Cynical Anti-Orientalist

Goodbye

2008-07-07T14:04:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

This blog is no longer running. Mostly because I have little time.

Please refer to links on the website for other great bloggers.

Comments from now on will not be moderated.

Thank you for all of your support.

Always,

Cynical

Erase Racism

2007-06-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

Please head over to The Angry Black Woman for the May 2007 Erase Racism Carnival.

National APIA LGBT Survey

2007-05-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

The largest survey of APIA LGBTs just came out. The executive summary of the survey titled "Living in the margins: A national survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Americans" is provided in Chinese, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese. Please check it out!

Here are things pulled out of a press release on the report via an email I got from QAPA:

Living in the Margins is based on analysis of survey data from 863 respondents who live in a total of 38 states and the District of Columbia in a pattern that closely reflects the distribution of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. This online survey was conducted from June through September 2006 in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. It included a variety of questions focusing on basic demographic information, experiences of discrimination and/or harassment, policy priorities and political behavior. Respondents were recruited through invitations on listservs and Web sites created by API LGBT community organizations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu. Special appeals were also made to increase participation from traditionally underrepresented groups, including South Asians, Pacific Islanders, Koreans, women, transgender people and elders.

"As the Asian and Pacific Islander community grows in size and clout, we cannot leave behind Asians and Pacific Islanders who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We are a part of both the API and LGBT communities and we raise our voices for inclusion in national debates around comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform, punitive bans on marriage and hate violence that tears our community apart. We are silent at our own peril," said Doreena Wong, co-chair of API Equality--Los Angeles.

"Asian and Pacific Islander LGBT community members report pervasive harassment in the form of homophobia in the API community and racism in the LGBT community. They are concerned with comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform, how they are portrayed in the media, and protecting their families and themselves from violence and harassment," said Alain Dang, a Task Force policy analyst and the study's lead author. "These findings add to the growing body of evidence that support the need for not only legislative intervention, but community introspection."

Key findings of the report include:

* Nearly every respondent (98 percent) had experienced at least one form of discrimination and/or harassment in their lives: 75 percent reported that they had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their sexual orientation and 85 percent reported experiencing discrimination and/or harassment based on their race or ethnicity.
* The most important issues facing API LGBT Americans are hate violence/harassment, media representation, marriage equality and immigration.
* Nearly all respondents (89 percent) agreed that homophobia and/or transphobia are problems within the broader API community. In addition, 78 percent agreed that API LGBT people experience racism within the predominantly white LGBT community.
* API LGBT Americans are very politically active, with 67 percent reporting that they planned to vote in the 2006 midterm election. Approximately 20 percent reported that they were ineligible to vote. Strong majorities of respondents also reported that they participate in other political activities, including signing petitions, participating in marches or rallies and contacting their elected officials.
* Only 50 percent of respondents said that English was their native language. Mandarin (11 percent), Cantonese (8 percent), Tagalog (6 percent) and Vietnamese (5 percent) were the most frequently cited native languages. Nearly all LGBT informational and advocacy materials are produced in English. Few resources are printed in any Asian language.

Demographics of respondents:

* More than a dozen ethnicities were represented in the sample, including Chinese (40 percent), Filipino (19 percent), Japanese (11 percent) and Asian Indian (10 percent). Smaller numbers of Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian, Malaysian, Thai and Pakistani respondents also participated. These ethnic groups are Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, a term that encompasses a vast collection of ethnic groups with unique histories, cultures and migrations within both their Asian or Pacific Island ancestral country of origin and the United States.
* Fifty-three percent of the participants identified as men, 41 percent as women and 10 percent as transgender. This adds up to more than 100 percent because respondents could select more than one option.
* Forty-seven percent of respondents self-identified as gay, 19 percent as lesbian and 9 percent as bisexual. Twenty percent identified as "queer," with women more than twice as likely as men to choose that label. Five percent chose various other labels.
* One-third of respondents reported being in a committed relationship and 10 percent reported having a domestic partner.

Racism Shown to be Bad for Health

2007-05-16T08:59:00.000-04:00

(Found on Racewire)

A new report just released in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health finds a link between the perception of unfairness in medical treatment and fatal coronary heart disease.

People who experienced injustice and felt unfairly treated were 55 percent more likely to suffer from a coronary event than people who felt life was fair, according to the report.

The study assessed medical data from more than 6,000 British civil servants who were asked how strongly they agreed with the statement, “I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly.” After controlling for other baseline variables, the report concludes that, “Unfairness is an independent predictor of increased coronary events and impaired health functioning.”

The report’s abstract makes no mention of racism. But, given the intense and chronic feelings associated with experiencing racial injustice, I’d be interested in seeing that dynamic specifically examined in future medical studies--especially in the U.S.

This doesn't seem too surprising to me. If just looking at racism in the workplace, it would make sense that the stress and emotional tolls would be a factor of declining mental health (if not physical).

A Poem by Suheir Hammad

2007-05-02T22:22:00.001-04:00

Mount Everest and the 2008 Olympics

2007-04-27T11:22:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Tibet Will Be Free

Update

2007-04-27T10:14:00.000-04:00

My bad on not writing for the past few days. I am here to let y'all know that I still won't be able to write for awhile.

It's graduation time! Hooray! Well, not quite yet, but close. It's an emotional time as well because this is a time for me to bond with my parents, who have been fairly absent in my academic life and activist life. So... there will be tears. Already have been.

Also, I've been dealing with quite a few self-righteous white male assholes at school. Professors and students alike. Trying to figure out my next steps and simultaneously creating some angry pieces of poetry with it to be productive. So... yes, big thanks to you self-righteous white male assholes.

I am also organizing for the May 1st National Day of Immigration Solidarity. I would encourage you to show your solidarity as well by going to your local rally.

Anyway... Please come back to visit once in a while. Posts will be very spare between now and the beginning of June.

"Recycling While Brown"

2007-04-22T19:40:00.000-04:00

(Hat tip to Joong)

Poetry is Dangerous
by Kazim Ali

On April 19, after a day of teaching classes at Shippensburg University, I went out to my car and grabbed a box of old poetry manuscripts from the front seat of my little white beetle and carried it across the street and put it next to the trashcan outside Wright Hall. The poems were from poetry contests I had been judging and the box was heavy. I had previously left my recycling boxes there and they were always picked up and taken away by the trash department.

A young man from ROTC was watching me as I got into my car and drove away. I thought he was looking at my car which has black flower decals and sometimes inspires strange looks. I later discovered that I, in my dark skin, am sometimes not even a person to the people who look at me. Instead, in spite of my peacefulness, my committed opposition to all aggression and war, I am a threat by my very existence, a threat just living in the world as a Muslim body.

Upon my departure, he called the local police department and told them a man of Middle Eastern descent driving a heavily decaled white beetle with out of state plates and no campus parking sticker had just placed a box next to the trash can. My car has NY plates, but he got the rest of it wrong. I have two stickers on my car. One is my highly visible faculty parking sticker and the other, which I just don't have the heart to take off these days, says "Kerry/Edwards: For a Stronger America."

Because of my recycling the bomb squad came, the state police came. Because of my recycling buildings were evacuated, classes were canceled, campus was closed. No. Not because of my recycling. Because of my dark body. No. Not because of my dark body. Because of his fear. Because of the way he saw me. Because of the culture of fear, mistrust, hatred, and suspicion that is carefully cultivated in the media, by the government, by people who claim to want to keep us 'safe.'

These are the days of orange alert, school lock-downs, and endless war. We are preparing for it, training for it, looking for it, and so of course, in the most innocuous of places-a professor wanting to hurry home, hefting his box of discarded poetry-we find it.

That man in the parking lot didn't even see me. He saw my darkness. He saw my Middle Eastern descent. Ironic because though my grandfathers came from Egypt, I am Indian, a South Asian, and could never be mistaken for a Middle Eastern man by anyone who'd ever met one.

One of my colleagues was in the gathering crowd, trying to figure out what had happened. She heard my description-a Middle Eastern man driving a white beetle with out of state plates-and knew immediately they were talking about me and realized that the box must have been manuscripts I was discarding. She approached them and told them I was a professor on the faculty there. Immediately the campus police officer said, "What country is he from?"

"What country is he from?!" she yelled, indignant.

"Ma'am, you are associated with the suspect. You need to step away and lower your voice," he told her.

At some length several of my faculty colleagues were able to get through to the police and get me on a cell phone where I explained to the university president and then to the state police that the box contained old poetry manuscripts that needed to be recycled. The police officer told me that in the current climate I needed to be more careful about how I behaved. "When I recycle?" I asked.

The university president appreciated my distress about the situation but denied that the call had anything to do with my race or ethnic background. The spokesperson of the university called it an "honest mistake," not referring to the young man from ROTC giving in to his worst instincts and calling the police but referring to me who made the mistake of being dark-skinned and putting my recycling next to the trashcan.

The university's bizarrely minimal statement lets everyone know that the "suspicious package" beside the trashcan ended up being, indeed, trash. It goes on to say, "We appreciate your cooperation during the incident and remind everyone that safety is a joint effort by all members of the campus community."

