The Conversation
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
- Siegfried: If it was a Russian or any other white man who told blacks”to go back to Africa”, it would...
- Raguel: I saw that Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing” years ago but still can’t understand it.
- bigWOWO: Stele: “Care to qualify that statement? Even if that were true, you have to look at this case on its...
- Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person (9)
- Raguel: The origins of racism in the American military as described by loudestfuckingazns is accurate. Very recently,...
- bigWOWO: Sorry, Larry, just noticed that the spam robot junked your comment. Approved!
- bigWOWO: Agreed. It just has more weight if you include your name. Not that the ideas are any less valid, but it just...
- Facebook IPO (5)
- King: Actually WOWO, I bump into plenty of Asians up at the Art Center College of Design http://www.artcenter.edu/a...
- bigWOWO: Agree with King. This might not be a bad thing for Asian Americans to hear about. We can jump off the STEM...
- Raguel: People are too accustomed to thinking about value only in terms of money. Even artists are guilty of it. Some...
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (7)
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- Raguel: Following the temporary shelving of SOPA and PIPA in the long line of net neutrality battles, the feds and...
- Chr..: “Asian American men have to get more involved, not less. It’s a civic responsibility, and you have to...
- Activism is as activism does (10)
- trolldetector: Brooks also goes onto say ‘You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of...
- bigWOWO: By the way, speaking of activism, there was a great David Brooks column recently. He talks about how people...
- Raguel: I have no experience whatsoever with activism. I simply do not feel safe participating in it. There is always...
- How to Win a Streetfight (18)
- bigWOWO: No worries. I feel the same way. Nothing against her, but just doubtful.
- Raguel: Hi Byron! I’ve been occupied doing a lot of reading and thinking recently. I suppose its just another...
- bigWOWO: Hey Raguel, What about your comments on ASSK?
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
- What Cultures Value (19)
- UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva Recap (1)
- bigWOWO: I think Michael Bisping solved the Chael Sonnen puzzle today, even though he lost a controversial decision....
- 6 on 1 Beatdown of Asian Man (36)
- King: “I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima...
- SWR: Apparently the girl in the second video was not the girl who filmed the fight. It was probably unwise of her to...
- Raguel: I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima in...
- Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan (Review) (6)
- bigWOWO: Jeff, You called it! They were (if I recall correctly) 7 (twins) and 2. He’s still in the honeymoon...
- jeffat8asians: “Overpaying?” With the possible exception of college tuition (and even that is arguable),...
- Hitler: Kids suck lol.
- The Asian Rock Thread (16)
- ben: I’ve been getting into Asian rock music recently so thank you all very much for uploading all these videos.
- Simple Pickup on ABC News (132)
- Tommy: I think I’m coming here more for Moro’s comments than BigWoWO’s posts.
- Moroboshi: I didn’t say that. All I said was guys who believe in HBD are the same guys who probably also follow...
- Chr..: Moro, I don’t want to argue with you anymore! You seem to think that AMs are just as popular as other...
- “Lazy” Americans and the Decline of the American Middle Class (6)
- bigWOWO: But kobu, how can we have literature and art without money to support artists and writers? About...
- kobukson: I don’t know why everyone seems to think the notion of the decline of the middle class is such a bad...
- bigWOWO: There are a lot of veterans (supposedly) on that site. I can kind of understand it–military guys are...
- Aung Sung Suu Kyi Movie with Michelle Yeoh (45)
- bigWOWO: Eurasian, Lee Kuan Yew has always been upfront about Singapore’s hybrid system. To the best of my...
- Eurasian Sensation: @ BigWowo: New governments following independence or a major power struggle often have the sort...
- N: @bww And ironically, one of the rare democratic successes in the region that is Singapore behaves much closer to a...
- Paper Pushers by the Stunt People (4)
- Andre M. Smith: I divide my year annually between New York and Shanghai. One of my common visitations in the latter...
- Raguel: Smiley tests 8 )
8( - Raguel: ROFL! Thank you for thoroughly destroying Amy Chua, Andre. WELL SAID ^_^ You know the destruction is so...
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (245)
- Andre M. Smith: I believe some useful purpose will be served by offering here, what the lawyers might like to call,...
- N: What’s your opinion on Yundi Li and Yoyo Ma.
- Andre M. Smith: Amy Chua has never lived in China. Her understanding of its culture, that is, the culture as it’s...
- How to Finish Life With No Regrets (9)
- trolldetector: ^ i’d agree with that. but i wouldnt call them ‘idiots’, just misguided. crazy media...
- N: Agree with Jeff that not one regret is unlikely, the key is learn from it. Another way to look at it is that...
- American Jobs and India (14)
- lingyai: I am not sure what happen there with my name, that is not my email, so just ignore.
- lingyai@hotmail.com: @bigwowo Just because the average income in India is $2 a day doesn’t make a person...
- AM/AF couple: Nottyboy, Yes, just like every place of employment, upper management needs to do a better job in terms...
- Literary Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction and the Literary Hierarchy (6)
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
I wouldn’t say...
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
- National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 (32)
- Raguel: http://www.occupydream.org/ ^ I heard about this from Russell Simmons. I hope that things develop well to...
- Raguel: So is that the reasoning for why you don’t need the right to due process? Are you some kind of fucking...
- N: @King The constitution gave power to the states to benefit white america or the constitution gave benefitial power...
- When Your Fan Base is Full of Crazy People (24)
- N: @American girl Too be honest, I don’t really see why this video that ‘disgusting’ –...
- Mitt Romney and the Problem of Wealth (6)
- Raguel: Where do people get their information and knowledge from, though? Media, and education, word of mouth only...
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
Category Archives: Features
Finally, a Community Victory!
