12 Planet of the Arts / March 1997 iWWWV Feature Asian Artists Confront Race Hatred Dealing With t was a seemingly innocent occurrence. In our grade two musical production of “Little Red Riding Hood”, the “prettiest” blonde girl was chosen to play the lead. The role of the wolf was assigned to a Black male and the part of the grandmother was given to an Asian — me. | didn’t begin to think about these racial positionings until years later, when | started reflecting on how episodes like these affect young and trusting minds. Certainly along with advertising, television and other media, these direct experiences helped shape my desires along the lines of the societal equa- tion of pretty + successful = blonde + white. In fact, for the first 23 years of my life, | wanted to be white. Why? Because assimilation appeared to be the obvious way to flourish socially and eco- nomically in Toronto. | thought | would end up destitute and on the street if | didn’t assim- ilate. In my mind, the most advertised model for success in Canadian society was someone with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. So, | wore clothes with the same fashion labels as just about everyone else at Riverdale Collegiate. And | envied the pretty white girls and their pretty white boyfriends, all of them with Farrah Fawcett hairstyles. And | also adopted the first name of a glitzy soap opera star like my sisters before me, which | won’‘t reveal here because I’m embarrassed to. (And | didn’t keep it for long). From the time | became part of a main- stream Canadian institution, kindergarten, | had grown to be ashamed of my Asian her- itage. | received no positive acknowledgment for my Asianness in my school interactions and a lot of validation of non-Asian role mod- els. And | internalized a sense of racial inferi- ority. : Accepting my Asianness seemed too frightening a prospect. If | asserted my differ- ence, it meant making myself a target for the race hatred, of which | have experienced many forms (insults and verbal intimidation, physical threats, being slapped around). In my early twenties | arrived at the real- ization that hoping racism would just go away on its own was irresponsible. | would have to stand up on behalf of myself and others. The emotional and psychological strain of following this path became clearer to me fol- lowing a conversation with M, a 20-year-old student of Asian heritage studying at Emily Carr Institute. In being asked by me about how Asian identity enters into his art-making and the vocation he is working to develop for himself, M gave hesitant, contradictory and highly general answers. And if he said anything that hinted at any sort of confidence, he would quickly retract his comments, ending with “it’s a really hard question”. So | asked him to put his cards on the table by inquiring, “Are you struggling with your Asian identity?” His response: “No, well | just don’t do that much Asian identity art, | guess the best answer is that I’m more of a designer.” M's struggles to give concrete answers to questions of identity are very familiar to me. | have witnessed similar difficulties within myself when | questioned what being Asian meant. turning point for me came with a self- yNe project during my final year in the radio and television arts program at Ryerson Polytechnical University in Toronto. | used the opportunity to deal with my Asian ancestry. What came out was a video that dealt with disparate cultural sign systems and the themes of assimilation, displacement and belonging. | also attempted to deal with the tenuous relationships between the beau- ty ideal and Asianness. But more importantly, through making this video | realized | no longer wanted to be “white”. | had made the decision to use cre- ative expression to engage with the obstacles that Asians and others who are visibly differ- ent find in Canadian society. The task is daunting. | have deliberately chosen the path of greater complexity and uncertainty. Sometimes | am angry that | have been faced with making this decision. And as my consciousness of the problem has grown, my anger has grown with it. Anger, as B.C. artist Binh Hue Truong knows, can be a motivating force. “Anger has driven a lot of social change and | think we need to be angry at how the world is set up,” she says. “I believe that everyone who is angry, including myself, should be angry at the person who is oppressing them.” She resorts to a combination of anger and laughter in dealing with race hatred. After being verbally abused by someone screaming, “You new immigrants are all liars!” she replied with a giggle — and soon after created a satirical exposé of Asian discrimination with- in Canadian society in the form of a comic by Geoff Ryan | have noticed that two topics of interest being dis- cussed at Emily Carr are stereotypes and racism. Many people are aware of derogatory words and phrases, and have experienced situations involving racism and slander, so most people have an opinion on it; and everyone with whom I've discussed these topics agree that racism and stereotypes are very bad things. | would hope that no one disagrees with that statement, because | feel they are very bad things. Even with this idea firmly implanted in most people’s minds, racism and stereotypes are all around us. When you were a little child at school, name-calling was likely one of the most popular activities on the playground. The little boys would harass and ridicule the little girls or they would throw the names of obscene body parts back and forth. It’s easy to say that these are just the normal and natural ways in which children learn to deal with people who are different than they are, but how do these little kids learn how to use words negatively and to hate as strongly as they do? And some of