Tuesday, September 30, 2003
On Drew:
Drew was in charge of math camp both years I was a student there. At the time, I was both intimidated by his authority, and puzzled by his random silliness. The latter made sense when I eventually learned that he is about my age, but the former somehow never fully evaporated. Though not much older than me, Drew seems older, and more experienced in life, which is certainly true in the pragmatic sense. Drew holds my respect, and in a strange sense even a kind of authority over me, especially as I took over some of his previous roles while teaching at math camp.
Getting to know Drew over the internet during the course of the past year or so has made me more aware of racial issues in this ethnically diverse, yet ideologically homogeneous, American society. Drew seems to me as sensitive to his minority status and its implications to various aspects of his life (professional, social, romantic, etc), and talking to him has given me a better understanding of the conflicts and realities that very Asian-American male must live with. At the same time, I wonder if such a context for many of our conversations hasn't led Drew to underestimate just how Korean I am; living half my life in Asia made me to see the "plight" of the Asian-American for what I think it really is... a purely American phenomenon. Viewing the problem from the outside is very different from being stuck in the middle of it, and there have been times when I wished Drew could spend a few years in Asia, or at the very least somewhere where there are none of the "white people" that cause him to raise his hackles so often.
As for me, being an Asian-American is a regional thing, and quite possibly a temporary thing. And I'm beginning to think, if a short hop across an ocean is all it takes to leave the stresses of being an Asian living in America behind, why can't I chase those same burdens out of my head while sitting in my room, blogging away. Freedom is, after all, a state of mind.
And of course, there are many things that American society has to offer. Even to an "untall" Korean man such as myself.
Drew was in charge of math camp both years I was a student there. At the time, I was both intimidated by his authority, and puzzled by his random silliness. The latter made sense when I eventually learned that he is about my age, but the former somehow never fully evaporated. Though not much older than me, Drew seems older, and more experienced in life, which is certainly true in the pragmatic sense. Drew holds my respect, and in a strange sense even a kind of authority over me, especially as I took over some of his previous roles while teaching at math camp.
Getting to know Drew over the internet during the course of the past year or so has made me more aware of racial issues in this ethnically diverse, yet ideologically homogeneous, American society. Drew seems to me as sensitive to his minority status and its implications to various aspects of his life (professional, social, romantic, etc), and talking to him has given me a better understanding of the conflicts and realities that very Asian-American male must live with. At the same time, I wonder if such a context for many of our conversations hasn't led Drew to underestimate just how Korean I am; living half my life in Asia made me to see the "plight" of the Asian-American for what I think it really is... a purely American phenomenon. Viewing the problem from the outside is very different from being stuck in the middle of it, and there have been times when I wished Drew could spend a few years in Asia, or at the very least somewhere where there are none of the "white people" that cause him to raise his hackles so often.
As for me, being an Asian-American is a regional thing, and quite possibly a temporary thing. And I'm beginning to think, if a short hop across an ocean is all it takes to leave the stresses of being an Asian living in America behind, why can't I chase those same burdens out of my head while sitting in my room, blogging away. Freedom is, after all, a state of mind.
And of course, there are many things that American society has to offer. Even to an "untall" Korean man such as myself.
