How to Discern a Race Issue?

To the author Liz Lin: Your account on the reason why Asian Americans remained silent about the Ferguson case is really compelling. As an Asian myself, I totally comprehend what you’ve described as “the power of cultural tradition”. To some extent, the status of Asian Americans on the so-called racial “food chain” is really fluid and kinetic. If someone in the United States have been characterized as an Asian American, their racial identity is destined to be vague, and in many occasions, awkward in the context. Personally, I would attribute the reason why Asian people remained silent in the face of injustice like that of the Ferguson case in that people themselves feel isolated and alienated within the society, and when other minorities suffered from in justice, they tend to keep a distance and remain silent about it to gain a sense of security and superiority. When Asian people are characterized in stereotype as the “model minority”, a huge number of Asian Americans graciously accepted it, for from this term, they sniffed a sense of belonging and acceptance, although fake. This kind of mindset, combined with the conviction that whoever is the first to stand up will be shot, it is reasonable to reach to the conclusion of why people remained silent. I am also approve of your statement that “to remain quiet in the face of injustice is to inherently perpetuate it. When a whole group of people fell into the abyss of “mindlessness”, as the famous Chinese writer and revolutionist Lu Xun has described, there is just no way to get out of it. Just as the prevailing poetry about the Jews under that Nazi reign during WWII has described, “when others are harassed, I remained silent; when the blades are waving at me, no one stands up for me.”