I was shouted “Go back to China”
By Dr. Chao Wu, Clarksville, chaowu2016@gmail.com
On Monday, March 20th 2017, I submitted this article to Columbia Flier ( Howard County Times) for publication. Since it was not published by them in two weeks, I am sharing here now.
Recently, several incidents of Indian, Chinese, Sikh Americans being murdered occurred around country. It is a sad reality we are facing and it is challenging us to unite our diverse community.
As a Chinese immigrant, I have experienced racism first hand when I was studying at University of Maryland, College Park. One spring day in 2007, while I was riding my bike to school on Adelphi Road, Hyattsville, I was yelled at “go back to China” and more than ten school girls (little and not too little) threw stones at me. I was scared but brave enough at the time to shout back: “How do you know I am from China”? That was my first encounter with blatant racism. Later my friends and coworkers told me that I should never argue with them because they may have guns with them.
What did I do? I told my colleagues and friends about this incident, then quit riding to school. I studied hard and worked hard. Life moves on. I am now living in one of the best counties, raising a family and serving the community.
History will repeat itself unless we are vigilant. I am well read about the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment camps. I also understand the difficulties that many new immigrants are facing because I am one of them. At the same time, we should be careful not to call all accidents as racism which will negatively dilute the message and not help facilitate discussions. Issue based discussions are much easier to start and can actually result in something useful since people will fight to the death about religion and ideology.
Furthermore, we should not just pander history, which unfortunately is very complicated, and sometimes very cruel. Instead, we should focus on thinking forward – on how to provide better education, create more jobs, and how to build a harmonious community.
I had a typo in the original version. The incident happened around 2007, not 2017. The error was corrected.
Great letter! The mindless bigots are contemptible.
I welcome ALL law abiding persons to this country! I do not support what happened to you as you rode your bike to the Univ. of Md. However, you might want to look more closely at Asian racism as well. I see more and more racism from Asians in this county. South Koreans are picketing F.I.R.N. with signs reading “No illegal immigrants” and carried the same signs at a County Council meeting in which Columbia’s status as a sanctuary city was being discussed. (I suspect the main concern with illegal immigrants is that they may decrease property value. Of course, I could be stereotyping. It’s odd that most Asian Pacific groups support DACA.) Asian, African, and Indian immigrants seem to intentionally isolate themselves in neighborhoods that don’t include affordable housing and, quite frankly, darker skinned Americans. Many legal immigrants come to this country after having had access to a decent education system and after gaining marketable high-paying skills in their country of origin. They are here to take advantage of the US financial system and to give their children access to the US education system. Many Americans still are unable to access either. There seems to be little understanding by Asians in this community of the past problems with discrimination in immigration, housing, education, and finance. I find this trend bothersome.