我为什么也去了游行

看到楼下问斜阳同学的文章，感到十分赞同，跟俺的想法简直是如出一辙，只是俺还没时间把俺的想法用中文写出来 －－ 说到底，俺们去不是为了爱国之类的，而是为了俺们自己和俺们的下一代。媒体当年鼓吹日本威胁论，结果陈果仁 (Vincent Chin) 被杀，两个凶手还不用坐牢；今天媒体鼓吹中国威胁论，在它们胡说八道的时候如果我们还是默不作声，搞不好你或者我就会成为下一个陈果仁。

先在这里把我星期天写给 LA Times 的 David Pierson 的信贴出来，大家看看是不是这个道理：

Dear Mr. Pierson,

Thank you for your article on yesterday\'s protest on Sunset Blvd outside of CNN\'s L.A. bureau. It was balanced and unbiased.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you a little more about how some Chinese Americans at the protest like myself felt. We were not there because we support China or the Chinese government; we were there because we love America and we were there for our own rights as Americans.

One of the speakers at the protest has lived in America for 40 years – most of his life; likewise, I have lived here in the States since I was 13 years old. I also met two other people at the protest who, like Mr. Lake Wang whom you interviewed, left China after they marched for democracy and protested against the Chinese government in 1989. We love America as much as any other American, if not more, because this is the country that we chose to adopt as our own and because we believe that America is a country with liberty and justice for ALL.

Like Mr. Wang in the article, I was about apolitical as one can get. Saturday’s protest was the only one I have attended in my entire life. I was not there on Sunset Blvd to support China or the Chinese government; but I was there for my father and for my children. I was there so that hardworking people like my father will not be called “goons and thugs;” and I was there so that my children will not be thrown into internment camps or be beaten to death because of their ethnicity. I was also there for my own rights: I was there to protest against racial stereotyping and discrimination; I was there to protest against injustice.

Before I go any further, I must thank you for providing your readers with what Jack Cafferty said in its entirety – something many other news media failed to do. Without reading Mr. Cafferty’s comment in its entirety, it would be easy for a reader to buy his excuse that the “goons and thugs” comment was directed towards the Chinese government. After reading Mr. Cafferty’s comment in its entirety, one can probably see why I feel like Mr. Cafferty has called me a SOB in my face, and then tried to fool me into believing what he really meant is that my dog is a SOB.

Leading up to his “goons and thugs” moment, Mr. Cafferty talked about the trade deficit, inexpensive Chinese products, the safety of those products and low wages. Someone as learned as Mr. Cafferty should know that American corporations like Wal-Mart and Target are NOT trading with the Chinese government, but with privately-owned Chinese businesses. Therefore, it is only natural for those of us watching to interpret his “goons and thugs” comment as something directed towards the tens of millions of Chinese workers who turned out these products, the hundreds of thousands of Chinese business owners who supplied them to American corporations, and those of us here in the States who made this bilateral trade possible.

I must admit that I was quite angry when I first watched Mr. Cafferty’s comment on Youtube because it felt like that he was talking about my father. My father had been in the import-export business in China for almost 30 years and used to own a garment factory in Guangzhou, China, so he is one of those Chinese business owners Mr. Cafferty bashed. My father was not a saint, but he was not a goon or a thug either. While he only paid minimum wage – about 800 Yuan or $100 dollars a month at that time, he provided low-cost dormitory, free breakfast and free lunch for his employees. Don’t forget, this is the 1990s, in Guangzhou, 5 Yuan – a mere 62 cents – could get you a lunchbox with plenty of steamed rice, 3 entrees, and a bowl of soup – something that would cost at least $5.99 at Panda Express here in the States. Factoring in the cost of living, one should see that the low wages in China is not as unreasonable as one might think. My father was no different from the small business owners that you know – the owners of your neighborhood coffee shop, dry cleaner, and grocery store – he did not pay so well that all of his employees could afford their own house, but what he paid his employees was fair and reasonable.

But I was not there on Sunset Blvd just for my father; I was there also for my children.

I was there so that my children would not be the next Vincent Chin – the Chinese American engineer beaten to death in 1982 by two out-of-work autoworkers. Chin’s killers have mistaken him for a Japanese American. They called him a “Jap” and killed him by beating him in the head repeatedly with a baseball bat. Chin’s death was the result of anti-Japan sentiments in America that started in the late 1970s and lasted until the early 1990s. It was a time when Japanese carmakers are getting an increasing share of the American market and Japanese corporations are buying up American companies and real estate. Through sensational reporting, news media like CNN added fuel to the fear of a “Japanese Invasion” in the American public and resentment, or dare I say, racial hatred, towards the Japanese. What they did then with Japan culminated in the beating death of Vincent Chin; what is happening today with some of the sensational news reports and commentaries on China is no different. It makes me wonder if I myself or my children may one day become the next Vincent Chin.

Mr. Cafferty’s comment was, by no means, the only derogatory remark about Chinese in general that appeared on CNN in recently weeks. Glenn Beck, another CNN talk-show host, called Chinese “people who drown children in rice paddies” on CNN Headline News a few weeks ago. While I understand that provocative comments are what drives ratings these days, I am truly shocked when a major news organization condone discriminatory speech in this manner.

Don Imus uttered “nappy heads” and he apologized to the African American community; Jack Cafferty said “goons and thugs,” and the Chinese American community got a mere clarification – what a stark comparison! It begs the question: “Why?”

When I talked about the Vincent Chin case with my friends in the past, we always compared it to the Rodney King case. The men responsible for Chin’s death did not serve a day in prison, they were given 3 years probation and fined $3,000 through a plea bargain in the state court in Michigan. This is as close to the initial acquittal of those responsible in the Rodney King case as one can get. Most of us living in and around Los Angeles know about the riot and subsequent convictions in 1992. What did the Chinese American community do after the initial near-acquittal in the Vincent Chin case? We tried to convict the killers in a federal court on civil rights charges. There was another acquittal. We quietly accepted the results of that trial. There were no riots, no acts of civil disobedience, not even large-scale public demonstrations.

My friends and I debated over whether injustice is the result or the cause of meek victims in the Vincent Chin case. I have always argued that when injustice has befallen one, the victim must let his voice be heard, lest he embolden his oppressor; that for Asian Americans, the only way to ensure the Vincent Chin tragedy does not happen again is by making sure that our voice is heard when we are treated unfairly.

My friends and I also debated over whether America is the richest and most powerful country in the world because of the great ideas upon which this country is founded – liberty, equality and justice; or whether it is the other way around. To me, without the Founding Fathers’ vision, America could not possibly be what she has become today.

And that is why I was there on Sunset Blvd yesterday – to make my voice heard and to exercise my right and to fulfill my duty – to ensure that America remains a country with liberty and justice for ALL.

Thank you again for the article and thank you for your time.