-
Archive of "Race" Category
26 Asian Students Attacked at South Philadelphia High School
An incident occurred last week involving 26 or more Asian students being targeted and attacked at South Philadelphia High School. The school is 18% Asian and has been designated by the state as persistently dangerous. Racial? The situation is very complicated. The media can’t capture the complexities of the situation but violence against Asians in this neighborhood is not uncommon. What’s really upsetting the lack of outrage by school officials and others in response to this situation. Sure suspensions were given out and apparently have been given out for the past 18 months. They are also increasing police presence but what does that do except provide a band aid solution over racial tensions and misunderstandings. These circumstances will undoubtedly shape the hearts and minds of students, families, and communities for years. Racist attitudes will grow like mildew and mold. This a real opportunity for the school district, community leaders, and students to retool and reshape the school culture and larger community.
NEWS LINKS & TIMELINE
Friday
26 Asian Students Attacked at Philly High School [philly.com]
26 asian students attacked at south philadelphia high [Angry Asian Man]
Philly school’s racial tensions lead to fights [AP]
Racial assaults at S. Philly: What went wrong [The Notebook/Helen Gym]
South Philly High students meet with officials after attacks [philly.com - press conference at cccnc]Saturday
Many Asian students fear return to South Phila. classes [philly.com]Monday
Asian students boycott S. Phila. High [philly.com]
Asian students plan walkouts [philly.com]Seeking Reconciliation after Deadly Vipers
It’s been a week after the Deadly Viper controversy and much dialogue and movement has happened. Moving toward reconciliation Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite have posted their conversation w Asian American leaders as well as Soong-Chan Rah. A conference with Zondervan was also conducted which included Ken Fong weighing in. This is definitely bigger than Mike & Jud or Zondervan could have ever anticipated.
What more is needed? Well. Much. Much. More. It’s beyond Mike & Jud but Deadly Vipers has certainly been an undeniable catalyst for change. If anything it will serve as a great case study in marketing on many levels including conflict resolution through social media.
Let me first say that I appreciate the many non-Asian voices that have added not just their voices to this important conversation but the steps to sincerely seek deep reconciliation and the faith to move towards the vision of a better ‘country’.I think the question that many Asians bring up is, “Do White people get it?”
“Will they ever get it?”This is about all of us and not just demonizing the “White Privilege” of Caucasian men. I am capable of insensitivity, prejudice, and worse. Our church is far from perfect. Our church bumbles and stumbles our way in the ministry of reconciliation but we’re committed to engaging in both conversation and actions – even if we know we’ll fall short. But we’ll keep trying because we know that the ministry of all things reconciliation is not an option but part of our discipleship. – From Eugene Cho
In race matters as well as in real relationships, we’re never going to get anywhere unless we step into the world of another person who is different from us. Becoming like Christ means we willingly step into another person’s reality just. I say this often, I never realized how ‘Chinese’ I was until I married my Italian-German wife. I thought I was more Italian than Chinese growing up in Brooklyn but living with my non-Chinese wife has forced me to confront things about myself. This is how I begin my response to Chinese leaderships that think to be an multi-ethnic church is merely the task of the American born in their church. Not that I think this should or shouldn’t be the goal of ethnic/immigrant churches but becoming a multi-ethnic church will challenge us in ways we cannot begin to imagine and typically fail to acknowledge. It’s a ‘nice’ thing to dream about. Unless we’re willing to step out, reinvent our ways of thinking and have our social consciousness challenged it will always remain a dream. We like being around people just like us. Once we’re doing life on life with those different than us be it their skin color or socio-economic status or something else will we really taste what Christ came to do – deep reconciliation. I have to ask church leaders, are you really committed to building ethnically rich dynamic gospel communities or clusters of likeness where we have lots in common and oh yea Jesus too…
Anyways there’s been some great movement amongst Asian American Leaders about what we need to do next. I had a great tokbox session last week with some great voices including headsparks (Dan So), elderj (Joshua Settles), djchuang, jadanzzy (Dan Ra), NextGenerAsian Church (David Park) including Eugene Cho and Bruce Reyes-Chow who popped their heads in now and then. We discussed identity formation for the next generation of Asian Americans in the church and we want to follow up from that conversation with “Asian American Women and the Church”. What an appropriate next step.
So if you’re around this Thurs 11/12 10p ET / 7p PT tune in on TokBox. I’ll post details on that soon.Non-Asian Responses to Deadly Vipers
Skye Jethani: Hidden Racism?
