Chinese Girl in the Ghetto reactions

In her memoir Chinese Girl in the Ghetto, Ying Ma expresses both resentment and a feeling of superiority towards everyone in her community. She thinks she is better than other Chinese people because she chooses to fight back against the system of racial oppression rather than turning the other cheek. Even while she participates in the violence of the "ghetto" she feels like she is above other students because she excels in academics. She thinks she's better than other students in her academically gifted classes, who are mostly financially privileged and white, because she struggles against a lot more odds to succeed academically. Ultimately her book comes off as self-righteous and arrogant and she seems unable to see her own racism because she is blinded by her own experiences.

After getting into a fight with a Latina girl in which none of her Chinese peers intervene, Ying Ma seems to feel that she is the only fighter in her ethnic community. She takes pride in the fact that she fights back against people who make racist comments about Asians. In her experience other Chinese people do not fight back, but instead stay silent in the face of racism. She herself frequently takes this stance, but her ethnic pride comes into play when she violently retaliates against racist comments. In this instance she stands alone, showing that she does not feel ethnic pride in connection to her ethnic community. Instead her pride separates her from her Chinese peers and makes her feel superior to them because she stands alone against the system of racial oppression.This is a very individualistic version of ethnic pride, which is almost contradictory because we think of ethnic pride as being proud of a group to which you belong. In her case, she does not show that.

By John Oco, Yanping Tan and Clara Leonor Cruz

Ying Ma’s Facebook page and Blog

      Ying Ma is a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute and the author of "Chinese Girl in the Ghetto." Her facebook page basically is about her book and some immigrant policy that she concerns. In Her latest article “A Legal Immigrant’s Story”, she wrote about her family immigrated to the U.S. 30 year ago. In the article, Ying Ma wrote that her family faced a series of problems when they applied to immigrant to U.S., including her mother’s no-birth-certificate issue, Finally after a longtime waiting, her family’s application was approved. However, Ying Ma aunt wasn’t that lucky. Her aunt got cancer and died while she was waiting for the immigration to America. Ying Ma wrote:” We did not disrespect U.S. borders, even though our dreams for a better life were no less desperate than many of those who are now illegally in this country. ”( Ying Ma, A Legal Immigrant’s Story, 2013) Ying Ma brings out the issue: even if she and her family immigrated to this country legally, they only live like the other illegal immigrants in the country.

     Ying Ma’s blog and facebook page focus on the social issues such as immigration, tax, and welfare states. She wrote articles about the legal immigrant’s right and they deserve good benefits and welfare from the government. She thinks the U.S. government policy makers should not protect the border so strong as they did in the past. Besides, she thinks the legal immigrants’ rights in the U.S. society should be valued, meanwhile,  the illegal immigrant problem should be solved.

The context of reaction in 1970s

In 1970s’ the context of race and reaction seemed stable, because there is no huge racial movement in the U.S. . However, people in the North states started to lose their job and have to find another jobs in the southern states, which makes white people in the southern states started to take the power back. In 1970s’, the U.S. government faced to a big economic fail, the stagflation, people blamed the government didn’t do anything to help their situation, but once the state government started to make a program as a treatment to deal with the problems, the program itself became a disease. Beside, the U.S. ‘s industry had to accept the fact that they were losing the market to the international competitors. The U.S. were not “No.1” anymore.

In the international arena, because of the war in Vietnam, Nicaragua and Iran, the state government suffered humiliating. People in those countries started to go against the U.S. government. Suddenly, America was “held hostage” by politico-religious forces far beyond popular comprehension.

These changes started in 1970s’ and continued developing in 1980s. The popular ideology made the U.S.’s reputation in the world lower than before, especially the fiscal crisis.

The reversal appeared 1970s make people doubt to the so-called “welfare state”. The government tried to solve the problems by national welfare program, but the problem remained. People called it “throwing good money after bad”, and tried to stop it. Taxes were argued as the source and help to fill up the state’s welfare. It had put more stress on the taxes payers.