Race and Your Community

While growing up in the United States I always have the belief that United States believes everyone is created equal. I do not remember reading in U.S. History about discrimination of race, ethnic or country of origin. This is a real interesting topic and also a learning lesson. After doing this research I have a different viewpoint about my life, my children's future and my responsibility as an immigrant and as a United States Citizen, through naturalization. United States has come a long way from the time Chinese immigrants were dealing with redlining and racism. I do agree Chinese traditions and customs are not easy to understand, however, I also do not understand the practice and traditional rules of other culture. Yet I do not want to judge and fear the other race's practice. Racial profiling will cause a lot of problem. This explains why many of the high ranking positions in the World are "Whites".

I never noticed it but when reading in the newspaper whenever I read about an important person and they have an Asian name, I tend to be very proud of this person and want to read more about them. I believe this stems from the natural (but unknown to myself) connection I have about all Asians. The limited opportunity they have and yet when an Asian reaches the ladder with other race, I am very proud. Racial profiling should not be allowed in schools or employment. However, racial profiling can be easily committed without you knowing. Notice your last name gives out a clue of your race. Well many companies require you fill out an employment application before they will interview you. The application asks for your full name, and birth place. The application may state that it is optional to provide your race. But many of us know, by reading the last time you can pretty much tell if the person is Asian or not. For example, I automatically can tell if I see "Tran, or Nguyen" and "Chan or Chau", "Cho, Kim". Tran is Vietnamese and Chan is Chinese. Chinese likes to combine the letter "CH" together. Vietnamese likes to combine "TR" and "NG". Cho and Kim are usually Korean names.

Week one of this course, I was in the middle of an escrow and moving. I sold my home in Azusa and purchased another home in Rosemead. The sudden change in community struck me with confusion and curiosity. When driving to the stores and notice less people are staring at me. When we first moved to Azusa I always felt out of place because I did not speak their language and I did not look like them. According to the Online Wikipedia, Latino or Hispanics population in Azusa is 63.79%, compared to 6.14% of Asians in that city. No wonder I feel out of place. We lived in Azusa for three years before deciding to move out. It was difficult to go to the park, library or even the supermarket. There was a lot of Mexican support market. Later we moved to Rosemead. According to the Us Census Bureau for city of Rosemead, Asian accounted for 48.8% of the population, with 41.3 % of Hispanics ethnic group. I felt this was a good balance because the difference was less than 10%. There was not too many Mexicans market or Asian market; there was a combination of both. Of course, the census did not identify the different types of Asians such as Vietnamese, Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese, Laos, Thais or Cantonese. However, the physical of many of these minority groups are not too distinctive. I did not feel the stares at the market anymore. I did not have trouble buying grocery to cook at home.

The previous owner of my home is a Pilipino family. How did I know that? This is easily identified through their last name. My two new neighbors across the street are Japanese because of the beautiful landscape and many Bonsai trees. Upon speaking with my neighbors I discovered he has lived in his place for over 16 years and yes indeed he is Japanese based on his physical facial features. We both spoke for a long time and our family fit into the neighborhood right away. Everyone else in the neighborhood had black hair, black eyes, blue eyes blond hair, it was a combination. A White American family lived two houses down from us. Three houses down was a Mexican American family. Others were occupied by Asians from different minority group. Unlike our first day we moved into our Azusa home, we did not get any stares from the neighbors. In Rosemead, the neighbors all smiled and greeted us as they walk pass us. I believe this has to do community. In Azusa half of the city population is Mexican they rarely see any Asians which makes it hard to comprehend why more Asians are moving to Azusa. For the Mexicans they are afraid to ask question because of language barriers.

Rosemead has diverse system. Rosemead was populated by American Indians in the early years prior to the arrivals of the Spanish. In 1771 the Spanish established the first San Gabriel Mission, but due to flooding the mission was moved to San Gabriel city in 1775. In 1834, after Mexican Independence the Mexican government distributed the lands to private citizens. A Mexican person owned 4,431 acre of Rosemead. However after the Mexican-American Ware and signing of Treat of Guadalupe, more Anglo-American immigration arrived to the city. John Guess and his Wife Harriet, Anglo American owned 100 acre land. The city of Rosemead sits between two cities. A Latino dominated city, El Monte, and Asian populated city, Monterey Park. This explains why I feel there is a balance of minority group. At least it is not overly dominated by Latinos.

