Naoko Shibusawa says this well — the “punchability” of the Asian Man (via Mark Sanchez).

Essentially the gist is this; it seems in America, people are not as afraid to confront Asian guys, and tell them off or “punch them down”. For example, a fun story at the local gym;

I just completed doing an atlas lift of eight plates, and some random guy, skinny dude with a beard comes up to me and says in a denigrating tone — “Not to sound like a dick, but you’re ruining the equipment. These bars cost at least $1100. This is not the right type of gym for you to lift like that.”

The other day I actually got kicked out of another gym for lifting too heavy as well, and my first initial reaction was I thought the sky was a staff member, so I quickly apologized and said I would re rack the weights.

Upon further reflection, I realized that the guy was not a worker nor staff nor owner — just a random guy working out. Thus my thoughts —

1. Even if I was ruining the equipment, which I was not, why would this bother him or matter to him? There are at least 20 bars at the gym.
2. I am actually not certain why this guy approached me, and told me to stop lifting like that, or that I was not lifting in the type of manner which was “correct” to him.

What I think I should have done was pause for a second, stare at him, and not react immediately, and also a big thing; not apologize immediately.

Truth be told, I have always been a pacifist, I don’t like to stir trouble. Yet, purely from an ethics perspective, I feel like I no longer have bandwidth for bullshit. Perhaps instead, it is a good idea to push the boundaries, and make a ruckus out of things, and maybe even get kicked out. Or just tell the guy to fuck off and that indeed, he was acting like a dick.