Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am curious to hear about how Asian-Americans outside the West Coast feel about the Asians/ Asian-American experience there...And vice versa, how West Coast Asians feel about Asian-Americans who live in other parts of the country with less Asians..
Basically I like to hear the experiences of Asian-Americans who grew up in regions/ communities where there were not many other Asians...did you envy the Asians who lived in California, for instance?
Meh, I GUESS I can chime in since I've lived in Phoenix and NYC for a year each.
Phoenix: Honestly, it was a weird place to be being a 10 year old Filipino kid from SoCal. Since my mom moved there for work, I had to make the most of it. I wouldn't say that the place is outwardly racist (or felt like it, since I don't think 10-11 year olds really comprehend the idea of 'race' yet), but I did notice that a lot of the Asian kids who grew up in Arizona (mostly Vietnamese in my class) always congregated around me like I had something in common with them. My first 'girlfriend' (who was a year older than me) was this Vietnamese girl I met there, so it wasn't all THAT bad. I was mostly given the 'all Asians are smart' spiel. It didn't feel that much different than SoCal, except for the fact that there were way less Asian people and way more White people (Hispanics, a little less than LA but not that much less).
NYC: Ahh..freshman year of HS. I was actually honestly surprised how Asian my HS was (I went to Brooklyn Tech), but was stereotyped from being from 'California' Since the show "the OC" had just came out, people were always humming the theme right in front of me like it had something to do with me. The Asian kids in NYC tended to be MUCH more of the FOB type than the ones here in California as a percentage of the total Asian population (way less 2nd and 3rd generation Asian Americans). Ironically, some of my classmates at Brooklyn Tech ended up going to Berkeley, so I ran into one or two of them there. The experience felt uncomfortable, but that was more because I was 14 years old than any racial feelings. However, despite the fact that there is a HUGE Asian presence in NYC, it still didn't feel as mainstream as it does in the West Coast. Since NYC is such a multicultural entrepot, it felt more like you were one of many diverse groups that are here. Not that it's a bad thing, but its just an observation.
As a West Coast Asian person, maybe I'm looking at the rest of the US with rose shades but I think the US has done a GREAT job of making me feel extremely accepted. At least outwardly, most Americans I've met on my travels throughout the US have been extremely friendly and wouldn't mind living amongst them. However, it does get a LITTLE bit annoying when someone asks you "hey, where are you from?" and can't accept the answer of "Los Angeles" or "California" without asking the follow up "no REALLY, where are you from?" It gets even better once they read my name...hah!
The great thing (or bad thing, depending on your POV) about the West Coast is that most people haven't been in this area of the country longer than 40-50 years, so it really does feel like EVERYONE who comes here is a newcomer contributing something new to the West Coast. It feels more like a typical "take what you can and make it something else" type of frontier culture, rather than the more established East. Or for the most part, people here just don't care. Either one works.
The Asian kids in NYC tended to be MUCH more of the FOB type than the ones here in California as a percentage of the total Asian population (way less 2nd and 3rd generation Asian Americans)
I always wondered that, because California is well-established with Asian-American communities that they seemed more assimilated (or have a more distinct Asian-AMERICAN subculture) so less FOB than other areas...thanks for your thoughts
Lifeshadower: Have you been to Seattle/ Vancouver? Vancouver has a huge Asian subculture with alot of 2nd generation- but a whole lot of FOBS too (more than California for sure proportionately)
Lifeshadower: Have you been to Seattle/ Vancouver? Vancouver has a huge Asian subculture with alot of 2nd generation- but a whole lot of FOBS too (more than California for sure proportionately)
Yeah, I spent a huge chunk of my summer in Seattle visiting my sister, and made a few trips up to Vancouver to see friends. Seattle and Vancouver, in terms of Asian population, felt way more like the Bay Area than Los Angeles (way more Chinese and Indians than LA). From what I could gather though, it wasn't that much drastically different up there than down here, except that Asians, the further north you go, become more and more of the 'dominant' minority group.
As an anecdote: people in the Pacific Northwest, no matter what ethnicity or race, tend to speak English much more clearly than people down here.
Don't get me wrong, California has PLENTY of FOBs (including my parents, who still write emails titled "A million thank you!") but the more Americanized children are becoming of age and having a drastic effect on the culture here. Chances are, if you run into an Asian from California, they will be foreign born.