Jonathan Brink: Confronting the Enemy Within
Ed Cyzewski: How White Christians Can Deal with Racial InsensitivitySeeking God in Deadly Vipers
I need to say something but struggling to put together the words I think would be helpful regarding the escalating Deadly Viper controversy initiated by Prof. Soong-Chan Rah about the book Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership. Deadly Vipers has entered into a much bigger conversation than the authors and publishers (Zondervan) could have ever imagined challenging the message they desire to communicate. The book itself at first glance didn’t bother me too much. It wasn’t really on my radar until ProfRah called it out. In fact the book was first published in 2007 but it seems like the authors Mike and Jud kick started a campaign to grow the community this year. I had briefly met Mike Foster this year at The Idea Camp. I’ve always been a fan of his projects from Ethur to XXXChurch. I believe he loves Jesus.I think I’m more bothered by indifference and many of the comments that say this isn’t a big deal and people are just over reacting. Is this where faith leads us? Why do we operate on the shallow end of such a deep and rich faith? Now the term racial reconciliation is kinda tired and reconciliation itself tends to not get any deeper than an apology. I think God has in mind much much more. But it’s hard and costly.
We’re called towards oneness.
Our vision is shalom – That’s not kumbaya around a campfire.We all bring our own set of lenses into things. It’s difficult to know how people will receive what we say and do even if we mean well. We can’t ignore how we affect others especially a whole culture. I wouldn’t quite call Deadly Vipers outrightly racist but it’s appropriation of Asian images and stereotypes in its marketing is in my opinion destructive. Soong-Chan Rah highlights Deadly Vipers offenses that you can read about here.
I witness the injustice caused by stereotypes and racism on a regular basis working in immigrant communities. Stereotypes and racism created ethnic enclaves like Chinatown and continues to perpetuate them. It drives people and whole communities towards isolation and mistrust. Stereotypes do hurt and perpetuate the worst not the best in people or culture.
It’s naive to think that we’re past racism. I was enraged one day in the playground when slightly older non-Asian boys used racist language with my 3 yr old son. I kindly asked the boys to never use that kind of language again. I admit I began judging when I found that the boys were part of a group of church families getting together in the park. Where do they learn that from? Though my son may not have fully grasped what had occurred it made me feel like I’m still not really fully ‘American’ or like everyone else. On another note, my week started with an NBA commentator saying “Nice dunk by the Chinaman” about Nets, Yi Jianling. That was just weird and unnecessary.
Real conversation needs to take place beyond blogs and twitter. I don’t think the ‘dialogue’ on ProfRah’s blog was helpful but I’m thankful that Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite seem to be moving in the right direction. They’ve issued an apology on the Deadly Vipers blog and the most disturbing part of the Deadly Vipers marketing to me was the video posted on facebook which has been taken down by the time of this post. A real conversation is set to take place soon and I hope to post the results on this blog soon. I just want to say here that I love you guys. Really I do. I’m not writing to rip on you guys or judge you but to do what I can to bring real reconciliation and advance the kingdom. I want to see the beauty and power of Christ shine through you and the cracks of our brokenness.
Real conversation and change needs to happen with the publishers as well. I’d like to see Zondervan think deeper beyond target markets. This isn’t the first time this publisher has shown insensitivity to Asian culture. We’ve been through this before.
So let’s go deep and get the conversation going for real change. If we really want to see a different tomorrow that’s in line with God’s idea of the future established by Christ we need to go deep and make sacrifices. We’re all broken and in need of second chances. This is where Christ gets to show us something we would have never expected and build his Church his way.
Some thoughtful responses:
Daniel So/Headsparks: “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”
Eugene Cho: “deadly vipers, mike foster, jud wilhite, soong-chan rah, chuck norris, joyluck club, angry asian man, wanna be ninjas and everyone else”Asians & NonVerbal Communication
I have a difficult time with nonverbal communication but I use it more than I’d like to admit. I especially dislike the indirectness. I don’t like it when folks don’t say what they mean. It’s probably the one major barrier besides language in the immigrant church that makes 1st/2nd gen relationships difficult. I’ve learned how to communicate better over time working in the immigrant church but I’m no master.
There are subtleties in the way Asians communicate that may make 1st/2nd gen communications or with non-Asians very perplexing. A new study demonstrates a small glimpse of how Asians perceive facial expressions differently than Westerners. While Westerners focus and use the whole face to convey expression Easterners focus primarily on the eyes…
Facial Expressions: East Doesn’t Meet West [via ScientificAmerican.com]
What do you notice?
On Interracial Churches and Rev. Rodney Woo
Rev. Rodney Woo
Interesting CNN cover story yesterday on interracial churches and “Why Many Americans Prefer Their Sundays Segregated.” Good read.
Some great highlights:
What was he was going to do if more of “them” tried to join their church?
