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A little pre-election anti-Asian racism in Wellesley
By adamg on Fri, 11/18/2016 - 8:11pm
The American Lawyer talks to William Lee, a partner in a prestigious downtown law firm about an incident in August as he was filling up his Mercedes SUV at a gas station near his Wellesley home.
[A] man wearing a “Wellesley Hockey Parent” shirt walked up to him.
“Where does a guy like you get a car like that?” the man said to Lee, looking at the litigator’s vehicle.
Lee, whose parents came to this country from China in 1948, tried to defuse the situation. “From Herb Chambers,” he said, referring to a local car dealer.
“Why don’t you go back to your own country,” the man said, according to Lee. ...
Ed. note: If the link doesn't work, click here, then click on the link there.
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Comments
embarrassing
embarrassing
Now that's funny right there.
I dunno
That would be my reply.. regardless of my immigration status.
Then to the guys question of "why don't you go back into your own country"
I'd take two steps back and say "Ok, I'm here"
But I'm a smart ass like that.
Im guessing that kind of humor
Would probably fly right over his head.
I had a conservative friend who thought an Onion article was real a few years back. He indignantly posted it on Facebook and hilarity ensued.
If you leave aside the unfortunate context, or maybe not even,
It's pretty great deadpan.
Cognitive Dissonance
People who exist "outside the norm" create cognitive dissonance in the ninnies and twits of the world who can't understand that wealthy black couples, mixed race families, and interracial adoptions exist. Some of them develop a rather hilarious sense of humor about it.
My parents were friends with a mixed-race couple. "Bobbi June" was as Mississippi white as they come. Her husband "Ed" was a Japanese American whose family migrated to the farmlands of the Northwest in the early 20th century.
Bobbi June was a executive administrator and Ed had inherited his medical practice from his father. They had also made some solid real estate decisions, and landed "way up in the West Hills" of Portland by the 1980s. Ed's elderly mother lived with them and liked to garden, so they put in a nice garden for her and Ed to putter in.
One day Ed was fussing around the garden in a beat up sweatsuit and floppy hat, and Bobbi June was on the side deck drinking coffee. Their neighbor, a bit of a social climber, flagged her attention.
Neighbor: "You have a Japanese gardener!"
Bobbi: "yes"
Neighbor: "That's so wonderful. You think he would work for me?"
Bobbi: "maybe"
Neighbor: "How much do you pay him"
Bobbi (amping up her charming drawl): "Honey, I don't pay him, I SLEEP with him!"
Despite living next door to this man for a couple of years, Ed was apparently invisible until he did something "stereotypical", and then was assumed to be a servant (rather than a homeowner and medical professional). I think much of the brash nonsense of the past year has come from people among us who think they have some right to not be confronted with their own inability to handle cognitive dissonance generated by their own ignorance.
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They also had lots of "fun" being kicked out of hotels in the south in the late 70s because they "weren't married" in Mississippi or Alabama, according to the managers.
Sorry if this whole reality thing leads to cognitive dissonance and denial. You might talk to your psychiatrist about that problem.
But going and fucking yourself is also an option that harms no one.
lol
my family came here on a boat from south america, idk what education you think you can give me with made up stories about friends you probably dont even have.
nice try though, as usual, swirls.
it wasnt even a nice boat, tbh. it was a freighter.
oh, and, dont misconstrue my comments to mean that prejudice and racism don't exist. my comment was merely doubting your integrity and the veracity of your specific remarks, not the existence of discrimination as a whole.
Sorry that you don't have any friends
I bet that you weren't born in an interment camp, like my parent's friend was.
Real people have real stories to tell about reality. If you don't like them you can go home and wank - best thing you can do for humanity right now. Leave the internet out of it.
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Poor little bunny
Reality is too much. Might be time to ask your psych to adjust your medication.
again
i'm not doubting that any of these things have happened or even frequently happen, i just have sincere doubts that you actually interact with anybody or know anybody that they've happened to.
you do, after all, spend most of your time here concocting liberal sob stories so i dont feel like its out of the realm of ~*reality*~ for you to be doing so again, for whatever nefarious agenda you're trying to further.
