"So I said, 'The Chinese restaurants in Seattle are OK, but the ones at home are better.' And she goes, 'You mean, back in China?' And I'm all, 'No, in San Francisco!'"
    - overheard at Seattle restaurant

"Apologize, lotten Amellican!"
    - cartoon by Patrick Oliphant, April 9, 2001

As Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month draws to a close, we find ourselves in a curious position. For better or worse, the visibility of Asians in America is indisputably rising. But with the aftermath of the Chinese spy plane incident lingering over our heads, there is also a palpable undercurrent of angst over our still tenuous place in American culture.

With the imminent release of Pearl Harbor, this angst is finding a new focus, and its manifestations range from guarded optimism over how the Memorial Day blockbuster will depict the Japanese to calls for outright boycotts against the film.

Some of those calling for a boycott have complained that Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer et al. have failed to include any Asian Americans in significant roles in any of their previous films. Well, Lord knows they're not under any obligation to cast actors based on some ideal of ethnic diversity. Hell, they're not even under any obligation to make movies that aren't artistic black holes on every conceivable level (viz. Armageddon). And anyway, calls for boycotting a film before its release smack of the reactionary sanctimony from fringe groups like the Catholic League, which routinely condemns films they believe will show priests committing any sins more damnable than jaywalking.

Outside of these more vitriolic reactions, many worry that the film will whip up a xenophobic fervor that will result in the commission of violent acts against Asian Americans, the logic being that a) Americans conduct themselves based on a world view derived from popular media, and b) non-Asian Americans can't distinguish between World War II-era Japanese pilots and present-day Japanese Americans, or for that matter, between any people of Asian descent, regardless of their ethnic origin or citizenship.

"Ah," you might say, "but doesn't imputing such poor faculties to the non-Asian American audience constitute reverse discrimination? Don't we live in a more enlightened time? Isn't it unlikely that non-Asian Americans are really that stupid or mean?" Certainly, one would like to think so, but that brings us to the results of a little survey released in April by the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American advocacy group.

In this study, in which the old saying is proved that, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you," one out of four Americans harbors "strong negative attitudes and stereotypes" about Chinese Americans, and nearly a quarter would be "uncomfortable" voting for an Asian American to be president. Significant percentages of the American public are also resistant to the notion of working for an Asian American CEO or letting their children marry Asian Americans.

But how significant are these findings? I myself harbor blanket prejudices against certain groups which I suspect constitute large portions of the American public — stupid people, for one. Urban SUV drivers who'll never haul anything bigger than a 40-pound bag of dog food. Reality TV and WWF fans. Understandably, I also have a problem with bigots. To quote Tom Lehrer, "I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that!"

And indeed, there are plenty of reasons to be prejudiced against me that have nothing to do with my ethnicity — you could hate me for being an NPR-listening, AIDS-charity donating, dyed-in-the-wool liberal; for being an insufferably pretentious and pedantic smart-ass (just read my writing, for God's sake); or for being a foot-solider in Bill Gates's Evil Army™. But at least those are aspects of my life I've consciously cultivated, indicators of the person I choose to be. To be predisposed against me on sight based on something like skin color or eye shape is wholly different, and the fact that a quarter of Americans openly says it is so predisposed, well, I think I might've been happier simply being treated with indifference.

And this is what underlies the apprehension surrounding Pearl Harbor — the feeling that when you as an Asian American meet a stranger in this country, you are not now, nor for the foreseeable future, simply accepted as American without having to prove yourself in some way. It is this automatic penalty we face on a daily basis that leads to the very real anxiety about this movie shared by many of us, no matter how unlikely the gloomy scenarios we imagine.

In an era where we're exasperated by the sophomoric inanity of "Mr. Wong" one day, and then horrified by the mainstream press the next when we see them shoulder to shoulder with the shock jocks, trafficking in the kind of Yellow Peril race-baiting we thought dead long ago, it's clear that we have yet to cross the line dividing an enlightened present from an ignorant past. Indeed, such a line arguably doesn't even exist.

My advice to you? Go see the movie, or not, as you see fit. If the thought of seeing the in a theater of full of non-Asians gives you the willies, wait for it on DVD. As for myself, I'm going to avoid the fray and spend my money on a quiet vacation with my family.

In Canada. (You know, just in case...)