Letter to the Editor: Columnist’s Tone Amounts to Whitewashing

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Julie McDonald’s recent review of a memoir by former classmate and acquaintance, Grace M. Cho upset me. McDonald seemed offended that Chehalis appeared racist. She used the term “portrayal” to describe the memoir, and went on to question its accuracy. “Recounts” is a more unbiased word to describe the memoir: telling what actually happened in Grace’s life in Chehalis. I look forward to reading it, and I affirm that racism exists here, as it did in the 70s and 80s. “Whitewashing” will not remove it.

I know Grace as a bright, perceptive and articulate person — and courageous for sharing her trauma. I attended parochial school here first through eighth grade in the 70s and 80s. The one student of color in my class was treated poorly on the playground and nicknamed a racial slur. I met Grace in sixth grade when we attended a one-day-a-week class at R.E. Bennett. One day a Filipina from St. Joe’s was subjected to an anti-Asian tirade on the playground there. What I gleaned from my experiences as a school child was that anyone who did not fit the criteria “average white kid” was ridiculed on the playground and bus. The climate at that time was not friendly for people of color.

Anti-Asian racism in the Pacific Northwest should come as no surprise: the Tacoma riot of 1885 expelled the entire Chinese community. The Puyallup fairgrounds was an assembly site for Japanese Americans facing internment in 1942. The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle features a model of a vintage “Iron Chink” machine (salmon-processing machine).

The commentary seemed to seek to undermine the memoir’s validity by citing Grace’s brother (whom I have never met). But siblings rarely experience the same parental relationship — especially when separated by more than a few years of age as Grace and her brother are. Parents and their life experiences change over time. At 51, I’m not the same parent of a middle-schooler I was at 41. Further, males and females are treated very differently — not only in society but within families, especially in some Asian cultures. The implication is that his perceptions may be more valid. The commentary objects to Grace’s perception (as a young school girl) that there were just a handful of nonwhite people here. In my 1986 W.F. West yearbook there were five people of color in our class of 225. Nonwhite students made up approximately 2.5% of the student body. Yes, just a proverbial handful.

Anti-Asian hate crime is at its highest level ever. Now is the time to bring trauma caused by racism to light, and I applaud Grace M. Cho for doing so. It is not time to deny or subvert the facts of history that make white people feel uncomfortable. Whitewashing may seemingly hide racism, but it actually deepens the stain.



Respectfully,

 

Ceci Hauer

Chehalis