the conversations | have had with elderly people have truly scared me. After a long discussion on foreign relations and the military | feel as though | should start stockpiling weapons for when the Japanese attack us again. Or that our country is being taken over by foreign- ers and we have to get those people out of our country. When | remind them that our ancestors (white people) were not exactly invited here the response is “Well, | had nothing to do with that though.” Which is true, it’s not my fault | was born in a land that my ancestors stole from the original inhabitants, but | also know many Asians who have absolutely nothing to do with the Cold War or steal- ing “our” land. Growing up in a middle class white family living in a small American town where 98.3% of the 16,741 residents were Caucasian pretty much implies that | have not experi- enced very much cultural or economic diversity in my life... and that's right, | haven't. In my entire school of over 1,500 students there were only 8 Native Americans, 10 Hispanics, 2 African Americans and no other ethnic minori- ties. So, | had not been exposed to much diversity, but | had been exposed to racism of hideous proportions. When | moved to Vancouver in August | finally felt that | would be away from all of that hatred, and for the most part | haven’t seen anything along the lines of the town I'm from. But what | have been exposed to is an enormous amount of curiosity and questioning about racism, which in turn has influenced me to stop trying to escape from those situations and to get involved in trying to under- stand and confront racism. Most recently the issue of Asian stereotypes has been the topic of conversation, and by opening my mouth on the topic I’ve come to learn that I’d better know exactly what I’m talking about before making my opinions public. During a discussion of the use of the term “yellow jour- nalism” as being potentially racist under certain circum- stances, |-threw in a bit of information that | felt was pretty interesting and might have a little bearing on the subject. I'd read from “Webster's Dictionary” that yellow journalism derives from a sensationalist newspaper comic in the 1890's called Hogan’‘s Alley with an “Asian” charac- ter dubbed the Yellow Kid. | remembered this cartoon from a book I'd read about newspaper comics and distinct- ly remembered this character. E-\\ The Yellow Kid, circa 1890 A few days later | had it brought to my attention that the Yellow Kid was actually a little white boy in a yellow shirt. So | obviously went to research this on my own to see what kind of moronic mistake I'd made, and in my research | found one book that said, “No matter what dis- turbance in Hogan's Alley, the Yellow Kid was there, his vaguely Oriental visage baring its two teeth at the reader in a grin...” While that is not substantial proof of the Yellow Kid being Asian, it was still some proof, and in my search | was unable to find anything implying that he was a little white boy. But that is not the point. | think the real question here is why did | remember this drawing of a short, bald, slope headed, big eared, buck toothed, slant eyed kid who wore a long, yellow shirt and talked in broken English as an Asian boy instead of as a little white boy? Don’t pretend for a second that when you look at people, you don’t stereotype, judge or see them as differ- ent. We all do, we are all different and we recognize those The Colour Yellow differences. Most of us when we see a difference can go beyond it in order to find similarities or we can learn to enjoy the differences. Your ability to do this is why you can live in a city like Vancouver and leave your home without being in constant fear, and are able to make friends with people who are not the same as you; although not every- body can do that. There is a whole history of racial hatred that continues today in the hearts and minds of a large part of our popu- lation, much of which stems from my forefathers who stole this great land of ours. In my research | found that almost every single Asian ethnic slur was started by the United States Armed Forces. The origin of “Yellow” is the same as any other colour label, generalized labeling by simplifying a flesh tone into a basic colour like Red, Black, White and Brown. | read that it is a primitive belief that if you can label something, then you have power over it and can control it simply by calling it by its name. That might ring a bell for some pet owners. : Many of the terms | read about | had never heard before and many others | just never knew existed. I’m not going to list them because | don’t feel that the actual terms are what is important but more what they represent that is important. A slanderous epithet is not just meant to insult but it is also, whether consciously or not, meant to control its victim by making them withdraw and feel like a lesser being and in effect makes the person become the stereo- type. A strong-willed person can take verbal attacks for a while but most are affected by it at least subconsciously, and therefore may become more self-conscious about their identity. ; Stereotypes and racial slurs can be seen as desperate tactics by fearful people to put down another person or they can be seen as a petty or ignorant way of putting yourself above others, but they can also be stated uninten- tionally and still have the same effect. Whether you pur- posely hurt someone or you accidentally do, you've still hurt them. | still have much more to learn and understand about racism and stereotyping so | don’t want this to be looked at as a consummate piece on the topics but more an attempt to point out some obvious and not so obvious ide- ological explanations of these topics so that you are able to look closer at how you relate