May 9, 2023Liked by Amelia Mavis Christnot, The Big Picture, George Takei
The real engine behind the scapegoating by so many of the white men and women of America is to divert attention so people won’t get any ideas about targeting them, the white race, hating and blaming them, scapegoating them should the minorities become the majorities. All the signs are here. Book banning. Changing history. Hating and demonizing groups that are not Christian Nationalists, outlandish conspiracy theories are all part of the push to prevent the populace from looking in the direction of white people as the ones most responsible for bringing genocide, wars, and the destruction of the environment of all living beings.
May 9, 2023Liked by Amelia Mavis Christnot, The Big Picture, George Takei
This is disgusting. We have done heinous things to so many people. It is not getting better until everyone votes these people out of office. Until everyone is represented.
May 9, 2023Liked by Amelia Mavis Christnot, The Big Picture, George Takei
Everything in this is YES! I will advocate for justice and equality and stand up to others who scape goat people of asian descent and any other group treated this way.
I think all the examples cited are heinous and I'm more than willing to stand up for anyone being bullied or scapegoated. However, this piece lacks any constructive ideas for doing so. That's even more complicated for me because I'm an off-the-charts introvert. I love writing comments here and on Huffpost. But there's absolutely no way I would ever volunteer to be part of a group protest. So what does a person like me do? I'd like to think that I'd intervene if I saw anybody being bullied or physically harmed, no matter their ethnicity, but that's as far as I can figure out something to do.
The collecting and imprisoning of Japanese Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor is, and will always remain to me, one of the worst actions by our own government since it ignored, even aided Hitler and tyranny in the runup to his political fortunes. Unfortunately not much has been learned since then, certainly not what should have been by grown men called “statesmen”. I was in petticoats (60’s) when my Mother, who’d been a WAVE in WWII (my father had flown patrol in the Air Force off the Azores) explained it to me with more than some embarrassment after I befriended a Japanese girl in my class. I was bereft her parents didn’t seem to like me and so the lesson began. At that young of an age the stories parents tell stick with you. Then as life in Detroit where we lived went on, there would be many more lessons to be learned about people, race & racial tensions, preconceptions, empathy and the way in which we conduct ourselves toward those who don’t ‘look like me’. Basic lessons that apparently many did not get from parents or family, particularly as generations became more and more removed from international and world wars. The shame of being branded ‘racist’ has been worn off in the process, while entire states whitewash actual history and the way in which we (or children) should learn from it. Never has the maxim “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” been more of an existential threat than since Mr Takei’s family ordeal been forced upon them. I will always stand in the corner for those wrongly demonized or marginalized because of where or to whom they were born, or how they look or (more modernly) who they love. Because that was the lesson my Mother gave to me-that the “original sin” is punishing someone for things they truly have no control over.
I'm Jewish but with an Hispanic sounding name, so I personally escaped the kind of prejudice that still existed when I left my protected and heavily Jewish neighborhood for college. But it's beyond sad that people in power (ie Trump) are still stoking hatred. Somehow, Trump never progressed beyond toddlerhood in his thinking, complete with tantrums (ie throwing food against the wall and childish name calling). And now people in power who actually possess a working brain (ie deSantis) are in a position to do so much more damage, which will lead to so much more hatred.
Powerful summary, George, of a long and pernicious history. You may know that the Detroit JACL worked closely with ACJ (American Citizens for Justice), which formed in southeast Michigan after the murder of Vincent Chin. I didn't realize, either, about Norm's leadership in not scapegoating Arab Americans post 9/11. The biggest a-ha, though, for me was that my father (in Jerome/Rohwer at ten) wasn't able to vote until 1965?! I wish I could go back and ask him about that....
Reading this I wish I had introduced myself at the Jerome/Rohwer Pilgrimage that we both attended this year! I was one of the author panelists and hoped to gift you a copy of my book, A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America (Random house, 2022), which just won the Nautilus Gold Book Award for social justice. The book is a braided memoir and history of the color lines in twelve American towns I called home, all over the country--an attempt to understand what the radicalization of American Muslims in the past ~25 years means for my children.
What I didn't realize was that it would expose an unbroken legacy of forced migrations and dispossession of Brown and Black Americans, and that each local history was a moment in a larger regional or national movement. I also didn't realize that American exceptionalism discourages us from understanding that other countries with a similar European settler colonial origin are addressing that history in inspiring, innovative ways from which we might learn and find some redemption.
I'd still love to send you a copy of A Good Country--but where is best to send it? I can be reached at through Kimiko, who has my contacts, or at sofiaalikhan.com.
Now (yellow and brown) Asian -Americans (and other ethnic minorities) understand what African-Americans have been experiencing and fighting for and against. Asian-Americans (especially yellow Asian-Americans) are guilty of basking in the model minority status and sucking at the teet of white supremacy. But covid-19 has shown you that your honorary white status is revokable by the whiteman. But dont worry, this too shall pass. we are in the beginning of post covid, and everything will be back to normal. and soon you can return to dining and supping with white supremacy, until the next revocation of your honorary whiteness.
Thank you George and sub-stack for helping us continue strong opposition to scapegoating and giving us continuous strength to stand against such while standing beside or sometimes in front of, to protect those who are targeted.
