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Monday, April 10, 2006

Didi Mau

posted by Ron at 1:59 PM

I've been getting a lot of Republican mail lately, as usual. I dont know why. In any case, is it bad if I've developed a negative, stereotypical response to Vietnamese-American politicians? I look at my mail, or I see a banner, and I immediately think, "It's another one of those anti-communist, swung-to-the-right, will-never-vote-left-if-their-lives-depended-on-it, shell-shocked reactionaries." Kind of like Arnold (as he likes to point out about the Socialists), except it seems much, much worse (Viet D. Dinh, father of the PATRIOT Act comes to mind, although it's very possible I'm being unfair with my generalization) - Arnold is at least a centrist . I think even if I agreed with their policies, I wouldn't be able to vote for someone who was quite probably scared into their philosophy.

Yes, I'm sure it was a terrible experience running through the jungles from Communist forces that were trying to lock-up Pa and put him in a cage, while Americans indiscriminately napalmed anything that moved, or Agent Orange'd anything with a greenish hue. But that was over there, this is over here. That was then, this is now. Leftist there != leftist here. Hell, Asian values != Western values.

But yeah, I'm sure I'm being unfairly stereotypical...maybe. I'm sure some of those Vietnamese-American politicians are just like any other typical 0-gen Asian, frugal, "fiscal responsibility" types that vote conservative.

11 Comments:

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/10/2006 3:44 PM  

  • I decided to delete my older comment since the lack of an "emoticon" may have made it sound harsh (look at what's going on in the previous post's comments).

    Anyway, I was just wondering what exactly the relevance of pointing out that all asians are racist is, even if I do agree with it to an extent.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/10/2006 10:06 PM  

  • haha, no wonder vietnamese sounds so crude. monosyllabic, heh.

    Du. Ma. Mak. Yet. Mee. Chang.

    (No. 2 Not World of Warcraft-related comment)

    By Blogger Tony, at 4/11/2006 12:38 AM  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Tony, at 4/11/2006 12:58 AM  

  • Re: Tony

    Isn't Chinese monosyllabic as well? Smaller, nonosyllabic words are grouped together to form bigger words. I can't tell if you're joking around, sorry.

    Re: aitammy

    Hmm, looks like there's some people misinterpreting what I'm saying.
    Mmm, I'm not sure how the congresswoman of the 47th district being liberal is relevant to what I was saying. What I said neither explains nor does not explain that, since I made no claim regarding constituents in the area or who is currently in office. I also made no claim about how the Vietnamese population in general votes. Sorry, I'm a bit confused?

    Just to clarify, what I did claim was that A. there seems to exist a group of Vietnamese-American politicians that may be reactionary to their experiences with communist Vietnam; and B. those very same, aforementioned Vietnamese-Americans may simply belong to the subgroup of 0-gen Asians in general that are known for being fiscally conservative.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/11/2006 1:17 AM  

  • Lol. Ok, yes clearly people have misinterpreted. Clearly David is a Republican ready to maul me. And yes, I believe Robert is the most ignorant fool to walk the realm. Robert and his damn ATI products!!!

    Firstly, if you want to be technical, I delimited my post to politicians. Secondly, and weakly I admit, I imply the OC area, since I'm talking about mail I'm receiving. Thirdly, I point out that it's stereotypical. Lastly, I point out that it may very well not be any reactionary feeling on their part, and they are simply the same as any other 0-gen Asian Republican.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/11/2006 1:21 AM  

  • Sorry, but to be blunt, providing an example of a Latina congresswoman who votes liberally is somewhat of a poor example to prove otherwise.

    A stronger example would be a Vietnamese congressperson who votes liberally.

    And I wholly expected someone to. And I wouldn't have been surprised. Because, quite frankly, again, one of the first things I mention is that it's a stereotypical response. That, not to mention the conclusion, should have immediately set a restrained and limited tone contrary to the one you gleaned.

    If you somehow interpreted otherwise, I'm sorry, but...you misinterpreted. I've asked other Vietnamese people to read my post, and they didn't seem to draw the same conclusions that you did.

    I'm not sure how much more clearly I could explain it.

    1. I pointed out it was a stereotype.
    2. I delimited it to politicians.
    3. I said "some." Never all, always, never.
    3. I provided a plausible explanation of why that stereotype may not be true at the end.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/11/2006 1:44 AM  

  • Alright, let's clear this up. Ron's talking about the reactionary Vietnamese who call anybody a Communist if they disagree with them. Robert knows of them. He once drove by a house in Little Saigon sometime after 9/11 that had a huge banner that said, "We Must Defeat the Terrorist Communists!"

    I've complained about them in the past also. Mainly, I've criticized the lack of thoughtful, civil discussions about Communism and current diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. It seems that a lot of people are still very militant against the current Vietnamese government. Those people adopt a hardline approach and say the U.S. shouldn't deal with the Vietnam government at all. I understand where they are coming from though. We shouldn't deal with a brutal, totalitarian goverment that locks up Buddhists, activists, and other minorities.

    But we deal with China as well and their situation is getting better (not as a good as we want it to be, yet). If I came out and said "we should have better relations with Vietnam" I would expect death threats. Those people don't see the use of discussing why we should or should not deal with Vietnam. They just want politicians who are adamantly anti-Commie and "anti-relations with Vietnam" (Republicans).

    But in reality, Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to further normalize relations with Vietnam. Clinton and Bush II have both taken steps to reconnect with Vietnam (http://servercc.oakton.edu/~wittman/chronol.htm) It's just the local politicians who stand by what the community wants.

    By Blogger David, at 4/11/2006 1:49 AM  

  • As with Loretta Sanchez, she did everything to win my district and its predominate Latino community. Before her campaign against Bob Dornan, she changed parties from Republican to Democrat and went to back to her maiden name, from Brixey to Sanchez. What Latino won't vote for a Democratic, Latino woman named Sanchez???

    The distict use to be controlled by Bob Dornan, a conservative fanatic and bigot (read his wikipedia on him). Interestingly, a young Vietnamese UCI student named Van Tran worked for Dornan when he was still in office. Tran is now a state assemblyman for the Garden Grove/Westminster area and a subject of Ron's post.

    In a way, Sanchez and Tran are alike in that they court the demographics' politics.

    By Blogger David, at 4/11/2006 2:03 AM  

  • Fair enough. I tend to assume a default level of liberal "play" and analysis/readership when I write something like that, so I take some things for granted. I'll try to be less subtle next time. If I wrote something unclear, then I'm sorry for that.

    I'm glad you came out of the woodwork to discuss your concerns though, rather than stewing in the background.

    And for the record, I got "di di mau" from the Simpsons, not that it really matters.

    By Blogger Ron, at 4/11/2006 2:55 AM  

  • "lol damnit tony, i meant monosyllabic; not one-word, fragmented sentences!"

    ahhh... it makes so much more sense now.

    Du ma, mee chang!

    By Blogger Tony, at 4/12/2006 3:03 AM  

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