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Cheung is a fourth-year American literature and culture student.

By Raymond Cheung

Ms. Jones need not be so offended by the Daily Bruin editorial (“Racist clothes justify Abercrombie boycott,” Viewpoint, April 26). Her own rebuttal (“Comparisons of ethnic struggles unfair, demeaning,” Viewpoint, April 29) shows insensitivity and lack of knowledge regarding the issues affecting Asian Americans.

She dedicates her entire article to debunking merely one sentence in the Daily Bruin editorial – “Abercrombie T-shirts depicting African Americans in derogatory, stereotypical roles never would have made it to production.” Her view that this statement was meant to “[minimize] the African American struggle in this country” is misplaced. In fact, this statement reaffirms the strength of the civil rights leaders and organizations that have led the battle against racism in the past through the present. A&F never would have made the shirts depicting stereotypical African Americans because they knew it would be deemed offensive due to the continual efforts of the African American community.

Asian Americans just do not receive enough publicity for their views to be widely known, despite the many advocacy organizations who represent them.

So I say to Jones, do not take offense to the Daily Bruin editorial. Instead, see it as a testament to all that has been accomplished by African Americans.

I believe Jones would be surprised to learn that Asian Americans and African Americans have more in common than she thinks. She asks, “When African Americans were being lynched and hosed down by the so-called majority during the Civil Rights Era, where were the Asian Americans?”

I’ll tell you where they were. They were standing next to those same people getting lynched and hosed. History books do not tell of the Los Angeles massacres in 1871 or the Wyoming massacres in 1885 when dozens of Asians were killed by mobs raging against the “Yellow Peril.” When African Americans became eligible to become naturalized citizens through the Naturalization Act of 1870, Asians were declared ineligible through the very same legislation. And although Jones may think the “Model Minority” stereotype is an accomplishment, she merely needs to pick up any Asian American contemporary history text to learn its racist and marginalizing overtones.

African Americans do not stand alone in racial hardship. They stand with generations of Asian Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans and others. Jones pontifically declares, “it is not the focus of ‘black/white paradigms’ that detract from the struggle of Asian Americans, it is the lack of activism on the part of Asian civil rights groups.” As USAC candidates push for an ethnic studies or “diversity” requirement, I remind people of how ethnic studies was born in the first place. Groups such as the Phillipine-American Collegiate Endeavor and the Asian American Political Alliance joined forces with the Mexican American Students Confederation and the Black Students Union to form the Third World Liberation Front in 1968. The Third World Liberation Front consisted of African, Asian, Latino, Chicano and Native American students who rallied 34 years ago at San Francisco State College and established the nation’s first ethnic studies program. Without their cohesiveness and sacrifice, we would not be having these debates over a diversity requirement at all.

Unbeknownst to Jones, African Americans did not stand alone in the Civil Rights struggle either. There are many Asian American advocacy groups today, such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and the Japanese American Citizens League. As mentioned before, although there are a great number of these organizations throughout the United States, they do not receive the same publicity as organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I am not downplaying the significance of the NAACP; I am merely using it to show the incredible lack of Asian American media exposure. This media yellow-out directly leads to how the ignorant execs at A&F could have possibly thought that those T-shirts would be “humorous” or endorsed by the Asian American community.

Finally, Jones advises, “to gain sympathy from other ethnic groups, one should not compare struggles between different ethnic groups.” Understanding one another’s culture and struggles is the first step. Declaring one ethnic group’s struggle as superior to another is a step backwards. Instead of instigating strife amongst ourselves, let us share our common ground and work together toward our common goal.

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