Comments on: Now on the Red Carpet: Bruce Reyes-Chow

By: SamHamilton

SamHamilton — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:23:00 +0000

Haha…good point.

Now that is really strange that they said they literally didn’t notice your race until you mentioned it. Can’t explain that one!

By: Bruce Reyes-Chow

Bruce Reyes-Chow — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 21:41:00 +0000

Well if you think I’m being hard on them, you should read some of the people I read 😉 Actually, I think you are prob right in most cases, but I HAVE had people say to me, “I didn’t even notice you were Asian until you said something about it.” So strange, but my guess it is tied up in what you say about how many folks were brought up and now being told that they need to shift how thy interact with folks.

By: Bruce Reyes-Chow

Bruce Reyes-Chow — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 21:39:00 +0000

Thanks for this. Interesting question. I actually have a chapter in the book when a someone said, about my best friend, “He’s a different kind of Black.” Very much MEANT to be a compliment, but not one. Tough stuff.

By: John

John — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Just as a related story. I live in the UK, but was born in California. I’ve lived here for most of my adult life, and a lot of my friends “don’t think of me as American”. And they will therefore say fairly offensive and xenophobic things about race, about immigration, about the state of England. And then, if they notice, what they often say to make amends is, “You’re not really American”. Other times, I need to “ahem” myself into existence, at which point, there is awkwardness and a change of topic.

What they are really saying is, “We accept you as us, but people in your category are usually them.” And it’s always intended as a compliment, but sometimes doesn’t feel like it. Often it’s funny, or ironic, or gives me a good opportunity to play the offended foreigner, but sometimes it is darker than that. Sometimes it is real. And makes me wonder about the softness of my case: the white person living in a white land, amongst two nations which actually really like each other. What must it be like for others?

By: SamHamilton

SamHamilton — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:45:00 +0000

Good interview. Thanks. Sounds like it could be a book that takes on the issue of race in a less serious way, which is much needed.

One comment though…don’t be so hard on white people who say “I don’t see you as Asian…”. I doubt that is literally true; surely they’ve noticed that you’re Asian. It’s probably more a statement about how they’re going to treat you. White people have been told that focusing on race is racist and that a color-blind society is to be yearned for. What they probably mean when they say “I don’t see you as Asian” is your race, ideally, is not going to make a difference to them when it comes to how they treat you and they’re going to try not to stereotype.

But I can also see how an attempt to completely steer clear of any discussion of how your race makes you who you are, as if being Asian is exactly the same as being white, black or American Indian. Though I’d hesitate to play the “racist” card in this instance. It probably does more harm than good to well-meaning people.

FYI…there’s a couple typos here (if anyone from RLC is actually moderating this website):
“I think there are two things that we get from the account of Christ: first, when he speaks to the Samaritan woman…”

“I really do wish there was one thing all people can do…”