In otherwords
Reality is for the non-sociopathic.
Liberal?
Hell, Swirly's probably as red as anybody in the Commonwealth, with her work ethic and family values.
thats ok
i was just trying to rustle up support from the deplorables anyway
Didn't you say you were leaving?
Oh yeah, you did.
As someone recently remarked - "How can we miss you if you won't go away?"
?
i never said i was leaving, nor did the person that i said i was in agreement with. you linked it yourself, consider reading it next time.
Go get help
It's another Monday and you're still mentally ill. Go get help while you still can. Otherwise, one day you'll need your fellow human beings and you won't be able to find anyone who's even willing to piss on you to put out the fire.
Sorry Will, but swrrly is
Sorry Will, but swrrly is most definitely liberal and she has hard working blue / democratic standards which means she actually works hard, not just puts up a pretense of having a solid working ethic.
Guns, too
You would not believe how many people that freaks out. I have a scar on my arm from a bullet graze when I was twelve and shooting cans off a fence at my uncle's house. I tell people in Massachusetts that it's from a bike wreck ... Just easier that way.
I wonder how these types of
I wonder how these types of people feel when explaining their behavior to their family or friends or to their workplace. Bigots have always felt an aura of invulnerability about their behavior because they feel that society will condone their behavior. And now given what's being said from the top of the government down, it's just more reassurance that they have less to fear.
It's going to be a violent Thanksgiving, I fear.
It's gonna be tough not to tell Cousin Shit and Uncle Fuck where to go when they raise the Confederate flag during dessert.
Possible partial solution?
Hopefully everyone in the family will agree to shut up about politics altogether over the holidays. It might help keep the peace. Some of them have plenty of common sense, compassion, and decency, but there's others who have, at best, quite a few things to learn. Those people are hopeless because they adamantly refuse to learn anything.
Still, if any racist or other nasty shit comes up, I'll speak up. If things get ugly, I'll take a hike.
There's only a couple people I want to see; otherwise, I dread Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
Edited for clarity and grammar.
Doesn't work on antisocial people
Won't work. Deplorables are enjoying their "win", they're people who live for the antisocial pleasure of needling others, there is exactly zero chance they won't be shitheads around the table at Thanksgiving.
Go back to your own country
It's a sentiment that I often have in my head, and one that I would reserve for somebody who's actually pissing me off, not some dude minding his business and pumping gas.
I used to use such rhetoric among close friends, but I stopped doing it once I realized that telling somebody to go elsewhere based on national borders contradicts my anti-statist sentiments. The only reason the Chinese guy is Chinese is because of a concept that some humans on that side of the world established thousands of years ago. The only reason I'm American is because some humans 240 years ago who had better weapons than the natives decided that this place was America and not part of another country.
I don't expect your garden variety Trump voter to come on here and read this, but it needs to be said somewhere. What has America done lately for the type of people who would say something like that to somebody at a gas pump? And on those grounds, why respect the concept of countries at all?
ffs
Five likes in an hour on a Friday night?
You're usually better at making your own repeated upvoting believable.
lol
no, you're just that toxic that even i can garner support when i talk smack to you.
Yep, I'm so toxic
I'd keep this up, but I'm going to go kick a puppy.
A failed attempt to determine what Willie was trying to say
After reading it a number of times, I realized that Willie was simply offering an army of pompous words and phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea. Pretty much typical of most of what he posts…an affected and irritating mixture of confused and unintelligible random thoughts characteristic of a self-important ass who thinks he knows something about everything.
What do you mean "thinks?"
I know I know everything.
But in the past
You said you were 'nuanced' and shit.
;-)
Talk about missing the point
The "Chinese guy" is an American*. The only reason YOU are American is because some ancestor of yours decided to move here sometime in the past -- just as his did. I would put money on Hockey Parent's American status being the result of a similar emigration. The only people who have any standing to say "Go back to your own country" without being hypocrites are the ones you call natives.
* Do you enjoy it when strangers call you an Irish guy or an Italian guy, or whatever -- maybe a Canuck?
