<p>Sinflower: I agreed with your comment.</p>
<p>She sees herself as the norm. If not racist it is, at the very least, rather provincial. Many Americans are bilingual. My future bilingual grandchildren, who will be US citizens and have “American” ancestry which predates the revolution, might well call Asian grandparents in another country in the midst of a similar catastrophe.</p>
<p>beawinner: This distresses me, too. I do hope it isn’t “most everyone” who reacts in this way.</p>
<p>The French are people of color? I didn’t know.</p>
<p>beawinner (#40): </p>
<p>Exactly. I can’t count the number of times this conversation has happened to me or one of my Asian American friends:</p>
<p>-Where are you from?
-X State.
-No, where are you really from?!</p>
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<p>That seems to be the actual problem and unless the mentality change at the grass root level, such incidents will go on happening in one shape or the other.</p>
<p>This was depicted in one of the episodes of “The big bang Theory”</p>
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<p>Chen: Where’s your annoying little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin?
Sheldon: He’s putting his needs above the collective good.
[to the other guys]
Sheldon: Where he comes from, that’s punishable by death.
Chen: <em>I</em> come from Sacramento. </p>
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The French are not part of the power base, except in France. ;)</p>
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<p>so - is the above unacceptable, racist and in bad taste? or - is it okay because it ridicules racist stereotypes?</p>
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<p>Yes, I think so.</p>
<p>There’s not a single person who hasn’t said or done something they are ashamed of / embarrassed by. The difference today is the technology we have. Kids have to learn to really hesitate before hitting send/upload/etc. When Myspace, then Facebook became so popular, our one lesson to the kids was “Never post anything you wouldn’t want me, your teachers, a future boss, or the authorities”. Once you put it out there, it’s forever! </p>
<p>She recorded a stupid rant, rather tame as offensive rants go, IMO. Then, even more stupidly, posted it online for all to find.</p>
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<p>You wrongly assume that making up words for another language is “mocking.”</p>
<p>My H can’t speak French, so he does make up nonsense words that sound like French when joking about elitist things. Sorry, but this does not make him a bigot. Being bigoted would mean that he is hateful toward or intolerant of the French. To the contrary, the French are undeniably elite when it comes to food, fashion and art, so his word usage is not mocking but rather descriptive of his opinion when he perceives a particular subject to involve elitism.</p>
<p>Same with Swedish. We don’t speak the language, so we might use fake Swedish words and accents in conjunction with talking about sex. This is not bigoted toward the Swedes because we like sex and we like the Swedes - we even have Swedish relatives (by marriage) living in Sweden right now.</p>
<p>My sister, who lived in various countries in Europe for over 20 years, tells me that the Europeans, when imitating Americans, talk real slow like John Wayne, using a drawl. Does doing this mean they are bigoted toward Americans? Why would it?</p>
<p>With respect to the video, the UCLA student was imitating the manner in which she perceived an Asian student to be talking on his/her cell phone in the library. Obviously, she doesn’t speak the language, so she substituted Chinese words that she knows or thinks she has heard before: Ching chong ling long ting tong. It was really the loud “Ohhhs” she used that conveyed the inappropriateness of the talking in the library. </p>
<p>Again, while I believe her negative generalizations about Asians at UCLA showed bigotry (they and only they don’t use American manners and can’t fend for themselves), I don’t believe the fact that she imitated an Asian speaking loudly on the phone in an Asian language she didn’t know in itself proves bigotry toward Asians.</p>
<p>I think “power” is irrelevant to whether imitating a foreign language constitutes bigotry. But if “power” is determinative, one would be hard pressed to argue that the Chinese are “powerless” in this world.</p>
<p>What is amusing about languages or accents different than our own?</p>
<p>“The only way she is different from them is her race.” - sinflower</p>
<p>Is that really the only difference you see?</p>
<p>In the context of the youtube video we are talking about, I don’t believe there was any intent on the part of the speaker to be amusing.</p>
<p>She is from Sacramento California, an area with big Asian population. </p>
<p>I thought she never met more than 5 Asians before getting into UCLA…</p>
<p>She brought shame to the whole school…</p>
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<p>What she wrote was imitating? really? Okay…</p>
<p>She has some prejudice against Asians, but people holding similar opinions as hers are not uncommon in our society. I’ve heard of this kind of remarks made about Asian students in conversations, and I’ve seen prejudice against Asians and endorsement of racial stereotypes from adult, supposedly mature posters right here on CC.</p>
<p>Everyone experiences racial stereotyping and prejudice at some point in their lives, some much more than others. Imo, the saddest thing about this incident is not that this particular student is bigoted (duh), but that some people, in effect, shut down the dialogue about peoples’ feelings by threatening to kill them for expressing themselves.</p>
<p>Does anyone on this thread attend UCLA? Is it true that a lot of students talk on their cell phones in the library? What do you think about that? What are race relations like on campus? According to collegeboard, there are more Asians at UCLA than caucasians. (34% versus 29%). Does that “power” structure make a difference vis-a-vis which races are fair game for derision? Meaning, is it okay for the minority to dis the majority just because they have less “power?”. Some people seem to have implied as much.</p>
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<p>If you have a point, make it, instead of isolating sentences from my posts and asking cryptic questions about them. My answer to this particular question is obvious in the context of the rest of my post on the last page: yes, in terms of relevant demographic and group-identity differences. The other supposed difference she was trying to emphasize, “American-ness,” is not an actual difference at all. I can’t address the reasons why you find this objectionable and racist until you explain them.</p>
<p>According to sources in the school administrations, Ms. Wallace graduated from Fair Oaks Bella Vista High School in 2008. Turns out Fair Oaks California is a predominately White community with 83.3% Caucasian and only 4.5% Asian .I dont even want to know what she thinks of Black people, thats 0.7%.</p>
<p>I had a look at the enrollment numbers for UCLA for Fall 2010 and the Asian numbers is slightly higher than the white number but there’s also an unstated category which could easily put the whites over the Asians.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I believe that the Asian number includes Indians and I don’t believe that the video poster was including that group in her presentation.</p>
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<p>What to make of Ms Wallace? Which group do you think she might have come from?</p>