Cheers all,

I have something on my mind that I wanted to speak to someone about but couldn't think of a place to do that wouldn't cause problems. Living in America I see a lot of Asian-Amercians (AA) engaged in hate filled debates about race and culture with or about other Asian cultures. One I see over and over again is the Laos and Cambodians attacking Thais. I come across things in forums and youtube, all sorts of places where the Laos and Cambodians insult Thais and accuse them of being the whores of Asia, stealing their langauage and culture from Laos and Cambodian people.....so on.

So, this is really about what Westerns here witnessed back home, not in Thailand or the rest of Asia. Why, do immgrant children of Asian descent in the west engage in such hateful activites? Does this level of hate exsist in SEA? Is it carried over when the family moves?

I know it's not just SEAs that do this. I have heard the same things for example attacking Chinese, or another group. I just notice that the Lao and Cambodian alliance is pretty strong against Thais is the west.

There's a simmilar thing here with Pacific Islanders. Samoans and Tongans despising each other, Maori despising all other PI's, and those 2nd generation born in NZ of PI decent look way down on immigrant PI's.

In the NZ scenario, I infer that it is about feelings of superiority.

With your Lao/Cambo vs Thai scenario, I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

There's a simmilar thing here with Pacific Islanders. Samoans and Tongans despising each other, Maori despising all other PI's, and those 2nd generation born in NZ of PI decent look way down on immigrant PI's.

In the NZ scenario, I infer that it is about feelings of superiority.

With your Lao/Cambo vs Thai scenario, I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

I kinda of thought the same thing, yet I have heard very few of the real Laos, Combodians and Thais hear voice such hatred. My wife (Thai) gets along every day with other SEAs here in America. It seems to be the kids that grow up in America that are fighting over this. Which is why I can't understand it. Here is an example, that is if youtube works where you are at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ0isOC742E

Not a very good video, it's some kid raised in America playing expert and spreading hate. I see this alot. I know hate is sometimes hard to explain but sometimes there is some reason, not a good one, but some reason. I have yet to see any reason why so many America raised kids feel the need to carry on in such a way. Makes me worry what my daughters might have to deal with in the future.

Could it be that there is some part of American culture that breeds the desire to have an identity or to belong...patriotism for instance may be instilled on the streets in a perverse way. A bit like gang mentality.

??

I get the impression that some parts of America are right into the rah rah All American way. An Asian might be US born, but looks different...doesn't quite fit the mould of All American, but has the rah rah patriotic attitude...so finds common ground with other Asians, specifically of his own heritage, and together they build their own pseudo-patriotism for their ancestral country.....by finding a common enemy

????

Just a suggestion.

It is simple really. They all hate each other over here (even if they get along superficially), so they just carry it on over there.

I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

Jealous because the other country is better off? Maybe they just don't like Thailand's foreign policy? Or the way they treat their neighbors? Or how arrogant they are? Or that they sent troops to fight in an illegal war?

With your Lao/Cambo vs Thai scenario, I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

It's the same with the Scots (generally) hating the English. I don't give a Rats Ass about the Scots and don't waste time even thinking about them but they hate us with a passion. I still sleep soundly at night though.

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

Yeah. They couldn't even find a decent Scot actor to play the part

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

Yeah. They couldn't even find a decent Scot actor to play the part

So they had to use a Yank. The horror!

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

Yeah. They couldn't even find a decent Scot actor to play the part

So they had to use a Yank. The horror!

Mel's an Aussie

I have not seen such things in my HC. maybe it's the weather?

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

Yeah. They couldn't even find a decent Scot actor to play the part

So they had to use a Yank. The horror!

Mel's an Aussie

I knew someone would take the bait.

He was born in New York, moved to Oz when he was 12. I thought he might be carrying American and Aussie passports these days until I came across this:

----------

http://ethnicelebs.com/mel-gibson

What Race or Ethnicity?: Irish The American actor is the son of Hutton Gibson and Anne Reilly Gibson. His mother is Irish and was born in County Longford in Ireland.

His father, Hutton Gibson was born in the United States but is of Irish descent. Hutton Gibbon’s mother is an Australian opera singer named Eva Mylott.

Mel Gibson and his family moved to Australia when he was 12 years old. His first and middle name, Mel and Columcille are the names of two Irish Saints.

He holds Irish and American citizenship.

-----------------

First I ever heard that.

OK, back to Asians hating each other in the West...

I'm surprised they wouldn't get along better when surrounded by all those non-Asians.

First I ever heard that.

Same here.

I stand corrected. But still, what is an American Irish with an Aussie accent, doing playing a Scot in a movie

My best friend, a Han Chinese from Shanghai, hated Vietnamese and looked down on Cantonese till he got one. The Asians tend to be more prejudiced against their fellow Asians than my great-grandparents were against Europeans 100 years ago.

With your Lao/Cambo vs Thai scenario, I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

It's the same with the Scots (generally) hating the English. I don't give a Rats Ass about the Scots and don't waste time even thinking about them but they hate us with a passion. I still sleep soundly at night though.

Not only the Scots, Mr. Bojangles. You forgot to mention the Irish, the Welsh, the French, the Aussies (particularly after Johnny Wilkinson stole the World Cup), the Indians and the Kiwis.

A decent Scots actor to play William Wallace? Sorry couldn't see Sean Connery in that role.

