Smart & Angry

So about a month ago a girl Named Alexandra Wallace put a video out talking about Asians in the library. Observe

 FULL Transcript

Okay, so here at UCLA it's finals week.

So we know that I'm not the most politically correct person so don't take this offensively. I don't mean it toward any of my friends I mean it toward random people that I don't even know in the library. So, you guys are not the problem.

The problem is these hordes of Asian people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year, which is fine. But if you're going to come to UCLA then use American manners.

So it used to really bug me but it doesn't bother me anymore the fact that all the Asian people that live in all the apartments around me -- their moms and their brothers and their sisters and their grandmas and their grandpas and their cousins and everybody that they know that they've brought along from Asia with them - comes here on the weekends to do their laundry, buy their groceries and cook their food for the week. It's seriously, without fail. You will always see old Asian people running around this apartment complex every weekend. That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves. You know what they don't also teach them, is their manners.

Which brings me to my next point. Hi, in America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library. I swear every five minutes I will be -- okay, not five minutes, say like fifteen minutes -- I'll be in like deep into my studying, into my political science theories and arguments and all that stuff, getting it all down, like typing away furiously, blah blah, blah, and then all of a sudden when I'm about to like reach an epiphany... Over here from somewhere, "Ooooh Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong, Ooohhhhh."

Are you freaking kidding me? In the middle of finals week? So being the polite, nice American girl that my momma raised me to be, I kinda just gave him what anybody else would do that kinda like, [puts finger up to lips in a "shh" motion]. "You know it's a library, like, we're trying to study, thanks!" And then it's the same thing five minutes later. But it's somebody else, you know -- I swear they're going through their whole families, just checking on everybody from the tsunami thing. I mean I know, okay, that sounds horrible like I feel bad for all the people affected by the tsunami, but if you're gonna go call your address book like you might as well go outside because if something is wrong you might really freak out if you're in the library and everybody's quiet like you seriously should go outside if you're gonna do that.

So, thanks for listening, that was my rant. I just -- even if you're not Asian you really shouldn't be on your cell phone in the library but I've just never seen that happen before so thank you for listening and have a nice day.

I went to a predominately Asian and Caucasian private college called University of the Pacific that socially segregated themselves from each other. One was stereotyped as the “Bookworm Asian” group and the other was stereotyped as the “Frat white people.” It was interesting that a small school with a student population less than 5,000 would make themselves such a smaller school by segregating themselves by fraternity, sports team, race, etc. etc.

Although I did enjoy my 4 years of college to which I wouldn’t take back any of it, one of the most frustrating things I had to deal as a freshman with was not being the typical “Asian” stereotype on campus. Most of the Asian student population went to UOP to study Biology Pre-Pharmacy undergrad program. I studied Business Administration with an emphasis on Arts and Entertainment. Socially I didn’t fit in with most of the Asian students because they would bond studying together.

So I ended up being social with the “White” crowd. However most of the time I would get comments like “You are cool for an Asian guy,” or “I wouldn’t think you would be drinking with us because you would be in a library,” or even “hey you’re cool because you don’t act Asian.” I think that the most preposterous racial thing to happen to me was when one of the Sororities had an “Asian” themed party and the girls would ask me if I had anything to make them look “Asian.” To think that my race is looked at like a character similar to a vampire made me bitter. That point on I started categorizing certain women as “stuck up, privileged, blond girls.” Luckily my junior year of college I was able to find a group of friends to where the issue of me being Asian didn’t matter.

After college I moved to the Bay area where the race issue wasn’t an issue. The idea that my ethnicity would be a handicap stopped running through my mind. Matter of fact I haven’t really talked about the issue of race at all.

But when this video of Alexandra came out, my reaction wasn’t angry like the commenters and video reply’s. My thoughts were more of “oh, yeah that’s typical of someone like her to say that.” It wasn’t that I agreed with her statement or condoned what she said; it was more of me thinking that it’s common that a blond white girl wearing hot pink would be racist. I hadn’t realized that I myself was being prejudice against her because of her ethnicity.

The way I found out that I still had this narrow thinking until just recently I was out with a friend (happens to be Caucasian female) conversing about relationships. I happen to say that she is living a great life with a nice house and a husband that’s a tall “White” guy. She cut me off to correct me that I was wrong to say something that judgmental. I immediately regretted saying what I said, even though I didn’t mean for my comment be malice towards her. However what I failed to see that the comment did come with a bitterness tone.

I’ve been sitting on this Alexandra “Asians in the library” video and wanting to write something meaningful and with a different take than everyone else for a month now. I wrote many different responses to the video but none felt right. Me admitting I should have judged the video based on her character and not by her ethnicity is the best response I feel should be published.

Though it will take a while for me to drop the feelings I harbor just because of the past, I hope Alexandra can do the same.

On a lighter note, let’s look at her in a bikini!

Bobojojo