"It's her/our turn now (to step on you)" and why Asians need to be meaner.

TechnoSquid

TechnoSquid

NEET
Jul 24, 2024
38
"It's my turn now" is the basic sentiment of all marginalized identity groups except Asians in this shitty Western culture war.

To bring up a currently relevant example, many Americans will vote for Kamala just because she is black (and Asian but people care less about that part) and a woman, and people are sick of seeing white men in office. Same thing happened with Hillary where "it's her turn now" was almost her literal campaign slogan.

And you know what? That feeling in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. It's part of the human condition to want compensation for injustices, even if you have step over others - thus creating more injustices - to get it.

You see it even in low-stakes social settings. In college, I had a WF acquaintance who was generally pretty quiet, but one day, she was unusually talkative in our group. A few people kept interrupting her or clearly weren't paying attention, and she went off on us about how she never talks usually, so everyone needs to shut up and listen to her this time.

My friend was a bit pissy about her rant, later saying to me that "that's not how the world works" but I could understand how she felt.

The point is that social justice movements are also always driven by some form of righteous anger and desire for revenge (which they will call justice but often what people really want is revenge). Because revenge is emotionally and not logically driven, some minorities even feel empowered to shit on those who have never individually wronged them because they feel it is all compensation for their historical oppression. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what partly motivated some of the black-on-Asian attacks we've seen.

I am going to use black people as an example of what Asians should learn from (to a degree) because they are the most prominent minority group in America - a status which they fought for - and because the fact that they actually call each other kings and queens should speak for itself.

Consider how black people will uniformly push for affirmative action and vilify Asian critics of it because it indisputably benefits them despite not addressing the root sickness of anti-black racism, so they're not going to look too closely at the actual fairness and consequences of the policy for other groups (which Asians would totally do in their position). If they are challenged, they have Ivy League word salad black ladies who will come up with some convoluted line of intellectual thought to defend it, but they don't even need that facade of logic because white people fetishize black historical suffering and feel good about themselves when they give them goodies. The few black people who speak out against AA are silenced by their community and labeled race traitors or Clarence Thomas types. BUT their interests are still being promoted by the majority in their community.

Or let me recall that time a black redditor came into a thread on this sub about AC: Shadows and called me racist (he only implied it but I'm just trying to be less fair and objective in general because that has never gotten me anywhere in life outside of AP exams) because I argued that having an Asian male protagonist in an African setting would make people go nuts. I even agreed with him that Africans are underrepresented in media and that it doesn't need to be competition between Asians and blacks and there should be more authentic representation for everyone blah blah, which I still stand by. But he simply bulldozed over all that and basically said "It's our turn to be represented in video games so shut up and take it."

Obviously, that is objectively not a good state of affairs, but honestly, can we get a little bit of that energy for ourselves? We should understand the value behind other people's surface-level shitty behavior and learn from it because it will put us ahead in American society in group-level social capital, where we are currently still in the negatives despite recent improvements.

If nothing else, I hope everyone here realizes that the road to progress and social justice has never been paved with reason and fairness in the West. We have tried getting by with merit and being cheerleaders for other marginalized identities (who are not socially marginalized any more, only materially) and they STILL hate, ignore, or tolerate us at best. So why insist on playing so nice and cautiously when it's proven by everyone else that you need to be loud and a least a little irreverent to be taken seriously in this society?

You may wonder what we would gain from acting as combative and arrogant as other groups can be. You might think that all that clamor would only make things worse for us. And on the individual level, yes, it probably would make things harder for you if you choose to engage in conflict more often than not. But context is everything. You are not in a reasonable society that sees peacefulness and humility as strength, and for that, you need to learn their playbook at least a little bit.

White people - who still determine mainstream American culture to a great extent despite all the diversity buzz - absolutely fetishize suffering and oppression, and worship acts of disrespect and self-valorization.
Why do you think rap and hip hop music get a pass for their blatant misogyny and often trashy lyrics? There's a lot to it, but black music is partly as popular as it is - and truly embraced as American, even by white supremacists - because it is characterized largely by ANGER, irreverence, and rebellion. And anger is something very, very powerful in this world.

Many of you think that we should try harder to be even more upstanding and excellent citizens than we already are in the face of racism "to prove the haters wrong." Sorry but you are being dangerously naive in this barbaric society where Asians were legally banned and rounded up into concentration camps not a hundred years ago, and you are neglecting the importance of gaining the fear of others. Asians get no attention or love from other groups - or even each other - simply because they don't fear our discontent. At the group level, nobody in the West does anything out of pure generosity or logic; it's always "oh shit we have to throw this group a bone so we don't look bad/so they don't start hitting us where it hurts (i.e. threatening our physical safety and profit$)." They already fear us surpassing them on the geopolitical stage, BUT they have been as brazenly dehumanizing as they like with their propaganda against us because they know they can get away with it.

