Once again...

Sexism is ignored and subordinated to racism.

As I'm sure you all know, shock jock Don Imus is busted by the public for calling members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "some nappy-headed hos."

The National Association of Black Journalists has demanded the immediate firing of the "Imus in the Morning" host. On Monday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a 50 person protest in Chicago outside of NBC's offices demanding his dismissal. Al Sharpton denounced the comment on his syndicated radio show as "racist" and "abominable," adding: "You should be fired for saying it."

I even overheard the women on THE VIEW talk about it while I was doing my taxes at my sister's house. They spoke about how such racial remarks can really affect each of the player's self-image. After all, they're just students.

As a double minority, I am proud when a community of color stands in solidarity against racial slurs and stereotypes, and demands accountability. I love it actually. But time and time again, and particularly in this situation, I am disappointed with that same community of color, as well as the feminist community, for hardly addressing the disparaging sexist comment made in the same breath. In fact, Imus' executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "some hard-core hos" before Imus made his stupid comment. Yet no one is asking McGuirk to resign. Believe me, if Imus never added the "nappy-headed" and just called the players "hos", there would be no news. Imus would still be on the air today, feeling secure and happy about his job and making misogynist remarks, without anyone feeling offended.

Why I Love Blacks

Dude, I was near USC tonight and saw that Inferno Affairs is playing at the Magic Johnson Theaters for late Friday and Saturday shows. This is why I love black people... because they appreciate Hong Kong gangster movies. And kung fu movies. And shrimp fried rice.

I say this in light of a recent opinion piece written by Kenneth Eng in Asian Week entitled, "Why I Hate Blacks."

It's pretty awful. But I'm more stunned and dismayed that Asian Week, a fairly political and (once) respected Asian American publication in the Bay Area, actually permitted the publication of Eng's piece. Sure, Asian Week issued an apology. But I think it's too late. Asian Week is fucked.

My Jet Blue Experience

As the week led up to my Thanksgiving trip to NYC, I was super excited for my first-ever experience on Jet Blue Airlines... admittedly, even more excited than my actual trip to NYC! I was looking forward to the leather seats, the extra leg room, and the individual tv on every seat!

The ride was definately a step up from the Southworst accomodations that I am accustomed to, but it really wasn't that much more spacious or comfortable. It's not like business class, though I'm not sure why I had expected it to be like business class. Also, I felt ambivalent about the TV, as it distracted me from my reading (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, a recommendation by both Josh and Jane).

Despite my ambivalence, I gladly watched Malibu's Most Wanted, starring Jaime Kennedy -- a movie which I would have NEVER EVER watched if not for the fact that I was stuck on a plane for five hours.

It's comedy about a rich white boy (Kennedy) who grew up in Malibu, but honestly thinks he's black inside. So the staff of his father's gubernatorial team considers Kennedy a threat to the campaign, and hires two "white" black actors to act "black", kidnap "black" Kennedy, and take him to "the ghetto" (South Central) to be scared "white". Of course, it doesn't quite work out that way because, as we know, racial politics just ain't that simple... so I'm sure you could imagine all the hijicks that followed.

Not only was it sooo stupid that it was funny, I was actually impressed with the movie's direction on issues of race, class and identity. I mean, the underlying message "to be yourself" is far from deep. In fact, I would testify that this movie does not add any value to the world whatsoever. But I do think the movie successfully tackled many sensitive and provocative racial topics and stereotypes with grace, humor and honesty. In other words, Kennedy and his crew pulled it off quite well. Believe me, I would have never expected it (especially with a movie poster like the one above). It was, indeed, a sweet surprise.

Damn, graphic artists are fast

Call to Action

(This Call to Action follows a recent racial incident that occurred at
UCLA Law School.  Oh how I love my alma mater... it hasn't changed one
bit since I left!)

Friends, Alumni, Colleagues and Allies,

SHARE JD (Students Helping to Assure Racial Equity, Justice and
Diversity), an organization at UCLA Law school, is planning a direct
action to mark the 10-year anniversary of the passage of Proposition
209 which ended any participation in Affirmative Action programs on
behalf of public institutions.

