d T c : detoxicate life

5th March 2013

Post

Response to the Article “Tackling Asian Privilege” by Gavin McInnes

I was on facebook, relaxing and I occasionally enjoy reading the articles my friends throw up. Nothing’s more interesting than something mentioning your race so I went to see this article: http://takimag.com/article/tackling_asian_privilege_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz2MjCquXZL.

Wow, it frightens me some of the comments I saw in response to that article, giving absolute praise to an article that seemed to represent Asians as a secret race representing the higher order of America. Note: this article is a satire. I wasn’t sure, honestly, because of the comments. And viewing his twitter, you know, I can’t really read sarcasm or jokes online, it’s very difficult to perceive. But why I can’t find it funny at all isn’t because I’m Asian. It’s because none of it is logical enough. I’m sure the intent of satire is blowing up the truth but there really is no truth in his statement and nothing funny about the remarks he makes (and I do love negative humor). 

I’m just curious about this Gavin’s background with the Asian culture because he throws out so many strange slanders at Asians. I wasn’t offended while reading this…. I was just… confused. Small statements like “An Asian can listen to rap music very loudly on a boom box while riding the New York subway without anyone wondering if they’re going to get stabbed.” I know he lives in NY and I’m guessing he saw an Asian listening to rap music very loudly but that isn’t your typical Asian. That’s probably your “ghetto Asian” who tries to imitate “black toughness” or someone who just really loves rap music and doesn’t care what others around him think. If anything, that quote actually counters his whole article because the kind of people who do that lack respect for others and usually consist of the lower-income people. 

But the main focus of Gavin’s article is our privilege. He says we’re overprivileged. Now, I understand and think I can explain the racist belief that Asians are “smarter”, that we are “too cheap and like to save money.” This is why Gavin believes Asians are overrepresented, that statistically we have so many advantages in terms of the higher income and better living.

Here’s the reason:

We’re immigrants to the country called the US. It’s not easy to just fly into the US. A lot of the people who came in from outside the country (like Europeans) have the money and the education to survive in the new environment. People who move to other countries are usually more educated in the first place. But there are also poor people who go to other countries with the bare minimum. Gavin would probably counter my point by talking about Mexicans but the truth is, they’re so close and that’s why they’re usually poor and come into the US as well.

But Asians also have poor people. And this is a part of why Gavin’s article is so ridiculous and lacks explanation. He mentions that Asians “need to recognize they got to where they are not by the virtue of hard work.” You gotta be kidding me Gavin. If you want to know any stereotypical fact about Asians, it’s that they work too hard. (Just do a study on Japanese culture and ask how much they work) The whole article, Gavin talks about our “privileges” but doesn’t explain where they came from. It’s like Asians magically held this power over American society. Uhh, excuse me, it’s a society full of white people (your people, Gavin) and if you want more Asians to be doctors, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because you thought we were the higher race And it’s not like white people are blind about it like Gavin mention (wow, how ironic, you make your own people sound stupid). Whites have a lot of smart people too. They just happen to like most of us and we happen to represent a small portion of the population) 

The guy doesn’t make any logical explanations for why Asians are “overprivileged” and the article just seems to be a nonsensical hate statement towards Asians. Gavin just sounds like someone who is completely jealous of where Asians have landed in terms of education and wealth. 

In terms of offensiveness, I feel bad for Japanese people who encountered his article. Gavin mentions Hiroshima and Nagasaki like they’re heavenly rebuilt cities due to American bombings. I felt like that was really offensive and ignorant. The struggles of cities like Detroit come from both cultural and economic issues. He shouldn’t be mentioning tragic bombings of Asian cities. He should be questioning why LA and the city of NY he lives in are so great compared to Detroit instead. I think in this regard, he should apologize to Japanese people. 

Tagged: counterAsianarticlegavinmcinnesi use logicracismprivilege