Check out Clara Shih‘s speech above. This post was originally going to be about Judy Joo, one of the judges on the Next Iron Chef, who is attractive, accomplished, Asian female, and like the vast majority of AF in the public eye, married to a guy who lacks melanin. I had a long post written from last week about how our individuals get victories, and how I’m happy for their victories, but how we never get community victories, since they all marry White. I was going to say that I was happy for them, but there was never anything for the Asian man because da’ Chinaman need not apply when it comes to love with China-women.
Posted in Asian American, Features
Tagged Asian Female Celebrity Club, Clara Shih, interracial relationships, Korean
26 Comments
The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism
"Look at my graph, and don't blame racism, cuz racism is a thing of the past. Hmm, I wonder if I can dryclean my white shirt and white hood together.""
After years of debating and exploring “Human Biodiversity” (HBD), a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism, I thought it might be good for me to say my final word–much as I did with the Pick Up Artist debate. I’m under no illusions: I’m sure there are more words that people will share as the years go on. As long as there is an IR disparity, there will be PUA, and as long as there is racism, there will be scientific racists, so I know that this discussion will most likely continue long after this post. But it’s been some time since the HBDers have brought anything new to the table, so it’s unlikely that my views will change much on this topic in the future. It’s time to settle up.
“Universal” Morality vs. Desperation Morality
A few weekends ago I went to a kids’ birthday party. I was sitting across from an Iranian American couple who had immigrated years ago and now had prestigious jobs, a beautiful 4-year-old daughter, and a great family life. You’re not supposed to talk politics or religion, but I felt like talking politics, so I told them about a time that I once accidentally wandered into a pro-Iran political group in the U.S. Iranians, the group had said, were just like Americans–the people had jobs, listened to music, and were just like you and me.
Lessons of the Creative Class from Ultimate Fighting
I’ve always believed that if you know one thing very well, you can apply that knowledge to other areas of life. One microcosm can contain knowledge applicable to the larger world. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, with it’s creative and fun fights and strict focus on business, can teach valuable lessons for people working in the creative class. Here you go, and please don’t hesitate to add your own:
1. Life is as much of an art as a science. Check out Jon Fitch. He’s beaten just about everyone but the champion and BJ Penn in his division, but he’ll most likely never get a shot at the title again. Dana White, after the Fitch-Penn fight, said:
Asian Tiger Parenting vs. Jewish Parenting
Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan
(I don’t know if Michael Roth is Jewish. I assume he is, but even if he isn’t, it’s not relevant, since I’m mostly working off Steven Silbiger’s book.)
There was an excellent article on CNN.com today: Why Liberal Arts Matter. It’s written by Michael Roth. In the article, Roth makes an argument for the liberal arts. He writes:
Many seem to think that by narrowing our focus to just science and engineering, we will become more competitive. This is a serious mistake.
Posted in Asian American, Features, Knowledge, parenting
Tagged Chinese, Jews, parenting, Steven Silbiger
48 Comments
Honor
I’ve been reading Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm X, and it’s absolutely excellent. As with the original autobiography, I love the way Malcolm’s life becomes a parable on which we can model our own lives. His life presents many of the answers which we seek in our own lives.
Asian American Manliness and Becoming Men
Welcome to the longest post in the history of bigWOWO. The Post Teaser plugin has been activated.
We’ve been having a long discussion on Asian American masculinity on those other two blog posts (1 and 2). We originally began talking about masculinity in order to understand emasculation and how it relates to interracial dating, but in the course of the discussion, we realized that masculinity and manliness are not the same thing. Masculinity is a frame of mind characterized by fast aggressive action, a yang frame of mind. It’s a self-contained description. Manliness, on the other hand, combines yin and yang, feminine and masculine, to embody what society thinks a man should be. Becoming a man is a rite of passage where the values depend entirely on the culture in which one lives.
Social Media and Activism
Thanks, JS, for facebooking this (ironic it came from fb!). A recent article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell stated that contrary to popular opinion, social revolutions cannot be started by social media. Ari Melber from the Nation somewhat argues against Gladwell in his piece Gladwell Gets It Wrong on Social Media. I say “somewhat” because they are working with different non-mutually exclusive premises–Gladwell’s thesis is that the importance of social media is overstated when it comes to activism, while Melber’s thesis is that “the web and networked communications open up new and effective ways for citizens to converse and organize each other in repressive societies.” Gladwell believes that “strong bonds” are important for real social activism, and that platforms like Facebook and Twitter build “weak bonds.” Melber argues that these platforms provide communication that helps activism.
Universal Humans and the Privilege of Whiteness
In the YA Literature thread, King, Kobukson and I had an interesting discussion with Oriental Right, formerly known as Asian of Reason. Some of you remember AOR–he is a “human biodiversity” proponent from Johns Hopkins who believes that black people on average are not as intelligent as White people, and Asian men aren’t as masculine as White men. With all due credit to him, he defended these views in a podcast with me, Alpha, and King (who is black), which we recorded here: Podcast. Although everyone disagreed with his views and the logical leaps he took to stand behind his beliefs, people respected him for having the courage to step up.
Posted in Asian American, Features, Writing
Tagged human biodiversity, literature, racism, Writing
27 Comments
The Role of the Reviewer/Crabs in a Bucket II/Gatekeepers II
There’s an interesting discussion among readers under the Siow post. And it carried over to the Alpha Asian blog. The Asian Playboy, who started the ABCs of Attraction school of Pick Up Artists, made me laugh by writing this on Alpha Asian’s blog (welcome back, by the way, Alpha!):
It becomes a crab in the barrel syndrome. Instead of supporting an Asian brother trying to make it big in Hollywood, music, or whathaveyou, people are more likely to try to tear you down because what they see in you is what they dislike about themselves.
