The Success of Tibetans: Choeying Kyi's Bronze

This past summer, during the London Olympics, something very unusual happened:

Tibetans, the world over, cheered as a competitor wearing the People's Republic of China uniform raced for, and eventually won, a bronze metal.

Another unusual event occurred as well.

Chinese, the world over, cheered as a Tibetan competitor raced for, and eventually won, a bronze metal.

Why? Because for the first time ever, a Tibetan competed in the olympics.  Unsurprisingly, she was competing under the Chinese flag. I say 'unsurprisingly' because statistically, with roughly 150,000 Tibetans in exile and 6,000,000 Tibetans in Tibet, there is a larger pool of potential athletes to choose from Inside of Tibet and therefore under Chinese domain should they wish to compete in the olympics.

Tibetans, almost uniformly, were thrilled to finally see a Tibetan face in the olympics.  Choeying Kyi, a young woman from a nomadic family in Amdo, not only was able to compete in the women's 20 km racewalk, she took home the bronze metal.  She wasn't just the first Tibetan competitor in the Olympic Games, she was the first ever Tibetan medalist.

Along the track, Tibetan flags waved alongside Chinese ones, and banners written in both Tibetan and Chinese urged Choeying Kyi to win.

Of course, there were those who felt uncomfortable cheering on an athlete under the Chinese flag and understandably so.  I am sure that there are many Tibetan athletes who might be of olympic quality but wouldn't feel comfortable competing as a representative from China.

But there was a far more vocal group as well, primarily consisting of Western "supporters" who plastered the word "COLLABORATOR" over the photos of Choeying Kyi winning the race and campaigned and wrote on how she was a traitor, how she should have stood up for Tibet and protested or defected.

I ask these people: what do you think would have happened to her family if she had done this?  It's easy to say that, but would you risk your family?  You don't have to!

I use Choeying Kyi as an example, because she was one of the first Tibetans under a Chinese passport to make a big name in the international media in recent years.  However, I consider this just another symptom of a greater problem that I've seen among so-called "supporters." And it is the idea that Tibetans cannot be successful unless they are collaborators, the idea that Tibetans can never be truly Tibetan without being protestors.

But that request boils down to this: Asking that Tibetans in Tibet risk their lives and safety, their families' lives, for the sake of politics. Asking Tibetans to forfeit the right to just try to live a normal life. Asking Tibetans to forfeit the right to try and be successful, just because they would have to play within China's rules.  Who will they condemn next? The composers who must submit their music to 'copyright offices' where they are judged by censors?  The singers who's concerts and music videos must be published on a state run television? The Tibetan film directors who have no choice but to play their films on state run television stations because no others exist?

It's fine if you don't want to cheer Choeying Kyi on, but she isn't putting Tibetans in jail, she isn't making propaganda speeches about how Tibetans are So Happy Under the Great Motherland. She's living a dream under the restrictions that have been imposed on her.

So don't cheer for her if you don't want to, but how can people declare her and by extension any Tibetan who chooses to pursue success over mediocrity and safety over extreme danger for the sake of a political battle they don't know if they can win, a "collaborator"?

Doing Things Right

Recently I've seen this article being passed around, "An Open Letter to Self-Identified Allies to [Marginalized Group]"  With the last post being about how I couldn't even express how many things were wrong, this article had overwhelmed me with all that was right.  So rather than summarize it, I'll just post the first point of the letter and I hope you will all read and pass this great open letter on!

Remember that your identity as an “ally” is contingent upon the maintenance of the status quo.

In other words, your identity as an “ally” has its basis in the continued oppression of marginalized groups. In the possible future reality of a just world, your identity as an “ally” would be obsolete. Work toward putting yourself out of a “job.” An effective ally’s goal should be toward obsolescence.

Where to even start

A reader sent us the following facebook conversation.  It's honestly hard to even start with what's wrong with this.  For privacy, we've covered all names, but B is the only Tibetan in the conversation.

What really gets to me here goes back to one of our age-old points: entitlement.  The writer points out how much they've done for Tibetans as if they expect some sort of reward or immunity from responses to their criticisms of Tibetan communities.  Remember, people, if you're doing this do get something, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

The C responds.  Mass generalizations about tibetans as "childlike and egotistical" followed "Tibetans are in a negative karmic cycle". Well, that's some victim blaming! The whole comment is victim blaming.

But wait guys. That's not all:

A's comment: Threatened?  Come on. The statement was that there would be backlash. Let's be honest, any time anyone writes something critical there is backlash.  And considering A's comments as this post continues, the backlash of her supposed critiques is probably deserved.  C continues with Tibetans now being "Fascist and authoritarian".