The article cites Rev. Rodney Woo, who is partly Chinese, showing a very Third Culture approach on his part. There was fear that more Asians would flood the church because of his last name but according to the article it seems like that’s far from reality. I wonder if there are Asians in his church? My guess is that if they go or don’t go it probably has nothing to do with Woo’s last name. The reverend doesn’t look very Chinese to me. Not a knock on him but just a statement that perhaps the reason why people (Asians) go or don’t go has little to do with his last name but it may be an issue for non-Asians.The Rev. Rodney Woo, senior pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, may be such a person. He leads a congregation of blacks, whites and Latinos. Like many leaders of interracial churches, he is driven in part by a personal awakening.
Woo’s mother is white, and his father is part Chinese. He attended an all-black high school growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, where he still remembers what it was like to be a minority.
“Everyone understands the rules, the lingo, the mind-set — except you,” he says. “It was invaluable, but I didn’t know it at the time.”
When he became pastor of Wilcrest in 1992, he was determined to shield his church members from such an experience. But an exodus of whites, commonly referred to as “white flight” was already taking place in the neighborhood and the church.Membership fell to about 200 people. At least one church member suggested that Woo could change the church’s fortunes by adding a “d” to his last name.
“The fear there was people would think I was Chinese,” he says. “There would be a flood of all these Asians coming in, and what would we do then?”
Woo kept his last name and his vision. He made racial diversity part of the church’s mission statement. He preached it from the pulpit and lived it in his life. He says Wilcrest now has about 500 members, and is evenly divided among white, Latino and black members.Woo doesn’t say his church has resolved all of its racial tensions. There are spats over music, length of service, even how to address Woo. Blacks prefer to address him more formally, while whites prefer to call him by his first name, (a sign of disrespect in black church culture), Woo says.
Woo tries to defuse the tension by offering something for everyone: gospel and traditional music, an integrated pastoral staff, “down-home” preaching and a more refined sermon at times.But he knows it’s not enough. And he’s all right with that.
“If there’s not any tension, we probably haven’t done too well,” he says. “If one group feels too comfortable, we’ve probably neglected another group.”
Engage Speaker Series: Living Out the Gospel Across Racial and Socio-Economic Lines
It’s been awhile since I’ve attended an ENGAGE speaker series event in NYC sponsored by PaLM. I’m hoping to go to one again. They’ve done a great job of exposing issues and equipping leaders to engage culture. If you’re in the New York area there’s one tonight featuring Christine Lee of All Angels Church.
“Living Out the Gospel Across Racial and Socio-Economic Lines”
Ephesians 2 says that Christ Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. So then as the familiar saying goes, why does 11 am continue to be “the most segregated hour of the week”? Come hear how one church – of professionals, families, students, artists, homeless men and women – has sought and struggled (and sometimes failed) to live out the reality of the gospel in community and overcome the dividing walls of race and class.Tuesday, April 15, 2008
7:00pm – 9:00pm
All Angels Church
251 W. 80th Street New York, NYChristine Lee is the Director of Spiritual Development and Outreach at All Angels’ Church, an evangelical Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side. She attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and received her M.Div. and Th.M. at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. After seminary, she spent a year and a half serving as a short-term missionary in Bangkok, Thailand, teaching Thai and tribal students at the Thailand Evangelical Seminary. In 1999, she joined staff with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, first at the University of Chicago and then Columbia University after getting married to Jimmy Lee in 2002. Before coming to All Angels, she worked for Habitat for Humanity – NYC engaging the faith community in volunteerism and advocacy around affordable housing issues.
All Angels’ Church Official Website
All Angels’ Church Mission Statement: To build Christ centered communities of witness and healing, and equip people to be a transforming presence in NYC and beyond.Missional Living. Earn 200k. Live on 38k. Part 2
My post about Tom Hsieh has gotten a lot of attention. I’m glad that Danny, the music director at NewPointe Community Church caught wind of my post. His team decided to do something creative with the story. Read the post on his blog.
This Sunday, NewPointe Community Church will be doing a live conference with Tom Hsieh for part of their worship service. Listen live from their website, www.newpointe.org.
It will feature towards the end of the message (around 9:45 or 11:45am).Missional Living. Earn 200k. Live on 38k.
Tom Hsieh is my hero. Hands down.
As an Asian man. As a father. As an entrepreneur. As a follower of Christ.I think this was a precious find in People magazine [ Thanks David (Next.Generasian Church) ] last month juxtaposed between pages of celebrities and whatever in the world they are up to. Plus isn’t it great to see yet another interracial couple with a cute baby to spoil on? No. Recent research shows that interracial couples spend more time and money on their kids than parents who are both of the same race. I’ll save that thought for another time. The Hsiehs are an image of a interracial couple that will give their bi-racial child a different story.
But the point I want to make in this post is that from a policy perspective this is how urban renewal is supposed to work but who’s willing? Move into a community with high crime and unemployment? What about safety? What about my family? What about my children’s future? How about, Is this not what those have been called by follow Christ supposed to do?
