作者简介：吴华扬(Frank Wu)，法学教授、作家、社会活动人士。美国加州大学黑斯汀法学院教授， 美国百人会(Committee of 100)现任会长。他加入百人会已有15年，长期参与华人社区服务，曾帮助主办为华裔科学家陈霞芬女士维权的北加州筹款活动，以及为俄州华人协会（OCAA）举办的陈霞芬听证会的集会活动提供法律援助。
他的著作有：《黄种人：美国黑种人和白种人之外的种族》(Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White)和《种族、权利和赔偿：法律和日裔美国人拘禁》(Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese American Internment)（合著）等。
英文原文：
A Private Note To Asian-American Activists About New Arrivals
Frank H. Wu
I write to you as my long-time friends, those who have fought not only for civil rights but also to include Asian Americans in all progressive causes. I know from working alongside you that it has not been easy to persuade African Americans, Latinos, Jews, and others who have been dedicated to social justice that their principles extend to Asian immigrants and their American-born children and grandchildren. Some have been skeptical, others hostile. Yet I send you a note now to express a different concern. It is as sensitive if not more so, but it also is even more serious a potential barrier to your bridge building efforts. It could signal the end of the project altogether.
Here it is. The most recent set of newcomers from Asia, in particular those arriving from China, do not share our commitments. I implore you to reach out, to listen to them respectfully, and to try to persuade them. That requires that you — and I — not assume they need educating by us, as if we were self-appointed teachers, they permanently students. They will have none of that. They have experienced it enough.
Everywhere I encounter them, whether in suburban Southern California; the “Avenues” of western San Francisco; Silicon Valley; on the East Coast; or in communities that have developed seemingly overnight where there once were virtually no Asian faces to be seen, they complain. They are frustrated. I am familiar with the source of that sentiment: the literal historic exclusion and the tangible ongoing denial of equality.
But here is what worries me. While I have hesitated to call out the problem, waiting makes it worse. They seem to be as angry about Asian Americans, those who call themselves by that name and who are more assimilated, as they are about whites and blacks. They tell me so.
We do not represent them, We are not sympathetic to them. We have betrayed them. We cannot even communicate in the language they deem ours. One of the common words for “Mandarin” in Mandarin itself translates as “the national language” ― though I am advised they’d prefer a dialect such as Toisan in any event.
The greatest ironies are always in the mirror image. To us, they are very Asian. To them, we are very American. We are not quite one another’s people. Waiting for the kids to grow up won’t work. (Yes, more than one of you has said that, only partly in jest.)
The truth is we are different. They come from an ascendent Asia. They can continue to maintain contacts with “the homeland,” thanks to technology. They identify, as our forebears did, not as “Asian,” but by their ethnicity, clan, province, religion, and circumstances. They are American on their own terms.
We are as foreign to them as they are to us, despite others telling us we all look alike. And they are aware of our condescension, even if we would deny it. As with other groups of every color and creed, those who settled, if only slightly earlier, invariably imply they are better than their country cousins. As much as the phrase is appropriated and ironic, even hip, there is a stigma to being “fresh off the boat.” The stereotype is repeated: too much bling, not enough lining up in an orderly manner; nose-picking, spitting, bad driving, passive-aggressive conduct, and, let us hope, at least no dog-eating.
I do not doubt, and you have explained to me privately your concerns with which I do not disagree. Some of our cousins, distant kin who have shown up here, are alarming. They are bigots who do not care about democracy. They believe themselves to be better than other people of color, it hardly is worth pointing out since it is so obvious. They even suppose, not all that secretly, that they will surpass whites. They also might be corrupt albeit by our standards. There is no telling.
They are only starting to assert themselves. They do not claim disadvantage. Just the opposite. They attack, as Asians are not stereotyped for doing. On issue after issue, ranging from diversity in higher education to “illegal” immigration to LGBT rights to police brutality to corporal punishment to capital punishment, they are prepared to line up as a token Asian face on the other side of whatever protest you are organizing. Even on the environment, they feel persecuted for their taste for shark fin soup or exotic delicacies involving endangered species. And good for them. Their accent does not hold them back.
