Fighting for Equality Beyond Civil Rights

Today is set aside to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose passion and actions for civil rights in America shaped the nation to how it is today. His work set ripples throughout the country and inspired others to fight for equality of those of any ethnicity. Today, we are blessed to be living in a society where we are supposedly judged with absolute disregard to our ancestry.

But not all that has been fought for has been gained. You see, while Mr. King Jr. did fight for equal rights, he did not necessarily fight for equal respect. He was invigorated to fight for his people and I too share that passion. Yet the focus of my fight differs than that of Mr. King. Some may argue that my fight is trivial compared to that of Mr. King's, but I carry on the spirit of passion that embodies today's holiday.

I am of course talking about the yellowfever problem. No, not the disease caused by the yellow fever virus, but rather the trend that Asian women are marrying Caucasian men but the opposite is not happening. While there are people who believe this is just a nonsensical idea, I see it as a problem. The Asian male population is losing its Asian women to the Caucasian men, yet the equilibrium is not being balanced out with Asian men marrying Caucasian women. Therefore, the problem is that as more and more Asian women get engaged with Caucasian men, the Asian men are left with less and less women to marry because they're not necessarily getting the Caucasian women.

Don't believe me? Maybe some numbers will convince you. According to Wikipedia, there were a whopping 530,000 White husband and Asian wife marriages in 2006, while a mere 174,000 Asian husbands tied the knot with a White wife. That's a nearly FIVE TO ONE ratio. While it is arguable that the Asian population is much smaller than that of the White population and the ratio may be skewed because of that, the comparison I am making considers both genders of the Asian population, thereby making the disproportionate ratio between the two ethnic populations in general irrelevant.

All I'm asking for is to give the Asian man a chance. One may say that we Asian men should fight those stereotypes by not letting them get to us, but stereotypes are there for a reason. There may be more women in the world, but not when factors like the ramifications of the One Child Policy in China only make it harder for us Asian men to find a compatible mate.

Bottom line is, keep an open mind. Look for the right guy and not for the right ethnicity. You might say to yourself that you do not look at a man's race, but think of all the ex-boyfriends you have had and tell me that with a straight face.

Happy MLK day.

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