I Will Never Love You Much Less Love You Long Time

I know that the United States has come a long way since working towards civil rights and women’s rights. But obviously hundreds of years of oppression run deep.

I was with some of my friends out one night and we decided to go to Denny’s afterward for some gossiping and breakfast eating. There as a bunch of us so we went in several different calls. My car arrived first and got a table. I went outside to take a phone call and in roll the second car. We were at a party before so we had been dressed up, we looked nice. The second car parked by a white van where a bunch of men were hanging around packing themselves into the van to leave. I was on the phone and having paying attention to my friends. I was in full attention when one loud and obnoxious line shot out at me.

“Do you want to love me long time?” said the drunkard dressed in trucker-hat-beer-belly-tight-t-shirt-flannel wearing man directed towards my friends who were exiting their car.

Something in my mind clicked and I promptly hung up on my phone conversation and started towards those guys. ARE THEY SERIOUS? What kind of world do you EVER think a line like that would ever work, and WHAT kind of women would appreciate that kind of attention. We yelled at them and decided to call the police to report sexual harassment. They told us to go ahead and call.

My friend called the police and said that we were being sexually harassed and our location and who harassed us. That call stopped short when a police car that was in the area patrolling, patrolled through the Denny’s parking lot. We told the police that those guys that were in the white van (who was now leaving) made sexual advances towards us.

The cop said, “Did they touch you?”
We told him what those guys said to us again.
The cop said with emphasis, “Did they TOUCH you?”
“No,” we replied.
“Then their fine.”

From the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission):
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.
Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:
• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.
Under the law, we WERE sexually harassed. We had been a victim of unwanted sexual advances. The police officer did nothing and let those guys go. Did he want something to happen to one of us before he would go ahead with action? It would have been fine of he had violent crime he had to go to, but he was patrolling around and we saw him a few more times passing the same parking lot.

Turning back and reflecting on the line, “Do you want to love me long time?” Not only is this statement sexist, it is also racist. This line is from the movie Full Metal Jacket, where a Vietnamese prostitute offers her services by saying “Me love you long time.” That portion of the film is already very offensive but this is a film. Translating these lines to reality is even more obscene.

It is a really sad world when people are so ignorant about sexist and racist issues. I hope that more and more people realize that it is never okay to objectify women or men. I hope it is also not okay to generalize and stereotype people into a group. I really hope that the cop we met at the parking lot was a rarity and that law enforcement actually care about the protection of women.

-Barbara

Who is an Asian American?

This question has confused me a great deal in the past and to some extent it still does, especially as a South Asian.

Growing up in Detroit, I did not have much interaction with Asian Americans outside of those in the Indian community. It did not take much for me to realize that I was Asian American. India is in Asia and I am a resident of America so I concluded that I must be Asian American.

It wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized that to others the concept was not so simple. This became apparent to me in three different situations.

The first account occured in high school while one of my friends was proofreading my English paper. He was confused about a line in which I discribed myself as an Asian American. He said "but you are an Indian. There is no way you are Asian!" Now does that make any sense?

The second account occured while I was taking a standardized test. I came to the race/ethinicity section and I had to fill in a bubble. The options present were Caucasian, African American, Asian, From the Indian Subcontinent, Hispanic, etc. It perplexed me that there was a different bubble for South Asians and the rest of the Asians. At first thought I figured it might be that South Asians have such a large population so it might make sense to divide it into different categories. However, I did not see a sign for those from China. It was starting to become more and more clear that people saw South Asians as being different from Asians.

This last account is one that disturbed me the most. I telling some of my Indian friends how I had this amazing oppurtunity to be a part of a cultural show called GenAPA. She responded "Why would you want to do that? You're not Asian, you are Indian." To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I found this sentiment to be common among most South Asians. They do not consider themselves to be Asian. At the same time a lot of other Asians don't consider South Asians to be Asian.

Overtime the word Asian has increasingly been used to describe those of East Asian origin. Thus the connotation of the word has been used to describe mostly those of East Asian origin. This disturbs me because where there should be solidarity there is a lack of unity. Personally I do not understand why there is a divide between South Asians and the rest of the Asian community. The only possible explanation is that they look different. Surely this cannot be a plausible explanation though. Most Asian Americans, South Asians included, face the same problems. Most people from Asia share the same fundamental family/cultural values. In America there are many South Asians who are very well off and there are many other Asians who are also well established. At the same time there are South Asians who are discriminated against and struggle to make a living. There are also other Asians who go through the same problems. We all go through the same basic struggles and triumphs. We all also hail, at one point or another, from Asia.

So why is there a divide, especially in America, when we should all be standing in solidarity?

Ravi