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Garen Yegparian

Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist
Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.
Garen Yegparian

Latest posts by Garen Yegparian (see all)

5 Comments

  1. Question to Garen Yegparian and readers… have the anti-Armenian attitudes been always this bad? I know there was racism towards Armenians in California in the 20s but I always thought it had gone down after that. It seems to me that it’s been on the uptick within the past 30 years or so.

    As for that voice mail, that woman better be a Native American, because only they can call others non-indigenous to America.

  2. Racism has always existed in the U.S., and there are still anti-Armenian nutjobs who sometimes rear their ugly heads. As Armenians get more organized and savvy in terms of political maturity, and as more Armenians stand up to this kind of stuff, it gets better, and these idiots get their due response. Fortunately, in the United States, we have the mechanisms available in a democratic society to effectively deal with racism, whatever its manifestations. Unlike in Russia, we are certainly not being stabbed by skinheads left and right or stopped in the street by the police for bogus document checks just for being Armenians.

    • Vahagn,

      I suspect some anti-Armenianism happens because the person can’t openly say anything about other groups he/she hates.

      And yes, that’s been the saving grace of the US. The people used the democratic institutions to better the country when it came to racism, women’s issues, enviroment, good business practices and anything else that we see in other countries needing to advance. It’s an ongoing process but the US has shown how to tackle problems and change.

  3. Also, yes there will always be racism if one group is somewhat different from the mainstream. The Irish are one such example. But I get the feeling there has been an increase in anti-Armenian crap lately. Did Deukmejian face any crap like this? I know he was running against Bradley, which probably meant he was attracting most of the racism.

  4. Re: Random Armenian comment ” As for that voice mail, that woman better be a Native American, because only they can call others non-indigenous to America.”

    I disagree in twofold. Firstly, even Native Americans or colloquial but ambiguously named the American Indians can’t be called indigenous since everyone who migrated to the Americas is by definition an immigrant. No one is indigenous since all Homo Sapiens originated from the African Savanna.
    Secondly, even if Native Americans are construed as being indigenous, that in and of itself does not give them carte blanche to label others as outsiders, foreigners, immigrants or otherwise; because that is racist and bigoted.

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