ladislav wrote:
But how is it expressed? What actually happens? In what way do people treat you disrespectfully?
I don't normally talk in depth about these issues because I realize how pointless it is on the internet but i'm surprised you come across as being so naive about it. I've had guys randomly try to pick fights with me before (years ago) while minding my own business. People driving by have yelled slurs out the window...ie. chink, gook, etc.. It's not unusual to get really poor service in restaurants and other places such as people serving white patrons first or generally acting disinterested or rude when you are ordering.
Does this happen _all_ the time? No but it happens frequently enough outside of areas with a large asian population. I'm pretty well traveled around the U.S. and have been to many many states. Overall, i'd say people are just not very friendly towards asian men, there's even some actual contempt there in some cases.
I do think Filipinos get treated differently because a lot of them look more Hispanic than Asian. Not all of them live in California. Many are dispersed around the country. They still love America and Americans and are very proud of being "Americans". They talk proud, have a ghetto black walk and you rarely see them complain. Well, I don't know. You know better.
Not
all of course but statistically most asians live in a select few major cities on the west or east coast. This is true across all Asian-american nationalities. You have outliers living in the midwest, south, etc.. but they tend to be very rare. I happened to have lived in both the south and the west coast before. I know what it's like across these culturally varied U.S. regions.
I think a lot of Filipinos are happy to be anywhere outside the Philippines...especially the women. It's just a culture that borrows a lot of its identity from America. It's basically still a colony so when you say that a lot of Filipinos seem really proud to be American i'm not surprised about this at all. However, I have met and talked with a lot of Filipino Americans who also express the racial issues living in the U.S. they have had the same experiences i've had. Some are more or less open to talk about it depending on who the listener is.
Ladislav, another thing.. a lot of minorities probably won't talk openly about these things with "white" Americans. The reason why is because it's usually automatically dismissed or the responses are kind of like the ones you are giving me now..sort of dismissive or disbelieving in most cases. It's pretty annoying which is why I tend not to focus on it much outside of people who have experienced similar things.