The Conversation
- “But he hit me back first!” (50)
- Eurasian Sensation: @ N: Why, because I’m half white I want to defend European colonialism?
- Raguel: JStele, you’re right about intermingling and contributing to communities. It should be an option, not...
- N: @ES No mention of the great deeds the Dutch had done in Indonesia? (Similarly the English in Malaysia). I love how...
- Jeremy Lin: Our Generation’s Joe Louis (16)
- N: I hope Davis understands he should be winding down his career and is happy to enjoy the party. I personally think...
- gar: Coverage of him has been interesting; I think some folks don’t know what to make of him still or even how...
- bigWOWO: He did it again! http://www.usatoday.com/sports /basketball/nba/story/2012-02- 11/Lin-takes-Knicks-into-Ta...
- Seeking Asian Female (10)
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (247)
- bigWOWO: Not sure if you’re a “bot” or a real person, Andre, but I know lots of Chuas. Only...
- Andre M. Smith: Further on Chua as a Chinese surname . . . My wife, a gyn surgeon, hails from a family of...
- The Other-Directed Personality (1)
- Siegfried: Mitt got Obama worried. He is shaking in his boots. It’s over for Obama because Mitt is going to...
- Holy Jesus, Jeremy (9)
- N: @TD Good pick up on that one.
- trolldetector: @Colin I love how whites keep trying to troll their divide tactics Asian blogs under different guises.
- Eurasian Sensation: @ Colin: I’m pretty sure Jeremy Lin and his supporters are not the same person.
- Jeremy Lin shines (21)
- trolldetector: GO JEREMY LIN
- N: @danny You should youtube his college games. The two against Boston college and the one against UConn. Lol, he can...
- Lingyai: @Ben Efsaneyim Why would it be surprising a non Asian crowd cheering for Lin? Most of the NBA fans going to...
- What Cultures Value (22)
- trolldetector: @Colin. Dont you belong on a Lord Of The Rings filmset? Thats where most white trolls dwell isnt it?
- colin: A bit late to this, but bigwowo, you grossly underestimate the anti-work and anti-intellectual ethic here in...
- bigWOWO: Yeah, I could go for that.
- About A Boy by Nick Hornby (6)
- bigWOWO: That’s a really good point, Raguel. Like it or not, TV executives control everything (including what...
- Raguel: I could be wrong but the distribution windows for media and especially film seems very hierarchical. If you...
- bigWOWO: Illegal streaming? I had no idea anyone did that! Well, I really should check out some movies one of these...
- Superbowl Recipe and Xenophobic Superbowl Ad (22)
- Raguel: Time to get your concealed carry licences, folks!
- Eurasian Sensation: Jeff Yang has a good article about this ad: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn....
- Raguel: I haven’t even gotten to why the ad really is so offensive to us, ROFL
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (9)
- Raguel: ^ Nice one Byron! I’m reading through the NYT picks, they’re good!
- bigWOWO: The Times had an Op-Ed by the President of the RIAA, and I commented. My comment was picked as a...
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism (402)
- bigWOWO: Here’s an interesting suggestion coming out of MIT: Connectome by Sebastian Seung...
- Battle Hymn of the Kitten Daughter (36)
- Raguel: You know Andre, you and me, I think we and a lot of other folks may have gone through some pretty harrowing...
- Andre M. Smith: Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew....
- 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...
- 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...
- 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.
- “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...
- “But he hit me back first!” (50)
Category Archives: Activism
Local laws, local enforcement in Flushing
Oh, sweet! The NY Times allows us to embed videos.
Check out the video above–I used to shop at some of these places! It’s about how Chinese stores in Flushing prevent shoplifting. They either demand exorbitant amounts of money not to call the police–$400 for a first offense, $2,000 for subsequent offenses–or they plaster pictures of the accused all over their store. Some of the pictures even print the offenders social security numbers (which I guess would allow thieves–identity thieves–to go after the offenders?). Many of these offenders are here illegally, and they don’t want to get the police involved with anything they do, so they often pay up.
Teaching Apple to Really "Think Different"
Congratulations, King: 1st EVER Winner of the bigWOWO award! In doing so, he invented the category of “creative interference.” (Check the sidebar for my new page for award winners.)
It’s not often that someone sends me something so funny that I cry! I literally had tears in my eyes when I saw this one. Here’s King’s winning entry to the unplanned contest (see text below for explanation). Click the image to see the full size version:
In an earlier post, Robert clued us on to Apple’s new advertising campaign. If you check out the new iPhone video, as King mentions, you have not one…but TWO Asian Female/White Male pairings in a ROW. What are the chances of that?
