The Lincoln Log

This is our last issue of the year, and my last addition to my column. As I embark into the real world, I would like to give you, my readers, some advice. If you have never read my column before, then this is the column to read and learn something. Maybe you might not agree with this or maybe you do, but the idea is to spark something inside of you. Maybe by reading this, you will change your actions and even change the world.

Everyday people make jokes. Have you ever hear of that one guy in your class doing a Chinese accent? Did you ever notice that everyone laughs? Did you also notice that the person who did it learned it from his Asian friend?

As long as I could remember, my Asian friends would do that horrible Chinese accent as a joke. Soon everyone did it, even people who weren’t Asian. I sat back and realized that it wasn’t right. People were stereotyping Asians and the way they talk. I realized that the minute we make fun of ourselves, we let others make fun of us.

We as Asians haven’t been very outspoken about our rights. Instead, we are more quiet as a community. Shouldn’t we as a community stop all these stereotypes? Why aren’t we doing anything? It seems to me that not a lot is being done because I still hear those horrible jokes and accents in the halls and classrooms in our school.

We can’t just tell people that only we can make these kinds of jokes because we are Asian. Nor can we keep getting verbally bashed with these jokes. Either one doesn’t give the equality we want.

Are we, as human begins, not smart enough to make real intelligent jokes without making fun of other people’s race? Why should we pick on someone and belittle them as if their feelings don’t matter? If we are still making these types of jokes in this century, in our lives, then what has changed? How have we become better compassionate human beings? If we all have fought for equality in this country, then why are these slurs still setting us back? And what are we, as a community, going to do?

This isn’t just about Asians being picked on, this is for people of all race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, ect.. We all strive to be equal, that’s what we came here for. Then what’s holding us back? And how can we change and fix it so the future will be better?