But what's even more important and powerful than gaining the fear of other groups is gaining the confidence and trust of your own.
Other minority groups have made it so that the weakest/most vulnerable among them can rest easy knowing that they will be defended by a vociferous community if outsiders are even slightly prejudiced against them. They refuse to shut up or tone it down on talking about their issues, making it so that black people are at the forefront of every discussion about diversity and racism even in Europe, and so that you can't even say "Israel shouldn't -" without being bombarded with accusations of being literally Hitler. They have those rainbow-wearing white libs bobbing their heads enthusiastically everywhere they go and creaming their pants every time they mention "equity" and "empowering black voices." It's both obnoxious and extremely admirable for someone who has felt socially homeless her whole life.

As such, a black/Latin/Jewish/Middle Eastern person who doesn't stand up for themselves is not losing face for their demographic because for every one of them, there are 10 others who do fight back when they are wronged - or sometimes not even wronged. And even when an idiot among them is loudly wrong about something, it doesn't hurt them as much, because they likely have a community of idiots to back them up in their wrongness just for the sake of backing them up. They may live in an echo chamber, but at least they feel validated and supported.

In fact, those minorities who are stereotyped as being hyperaggressive will get even more kudos and social capital through the "nice" ones because people's minds are blown when they realize stereotypes are not reality. But IMO it's better than having a reputation for meekness because at least they assigned real power to you in their mind before they got to know you. Eastern culture is vastly enlightened compared to Western culture and perhaps too broad to be painted in a single brush, but it is clearly too wholesome and safe for our own good when we are seen to be non-offensive enough by other groups that predators routinely target us for relatively "easy" robberies and murders. When certain Asian countries just allow lies and slander to be spread about themselves by Western countries, not understanding just how hateful the average Westerner is against Asians. As much as we should all be proud to be Asian, we should also criticize and reform a culture that cannot protect itself from external antagonism.

If you think I'm overstating how much solidarity other groups have, just consider how abandoned/invisible I and others like me have felt in Asian America to perceive the shitty tribalism of other groups somewhat positively.
Because if Asians are abrasive or - in rare cases - violent to non-Asians, other Asians will be the first in line to condemn them because we're so afraid it will reflect badly on us. If you're truly woke (in the original sense) about how the West works, you will know that they'll hate us either way, but they will at least begrudgingly respect aggression and be surprised to realize that Asians are not easily trifled with, whether it's "on the streets" or in a professional setting.

What's even more important than showing up racists is teaching other Asians that you will have their back, so they can be as nice and kind and peaceful as they want, and nobody will think Asians are weak because of it.

I am not, by the way, telling you to go beat up some random people or play into race wars - and to say the least, I truly have no fear that we will end up like the black American community, where they kill each other almost as much as they defend each other against racists. I'm simply telling you to live your life with the awareness that your willingness to be actively vocal about Asian issues and culture - obnoxiously and aggressively so, if you must - and defend each other socially and physically matters so, so much, because most people only perceive the world in stereotypes. The power of group-level reputation cannot be understated.

And because we have such a deficit of healthy scorn for outsiders and self-promotion in our community, we can take it even further than we feel is "necessary" or "appropriate" with fewer social penalties than other groups, simply because it goes against the grain of what is expected of us.

Even if you only care about yourself and have abandoned any idea of Asian solidarity, you should still be matching the energy of haters because Asians don't deserve to be treated poorly or taken advantage of by racists, period.
 
Unemployed

Unemployed

Control the narrative
Nov 28, 2020
6,584
This is all i know about Kamala
You do know that Kamala is currently the vice president and not the president?

Trump was the president for 4 years and did such a "great" job that he lost the 2020 election and got fired.

Do you know how rare it is for a modern president to lose the second election or serve only one term?

Trump lost to sleepy Joe. He will always be remembered as a loser 😀

Donald Trump Wwe GIF
 
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BepisEdema

NEET
Aug 10, 2024
45
You do know that Kamala is currently the vice president and not the president?

Trump was the president for 4 years and did such a "great" job that he lost the 2020 election and got fired.

Do you know how rare it is for a modern president to lose the second election or serve only one term?

Trump lost to sleepy Joe. He will always be remembered as a loser 😀

Donald Trump Wwe GIF

[UWSL]Unemployed[/UWSL]

Control the narrative​

 
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