to other people and what you communicate to those you direct your statements at. -@s REFERENCES Label me Human by Evelyn Kallen; Unkind Words by Ervin Lewis Allen; The Art of the Funnies by Robert C.Harvey 12 Planet of the Arts / March 1997 (WW Feature Dealing With ‘ur grade two musical production of “Little Red Riding Hood", the “prettiest” blonde ‘irl was chosen to pay the lead. The role of the wolf was asigned to Black male and the part of the grandmother was given to an sian = me. T didn't begin to think about these racial positioning until years later, when I started Feflecting on how episodes ike these affect young and trusting minds. Certainly along ‘with advertising, television and other media, these direct experiences helped shape my desires along the lines of the societal equa: tion of prety + successful = blonde + white. Infact, forthe first 23 years of my life, | wanted to be white ‘Why? Because assimilation appeared to be the obvious way to flourish socaly and eco- ‘nomiclly in Toronto, | thought | would end ‘Up destitute and on the street i didn’t asim: late. In my mind, the most advertised model for sucess in Canadian society was someone with blonde hai, blue eyes and fair ski, So, | wore clothes with the same fashion labels as just about everyone else at Riverdale Collegiate. And | envied the pretty white girls and their pretty white boyfriends, all of them ‘with Farrah Faweett hairstyles | + was a seemingly innocent occurrence. In ‘And | also adopted the fist name of altzy soap opera star lke my sisters before te, which | won't reveal here because I'm embarrassed to. (And | didn't keep it for long). From the time I became part of a main stream Canadian institution, kindergarten, | had grown to be ashamed of my Asian her- itage. | received no postive acknowledgment for my Asianness in my school interactions and a lot of validation of non-Asian role mod: tls, And I internalized a sense of racial infer: ory ‘Accepting my Asianness seefned_ too {tightening a prospect. fl asserted my difer tence, it meant making myself a target for the fe hatred, of which | have experienced ‘many forms (insults and verbal intimidation, ‘Physical threats, being slapped around). in my early twenties | arrived at the real ization that hoping racism would just go away ‘nits own was irresponsible, I would have to Stand up on behalf of myself and others. “The emotional and psychological strain of following ths path became clearer to me fol lowing a conversation with M, a 20-year-old student of Asian heritage studying at Emily Care institute In being asked by me about how Asian identity enters into his artmaking and the ‘vocation he is working to develop for himself, IM. gave hesitant, contradictory and highly General answers. And if he said anything that hinted at any sort of confidence, he would quickly retract his comments, ending with “it's 8 really hard question”. ‘ol asked him to put his cards on the table by inquiring, "Are you struggling with your ‘sian identity?” His response: "No, well | just don’t do that much Asian Identity art, | guess the best ‘answer i that Im more of a designer.” Mis struggles to give concrete answers to ‘questions of identity are very familar to me. have witnessed similar difficulties within myself when Iquestioned what being Asian turning point forme cae with ast Ai pro aaes peinal seat the (aco and eleven rts prooram at Ryerson. Polytecinical” Univers in Toromta used the opportunity fo dea wth Toy Alan ances. Whteame out was video {hat deat ith doparte ctrl sign ystems tnd the themes of entation, doplararment ane belonging. ab attempted to deal with the tenuous relationships between the beau- ty ideal and Asianness But more importantly, through making this video realized (no longer wanted to be “white”. had made the decision to use cre ative expression to engage with the obstacles that Asians and others who are visibly differ tent find in Canadian society. ‘The task is daunting. | have deliberately chosen the path of greater complexity and ‘uncertainty. Sometimes |am angry that have been faced with making this decsion. And as my consciousness of the prablem has grown, my anger has grown with it ‘Anger, 35 8.C. artist Binh Hue Truong knows, can be a motivating force. “Anger has driven 3 lot of social change and I think we need to be angry at how the world is setup,” ‘he says. "I believe that everyone who is ‘angry, including myself, should be angry at ‘the person who is oppressing them.” ‘he resorts to a combination of anger and laughter in dealing with race hatred. After being verbally abused by someone screaming, *You new immigrants are all liars!” she replied with a giggle ~and soon after created ‘satirical exposé of Asian discrimination with in Canadian society in the form of a comic by Geoff Ryan "have noticed that two topics of interest being ds- ‘cussed at Emily Carr are stereotypes and racism. Mary jeople are aware of derogatory words and phrases, and have experienced situations involving racism and slander, ‘50 most people have an opinion on it and everyone with ‘whom Ive discussed these topics agree that racism and "ereotypes are very bad things. | would hope that no one disagrees with that statement, because I feel they are very bad things. Even with this idea firmly implanted in most people's ‘minds, racism and stereotypes are all around us. When you ‘were a litle child at school, name-calling was likely one of ‘the most popular activites on the playground. The little ‘boys would harass and ridicule the litle girs or they ‘would throw the names of obscene body parts back and forth I's easy to say that these are ust the normal and natural ways in which children learn to deal with people ‘who are different than they ate, But how do these little Kids learn how to use words negatively and to