What does that community mean to me, a person who has to walk by the ROTC offices every day on my way to my own office just down the hall-who was watched, noted, and reported, all in a day's work? Today we gave in willingly and whole-heartedly to a culture of fear and blaming and profiling. It is deemed perfectly appropriate behavior to spy on one another and police one another and report on one another. Such behaviors exist most strongly in closed and undemocratic and fascist societies.

The university report does not mention the root cause of the alarm. That package became "suspicious" because of who was holding it, who put it down, who drove away. Me.

It was poetry, I kept insisting to the state policeman who was questioning me on the phone. It was poetry I was putting out to be recycled.

My body exists politically in a way I can not prevent. For a moment today, without even knowing it, driving away from campus in my little beetle, exhausted after a day of teaching, listening to Justin Timberlake on the radio, I ceased to be a person when a man I had never met looked straight through me and saw the violence in his own heart.

====

JAI Turiya Sangeetananda Alice Coltrane-- Hari OM Tat Sat

Erase Racism Carnival April 2007 Edition

2007-04-21T12:39:00.000-04:00

This month's Erase Racism Carnival can be found at Double Consciousness.

Posts are sectioned by:

Fighting Oppression Within the Movement
Racism, The Subtle Everyday Occurrence
Whiteness and Other Issues

Please make sure to go over and check out those really great posts!

US Massacres

2007-04-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

Here's a really interesting article on the labeling of Virginia Tech as the "worst" massacres in U.S. history.

In Between... Immigration, Citizenship and the VT Incident

2007-04-19T22:52:00.000-04:00

I was speaking to a friend who I haven't seen for a couple of days since the Virginia Tech incident has occurred. Our conversation quickly turned to the position the public and the media has put the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho. It is interesting because Cho has been identified as a South Korean immigrant. He can be identified as both American and Korean. Both communities of these two identities have tried to push Cho off onto the other. The South Korean government and other Korean/Korean Americans have tried to disassociate themselves with Cho by questioning his "Koreanness." He was labeled as "more American than Korean." People of the U.S. on the other hand, is quick to dismiss Cho as an American. They question his immigration status and highlight his "alienness." Cho, is found in an interesting space between the two identities. Neither communities want to claim him as their own. Neither communities want to associate his actions with their respective "culture."

I wonder how much immigration has had an impact on Cho's actions. From various videos and documents, Cho has been described as a "loner" and someone who didn't speak to many people. I wonder to what effect his isolation from others have to do with his initial immigration to the United States. From my own experience immigrating to the United States from China, at an age of 10 (close to Cho's age when he immigrated at 8), it's safe to say that I personally had a very difficult time adjusting to the new place I found myself in. School is not exactly a fun place to be when the only language being spoken is English. It is also not a fun place because many teachers and students do not tolerate immigrant children. Teachers do not have training on how to be inclusive to immigrants (especially immigrants of color). We are outcasted and joked about. The immigration experience, especially for children can be incredibly damaging on one's self-esteem, self-awareness and emotional well-being. Especially in recent times with the eliminations of bilingual educational programs and the forced assimilations by the school systems, the experiences of children who immigrate at a young age can be difficult.

Of course, I am in no way making excuses for Cho's actions. To kill 33 people does not justify the bad experiences that he may have gone through. But I think something that has been unsaid and unquestioned is the failure of school systems on their inclusiveness for immigrant children. The failure to address issues of immigration and the failure to provide programs of support for children who have immigrated is never discussed when Cho is labeled so pervasively as an "immigrant." Furthermore, anti-immigration attitude that are prevalent through educational curriculums are never addressed. Xenophobic materials are rarely questioned when it comes to education. Xenophobia in my experience is not in the concerns of educators.

Lastly, the public and media sources are so quick to blame "cultural factors" that they fail to question the American educational, political and social institutions that may have played a major role in Cho's life. Perhaps this is a lesson to be learned by the educational, political and social institutions that have influenced Cho's decision to commit such a horrific crime.

Going back to the question of middle space, perhaps the reason why Cho committed the murders are a reflection of his social standing as someone who have been disowned by their communities. Maybe he couldn't fit himself into the spaces that have been so restricted with rigid lines of defining who can identify as what.

Related articles: (thanks to Angry Asian Man)

Va. Tech shooter a 'textbook killer'
When ethnicity brings an unwelcome focus

Appropriation by "Gays"

2007-04-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

(Hat tip to the Transracial Korean Adoptee Nexus)

There are so many things wrong with this article that I have no clue where to begin. If anyone would like a shot at it, please feel free to comment. You can find the original article here. Does anyone else NOT find this funny?

Gay people, give me back my stuff!
By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | April 18, 2007

Omigod, my cars are so gay!

I discovered this last week, when the all-knowing New York Times Styles section revealed that Subarus are casually known as "Lesbarus." And indeed, there is my station wagon on about.com's list of "Top 10 Gay Cars " : "The Outback is a long-running lesbian champion," the website reports.

Yikes. I bought my second-hand Subaru about a year ago from a Norwegian gentleman in New Hampshire. I've known him and his wonderful family for many years. In fact, I married one of his daughters. And now I learn this. The things one never knows. . .

I bought my Toyota Prius in 2003, around the time that late-to-the-party environmentalists were junking their internal combustion clunkers for hybrid technology. Just recently I saw an episode of "Weeds," in which pot-dealing suburban supermom Mary-Louise Parker trades in her SUV for a new Prius. When she pulls into her driveway, expecting green props, her temperamental son greets her with the words: "Oh, Mom. That's so gay."

So here's my question: Is there any element of contemporary culture that hasn't been appropriated by gays? Or, phrased another way: Hey, gay people! Give me my stuff back, OK?

First they came for Judy Garland, and I understood that. She was a beautiful talent, and, like gay men and women in the day, she was perceived to be a victim of societal oppression, corruption, and indifference. Then gay people claimed Dinah Shore, and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," and , of course , ABBA. That still didn't bother me much, although it's hard not to sway your hips just a little when you hear "Dancing Queen" in the supermarket aisle.

I remember when gays took over Parliament cigarettes, which had that ridiculous, one-quarter - inch recessed filter. Then mentholated Newports. No loss there. Then Larks -- my brand! -- became a gay cigarette. That's when I stopped smoking.
Yes, I know that Superman, suitor to Lois Lane and the hero of my youth, has become a gay icon. You have to admit that wearing your underwear outside your pants is going to attract a certain kind of attention. But St. Sebastian? The always-reliable online encyclopedia Wikipedia comments: "The earliest gay icon was St. Sebastian. The combination of his strong, shirtless physique, the symbolism of the arrows penetrating his body, and the look on his face of rapturous pain have intrigued artists both gay and straight for centuries, and began the first explicitly gay cult in the 19th century."

Ah yes. "Brideshead Revisited" ; Sebastian Flyte and the teddy bears. I should have figured this one out.

I did know that Smith College went the way of women's tennis about a quarter century ago, and that Yale is now known as the "Gay Ivy." As my friend, writer Colin McEnroe (Yale, '76, not that there is anything wrong with that) has observed, being gay is practically a higher life form. "I wouldn't mind being gay," Colin opined in Men's Health a while back. "Nice clothes, swell taste, Sondheim around the piano, Wildean repartee -- seems fine. I already have one Jack Russell terrier. As a gay guy, I would probably need two."

Is my dog gay? Probably. I don't want to know.

Clothing has become a minefield. Those dippy, slip-on Merrells , which I wear all the time, are very gay. I don't own a camel's hair coat, but I'd like to. Very gay, as the Times' Styles section will surely reveal in the near future. And unless you're trying out for the swim team, fellas, don't even think about wearing a Speedo.

I wrote a whole column about the movie "300" without stating the obvious: tres gai . I see that gay people have embraced the Oliver Stone bowser , "Alexander," about Alexander the Great, and "Troy," which featured Brad Pitt in a singlet. At least someone appreciates the classics.

As an experiment, I tried to make a list of things that were not gay, and probably would not become gay in the foreseeable future: NASCAR; "24 "; Tom Menino; the Russian Federal Security Service; the National Football League. It's not that long a list.

Yes, gay people took that lovely word -- my Oxford English Dictionary naively lists "homosexual" as definition number 10 -- and the rainbow, which was briefly a symbol for diversity before it went gay. Then they over reached, and went for marriage.

Ha! Fooled you, my friends. It's all yours now, and as far as I am concerned, there is no need to give it back.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.

Backlash on Korea America Begins

2007-04-19T15:46:00.000-04:00

The article can be found here.

Community Reaction
'Every Korean Person Is So Very Sorry'
From N. Virginia to Seoul, A Plea to Avoid Stereotypes

By N.C. Aizenman and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 18, 2007; Page A10

When Yung Yang, a South Korean-born secretary in Annandale, heard the first rumors that the man who had slaughtered 32 people at Virginia Tech University was Asian, she said a fervent prayer: Please don't let him turn out to be Korean.

Yang's eyes filled with tears yesterday as she recalled her anguish on learning that Cho Seung Hui not only hailed from the same country as she but had grown up in the same Korean American community of Northern Virginia.

"I am so sorry about this," said Yang, 30, clasping her hands together as though begging for forgiveness. "Every Korean person is so very sorry."