Total Asian population: California: 5,137,990 (68% foreign born, 32% local)
Washington: 544,005 (58% foreign born, 42% local)
British Columbia: 913,640 (66% foreign born, 34% local)
Compared to places further East (I'll do New York, New Jersey, and the province of Ontario)
Asian foreign born
New York: 1,101,826
New Jersey: 547,702
Ontario: 1,376,595
Total Asian population
New York: 1,467,264 (75% foreign born, 25% local)
New Jersey: 721,840 (76% foreign born, 24% local)
Ontario: 1,878,650 (73% foreign born, 27% local)
However, the difference with California than the rest of these areas is the SHEER number of 2nd generation+ Asian Americans that live in this state (1.6 million) compared to the rest of North America.
Total Asian population:
California: 5,137,990 (68% foreign born, 32% local)
Washington: 544,005 (58% foreign born, 42% local)
British Columbia: 913,640 (66% foreign born, 34% local)
Compared to places further East (I'll do New York, New Jersey, and the province of Ontario)
Asian foreign born
New York: 1,101,826
New Jersey: 547,702
Ontario: 1,376,595
Total Asian population
New York: 1,467,264 (75% foreign born, 25% local)
New Jersey: 721,840 (76% foreign born, 24% local)
Ontario: 1,878,650 (73% foreign born, 27% local)
However, the difference with California than the rest of these areas is the SHEER number of 2nd generation+ Asian Americans that live in this state (1.6 million) compared to the rest of North America.
wow thanks for the stats...what are the Asians in New Jersey like?
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,985,810 times
Reputation: 7323
My experiences in the South vis a vis Atlanta are varied to say the least. I was born in the 70s and was witness to the major change in the nature of the Asian community over the last 30+ years. Also, I'm only half Asian thus my prospective is a bit of an outsider looking in. Thus, it's hard to say how it is one easily explainable post...but I'll try
The old era.
My parents are from New York City originally who moved to Georgia in the 1970s. Back then, there were barely any Asians to speak of let alone ones that were blended families. Prior to the arrival of the Southeast Asian refugees (I'll get to that in a second), there were probably no more than a few thousand Asians in all of Georgia with most in and around Atlanta.
They were made up mostly of American transplants from the West Coast and NYC and composed primarily of Japanese, Chinese and Indians. Since there were probably only a few dozen Asians in Georgia (no exaggeration) in the early-20th century, there were no Little Tokyos or Chinatowns from which to form a base of power for new arrivals. So, one had to be created.
While people who migrated here at the time (including my parents) were more likely to be spread out among neighborhoods and suburbs around the Metro, a group of Chinese staked their claim in the inner suburb of Doraville and created a sort of "new school" Chinatown centered around commerce, but not so much around a single neighborhood.
During this time, I was easily the only Asian (or mixed) kid in my neighborhood and school aside from my siblings. I would say that much wasn't made of it, aside from people being just confused as to what I am. As for other Asian families we knew, they usually kept to themselves at home and did the best they could in teaching their children their traditions despite not having any exposure to it outside the home.
The moment everything changed.
In the wake of the wars in Southeast Asia, the United States government began relocating exiles in cities around the country. Though I am not certain as to how it exactly was decided, these refugees were not simply sent to obviously places such as California or New York City, but spread out to places like Atlanta (and Houston, Dallas, and Minneapolis).
By the end of the 1980s, tens of thousands of Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian and Laos immigrants were living here and all of a sudden I wasn't alone. Sort of. This first wave while comprised primarily of adults, had a significant amount of children. Many of them were born in the States, but spent the first few years of their lives speaking their native tongues so it was if they were like first generation immigrants.
I would love to end the story there and say everyone got a long just fine, but sadly that wasn't the case. Many of these refugees were relocated to areas that had seen lots of white flight in the previous decade (though not a total loss of the white population) due to african-americans moving in. So you had one group (whites) who were disdainful of the new arrivals and saw them as further erosion of their neighborhoods, another group (blacks) who were wary of the new arrivals due to not understanding their culture and competition for lower wage jobs, and the new group (Asians) who feared living among people they perceived to hate them and did not understand their culture at all.
While there was no grand race riots or anything, relations were strained to say the least. All three taunted each other for the way the spoke, what they ate, and how they dressed. There was always an feeling of self imposed separation. Needless to say, this was no fun for a kid like myself who was in the middle of all three.
