Malena Amusa

AsianWeek Writer Says there’s More Love than Hate

A couple weeks after AsianWeek printed the derogatory column “Why I Hate Black People” by Kenneth Eng, the weekly newspaper’s Emil Guillermo, wrote a piece reflecting on acts of Black on Asian violence and Black on Asian love.

He argues that for every bad act committed against Asian Americans by Blacks, there are also good ones. He uses this reasoning to dismiss Eng’s explosion of anger and encourages people like him to seek out good anecdotes of Blacks and Asians getting along.

It’s true that even in real life, you don’t have to look far to see some supremely fine examples of black/Asian love.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris (black father and South Asian mother) and Tiger Woods (black father and Thai mother) show what can happen when Asians and blacks collaborate and canoodle…

Waiting in the wings to refute your tale of love and hope is someone like Kenneth Eng, all too quick to recount how he was accosted by blacks who ching-chonged him while strolling in Queens, New York, ultimately leading him down the road of hate and ethnic superiority

Guillermo tries so hard to tackle this complicated issue by simply saying that sometimes Blacks treat Asians nicely.

He later imparts the tale of an Oakland resident, a Korean man who two Black men tried robbing at gun-point. After stealing back his wallet and running from sprayed bullets, the Korean man found solace in a Black family across the street that ran to his aid.

To counter racism, the Guillermo prescribes positive story-telling:

What we need are more anecdotes. Good and bad. Sometimes, they come bundled in one.

Posted at 7:45 AM, Mar 19, 2007 in News | Permalink | View Comments