I’m thrilled that Tom gives to Servant Partners, a ministry that I’m in love with. Their mission is consistent with the life demonstrated through the Hsiehs – living among the poor in community, leading humbly in the spirit of a servant, evangelizing boldly in faith beyond race, beyond class. Sounds like Jesus eh?
Tom Hsieh could be living the American dream. An immigrant from Taiwan, he worked hard in school, got into a good college and today heads an L.A.- based telecommunications consulting firm. His annual pay: $2OO,OOO.
So where’s the big house and fancy car? “We could have that lifestyle,” Hsieh says. “But it’s not real.” What’s real, for Hsieh, is his deep faith and desire to help others. So Hsieh, 36, wife Bree, 31, and 13-month-old daughter Kadence live on a modest $38,000 a year.The rest of Tom’s income goes to charity, including Servant Partners, a Christian group he and Bree belong to that sends young adults into urban areas to spread Christ’s teachings and practice community activism.
The family lives in a two-bedroom duplex in South Pomona, a community battered by crime and unemployment. There, Hsieh and his wife talk to young people about getting on a better path, and lead efforts to make the streets safer. Santos Ramos, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pomona, says the Hsiehs have the community respect. “Politicians come and go, but when educated people live next door, there’s hope.”
Still, it’s not exactly an immigrant parent’s dream. Some years ago, Hsieh told his parents, “I’ll always make sure there’s a roof over your head, but I won’t be the successful Chinese son who buys you a BMW.” His daughter won’t need such explanations. “She’s growing up,” he says, “knowing there more to life than possessions.” – People Magazine, Dec 24, 2007
Updated
Using my uncanny stalker skills I was able to find Tom Hsieh’s personal profile on boldergiving.org. . .
Sounds familiar. . . like Mark 10?Interracial Dating – It’s tough to be Asian
Earlier this month there was a study published written by Columbia Business School professor Ray Fisman on theories of dating or choice-making based on data collected from speed-dating experiments in Chicago. Part of the study looked at interracial dating preferences. As you may know I have a major interest in this area. Looking through some articles and the Fisman study there are upsides and downsides.
I guess the good news for some would be that people generally choose to marry within their own race. It is perceived widely in Asian American culture that Asian women increasingly tend to outmarry. I think this study does offer some practical and logical insight. For starters, the study notes that Asian women exhibit a strong same race preference than their male counterparts. There is no evidence of the stereotype of a White male preference. But throw in that attractiveness factor and Asian men fall last.
“For male partners, our main finding is that Asians generally receive lower ratings than men of other races. In fact, when we run the regressions separately for each race, we find that even Asian women find white, black, and Hispanic men to be more attractive than Asian men. “
Ouch. That hurts a bit.
If the controlling factor is preference based on attractiveness…then Asian men are the least desirable. If you’re a good looking Asian dude. . . you’re to be envied.
However, the bias runs both ways…
“female Asian partners are consistently rated as less attractive, though we also find that black females receive significantly lower ratings relative to whites. As above, we find that when these regressions are run separately for each race, even Asian men find white, black, and Hispanic women to be more attractive than Asian women.Asians received low marks on attractiveness from all races including Asians themselves.
*sigh*
For a long time many Asian men and bloggers have wondered why it appears that more Asian women out-marry. Is it really true? Does this study prove that there is a preference or none at all?One conclusion about preference that the study demonstrates is simply this, who you spend the most time with you end up choosing. Our choices are really more rational than anything. Lawyers with lawyers. Doctors with doctors. These are the people you meet on a daily basis and spend the most time around. Perhaps the factors are more geographic/social integration rather than specific racial preferences. What choices do you have? This tendency goes for race and religion as well. The bloggers at Poplicks summarizes these findings well.
[LINKS]
The full study can be downloaded here in pdf form.
Other research by OSU’s Zhenchao Qian [pdf download].
Slate.com Article by Ray Fisman, An Economist Goes to the Bar, and solves the mysteries of datingThis reminds me of a story from pioneering pastor David Gibbons of NewSong who’s a Korean-White mix. He attended Bob Jones University south of the Mason-Dixon line at a time where he was one of a handful of Asian faces. He had to indicate what race he would date and so Dave thought his chances were higher if he would check off White. This was a very practical and logical decision not because he had a preference for White women. BJU didn’t look too favorably upon this but how could Gibbons decide? If you’ve seen David Gibbons in person, he don’t look very mixed at all. He looks very Korean.
Sorry Dave if I butchered your story. I love you man.
The school only lifted its ban on interracial dating in 2000.
So is it tough to be Asian? or not?
Events
"HERO" An EPIC MOVEMENT EAST COAST Conference January 15-18, 2010, Philadelphia
Verge Missional Community Conference,
February 4-6, Austin, Texas
Recent Comments