Eventually though, this was a problem mostly for kids my age and older who were around when things changed. People in our same generation but where born afterwards had no concept of the way things used to be and thus adapted to life where this was normal. It is especially interesting to see friends of mine who came here during the wave of relocations who acted (or still do) what one would deem as fobbish (though I hate the term) and their younger brothers or sisters who are not.
Also during this time, the intial area around Doraville that was the center of Asian Atlanta saw a large influx of those refugees and other transplants from other cities and expanded to include the neighborhood burg of Chamblee and the suburbs of northern Dekalb county.
By the end of this era in the early 90s, Atlanta's asian population was around 150,000 or so with Indians, Vietnamese and Chinese being the three largest groups with a strong but small Japanese community.
Everything changed, again. Plus the Hallyu.
Now into the modern era, Atlanta's population began to explode and the Asian population was no exception. On the one hand, there were those refugees around my age that had not migrated to other states that began to have kids. A lot of them.
For example, of the roughly 8000 Vietnamese refugees who came here in the 1980s, their community has more than quadrupled to 39,049. They can be found all over the metro, but the base of operation if you will is in Southwest atlanta and in the near suburban county of Clayton. Similar stories can be told of the other refugee groups, just not as much.
The area also became a popular relocation area for british indians and those from the subcontinent. Filipinos also began to find their way here, but usually via relocation from Texas and New York. While small, their community numbers around 10,000 and is pretty tight nit.
The biggest story of them all is that of the Korean Hallyu (the Korean Wave). During the two previous eras, there was a small community of Koreans living in Atlanta centered around the Doraville. Like everyone else, their numbers began to grow due to relocations and births. By the mid-90s, their community numbered around 20,000 or so making it the 10th largest community of Koreans in the United States.
Then, as if some told all their cousins to tell their cousins and their friends to move here, the Korean population in Atlanta exploded. Literally. Until the official count is released in a few weeks, no one will know for sure what the real number is, but the Korean population in Atlanta has either doubled to 40,000 or multiplied to 150,000 making it the second largest Korean community outside of Korea (the largest being Los Angeles) as claimed by Korean community groups in the city. I'm more inclined to believe it's closer to the numbers giving by Korean groups (who else knows their people than your own), but either way one thing is for sure, the nature of Atlanta's asian community has vastly changed in short period of time.
While Doraville remains a historical center of the Korean community, they have migrated in large numbers in the near in suburbs of Gwinnett and Dekalb counties as well as those who are younger and single who have moved into the city proper in large numbers. One interesting story on the later was my own condo. When I moved in around 2005, there was one Korean guy living there. Now there are 8 families in the 30 unit building. Similar stories can be found all over.
Another more real world changes is that of the main avenue through Doraville called Buford Highway. While populated by Latinos for the most part, Koreans own most of the property along the street going into the new center of Korean Atlanta in the city of the Duluth with the Northern end comprising mostly of Korean establishments. This street runs for about 10 miles or so between Duluth and Doraville.
It doesn't stop there with that street, almost all of the area surrounding Duluth and Doraville is pretty much what I would imagine the suburbs of Seoul to look like if Seoul had American style suburbs. So much money and so many people have poured into the area that Korean based retailers are now starting to open chains first in Atlanta as opposed traditional Korean areas such as Los Angeles or New York. One such example is the recent opening of Mega Mart in Duluth...the first of the popular chain's stores in the United States.
All of these seemingly has no end and is changing the face of how the Asian community is now perceived in Atlanta. Instead of being a visible minority on the fringes of the local culture, Asian are now becoming a major player and when the 2010 census results are released it is expected that Atlanta's Asian community will number between 300,000 and 400,000. In other words, the Asian population has doubled in 20 years and expanded exponentially since the 70s.
Now you might expect there to be a lot of animosity because of this massive change. However I find the opposite to be true. Because of the lack of a true {insert ethnicity here}-town, Asians have integrated themselves in most neighborhoods, boroughs and suburbs of the Metro. To the point where our cultures are being integrated to the larger urban culture of Atlanta. For instance, Pho is an ubiquitous meal in many neighborhoods. You can also find Sriracha sauce in most grocery stores all over the city. This is a good development for me as I remember finding the elements of any Asian cuisine in Atlanta 30 years ago was impossible, but now you can pretty much get anything you want.
Then there are the subcultures that have spawned from people in my generation based on where they grew up. Most of the Southeast asians live on the Southside which is overall majority African-American, so they tend to be more into hip-hop and various other urban things. On the flip side, those Asians who grew up in the North side suburbs (mostly Chinese, Indians, first wave Koreans and little of everyone in between) tend to have a more of a preppy style culture.
