When both Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee recently excoriated Robert Hur in a televised hearing before millions of Americans, I could barely contain my glee.
Not that I hold anything personal against Hur. In fact, I didn’t even know he existed until a year ago. That was when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur Special Counsel to investigate President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Hur, a former U.S. Attorney for Maryland, ultimately concluded not to bring charges against Biden, which pissed off Republicans. But Hur also painted an unflattering portrait of Biden as an elderly man who couldn’t remember anything, which pissed off Democrats.
So there Hur was, enduring hours of withering bipartisan criticism. And I couldn’t have been prouder. Why? Because Hur is a Korean American and that had absolutely nothing to do with the proceedings.
In fact, nobody brought it up except Hur himself during his opening statement:
“I’ve served in these roles with gratitude as the son of immigrants to this country, the first member of my family to be born here. My parents grew up in Korea and were young children during the Korean War. My father remembers being hungry and grateful for the food that American GIs shared with him and his siblings. My mother fled what is now North Korea, in her own mother’s arms, heading south to safety. My parents eventually met, married, and came to the U.S., seeking a better life for themselves and for their children. Their lives and mine would have been very different were it not for this country.”
Beautiful story, right? And no one on the committee really cared, mostly because they had bigger fish to fry.
As an Asian American, I’ve always felt a level of ambivalence towards my background, the son of first-generation Chinese American immigrants. Yes, it’s a crucial part of my narrative, which has inspired and informed my writing, politics, and moral worldview.
But sometimes, I get tired of it. After all, in a perfect world, Americans are Americans and perhaps one day we’ll advance to the point where we can both honor our background but not have it dominate every aspect of our everyday identity.
However, I’m not naive. Race is omnipresent in America, especially when it comes to politics.
This makes Hur’s appearance so extraordinary because, for at least a few hours, race didn’t matter. Hur reached a point where he was equally hated by both political parties. And you know you made it in American society when people equally dislike you, not because of how you look, where you’re from, or what you believe, but rather because of what you have done.
In fact, universal antipathy is in itself a weird kind of acceptance in the United States, as American as apple pie. In this hyperpartisan age, we’re more likely to be united in our dislike of someone than in our admiration.
So thank you, Robert Hur, for taking one for the team. It might have been an unpleasant experience but you made it okay for people to dislike an Asian American that had nothing to do with being Asian American.
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