Degrees of Separation, Part Two - Mojo Rider



Awhile ago, I read a fascinating essay by Malcolm Gladwell on a woman named Lois Weisberg (the essay was later included in Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point but you can find the essay on Gladwell’s website). Gladwell discusses how we all know someone like her: sociable, seems to know tons of people, seems to know everyone. We’ll get to her importance in a moment. Let’s review what this six degrees is all about.

In short, the six degrees of separation was an experiment conducted by Harvard professor of social psychology Stanley Milgram in the 1960’s. He dealt with the “small world” phenomena, wanting to answer just how are people connected, how are we bound together, and in what social webs? To do this, he conducted a chain letter type of experiment. Selecting over 100 random people in Omaha, NE who participated, the goal was for these participants to write their name on a roster sheet and give the roster sheet to someone they thought could help get it to this stockbroker in Boston, MA or at his home in Sharon, MA. And that person would do the same until the roster sheet had met its final destination. At the culmination of the experiment, Milgram could look at the roster of names and establish how closely connected someone chosen at random from one part of the country was to another person chosen at random in another part in attempting to get the letter to this person in Massachusetts. What Milgram found was that it took most participants 5 or 6 steps to get it to its final destination; hence, the popular phrase “six degrees of separation."

Gladwell further writes that a study “involving students at the University of Utah, found that if you ask someone why he is friendly with someone else he'll say that it is because they share similar attitudes. But if you actually quiz the pairs of students on their attitudes you'll find out that this is an illusion, and that what friends really tend to have in common are activities. We're friends with the people we do things with, not necessarily with the people we resemble. We don't seek out friends; we simply associate with the people who occupy the same physical places that we do.”

But the question is still, “How did these people in Nebraska get their letters to Boston?”

Gladwell states that the answer is in the degrees of separation itself, something in that chain. Milgram had found in his experiment that 24 of the letters made it to the broker’s home, but 16 of them were given to the broker by one person. The rest of the letters made it to the broker’s business office, in which the majority arrived through two other persons. Moreover, Gladwell writes that not all degrees of separation are equal and that it does not follow that everyone is linked to everyone else through six degrees; rather, it is that a select number of people are linked to everyone else through smaller steps and that most of us are linked to the world through these select people. And the importance of people like Lois Weisberg is not that she knows everyone or knows lots of people, but that she socializes in many different worlds. Gladwell recounts that Weisberg was connected to people in some twenty different worlds, ranging from politics, to lawyers, to actors, to writers, etc., having the ability to move through different social cultures.

By now, you are thinking, “Mojo, what the hell are you babbling about? Why should we care about a Lois Weisberg?”

Fair enough, so here’s where I’m trying to link it all together. Kobukson made an eloquent plea that the road to empowerment for Asian males, individually and collectively, begins with our selves, that we should be pooling our resources and helping each other out.

We can’t change our circumstances if we don’t even get in the game. We should care about a Lois Weisberg type because this is how powerful connections are made, she is the conduit, or as Gladwell calls it, the “connector”. Who is your Lois Weisberg? Who is your conduit? Going back to part one, it very well could be that my distant cousin Tom is one of those connectors. I’ll have to probe some more.

But this isn’t about cold, calculated networking and putting people’s names in your rolodex. People don’t go out of their way to help you if they don’t like you. But this “connector” person might be what some of our groups are missing. This road to empowerment starts with building connections and networking and a “connector” type might be the most valuable person in your network. We need to find someone like that who can put us in touch with people in the film industry so we can get our movie made, or the literary world, politics---whatever; we need access to places where we’ve been shut out. If we have to do it on our own, we can make our voices loud enough so that eventually we are heard by the mainstream, we can start to control more of our images and change the attitudes about us in popular culture. Like James has mentioned, this blog can be about the exchange of ideas, advice, networking, and finding some self respect.

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Comments

J said…
Fascinating post. I didn't realize Stanley Milgram was guy behind 6 degrees of separation.

This reminds of what Yul Kwon touched upon in his interview with Gil Asakawa on VisualizAsian. Yul talked about some study on Asian Americans were hitting glass ceilings in large part because they didn't have mentors. We don't seek out people to guide us on our career paths.

Not only this, but of the Asians who broke the glass ceiling, many were reluctant to "help a brother or sister out." The ones who did break the glass ceiling had numerous mentors, both Asian and non-Asian.

I think we need to figure out some way to build Asian American brotherhood, something beyond associations based on career fields. Asian American men have a severe lack of self-confidence.

The first thing we can do is to use this 6 degrees of separation theory to our advantage. We all know people. Come up with a list Asian men that feel the way we do. Let them know about this blog and about our Facebook group.

Once we get numbers, then we can start bringing our wide variety of expertise to table. Some dude might have ties to the film industry, some guys might know how to make a crapload of money. Seriously, if you've got expertise in something, then help your Asian brothers out.

Anyway, more to come with this site. I'll keep you guys posted.
MojoRider said…
I also want to emphasize that Gladwell's book, "The Tipping Point" is about how things go viral, how trends start organically. There might a model that can be used to gain traction via the social engineering sites like Facebook, etc...

Additionally, the other point here in my post is that it's important for AA males to get involved in something! Get active! Don't wallow in depression or self pity, or sit around playing video games.