hate as strongly as they do? "And some of the conversations | have had with elderly people have truly scared me. After a long discussion on foreign relations and the military | feel 35 though | should start stockpiling weapons for when the Japanese attack us ‘2gain. Or that our country is being taken over by foreign. ‘es and we have to get those people out of our country ‘When | remind them that our ancestors (white people) were not exactly invited here the response is "Well, had nothing todo with that though.” Which is true, its not my fault was born in a land that my ancestors stole from the original inhabitants, but {also know many Asians who have absolutely nothing t6 do with the Cold War or steal ing "our" land ‘Growing up in a middle class white family living in a small American town where 98.3% of the 16,741 residents ‘were Caucasian pretty much implies that! have not experi- fenced very much cultural or economic diversity in my ie ‘and that’s right, haven. In my entre school of over 41500 students there were only & Native Americans, 10 Hispanics, 2 African Americans and no other ethnic minor ties So, had not been exposed to much diversity, but had been exposed to racism of hideous proportions ‘When | moved to Vancouver in August | finaly felt that | would be away from all ofthat hatred, and for the most part haven't seen anything along the lines ofthe town im from. But what | have been exposed to is an enormous ‘amount of curiosity and questioning about racism, which in turn has influenced me to stop trying to escape from The Colour Yellow ‘those situations and to get involved in tying to under- stand and confront racism, Most recenty the isue of Asan stereotypes has been ‘the topic of conversation, and by opening my mouth on the topic ve come to learn that'd better know exactly ‘what Fm talking about before making my opinions public During a discussion of the use ofthe term “yellow jour nalism* a8 being potentially rat under certain circum "tances, threw ina bit of information that | felt was pretty interesting and might have a litle bearing on the Subject. "dread from “Websters Dictionary” that yellow Journalism derives from a sensationalist newspaper comic in the 1880's called Hogan’ Alle with an “Asian” charac- ‘ter dubbed the Yellow Kid. I remembered this cartoon from a book I'd read about newspaper comics and dstinct- ly remembered this character {A few days later had it brought to my attention that the Yellow Kid was actually a litte white boy in a yellow shir. So | obviously went t0 research this on my ovn to ‘Se what Kind of moronic mistake 'd made, and in my research | found one book that said, “No matter what di turbance in Hogan's Ally, the Yellow Kid was there, his vaguely Oriental visage Baring its two teeth at the reader Ina grin..” While that i not Substantial proof of the Yellow Kid being Asian, it was still some proof, and in my search | was unable to find anything implying that he was litle white boy. But that isnot the point. | think the real question here fs why did | remember this drawing of a short, bald, slope headed, big eared, buck toothed, slant eyed kid who wore 2 long, yellow shirt and talked in broken English as an ‘Asian boy instead of asa litle white boy? ‘Don't pretend fora second that when you look at people, you don’ stereotype, judge or see them as difer ent, We all do, we ae all different and we recognize those differences. Most of us when we see a difference can go ‘beyond itn order to find similarities or we can learn to ‘enjoy the differences. Your ability to do this s why you can. live n act ike Vancouver and leave your home without being in constant fear, and are able to make friends with people who are not the same as you: although not every- body can do that There isa whole history of racial hatred that continues today in the hearts and minds ofa large part of our popu- lation, much of which stems fom my forefathers who stole this great land of ous. n my research | found that ‘almost every single Asan ethnic sur was started by the United States Armed Forces, The orgin of “Yellow” isthe same as any other colour label, generalized labeling by ‘Simplifying a flesh tone into a basic colour like Red, Black, ‘White and Brown. read that ii a primitive belief that if you can label something, then you have power over it and ‘an control it simply by calling ft by its name. That might Fing a bell for some pet owners. ‘Many of the terms | read about! had never heard before and many others just never knew existed. m not {going to lst them because I dont feel thatthe actual terms are what is important but more what they represent that i important. ‘A slanderous epithet is not just meant to insult but it also, whether consciously or not, meant to control its itim by making them withdraw and feel like a lesser being and in effect makes the person become the stereo type. A strong-willed person can take verbal attacks fora ‘while but most are affected by it atleast subconsciously, {and therefore may become more self conscious about their identity. ‘Stereotypes and racial surs can be seen as desperate tactics by fearful people to put down another person or they can be seen as a petty or ignorant way of putting yourself above others, but they can also be stated uninten- tionally and sil ave the same effect. Whether you pur- ‘pozely hurt someone or you acidentaly do, you've stil hhare them, stil have much more to learn and understand about racism and stereotyping s0 | don't want this to be looked ‘at as a consummate piece on the topics but more an Sttempt to point out some obvious and not so obvious ide: ‘logical explanations of these topics so that you are able to look coser at how you relate to other people and what you communicate to those you direct your statements at. erate rientis Perak