Column: IU's dirty little racist secret

Growing up half-Asian, it's safe to say I've been the butt of every Asian joke in human history. Fortunately, aside from Father Micah telling me I’m going to hell because I’m mixed, it’s mostly just been my friends having a little fun at my expense.

I’m not exactly a fresh-off-the-boat Asian, though, so I’d be lying if I said I’d experienced any full-blown racial attacks.

Back when my mom was a student at IU in 1986, racism hit her pretty hard on several occasions. Twice, she was the victim of a truck full of men driving by and shouting racial slurs, once throwing a walnut at her head, and another time, a raw egg. In another instance, someone wrote, “Go home, chink!” underneath her name on her reserved library cubby hole.

Twenty-five years later, I was in line at the Wright Quad food court with some stir-fried noodles and was caught off-guard when the cashier sarcastically joked, “Ah, decided to get some food from your homeland today?”

I was born here, buddy.

Anyway, I’ve always just rolled with the punches on those sorts of things. I attribute them to ignorance. Plus, it’s never been violent or extremely traumatizing. Maybe times have changed, or maybe it’s because I look white.

Regardless, you never really hear about racism against Asians, nor does anyone seem to care, which is strange since it’s fairly common.

The media is constantly buzzing about racism toward blacks because of their history of being oppressed and enslaved, and all the uninformed hatred toward them continues to exist. We are now conditioned to be extra sensitive toward racism against the African-American community, as we should be. These days, anyone making a black joke will be confronted by people saying, “Dude, what the hell? You’re so racist.”

Why isn’t a big deal made about racism against Asians?

I can’t tell you the last time I heard anything on the news about white-on-Asian violence or hate, but it definitely happens. People make fun of Asians openly. I’m half white, and I’ve had it happen to my face.

In high school during a pregame stretch, my entire lacrosse team joined in a chorus of “I’ve been working on the railroad” directed toward me. It concluded with our cocaptain saying, “If Ben was singing it, it would be ‘ching ch-ching ch-ching ching chinggg ching,” which consequently became a recurring joke on the team until I graduated.
Perhaps they were ignorant to the fact that in the 19th century, the transcontinental railroad was, for the most part, constructed by Chinese workers under slave-like conditions.

It’s hard to imagine anyone getting away with it had the situation been the team
singing a slave song to a black teammate.

Maybe it’s because Asians are not particularly intimidating, or so the media would lead you to think. Let’s keep it real for a second: no one is scared of us. What badass Asians are a part of mainstream media? Jackie Chan? He’s almost 60 years old.

The people who think all Asian people are the same are the ignorant people who think all black people are Lil’ Wayne.

At the end of the day, I’m able to brush it off because no, I’ve never eaten a dog, my aunt doesn’t work in a nail salon, my family doesn’t run a laundromat, my name wasn’t chosen by throwing pots and pans down the stairs and my mom is an excellent driver.
It’s easy for me to remember these things because I was born and raised here and have heard those jokes 100 times.

However, for an Asian person who didn’t grow up in the United States, it cuts pretty deep to be met by these taunts, because they don’t know it’s just a cruel joke.

The rest of the world thinks white Americans are fat, greedy, conceited assholes. We know it’s not true, but it hurts to hear.

Racism is the most ignorant thing ever created by the human race. I say created because we aren’t born racist. It’s a learned behavior.

I look forward to the day I can tell my grandkids there used to be a thing called racism, and some people thought they were superior to others because their skin or hair or eyes were a little different.

Until then, we need to look down on all sorts of prejudice. While racism against black people is far too common, all minorities — Asians, gays, Latinos, etc. — get it, too.
By only looking down on one type of hate, we make the rest of it OK. If you really think racism against black people is not acceptable, then you must agree racism against all other social, cultural and racial minorities is unacceptable as well.

Ignorance hinders progress, so let’s just open our eyes to some of the racism that is deeply embedded in the students of this campus.

And yes, I’ve gotten a million “Ben, are your eyes open? I can’t tell,” jokes.

­— bwwade@indiana.edu