By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
February 13, 2018
It all started with this tweet from New York Times editor and writer, Bari Weiss. Like many Americans, she was thrilled with Mirai Nagasu’s performance two days ago at the Olympics. Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel at the Winter Olympics. Weiss celebrated that achievement with this tweet:
Clearly it was meant to be congratulatory, but it was an odd tweet. To many, including myself, it implied that the figure skater was an immigrant. When pointed out that her tweet was factually incorrect, because Nagasu was born right here in the United States, Weiss doubled down and said:
She’s referring to a line from “Hamilton” (which I have not seen): “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done).” Those who have attended the production have told me that it’s a powerful message of inclusiveness. But referring to Nagasu and her family as they doesn’t feel as much so. And, once again, you cannot be an immigrant if you were born in the U.S.
Chrissy Teigen added her perspective:
It’s called perpetual otherism or perpetual foreigner syndrome. No one is ashamed of the word immigrant but it’s tiring being treated as foreigners all the time. You made a mistake. It’s okay. But people are really giving you calm, great insight. Just learn and breathe. All good. https://t.co/DmvdvBpG9Z— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) February 13, 2018
But wait, there’s more. Another journalist added her two cents, which stirred the pot up some more:
here’s a fascinating study in contrasts: look at the ratio and response on this tweet as compared with the outrage directed at @bariweiss yesterday. pic.twitter.com/L4rCNaIfcI
— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) February 13, 2018
She didn’t understand why more people weren’t expressing anger at the Women’s March tweet. Quite a few people explained why:
You seem to care a lot more about her feelings about being called trash in tweets than about the feelings of people who were hurt and offended by her comments.
— Kelly Wallace 🇵🇷 (@kellyawallace) February 13, 2018
Folks bickered and bantered. Some said to just shut your yaps and racism would go away:
Correct. We have evolved beyond it with vaccines. It’s not nearly as deadly as it was 100 years ago. You want this “otherism” problem to disappear? Stop talking about it.
— Daniele Napolitano, AIC-IMAGO (@nabuccodenazzar) February 14, 2018
Others wanted to know why Weiss’ defenders were so tone deaf:
Why are all of Bari Weiss’ defenders so dense and tone deaf? Do you really not see the difference?🙄— It’s Pat!™ (@ThePatNotPat) February 13, 2018
Mike wouldn’t have it and called Pat an asshole:
But what it comes down to is this: Well-meaning people occasionally say things based on stereotypes. It doesn’t mean they’re horrible. It means we all have our own perceptions.
If you look like you might speak another language, there’s a good chance you have been othered.
Let’s put this out there: When basketball player Kyrie Irving won a gold medal, no one described him as an immigrant, even though he is one. (He was born in Australia.)
Both Weiss and Rosenfield are white women drawing from their own experiences. Maybe they have been asked, “Where are you really from?” But I doubt it. Unless you are a part of a non-white minority, you really don’t know what it’s like to be perceived as a foreigner in your own country.
Why not listen when Asian Americans and other POC share their experiences and ask you to reconsider your stance?
A long time ago, a friend’s mother died and I said, “I’m so sorry. She’s in a better place.” Filled with grief and most surely tired of hearing well-intentioned but idiotic tripe like that, she began crying and told me, “She’s not in a better place, Jae. She’s dead.”
She was, of course, right. Both my parents were alive at the time. I had no idea what it was like to lose a parent. I apologized and promised her that I wouldn’t say something like that to anyone else, and reiterated that I was sorry for her loss and that I was there to support her.
The problem I have with this Twitter blowup isn’t the erroneous use of the word immigrant, as much as the fact that so many people pushed back when Asian Americans spoke up and said, “Hey, we were born in the United States. We’re not immigrants.”
They were repeatedly shot down by tweets sharing this sentiment: “Why are you ashamed of being perceived as an immigrant?”
No one said they were ashamed. This isn’t fake news. Nagasu literally isn’t an immigrant.
Everyone says something that is probably best left unsaid. But words matter. And when you’re an editor at one of the most well-known publications in the world, there is an expectation that what you are tweeting is true.
What Weiss tweeted was factually untrue. Instead of doubling and tripling down and pretending she hadn’t made a faux pas, a simple, “My tweet came from a good place, but I can see how it was taken in a manner I didn’t intend,” would’ve gone a long way to build bridges, rather than tearing them apart.
And for those of us who get this question ad nauseam, let me leave you with one method of replying to the question, “Where are you really from?”
© 2018 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
Karen was too passive and gentle with you. I don’t think you deserve a thrashing but you need to get your head out of your ass and listen to what people are telling you.
No one is buying what she’s selling. Why doesn’t she just admit that she thought that Mirai with her Japanese face and name was born in Japan and that she was actually an immigrant? This whole poetic license thing is crap. She’s an editor who knows about fact checking, didn’t, got caught and is now making up excuse after excuse to justify her mistake.
