country have the worst body odor? Also, which country has the most disgusting people…[/quote]
I know these!!
Worst body odor: Ireland (Ever played any sport with these fuckers? Peeew!!)
Most disgusting: Pakistan (Saw a guy squat down and take a crap on the street once under his robe and then get up and walk away as if all was right in the world. Given the size of the excrement, I suppose all was.)