Fraternity hazing death: Asians are the loneliest Americans

"ASIANS are the loneliest Americans." The haunting line rings true for Asian/Americans trying to find a place to fit in in the American mosaic.

An article, "What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity" by Jay Caspian Kang for the New York Times, is about the death by hazing of Chun Michael Deng, a college freshman struggling with identity and who was seeking membership in an Asian/American fraternity based in Baruch College, NY.

His quest for acceptance ended up in his death in 2013. He died from his injuries after fraternity brothers waited too long to contact authorities after the 18-year old  lost conciousness during a hazing ritual.

Kenny Kwan, 28, Charles Lai, 26, Raymond Lam, 23, and Sheldon Wong, 24, pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter as accomplices and hindering apprehension for concealing evidence, according to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. The four men were originally charged with murder.

Chun Michael Deng

More than 30 other fraternity members are awaiting court proceedings in connection with the death after a Monroe County, Pennsylvania, grand jury recommended charges. The fraternity, Pi Delta Psi, is also charged with murder, and is scheduled to begin trial this November, according to court documents.

In the New York Times, Kang writes:

Asians are the loneliest Americans. The collective political consciousness of the ’80s has been replaced by the quiet, unaddressed isolation that comes with knowing that you can be born in this country, excel in its schools and find a comfortable place in its economy and still feel no stake in the national conversation. The current vision of solidarity among Asian-­Americans is cartoonish and blurry and relegated to conversations at family picnics, in drunken exchanges over food that reminds everyone at the table of how their mom used to make it. Everything else is the confusion of never knowing what side to choose because choosing our own side has so rarely been an option. Asian pride is a laughable concept to most Americans. Racist incidents pass without prompting any real outcry, and claims of racism are quickly dismissed. A common past can be accessed only through dusty, dug-up things: the murder of Vincent Chin, Korematsu v. United States, the Bataan Death March and the illusion that we are going through all these things together. The Asian-­American fraternity is not much more than a clumsy step toward finding an identity in a country where there are no more reference points for how we should act, how we should think about ourselves. But in its honest confrontation with being Asian and its refusal to fall into familiar silence, it can also be seen as a statement of self-­worth. These young men, in their doomed way, were trying to amend the American dream that had brought their parents to this country with one caveat: "I will succeed, they say. But not without my brothers!'

Good stuff, right? For most of us, as we float between the worlds of black and white, trying to find out where we fit in, uncertain that we can fit in. Some of us take on the characteristics of African Americans, appropriating their slang, music and dance; others lean towards Latinos, learn some Spanish words, dance the salsa and wear their colors; still others, become bananas or coconuts, taking on the attributes, clothing styles and listen to the musical icons of the dominant culture. 

It's a long read, well written and contains some interesting insights. It's worth some of your time this weekend.

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