Now B, a Tibetan woman based in the west, comes into the conversation, calling C out on his degrading generalizations about the Tibetan community.  She also seems to be very gently asking A to reconsider her critiques for the same reasons.  I want to note the gentleness, because it reminded me of a comment we got from a Tibetan reader a long time ago. The reader mentioned how lots of Tibetans felt pressured to be overly nice and polite to foreign "supporters" and avoid criticizing them.  I can't speak to B's intention here, so I don't know if that's what's going on, but it definitely reminded me of that comment. B Then is forced to point out another major racist pattern: when one, non-white, person does something, the whole group gets blamed.  B goes on to call C out on his ignorant bullshit and self-purported rationality.

Now A joins on the faux-Buddhist, victim blaming bandwagon.  And yes! My bingo card is filling right up! Quoting important Tibetan figures out of context!  I wonder what Jamyang Norbu would say to being referenced like this...

C's apology is even worse.  Like any good fake apology, we get the "Sorry...but" and then goes on to call B's response a "typical Tibetan ethnocentric hyper-defensive response..." but seems to be absolving himself by saying "it could be argued" (Weasel words, anyone?)  And then, no not all tibetans are bad "but what if half"...really?  And this is coming from someone who lives in Tibetan communities and claims to love Tibetans.  I don't even.... Seriously. I'm having trouble with words.

B, the only Tibetan in the conversation I want to emphasize  again brings up the important point that it's not that Tibetans are bad, it's that one Tibetan did something.

C: Fundamentalist fascistic Tibetans?  Man. I have to wonder what was under that "see more" link.

Finally:

C, you are the master of the backhanded compliment. Once again, how Tibetans are "far from great thinkers".  Wow.  So they're jerks, lying assholes, fundamentalist fascists, but they're mostly OK even though they are kind of stupid?  Tell me, C, how is it you hold them in such high regard?  That statement just reeks of self importance.

Seriously. I can't even analyze this. I'm done.

Being "Better Than"

I have to say, it sometimes amazes me how people can fail to recognize how offensive and racist they are being.

I occasionally read a blog called Angry Tibetan Girl (warning: NSFW Language), and she reads OT as well (thanks for the blog shout-out, ATG.)  We have the same opinion about each other's blogs. To quote her: "I'm not down with every post, but I like it for the most part." We also express ourselves very differently, specifically since she's angry Tibetan girl, it's a lot of ranting.  But a lot of her stuff is interesting and on point, even if we don't agree all the time.

Now, other than pointing out an interesting blog, why is this here?  A western reader on her blog sent her quite a diatribe (linked here and copied below) in response to another post.  We've seen our fair share of diatribes here, so it's rare that one actually surprises me with it's venom and racism.  This one did.  It seemed to come down to two overwhelming points:  White people are better than Tibetans.  Tibetans are lower than white people.  How is this not racism?  Read it for yourself below:

Response to Hypocritical Tibetan Poster Girl: Don’t see her point. She doesn’t address what I said at all, only hurls insults. She brings up the “ungrateful” bit but doesn’t comment on how it’s not true. To wit: “failed at living in their own community..” — Angry Tibetan Girl clearly fails at living in the West, in fact her blog is a good example of that.

And many Tibetans fail at living in Tibet, India, and the West, in a myriad of ways, I certainly didn’t fail at anything,

I would be great either in the West or here in India. In fact,

I sacrificed a nice life in the West in order to preserve Tibetan culture and religion.

“Feel important and valued” — same idea, the racist and hypocritical Tibetans like ATG want to believe that they are somehow superior and special based on their ethnic background and that they are inherently better than everyone due to their race, and resent the people that help them, how much help they and their community has received from the West and how much they themselves actually know about Tibetan culture and religion

(probably not much, who wants to bet I can read Tibetan better than ATG?).

“Helped individuals perpetuate their ‘entitledness’” — maybe by acting like jerks like her and thus making us realize just how unsophisticated some Tibetans can be.

“Whiteness” — just a clear example of her racism.

This girl is the Tibetan equivalent of an Alabaman KKK member.

Proves my point. Unless, she’s jealous of “whiteness and entitlement/ privilege”… “Enji” —

it’s spelled Inji,

and it’s a totally retarded and inaccurate word anyway. That she doesn’t realize this shows the depth of her lack of deep thinking about the issues.

Of course we can forgive most Tibetans for using the word, but someone who is fluent in English and lives in the West?

“I’m not saying all Injis are crazy” —

I like to joke that to some Tibetans “Injis” seem crazy because they can hold a logical argument together without resorting to superstitions and stereotypes, and are capable of having more than 10 original thoughts in their heads a day.

