[PEN-L:7672] Re: Re: racism on pen-l

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charles, a most insightful and touching article. Frankly, American Blacks are
among the most victimized group in history and the most victimized today
relatively.

We Chinese have the same rage suppression reflex drummed into us by Confucian
poison.  We are conditioned to avoid confrontation, which Westerners interpret
as weakness and acquiescence.


Take the story of Lou Shide of the Tang dynasty (7th century) who would be
well-known in history as a man of uncommon tolerance.  In old age, when he
would be destined to become a high minister at court some 2 decades after he
first entered government, he would be reported as having advised his younger
brother to act always with the utmost self-effacement to avoid provoking
enemies at court.  It would be recorded that his brother, allegedly having
reassured Lou Shide not to worry, claiming that even if people should come up
and expectorate directly on his face, he would only quietly wipe it off,
whereby Lou Shide would be reported to have solemnly shaken his head with
disapproval and said earnestly:
"It is because you harbor this type of attitude that causes me worries.
When someone spits in your face, it is because he is angry with you.  If you
wipe off the spit, it would be interpreted as a form of defiance, which will
only bolster his anger.  What you should do is to smile broadly and let the
spit dry by itself.  Do you understand?"
The advice of Lou Shide makes "turning the other cheek" aggressively defiant
by comparison.
It is with the same obsequious attitude that Lou Shide approached
diplomacy.  The less-than-honorable truce Lou Shide negotiated in 679 with the
advisors of 8-year-old Tufan zanpu (Tibetan king) Qinuxilong, with which Lou
Shide earned his promotions at court and from which he emerged as leader of
the appeasement faction, only served to encourage repeated escalation of
bolder demands from emboldened Tufans.  The appeasement-induced truce would
collapse after the Tang court refused the 8-year-old zanpu's allegedly
impertinent request, by name, for the hand in marriage of 16-year-old Peace
Princess (Taiping Gongzu) of the Tang imperial family, a request that
Confucians at court deemed impertinent for a minor Barbarian chieftain.

In Shanghai, until Communist liberation, there was a park in the British
Quarters, where a sign at the entrance read: "Dogs and Chinese not allowed".
The more liberal British residents explained to their selected Chinese friends
that it was not discrimination.  It was that the majority of the Chinese were
poor and dressed in dirty rags that the rich Chinese themselves would not let
into their own homes.  And if the rich Chinese were let into the park, then
British law on equality would need to let all Chinese in.  So it was common
sense against poverty and the rule of law that necessitated the offensive
sign.
The Rich Chinese would than accuse the young revolutionaries of being consumed
by blind hate and seeing racial discrimination where none existed.

Between friends, the problem with us intellectuals is that when we see a
sausage, we think of Picasso, instead of starving people.  We keep deluding
ourselves, with help from the oppressive culture, that if we associate with
the more educated, we can protect ourselves from discrimination, whereas in
reality, we only move into circles in which discrimination is more subtle and
its expression more sophisticated.  Unwittingly, we permit ourselves to be
co-opted into the oppressors camp and comfort ourselves by claiming that at
least we are still on the left.

Henry



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