Category Archives: history

Aung Sung Suu Kyi Movie with Michelle Yeoh

For those of you who like historical movies, or for those of you who are hungry for yet another AF/WM movie, check out The Lady with Michelle Yeoh. I read about it on 8A. Check out the blogger’s thoughts, and also check out the opinion of the commenters.

Posted in history, media, Politics | Tagged | 45 Comments

“It Didn’t Happen On My Watch” by George E. Murphy (Review)

I grew up hearing George Murphy’s speeches during family events in New York, where Mr. Murphy often gave speeches and toasts. I knew that he was a friend of my grandfather and that they worked together at U.S. Lines. I knew that both he and my grandfather were engineers who worked on ships, but beyond that, I had no idea what they did. I remember once saying something to my grandfather about “working for the captain,” and my grandfather said, “I didn’t work for the captain. We have the same number of stripes.” (George Murphy might even correct me further–they’re not “captains;” they’re called “masters.”) It was through this book that I got a glimpse of what my grandfather did when he was working.

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Eugenics in American History

I can’t forget our HBD podcast, where our conversation partner talked about instituting a eugenics program to eliminate those of low IQ. He prefaced it by saying that it would never happen.

However…apparently, it did happen. Not just in this country, but as recently as the early 1970′s. Check out this NY Times article here. They even had an institution called the Eugenics Board of North Carolina. Thousands were sterilized, many of whom were minors and victims of rape. Now North Carolina is pondering ways in which they can pay back the victims.

Posted in history | Tagged , | 41 Comments

5 Old Timey Movie Prejudices

This is a funny article: 5 Old-Timey Prejudices That Show Up in Every Movie. They’re all funny, but the funniest one by far is #1 (on the second page): We Still Don’t Care About History That Doesn’t Involve White People.

Posted in history, media | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (Review)

bigWOWO Review: Non-Fiction Bronze

Niall Ferguson is a gifted writer. The way he writes history makes it come alive. He does his research well, and he tells a great story. He’s the kind of history professor I wish I’d had in school. (And if I had made Harvard, maybe I would have had him.)And for the most part, this book was good. But then it slowly started to fall apart after the first few chapters, before completely landing in the toilet in the second-to-last chapter.

Posted in books, history, Reviews | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Real Band of Brothers

Story about seven Japanese and Japanese American brothers on both sides of the war: Brothers went to war, but not all on the same side. Happy Veterans Day.

Posted in Asian American, history, Knowledge | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

An Wang and the Politics of Getting Credit

Dali and I have been having an interesting conversation in the final HBD thread about whether the modern computer (aka Byron’s Mac, since that was how one HBDer brought in the topic) is a White invention. His opinion is that Whites invented all the technology necessary to make the modern computer, that Asians simply latched on to the moving train of invention, and that therefore the computer is a White invention. My view is that calling a modern computer a “White invention” is akin to calling an M-16 a “Chinese invention;” while White people may have invented the first computer and Chinese may have invented the first gun, the modern laptop or desktop is a completely different beast. The modern computer is multicultural.

Posted in Asian American, history | Tagged | 23 Comments

Chinese Men Fighting in the Civil War

I had no idea–Chinese Americans actually fought in the Civil War.  There were Chinese men on both sides of the battle, both in the North and the South.  There weren’t many–only 58 soldiers out of the 200 Chinese people in the U.S. at the time.  At least one Chinese American fought with distinction:

Corporal Joseph Pierce, who as a child was brought to the United States from China by his adoptive father, fought in several major campaigns of the war including Antietam and Gettysburg. He was honored by having his picture displayed at the Gettysburg Museum.

Posted in Asian American, history, Knowledge | Tagged , | 6 Comments

David Duke and Dukian Doppelgangers

David Duke

A “doppelganger,” in the game Dungeons and Dragons, is a monster that changes shapes to mimic other humanoid creatures.  In the X-men, the same kind of creature is called a shapeshifter.  On the internet, a doppelganger is one who pretends to be someone that he or she is not.  It is a form of troll.  On Asian American sites, common doppelgangers tell people that they’re Asian when they really aren’t.

Posted in history, Site Administration | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

William Hohri, Rest in Peace

We need to remember our heroes.  Bill Hohri was a freedom fighter who was interned at Manzanar during the Japanese American internment.  When he got out, he refused to accept the government’s crimes, and he took them to court, asking for $210k for each survivor.  He ultimately lost the suit, but Reagan later signed a law giving each survivor $20,000.

Hohri’s group researched the law and detailed numerous constitutional violations. In 1983 he became the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, which charged that the federal government had “maliciously and unlawfully conspired” to imprison Japanese Americans in a campaign of “invidious racial discrimination.”

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