‘Otherness’ is More Complex Than Black and White

NYU Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen, addressing the Institute’s race and economics conference in Detroit, explores the many layers of “otherness” at work in America’s political economy
Credits: Matthew Kulvicki, Nick Alpha

[@smartiepancake]

Steinbeck in East of Eden did a very good job featuring the difficulties faced by Chinese migrants through the character of Lee.

[@Vgallo]

Hmm was just thinking about watching this movie yesterday, I think I’ll watch it tonight now, although I know it will be a poor reflection of the book.

[@Vgallo]

Persecution of “middle men”, or foreign cultures that came to new countries and excelled, has happened right around the world, in most other countries this lead to genocide , or attempted genocide, yes it happened in Germany, but it also happened in many nations outside of Europe, that again escape the scrutiny of left wing academics, because they have this inverted eurocentrism.
I mean it’s like they’ve never heard of something called the “Great Wall of China”, it’s also erroneous to associate immigration I.d. With Laissez-faire capitalism, I mean you don’t think goods abs trade are not subject to scrutiny before entering the country?? In fact even with completely unrestricted laisseZ-fair capitalism the goods entering through trade face quarantine and scrutiny that is much higher than illegal immigrants coming through the Mexican border to America, introducing the wall means that there is at least some ability to monitor who comes into the country, this is where the left loses credibility all together, they associate trade of goods with illegal immigration, I mean it’s just an absolutely absurd claim.

[@Vgallo]

Why do those on the left preach about this Eurocentric view, but when it comes to racism or otherness nothing else exists outside of the west, as if this is some kind of genetic coding in European people only, and that it wasn’t formed by an extensive history of relationships and interactions with those outside of Europe, as well as complex environmental influences.
It’s as if those on the left are fixated with making the west into this “enemy” of humanity, or that they have this racial hierarchy consisting of the enemies of humanity and white people are at the top, but because many people on the left start off with this axiom that white people are bad, especially if they are white and middle class but not only, it also feeds into the world views of immigrants who feel disenfranchised or neglected, I’m not disputing that they have been but either way when they here these intellectuals on the left with this ironical , evil Eurocentric view of the world, they accept it without question, as do the University students but does anyone stop to question this upside down Eurocentric, racial hierarchy that they are perpetuating? .
I appreciate their analysis, it does reveal interesting and insightful points about European culture, but it needs to incorporate a more wholistic analysis by throwing away these presuppositions.

[@Peteruspl]

Where is the link to the "world we live in today"? These stories are quite universal. Humans are naturally groupish. Even the most radical communists express this, but they "other" people who think differently. There is plenty of xenophobia in Asia, like against non-majority ethnicity in China, or towards migrants in Japan. The white washing of history is also universal. For example in my country - Poland - there were some war crimes committed by Poles and by Ukrainians in XXth century. Both countries downplay their own criminals as lone actors, but considers other side to have carried out ethnic cleansing as semi-official policy.
We are also all standing on conquered land, except for a few small regions which were bought, and the Jews who had their land gifted by the UN/brits.
What is the point? It looks like trying to instill more shame into white Americans, even though pretty much every other group is just as guilty. I think this talk lacks at least a few sentences about Chinese protectionism to balance the picture. Yes, USA is whitewashing the past, but so is everybody else. To make any judgment a number of examples would have to be weight - not real past USA vs perfect ideal, but real past USA vs a number of countries during the same period.