The big thing I will say about Atlanta though is due to the more integrated nature of the living patterns of Asians (and everyone else) here, you do not get the same hardlines of neighborhoods like you do in NYC or LA where you would say "this is where the Viets go, that's where the Koreans go, etc". This mostly attributed to the very small historical Asian population that meant that we all kind of mingled together and just didn't shuffle off into our own little enclaves. Parties are attended by all, everyone eats dim sum on Sunday, everybody shops at Super H.
There are some problems for sure among the various groups, but over all it is more of an atmosphere of integration than anything else. Koreans are the sorta exception to this rule, but I think that is more so due to the higher number of new arrivals and their continued huge growth in one particular area of the metro.
Lifeshadower, you should try Houston later.Your opinion about asians there could be interesting, because it's like the west coast or east coast.
If life takes me there, I'll give my opinion. Someone from Texas should write about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by f1000
wow thanks for the stats...what are the Asians in New Jersey like?
Ehh, I have relatives out in New Brunswick, Edison, and Jersey City. All are immigrants straight from the Philippines, and they all like it. I mean, it's hard to answer that question because it depends from person to person. I can only speak for myself.
California...it's like a world onto itself. In a few years, we'll need more white people to move here because they are becoming an endangered species. Unlike waronxmas' description of Atlanta, there are enough of every ethnic group for ethnic cliques to form, but there is still SOME semblance of Asian unity.
At my old high school here in LA, the East Asian groups (Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans) would look down on the Southeast Asian groups (mostly Vietnamese and Filipino, but also includes some Cambodians and Laotians) while the South Asians all stuck together as a unit (you wouldn't ever know that India/Pakistan/Bangladesh have bad relations as countries) but still hung out with the East Asian crowd. However, they would all hang out with each other despite the relative distrust they had with everyone.
The Southeast Asian groups here in Los Angeles (and throughout California) basically from the bulk of the Asian underclass. When you think of 'Asian gangs" here, they are no longer the traditional mafia style of the triads and yakuza, but groups like TRG (mostly Cambodian, with some Laotians), ABZ (mostly Vietnamese, with SOME Filipinos), and the Wah Ching (Chinese, mostly out in the SGV). Of course, you also had Pacific Islander sets of the local black gangs, like the Samoan Crips out in Carson. I had more problem with Southeast Asian gangs than I did with Mexican gangsters, which is impressive considering that North Hollywood was mostly Latino. Out in places like Fresno (yeah, Asians live there too), Stockton, and Sacramento, there is a problem with Hmong gangs (like True Blue, Menace of Destruction, etc.)
Unlike the other Asian groups, the Southeast Asians came here as refugees, meaning that a HUGER subsection of their society came here instead of just the cream of the crop. A HUGE percentage of Indochinese refugees came not only poor, but also illiterate and knowledge of only how to be agricultural peasants. While some of these refugees were spread throughout the country (Hmongs in the Midwest, Vietnamese in the South, Cambodians in Boston, etc.), the vast majority of them ended up in California, and to some extent, are still coming here. Initially, all of the Southeast Asian communities were wrought with crime, poverty, and the whole works so to speak. However, as time moves on, more and more are starting to assimilate into mainstream American society. But poverty, crime, and low education levels still plague all of the communities, but not to the levels of the 1980s and 1990s.
For the rest of the United States, I don't know how much of an Asian underclass exists. There's too much of that "model minority" BS floating around that sweeps aside the obvious and apparent problems with some Asian communities here.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,985,810 times
Reputation: 7323
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lifeshadower
Ehh, I have relatives out in New Brunswick, Edison, and Jersey City. All are immigrants straight from the Philippines, and they all like it. I mean, it's hard to answer that question because it depends from person to person. I can only speak for myself.
Some people might think you are exaggerating, but I can cosign based on the stories I hear from my pinoy friends. Everybody has a Tito Boy or a Tita Girlie or some other random Ate or Kuya from the province living in Jersey. Same thing goes for Queens. From what I understand the Filipino presence in the Tri State area at it's current size is a rather recent thing though, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lifeshadower
California...it's like a world onto itself. In a few years, we'll need more white people to move here because they are becoming an endangered species. Unlike waronxmas' description of Atlanta, there are enough of every ethnic group for ethnic cliques to form, but there is still SOME semblance of Asian unity.
