Come to think of it, I remember an incident from 20 years ago where I was taking a class at my company where there was 1 Asian student. The (traveling) instructor make a comment that something (disorganized) was “like a Chinese fire drill”. The most conservative white guy in the class spoke up and said “Actually, Chinese do very good fire drills.”

Just as an interesting tidbit, the only time in my life I have ever seen the ritual commonly known in the U.S. as a “Chinese fire drill” was by a group of Asian teenagers in SF Chinatown on Broadway about 10-20 years ago. They seemed to think it was pretty funny.

I found out about all the anti-Asian insults that are used in the northeast, but which I had never heard on the west coast. The first time that non-Asian northeasterners tried to insult me with these jokes, I had no idea what they were talking about, but by the second, third, and fourth times, I wondered, “Where am I, the 1970s?” Back to California — I hope never to take a job in the northeast until this type of thing changes.

I also wonder: if anti-Asian behavior by non-Asian northeasterners makes other west coast Asians reluctant to work in the northeast, how much in economic productivity do northeastern states lose each year due to this behavior by their inhabitants?