It was a sentiment echoed across the Washington area's 52,000-strong Korean-born community as one of the region's most educated and established immigrant groups grappled with the notion that such a horrific act could have been committed by one of their own.

And from Seoul, South Koreans and their government appealed to Americans not to let the carnage generate racial prejudice against the 2 million South Koreans who live in the United States.

At the same time, a number of South Koreans noted that Cho had lived in the United States for most of his life and said that he should not be considered a South Korean even though he carries a South Korean passport.

At least two Korean-language radio stations that serve Washington suspended their regular programming so Korean American listeners could call in to vent their shock.

Along with profound grief for the victims and concern for Cho's family, many expressed fear that his actions would tar the entire Korean American community -- which has long been associated with such values as hard work, education and family unity.

"I hope everyone can see this as a tragic, random act of violence and keep the broad-brushing of the racial aspect out of it," said Mark L. Keam, a founder of the Korean American Coalition of Greater Washington.

Mihae Kim, another community activist in Virginia, was especially worried about the impact on younger Korean Americans who might be insecure about their place in American society.

"Even for those who were born in America, they may face an identity crisis," she said, adding that various community groups and churches were working to arrange youth counseling this week. "They may be looked at differently now. . . . There may be ethnic issues."

Young Bong Kim, senior pastor of McLean-based Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington, shared an e-mail in which one of his parishioners said he was experiencing such pressures.

"People in my office look at me differently," wrote the man, a government employee working in the District. "I cannot even approach my co-workers to talk. I feel so ashamed. I feel like I gotta do something to show that I'm a good neighbor."

Spurred by a similar impulse, local Korean American organizations and churches organized a candlelight vigil last night at the Fairfax Government Center, and they are planning a collection drive Sunday for victims' families.

Such activities mark a notable departure for an immigrant group that has shunned public attention even as it has made steady economic gains and developed strong community networks.

"When publicity comes in the worst possible way, it can make us become even more insular," Keam said. "We hope we can keep attention on the more positive aspects, too, so people don't say, 'My gosh, these Korean people -- they might snap any second.' "

Several local leaders also speculated that Cho's fate might prompt Korean-born parents to reassess their community's longtime practice of immigrating to the United States for the express purpose of enrolling their children in U.S. schools.

"It leads us to question what kinds of unspoken stresses results from the immigration and assimilation process for young Asian men here in America," said Kyungsup Shin, owner of a Northern Virginia Korean-language radio station.

Adding to the pressures on such youngsters, he and others said, is the knowledge that their parents have made great sacrifices to send them to the United States -- taking lower-level jobs, for instance, or remaining behind in Korea to earn enough money to support their children in the United States.

In Seoul, many commentators emphasized Cho's long residence in the United States. "The fact that Cho is a Korean should not be overplayed by the media," said an analyst on a South Korean television station, SKN. "He's been living in the United States since 1992. This was a personal matter. It should not involve Koreans as a whole."

A senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Cho Byung Jae, described the government as "in shock beyond description."

President Roh Moo Hyun, after a special cabinet meeting Wednesday morning in Seoul, repeated official condolences and announced that his government will try to prevent the shootings from having an impact on South Koreans studying and working in the United States.

Staff writer Jacqueline L. Salmon, correspondent Edward Cody and special correspondent Joohee Cho contributed to this report. Salmon reported from Virginia; Cody and Cho reported from Seoul.

It is unfortunately to hear about the backlash on Korea America due to the massacre of Virginia Tech. As the article reads, the Korean American community is facing heightened stereotyping, racialization, as well as a negative backlash in order to secure the white American conscience. It is sad to hear that Korean Americans have to apologize on behalf of Seung-Hui Cho simply because he was Korean American. At the same time, I do not hear apologies from males, college students, or English majors. It is unfortunate that race and ethnicity is so over-played and has escalated to the level where people have to publicly apologize and disassociate themselves from the incident.

I am glad, however, that many community organizations and activists, along with the South Korean officials, are highlighting and discouraging further prejudices on the Korean American community. Although these efforts are being made, the media still has not picked up on it fast enough for it to be effective.

Does this part bother anyone else?

In Seoul, many commentators emphasized Cho's long residence in the United States. "The fact that Cho is a Korean should not be overplayed by the media," said an analyst on a South Korean television station, SKN. "He's been living in the United States since 1992. This was a personal matter. It should not involve Koreans as a whole."

I was annoyed that Cho's "Koreanness" was questioned simply because he has not been living in South Korea. I mean, I agree that this incident does not involve Koreans, but at the same time, it is counter-productive to also point out that he not "Korean enough."

Related posts:

Racializing the Virginia Tech Shootings

More News on the Virginia Tech Massacre

More News on the Virginia Tech Massacre

2007-04-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

More news on what is facing Asia/Korea America from MSNBC:

By Jessica Bennett and Noelle Chun
Newsweek
Updated: 12:44 p.m. CT April 18, 2007

April 18, 2007 - The bodies had barely been removed when the racial epithets started pouring in. Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old identified as the killer of 32 on the Virginia Tech campus, may have lived in the state since his elementary school days, but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that mattered most. "Koreans are the most hotheaded and macho of East Asians," wrote one unnamed commentator on the Sepia Mutiny blog. "They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish."

The vitriol of comments like these has shocked America's Korean community, leaving it braced for a backlash and scrambling to control the damage caused by distorted stereotypes. In South Korea—where government officials feared that the incident could further sour relations with Washington—the foreign ministry issued a statement saying that it hoped the tragedy would not provoke "racial prejudice or confrontation." Inside the United States, social-network users set up online forums with names like "Don't Hate Koreans Because of Cho Seung-Hui" and "Cho Seung-Hui Does NOT Represent Asians." Some spoke of launching a fund-raising drive for the families of those who died in the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history. But many fear these measures won't be enough to blunt the hatred. "In the wake of 9/11, we saw so many racially charged incidents that I don't think it's out of the question to suspect this [prejudice] will happen," says Aimee Baldillo, a spokeswoman for the Asian American Justice Center, a Washington-based civil-
rights group. "The lesson we learned then was that individuals are going to get targeted on the basis of a perceived race or ethnicity with connection to a suspect."

An estimated 1.4 million people of Korean descent live in the United States. Badillo says her organization has already received reports—still unconfirmed—of several crimes of retribution against the community. Online, chat rooms throbbed with hate. "Take that s--t back to your own nation," declared one participant on the social networking site Facebook. Not all the comments were negative: 23-year-old student and tech consultant Eugene Kim told NEWSWEEK that about half of the online commentators on Faceook "are saying how an individual shouldn't be generalized to the entire Asian community." Others, however, were making remarks like "This guy [Cho] comes to our country on a visa; he's not even a citizen." Kim, himself an ethnic Korean, says he has already been the butt of several jokes: "One guy at work said, 'You guys better be real nice to Kim. Make sure he doesn't get stressed out so he doesn't come in and shoot everyone.'"

Other Asians in the United States also experienced mixed emotions when it was confirmed that Cho was indeed Korean. Vietnamese-American writer Andrew Lam says he had held his breath waiting to learn the killer's identity, hoping his community wouldn't shoulder collective blame for the acts of an individual. "Let it be some other Asian!" was the prayer among many Asian-American communities, Lam says. Other Asians meanwhile, said they fear a spillover effect would extend beyond Koreans. "The things that some of you are saying scare the s—t out of me," wrote one Facebook contributor. "I know you all remember the stories of [turbaned] Sikhs getting beaten up after 9/11. Can we show some sense for once?"

Korean-related Web sites, meanwhile, came under intense scrutiny. The site for the national Korean American Student Association, which carried forum postings from alumni expressing support for Virginia Tech, on Tuesday morning went offline with no explanation by the afternoon. At Virginia Tech itself, the Korean Student Association site was shut down; a message in Korean said it had been closed temporarily because of too much server activity. Seung-Woo Lee, the head of the Virginia Tech association, told NEWSWEEK he had received calls from many of the several hundred ethnic Korean students on campus telling him they felt "horrified and scared." Several parents had already come to their campus to take their children home, he said.

Cho was clearly a troubled young man, whose motives for the rampage may never be known. But scholars like Hugo Schwyzer, a history and gender studies professor at Pasadena City College in Los Angeles-where 35 percent of the college population is of Asian descent—says he expects to see some "classically damaging" typecasts of Asian males as socially awkward and introverted, as more information about Cho emerges. Fears are running particularly high in Los Angeles, home to one of the nation's largest Korean-American communities. Many residents there remember the violence during the Rodney King race riots that ravaged the city 15 years ago, and fear the possibility of becoming targets again. "We were once the hatred target of black Americans," says L.A. businessman Kim Yong Gi. "I hope we don't become the target of all Americans this time."

"The Korean community as a whole is in shock," says John Cho, the Los Angeles-based assistant editor of the Korean Times (and no relation to the gunman). "Something like this has never happened to us." Cho is especially sensitive to concerns about stereotyping—and the pressures facing young men like Cho. "When you first move here, it is a challenge to learn English, to make friends. In Korea, we are all taught to act as part of a group, to be part of bigger group. But here, people are taught to be individuals and to shine on an individual basis. That's culturally hard for us." One of the additional pressures facing Koreans, Cho notes, is the belief that members of the group achieve disproportionately high success rates. "The Korean community is known for overachieving," says Cho. Maybe [the killer] had pressures on him that he couldn't settle because he wasn't in [his home] community." Cho's newspaper is among the institutions trying to counter negative perceptions of the community. But even as Cho tries to explain the typecasting, he is aware of the irony. "What's worrying is that if a white person had done this," he muses, "no one would call up the white community and ask if they were going to be stereotyped."