Speaking of dumb… I call bullshit. Who in the world calls themself an immigrant because their parents are immigrants? I know no one. Why would you want your children to consider themselves immigrants when they’re not? They could be proud of you being an immigrant, but that’s ridiculous.
It’s not too much for normal people like us to expect better from professional reporters. She works for the New York Times and should be held to a higher standard than some idiot on Twitter who can’t spell. I don’t think this remark makes her a racist. I do think that the way she handled it showed that she will not admit when she is wrong. Make no mistake about it. She was wrong.
This is what I have been saying. She also is complaining about being trolled by people on Twitter and being abused with words. Irony? Wasn’t it her words and lack of contrition that got her into this mess? Not saying she’s a liar but it looks like she was exaggerating the nature of the tweets aimed at her. Some weren’t complimentary, but most were of the “you should apologize” nature.
I see what you are saying but her comment doesn’t make her not a racist either though. Actually a better way to state this is that her lack of remorse and categorizing herself as a victim when she is hardly one is unfortunate.
My children are not immigrants but I am. People have asked them when they arrived in the U.S. and they just look at these people like they’re nuts. Their white friends are never asked this.
To all the white people who are saying that Weiss was in the right, I would say that you don’t have the knowledge or life experiences to claim that.
What a condescending apologist. Go away Liz.
How is it living in you delusional little world, Liz, where the feelings of white women who spew untrue garbage are to be protected over ethnic women? This isn’t the Salvation Army. Journalism isn’t a charity. You start with the facts and work an interesting story around that. It was just a tweet, right? There are ways she could’ve used her Hamilton analogy without misleading her readers. It’s not the readers fault if she leads them to believe that the skater is a foreigner.
You are literally dumber than a bag of bricks. One is an immigrant when they are born in another country and move to the USA. If they are born in the USA, they are not immigrants. If their parents are born overseas and the child is born in the USA, the child is not an immigrant. Do you have a dictionary?
No one has a problem with immigrants. The issue is that Weiss is wrong. Nagasu’s parents are immigrants. Marai simply by being their daughter is not an immigrant by default since she was born in California. It’ really quite simple. I think people are having problems with the fact that she won’t acknowledge her mistake and is saying same dif.
Exactly.
This isn’t some famous reporter that everyone knows. She writes for the Op Ed pages I think and is “famous” for being the sister of that entitled white girl who sued afted she didn’t get into Harvard. Why would you think that anyone knew or cared about her politics? I know enough from her tweet and the way she handled it to know that she is not professional and she communicates poorly.
Yah she shoots her mouth off without checking facts and then she’s the victim. Boo hoo hoo. Have you read the responses to her tweets? Yes there are some that are critical of her. There are very few that are abusive. She made a mountain out of a molehill.
Listen, asshole, you came at her before she ever said boo to you. The first thing out of your mouth is asshole. Now you’re crying because she said you were a troll? If you don’t want people to block you, try not shouting profanities at them. Asshole!
Mikey, you called Pat an asshole and were blocked. So stop playing the victim you idiot.
People have repeatedly explained why it was offensive to refer to Marai as an immigrant. Your false logic of “oh what if Bari meant her parents” is idiotic. Marai did the triple axel. The accompanying photo was of her, not of her with her parents. Give it up. Find me where Pat said anything as rude to you and you did to her.
You’re crying now about being called a troll? You’re comparing Pat not wanting to talk to you to Bari not wanting to fix her mistake? Apples to oranges, idiot. One’s a writer for the New York Times. The other is some person on Twitter who I assume isn’t a writer for the New York Times.
Do us all a favor and don’t breed.
Weiss’s comment wasn’t cute or heartwarming. Are you sure she’s an editor? What kind of editor makes that kind of mistake? What kind of publication is the New York Times that no one has dealt with this in an appropriate manner?
It’s laughable to call anyone born in the US an “immigrant”. If it weren’t laughable it would be so offensive as to deserve an ass kicking. There are three reasons you might call a person an immigrant. #1 They immigrated to the US. That’s pretty easy to figure out and it’s appropriate. #2 You’re a complete idiot and can’t figure out if somebody born in the US is an immigrant or not. (I’ll let you all figure that one out.). And #3 The person you’re referring to isn’t a white of Euro descent and therefor isn’t a “True American” because you’re a racist asshole.
So look at a picture of Ashley Wagner and a picture of Marai Nagasu and tell me which of them is an immigrant. Then tell my why a reporter with fact checkers and an editorial staff gets it wrong. (Hint: It’s either $2 or #3).
The Washington Post described Ashley Wagner as All American. The New York Times writer described Marai Nagasu as an immigrant. I wonder why.
Always insight full thoughts. How are you guys doing?