Asian People example essay topic

I've lived a comfortable life by not being forced to get a job as soon as I was of working age. I had a computer, my own room and I grew up in a nice neighborhood. My environment affected me a lot while I was growing up, by being sheltered to some experiences that I would have received in another area. We do not have to worry about theft or violence, and either it did not occur to me or racism just was not there up until junior high. Now I think back, I had to deal with racism ever since I arrived in America. When I just came to America about 12 years ago, I couldn't speak a word of English.

I distinctively remember American kids would make fun of me, the way I look, the way I dressed and the way I talked. They would also go, ? o h Ching chong ching chong chong ching.? It's scary to know that 12 years ago, people were racially oppressing me. I have always thought of it just as a joke and that they didn't know Chinese so they were trying to speak my language. How na " ive could I have been? But when I think about all those times growing up in junior high and high school, I have been racially oppressed.

During junior high, we had a total of 6 Asian males in my grade. It was a predominately white school so I usually hang out with 3 of them and the other 2 Asian kids were usually with the white people. I remember getting called in to the principal's office with the other 3 kids. The principal suspected of us being an "Asian Gang? because we didn't hang out with any other people. He even threatened us that if he suspected us of doing anything "Gang Related? he was going to expel all 4 of us. I can understand if we wore clothes that resembled gangs or we were the ones that was always causing troubles.

In actuality, we were the opposite of that. Like many adolescents at our age, we always played video games and sports. Come to think of it, during lunchtime in junior high, the security was always around my friends and I with no apparent reason. The more I think about that the more enraged I am that our principle was racist. The principle was actually expelled on a different reason but I was glad that he was gone. After junior high I went to Mountain View High School.

There I met more Asian people and though it was still predominately white, this time Asian people was about 30% instead of the 5% during junior high. Another example of my being mistreated on the basis of my appearance is going into any kind of establishment where I am looking to make a purchase. It is hard to pinpoint that the mistreatment that befalls me as racially based, because I fall in to many other categories of mistreated people. One example is my age, which is why in some parts my argument is more directed at stereotypes which racism is a component. When I was looking into buying my first car I originally was set on a Mustang so I visited mostly Ford dealerships but also two Honda dealerships just for a little comparison. I went either by myself, or with a friend or with a parent.

But one thing that I did notice of my roughly eight visits to a dealership I was only offered help once. Four times I did receive some help my I had to go look for it each time. This I found to be very upsetting, that they had stereotyped me into some young Asian male whom could no afford a car and therefore it would be a waste of their time to help me. Sometimes I get the impression that because I am Asian, that I have a lot of money too and it just bothers me. They either think I'm really rich or really poor just by judging my skin color. Now fast forward 5 years and I see another fellow Asian man being racially oppressed and it's on television.

Shaquille O'Neal, a NBA basketball player told a reporter, "Tell Yao Ming, 'ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.? Shaq was, in a most derisive tone, aiming a racist barb at the rookie center for the Houston Rockets. Ironically, just days before this racial taunt was aired nationally, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had honored O'Neal with their Young Leaders Award. We can only hope that the NAACP had no knowledge of Shaq's earlier racial taunt of Yao Ming and L.A. Clippers center Wang Zhi zhi, broadcast on June 28 on Fox Television's Best Damn Sports Show Period. When Yao Ming was brought up, Shaquille O'Neal spoke with a mock Chinese accent and made mock "kung fu? moves. Before I found out about this incident, I've always thought that Shaq was a good man, he played really good basketball and does a lot of work for people with needs.

Now with national television broadcasting, he says a racial slur and people brush it off as a joke. If today Yao Ming said some kind of racial slur to Shaq, he would probably be fined and possibly expelled from NBA because he's Chinese. Where does all this kind of racism and stereotyping come from? Racism and stereotyping is everywhere. The question is where does it come from. If you take a poll of the general population in the Bay Area most people would say that they are not racist and accept all people regardless of their differences.

But if so many people say they are not racist then where does it all come from. In my mind it comes from them not properly assess their actions. Like in class the other day we were talking about feminism most people were not sure about attaching the label of being a feminist to themselves. This has to do with the stereotyping of the "normal? feminist individual.

The class was in general agreement that things are not fair for women and that they would like to see them improved. And by the definition that was presented in class that made everyone a feminist, even though that was not a label that many did not want to have. The same would be with racism, it is such a big part of our society I find it hard to believe that the majority of our population does not considered someone's looks when forming an opinion of them. The problem with stereotyping is the constant use of labels in our society black, white, yellow, red, and brown. In class we were talking about a gentleman that thought one of the problems with racism is the keeping of records that show difference between different ethnic groups.

At first I thought this guy is way of course, we need statistics to show us how we are progressing towards a solution for the problem. I still think that part is true however I did see some point in his theory, that the problem with racism and stereotyping is the use of labels. Why do we have to say he is black or white the color of his skin should not matter but the content of his character? I believe that there is even a problem with the word racism, meaning the treatment of people differently based on their race. No one is of a different race we are all part of the human race, we do have different cultures but that is something that should be celebrated not something that is hated. We are all different I am very proud of my heritage and we should cherish it.

However if we are to get rid of racism completely I feel that it maybe something that we may need to lose. That is in a sense just another label separating us. The important thing is that not matter how hard it maybe we need to treat everyone with the same respect that they deserve. With each generation we will do better, and hopefully in some generation to follow they will not know the term of racism and it will be something that is not fathomable, treating someone differently based on the color of their skin..