With BJ Lee in Seoul, Tara Weingarten in Los Angeles and Lynn Waddell in Blacksburg, Va.

A more extensive coverage can be found at Angry Asian Man.

Racializing the Virginia Tech Shootings

2007-04-17T21:50:00.000-04:00

I was stunned when I first learned about the shooting at Virginia Tech. My condolences go out to friends and families of the victims.

This morning, while I was seated in jury duty, in a little room that sat 50 people, mostly white, except for less than a handful of POC's, the story about Virginia Tech broadcasted in the room loudly. People couldn't help but look at my (and this other Korean American woman's) expression when we learned that the shooter is a South Korean permanent resident of the United States. So far, Seung-Hui Cho's identity is highlighted in his immigration status and his ethnic background. I have come across many articles that have racialized his actions.

My university's support program for Asian/Asian American students in particular has already issued a response to the incident,

As emotions run high on college campuses, and emotions may turn to anger and frustration, we caution to all that these are the times where hate crimes may be heightened. They can be in the form of verbal abuse, e-mails, drawings, etc...

Students who witness the actions listed above are encouraged to report them. I am glad that people are aware of what may happen in conclusion to the incident.

Many blogs have covered this issue, but I think this post at Woman of Color Blog sums it up the best from someone with a similar perspective to mine:

What May Come: Asian Americans and the Virginia Tech Shootings

Tamara K. Nopper
April 17, 2007

Like many, I was glued to the television news yesterday, keeping updated about the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech University. I was trying to deal with my own disgust and sadness, especially since my professional life as a graduate student and college instructor is tied to universities. And then the other shoe dropped. I found out from a friend that the news channel she was watching had reported the shooter as Asian. It has now been reported, after much confusion, that the shooter is Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean immigrant and Virginia Tech student.

As an Asian American woman, I am keenly aware that Asians are about to become a popular media topic if not the victims of physical backlash. Rarely have we gotten as much attention in the past ten years, except, perhaps, during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Since then Asians are seldom seen in the media except when one of us wins a golfing match, Woody Allen has sex, or Angelina Jolie adopts a kid.

I am not looking forward to the onslaught of media attention. If history truly does have clues about what will come, there may be several different ways we as Asian Americans will be talked about.

One, we will watch white media pundits and perhaps even sociologists explain what they understand as an “Asian” way of being. They will talk about how Asian males presumably have fragile “egos” and therefore are culturally prone to engage in kamikaze style violence. These statements will be embedded with racist tropes about Japanese military fighters during WWII or the Viet Cong—the crazy, calculating, and hidden Asian man who will fight to the death over presumably nothing.

In the process, the white media might actually ask Asian Americans our perspectives for a change. We will probably be expected to apologize in some way for the behavior of another Asian—something whites never have to collectively do when one of theirs engages in (mass) violence, which is often. And then some of us might succumb to the Orientalist logic of the media by eagerly promoting Asian Americans as real Americans and therefore unlike Asians overseas who presumably engage in culturally reprehensible behavior. In other words, if we get to talk at all, Asian Americans will be expected to interpret, explain, and distance themselves from other Asians just to get airtime.

Or perhaps the media will take the color-blind approach instead of a strictly eugenic one. The media might try to whitewash the situation and treat Cho as just another alienated middle-class suburban kid. In some ways this is already happening—hence the constant referrals to the proximity of the shootings to the 8th anniversary of the Columbine killings. The media will repeat over and over words from a letter that Cho left behind speaking of “rich kids,” and “deceitful charlatans.” They will ask what’s going on in middle-class communities that encourage this type of violence. In the process they may never talk about the dirty little secret about middle-class assimilation: for non-whites, it does not always prevent racial alienation, rage, or depression. This may be surprising given that we are bombarded with constant images suggesting that racial harmony will exist once we are all middle-class. But for many of us who have achieved middle-class life, even if we may not openly admit it, alienation does not stop if you are not white.

But the white media, being as tricky as it is, may probably talk about Cho in ways that reflect a combination of both traditional eugenic and colorblind approaches. They will emphasize Cho’s ethnicity and economic background by wondering what would set off a hard-working, quiet, South Korean immigrant from a middle-class dry-cleaner-owning family. They will wonder why Cho would commit such acts of violence, which we expect from Middle Easterners and Muslims and those crazy Asians from overseas, but not from hard-working South Korean immigrants. They will promote Cho as “the model minority” who suddenly, for no reason, went crazy. Whereas eugenic approaches depicting Asians as crazy kamikazes or Viet Cong mercenaries emphasize Asian violence, the eugenic aspect of the model minority myth suggests that there is something about Asian Americans that makes them less prone to expressions of anger, rage, violence, or criminality. Indeed, we are not even seen as having legitimate reasons to have anger, let alone rage, hence the need to figure out what made this “quiet” student “snap.”

Given that the model minority myth is a white racist invention that elevates Asians over minority groups, Cho will be dissected as an anomaly among South Koreans who “are not prone” to violence—unlike Blacks who are racistly viewed as inherently violent or South Asians, Middle Easterners and Muslims who are viewed as potential terrorists. He will be talked about as acting “out of character” from the other “good South Koreans” who come here and quietly and dutifully work towards the American dream. Operating behind the scenes of course is a diplomatic relationship between the US and South Korea forged through bombs and military zones during the Korean War and expressed through the new free trade agreement negotiations between the countries. Indeed, even as South Korean diplomats express concern about racial backlash against Asians, they are quick to disown Cho in order to maintain the image of the respectable South Korean.

Whatever happens, Cho will become whoever the white media wants him to be and for whatever political platform it and legislators want to push. In the process, Asian Americans will, like other non-whites, be picked apart, dissected, and theorized by whites. As such, this is no different than any other day for Asian Americans. Only this time an Asian face will be on every television screen, internet search engine, and newspaper.

Tamara K. Nopper is an educator, writer, and activist living in Philadelphia. She can be reached at tnopper@yahoo.com

This is also circulating in email form.

Other articles:

"Virginia Tech massacre: Let the blame games begin"

"Asian Identity of Virginia Tech Gunman"

Connecting Struggles

2007-04-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

The New York Times have recently published an article on China's involvement in Darfur:

Movie stars push Beijing into action on Darfur

Try to link deaths, 2008 Olympics

By Helene Cooper, New York Times News Service | April 13, 2007

WASHINGTON -- For the past two years, China has protected the Sudanese government as the United States and Britain have pushed for UN Security Council sanctions against Sudan for the violence in Darfur.

But in the past week, strange things have happened. A senior Chinese official, Zhai Jun, traveled to Sudan to push the government to accept a UN peacekeeping force. Zhai even went to Darfur and toured three refugee camps, a rare event for a high-ranking official from China, which has extensive business and oil ties to Sudan and generally avoids telling other countries how to conduct their internal affairs.

So what gives? Credit goes to Hollywood -- Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg in particular. Just when it seemed safe to buy a plane ticket to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, nongovernmental organizations and other groups appear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link the Olympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killings in Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concerned about.

Farrow, a UN goodwill ambassador and actress , has played a crucial role, starting a campaign last month to label the games in Beijing the "Genocide Olympics" and calling on corporate sponsors and on Spielberg, who is an artistic adviser to China for the games, to publicly exhort China to do something about Darfur. In a March 28 Op-Ed article in The Wall Street Journal, Farrow warned Spielberg that he could "go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing games," a reference to a German filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda films.

Four days later, Spielberg sent a letter to President Hu Jintao of China, condemning the killings in Darfur and asking the Chinese government to use its influence in the region "to bring an end to the human suffering there," according to Spielberg's spokesman, Marvin Levy.

China soon dispatched Zhai to Darfur, a turnaround that served as a classic study of how a pressure campaign, aimed to strike Beijing in a vulnerable spot at a vulnerable time, could accomplish what years of diplomacy could not.

Groups focusing on many issues, including Tibet and human rights, have called for boycotts of the games next year. But none of those issues have packed the punch of Darfur, where at least 200,000 -- some say as many as 400,000 -- mostly non-Arab men, women, and children, have died and 2.5 million have been displaced, as government-backed Arab militias called the janjaweed attacked the local population.

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has repeatedly refused American, African, and European demands that he allow a UN peacekeeping force to supplement an underequipped and besieged African Union force of 7,000 soldiers who have been trying, with dwindling success, to restore order in Darfur.

"Whatever ingredient went into the decision for him to go, I'm so pleased that he went," Farrow said in a telephone interview about Zhai's trip. She called the response from Beijing "extraordinary."

It has been interesting to follow the pressure of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the calling out of China's own human right violations. Groups such as Students for a Free Tibet have been using the 2008 Olympics as a crucial opportunity to expose China's colonization of Tibet and its treatment of the Tibetan people.

