Being Discriminated

I am not a true American, I am Chinese. My family has an accent.To many, I have squirted eyes. To many, I am neither white or black, I am yellow. As one of the Asian population in America, I too, got discriminated.

It was when I was living in an African American neighborhood that I heard racial slurs against my race. I had experienced verbal abuse. I lived a tense lifestyle for ten years within this neighborhood while my family opened a Chinese take-out restaurant. Everyday, it seemed like an instigation of an incipient disaster.


Maybe it was the sudden difference of treatment in Chinatown, my previous residence, to this tiger’s den in South Philly. My family probably struck the wrong nerve of these predators. It seems tranquil for a month of the store’s opening. It was as if they had been eying for a killer blow on their prey.


Then, there comes a series of attacks. They threw trash cans around the restaurant. They spit on the windows and smashed one of them loose. They threw firecrackers every New Years and Memorials Day, ruining our hope for a new beginning. They wrote prejudice remarks on the walls. They used the restaurant to hide and sell drugs. Due to the calamities, my parents got into fights frequently. My mom blamed my dad for letting her and me come to the U.S. to suffer. My dad blamed my mom for being negative despite of his efforts to fix the business.


The school I attended was no better. Some of the students are the siblings or children of the people who ransacked my father’s restaurant. There were several times when I walked on a vacant hallway and the same boy would grab my arm, bursting out “chingchong,” “chingzhongzhong." I would then swung my arms loose and walked away without a word while he laughed. If some people blamed for my reticence, I agreed. I felt disappointed about my cowardice. But, any of my verbal attacks would direct a series physical attacks toward my parents. I would rather suffer quietly for the sake of my loved ones who protected me numerous times. It was the time for me to protect them instead.


The violence continued, but it exacerbated. During my freshman year, my dad noticed a boy who trashed the store, the other day he followed me to school, so my dad walked me to school. There was one time when the boy wanted to push me down the stairs and my dad threatened him to beat him up if he did. Then, several months later, a group of robbers cut the lock of the restaurant’s back door and took a new flat-screen TV, boxes of cigars and candies. My family lost thousands of dollars and are in debt. We were bankrupted.


All these times, I just hide upstairs until the hollering downstairs subsided every night. I did nothing. I felt worthless and selfish. I also lost my confidence to speak and I also developed anxiety problems.


When I look back, I always think about how pathetic I was. It was not until I went to SLA, that I regained some of my once gregarious self. The prejudice and discrimination against my race needs to be changed. I think one of the prevention of change is the fact that many Asian immigrants are illiterate and their problems could be overlooked by the police. In order to combat discrimination as an individual, I should fully participate as a translator for the owners of Chinese restaurants in that neighborhood, so our family and other Asian families have better protection. The police would be more cooperative in solving our problems on discrimination.           


I could solve this issue, I need to know the origin of prejudice. Based on my research, I found out that one of the causes of prejudice is frustration. One group of people might felt underachieved and released their aggression on other minorities who have a higher chance of success than them (Asians are minorities, but they have positive stereotypes, such as intelligence). Or Asians could be a scapegoat for resentment towards the dominant group. Therefore, resulting discrimination against the Asian population.


It is truthful to be said that in my situation, the blacks are the only ones who are cantankerous. If I said that, I would be lying. My family are also putting oil on fire, even though they were unconscious of it. The blacks may view my family’s attitude as an act of belittlement towards them, just like my family looks at the actions of the African Americans as discrimination.


We could solve this problem by eliminating this miscommunication. It could be assuaged by bringing the two conflicting races together in a camp or other institution where they will be given a task to be achieved only if everyone cooperated. This method was carried out in 1953 by two psychologists named Muzafer Sherif and Caroline Sherif. In which their colleagues ran summer camps for teen boys and letting two groups of boys compete with each other. As the competition grew fierce, the two groups became more aggressive against one another. Aside from the one method I have mentioned that worked, the other ways were dismissed. For instance, agreeing on compromises are forsaken because only the leaders agreed. It is also proven that verbal warnings are useless in maintaining respect, tranquility and understanding on both sides.


Another way to ameliorate discrimination against Asians is to gain more awareness by passive resistance (protests, marches, etc.). But, it would not be efficacious if it lacks the attention needed to create a bigger change. Also, the question as to why there are more sensitivity on discrimination on African Americans is critical. If you listen to BBC or FOX News, Asians are rarely mentioned. Sometimes, I feel that people sometimes forgot our presence in America until they see us on the streets. There are simply not enough publicity in the mainstream.


Also, most schools do not have a curriculum that teaches Asian history or their struggles in America. It comes down to the question of why people have the desire for change when they are not emotionally attached to the problem? Most curriculums taught the Atlantic slavery several times. It makes the younger generation feel a sense of sympathy and rage on the treatment of African Americans, therefore the topic of prejudice against African Americans is a sensitive topic. Since, there is a void of lessons taught about Asian slaveries and struggles, people sometimes forgot that we are being discriminated as well.


Unless the publicity and a slight change to the schools’ curriculum to inflict a more successful protest, passive resistance would only gain minimal results.  


To me, discrimination is not just a political issue, it is also affecting victims’ lives. To some Asians who can not speak adequate English, they are constantly ignored by the public when they seek help. When the people trashed my dads restaurant, the police leisurely took their time to solve the problem. This agonizing experience transformed my past outspoken self to my current timid self who still wants to recover.


There is really no need to inflict harm on others. It would only create more hate between groups. Discrimination could be prevented by group contacts and active protests. I wish for a better tomorrow for Asian Americans who suffer the same experiences as my family.

Source: Ballantine, Jeanne H., and Keith A. Roberts. Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2007. Print.

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