I wish I was Canadian
"Canuck" would be a badge of honor.
No
Not really. There is much resentment about oil money being used to prop up Quebec and the maritimes if you spend any time in Western Canada.
The article is behind a paywall.
Is there anything that corroborates his story?
Is Wellesley really a hotbed of racism?
What percentage of the city voted for Trump?
More laborious way to get to the article
The American Lawyer lets its stories be linked from Twitter, so click on the link at the bottom of my post, then click on the link in the tweet you'll get.
As for corroboration, he's a prominent lawyer giving an interview in a widely read lawyer's magazine, in a state where blatant lying by lawyers tends to lead to legal action by judges who get really pissed off by that sort of thing. Frankly, I'll take his word any day over, oh, I don't know, a guy who takes credit for saving a Ford plant that the company never had any intentions of closing.
"What percentage of the city voted for Trump?"
Wellesley is a town, not a city; 22.5% of its voters voted for Trump. Interpret that as you wish, anon.
Wesley actually is a hotbed
Wesley actually is a hotbed of anti-Asian racists. Attend a chamber of commerce meeting there and you'll see.
Donald Trump didn't create racism all across America in it's little towns and suburbs. He just respectfully asked for their vote.
From the above Twitter link:
From the above Twitter link:
The south went for Trump.
Makes sense.
In case people aren't
In case people aren't bothering to click through, the most disturbing part was that the "Wellesley Hockey Parent" followed Lee until they ended up in a police station parking lot.
Apparently enough of a bigot to try to intimidate him or follow him home, too much of a coward to try it in front of the police.
Bright lights make
Bright lights make cockroaches scurry back into the darkness they came from
Combat Anti- Asian racism
For years members of the thriving Vietnamese community in the Fields Corner section of Dorchester were beaten, robbed and the target of racial slurs on the streets,schools and especially on the subway. Even the VIET AID community center was targeted by vandals. The Boston Police worked with the community established a partnership, hired liasons to the Vietnamese community and made several arrests. This is another reason why the Boston Police are truly the finest police force in the nation.
I worked with Bill Lee (he
I worked with Bill Lee (he was ny boss) when he was managing partner at Hale and Dorr many years ago. It then became WilmerHale. I'm going to tell you how he obtained everything he has. From education, hard work, loving what he does, and being well liked and respected in the legal community, both locally, nationally, and internationally. Go Bill!!
Funny guy too
"I'm a big supporter of drug testing. In the 70s, I tested everything."
He has a history of drug use
He has a history of drug use and is joking about it or he's a square and that's why it's funny?
I think maybe
Maybe LeTulippe is thinking of a different Bill Lee ...
She absolutely is and
This is what happens when you search google in a desperate attempt to have something to say. You end up confusing a respected atty with a drug addled sports figure.
Google?
I don't need Google to quote the Spaceman.
Honestly, it's astonishing the number of UH commenters who take me far more seriously than they should.
Yes, I've also worked with
Yes, I've also worked with Bill. He is not only hard working and intelligent by humble and kind.
Anyone would be lucky to work with him or have him for a neighbor.
Lawyers are nice
See, this proves that lawyers are nice guys. His response was defusive and funny. Mine would have been "from hard work, you should try it some time".
I'm going to throw this out there
Since when is August "pre-election"?
Back in the day, campaigning didn't begin in earnest until after Labor Day, and that included primary elections, which as we know take place weeks after the unofficial end of summer.
That said, the guy who talked to Lee is a dick, but if you want to talk about racism in Wellesley having something to do with our future President, it would probably be a stretch to say that this all started in 1990, or we can just all agree that there are racist people in the town.
Not for nothing but
Wellesley is chock full of many monied professionals (your dr lives there), many of them non-white. I hold trump voter in low esteem but I can't imagine a Wellesley hockey dad not understanding Wellesley. Just retell the story as Everett and I'm on board.
Traveling abroad
Reminds me of traveling in 2001. We didn't announce our nationality and others asked if we were Canadian. My husband sometimes said yes, I chose to be OK with saying I was from the US.
I think it depends upon initial judgement of who is doing the asking what my response will be in the near future.