What I find problematic in relevance to the article is that in Hollywood, celebrities choose one battle to fight at a time. Celebrities such Mia Farrow use their public figure image to draw attention to the genocide in Darfur but does not pay attention to the genocide that going on in China's own violations of Tibet. I question the acts of such celebrities who "dedicate" themselves to a cause for a short period of time and then disappear in their advocacy for that cause. It seems like many celebrities are taking up these causes to boost their own image rather than taking up action for the benefit of others.

China's dispatch of Zhai seem to temporarily put a bandaid to a confrontation of China's lack of involvement in Sudan. The 2008 Beijing Olympics is also a golden opportunity to confront China on their colonization of indigenous peoples of Asia. China have been taking natural resources out of Tibet - out of the hands of Tibetan inhabitants. Moreover, we cannot forget about the other struggles of the world. There is a connection of empire, colonialism, imperialism and capitalism between all these transnational struggles - from racism in the United States to the surveillance of Tibetans in their own homeland.

Links

2007-04-14T14:33:00.000-04:00

Zuky: Gangster Culture
"Actually, every racial and/or ethnic group in America has its history of street gangs. As deplorable and unfortunate as it is, the reality is that gangsterism is a predictable response to certain social conditions having nothing to do with genetics. Nevertheless, the story of African American gangs does indeed have unique characteristics, because the African American story is unique. So let's talk about Black gangs."

Free Hawai'i: LISTEN TO WHAT ONE HAWAIIAN SAYS ABOUT BEING PART OF THE US
"Under the laws of occupation, the US continuously violates and ignores the guidelines - one of which is having its own citizens relocate to the Hawaiian Kingdom."

No Rest for the Awake: Why I Can't Take My Eyes Off of Arundhati Roy
"Needless to say she makes so many important points for people who are engaged with struggles against neo-liberalism, imperialism, militarization, and nation-states which seem to have honed to perfection the art of violent indifference. Her responses to the idea that social change or the pursuit of justice should be prevented or stalled because of the possibility that what happens the "day after" will be either violent or uncomfortable is particularly important to those of us who stand on the fearsome edge of decolonization, overlooking an abyss of uncertainty should we ever choose to break with the warm comforting caress of the colonizer."

Gay Persons of Color: China to launch gay Internet television show
"This Thursday, a Chinese web site will launch the country's first show to focus on gay issues. The producers of the weekly, hourlong "Tongxing Xianglian" ("Connecting Homosexuals") hope to improve public understanding of Chinese gay people."

No Snow Here: CosmoGirl Scholarship Contest Voter Fraud
"Of course, a video like Davis’, which examines how a white standard of beauty is imposed on black girls from an early age, directly counters the foundation that magazines like CosmoGirl are based on. When I was a teen, these magazines would put out the requesite article on beauty for all skin tones once in a while, the same way they did with articles on fashion for all sizes, and then ignore us for another year before doing it again."

The Transracial Korean Adoptee Nexus: Penelope Cruz wants to join the Celebrity Adoption Circuit
"Wow, it’s amazing all the things you can pull out of this particular quote. Of course there is the standard “own kids” wording portraying adoptees as “not your own.” And then what the hell is this “my life won’t be complete if I don’t adopt.”"

Comment Policy

2007-04-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

Here is the Comment Policy for this site, please try to follow the guidelines below.

1. Anything blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, heterosexist, xenophobic, classist, abelist and other offensive comments will not be posted. This is a safe space for people to discuss certain issues, and any comments putting that safe space in danger will be deleted.

2. Be respectful to others. The comments section on this blog is for:

a. Constructive comments/critiques
b. Communicating a response to a post or another commenter
c. Posting information that is of relevance to the blog
d. Thoughtful dialogues and discussions

If you cannot communicate yourself in a respectful manner to myself or others, your comments will not be posted.

3. Do not comment under multiple identities. If you have something meaningful to say, own up to it.

4. Do not have multiple people post under one identity. Again, if you have something to say, own up to it.

5. Check your privileges. We all have privileges, I myself am a middle-class U.S. citizen, and I admit to that privilege. When you are commenting, please keep your privileges in check and do not speak ON BEHALF of other people when you have not had the same experiences as them.

6. Try to back up your statements. If you are making a claim to something, it's helpful to myself and other readers if you make references to your claim.

I can be reached at Cynical.AntiOrientalist@gmail.com. If you have noticed that your comment(s) have been removed and have an objection, please email me.

Sikh American Veteran Attacked by Police

2007-04-12T11:56:00.000-04:00

Posted on Sepia Mutiny:

I join SALDEF in calling for an immediate investigation into this brutal crime. Kuldip Singh Nag served the very nation this xenophobic police officer screamed at him to leave and while a few of you may question my emphasis on his military service, I just think it adds an extra ungrateful, deplorable angle to an incident which is already appalling.

This is so incredibly appalling. How does a police officer justify brutalizing someone who didn't want to move their broken car off of their OWN driveway? How do they justify using xenophobic slurs to someone who has served in the military of the United States?

I've been hearing about incidents of police brutality on communities of color and immigrant or perceived as immigrant communities. Awhile ago, something similar also happened in Boston, now referred to as the Quincy 4.

Please show your support for the victims of these brutalities by visiting the websites above for further information.

Update

2007-04-09T09:37:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd update for what I've been doing in my somewhat absence on the blog.

1. I have been sick for two weeks. My friend just found out that she has had mono for TWO months without knowing. And now, I am hoping I will not have mono.

2. In my class called Asian Homosexualities in Film and Literature taught by a gay-identified white professor, a student got away with stating that "Everyone in China is oppressed" and "China is a completely totalitarian society." I don't want to go into this whole thing since I will literally explode, but generally, those statements show an oversimplified/western perspective on China.

I wrote an email to the professor about his general failure to address westernized myths about Asia and had a long conversation with him today which turned out to be very productive because he was honest in the fact that he doesn't really know how to approach the issue with the students.

3. This past weekend, I attended the Association for Asian American Studies Annual meeting in New York City. The theme of the conference was "Crosstown Connections: Asian American Urbanism & Interracial Encounters." Overall, the five panels I went to (except for one) were incredibly unorganized. Some very interesting topics were discussed, but were not coherent/accessible enough. Some presentations were only able to engage a small group of audience due to jargons, overly complicated theories and general inaccessibility of texts referred to. I found that incredibly annoying since it seemed like those presentations were only for the leisure discussion within a very elite group. But fortunately, some panelists were incredibly informational and inspiring. Each panel had somewhere around 3-5 presenters who addressed the topic of the panel.

Here are some presentations that I enjoyed:

Chaumtoli Huq of Violence, Revolution and Terrorism: A Legal and Historical Perspective

Nuzhat Abbas of Iqra: A Poetics of Resistance

Writers and Poets, Zohra Saed, Sarah Husain, and Tina Zaman from the panel Looking at the Self/Looking Back: The Construction of the Muslim Woman in a Time of War

Theresa Gregor of Laughing Matters: Shanghai Noon and the Repatriation of the Asian/American Indian Presence in the West(ern)

Crystal Anderson of A Tale of Three Cities: The Urban and Afro-Asian American Encounters in The Matrix Trilogy

Sunaina Maira of "By Any Means Necessary": War, Resistance and Repression

Robyn Magalit Rodriguez of "From the Bay to the Middle East, We've Got to Stop this U.S. Beast": Filipino and Arab Transnationalisms and Solidarities

4. The events I mentioned that I was organizing for in Currently Out of Commission turned out to be very successful. The hard work students have put into these projects finally paid off.

5. I've also been trying to memorize my script for Body Politics, a performance by women of color at UMass Amherst out of the Women of Color Leadership Network.

Hopefully, after all the madness, I will be able to work on academics for a little bit. One of the weeks that I was organizing for the two AAPA events, I didn't go to classes for the entire week...

Excuse me?! - Community Musings

2007-04-02T22:24:00.000-04:00

I belong to many communities. Chinese American, Queer, Asian, Women of Color, Chinese, Asian American, Women...etc. All of the communities that I am supposedly "included" in shows my various identities as I go through life. I am all of those identities, but at times, I can only identify as one. Intersections and intersectionalities are complex issues that many queer women of color such as myself find conflicted about. We can never be put in one category and that throws many people off who attempt to box us into one little stereotype, lifestyle or experience.

Take for example, my experience within the Asian American community. Throughout my college career, I have been fairly involved with the Asian American community through multiple student organizations and through my Asian American Studies certificate program. I have been a fellow student, organizer, friend, acquaintance, and teacher's assistant. But often enough, during conversations or discussions with other community members, I always find myself offended by racism, classism, sexism and homophobia. Post offense, I feel conflicted on how I should respond. On the one hand, the person how made the remark (in most cases) have no hurtful intentions. Many times, those remarks come from fellow organizers, students and acquaintances that the first time you hear them make such statements, you are in a state of shock. On the other hand, you want to deconstruct everything wrong that the person has said before but you know that if you go into histories, emotions and facts, the person will most likely be defensive or nod their heads without actively listening. After all, is there really a best way to address what someone says who is an ally in one aspect of your life but who is insensitive to your other identities? Too many times have I found myself speechless when I hear "that's so gay" and "fag/faggot" in the Asian/Asian American community. Of course, I hear those words/phrases outside the Asian/Asian American community as well*, but for me, it's especially damaging to hear such words echoed by those who you struggle with in the fight against racism and Orientalism. Similarly, sexism also resonates a similar feeling when my fellow brothers and sisters subscribe to gender norms/traditional gendered identities and place them onto others. I, as a woman and as queer-identified, have never felt completely comfortable in my Asian/Asian American community because homophobic and sexist remarks always resurfaces and I cringe every time I hear it. I am lucky if the offending person willingly engages in a dialogue with me about the offensive comments they have made, but this is often rare. Most people just brush it off and/or say "you know what I mean." Well, actually, I DO know what they mean, and I also know what they mean comes from historically oppressive words that still perpetuate -isms within our society and our communities.

