Every couple of weeks I Google “Asian White Supremacist” because I’m always hoping to find an Asian white supremacist to interview. The world is so big and there are so many messed up people, there has to be at least one Asian white supremacist out there. Or at least I can hope.
Usually when I search “Asian White Supremacist” Google spits back two types of sites: racist websites/groups that spew anti-Asian rants or groups fighting those websites/hate groups. That’s why I was surprised when I read about a supposed Asian White Supremacist who got in trouble in Central Coast California.
Apparently, a group of students at Soquel High School in Soquel, California decided to wear white T-shirts on senior picture day. According to the students, the shirts were meant to identify them as friends. School officials say that other students “were offended and intimidated by his group, claiming they’re a white supremacist gang.” Two of the students (on other websites, I’ve heard up to five students) were suspended from school. This news story is only interesting to me (and to people like Glenn Beck) because one of the students in the group is an Asian American student. Watch the news report here.
I believe that the school administration probably overreacted. The only thing that gives me pause is what one of the students said:
“I do think this is BS, I’m not a white supremacist in any way shape or form. If I did say white power, I would probably say it just as much as I say black power.”
The “If I did say white power, I would probably say it just as much as I say black power” statement is questionable to me. That’s the equivalent of saying: “I’m not racist, I have an African American friend.” Or in this case, Asian American. And dude, why would you ever say “white power” or “black power”?
The one thing that really bothers me about this whole story is the fact that the Asian American kid is being paraded around as being proof that the group couldn’t be a racist hate group.
NEWSFLASH: Asian can be racist. I know plenty of Asias who are racist. And not just Asians but Asian Americans as well. I’m not sure if they can be part of a hate group but not impossible to imagine.
I’m going to take the unpopular opinion and I’m not going to criticize the school administrators too harshly because I would rather them overreact than underreact in situations like these. In other videos I watched about this controversy, it became clear to me that the school probably does have a racism problem. There are pictures of kids doing the Nazi salute and apparently swastikas are not uncommon on campus. Regardless, I hope this becomes a great learning opportunity for not only the students and the school but the entire community.
I’m going to end this article on a philosophical tangent. All this talk of white supremacists has got me thinking… do white supremacists eat “ethnic” food? In other words, do they eat sushi or tacos? What do you think? Wouldn’t that be a little hypocritical?
