Armchair Armwrestling and Diverse Diversifying

I’m awaiting moderation right now, but my post on that Racialicious blog was this:

“In my opinion, the only valid complaint in the article was when Sunny Kim questioned whether it should be The AA Superhero Anthology. Since it’s the only one, Jeff and company are technically correct, but the word “an” may have been a better choice for the reasons Sunny mentioned.

I thought the rest of Sunny’s complaints lacked merit. Regardless of what you write or produce, someone is going to be excluded. Anything that tries to be all things to all people will inevitably fail. While Sunny Kim is entitled to her own opinion, I didn’t feel that this criticism was helpful or constructive. Diversity is good, but universal inclusion shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all. Minorities need to succeed where they can.
“

I think Sunny’s point has a relation to another article posted on Racialicious about Michelle Obama. The gist of the article was about comments floating around about how attractive the First Lady was.

The National Organization of Women started making harsh comments about how despite Michelle Obama being a smart, charismatic, and generous woman; everyone solely commenting on her looks. The usual charges of sexism abound and how it’s a “reminder” of how society is ignoring a woman’s inner virtues and focusing on her physical appearance.

However, since NOW is solely run by white women, they don’t see how these comments can affect a different minority group in a certain way. This is the first time any black woman has public ally generated buzz as to how attractive she is. Maybe, it’s the white women who feel an attractiveness placed on a black woman will rob white women of their title of being viewed as the most attractive. To put it simply, black women are rarely viewed as attractive in mainstream society; let them have this one!

I feel it’s the same situation here. We have commentary about how this comic book mostly benefits East Asian men and we have an Asian woman tearing it down. Maybe it’s because that they have a problem that East Asian men are finally taking steps to make sure the focus is on them.

Sunny has her own game of “Oppression Olympics” going on here. Asian men have a very difficult time in mainstream media; much harder than Asian women but you have Sunny complaining about “what about us?!”

This is why I hold on the steadfast belief that Asian women are the last group of people who want Asian men to be viewed as sexually attractive. They’re looking to keep them in a box so they don’t wander elsewhere.

Agree with King, and agree that URB4N’s last post was pretty good…save maybe the last paragraph.

URB4N, isn’t King right? It’s not ALL Asian women, is it? If we say it’s ALL or we don’t modify it with the word “some,” we discount the awesome support we’ve had from women like C-Bruhs, MamaNabi, Winnie, Eva, Anna, and Sylvie, no?

Other than that, I think you hit it right on the head. I don’t understand why some people play this “Oppression Olympics” game. It’s the rare time we’ve had Asian American men in the media, and all of a sudden we get blindsided. It’s the old Pin the Tail on the Asian Male scheme, personified and amplified by the power of the internet. I don’t get it either. There’s nothing to gain by kicking us down. In fact, if they allowed us just a modicum of dignity and empowerment, we might be able to empower others.

I remember one discussion with one of these oppression types, and she kept harping on how Better Luck Tomorrow was so sexist she could hardly watch it. You would’ve thought she was describing Nazi propaganda. I didn’t know what to say. All I remember thinking was how Justin would’ve kept his ass off the fire if only he had been born White.

Did I click on the wrong link, read the wrong passage? Because I don’t know what you folks are talking about.

When I pick up a book that promises to be an “anthology of 21st century American literature,” I would expect to see writers of color, and only in the last decade has that really happened. Before, such anthologies were all white with a meager sprinkling of black, and that was it. Activist groups and diversity promoters critiqued that problem, and without those “but what about–” dissenting voices, inclusion of APA, Chicano, or Persian American lit would never have happened.

Ms. Kim raised compelling points, which I’m convinced have nothing to do with internalized Asian-woman-biases-against-Asian-men.

I agree with uRB4N, even though i think he is extremely anti-asian women sometimes, he is still very insightful,its really enlightening how full of clarity uRB4N’s perception really is….

Trypika,

If by “we” you mean “URB4N,” then…you’re probably right. URB4N himself might not dispute that one. I think I’m in agreement with Anna’s post…

“Oppression Olympics game” I like that expression. I’m going to use it for now on.
The Blame Game is always thrown at White People. White people ran the Indians off their land. White people brought slaves from Africa. Whites did this or Whites did that. Now we’re getting to blamed for Asian men lack of sexuality.

Many whites did not bring slaves into this country. Have you ever heard of a German, Italian, Hungarian, Greek, Dutch or Polish slave owner? We did not run Native American off their land either! Don’t lump all Whites into one category.

King:

Have you read nothing? My people came to the country from Germany a century ago. There were some immigrants who was Indentured Servants. They had to work for the English for nothing. They were like White slaves.

Did you not know that Italians and Irish faced discrimination? Jews were unwelcome and still face antisemitism today?

I wasn’t even born when the Native Americans lost their land, nor did I have anything to do with Slaves being brought to this land. LOL! Women not being able to vote?? That was 80 years ago, man. Wake up dude!