Why is it that every time I stand up for my beliefs, disagree with someone, assert myself, speak my mind, or call-out someone's racism, sexism, homophobia..etc., I am almost always the "bitch", "emotional woman", "cunt", "whiny person of color", "dragon lady"...etc.? Can I just BE without any of those listed above? Furthermore, why do I have to be any of the above just to have a voice?

I think it's about time that we recognize the levels of oppressions within our communities. If we validate one kind of -ism then why do we subscribe to another? It's about time that we discuss these sorts of issues in our communities without writing them off as "not the priority" or "not our problem." Women and LGBTIQs are just as much a part of our community as men and straight people. So why is it that women and LGBTIQs rarely have a voice in our community or bring their identities into our community without being questioned?

With that said, there does seem to be more allies to queer people of color in our own communities. Allies such as friends and family members show their support for others and myself. It is something that is beginning to be touched on. But at the same time, efforts trying to disregard these issues are also at play. We must keep these conversations going.

*Related articles:

Homophobia, Racism and Queer People of Color by geekstew, featured on Racialicious

Gays and the Black Church by Native Son

Comments Policy - Coming Soon!

2007-03-31T10:47:00.000-04:00

If you are looking for an entertaining comments section, feel free to read Mel Does it Again!

Also, I am working on a comments policy because some of you really just can't get it together :)

Currently Out of Commission

2007-03-28T10:37:00.000-04:00

My next two weeks will be dedicated to AAPA (Asian Americans for Political Awareness) at UMass Amherst to bring Slanted Screen and Rey Chow to campus. So I apologize because posts will be spare due to my unavoidable attention to the red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy of UMass Amherst.

I have been getting a good amount of comments on Mel Does it Again! and 300. Those should entertain you all for awhile.

Will be back ASAP.

Demystifying Bi-Sexuality

2007-03-26T10:25:00.000-04:00

From the Big Queer Blog:

"Are Bisexual people capable of wholly loving a person who is wholly homosexual? No really, it’s a serious question for folks of all sexualities (yes, queeries, you too). People all the time accuse bisexuals of not knowing who they want, of being wishy-washy. Sounds like paranoia. Like, if I really love a guy and he’s bi and he really loves me, what else matters? So maybe this guy wants a girlfriend, too? Well that’s something we negotiate. Maybe I really want two boyfriends. There’s no reason that can’t work—relationships are contracts, so figure out the terms you wanna agree to and sign up." (read more here)

Mel Does It Again!

2007-03-26T09:51:00.000-04:00

(hat tip to Racialicious)

Mel Gibson goes crazy after professor corrects him on his portrayals of Mayans in the movie Apocalypto. The article an be read here.

After Gibson's presentation, the crowd was allowed to ask questions. Alicia Estrada, an Assistant Professor of Central American Studies at CSUN, challenged Gibson, asking him if he had read about the Mayan culture before shooting the controversial film. Gibson said he had.

Estrada persisted, stating that representations in the movie that the Mayans engaged in sacrificial ceremonies and had bloodthirsty tendencies were both wrong and racist. Estrada and others tell TMZ that Gibson exploded in anger, responding, "Lady, F**k off."

We're told Gibson also became extremely angry when members of the Mayan community protested on how they were portrayed in the film. The emotional Mayan members were escorted out of the room, and we're told Gibson screamed a parting shot -- "Make your own movie!"

Wow Mel, that is real classy. Telling someone to "fuck off" is a seriously diplomatic way to address someone's concerns. But next time, maybe you shouldn't use someone's culture, portray them like savages, and then act like you didn't do any of the above while counting your millions of dollars. Disgusting.

See the video of the woman who was attacked here.

Yes... This Shit Still Exists...

2007-03-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

Please show your support for Shaquanda Cotton.

(Hat tip to: A Womyn's Ecdysis)

Update: "BREAKING NEWS: Cotton to be released"

Decolonizing the Parents

2007-03-23T11:14:00.000-04:00

This is a story of my life as a queer, feminist Asian American woman and my parents:

Let me just share a little bit about my family before I get into my secret undercover attempt to decolonize my parents. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1990. I was four years old. They came to the States because of emergency family issues and they didn't intend to stay. Their plan was to take care of the issue and then go back to China. I was not brought on the trip. Interestingly, they did decide to stay for family reasons and could not afford to bring their only daughter (me) with them. Like many Chinese immigrants in the U.S., any degrees earned in China do not count as academic achievements. My father, who was once the head of the Labor Department of ShenYang was forced to work at McDonald's. My mother, who formerly worked at a publishing company in ShenYang, worked three jobs at a time, all in the service-sector. They have owned a Chinese restaurant where white kids would come in, order fried rice, and spill it all over the floor and graffitied my parent's shop window.

Eventually, they saved enough money (six years later) to come to China and get me. I was ten when I moved to the States. My mother found a job as a line cook at UMass Amherst and my father worked (and still works) as a machine-operator at Yankee Candle. My mother, being the strong and assertive woman she is, has been promoted countless times. Now, after working in the same institution for eleven years, she is finally a manager. (I am careful in my description of my parents' jobs because I do not want to make judgments of their choices, most of which are for the benefit of me).

Throughout my childhood, because we were low-income, my family was always being used in the racist scheme of divide & conquer. Because they worked with other low-income people of color, they always stereotyped and racialized them as being lazy and dumb. I am sure that their white co-workers told them that Chinese immigrants like my parents are really the smart and hard-working ones, as to other immigrants of color. My parents were the "model minority" and they bought into it like many others. My mother would always justify her racism by stating that even though she was once poor, she was able to overcome her class status while other people (mainly Black, Latinos and Southeast Asians according to her) couldn't overcome their poverty because they were "lazy" and "unmotivated." For those of you who do not believe/have not heard of model minority imperialism, my parents are a classic example (this is not to put blame on my parents but to point out how people of color, throughout history have been pitted against each other again and again to maintain white supremacist policies and benefits). Growing up in that household, I could constantly hear racist statements regularly and whenever I listened to rap & r&b on the radio, my parents would scold me for listening to "Black" music. Luckily, although my school was predominantly white and color-blind, the friends I made when I first came to the States were students of color. I wasn't particularly accepted in the Chinese community because most of the kids were from Taiwan and many of them didn't like me because I was a mainland northerner. So my friends were predominantly Black and Latino along with immigrant kids from my ESL classes. In middle school, I became conscious of race and racism and joined the "anti-racist" fight (at that time it was color-blindness) with my classmates. Throughout high school, it was still the same kind of color-blindness. It was in college in my Asian American Studies and African American Studies classes that I learned color-blindness is not an answer to racism. But throughout those years, my parents encouraged me not to date at all, and most importantly, not to date anyone Black or Latino.

Up until recently, my mother (I don't talk to my father that much, he's not the talkative type) still believed that the poor/homeless/unemployed are just lazy. Let me just say first that talking to my parents beyond superficiality is a bit overwhelming because I didn't have the awesomest (is that a word, 'cause I just made it one) time with parents who constantly pushed me to be the model minority throughout my childhood years. I was rebellious and dyed my hair a bunch of different colors until my mother threatened to shave my head. I was also very very bad at math... The differences and the generation gap pulled me and my parents apart and I'm still trying to mend those missing pieces together. It has been an incredibly hard time because it has been both frustrating, emotional and rewarding that sometimes I am just really overwhelmed.

This is not some pet project that will be done once it's done. Trying to communicate and build a positive relationship with APIA parents for a lot of us can be challenging especially because many APIA daughters & sons try to separate themselves from their parent's generation and their "traditional" and "Asianness."

With that said, I have been making the effort to talking to my mother (my dad is next and he has no idea what's coming). I finally (!) got up the nerve to talk to mother about issues that have an effect on our lives. Throughout the process, I have cried many times because we have made amazing progress (to me anyway since my mom might think I'm just complaining a lot). We have spoke about issues on race, class, gender, queerness, model minority and generally just about our experiences as an immigrant family in the United States. Tough topics I know. Especially with strict Chinese parents.

I remember when I first came out to my mother at seventeen as a bisexual woman. Her reaction then is a lot less tolerant than her reactions now. Although she still believes that identifying as queer will damage my reputation (which it does in some circumstances), she shows me her support. Whenever I say something "questionable," she always concludes by "whatever you decide to do, I will support you." Although that might not sound like complete acknowledgment, this is really a big step for my mother and me.

