I Just Wanted to Meet Asian American Boys

Why did we gravitate to dance parties attended predominantly by Asians and Asian Americans?

Robert Bracamontes emailed me and explained:

Hi Betty,
I was thinking of Park View dances and for sure Roger Young. Enough nihonjin
and other Asians to make my day. I married Asian, lol, still together. We went
to a lot of house parties too, where the crowd was the same. But of all the
details, especially the Hiroshima Band, this was a building block for entering a
different culture other than my own. I am Chicano/Native American.

I have lived the Asian life in my day. Grew up with my Japanese friends when
you called your hommies Buddha heads and that was cool. Later we just called
each other the N word because we felt an attachment to the civil rights
movement. We used the N word because it was a social, political, economic and
cultural distinction from the dominant white prejudice culture. The same system
we see today taking our jobs away with the unemployed in California at 12.5% to
17% excluding us economically. And pretty soon the straight A's that could get
you into higher education won't matter much if you can't afford the 32% fee
hikes of this week in the UC system.

I saw a great display of arrogance in Little J Town back in the day. Wes, my
Buddha Head friend for life and I were picking up bento. I saw a White dude in
his WWII uniform standing on the corner, it was December 7. He looked at all the
people like they were some thing the baby leaves in his diaper. Just then a car
screeches around the corner, almost running over an elder Japanese lady and her
grandson, it stops and picks him up. I hated it. From that day on I called Wes
on December 7th just to remind him that we are still N's in the white world. We
never forgot about all the dances or house parties we went to, they nurtured
this connection to diversity in life.

Sorry this took so long. Peace, Robert Bracamontes

Question:

Hi Robert, thanks for your input. Ironically, as I am writing to you, here in L.A. it is still December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, 2009.

However, I am confused: you recall an incident in j-town about a soldier - wearing a WWII uniform??? you're not that old, are you?? please clarify.

Answer:

The incident was on December 7th and he was, tall, white and looking at
people as if to intimidate. I guess he was making a statement, here I am and
what are you gonna do about it. Still looking back on the dances, they were
gatherings for people that were not welcomed in other circles. It seems
harsh to say, but I think many Japanese felt that way. After all when
you lock up the parents and grandparents of these young people there is
always the feeling it could happen to them. They gathered at these
dances beyond the music. It was place I think they felt safe and loved.

I was in my twenties when it happened, but it burned an imprint in my memory. We never think of history when we are young, like our children of today that are in their twenties. You know my children are half Chinese. I know I missed a few opportunities to stand up for what was just, but I want them to be aware of the consequences of complacency. Bob

* * *

As for myself, my father had a laundry business in the heart of Hollywood from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. I guess we were oddballs - a Chinese family business serving the laundry needs of white customers, many of whom worked in the entertainment industry - I do not recall anyone being prejudicially rude, but perhaps I developed an "internalized racism", as Bill Watanabe also experienced.

Watanabe is the Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center. In a profile published in The Studio for Southern California History's newsletter, his calling to help the Asian community through social service programs began as he reflected upon his own feelings of ethnicity and not fitting in. He recalled declining to attend a friend's party in fear of not belonging because he was Japanese.

Any subconscious feelings I may have had in the 1970s about the need to fit in may have drove me to Asian American dance parties, but at that age, I also simply wanted to meet Asian American boys.