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.

Collective Memory

I am curious about the uniqueness of the circa 1970s LA Asian American dance scene and how it compares to the party and social outlets embraced by later generations.

I asked is my 22-year old nephew, Allen, a recent graduate from UCR. The survey session went something like this, not really verbatim:

Betty: Allen, I want to find out what the younger generations are doing for socializing. Are there Asian dances? Do people cruise?

Allen: Cruise? Define cruising?

Betty: When we used to go to dances, there was cruising before and after the dances. The cars included American hot rods and modified Japanese cars.

[My two brothers, who were present, interrupted with their comments, so I forgot Allen's answer, but I gathered that the activity of cruising as we knew it was negligible for people of Allen's age.]

Betty: Do you know of dances where you and other Asians can get together?

Allen: We go to bars.

Betty: Do you listen to DJs? Are there live bands?

Allen: No, there are no live bands.

Betty: But where do you go dancing?

Allen: We go clubbing, that's where you can dance, but there are no "dances."

[I began to suspect that the term "dances" is not part of Allen's lexicon.]

Betty: So these clubs have people of all ethnicities?

Allen: Yes, there are people of all different backgrounds.

Betty: When you attended UCR, were there Asian American academic organizations or fraternities that threw dances?

Allen: There were groups, and they threw parties, but not "dances."

* * *

Granted, today gasoline is too expensive to fiddle away driving aimlessly. And back then the phrases "carbon footprint" and "emissions control" were not in our daily vocabulary. In the 1970s, young people tinkered with their cars as a creative outlet - and their wheels expressed who they were. There was a certain uniformity: the wink mirror, the lowered chassis, the wide tires, the chrome wheels, the loud exhaust pipe, and for extra coolness - a car roof topped with a ski rack during the winter season.

Kids today still love their cars, but the drivers back in the 1970s just happened to flaunt it a little more during the dance gatherings. Young people today have other distractions: computer toys and electronic music gadgets; today young men have a lot of fashion choices to express their vanity.

I have yet to interview more people from younger generations, but as it stands, our experiences from the Asian American dance era provide a distinct collective memory. Anyone who was there back then is automatically "in the know" today when they hear a song like "Summer Sun" being played. The song brings back sights and sounds like the bands, specific places, restaurants, and cars.