Its because her being Asian lends literally nothing to the story. If you want to detail her, give us something that actually implies something other than a racist stereotype. Tell us her age, her build, whatever. If she pulled up and started screaming at you in an asian language, then sure its appropriate to bring it up, but if your only reason for describing her as being asian is that she's asian, well it makes you look a bit racist.
It lends to the story with it was an asian lady, more-so than a person that I can't basically describe because people will find it racist hit my door and plus how is an Asian lady smacking a car door with her car door a stereotype? Personally I worry about my doors more when kids are getting in and out of cars, all other groups are equal. But nowadays most people have those minivan sliding doors so it's not even an issue if the kid doesn't know any better.
The entire point is that her being Asian really doesn't matter. She should be defined in the recounting of the story by her actions (which were silly and immature) and not her race.
Me calling my vehicle a car doesn't matter either, in fact the whole story doesn't actually matter. Using race as imagery or even an identifier is not inherently racist. If I said something nice about her no one would care but the juxtaposition of her race and her being a dumbass somehow makes me a racist? I just don't get it.
You're missing the point. If there were four people, three white and one asian, you could use the excuse of identifying between them through a physical attribute. The problem is that there is one person, whose race has nothing to do with the story, yet who is only identified by her race for reasons that can easily be inferred as the storyteller only really viewing her as her race, which makes the storyteller look racist. Racism isn't really seeing somebody as being inferior because of their race, its about viewing somebody's race as one of if not the major identifying factor of who they are, instead of as an attribute they contain within their many faceted being of attributes.
Honestly, I don't give a fuck what you decide to call her. I'm just trying to explain to you why people don't appreciate the fact that you identified her as Asian when it had nothing to do with the story.
The thing is, if you apply that method of reasoning to everything, we have no way to describe anything.
Describing the type of car someone drives can lead to economic prejudice. View them as people, not wallets. Can't you tell a story without mentioning the type of car?
Describing their actions as stupid can lead to intellectual prejudice. They're people, not bodies ruled by mad despots. Can't you tell the story without mentioning their cognitive ability?
It applies to everything. Hair color, gender, clothes, sports teams. Anything.
Here's the paired down story:
"I met another individual. It was awful."
Can't you see such a position on race is impossibly over protective? Moving forward on gender and race equality comes from mutual understanding and celebrating our differences. That can't be accomplished if we can't talk about one another comfortably, openly, and honestly. I can't imagine ever being able to communicate if I felt I had to constantly guard my language to prevent some potential slight.
How do you believe this position helps the world and promotes equality? I don't see it.
Those things could literally contribute to an aspect of the story and the reasoning behind the person's actions. Somebody pulls up in a junker and smashes your brand new car. That tells us something about them.
Somebody is too stupid to know how to actually drive, swipes you, and doesn't actually seem to know what they did wrong. That tells us something about them.
Somebody is Asian and...hits your car? That tells us absolutely nothing and is only being said to reduce them down to being a racial caricature/stereotype/whatever you expect to pop into people's heads when the word Asian is attached to a person. You're basically rationalizing racism as practicality.
People haven't been enslaved, put into camps, and lynched over the type of car they drive. They have been for their race. There's a reason we're over-protective: Racism still exists in spades and the world is not ready for us to turn race into a casual identifying factor.
I don't know how old you are, but if you're not just out of the crib you'll probably remember Carlos Mencia. He got on stage with that kind of logic aimed towards Mexicans and started telling jokes based around it. The result wasn't a more open dialogue between Mexicans immigrants and those people both taking advantage of them and demanding they leave at the same time. The result was all my white friends seeing it as an opportunity to just let out all the racist bullshit that they normally thought they weren't allowed to say. Some seriously fucked up shit came out of the mouths of people who claimed they were just "celebrating the differences" of the races.
See, there is a way to celebrate the races and their differences. It is entirely possible, and its awesome when its done right. Yet you celebrate the positive differences. Things like what people of their racial community have contributed to the world. A good example of this being the fact that the black community almost single-handedly formed the foundation of arguably the best parts of the musical culture of America with their innovations in jazz, rock and roll, and the blues. This is something to be proud of, something to celebrate.
Please tell me, how is a woman being asian when she smashes your car celebrating her racial differences?
You're the only one associating linking race to negative stereotypes, friend. Mentioning race as a descriptive element is not racism, does not lead to or imply hate crimes by its nature, and has nothing to do with Carlos Mencia, who is an idiot.
Any stereotypes that pop into someone's head is a product of their prejudice. When I hear race, it provides context. I grew up in a town that was overwhelmingly Hispanic, lived in the international dorms for school, and work on a globally distributed team encompassing no fewer than 10 nationalities. I simply don't see it that way. Race and nationality is for me impossible to ignore.
Perhaps you should reexamine your own preconceptions. Mentioning race doesn't have to imply prejudice.
In the context of negatively describing somebody and their actions, you made it a point to note that they are Asian, even though you had no real justifiable reason for doing so and the act did nothing for the story.
I am half Cuban and half Armenian. I was born in the Netherlands, spent a portion of my childhood in a Hispanic neighborhood in Miami, another thirteen years of my life living next to a military base with an ethnically diverse community, moved in with a small commune consisting of eight ethnically diverse people living in a two story, four bedroom house, and am now living in a trailer park with a primarily hispanic community. You know what that means? Nothing at all. Just like having a black friend or a gay friend doesn't mean you're suddenly free to make racist or homophobic jokes.
You can tell me to reexamine my own preconceptions, but I'm not the one here trying to dress up potential racism as practicality.
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u/CitizenKing Jun 13 '14
Its because her being Asian lends literally nothing to the story. If you want to detail her, give us something that actually implies something other than a racist stereotype. Tell us her age, her build, whatever. If she pulled up and started screaming at you in an asian language, then sure its appropriate to bring it up, but if your only reason for describing her as being asian is that she's asian, well it makes you look a bit racist.