There are definitely very few community leaders in my area that represents Asian Americans. The very few we have in the area are doing the best they can. But I feel it is very hard because the government respond well to pressure in large groups better than they do with a few small groups. The phrase "United We Stand". If the Asian Americans unite as one, we can make our voices be heard. The Asian Americans do not unite because there is too much competition within the different minority group. Taiwanese, Cantonese, Hong Kong decent, Shanghai etc. We are all different, our written skills are similar but the verbal skills are very different.

John Tran, a Vietnamese American became the first Asian American became elected official. As city Council of Rosemead, Tran supported the residents in rallying against the opening of a Wal-mart center in Rosemead. Tran is worried about the Asian Americans and doing his best to preserve their life style. Tran is worried that the presence of a huge retail store will result in closing of small business. The local businesses primarily owned by Asian immigrants. I know this is common for community leaders to watch out and seek the interest of their own ethnic group first. The Asians immigrants have managed to save enough money and opened a small business, if Wal-mart opens nearby many local businesses will lose lots of customer.

Assembly women, Judy Chu also join Tran in supporting the residents of Rosemead, the fight against Wal-mart. However, that was in 2005. Now in 2007, The Wal-mart center successfully opened their store. Chu's first legislature act was to obtain a $250,000 grant to repair Mark Keppel High School's heating and air conditioning system. Mark Keppel High located in Rosemead, with many Asian American students.

If it was an outsider looking through the windows, they may say this is race preference. From someone of the same race, they may say this is watching out for your own kind. I see that it is obvious and not a racist act. I make this statement not because I am Asian and will benefit from these two community leaders. I make this statement because I see it happening around me. Presently, The Mayor of California , Antonio Villagros never hesitate to challenge the federal government when it comes to addressing Mexican immigrants rights of illegal and legal immigrants in the United States. It is cruel for anyone to claim that Tran, Chu or Villagros is acting out on race / ethnic preference. They are only watching out for their own ethnic group. It is just like watching for your own children rather than someone else's. Of course, if your ability was only limited to certain region it is only obvious that you support one is closes to your heart. In this case these city officials all chose to support what they know best their own ethnic group.

I honestly do not believe a Mexican council official would understand why the city of Rosemead oppose the opening of a Wal-mart center. For many, Walmart would produce lots of jobs and annual sales tax earnings for the city. It would only take someone of the same race to realize why. However if the tables were turned and Rosemead was dominated Mexicans and all the local businesses was owned by Mexicans immigrants, would the city council oppose this too if the city council was of Mexican decent? I believe so.

When driving around town, I notice that many business signs are in English and Chinese. I cannot read Chinese. In my last city, Azusa, 90% of the company signs were in Spanish. I did not know what they were selling or what those words mean. I did not understand why each house had to own 10 old trucks that never moved from their parking spot. When visiting Walmart in Rosemead, I found something very uncommon in many others stores. They carry a variety of Mexican, Chinese and Americans food. They all have two languages on them, with the exceptions of American food such as frozen entrees, apples etc. The frozen burritos have Spanish names with English translation- that helps. Many local newspaper also share news about people in the community. They can be ordinary people but with similar facial characteristics as myself. The little eyes, short, black hair person. They could be a teacher, a store owner or a community leader.

In city of Montebello, neighboring Rosemead (AKA South San Gabriel), there is a local TV Station. The TV station covers the Chinese news and is broadcast on TV every night. The news will cover events happening in town. They also devote a section to cover news about other events regardless of race. This gives their audience all Asians a chance to listen to the news and understand and be up to date about their community. The company called Asian Week focus on Asian on the Asian Pacific American community. Asian Week issued Aug 24,2007 "the Model Minority Never Went Away". This article discusses once again the finger accusing the victim of being ahead of other race in education. The article discusses a report by UC Berkeley when they wanted to show how diverse they were, they include the Asians. But when it was time to show race quotas, Asians were removed from the list of minority group. According to Hu (2007) "Asian parents quietly promote homework, discipline, and push their kids into medicine and engineering" Hu (2007) posts "But race activists have wasted America's efforts on desegregation, affirmative action, multiculturalism, "social justices" and no basics curricula reform". This article clearly explains that in 2007, Asians still carries the title of "Model Minority". As pointed out by Hu (2007) Asians have the highest math scores of any race and have exceeded whites since 1990. For the general public, Asians are clumped together with Whites when they are trying to dismiss the other minority groups of doing so poorly. This strategy works when it is shameful for the White Americans to admit an immigrant can produce higher math scores, so they lump the scores of Asians together with Whites so there is no separation between the two.

