"Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype" — An Interview with Professor May-lee Chai

Cecilia Cao — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 21:26:09 +0000

"Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype" — An Interview with Professor May-lee Chai

Author: Karen Weintraub, Deborah Barfield Berry, and Lauren Villagran of USA TODAY

September 12, 2024

Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype and "very old racism."

When May-lee Chai was in high school in the early 1980s, a Chinese restaurant finally opened in the small South Dakota town where her family lived.

"The food was delicious!" remembered Chai, now a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University.

But when her parents invited friends to lunch there, they always politely declined. Rumor was they'd be served stray cats and dogs.

Though the rumor was totally false, the owners, who had fled from the Communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, eventually had to sell their business and move away, Chai told USA TODAY.

The talk brought up ugly memories for Chai and many others. "I have heard the immigrants-come-to-town-and-eat-pets racist trope ever since I was a child. This is very old racism," Chai posted to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, receiving more than 225,000 views and 18,000 likes.

Read the full interview with May-lee Chai on USA Today!

Social Justice SF State

"Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype" — An Interview with Professor May-lee Chai

"Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype" — An Interview with Professor May-lee Chai

Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype and "very old racism."