Gumbo to Tibet
Gumbo and Tibet? What do they have to do with one another? Last week Tim Wise spoke at Providence College
and he shared a somewhat long story about gumbo, and if you don't know
what that is, it's a Cajun-style spicy chicken or seafood soup thickened
typically with okra or rice. So I'm sitting in the audience and I'm
thinking, "Okay, Tim what's the point of this gumbo story and why the
heck is it taking so long to tell the story?"
But I finally got it. Essentially it was a story about how our collective past intertwines with the present and could very well be our future if we don't attend to the consequences of the past today. What a mouthful.
It made me think of a letter I wrote to the local paper in Santa Barbara in 2008 and I'll rewrite here in full. The title of it was "Shame by Association":
After reading an article about Tibet and the protests in London, I thought, "Now I understand how Whites feel about slavery in the US." Like many in the US, my family didn't own [African} slaves and was not involved in the oppression of the First People nations [nor involved] with shady deals to take land, property and people from Mexico. No, my family arrived on the shores of this nation in the 1940s to escape the Japanese [occupation] and [Chinese] communists in China.
Yet as I walked through Northampton, Massachusetts during my spring break a few weeks ago, I was confronted with signs protesting the treatment and death of Tibetans in Tibet. A man whom I believed was Tibetan tapped my shoulder and asked to be speak to me. My throat tightened and all I could say was, "I'm Chinese," and quickly walked away with my head down in shame.
The truth was that I actually side with those who are asking hard questions of the Chinese government about the situation in Tibet (and in Xinjiang, the Uighars; Chinese Christians in the underground church, etc.). Despite this, I am still seen as, and am, Han Chinese, an ethnic group with a history and present reality of oppressing [other peoples].
I wish I could take back my weak response from two weeks ago; instead I'm going to think how I can use [leverage] my position [and privilege] to exact justice [for others].
But I finally got it. Essentially it was a story about how our collective past intertwines with the present and could very well be our future if we don't attend to the consequences of the past today. What a mouthful.
It made me think of a letter I wrote to the local paper in Santa Barbara in 2008 and I'll rewrite here in full. The title of it was "Shame by Association":
After reading an article about Tibet and the protests in London, I thought, "Now I understand how Whites feel about slavery in the US." Like many in the US, my family didn't own [African} slaves and was not involved in the oppression of the First People nations [nor involved] with shady deals to take land, property and people from Mexico. No, my family arrived on the shores of this nation in the 1940s to escape the Japanese [occupation] and [Chinese] communists in China.
Yet as I walked through Northampton, Massachusetts during my spring break a few weeks ago, I was confronted with signs protesting the treatment and death of Tibetans in Tibet. A man whom I believed was Tibetan tapped my shoulder and asked to be speak to me. My throat tightened and all I could say was, "I'm Chinese," and quickly walked away with my head down in shame.
The truth was that I actually side with those who are asking hard questions of the Chinese government about the situation in Tibet (and in Xinjiang, the Uighars; Chinese Christians in the underground church, etc.). Despite this, I am still seen as, and am, Han Chinese, an ethnic group with a history and present reality of oppressing [other peoples].
I wish I could take back my weak response from two weeks ago; instead I'm going to think how I can use [leverage] my position [and privilege] to exact justice [for others].
Comments
Post a Comment