I am Asian. To be specific, I am Korean American. I am highly educated and, though I earn a meager community college professor's salary, my professor husband and I together have made comfortable lives for ourselves and our two children. I am in many ways living the American dream. A house. A family. A respectable job. I am a model minority.

And I hate being a model minority. It's so pejorative. It's so limiting. It is so a term coined by whites who wish that minorities would act more white. There. You are a model minority if your life is like the life of white people. But this is deceptive. Not all whites live like that. There are plenty of white people living in poverty, out of wedlock, on food stamps, homeless, hopeless. The idea of someone having made in the image of the successful white is as much a mirage as it is the image of a black man as a thug.

I saw a recent report on what racial groups sympathize with Black Lives Matter. At the top are blacks, then followed by Asians (over 60%), then followed by Hispanics. This is curious. If Asians are the model minority and are supposed to have integrated into the American society so well that somehow they are the non-white whites, what is the cause of this huge percentage if Asians sympathizing with a movement started to bring attention to the racial divide in police brutality?

Even though on the surface Asians have achieved the so-called American dream, the reality is that racism still exists for them. All Asians run into racism at some point. They can be successful doctors, lawyers, professors, and other professionals, but still they are treated differently. For example, I am asked all the time how come I speak German? Would a white German teacher ever be asked this? Also, the existence of bamboo ceiling, for example, is well-documented. The fact is simply that, while Asians may have been successful immigrants, they are still subjected to the racist bias in white America. Asians experience this everyday while at the same time being touted as the model minority. It is as if Asians can achieve all that they want, but they are still reminded that they are NOT quite American enough.

Think about it. You do everything that you are supposed to do, and yet you still face discrimination. What can the reason be? Racism. It still permeates the American society. That is why Asians sympathize with Black Lives Matter even though it would seem they have nothing to complain about. I, for one, sympathize strongly with Black Lives Matter. I know that racism exists. If I, as an Asian American, as a model minority, still face racism, then how bad must it be for blacks whom many accuse of being the failed minority?





 

Seriously??

So, the latest CNN polls show that the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is tightening. Trump is now just a few points behind Hillary Clinton. One poll has Donald Trump leading.

SERIOUSLY????

How can a two-faced, nay, the multi-faced Trump even be taken seriously? In previous elections, he would have been derided and dismissed as a flip-flopper. Remember John Kerry? His flip-flop was that he was for it before he was against it. And that became the defining blow to the Kerry campaign. The Swift Boat ad was the natural result of that where the seemingly patriotic Kerry turned out to be a highly unpatriotic Vietnam War opposer. Flip flop. Not only does he flop-flop, he IS the flip-flop personified.

Trump has told more lies than I can count. He even lied many times on the same day. Why does Trump get a free pass?

At the same time, Hillary Clinton gets scrutinized for every perceived infraction. So there were the emails. They were exhaustively investigated and she was exonerated. But it is still used as something to show that she "lies." That is now the scandal du jour. Benghazi has obviously taken a step back.

Whatever outrageous thing he says, he didn't mean it. He will pivot.

Whatever Hillary says, she's lying because she is a liar. Tautology, anyone?

Whatever dumb thing Trump says, he will be ok because he will surround himself with good people. Let's see. Steve Bannon, Chris Christie, Paul Manafort. As Steve Inskeep points out on NPR on Morning Edition this morning, does that mean that Trump himself can be as ignorant as f***? But he's going to make the decision ultimately. Unless we revisit the Bush presidency. Remember the man called Cheney????

Whatever dumb thing Hillary says, it's because she is not good enough. She is never good enough. Because woman. Sexism is still rampant.

I am at a loss for words. I keep thinking that Americans will come to their senses, but will they?