A Case of "The Others" - Asian-owned Businesses in Black Neighborhoods 2012 - Kathy Khang - writer, speaker, coffee drinker
A Case of "The Others" - Asian-owned Businesses in Black Neighborhoods - Kathy Khang - writer, speaker, coffee drinker
A Case of “The Others” – Asian-owned Businesses in Black Neighborhoods
April 5, 2012
Why are so many dry cleaners owned by Koreans?
Why are so many nail shops owned by Thai or Vietnamese?
Why are so many donut shops/convenience shops owned by Indians?
Why do Asians and Asian Americans own businesses in Black neighborhoods?
Why are they taking our money?
Why are foreigners who don’t speak our language and disrespect us take our money out of our communities?
Are these stereotypes or archetypes?
I’ve heard all of those questions posed in various ways, most recently from Marion Barry, former mayor of D.C. and recent victorious incumbent in Democratic primary race for the D.C. council seat he has held since 2005. He celebrated as cameras rolled by saying,
“We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”
You can take a look at Barry’s twitter feed and read the WP article to get a sense of how things unfolded. It’s typical. A politician/public figure says something offensive, people offended speak up, figure claims it’s taken out of context and apologizes (in this case Barry actually says, “I’m sorry.), tries to do what he/she should’ve done in the first place and put things into context.
But the context is complicated and entrenched in broken systems run by broken people and then communicated to the masses by more broken people (myself included) who are missing each other because, in some cases, they aren’t even talking with and being heard by one another. Creating “simple” dichotomies makes it easier – us against them, respect versus disrespect, rights and entitlements, etc.
I know this because as a newspaper reporter in Milwaukee I reported this story. A Korean American owned beauty supply store in a predominantly Black neighborhood became the target of a protest. Black community leaders wanted to know why Asian store owners were rude, didn’t employ anyone from the community, didn’t contribute to the community. Store owners didn’t want to talk.
But I understood why they didn’t want to talk. Why they didn’t hire anyone from the community. Why they didn’t contribute.
My parents owned a dry cleaning business for years. My parents, who hold degrees in engineering and accounting, turned to small business ownership to help pay for college and weddings and to provide so much more. They didn’t hire anyone from the community. Why pay someone when my sister and I could work for free and my parents were willing to be there everyday (except for the two days off I remember they took for our weddings!).
A significant difference for our experience was that the dry cleaners was in the suburbs, but my parents experienced many cultural clashes in an effort to make a living and provide a service that was in demand.
Most customers were fine – pleasantries exchanged and business as usual, but there were plenty of customers who looked down on my parents as if they were uneducated foreigners. Few of them ever had to say anything because those of us who learn to be invisible, blend in, assimilate learn to read the looks, the tone, the small gestures because we learned to “speak” American even though we continue to be questioned about actually being “American”.
So I took that experience as the child of one of those Asian store owners first to my White editors and then to the Korean-American beauty supply store owners. The readers, the editors, the community leaders, the store owners and I all learned from one another.
We learned that we all considered each other as “the other”. We learned about how exchanging money – one-handed, two-handed, eye contact, a nod or a look – can be rude to one and normal to another. We learned that the owners were Americans, just not American-born. We learned that there was great pain and suffering in the community, and community leaders wanted participation, not handouts. We learned about cultural differences and expectations. We learned about prejudice, misunderstandings and misinformation.
I can only hope that Barry will take the time to learn that he didn’t just offend Asian who own dirty stores but offended Americans, some of us who happen to be Asian Americans. I hope we stop to learn about the corrupt, broken and racist systems and policies that limit Black entrepreneurship.
I hope we learn that life is more than Black and White and that we all need to develop cross-cultural competencies. All of us.
Labels: communication, community, culture, money, politics, race, stereotypes
Tags: African American, African-American businesspeople, archetypes, Asian American, Asians, beauty supply store, Black, cross-cultural, cross-cultural competencies, cultural differences, dichotomies, entitlement, former mayor of D.C., Korean American, Marion Barry, Milwaukee, prejudice, rights, stereotypes, White, Why are so many donut shops/convenience shops owned by Indians, why are so many dry cleaners owned by Koreans, why are so many nail shops owned by Thai, why are so many nail shops owned by Vietnamese, why do Asians own businesses in Black neighborhoods
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19 Commentsmagnuslover April 5, 2012
Reblogged this on magnuslover and commented:
A very well articulated response to the racist and ignorant ramblings of D.C mayor Barry regarding Asian owned businesses.Reply
eahara April 6, 2012
Coke headed Marion Barry ought to have duct tape permanently sealed over his bigoted mouthReply
magnuslover April 6, 2012
Couldn’t agree with you more! What a moron.Reply
MaSir Jones April 10, 2012
Wow. This hits home. I too worked for my parents’ Dry Cleaning business growing up and to be honest, my parents only employed people outside of the family who were very hard working. The color of the person didn’t matter, but to be quite honest, nobody worked harder than my mother, sister and I did sacrificing our nights, weekends, summers, spring and winter breaks. It was very tough for all of us, but we did it solely to keep costs low and maximize the bottom line – like any lean running business should.
