[Blarg]

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As for your second post, I have way less to respond to, though I did live in a Hawaii for a couple summers w/ my cousins when I was a kid.

In the quote about asian ethnocentrism I intended to say that nationalism is especially prevalent amongst more recent immigrants, and though this Asian pride and self-centeredness you describe may be real, it is under a pretty different kind of cultural bombardment and weathering in the mainland US than elsewhere. I cannot speak to guam, but I can speak to the persians and interracial marriage being a new concept in terms of acceptability (obviously not from experience but from talking w/ older folks). The Persian preference for other Persians isn't America's fault. I don't think I was trying to say anything about that, but that these attitudes are common amongst new immigrants and are not license to discriminate against them. I also think it's kind of weird to paint the conflict in a simply the persians want no part of whitey light, b/c white guys trying to marry persian immigrants couldn't have exactly been in the majority. I guess from your earlier post, I thought you were trying to say racist white comments against asians are semi ok b/c hey, asians are ethnocentric themselves.

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No, I never said that. For what it's worth, my brother is Vietnamese, my sister is Thai, and another brother is half-Hawaiian, half-Guamanian. As far as I know, I have nothing against them, least of all from their race.

Regarding Persians, I was talking about one ethnicity recoiling, without reason, from another, due to severe prejudice.

(Made all the more ironic because it was prejudice against the citizens of the very country they came to seeking shelter when their own country started going crazy. (Made even more ironic because they kinda got what was coming to them.))

None of that had to do with marrying anybody. Persians at that time wouldn't even let Americans speak to them, especially Persian female. It was extremely creepy, to say the least. I think it pretty clearly falls under the heading of absolutely shameful. Maybe if we were an enemy country, I'd be more flexible on that, but shameful seems about the fairest and most graceful way it could be put without dissembling.