Racial violence in the West is usually beaten up by the media, I find most Asian groups are quite happy to get along while concentrating on making money, educating their children and buying all the toys that matter.

I grew up in a generation who detested Germans and Japanese but we all got along.

A decent Scots actor to play William Wallace? Sorry couldn't see Sean Connery in that role.

Racial violence in the West is usually beaten up by the media, I find most Asian groups are quite happy to get along while concentrating on making money, educating their children and buying all the toys that matter.

I grew up in a generation who detested Germans and Japanese but we all got along.

Billy Connolly might put an interesting interpretation to the role.

With your Lao/Cambo vs Thai scenario, I wonder if it is a sort of resentment because Thailand is richer and generally the Thais are better off? A sort of jealousy. It may be a legacy and inter-generational...a sort of tradition that is followed unthinkingly.

It's the same with the Scots (generally) hating the English. I don't give a Rats Ass about the Scots and don't waste time even thinking about them but they hate us with a passion. I still sleep soundly at night though.

Not only the Scots, Mr. Bojangles. You forgot to mention the Irish, the Welsh, the French, the Aussies (particularly after Johnny Wilkinson stole the World Cup), the Indians and the Kiwis.

Really Bill. Blimey, I'll be getting paranoid soon

the one thing that you will see in LA is the Thai community being very willing to report other Thais to immigartion if they are not legal.

A decent Scots actor to play William Wallace? Sorry couldn't see Sean Connery in that role.

Racial violence in the West is usually beaten up by the media, I find most Asian groups are quite happy to get along while concentrating on making money, educating their children and buying all the toys that matter.

I grew up in a generation who detested Germans and Japanese but we all got along.

Billy Connolly might put an interesting interpretation to the role.

I thought of the big yin but Wallace in history was actually a lot closer to the English aristocrat than the Scots peasant portrayed by Gibson.

There weren't many well educated Latin speakers running around wearing blue paint in those days.

I have known more than a few Asian-Americans and Asian immigrants with racial-self-hatred for their own race/nationality.  A Korean student I knew refused to speak Korean and would lament her Korean background at the drop of a hat.  She married a Yemeni (telling me that her kids would at least look like something other than Korean) and then when that marriage fell apart, a white American.

I have known more than a few Asian-Americans and Asian immigrants with racial-self-hatred for their own race/nationality.  A Korean student I knew refused to speak Korean and would lament her Korean background at the drop of a hat.  She married a Yemeni (telling me that her kids would at least look like something other than Korean) and then when that marriage fell apart, a white American.

I have come across this self-hate as well. I dated a woman whose parents were Chinese and she refused to date Chinese guys, it might have been any Asian guys. She claimed that they were ugly and always boring, no for her white guys were they best. Now, her parents really didn't like the idea of her dating white guys and all her white boyfriends had to deal with their hatred towards them. So, I always wondered if her preference was really just a way to rebel against her parents, or at least partly that.

So, this is really about what Westerns here witnessed back home, not in Thailand or the rest of Asia. Why, do immgrant children of Asian descent in the west engage in such hateful activites? Does this level of hate exsist in SEA? Is it carried over when the family moves?

I suspect these born-in-the-USA Asian kids are on the receiving end of some racism themselves and feel they don't quite belong (especially if parents speak an Asian language at home), so they resort to bashing the traditional enemies of their parents/grandparents as a means of establishing a firm self-identity. The idea that the Thais "stole" Cambodian culture is laughable. The Siamese absorbed a lot of it because the Khmer Empire extended right across the centre of Thailand for centuries. And what did the Thais or Siamese steal from Laos? Every kingdom was stealing land and people from each other prior to the advent of the nation-state. If Laotians are pissed off about the Siamese "stealing" the Emerald Buddha, they shouldn't be because it originated in Chiang Rai and (unlike the Khmer and Mon) the Lao, Lanna and Siamese are all ethnic Tai. Besides, why would a communist country need an Emerald Buddha?

What the OP stated is certainly true in Canada, but I have to blame our immigration policies for that. In Canada we seem to welcome the nasties from other countries. We have Honduran drug runners that we can't deport. We have Asian gangs that are constantly at battle over who runs the drug trade. There are Indian and Pakistan immigrants who want to continue their home country battles in Canada. But, heaven help anyone trying to bring his Thai girlfriend or wife into Canada on a holiday. Oh NO! We can't have THAT! The woman might run away and become a prostitute!

And, so what if the occasional one did? What we need are more prostitutes and less drug running gang members. Make love, not war. The world would be a much better place.

The English killed Mel Gibson in Brave Heart. They will never forgive you!

Yeah. They couldn't even find a decent Scot actor to play the part

So they had to use a Yank. The horror!

Mel's an Aussie

Aussie-American.

Americanised Aussie.

Well written, IanForbes. I have often wondered why the US government, via the State Department, was so intent on keeping out some 50 kilo girl but permitting som 11 million illegal aliens to remain and cause some havoc.

It never made much sense to me, until I thought of all those votes.

Americanised Aussie.

Born in America with American and Irish passports. Go figure.

Americanised Aussie.

Born in America with American and Irish passports. Go figure.

I didn't know that.

Is nationality (not in the technical sense, but in the sense of cultural attributes) more about birth place or upbringing in a particular culture?

This question has a bearing on the OP too, not just about who wants to claim a celeb.