At some point, if you want to grow and scale, you have to hire additional resources, but if you’re not looking to grow into a global enterprise, then hiring family members makes perfect business sense (most of the time until it becomes abusive or cheating).
“But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”
I think Barry should’ve started off his rant with this and only this. It’s appalling that he used Asian-Americans as a scapegoat. What a poor excuse. What about all the white or latino owned businesses? Why single out Asian-owned businesses? What about all the Indians who’ve dominated the IT sector for the past decade? How come Barry doesn’t complain about how the black community needs to be provided with more software engineering opportunities? What about blacks who’ve dominated American sports the past several decades creating an underlying racial barrier preventing Asian-American athletes a chance to prove themselves AKA Jeremy Lin?
My questions are not to be taken seriously, but to demonstrate the absurdity of his arguments. Let’s be clear about one thing that everyone seems to forget. The American power structure is not defined by Asian-Americans. We are also minorities who face our own set of obstacles in dealing with racial inequality, and sadly, Asian-Americans have to hustle 10x harder than the average black/white American to gain any kind of exposure or recognition. If you’ve forgotten, Asian-Americans have to score almost a standard deviation higher than their white/black counterparts to get into the same top notch universities.
So who’s the group really at a disadvantage here? I think we all are.Reply
Drita April 15, 2012
Somehow I missed this one. This is exactly the type of issue I think is critical for those of us committed to reconciliation should discuss with all of its complexity. I think this would be a great case study to surface some of the dynamics at play in inter-minority relationships and assumptions (as well as fears). As a latina working on the west-side it has been interesting to have the different perspectives processed with me. I loved your post and would love to bring the original article, your post, and an hour of discussion into our Urban Programs with diverse teams. This was also some of what we tried to cover when the AA leaders on justice began a dialogue. (Of course now I am Urbana worship, so this is all off duty :))
Thanks for writing.ReplyKathy Khang April 16, 2012
A Case of “The Others” – Asian-owned Businesses in Black Neighborhoods
April 5, 2012
Why are so many dry cleaners owned by Koreans?
Why are so many nail shops owned by Thai or Vietnamese?
Why are so many donut shops/convenience shops owned by Indians?
Why do Asians and Asian Americans own businesses in Black neighborhoods?
Why are they taking our money?
Why are foreigners who don’t speak our language and disrespect us take our money out of our communities?
Are these stereotypes or archetypes?
I’ve heard all of those questions posed in various ways, most recently from Marion Barry, former mayor of D.C. and recent victorious incumbent in Democratic primary race for the D.C. council seat he has held since 2005. He celebrated as cameras rolled by saying,
“We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”
You can take a look at Barry’s twitter feed and read the WP article to get a sense of how things unfolded. It’s typical. A politician/public figure says something offensive, people offended speak up, figure claims it’s taken out of context and apologizes (in this case Barry actually says, “I’m sorry.), tries to do what he/she should’ve done in the first place and put things into context.
But the context is complicated and entrenched in broken systems run by broken people and then communicated to the masses by more broken people (myself included) who are missing each other because, in some cases, they aren’t even talking with and being heard by one another. Creating “simple” dichotomies makes it easier – us against them, respect versus disrespect, rights and entitlements, etc.
I know this because as a newspaper reporter in Milwaukee I reported this story. A Korean American owned beauty supply store in a predominantly Black neighborhood became the target of a protest. Black community leaders wanted to know why Asian store owners were rude, didn’t employ anyone from the community, didn’t contribute to the community. Store owners didn’t want to talk.
But I understood why they didn’t want to talk. Why they didn’t hire anyone from the community. Why they didn’t contribute.
My parents owned a dry cleaning business for years. My parents, who hold degrees in engineering and accounting, turned to small business ownership to help pay for college and weddings and to provide so much more. They didn’t hire anyone from the community. Why pay someone when my sister and I could work for free and my parents were willing to be there everyday (except for the two days off I remember they took for our weddings!).
A significant difference for our experience was that the dry cleaners was in the suburbs, but my parents experienced many cultural clashes in an effort to make a living and provide a service that was in demand.
