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A Time to Address Inter-Ethnic RacismAs a half black / half Chinese American raised by my single, Asian mother in inner-city Detroit, Eng's column was not a revelation that racism exists in either communities - it was the story of my life.By Christal Phillips Growing up half Chinese and poor in a city known for its crime, poverty, and segregation wasn't easy. My mother, a Chinese immigrant from Taiwan who later received her U.S. citizenship, has the equivalent of an eighth-grade education. My African-American father, a lawyer, showed up in decade-long intervals and never paid a cent in child support. With little money and no support from my father, my mother and I lived in predominantly black public housing projects in inner-city Detroit from the time I was born until I was in high school when we "moved up" to a public housing project in suburban Detroit. 
With my light brown skin and an Asian mother, my family certainly raised eyebrows where I grew up. Living in a predominantly black neighborhood and later attending a predominantly white private high school on a full scholarship gave me a unique perspective on race, class, and the dynamics between different minorities.
I was reminded on a daily basis that I was different. The stares I would get from blacks, whites, and Asians taught me at a young age that being mixed was somehow wrong in a society that is still to a large extent segregated by race. There were Asians who denied us service in a Chinatown after they realized I was my mother's daughter. I have met Asians who looked down on my mother and talked about her behind her back because she was considered a slut to have had a child with a black man. My mother likes to tell me the story of our visit to Social Services to apply for governmental assistance. The black social worker who helped my mother fill out an application corrected my mother when she checked off the box marked "black" to identify my race. "That girl isn't black," the social worker said. From that day my mother taught me that I was bi-racial because neither my black nor Asian heritage would fully accept me. I was made to believe that I was odd based on their belief that black and Asian should never mix. My mother, now at an age where she should be retired but still mops floors and cleans toilets, takes her work in stride. She is simple and expects very little in life but her determination against the odds makes her exceptional. Her face fills up with pride at the fact that she can land a job sweeping waste for seven dollars an hour. But what bothers my mother most about her life - the things that make her come home and cry - is not the physical labor she endures but the hateful words and actions from white and black co-workers and the fact that she feels shunned by some Asians for having a mixed child. A day before I was made aware of Kenneth Eng's stereotypical and disgraceful column in AsianWeek, my mother told me over the phone that several black and white women at her workplace had made fun of her Chinese accent and one African-American woman uttered the comment "motherf*ckin' Chinese" in her presence. I understand my mother's frustration but I also remind her that there are people of all races - like Eng - who hate out of pure ignorance. They do not represent anyone but themselves and they are not a reason to discriminate or stereotype an entire race. I have enough education and a diverse group of friends to know that Eng and the people who mock my mother at work do not represent their communities. What all of these people have in common is ignorance, a lack of education, and self-hatred in a segregated world that promotes stereotypes of other people they do not know or understand. I don't know what Eng's excuse is for his ignorance but I do understand how horribly easy it is to stereotype and spew hatred at another human being when you are poor, uneducated, and downtrodden in a segregated city, like the people who mop floors and clean toilets alongside my mother. It is time to have an open dialogue so we can help break down stereotypes that exist for both African Americans and Asian Americans. My disgust at reading Eng's column came with a surprising bit of relief that positive dialogue between the African-American and Asian-American communities could come out of one man's hatred. Now is the time for minority groups to face the reality of inter-ethnic racism. I applaud AsianWeek's and Asian-American leaders for their quick response in condemning Eng's piece and holding a press conference with the NAACP before Black-Asian relations could possibly take a turn for the worse. Though Eng's feelings do not represent the majority, my experiences and those of my mother show that we have a long way to go with race relations in this country not only between minorities and whites but between ourselves. Sources Christal Phillips is a second year law student at the University of Michigan Law School. |
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