From the Alvin Lin blog, by Alvin Lin on 2008-06-27 09:50 PM (original link)

This is a very interesting article posted over at Fallout Central, about minority women in White male dominated society.  I think interesting parts or conclusions of this essay (from my interpretation) are that minority women who act in blatantly Uncle Tom or self hating ways, or revel in being the token Asian ‘honorary White’ among their friends, or who try to assimilate or get their White trophy, in reality are not actually gaining in privilege, though in their minds they somehow derive self esteem from this.

Article

[A lot of the times when I see another Asian girl that is a stranger on the street, for some reason I automatically act hostile towards them. We exchange unapproachable glances, and in my mind I am judging them by the way they look, the way the dress, who they are with, and sizing them up to see if they are any threat to me. Why do I do this? Every Asian girl I have talked to admits to doing this.. Actually, scratch that, every minority girl I know acts this way towards someone of their own race. Why?

It seems Asian and minority men don’t face this same hostility with each other. When I asked my brother if he felt the way that I do towards Asian girls he asked quite shocked, “You actually feel threatened?” I got similar astounded responses from my Asian guy friends as well. Why do they not judge each other as much as Asian women do?

Perplexed by this issue, I turned to my friend Soumya (pronounced like Sonya with an “m”–Somya), a beautiful girl from California who happens to be Indian as well. I asked if she felt threatened at times, and she said yes. We were both surprised by our own responses. It seems that while many girls feel threatened or hostile, rarely do we acknowledge it. Even when we acknowledge it, we don’t even know exactly why we feel and act this way. For me, the actual reason may be a little frightening. It reveals an intense insecurity about our identity as minority and Asian women.]

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Not all Asian girls are hostile. Most of the girls I meet are either super friendly or shy.

Hahah I only do this to girls who stare at me in an evil way. Other than that, I’ve never done it. ^^

yeah it def doesn’t apply to most, but i think the article meant that specifically among those who do derive self esteem from colonized thinking, this kind of competition for being the token Asian occurs.

Do you think this type of behavior is the same with the younger generation? In my experience, I’ve seen “white washed Asians” but none of them hate being Asian.

I see more “black washed?” Asians than whites. Hahaha

LOL? Black washed?

Yeah I defnitely see more wangsters.

I know a few white washed Asians. I don’t know if they hate themselves but they never talk about being Asian.

So I guess they do?

Hmm, this is interesting. I think a lot of women feel insecure, and that leads to difficulty in building meaningful relationships with other women. We need to work together instead of being in competition with one another.

lan - 06/28/08 2:48 am

Hahah I only do this to girls who stare at me in an evil way. Other than that, I’ve never done it. ^^

yeah me too. and even then, I just smile at them. I don’t think I’ve ever consciously sized up another girl menacingly or out of threat. o.O

Girls and their drama. Pft.