At my old high school here in LA, the East Asian groups (Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans) would look down on the Southeast Asian groups (mostly Vietnamese and Filipino, but also includes some Cambodians and Laotians) while the South Asians all stuck together as a unit (you wouldn't ever know that India/Pakistan/Bangladesh have bad relations as countries) but still hung out with the East Asian crowd. However, they would all hang out with each other despite the relative distrust they had with everyone.
The Southeast Asian groups here in Los Angeles (and throughout California) basically from the bulk of the Asian underclass. When you think of 'Asian gangs" here, they are no longer the traditional mafia style of the triads and yakuza, but groups like TRG (mostly Cambodian, with some Laotians), ABZ (mostly Vietnamese, with SOME Filipinos), and the Wah Ching (Chinese, mostly out in the SGV). Of course, you also had Pacific Islander sets of the local black gangs, like the Samoan Crips out in Carson. I had more problem with Southeast Asian gangs than I did with Mexican gangsters, which is impressive considering that North Hollywood was mostly Latino. Out in places like Fresno (yeah, Asians live there too), Stockton, and Sacramento, there is a problem with Hmong gangs (like True Blue, Menace of Destruction, etc.)
Unlike the other Asian groups, the Southeast Asians came here as refugees, meaning that a HUGER subsection of their society came here instead of just the cream of the crop. A HUGE percentage of Indochinese refugees came not only poor, but also illiterate and knowledge of only how to be agricultural peasants. While some of these refugees were spread throughout the country (Hmongs in the Midwest, Vietnamese in the South, Cambodians in Boston, etc.), the vast majority of them ended up in California, and to some extent, are still coming here. Initially, all of the Southeast Asian communities were wrought with crime, poverty, and the whole works so to speak. However, as time moves on, more and more are starting to assimilate into mainstream American society. But poverty, crime, and low education levels still plague all of the communities, but not to the levels of the 1980s and 1990s.
For the rest of the United States, I don't know how much of an Asian underclass exists. There's too much of that "model minority" BS floating around that sweeps aside the obvious and apparent problems with some Asian communities here.
You hit the nail right on the head and I can say much of the same holds true here in Atlanta too, just not to the same extent. For one, the demographics of the Asian population here is the same as it is every where it seems. The Chinese, Indians and Japanese tend to be upper class/rich while Southeast Asians tend to be middle to lower class or just dirt poor. Koreans here are the odd ones out because they are both rich or working class/poor. For me I've always been closer to Southeast asians because 1.) I grew up in a working class house and neighborhood. 2.) Mixed children (especially the "wrong kind" of mixing) is still a taboo in Japanese culture. 3.) The first asian kids I knew outside my family were Viets.
There is always a lot of conflicts, gossip, and rumor mongering when it comes to the different groups, but it's more of the older people who do that and the younger generations are closer together. Part of me wonders how much of that is view brought over from the old country, or a result of the hyper-racialized conditions in the United States culture itself that pits different groups of people (particular immigrants) against each other. In places like NYC and LA that have long been cities with large asian populations, this would be even more pronounced as you have several generations of infighting that was initial spurred by sotto voce segregation decades ago.
On the other hand it may just be the "American Way" to do these sorts of things since ever group of people in this country has similar infighting of some sort.
Some people might think you are exaggerating, but I can cosign based on the stories I hear from my pinoy friends. Everybody has a Tito Boy or a Tita Girlie or some other random Ate or Kuya from the province living in Jersey. Same thing goes for Queens. From what I understand the Filipino presence in the Tri State area at it's current size is a rather recent thing though, right?
