While you can read for yourself the tawdry(?) tale of Albert Huang, I just really felt like posting the following from the article down at the LA Times:
Some in the San Gabriel Valley Chinese community are worried about potential fallout from Huang's case, especially given that former Temple City mayor Judy Wong recently pleaded no contest to soliciting and taking bribes.I get it. We all do -- but it does bring up the question of if the firsts have more responsibility and if we have a right - especially as people who elect those employees into their positions - to demand more out of them because regardless of what we want to think, what we know is right (that one person doesn't make a community) they still are representatives of the state and in that same vein are somehow representative of the community because of their position.
"It is definitely embarrassing," said Jason Lee, a lawyer who ran for City Council in Arcadia. "But I don't think this is a fatal setback. It is an isolated individual incident. It doesn't mean that all Asian Americans will act like that."
David Lau, a council member in Monterey Park, said it is premature to condemn Huang before he has his day in court.
"We need to be fair and impartial," said Lau. "We haven't heard his side of the story yet."
Sure - you can tell me that asking that question plays into the hands of exactly what we shouldn't - but we all do it - we have those thoughts -- at least sometimes.
We hope the guy selling secrets to a country not named the U.S. doesn't have the last name Wang. We hope the person starring in the the world's largest gang bang doesn't have person dark skin and a slant to their eyes. And we sure as hell hope that the news story doesn't begin with "Police have identified the shooter and kidnapper as Gerald Tannaka".
I'm not saying it's right.
But I'm not saying we don't all do it either.