The different between the leaders in my community and myself; would be the education background, the exposure to political events and financial condition during childhood. Many of the community leaders speak and write fluent English and Chinese as well as other languages. They usually come from a very rich and educated family background. This gives them a head start already. Because their parents are in public views and have been in the United States for a long time, the probabilities that their kids will enter politics are fairly high. This is the reason why I am going to school again. I want to expose myself to more knowledge and hopefully be on more common grounds with politics so I can also voice my opinions about things I don't like about the community. The similarities would be we both want to improve the community to make it a better place for the next Asian generation.

I do not believe the minority group interests are represented as much as I want them to in my community. But I shall not complain since I have not been 100% completely involved in politics since day one. I intend to be more involved and read more about the city and what's going on once I am done with school. I would like to city to consider opening up more schools for elementary kids. There should be a permit granted for students who wish to attend a different school than their neighborhood school if the parents agree to take care of the transportation. My daughter is entering kindergarten this September and unfortunately the school does not offer after school / homework/ tutor help for the kids because not many residents can afford to pay for the program. The school suggested that I pick up my daughter every day at 2:30 and take her to the next city which offers after school program. If I had the time to do that, I would not need after school program. However, the city where my parents live, the elementary is offering on site after school program for K-8^th grade. The schools in Rosemead are predominately Hispanics once again I desire balance of ethnic group. In the other city, there is an equal balance of Whites, Hispanics, Asians and Blacks etc.

Conclusion

Many of us are offended when being lumped in the same group just because we speak the same language. However, many high school text books do not address the proper way of handling and presenting each group. I sometimes say Mexican/ Latino. I don't know if this is correct, but when someone gets upset I don't even know how to correct it. I realize through education and knowledge we all learn how to address each minority group. If the federal government had to spend millions of dollars just so each minority group are segregated with facts it would be tax dollars going to waste. I rather not know how many percent of El Salvadorans attended Rosemead school, or how many Thais live in Rosemead. For the sake of tax dollars, I would be happy enough knowing Mexicans 41.3% of the population and Asians 48.8% of the population. Of course Mexicans 41.3% may include, those from Cuba, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, South America, Dominican Republic etc.

References

Chan, A. (Summer/Fall 2005). Becoming chinese american, a history of communities and institutions. Journal of International Migration & Integration , 547-549. Retrieved July 7, 2007, from EbscoHost database.

Hu, A. (2007, August). The model minority never went away. Retrieved August 29, 2007, from www.asianweek.com/2007/08/24/the -model-minority-never-went-away/

Leung, W. (2005, July). Do we buy it? Retrieved August 26, 2007, from www.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=99216

Liang, C. A. (April 2007). The role of coping in the relationship between perceived racism-related stress for asian americans: gender diferences. Journal of Counseliing Psycholoy , 132-141. Retrieved July 7, 2007, from EbscoHost database.

(n.d.) Judy Chu. Who's who of asian americans. Retrieved August 25, 2007 from http://www.asianamerican.net/bios/Chu-Judy.html

(n.d.) John Tran. Who's who of asian americans. Retrieved August 25, 2007 from http://www.asianamerican.net/bios/Tran-John.html

(n.d.) Wilma Chan. Who's who of asian americans. Retrieved August 25, 2007 from

http://www.asianamerican.net/bios/Chan-Wilma.html

U.S. Census Bureau. (2005). Percent of the Total Population Who Are Asian Alone: 2005 Universe Total Population. Retrieved July 7, 2007, from http://factfinder.census.gov

(2007). In Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Retrieved August 27, 2007, from http://en.wikipieda.org/wiki/rosemead,_california