Haha, it DOES seem that every Filipino in the states has at least 1 relative somewhere in the Tri-state area. Hell, I have family out in Long Island, including an uncle who worked for the NYPD (from the 1960s to the 1990s) before retiring 15 years ago, and my Filipino Muslim aunt married to a converted African-American Muslim out in Queens. However, it mostly is a recent phenomenon. The vast majority of Asians out there seems to have come within the last 20-25 years, which is impressive considering that the Tri-state area has the 2nd largest Asian American population after LA (and 2nd largest Hispanic population)
Out here in California, we really do take it for granted how integrated Asians are to the local culture. Not many people here think its weird that an older Asian person can speak flawless English without an accent. Elsewhere in the US, at least in my experience, that seems a little bit weirder. However, I did have a fun experiment where my friend (a 4th generation Japanese American) and a Russian immigrant (meaning straight up accented Russian) friend of mine went out and asked people "who do you think is more likely to be an immigrant?" Almost EVERYONE chose the Japanese American!@*#@*!*
Quote:
You hit the nail right on the head and I can say much of the same holds true here in Atlanta too, just not to the same extent. For one, the demographics of the Asian population here is the same as it is every where it seems. The Chinese, Indians and Japanese tend to be upper class/rich while Southeast Asians tend to be middle to lower class or just dirt poor. Koreans here are the odd ones out because they are both rich or working class/poor. For me I've always been closer to Southeast asians because 1.) I grew up in a working class house and neighborhood. 2.) Mixed children (especially the "wrong kind" of mixing) is still a taboo in Japanese culture. 3.) The first asian kids I knew outside my family were Viets.
Well, there's a sort of irony that comes with all of this. It was really on the FOB's, who for the most part were poorer than anyone else, who typically did the "looking down" on. The Japanese that I knew, for the most part, were MORE American than a lot of the Jews and Eastern Europeans I knew here, and their parents seemed to do regular jobs (not all white collar, mind you) than the more immigrant Asian parents (like mine). I did have the most problems with Koreans because they not only were probably the FOBbiest group of people, but they had a tendency to be overly vocal about their 'status' in life. However, after HS, we all became friends and still drink from time to time.
Filipinos were kind of in the middle of all this. I probably misspoke when I said they mostly hungout with the Southeast Asians (despite the Philippines being in SE Asia), but when possible, they hang out amongst themselves. Or if not, they hung out with everyone else (like myself, who hung out with the Hispanic kids because I grew up with them). It's kind of that catch all group that can hang out with almost anyone. East Asians thought Filipinos were stupid, but when possible, tried to include us in their 'Asian' groups. Keep in mind, my HS was maybe 25% Asian, 60% Hispanic (with a HUGE Central American contingent), 10% White, 5% Black. Sounds like the future of LA....
Other Southeast Asian groups like Filipinos, but when it comes to gang territory, not so much (but then again, they didn't like their own people making other gangs, so it evens out). However, there is kind of an unsaid hostility between Filipinos and Vietnamese, which is weird and complex and hard to decipher.
For the most part though, it's kids being kids. What can you do?
Quote:
There is always a lot of conflicts, gossip, and rumor mongering when it comes to the different groups, but it's more of the older people who do that and the younger generations are closer together. Part of me wonders how much of that is view brought over from the old country, or a result of the hyper-racialized conditions in the United States culture itself that pits different groups of people (particular immigrants) against each other. In places like NYC and LA that have long been cities with large asian populations, this would be even more pronounced as you have several generations of infighting that was initial spurred by sotto voce segregation decades ago.
On the other hand it may just be the "American Way" to do these sorts of things since ever group of people in this country has similar infighting of some sort.
I'd say its a little bit of both, but more of the latter. I mean, keep in mind that back in the old country, most of these people had little to no interaction with MOST 'foreigners' except for maybe the local white missionary or businessman. Naturally, there's a distrust of people who aren't 100% like yourself because you can't decipher how they think or what makes them tick. However, you are also curious to see how they think (which is why almost ALL Asians have an inferiority complex to Westerners and European culture) to see if you can improve your own lot by their thinking.
However, once in the United States or any other Western country, you tend to band toward your own 'people' for a security blanket and slowly learning the ways of the new country by those who've already experienced it. Most immigrants who came here in the 70s and 80s came at a time where the US was still sort of dealing with the old "black-white' antipathy. However, the LA Riots had a way of changing all that, with a realization by everyone that American race relations became a whole lot more complex (and a realization by White Americans that minorities don't all stick together all the time) and that everyone needed a sort of 'place' in the new society. Not that I agree, but it seemed to have gone that direction. I personally think the US has done a better job at addressing this issue than places like Australia or New Zealand (not sure about Canada, because even the Whites there STILL fight amongst themselves over linguistic issues. I do notice that French Canadians LOVE French speaking immigrants, and English speaking Canadians like any immigrant because they know that they will be English speakers one day)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Unlike waronxmas' description of Atlanta, there are enough of every ethnic group for ethnic cliques to form, but there is still SOME semblance of Asian unity. 
Same thing goes for Queens. From what I understand the Filipino presence in the Tri State area at it's current size is a rather recent thing though, right?