I have also tried to demystify the whole "Chinese immigrants are hard-workers who are better than everyone else." Not that Chinese immigrants aren't hard-working, but other immigrants and low-income people are as well. In the beginning of my attempt to talk to my mother, I have been incredibly confrontational. But now, I am using a dialogue approach where I nod my head when she talks and then suggest other points of views. This in my experience has been the most effective. Most of the time, I try to ask my mother to put herself in other people's shoes. When she does, her perspective changes little by little, backed up by statistics, facts and theories I introduce. Whenever I get frustrated, I remind myself that my parents are not the ones to blame. What IS to blame is the years and years of colonization on their minds by Fox, NBC, racism, discrimination, harassments, corporate ladders, model minority myths, money, wealth, horizontal oppression...etc.

I am still having talks with my mother. And through talking with her, I find a lot of things that I have never been able to piece together in my family. It will be hard in the future though because I am graduating and moving out of the area. But there are still many things that are unsaid and heard.

Cross-posted at: Asian Pacific Americans for Progress

Asian Pacific Americans for Progress Blog Team

2007-03-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

I am now a part of the Asian Pacific Americans for Progress blog team. Make sure to check out my future posts there.

10th Erase Racism Carnival

2007-03-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

Great blog posts on race & racism can be viewed at the 10th Erase Racism Carnival hosted by the fabulous Racialicious.

The themes are:

- Race and Racism in the Media and Pop Culture
- Race, Racism and Parenting
- Alliance-Building in Fighting Racism
- Oppression and Discrimination
- White Supremacy and White Privilege

Don't miss them! I've been reading them all day (when I really should be doing other things).

Blog/Link Adds

2007-03-19T16:29:00.000-04:00

As you can see, I have been obsessively updating my blog sidebar... well... kind of obsessive/furiously. But anyway, I have added a few more blogs to the "blogs that tear your socks off" section and a new section titled "links that knock your pants off."

So in all seriousness, please email me if you have more blogs that tear your socks off AND/OR links that knock your pants off that you think I need to know about. My email can be found under my profile.

Hip Hop Zeroes in on the West Bank

2007-03-19T15:55:00.000-04:00

While visiting a fellow blogger - I saw it in Palestine, I came across her post on DAM (DA Arabian MCs) and their music video:

I think it is amazing that DAM and other artists from across the globe are able to use hip hop as a form of education, dialogue and empowerment. While Nas may say that hip hop is dead, it seems that hip hop is clearly alive and prospering globally (at least in a resistance form of music to various oppressions).

Speaking of DAM, make sure to check out Free the P, a compilation CD of hip hop and spoken word by artists who strive for peace and justice in Palestine and the world.

Also, check out/support SlingShot Hip Hop, a documentary about Palestinian hip hop artists living in Gaza:

APIA Women Excluded from Women's Issues

2007-03-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

Here's a really great post about how APIA women have been excluded historically and in the present in the larger women's rights movements (thanks to the Women of Color Blog for the post).

"The following is a guest post from Priscilla Huang, the reproductive justice project director at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. Priscilla and I met at the NAPW conference where she critiqued the forum and feminism in general for its general ignorance of API womens health. I appreciated so much of what she had to say, I feel really grateful that she has agreed to guest post!~~bfp

Listen up, my yellow sisters.

It’s women’s history month, so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to celebrate the history of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women … or rather, the lack thereof. The history of API women has been largely ignored, and folks in the mainstream AND in progressive movements need to start giving API women a seat at the table.

API women started making history a long time ago. In fact, the United States’ first immigration law targeted Asian women—particularly Chinese women—with the enactment of the Page Law of 1875. (Note: The Page Law predated the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Act that most immigration scholars consider the “first” U.S. immigration law.) Facially, the law prohibited the entry of Chinese prostitutes. In practice, the law acted to prevent most “Oriental” women from immigrating to the U.S. The law presumed that Chinese women seeking entry to the U.S. were prostitutes unless they could pass a certification process, which required that the woman prove to immigration officials that she was not a prostitute. Considering that the law categorized Chinese women as presumptive prostitutes, you can imagine how many Asian women were actually certified and allowed into the U.S. Answer: About 15 every three months.

Unfortunately, the struggles of API women are still being minimized 133 years later. As the reproductive justice project director at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, I constantly run into the problem of trying to advocate for a group of women that is often left out of the bigger picture, especially when it comes to advancing reproductive justice.

API women (and men) are plagued by the “model minority” myth. From an advocate’s perspective, this is problematic because it creates the impression that all Asian Americans are wealthy, educated, and healthy. The myth dismisses the reproductive health disparities that Asian and Pacific Islander women suffer, and masks the many barriers that API women encounter when accessing reproductive and sexual health care. It also allows mainstream health providers and researchers to ignore the needs of API women and devote less resources and services to this community.

However, API women constitute the ONLY racial group that is underrepresented in reproductive health research. Less than 2% of published reproductive and sexual health articles focus on API women. Even so, these limited research findings have revealed some alarming facts:

o Between 1994-2000, abortion rates decreased for all racial groups except API women
o API women have the second highest rate of pregnancies that end in abortion, at 35%
o Less than 40% of API women use regular contraceptive methods, way lower than the national average of 88%
o 36% of API women under the age of 65 lack health insurance
o 54% of Korean American women have never received a Pap smear
o A study of Chinese American women in California revealed that 69% had no understanding of mammograms
o Vietnamese-American women have cervical cancer rates 5 times higher than non-Hispanic white women
o API women between 15-24 and over the age of 65 have the highest suicide rates in the country

API women also face a number of stereotypes, all of which reflect negatively on our health and sexualities and compound the problem of the model minority myth. API women are seen as docile and compliant, which makes us seem like ideal victims for sexual domination. We are also seen as hypersexual and exotic, a myth that fuels “oriental massage parlor” jokes and the frequent commodification of API women’s bodies in the mainstream media, the lucrative mail order bride industry, and pornographic representations. This is the same theme that gave rise to the Page Law and has been perpetuated since then.

Clearly, we’ve got issues. And it’s not just within the reproductive and sexual health care world. We need to start educating ourselves about these issues, and we need to do it by first talking about sex in our communities.

The API community is a highly immigrant one; about 67% of the API population is foreign-born. This means that many API families embody the values and beliefs of their ethnic culture, and the general pattern in a majority of API cultures is to treat sex as a taboo subject. Thus, any topic that remotely relates to sex is highly discouraged from speech, even between mothers and daughters.

This puts API women’s health in danger and is a major factor contributing to the reproductive health disparities I listed above. For example, if API women don’t learn about available contraceptive methods, they will continue to have high rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion utilization. So listen up and speak up, my yellow sisters! Let’s start talking about sex with our families and demanding that our reproductive health providers pay attention to API women’s health issues. It’s time to debunk stereotypes, and make API women’s history."

Some of the statistics in this article are really stunning, even to me. Especially the numbers on APIA women's sexual health. This is exactly why this information need to be made aware of and it is sad that information on APIA women are often not accessible to the women themselves, their families, and to the general public.

As a student in a public university, I too have noticed this trend of the lack of accessible information on APIA women. Whenever I am headed to a conference or event that addresses women's issues, the lack of information on APIA women is always there. As a result, many APIA women feel excluded from the fact that their issues are simply not heard or addressed in the same ways that other women's issues are being addressed. Often, I find myself not being able to identify with conference or event topics because it does not take in the experiences of queer/women of color/APIA women. This is especially harmful because it takes away our agency and our ability to advocate on behalf of ourselves and our sisters. I commend Priscilla Huang for writing this article to bring more awareness on the issue. I hope her post will reach out to organizations who host conferences/educational functions and urge them to think about what kind of information they're excluding/withholding from the larger women's movement and what that means for women equality as a whole. People who are involved in women's equality must ask themselves whether women's rights can move forward if a group of women's experiences/concerns are left behind.

Brown & Yellow

2007-03-15T08:33:00.000-04:00

My friends in Boston are starting a comic called Brown & Yellow.

Below is a blurb on their website:

This is a comic collaboration between Irene Urmeneta and Jenn Liang. Irene is in charge of the writing content, while Jenn directs the graphic portion, but both dabble and actively give input for concepts of each component. Both are designers interested in promoting awareness of the Asian-American experience through visual media. Irene is a staff architect and Jenn is a graphic designer. The team is Somerville-based. You can often find them on the redline headed to Harvard square and Down-china-town. And if they're feeling adventurous, they go to uncharted Northend. The comic concerns itself with issues directly experienced by either Irene or Jenn. Their perspectives change often and their understanding of the complicated term "Asian-American" is continuously deepening. One belief that they have steadfastly held onto - solidarity is essential. However, if the comic is for no other reason than to make you laugh, they are good with that. The duo will soon be leaving the Boston area in their modest attempts to conquer the rest of the universe.

Be sure to support them! I don't see too many popular comics in our community made by Asian American women so please make sure to visit their site: Brown & Yellow

They're currently looking for stories of Asian fetishism, so make sure to drop them a line if you have those stories to tell.

Slip of the Tongue

2007-03-14T10:25:00.000-04:00

I am diggin this video (thanks to the Women of Color Blog)

Original poem by Adriel Luis.

