takedown power of racism
Watch that mouth! Michael Richards. Mel Gibson. Don Imus. These guys make a few off-handed remarks, and they’ve been stung big time. And now, Richard Gere discovers public kissing is very bad, very bad in India. Gere apologizes in kissing controversy in India, but forgiveness doesn’t come so easily in the arena of public perception when it comes to unintentional (or intentional) racism and intercultural ignorance.
Now mainstream media is not particularly known for transparency, but maybe blogging culture’s alternative voice is rubbing off, and small wrongful remarks can be blown out of proportion. If a racially-charged remark can take down a talk show king, it can take down anybody. Here we are in 2007, decades after the Civil Rights era, and there is still so much racism beneath the surface. Volatile little sound bites indicate a lot of racist junk still in the hearts of people.
Lesson to learn here? You’re being recorded all the time in the public eye via video (tv camera, cell phone camera), audio (the mic could be live even when you don’t expect it, right, Mr. President?), and eyewitness reports (bloggers). You’d better learn to live a transparent life, and be consistent when the lights are on and when they’re not. Best way to go: character and integrity all around.
3 mini-episodes from my past Atlanta weekend:
I visited an old seminary friend now living in Georgia, who I’ll name David 2 (Caucasian), and with me was David Park (Korean). We’re having delicious BBQ at Claude’s in Loganville, and we’re talking about “churching” and culture and more over the span of 2 hours. While talking about the Virginia Tech tragedy, David 2 remarked on his shock at discovering the shooter’s identity being Asian: “that’s what white guys do.” [at the 1:00 mark] He wasn’t white after he saw our loud reactions of laughter. He turned beet red. The conversation was recorded, so listen to the actual MP3 audio excerpt, so you can hear it in context.
[mp3]http://www.djchuang.com/media/candid-comments-VT-tragedy-042807.mp3[/mp3]
I chatted with Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired magazine) at Q in a compressed conversation, not wanting to hog 5 or 10 minutes with him, knowing there’s many others who’d want to talk with him. I asked for his top-of-mind futurist perspective on racism, since the United States is now 30% non-Anglo and the world is less than 20% Anglo. His response: we have to break the white & black dichotomy in America, and bring in brown and yellow (referring to Hispanic/Latinos and Asians), and that triangulation will change and diffuse the interracial dynamics. Brilliant!
I walk past Mike Foster (ethur.org, formerly xxxchurch.com) as I egress from a pit stop and he’s on the way in. He’s wearing one of those hairline mic’s, and I nudge him and say, “Check the mic!” He checks it, and I think we averted a potentially embarrassing on-air moment. While I’d like to trust the sound board guys, double-redundancy safety-check is a better idea.
brief Q debrief
What an incredible time in Atlanta at Q! Loved getting to hang out with Kingdom-minded people. David Park of NextGenerAsianChurch.com and I sat down to chat for 15 minutes about the past 55-hour experience at Q, and what it was about, how they did it, and what we loved. Listen to the conversational debrief:
[mp3]http://www.djchuang.com/media/Q-debrief-djchuang-042707.mp3[/mp3]
Props to Gabe Lyons and Jeff Shinabarger for taking a huge step of faith to chase their dream for putting something together like this! BTW, confirmed first-hand with Jeff that Q was indeed inspired by TED.
Now that I’m blogging a day after all the high-energy fast-paced intense presentations and conversations, my throat hurts a bit from so many conversations (though I’m still here wanting more), and feeling a bit of the subtext for the celebration of entrepreneurship. Wondering out loud, I’m not sure what this means for the majority of people in this world who are not entrepreneurs.
Extra gratitude to David Park and his wife for opening their home to me for a couple of nights for very comfortable sleep.
[update] Duncan McFadzean (who came over the pond from Great Britain) over at “What’s your point caller?” posted his post-Q debrief, with highlights and not-so-highlights. I myself am hesitant to give any feedback that’d be remotely perceived as negative, because it was such a brilliant and outstanding effort. Excellent Q note-taking over at SBC Outpost, even generating 70+ comments on 1 post. Big Q photo set over at Aaron Linne’s Flickr.
Live blogging at the Q in Atlanta
Live-blogging over at L2 Foundation blog >>
Atlanta Q meetup
Today I’ll be en route to Atlanta 
for the rest of the week to participate in the Q boutique event. Q is all about ideating and wrestling with the complexities of embodying the Gospel to shape future culture.
