"Beyond The Fence", op-ed by David Brooks, NYT 5/7/13
Today's NYT has an unsually thoughtful op-ed by David Brooks. People, like me, can find things in it that strike home in a major way, but that may be just a few sentences. It's a broad discussion of immigration and the positive benefits that abound but sometimes hit a wall.
When I married I had zero thoughts about the ethnic differences between my wife, American born Chinese, and myself. Call me naive. It worked, with the obvious ups and downs that any relationship may have, but in that context it has worked out wonderfully, 27 years and going.
She still has some barriers that she perceives and I can see, some I can't. Maybe that's because of the community that we live in, or many other things that might be perceived as racist if I wrote about them. I will not. My wife manages ok with this, believe me I hear about it, but a dear friend of ours seems to be having some problems that have only recently emerged. She has a longer continuity in the U.S. as her parents were detained during WWII as they were Japanese. I don't get it really, but now our friend is incredibly sensitive about her race, although relative to my wife she does not have distinct racial characterics that would be be immediately recognized by store clerks and such. Like my wife she speaks English grammar better than this Southern born writer.
Our older daughter is for the most part only percieved as Asian by Asians who can see the characteristics. Most people would not recognize her ethnicity immediatley with any certainty. Our younger daughter really has distinct Asian characteristics and occasionally has to deal with that at the, I hate to say it, the city-school George Washington University in D.C. which is not quite first rate. That's a great town to go to college in, but that university does not seem to attract an array of students that are as open minded as those at Georgetown that I attended many many years ago. She handles it all well I think, and has a great sense of irony and humor. More than my older daughter, she tends to hang out with Asian students, knowing where she feels accepted and safe.
Brook's comment that third generation immigrants are where the barriers really begin was disconcerting to me for obvious reasons.
This has been one of my not so organized comments, random observations abound from short paragraph to another, but do choose to read the David Brooks NYT column of today. Thanks.
When I married I had zero thoughts about the ethnic differences between my wife, American born Chinese, and myself. Call me naive. It worked, with the obvious ups and downs that any relationship may have, but in that context it has worked out wonderfully, 27 years and going.
She still has some barriers that she perceives and I can see, some I can't. Maybe that's because of the community that we live in, or many other things that might be perceived as racist if I wrote about them. I will not. My wife manages ok with this, believe me I hear about it, but a dear friend of ours seems to be having some problems that have only recently emerged. She has a longer continuity in the U.S. as her parents were detained during WWII as they were Japanese. I don't get it really, but now our friend is incredibly sensitive about her race, although relative to my wife she does not have distinct racial characterics that would be be immediately recognized by store clerks and such. Like my wife she speaks English grammar better than this Southern born writer.
Our older daughter is for the most part only percieved as Asian by Asians who can see the characteristics. Most people would not recognize her ethnicity immediatley with any certainty. Our younger daughter really has distinct Asian characteristics and occasionally has to deal with that at the, I hate to say it, the city-school George Washington University in D.C. which is not quite first rate. That's a great town to go to college in, but that university does not seem to attract an array of students that are as open minded as those at Georgetown that I attended many many years ago. She handles it all well I think, and has a great sense of irony and humor. More than my older daughter, she tends to hang out with Asian students, knowing where she feels accepted and safe.
Brook's comment that third generation immigrants are where the barriers really begin was disconcerting to me for obvious reasons.
This has been one of my not so organized comments, random observations abound from short paragraph to another, but do choose to read the David Brooks NYT column of today. Thanks.
posted by John Borden at 1:32 PM
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There is no simple answer to this.
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