300

2007-03-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had the dishonor of watching the film 300. Needless to say, it had the most glorified violence I've ever seen (I'm still deciding on whether or not this is an exaggeration). As you can probably tell, I am not a big fan of blood, chopping off one's limbs, or stabbing someone with spears..etc. So really, I should of known better than to agree to see a film like this one. But in all seriousness, I didn't have as much of a problem with the bloodiness as I had a problem with the general tone of the film - which is based on a comic and was created by the same people who did the film Sin City.

The general plot of the film include a Spartan general, who goes to war with Persians with only 300 soldiers against an entire army of Persians dominated by Xerxes, played by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro. While I understand that the film was based on a comic book, I found the portrayals of Persians (played by people of all backgrounds) disturbing. Without throwing a fit about orientalist ideas of the Near East, let me list some problems I personally had with the film (with a queer, feminist and woman of color perspective of course):

1. Most of the "Persians" were not played by actual Persians. The casting consist of people with heavy make up, stereotypically dressed. It offers a racialized depiction of Persians as exotic and barbarous monsters without any accurate or authentic representations of Persia or its people.

2. Let's just get it over with. This movie promotes war and honor. The Spartan king actually really reminded me of our very own George W. Bush, who stubbornly decides to go into war without diplomacy or democracy. Instead, he (the Spartan king, I really can't keep up with names) kills the messenger who asks for "land and water."

3. The victims are of course the Spartans. The movie paints a very grim picture of the Persian empire. The Spartans were depicted as muscular men who are fighting for honor and "freedom." They are in some sort of leather underwear. Their numbers are small, and they have to fight the "evil and cunning" Persians, who are greedy in their conquest. The Spartans are heroic while the Persians (most of them without a face because they are all either wearing masks or turbans that cover their entire faces) are their greedy, not-as-powerful (physically) enemies. This is actually really interesting because although the Spartans are the so-called victims, they killed way more people than the people who died in their own army.

4. Xerxes is demasculinized with painted eyebrows and wears heavy lipstick. If this is not orientalism, then I don't know what is. The great commander is painted as feminine and the movie suggests that he's sexually ambiguous, both in the way he looks and the way he acts - leading to a generalization of an exotic culture. I'm not sure if the film makers were trying to equate sexual ambiguity/feminine characteristic with weakness on purpose, but that's what I got from the film.

More about 300 and heterosexuality here: "Why I have problems with Frank Miller's stories"

5. Women are powerless. In the film, the Spartan queen can only offer her body for another man's use in her desperation to help her husband. The use of her sexuality symbolizes her powerlessness as all women in the film are projected. The men in the movie suggests that women do not have political power. Women are highly objectified and the Spartan queen symbolize many forms of submission in different scenes. Women of color in the film are portrayed as exotic and enticing slaves that are at the hand of Xerxes, the Persian commander, for his use and for the pleasure of men.

6. Persia is full of mythical creatures and Xerxes will do anything to win this war. This all goes back to the orientalist idea of Asia as exotic and mysterious, where the Persians use mystical magic and animals and plays dirty, while the good old Spartans just use their bodies and spears.

7. How can 300 Spartans kick THAT much ass? I don't understand. The highlight of the Spartans was really their racial and cultural superiority. In this Spartan/Persian dichotomy, the Persians are the weak and the Spartans are the strong and brave. But seriously, I don't understand how in the name of science that these frickin' Spartans can kill all those people with hardly a scar. The fictional defeat of tens of thousands of Persians by the 300 Spartans really projects and re-enforces a white supremacist idea of white heroism.

8. I find it disturbing that this film probably made the majority of the audience forget about the empire-building, colonization and imperialism that Greece (and Europe) itself is guilty of.

9. Finally, without writing a term paper, I really just forgot to bring a barf bag.

Please feel free to add your own list in the comments section.

Sorry for the rant, but I have to say it.

You can read more about the offensive nature and the colonized mindset behind the film here:
"Iran outraged by Hollywood war epic"

300 the movie

Emerge, Empower, Embrace

2007-03-12T09:10:00.000-04:00

As an organizer of Asian Americans for Political Awareness (AAPA) of UMass Amherst, I had anticipated the first 5-College APA collaboration during my college career:

Yesterday was the 1st Annual 5-College APA Leadership Conference here in the Pioneer Valley. It was held at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In total, there were around 100 attendees and 20 organizers from UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mt.Holyoke College and Smith College. The conference was very successful and marked my very first experience as a conference presenter (with my co-presenter Vi Tran, also from AAPA) on a workshop called "Appropriation, Popular Culture and Asian Fetishes." Our conference even attracted the The Republican in an article entitled "Asian students seek 'coalition'."

Workshops at the conference included "Asian American Global Identity in the 21st Century" a workshop by C.N. Le, the man behind Asian-Nation, "Minorities Within Minorities" by QAPA, and "Transnational, Transracial Korean Adoptee Identity Construction" by Nathan Bae Kupel, a.k.a. Kad Nexus. Workshops (a total of 14) ran morning and afternoon with lunch and keynote speaker Vijay Prashad (brilliant as always) in between.

Overall, at a campus where APA students can be so apathetic, this conference marked an important time for the beginning of an initiative of a passionate group of students working toward political awareness on APA issues and education. I was one happy organizer during the conference held on March 10, 2007.

After we cleaned up for the conference, we had hot pot, played cranium, and had a cake eating contest... it was great :)

Akira's Hip Hop Shop

2007-03-06T09:48:00.000-05:00

Finally a film that doesn't only address white/Asian interracial dating (read Asian American Women Bloggers my previous post). Akira's Hip Hop Shop is an independent film about the relationship between a Japanese man (James Kyson Lee of NBC "Heroes"), and a Black woman (Emayatzy Corinealdi). The film is written and directed by Joe Doughrity. I am looking forward to seeing it. Thanks to Racialicious for the heads up.

Check out the homepage of: Akira's Hip Hop Shop

for a preview:

Asian American Women Bloggers - Update

2007-03-05T09:09:00.000-05:00

Hi!

I have found a couple of Asian American women bloggers I really like. And if you know me well enough, by "I really like" I mean socially conscious Asian American feminists who also have an understanding of the LGBTQ issues. Ok, so with that said, I thought the following are worth my reading time:

Carmen Van Kerckhove's Addicted to Race (updates on her podcast), who also writes regularly for Racialicious.

Jenn's Reappropriate

Ok ok, so I'm being really picky about the bloggers, but here are other ones that I've come across that makes also my daily reading list:

AngryBrownButch
KimchiMamas
Big Queer Blog
Women of Color Blog
Sayoni Speak
Lily Pad

Check them out, they're definitely worth your time!

Happy blogging!

Asian American Women Bloggers

2007-03-05T09:07:00.000-05:00

Looking through my blog bookmarks, I have noticed a lack of Asian American women bloggers. I'm not talking about myself or other Xanga, or other casual/daily life blogs. I'm talking about blogs that a lot of people in our community read to get their daily dose of Asia America. Blog like Angry Asian Man and Secret Asian Man... etc.

Curious, I typed in a search for "Asian American woman blog" to see what would pop up on google. I found mostly blogs that are Asian American, but no prominent ones by Asian American women. It's interesting to read blogs by Asian American men such as C.N.'s blog and Phil Yu's Angry Asian Man, but at times I find myself disagreeing with Phil Yu's perspective and his lack of understanding of Asian American women's issues. The only issue that he addresses in regards to Asian/Asian American women are ones of exoticization and fetishes - mostly in reference to popular culture and the interracial relationships between Asian woman and white men. While this is definitely a good observation, I can't help being skeptical about his views and the silent claim of ownership of Asian woman by Asian men. While it is true that popular culture often pair Asian women with white men, many Asian male bloggers fail to address the issue of the silent "claiming" of Asian women by Asian men. Many times, the women themselves are ridiculed for dating or portraying to date white men. While there are some underlying causes for this (such as the demaculinization of Asian American males in American pop culture), it is often overlooked in the blaming of actresses who portray these stereotypes, who most of the times, did not grow up in the U.S., and therefore, have little understanding of what they are portraying in relevance to Asian AMERICAN women. Take characters like Gong Li and Bai Ling for example, they are both relatively new to the American media. Why are they blamed for portraying stereotypical Asian women's roles when they have little experience with being an Asian woman in the U.S.? I understand the frustrations with them (I myself have rolled my eyes multiple times on Gong Li's movie posters), but the truth is, she has little idea/understanding of how her portrayals are affecting the Asian American community.

I personally feel that this problem is dividing our community. We all know (or should know) that playing the blame game doesn't really get us anywhere. Has anyone heard of divide & conquer? My hope is that there will be an increasing awareness on the identity politics of Asian men AND women. Having an EXPLANATION of why Asian women date white men should be more in the spotlight. Of course, there are plenty of issues surrounding the initial issue, such as that not all Asian women date white men or there are Asian women who date other Asian men or APIA men and women who do not date the opposite sex...etc., but seriously, I am tired of people telling Asian men/women who to date and who not to date thing. Interracial dating cannot be reversed by blaming the choices of certain people. And maybe it shouldn't be condemned at all.

I am all about Asian/Asian American men having a voice in/about popular culture, but in conclusion, blogs by Asian American men rarely share my experiences as an Asian American woman. Anyway, I'm on my way to google more Asian American women bloggers. Drop me a line if you find any good ones.