Before talking about anything, I would like to state that this is just my own opinion as an East Asian student. I don’t speak for any group or anyone else, but only talk about what I took away from watching the film and the class discussion based on my own education and upbringing environment.

I was confused at first after watching the film because it’s quite hard for me to understand many motivations of the characters. Many of the conflicts and opinions seem unnecessary to me. In other words, if it’s me rather than the characters in the film, I would never do the things the same way as they did. For example, it seemed unnecessary to me to put a celebrity’s photo on the wall of my own race in an Italian pizzeria, and even causing quarrels and unexpected death, but it seemed very crucial to the black men in that Brooklyn community. The reason I brought up the question about how other students view Da Mayor is because the only person I can somehow emphasize besides the Korean couple in the film is him, and it made me wonder what caused such a huge difference of notions. After the discussion in class, especially listening to black students’ points, I became more deeply aware of the peaceable and forbearing side of East Asian people just like myself. The reason may be that the education and environment I received since childhood always told me subconsciously that it is more important to maintain communityship and make decisions that reduce major issues to minor ones. When there is a problem, we seek a reconciliation first and then consider other solutions. There is an old Chinese saying of “大事化小，小事化了”, which literally means “to turn big things into small ones and turn small things into nothing”, and the idea of “getting along by going along” behind this saying is deeply rooted in our minds. Historically speaking, we were soaked in the tradition that we believed compromise is the best way to solve problems because this is probably the only way to keep everyone from physical harm, and we balance cost and benefits to decide whether a decision is correct.  Confucianism teaches us to be kind and considerate, so we learn tolerance to be gentle, therefore essentially we are used to being subject to discipline, and we take it for granted. So we do not seek freedom and equality but the pursuit of all people to live well. We don’t want to see others sacrifice for speaking up, because we put everyone’s interests above individual’s, and most Asians want “everyone to be okay” rather than “I’m better off alone.” I guess this is also part of the reason why the Korean couple would shout out “I’m black” at the end of the film, which I feel sad for because they are also the minority and I see some of myself in them. Are they doing the right thing? I guess yes, as least they are trying their best to live, but the society didn’t seem to accept them as they expected. Then what is the right thing to do? What is considered right and who deserved to be protected or treated equally?