I’ll meet lots of people, but probably not all 700+, including some other bloggers and a group that L2 Foundation is sponsoring. People I’ll meet for the first time: Kent Shaffer, Micah Davis, Kevin Doi, maybe Andrew Sikora, Kel Vick, Duncan McFadzean, Brad Abare, Scott Hodge, Josh Scott, Jan, Mike Foster of Ethur.org. People I’ll meet again: Ken Fong, Gideon Tsang, David Park, Andy Crouch, Joseph Tsang, Paul Kim, David Hsu, Linda Lindquist-Bishop. Add a comment below if you’re going to Q.
[update] just found out Mark Batterson will be at Q too. [4/29/07] Other Q bloggers I found out after the fact: Aaron Linne, Jonathan Brink’s Wonderland, Chris Jarrell’s Facedown Worshipper, Marcelliott, Chris Bell, Michael Lukaszewski, Randall Littleton, Chris Capehart, Bryan Davidson, Jesse Perry (a non-Christian follower of Jesus), Mark Michael Miller, Brad Abare of Church Marketing Sucks, Martha Anderson, Barry, Seeward.
I should be able to live-blog my time in Atlanta at the L2 blog (using a broadband mobile internet card if need be).
[update] Now in Atlanta. In preparation for Q, attendees are reading this commissioned short paper, Influencing Culture: An Opportunity for the Church, by Gabe Lyons. I read it on the plane on the way here to Atlanta; Gabe makes a compelling argument for the culture mandate, and it sure beats reading a 600-page tome like “How Now Shall We Live“. (Linked with permission. Spread the word.)
Best way to find each other is using cell phones — mine is 202-494-3449. (btw, did you read about 20-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald, who posted his cell number on YouTube and invited calls; he got over 5,000!)
Where is our Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson?
African Americans have their Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. While these few do not represent the whole, they boldly speak up for the whole. And, the mainstream media goes to them for their perspectives.
Caucasian Americans have their Billy Graham and Rick Warren. There’s also Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Again, they don’t represent the whole diversity of Anglo Christians, they boldly speak up for the whole.
Latino and Hispanic Americans kind of have Jesse Miranda and Luis Palau as their voices. I don’t know exactly who speaks for their tribe, but I think they’d boldly speak up for the whole.
Even the Hebrews had their Moses and Joshua.
Asian Americans have no one who boldly speaks up for the whole. We need a voice.
What would it take to have that voice?
Passion. A clarion voice that boldly speaks up with confidence and persuasion. You can’t fake passion. You have to have that fire in the belly, no fear to speak up even if you’re misunderstood, even if you don’t have the perfectly-crafted words. Public speaking is 93% about delivery and only 7% about the words.
Platform. A clarion voice has a large audience that listens to what s/he has to say for both intangible and tangible reasons. Some call it charisma. Definitely need cross-over appeal in both the religious and civic realms, as well as inside the tribe and outside. Need to have an organization with financial supporters that keep that platform active too.
Conviction. A clarion voice has to have something to say. That person has to have a sufficient understanding of the tribe’s compelling concerns. And that person is taking action to address those concerns and boldly advocating others to join the cause. That person lives out that conviction with an unwavering lifetime commitment through both actions and words.
Like it or not, we as Asian Americans will be stereotyped because we have that face. But without a voice, there is no way to change that stereotype of silence. Without a voice, we’ll be invisible and misunderstood.
I know there are many differences among Asian Americans: ethnicities, languages, cultures, generations, affinities. “Asian American” is not an attractive label or strong rally cry. Asians are known for being group-oriented, but Asians aren’t known for rallying around a voice. Without a voice boldly speaking up for the whole, we’ll remain apart.
Could I be that voice? You’ve got to be kidding! I know a lot of things I don’t have in and of myself. It takes a driven and focused Type-A personality to be that clarion voice.
What I do have is my personal blog. I’ve occasionally advocated for the next generation Asian Americans. But like others who are in this space, I didn’t want to be pigeon-holed or stereotyped. I prefer being eclectic and speak of my many varied interests.
But last week has changed me. I will use my words to advocate for the next generation Asian Americans. 7% still counts.
