<Begin Segment 19>

LG: What do you think of the "model minority" myth?

DM: The "model minority" myth? You mean about we have to be better? What is the...

RB: Just the idea that, like, Asian Americans and specifically Japanese Americans are sort of the exception in terms of minoritized peoples. In the '60s, they started to position Asians as part of the...

DM: Oh, oh, like Japanese Americans couldn't get... right, right. And so schools were discriminating against them negatively. Is that what you're talking about?

RB: That's part of it today, but I guess more in the sense of, I think when Densho asked the question, it's more about this idea of pitting minority groups against each other, because you have the perception in society that Asians are maybe closer in proximity to whiteness than Black people or Hispanics, and the sort of conflict with that.

DM: You know what my feeling on the Blacks? When they freed them, they should not... you know, families were making a living having children. When they freed them and going to schools with everyone else, they should not have given them money for each child. Because I had kids coming to tell me in school, I'd say, "Oh, what are you going to do when you grow up?" "I'm going to be on welfare." "I'm just going to have kids and I can get all the money I want." Remember how they used to give them money per child? They should have given them money for housing, for education. They prolonged the process of getting Black people into a better selection of, section of society by doing that for them. That should never have been done. They should have been taken care of, but they should have been taken care of, not with... well, maybe some food stamps, some subsidies, but not rewarded for having kids. That was a big mistake. So you know, as far as... and you know, I'm not a smart Asian. So when everyone says to me, "Well, you Asians are so smart," I said, "I'm not a smart Asian, I'm a nominal Asian." I mean, I made it through college because I studied hard. There was no failing, which was something that my parents instilled in me, which Japanese parents tend to be hard on their children. "You will succeed."

[Interruption]

LG: I guess, basically my last question, is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should?

DM: I think, because I have so much to say, I think we touched on about everything. You know, I look back and I look forward, I worry about the world today. I worry about the world today, not for myself. I worry about the day for you young people, because it's such utter chaos. I don't know how you look at it, but when I see the things that are going on, in 2023 when a country can invade another country and demolish it, that shouldn't be happening. That should not be happening. When I see the dissention between our political parties, it makes me unhappy. Because I don't know what the future holds for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. Are they going to be able to grow up in a world where I had some bumps in life, but I had a happy life. I lived the American Dream. Are they going to? I don't know. I'd like to leave the world a better place for them. And so when we have political conflicts about global warming, or we have political conflicts about the pandemic, when we have political conflicts just for having political conflicts that one party doesn't want to agree with the other, it scares me. It scares me, because Republicans say we're going to socialism, and we certainly don't want socialism, because we're fighting Communism. And we don't want the world where we have just the rich and the poor either, you want a middle class. So because now that I'm retired and living on a fixed income, do I consider myself middle class anymore? I did, but you know, I'm going further and further down. And I'd like to see my grandchildren live in the middle class. So that's... I'd like to see the world a happy place again. Trump said, "Make America Better, Greater." "Make America Great Again." Yes, I want to see America made great again, but I don't necessarily agree with the way Trump was going to do it. But yes, I want to see American great again.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.