My next podcast will take place hopefully in the next week or two. We’re going to try recording with the built-in one-touch capability. Even though the quality won’t be nearly as good as it is with Better William’s super-expensive telephone patch, it’s intelligible. If you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll let you know when to call in.
The topic will be: Crabs in a Bucket.
Oftentimes, we hear the term “Crabs in a Bucket” when talking about Asian Americans in film, media, politics, and any other field that requires a person to be in front of a spotlight. The term is used to describe an Asian American system in which whenever one Asian American steps forward to try something, all the other Asian Americans, like crabs in a bucket, reach up and pull him or her back. “Hatorade” is another common term that I’ve heard, referring to a supposed trend in which Asian Americans love to hate upon one another.
While I love the idea of solidarity, I also think that you need to call it as you see it. If you love something just because it happened to be produced by an Asian person, it’s racist. That’s my opinion anyway. If you disagree, I hope to hear from you. I love call-ins, but if you don’t want to call in, feel free to post it down on this blog. OR, if you want to leave a message as a precursor to a call-in, also feel free to leave a message.
My questions are as follows:
1. Is it true that Asian Americans are harder on their own than on others?
2. For the sake of empowerment, should we be giving each other more leeway or less leeway?
3. When (or is it) okay for Asian Americans to criticize other Asian Americans? Is there a way in which this should be done? Is there some criteria that you use to determine when this should be done?
Call in and make your voice heard. If you’re interested, let me know, and we’ll get you in. I plan to do it sometime during the week of Oct. 13th, 2008…or earlier.
(Photo from glamazon at flickr.)
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But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
“While I love the idea of solidarity, I also think that you need to call it as you see it. If you love something just because it happened to be produced by an Asian person, it’s racist.”
You’re kidding, right? Racist? What exactly is the definition of “racism” being used here? Anything that promotes racial solidarity or empowerment is now “racist”?
That is not racist. It might be a form of Asian American cultural nationalism, yes, but not racist.
Larry,
Okay, time for me to backpedal since I was writing in haste. You’re right.
I’ll leave it up there just so I learn my lesson for writing too fast, but I meant to write, “If you support something just because it happened to be produced by an Asian person, it’s racist.” Love is an emotion, and in my world, there is no such thing as bad emotion, just bad action. “Support” is the word I meant to use. My bad.
Example:
When blogging first came out in the 90′s, there was this Korean American blogger who wrote about his grandfather, and how they watched the ’84 Olympics together. He was writing about how Roy Jones, Jr. beat the crap out of the Korean boxer only to have the match stolen from him. The grandfather said that he didn’t care, that all that mattered to him was that a Korean won and that Koreans were supporting Koreans. Rules and cheating meant nothing because a Korean had won and Koreans had created that win. The grandmother stepped out of the kitchen and concurred. The young blogger was the only one who disagreed. (This was written over a discussion about the LA riots.)
Now some old Korean guy in CA cheering for a Korean boxer doesn’t mean anything–it’s discriminatory, but it doesn’t hurt anyone, so I probably wouldn’t call it “racist.” But if this grandfather were, say, in Korea, and he was writing letters to the Korean newspapers lauding the cheaters for a job well done just because they stole the match from Jones and gave it to a Korean, he’d be encouraging the powerful media to support bad behavior based on race/nationalism. That would be racist, according to the American Heritage dictionary definition of “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racist
If he were an old Korean American guy teaching young impressionable kids that it was okay to cheat Jones because Jones isn’t Korean, that would also be racist.
It’s the action, combined with the power of the pen or whatever power a person has, that creates racism. That is the definition that I’m using in my new, revised statement.
The crab that steps forward in a bucket… steps on top of other crabs.
Amy Tan wouldn’t be as financially successful without the other crabs underneath her foot.
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