Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

As a result, throughout my childhood—and most of my adulthood—we mostly contended with a slim parade of different, sometimes contradictory, caricatures: lotus blossoms and dragon ladies, math nerds and martial artists, refugees and gang-bangers. Ad nauseum.

The amount of presumption that I have to deal with from strangers on a regular basis is still disturbing. Such interactions only comprise a small fraction of the total, but a modern urban setting is sufficiently populated to generate a regular supply. No, I look nothing like Jackie Chan. Please don't treat me like someone wearing a costume at Disney World. I'm not a cartoon and I'm not your instant Asian friend. Yes, I was born here. English is my first language. I know next to nothing about martial arts. I'm not bad but still not that good at math. No, I don't think I'm better than you, I don't need to be shown up, you're not making the world a more beautiful and better place by doing that. (Still, all of those are better than the instant Asian=target of abuse idiots or the weird psycho-sexual vibes from certain kinds of middle-aged white guys.)

I observe the little dance that people go through when they get to know each other. I notice the little verbal and non-verbal signals being passed and being noticed. I'd really like to notice more of those transactions and stop wondering about their relative lack coincident with these big globs of presumption coming out of nowhere.

"The amount of presumption that I have to deal with from strangers on a regular basis "

Seriously? Where the hell do you live, Georgia? But, I suppose being white I don't see it.

And that psycho-sexual thing is called a "rice queen." Uh, fyi, I guess.

It still happens even in major metropolitan centers like NYC. I still vividly recall being gawked over by a crowd of extremely rowdy girls on Halloween day, having "Look, it's Jackie Chan!" thrown at me. They were pretty much shrieking about it and on the subway, no less. Nothing to do but have to actually listen to that nonsense. It shocked and sickened me for a while.

Granted, the girls in question seemed to be from generally poorer, low-education areas. That still doesn't excuse it in my book though.

Having your features be an instant mark of attention is unsettling. Women often understand this, as they're subject to being hollered at by random guys.

Seriously? Where the hell do you live, Georgia?

My last 3 cities: Houston, Cincinnati, Columbia SC.

I suppose being white I don't see it.

I guess thanks for being open to the possibility. I meet so many white men in the US who are immediately skeptical of my personal integrity when I tell them of these comparatively mild forms of discrimination. Do these guys really live on the planet? Racial hatreds are involved with documented cases of lynching in the South, they were recently part of the ideological basis for regional conflicts, some where mobs of people cut human beings down with machetes in public. In a world where all that happens motivated by race, are a few racially-based onerous and idiotic preconceptions/presumptions really all that surprising?

And, no, I am NOT related to Bruce Lee.

Move.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com