Most customers were fine – pleasantries exchanged and business as usual, but there were plenty of customers who looked down on my parents as if they were uneducated foreigners. Few of them ever had to say anything because those of us who learn to be invisible, blend in, assimilate learn to read the looks, the tone, the small gestures because we learned to “speak” American even though we continue to be questioned about actually being “American”.
So I took that experience as the child of one of those Asian store owners first to my White editors and then to the Korean-American beauty supply store owners. The readers, the editors, the community leaders, the store owners and I all learned from one another.
We learned that we all considered each other as “the other”. We learned about how exchanging money – one-handed, two-handed, eye contact, a nod or a look – can be rude to one and normal to another. We learned that the owners were Americans, just not American-born. We learned that there was great pain and suffering in the community, and community leaders wanted participation, not handouts. We learned about cultural differences and expectations. We learned about prejudice, misunderstandings and misinformation.
I can only hope that Barry will take the time to learn that he didn’t just offend Asian who own dirty stores but offended Americans, some of us who happen to be Asian Americans. I hope we stop to learn about the corrupt, broken and racist systems and policies that limit Black entrepreneurship.
I hope we learn that life is more than Black and White and that we all need to develop cross-cultural competencies. All of us.
Labels: communication, community, culture, money, politics, race, stereotypes
Tags: African American, African-American businesspeople, archetypes, Asian American, Asians, beauty supply store, Black, cross-cultural, cross-cultural competencies, cultural differences, dichotomies, entitlement, former mayor of D.C., Korean American, Marion Barry, Milwaukee, prejudice, rights, stereotypes, White, Why are so many donut shops/convenience shops owned by Indians, why are so many dry cleaners owned by Koreans, why are so many nail shops owned by Thai, why are so many nail shops owned by Vietnamese, why do Asians own businesses in Black neighborhoods
Share
19 Commentsmagnuslover April 5, 2012
Reblogged this on magnuslover and commented:
A very well articulated response to the racist and ignorant ramblings of D.C mayor Barry regarding Asian owned businesses.Reply
eahara April 6, 2012
Coke headed Marion Barry ought to have duct tape permanently sealed over his bigoted mouthReply
magnuslover April 6, 2012
Couldn’t agree with you more! What a moron.Reply
MaSir Jones April 10, 2012
Wow. This hits home. I too worked for my parents’ Dry Cleaning business growing up and to be honest, my parents only employed people outside of the family who were very hard working. The color of the person didn’t matter, but to be quite honest, nobody worked harder than my mother, sister and I did sacrificing our nights, weekends, summers, spring and winter breaks. It was very tough for all of us, but we did it solely to keep costs low and maximize the bottom line – like any lean running business should.
At some point, if you want to grow and scale, you have to hire additional resources, but if you’re not looking to grow into a global enterprise, then hiring family members makes perfect business sense (most of the time until it becomes abusive or cheating).
“But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”
I think Barry should’ve started off his rant with this and only this. It’s appalling that he used Asian-Americans as a scapegoat. What a poor excuse. What about all the white or latino owned businesses? Why single out Asian-owned businesses? What about all the Indians who’ve dominated the IT sector for the past decade? How come Barry doesn’t complain about how the black community needs to be provided with more software engineering opportunities? What about blacks who’ve dominated American sports the past several decades creating an underlying racial barrier preventing Asian-American athletes a chance to prove themselves AKA Jeremy Lin?
My questions are not to be taken seriously, but to demonstrate the absurdity of his arguments. Let’s be clear about one thing that everyone seems to forget. The American power structure is not defined by Asian-Americans. We are also minorities who face our own set of obstacles in dealing with racial inequality, and sadly, Asian-Americans have to hustle 10x harder than the average black/white American to gain any kind of exposure or recognition. If you’ve forgotten, Asian-Americans have to score almost a standard deviation higher than their white/black counterparts to get into the same top notch universities.
So who’s the group really at a disadvantage here? I think we all are.Reply
Drita April 15, 2012
Somehow I missed this one. This is exactly the type of issue I think is critical for those of us committed to reconciliation should discuss with all of its complexity. I think this would be a great case study to surface some of the dynamics at play in inter-minority relationships and assumptions (as well as fears). As a latina working on the west-side it has been interesting to have the different perspectives processed with me. I loved your post and would love to bring the original article, your post, and an hour of discussion into our Urban Programs with diverse teams. This was also some of what we tried to cover when the AA leaders on justice began a dialogue. (Of course now I am Urbana worship, so this is all off duty :))
Thanks for writing.ReplyKathy Khang April 16, 2012
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