This girl must have had some pretty redneck backward parents to talk this way, unfortunately not uncommon in the Tibetan community,

as I am saying. Her response proves all my points quite nicely.

According to this writer: Westerners are better at living in the west and east, and we shouldn't forget his brave sacrifice in coming here! He is better at reading Tibetan! He knows more about Tibetan culture! He is more sophisticated! He has better spelling of phonetic interpretations of Tibetan words which are based on individual dialect and accent. He is a deeper thinker! He can hold more thoughts in his head than a Tibetan! He doesn't believe in superstitions or stereotypes!  And here's the clincher: the Tibetan community is full of "redneck, backwards" Tibetans.

And of course there is the whole "they resent me for all the help I give when they should be grateful" mentality.  Regarding that, I want to leave the last word to a Tibetan in Tibet, who may have summarized it best:

"We don't need your 'help', you are not here for 'helping' us. You are here to benefit yourself as well. We don't want you guys to 'save' us.  We are developed in our standard, you are developed in your standard. No one is lagging behind or backwards."

Using Tibetan martyrs for shameless judgmental self-promotion

Wow. I'm nearly beyond words on what I found today, which was enough to make me write my first contribution to this blog in over a year. I was looking on Facebook for updates on Jamphel Yeshi's condition after his self-immolation, and I found this:

Not only does this person find himself entitled to judge Tibetans' political actions, but he's made a very emotional space that was intended to be for those following and praying for Jamphel Yeshi-la's condition into an advertisement of his own pet project, delusions of grandeur, and patronizing claims that he can teach Tibetans to "speak to the world" better than their direct action and acts of extreme self-sacrifice have already done.

Wow, I really don't know what to say beyond this...

More on the immolations...

The ongoing immolations seem to be bringing the worst out in foreign "supporters." I know we talked about this before, but I am seeing it again. Specifically, I've seen several foreigners on forums like twitter and facebook, demanding that Tibetans not only stop the self immolations but stop showing any respect for the immolators, such as calling them Pawo and Pamo (hero and heroine) or martyr.

I use the word "demanding" for a reason. These aren't requests or advice, but demands. These people will quote lamas such as HH Karmapa completely out of context in order to "prove" that they have the right to demand Tibetans follow their ideas of political activism. In addition, these are almost uniformly people who have few, if any, deep connections within the Tibetan community. Needless to say, not one of them could communicate successfully in Tibetan if they tried. None of them, to my knowledge, had ever set foot in Tibet.

But even if they had, even if they had lived in Tibetan communities for years, spoke fluent Tibetan, had dozens of very close Tibetan friends who were practically family: they would still not have the right to demand Tibetans conform to their ideas of correct activism. How many times does it need to be said? Tibet is a Tibetan issue! Tibetans are the only ones who should decide how to take it forward. We are supporters. Our job is to support.

In a case of violence, such as a bombing killing civilians, outsiders would have the right to object to the violence and stand in defense of the victims. However, in the case of immolations the victims are the perpetrators. These young men and women have decided to take their own lives in a form of protest that shares a long history across many cultures.

Does that mean outsiders should condone the immolations? Not necessarily. Tibetans are the ones who decide how to take their activism forward. We, as foreigners, can try to be respectful supporters and voice our opinions, but we can make no demands in either direction whether saying "you must do this" or "you must not do this." And everyone, Tibetan or foreigner, has the right to their own opinion. Therefore, it is absolutely okay to choose not to condone the immolations. But the difference is this: If we, as foreign supporters, do not agree with the actions of Tibetans; we must recognize that it is not our country, not our lives and therefore not our choice. As abhorrent as one might find the immolations, and as many do, we are not the ones who need to deal with the Chinese on a daily basis.

So it comes down to this: We can accept that we support Tibetans and their rights to decide their own future for their country and their rights to decide how to achieve that, even if we find a certain tactic distasteful, or we can walk away and give up our self declared, innacurate title of "supporter".

If you truly believe that your right to object is more important than the Tibetan people's right to self determination, whether for their country as a whole or even just in terms of deciding how to protest, then you object to Tibetans' rights to decide for themselves. The whole goal is for Tibetans to regain that right to self governance. If you object to that, you have no business here.

Aaaand we're back!

Sorry, guys. The past few months the authors of this blog have been scattered in different locations, and with commitments, life and the amazing ability to procrastinate, no posts have been published. BUT, we're back. Seriously. There is absolutely no shortage of inspiration for posts (sadly.) That said, if you want to talk about something that we haven't covered, by all means, contact us!