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Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

Why do you assume my dad was an immigrant. His side of the family has been in the Hawaii since the 1880s, before it even became a territory. My father was born in post WWII America to two born in America citizens.

His master chief was black, his executive officer was a woman, and his head programmer was white. He was universally loved in the Navy community, especially by his subordinates, and though he did ruffle some feathers with his superiors, I can't believe he pissed them off too much, since they even honored him with a full page cartoon of him explaining his achievement with two other O6s and an O5, and twice with the legion of merit, which you don't get (much less twice) if the admirals are displeased.

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> Why do you assume my dad was an immigrant.

For whatever it's worth, I detected no assumption that your father was an immigrant in the OP. It's worth dwelling on the possibility that no such assumption is needed.

> You're not alone there. The same is true for people from most cultures -- African immigrants, Eastern European immigrants, and most other types of immigrants

Following up Asian American with a list of other immigrant groups indicates that assumption pretty strongly. If he wanted to highlight cultural differences from WASP society, he could have listed Black Americans or Southern Rednecks. It's quite clear that Blacks and Redneck society, despite being very different from WASP society, is "native" to America in a way that Asian Americans aren't in public perception.

I thought about those when writing the post. I chose not to list those simply because they made the discussion more complex, to the point where a post would have turned into an essay. I didn't want to single out Asians (or lump them together), but I also didn't want to get into that.

The two groups you list face more discrimination than most Asians precisely because of the assumption you list: they're perceived to be native, and cultural allowances aren't made, but the cultural differences are huge.

That's especially true for what you call "Southern Rednecks," of whom you will find approximately zero at e.g. elite schools, mostly due to this sort of discrimination.

Its possible that the shared values and commitment to public service inherent in choosing to serve in the military caused your father's co-workers in the military to see him more clearly and/or in a different light.

It is also possible that his leadership ability did not manifest equally in both settings, for example if he was more passionate about the military than his civilian job and/or if it was a better fit for his skill set.

Not to suggest that some institutions don't still discriminate against Asians etc, unfortunately. Hopefully things are changing for the better though.

How well one person fits into a team is a very "butterfly effect" thing. I've both been "the star" and the mediocre kinda struggling guy on different team.

It's called "team chemistry" not "team logic" for a reason.

I assure you there are lots of stupid people in the military who are racist, and "the shared values and commitment to public service" is not nearly as inherent in government as Parks and Recreation would have you believe. Remember, in his full time job he also worked for the Federal Government. In the VA, no less. You'd think that the employees of the VA would have the highest level of commitment to public service and the highest understanding of what it means to be a successful leader in the military, (and for that matter the highest amount of care for the health of veterans), but, that doesn't seem to really be the case.

Is it different in Hawaii and California and East Coast?

I am a long way from any of those places.

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