The real engine behind the scapegoating by so many of the white men and women of America is to divert attention so people won’t get any ideas about targeting them, the white race, hating and blaming them, scapegoating them should the minorities become the majorities. All the signs are here. Book banning. Changing history. Hating and demonizing groups that are not Christian Nationalists, outlandish conspiracy theories are all part of the push to prevent the populace from looking in the direction of white people as the ones most responsible for bringing genocide, wars, and the destruction of the environment of all living beings.
This is the whole thing in a nutshell.
This is disgusting. We have done heinous things to so many people. It is not getting better until everyone votes these people out of office. Until everyone is represented.
Everything in this is YES! I will advocate for justice and equality and stand up to others who scape goat people of asian descent and any other group treated this way.
As a Jew, I know all too well the effects of irrational hatred. I am sorry that you have personally experienced it, Mr. Takei.
I think all the examples cited are heinous and I'm more than willing to stand up for anyone being bullied or scapegoated. However, this piece lacks any constructive ideas for doing so. That's even more complicated for me because I'm an off-the-charts introvert. I love writing comments here and on Huffpost. But there's absolutely no way I would ever volunteer to be part of a group protest. So what does a person like me do? I'd like to think that I'd intervene if I saw anybody being bullied or physically harmed, no matter their ethnicity, but that's as far as I can figure out something to do.
Thank you for this! 💜 Sharing it with my coworkers for AANHPI month.
The collecting and imprisoning of Japanese Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor is, and will always remain to me, one of the worst actions by our own government since it ignored, even aided Hitler and tyranny in the runup to his political fortunes. Unfortunately not much has been learned since then, certainly not what should have been by grown men called “statesmen”. I was in petticoats (60’s) when my Mother, who’d been a WAVE in WWII (my father had flown patrol in the Air Force off the Azores) explained it to me with more than some embarrassment after I befriended a Japanese girl in my class. I was bereft her parents didn’t seem to like me and so the lesson began. At that young of an age the stories parents tell stick with you. Then as life in Detroit where we lived went on, there would be many more lessons to be learned about people, race & racial tensions, preconceptions, empathy and the way in which we conduct ourselves toward those who don’t ‘look like me’. Basic lessons that apparently many did not get from parents or family, particularly as generations became more and more removed from international and world wars. The shame of being branded ‘racist’ has been worn off in the process, while entire states whitewash actual history and the way in which we (or children) should learn from it. Never has the maxim “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” been more of an existential threat than since Mr Takei’s family ordeal been forced upon them. I will always stand in the corner for those wrongly demonized or marginalized because of where or to whom they were born, or how they look or (more modernly) who they love. Because that was the lesson my Mother gave to me-that the “original sin” is punishing someone for things they truly have no control over.
I'm Jewish but with an Hispanic sounding name, so I personally escaped the kind of prejudice that still existed when I left my protected and heavily Jewish neighborhood for college. But it's beyond sad that people in power (ie Trump) are still stoking hatred. Somehow, Trump never progressed beyond toddlerhood in his thinking, complete with tantrums (ie throwing food against the wall and childish name calling). And now people in power who actually possess a working brain (ie deSantis) are in a position to do so much more damage, which will lead to so much more hatred.
Powerful summary, George, of a long and pernicious history. You may know that the Detroit JACL worked closely with ACJ (American Citizens for Justice), which formed in southeast Michigan after the murder of Vincent Chin. I didn't realize, either, about Norm's leadership in not scapegoating Arab Americans post 9/11. The biggest a-ha, though, for me was that my father (in Jerome/Rohwer at ten) wasn't able to vote until 1965?! I wish I could go back and ask him about that....
An exceedingly important American history lesson.
Reading this I wish I had introduced myself at the Jerome/Rohwer Pilgrimage that we both attended this year! I was one of the author panelists and hoped to gift you a copy of my book, A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America (Random house, 2022), which just won the Nautilus Gold Book Award for social justice. The book is a braided memoir and history of the color lines in twelve American towns I called home, all over the country--an attempt to understand what the radicalization of American Muslims in the past ~25 years means for my children.
What I didn't realize was that it would expose an unbroken legacy of forced migrations and dispossession of Brown and Black Americans, and that each local history was a moment in a larger regional or national movement. I also didn't realize that American exceptionalism discourages us from understanding that other countries with a similar European settler colonial origin are addressing that history in inspiring, innovative ways from which we might learn and find some redemption.
I'd still love to send you a copy of A Good Country--but where is best to send it? I can be reached at through Kimiko, who has my contacts, or at sofiaalikhan.com.
Now (yellow and brown) Asian -Americans (and other ethnic minorities) understand what African-Americans have been experiencing and fighting for and against. Asian-Americans (especially yellow Asian-Americans) are guilty of basking in the model minority status and sucking at the teet of white supremacy. But covid-19 has shown you that your honorary white status is revokable by the whiteman. But dont worry, this too shall pass. we are in the beginning of post covid, and everything will be back to normal. and soon you can return to dining and supping with white supremacy, until the next revocation of your honorary whiteness.
Thank you George and sub-stack for helping us continue strong opposition to scapegoating and giving us continuous strength to stand against such while standing beside or sometimes in front of, to protect those who are targeted.