Asian being discriminated? Did you know that Asian have to lowest crime rate? The highest college graduation? And the lowest unemployment of any monitory group in the nation? The highest salary in par with whites?
I don’t see the discrimination that you are talking about.

On the other hand, blacks have the highest crime rate. The most illegiment birth rate than any America group. Did you know before the civil rights act of 1964, blacks were better off? There were less poverty in the north and west for them, but the south (I admit) was hard for them.

There are students loans and grants to improve anyone life. Colin Powell and Connie Rice worked hard to be where they are at. Most Blacks would rather make babies and try to become the next Lebron James than to study. Why do you think their are more Black Rappers than Whites?
That’s why I don’t feel sorry for blacks. Slavery was bad and evil but you can’t sit around and bitch about it when all you care about is talking in Ebonics.
Have the people in this world were sold into to slavery in one time or the other.
Read your world history book.

We even have a black president, and blacks are still bitching.
Besides, I shook my head when wild Blacks burnt LA to the ground. They beat a poor and innocent white truck driver.

Do you remember what happen to the Korean stores and home? Blacks burnt them to the ground. That’s one reason why Asians hate blacks. They have a low disregard for life and other people’s property. Chines, Japanese and Koreans don’t want them in their country, nor do they want their kids to marry them.

So you Asian discriminate against them as well. Your hands are not so clean. So don’t act self-righteous with me.

King: Very true.

“The Blame Game is always thrown at White People. White people ran the Indians off their land. White people brought slaves from Africa. Whites did this or Whites did that. Now we’re getting to blamed for Asian men lack of sexuality.”

That’s called holding criminals responsible for their actions. It’s about calling out a White racist as a White racist, a predator as a predator, and a spade as a spade.

But in America, it’s politically incorrect to question the Great White Hype.

For many White apologists, poor innocent White people are being unfairly blamed for minor little crimes against humanity like … Black chattel slavery or Native Indian genocide whereby White America murdered millions of colored people to spawn their self-styled “Land of the Free” in the first place.

Today, this system of White supremacy continues–albeit in more disguised form behind propaganda slogans like colorblindness or diversity.

You see this with America’s Prison Industrial Complex which imprisons more people than any other country in the world–the disproportionate majority of whom are people of color.

You see this with America’s bogus War on Drugs, which even White media shills admit is a War against Racial Minorities.

You see this with America’s migrant guestworker program, which Congressman Charles Rangel called the “closest thing to legalized slavery” he has ever seen.

You see this with America’s phony War on Terrorism, which in practice is a War against Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians–from America’s Gitmo Gulag to its torture centers like Abu Ghraib.

And you even see this with White America’s “culture” from Hollywood to Main Street USA, where Asian people are treated either as fetished female sex objects (see Siegfried) or as asexualized male eunuchs.

This is what White America’s “moral values” are really about, what their vaunted civilization truly represents–with its mask ripped off and shredded.

But for smug white boys like Herr Siegfried above, he complains what White people are the victims of blame no less.

He’s a classic White male whiner; he represents the glib delusional world that many White apologists live in.

But their Whitebread world is based upon lies through and through.

Their system and way of life are illegimate to the core.

And it deserves to be called out as such, and dealt with as such.

But this is exactly what White America hates the most.

Oh, and lest you become even more confused, Sig—nobody here is blaming you or holding you culpable for the crimes of your ancestors nor for those of “White People” in general. You are your own man, and are therefore answerable for your own persoanl actions and attitudes.

But at LEAST have the brains and the balls to admit that as a White Male, you are benefitting from the hundreds of years headstart that were given to you by way of excluding women and minorities from achievement. If you aren’t doing better than most minorities then you certainly should be, given your historical advantages.

Oh, I am extremely hostile towards Asian women and I make no apologies for it. I don’t see the “good” Asian women keeping these horrid” Asian women in line. I will only relent when they admit that they’re liable for much of the issues faced by Asian men. Instead, all I hear is “It’s not our fault at all” or some other type of derivative the same statement.

No one will take you seriously if you ramble on like the typical “angry Asian man.” My method is to open discussion and *prove* how Asian women in America actually make a much more dangerous than the oppression from white men. When I talk to my teenage cousins, I don’t feed what I believe to be the truth. I’ll end up proving to them how this is taking place with examples.

Once again, the reason why you haven’t fixed anything is because you haven’t identified the problem correctly.

I don’t think Asian women will ever want to identify the problem; they’re not suffering from it. In fact, they benefit from the problem. Therefore, logically, they stand to gain for the problem to continue.

have all asian people militarized, this is the only solution.
lets see how either of them match up to the perceived ideal of asianness.
otherwise asians are just an easier target for every other race.

i think the Hispanic community will rise up sooner and attack everyone else in America because all others are considered the enemy invaders of their original home.

Women are trophies.
you would almost act like a muslim ( look into Islam, and their view of women ) to keep them “pure”