John Ridley has a great piece in the Huffington Post on the general exclusion of Asian Americans from everyday conversation about race in America: Are Asians the New Invisible Man? To be filed under Things We Already Know. Indeed, we have opinions about race tooooo.
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll reveals that most Americans believe "racism is widespread against blacks in the United States." That's one of the things we already know. But here's the other thing... This survey, which is supposedly about how "most Americans" feel about racism and minorities, only bothered to poll blacks, whites and Hispanic people—and no responses from Asian Americans.
Ridley writes, "You'd think if the survey had room to include views on the pervasive systemic oppression whites suffer through (now go back and read that sentence sarcastically), they'd take the time to chat up an Asian or two." It seems that no one really cares about attitudes of Asian Americans. And that's the other thing we already knew.
How about a survey on the racial attitudes towards Asian Americans in the United States? And would it be too much to ask that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders actually be included in those responses? Maybe, just maybe, we could be included—both as participant and as subject—in the conversation about race in America for once. Ya think?
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