Asian American Voices from College. Perspectives of Self- Identity and Community

The slave owners, along with the robber barons, and БЂњthe interests,БЂ«have left the building. Reverend Al Sharpton, in Chris RockБЂ™s wonderful documentary Good Hair, takes on the overwhelming Asian ownership of hair salons in Black communities. He calls this ownership БЂњexploitation.БЂ«But who is exploiting the Black community, the Asians who, perceiving a need, are catering to that need, or the Reverend Sharpton? The Asians, like the Jews, immigrants one hundred years ago, saw both a market and a vacuum of power, and responded. They saw in effect that no one was there. My father bluffed his way into Northwestern Law on the GI Bill, having (perhaps) finished two years of community college. He graduated first in his class. I asked him what his secret was, and he explained that he didnБЂ™t realize how little was required of him. President Obama announces every day (and his presidency could, indeed, be reduced to this announcement and its results) that the West is finished: with capitalism, with Democracy, with self defense, and that anyone who wants it can have it ...»