Posted in Activism, Asian American, media, Strategy
Tagged advertising, Asian American, interracial relationships, media
91 Comments
Kingstonian Tar-and-Feather
Hai Nguyen with her husband John after divorcing her supposedly sexist Vietnamese American ex-husband Greg
King posted this article in the FlashForward thread. He was posting it to say something about interracial relationships among African Americans, but the story I caught from the article was this one:
Hai Nguyen, 37, of Houston recalls the instant connection she felt after meeting her first Vietnamese boyfriend, Greg, in college. Nguyen says while she had to explain herself to white boyfriends, with Greg it was a feeling that “he so gets me, because we eat the same food, we like the same things, our families know each other and there is so little that needs to be said.”
Posted in Activism, Asian American, Praxis
Tagged interracial relationships, racism, stereotypes
52 Comments
Vietnam to America
Check out the video above and read the story here. Some of the stories coming out of Vietnam are absolutely fascinating. Planning an escape–that’s true heroism. I’ve heard some stories from local former refugees in my area, and I think it’s absolutely crucial for people to preserve these stories.
If you’ve got a story to share, check out the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation here.
"Sister, Can You Lend An Ear" by Julia Oh
Sister, Can You Lend an Ear?
By Julia Oh
©2002 Julia Oh
Sisters know what I’m talking about. The demeaning terms and images that are associated with Asian women: “Suzie Wong. Geisha girl. Me so horny. Damsel in distress. China Doll. Bound feet. Fucky-sucky.” We live in a society where Asian women are forced to battle the the burdens of both sexism and racism, where social hierarchy positions white above Asian, man above woman. For that, there is nothing that makes me prouder than a strong sister. There is a growing collective consciousness among Asian women. Over the past few years, an increasing number of Asian women have taken the initiative to speak out against oppression. Asian women were at the forefront of protests to The Bloodhound Gang’s racist lyrics in the song “Yellow Fever”, as they were at the forefront of protests against Abercrombie & Fitch’s racist caricature T-shirts. Numerous Asian female empowerment sites have sprung up all over the internet, including one of my favorites, bigbadchinesemama.com, an in-your-face webpage that parodies Asian female porn sites designed for white male jerk-off fantasies.
Beauty and the Ethnic Woman
The beautiful and natural Yunjin Kim
Thanks, King, for sending in these articles: Erasing Ethnicity.
(I google searched for a picture of a blonde haired, blue eyed Asian woman to put on the front-page of this article. The results were all hideous, so I didn’t bother posting. So instead y’all get to see a picture of the beautiful and natural Asian American Yunjin Kim who recently decided not to go with the typical marriage trend. Represent, Yunjin! Min Jin, you broke my heart; Yunjin, you put it back together!)
Ed Lin Event Recap
Byron, author Ed Lin, actress Cindy Cheung
Thank you Thymos, AAJA-Portland, Friends of Portland Chinatown, and Murder By the Book for the awesome Ed Lin event yesterday. Special thanks to Amy Wang, Ruth Liao, Elizabeth Suh from AAJA; Joann Le, Fai Chong, and Ivy Lin from Friends of Portland Chinatown, and Barbara Tom from Murder By the Book. I had a blast. Not only did we get to learn writing from an awesome author, but we also had a chance to hear Ed speak from the heart on his thoughts about the publishing industry and Asian American issues. What is super cool about Ed’s career is that he started from an Asian American perspective, writing about Asian American issues and participating in the Asian American Writers Workshop.
Posted in Activism, Portland, Writing
Tagged AAJA-Portland, Cindy Cheung, Ed Lin, Friends of Portland Chinatown, thymos
2 Comments
EthnoLA, 5/10/10
This was from AZN at BcB. Check it out if you’re in LA.
Ending the Blame Game (along with dropping baggage)
Henry Louis Gates Jr. had an Op-Ed in the Times today about reparations for slavery: How to End the Slavery Blame-Game. In his essay, he talks about how Africans were working with Europeans when they sold black people into slavery, and he discusses how the question of blame isn’t always black and white (pun intended). This was my favorite passage:
For many African-Americans, these facts can be difficult to accept. Excuses run the gamut, from “Africans didn’t know how harsh slavery in America was” and “Slavery in Africa was, by comparison, humane” or, in a bizarre version of “The devil made me do it,” “Africans were driven to this only by the unprecedented profits offered by greedy European countries.”
Elian Gonzalez, 10 years later
From what I can tell, most of the readers of this blog are in their mid-thirties to early forties, so I can post this without getting a “WTF is he talking about?” response. See the video above (along with the story). I remember the political anger that came of the event. For those who are too young to remember, ten years ago 13 Cuban migrants tried to escape Cuba and enter Florida. Almost all of the migrants, including Elian’s mom, died, but Elian, who was 5 at the time, survived. His father, who was back in Cuba, wanted his son returned to Cuba, while many among the Cuban American population in Florida wanted him to stay in the U.S. Elian’s U.S. based relatives refused to hand over the child, so Janet Reno sent federal agents armed with guns and tear gas to their door.
But here is an...