The more people you meet, the more people you know. Professional societies are nice, but are they helpful? I dunno. Like you said, the ones who broke thru the ceilings, are they mentoring? You look at the black community and there is a very strong and deep rooted sense of obligation on the part of those who've achieved to give back. It seems as if our community is too fractured or too individualistic.

I'm on the downward side of my career, so professional contacts doesn't mean that much to me. But what I have noticed is that my social networks are very limited and I need to expand my own horizons and social groups. And like Gladwell pointed out, you become friends with people who are engaged in the same activities as you. And these are the people that can assist you in your endeavors, they are resources because of the people that THEY know.

We all have different objectives and goals. I have a lot of personal interests I want to pursue once I retire, and those activities will take me into various worlds---that of musicians, writers, travelers, film makers, etc. And one of my goals is to take all those experiences and knowledge to help promote a positive image of the Asian American male. For now, that medium, for me, is in film or in literature. I think of how Tony Hillerman's books about a Native American tribal police officer became cool. It introduced a mass audience to Native American culture (although Hillerman himself is not Native) and it led to film projects. So think about how it made that poor kid on some reservation feel to see a strong Native American image.

We can do the same. We need to keep chipping away.
J said…
Mojo, it's funny you mention "the Tipping Point." there's another book called "Made to Stick" and it talks about why some ideas stick and why others never get any traction.

anyway, here's what I propose: in order to get a movement going, we have to have 2 things

1) a platform in which Asian American men can talk about the issues without other people trying hijack the movement. This blog is an OK platform in which to exchange information, advice and concerns, but the information cannot be exchanged as freely as on a discussion board. This is why I have a Facebook group. A blog is more focused in vision, while a forum has more freedom and communication. I think we need to promote this blog and Facebook group to as many Asian American men as we can.

2) A clear goal. Although forum discussions and blogging is great and it feels good venting and intellectually masturbating, we need a mission in which to rally around and to focus our energies on.

Mojo, you're going to write a screenplay with a strong Asian American lead in a true life experience. Let's have that as our group's goal: to get your screenplay on to the screen. Your movie would be in line with our vision (respect for the Asian American male image), so completing the movie would be fulfilling our vision. We can use the blog and forum as tools to promote the making of the movie.

Anyway, let me know what you think.
MojoRider said…
J,

thanks for the vote of confidence and pushing the goal of getting my screenplay turned into a film. First steps first, though.

I think you have to build a base first and foremost. Also, we can't be much assistance to each other if we are all the weaker links in the degrees of separation. Like Gladwell said, not all degrees are equal. That is why identifying and getting to know these "connector" types are crucial. I don't think it matters if they're Asian or not.

Also, was thinking of Kobukson's post and it made me wonder just how many other AA males are out there who are just plain out and out unaware that there even IS a problem with how the general society views us?

Definitely, a platform is needed to exchange ideas unencumbered. And yes, the next step is, what are the goals? What are the objectives? We want to change the piss poor image of Asian American males in our culture, we want respect afforded to us. So how do we go about achieving that?

Before we get to that step, we need the strength of numbers. And that's why Gladwell's book might help create a template for making an idea take off, becoming viral.
J said…
I hear what you're saying Mojo. Get the numbers first, then mobilize them for a mission.

I think that a mission, however, is what mobilizes and recruits members and gets the numbers in the first place. A mission that has a clear definition of goals, a clear philosophy and a clear set of actions.

The Internet is littered with dead forums or forums that have stagnated. They didn't have a specific goal to achieve. That which is without purpose dies.

If you have a specific mission, like getting a screenplay on screen, it does a number of things:

1) There's a goal (get film made).

2) There are specific tasks (get funding, connect to people with resources).

3) There's a purpose (portray Asian American men in a positive and realistic light).

People who think like us would rally around something like this, because it speaks to them on an emotional level (having our story told) and it requires them to act.

Anyway, I want this to go viral too, but I want to see a set of actions that we can do to get this movement to go viral.
Larry said…
Interesting discussion that raises a lot of issues.

To me, the most important things for Asian Americans to do in general are 1). Movement building and 2). Community building.

This type of Asian American movement and communtiy building should be *oppositional* in nature.

Oppositional to whom?

Mainstream (White) society--the same people who are responsible, for promoting trash like Tila Tequila and William Hung.

You get nowhere in America by playing the Oriental House Negro.

You have to be prepared to get in (White) people's faces and deal with them.

Reclaiming the Asian male image should be embedded within these two above goals.

James' point about having a concrete project to mobilize people is right.

If you have a concrete goal--rather than an abstraction--you can catalyze people, especially if the goal speaks to them emotionally.

It's important to be concrete--whether that be forming a network, Facebook group, or whatever.

Also, was thinking of Kobukson's post and it made me wonder just how many other AA males are out there who are just plain out and out unaware that there even IS a problem with how the general society views us?

This brings up another thing that needs to happen: waking these Orientals up.

A lot of Asian Americans--both men and women--are completely clueless about the issues addressed here and on other AA blogs that we may take as given (like media representation, emasculation, the IR debate).

These Orientals are either ignorant, apathetic, or worst all, hostile to anyone raising these topics. Apathy in particular is a big time problem.

Basically, many "Asian" Americans have no consciousness as Asian people.

They are indistinguishable from Whites.

That needs to be challenged.
J said…
To me, the most important things for Asian Americans to do in general are 1). Movement building and 2). Community building.

Larry, wow, you must be reading my mind or something. I go over the exact same point in my latest post on the Asian American blogosphere.

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