I have heard Asian Americans who have urged civic engagement lament that they find themselves surrounded by Asians who will stand up and speak out, albeit for themselves. A mascot for your opponent, they will be only more infuriated if you suggest they are pawns being used. They sense your embarrassment. They are self-serving for survival.
Be that as it may, I offer two reasons that are compelling enough. I am convinced anyway, to embrace them. It need not be “us” versus “them,” especially since others cannot distinguish.
The first reason is what we say. We talk about how important it is to sustain coalitions. We fought for a “seat at the table.” It would be wrong for us to be any less than wholeheartedly welcoming to those who look like us. We have to give them space too. We would be hypocrites otherwise. If we do not yield, we will be shoved aside. There is room for all, or so we ourselves proclaim.
The second reason is strategic. There are more of them than there are of us. They keep coming. The majority of Asian Americans are foreign-born, not native born. Immigration patterns ensure that this demographic balance of power will favor the former over the latter, at least for our lifetimes. If we do not win them over, or ally with them, they will overtake us numerically and render us irrelevant politically.
If Asian Americans want the concept of “Asian American” to last another generation, we must figure out how to engage with all who belong to an artificial, fragile category. The failure of the movement will be “on us,” to use the vernacular we must speak.
We must come together.
作者: dove 时间: 2017-3-21 13:52 标题: 不带一个脏字！知名华裔教授竟高调羞辱中国新移民 网友评论：
文章的标题很有趣，叫“A Private Note to Asian American Activitists About New
Arrivals”（一篇给亚裔美国社会运动人士关于新移民的私密备忘录）。私密的，
Private，结果却选择在一个极具意识形态色彩的极左派主流媒体上发布。明明就是公
开的嘛。
Ｗu认为Ｗu他们和新移民们实际上彼此之间都是非常不相干的，哪怕彼此长得很像。在
这里，他用了一段很糟糕的文字描述那些“fresh off the boat”（刚下船的人，指新
移民） ：Too much bling, not enough lining up in an orderly manner; nose-
picking, spitting, bad driving, passive-aggressive conduct, and, let us hope
, at least no dog-eating（珠光宝气，不遵守排队规则，挖鼻孔，随地吐痰，开车技
术很差，被动攻击行为，以及，让我们这样希望，至少不吃狗肉）。
紧接着的一段又是非常令人惊讶的描述。Ｗu表示，新移民们只是刚开始强调他们自己
。他们不承认缺点，而是与之相反。因为亚裔并不是千篇一律的，他们开始攻击。Ｗu
在这里开始了让我都感到很反感的描述。他说，一件事情又一件，从高等教育的多元化
到“非法”移民到LGBT的权利，到警察的暴力，到体罚到罚金等，新移民们随时准备好
站在你们正在组织的抗议的另一边，以标志性的亚洲脸孔。Ｗu说，甚至在环境问题上
，他们觉得自己因为吃鱼翅或别的濒临灭绝物种所制作的奇怪食物而遭受压迫。当然，
他们有一点还不错，他们的口音并没有阻止他们（ And good for them. Their accent
does not hold them back）。
Ｗu又开始了对新移民的挖苦。他用给他老朋友们的口吻继续描述。他说：我听到了一
些曾经呼吁公民参与的亚裔美国人抱怨自己被那些将站出来并发声的亚裔包围了。作为
你们反对者的一个吉祥物，那些新移民们，如果你们暗示他们只是被利用的小卒，他们
只会更加愤怒。他们感受到你的尴尬。他们只是为了生存自我服务（They are self-
serving for survival）。
第二个理由，看起来也是不高大上和不真诚的。原来，只是出于策略考虑。他认为新移
民们人数超过了他们，而且还源源不断地从亚洲赶过去。外国出生的占了亚裔的多数，
而不是本土出生的。他认为这样的移民模式将使得力量的天平倾斜到新移民们的一边而
不是Ｗu他们那边。他说，如果我们战胜不了他们，或者不和他们结盟，他们将在数量
上超过我们并将使得我们在政治上微不足道（If we do not win them over, or ally
with them, they will overtake us numerically and render us irrelevant
politically）。