Since Prop 209, the number of students of color at public
universities across California has dwindled such that at UCLA, only
96 black students enrolled at the undergraduate level for the school
year of 2006-2007 out of an incoming class of 3,000.

At the law school, we have ONE black woman in the class of 2008 which
has about 350 students. We had more black students in 1969 at the law
school than we do in 2006.

These numbers are outrageous and similar stats can be found at almost
every public higher education institution across California.

On the morning of Thursday November 2, SHARE JD is coordinating
students of color to "walk-in" to law school classes at UCLA. We want
students to see what our classrooms SHOULD look like if it was
representative of the people of Los Angeles and California.  We also
want students of color to feel empowered to take their space and their
place.

To accomplish this we need YOU to contact as many people of color as
possible and have them e-mail claudlbc@yahoo.com if they are
interested in 'walking-in.'

There are 11 classes we are trying to fill. The idea is to walk-in to
classes beginning at 10:50am and 11:00am. Each group will have a
representative speaker who will address the class and professor.
Afterwards, we will head to the courtyard to hear a speaker.

In justice,

SHARE JD

Local news

So the Asian American community is in an uproar over this one lame writer, Jed Levine, for the Daily Bruin, the official college newspaper for UCLA. As any white man who inexplicably fears losing power and control, he calls himself an underrepresented minority on campus, and empathizes with members of the Black Student Union and MEChA stating, "it's hard to find other white people I can identify with on a campus that feels more like Taipei than L.A."

Perhaps Jed is just trying to be clever or facetious? You decide for yourself. However, if that was his intention, I think he failed miserably. But then again, he's just a student writer for a shitty college paper, so I don't even really care.

I mean, it's not like he's LA Times writer Joel Stein, who was able to humorously call out our own human hypocrisy, but still hold the Bush Administration responsible for the Iraq War and torture of prisoners. Now Joel is a good writer. Jed is just a dumb college kid.

Jed would have received accolades, rather than hate letters, if he were able to say, look, Asian students do out-number other students of color at UCLA and other public universities, and that the proportion of Asian students far exceed the proportion of Asians residing in the state. This is proof that something in the system is flawed for other students. But let's not blame Asian students for the campus feeling like Taipei. Let's criticize the current admissions policies that limit admissions to only grades and test scores.

Because the truth is, as we all know, when the racist Regents of the UC System decided to strictly interpret Prop. 209 and ostensibly implement "non-race based factors" for admissions, they were hoping to reduce admissions of ALL students of color, including Asians. But they erred in their plan of whitening the UC campuses. That's on them. Asians shouldn't be blamed for just showing up and acing the exams. We can't help it if we're fucken brilliant. We're just being who we are.

Culture Clash taught me to speak like a Vato

I just found the program for Culture Clash's latest production, Water & Power under a pile of junk mail. Tonk and I were fortunate to get tickets to the final show of the production at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown a couple of weeks ago. Although not as impressed with the actual performance, I was tickled to find a glossary in the program filled with Spanish slang that both Gringos and Chinos can appreciate.

Here are my favorites. I took the liberty to mix and match words and phrases:

Poquito mas mota -- A little more marijuana
Poquito mas gavachita -- A little more little white girl
Poquito mas pedo -- A little more drunkenness and/or trouble
Callate, Viejita! -- Shut up, Old Lady!
Clamate, Chavala! -- Calm down, Little Girl
Poquito mas cabeza, Chavala! -- A little more head, Little Girl
Que casualidad, que curioso -- What a coincidence, how strange (this is an actual phrase from the program booklet)

Oh how I love learning other languages. But in retrospect, I should have went to the Banksy exhibit which happened to have ended that same Sunday.

Check out the controversially painted Elephant in the Room:

I'm ambivalent about the elephant issue. It's such a beautiful art piece with a meaningful message. During the show, cards were handed out explaining: "There's an elephant in the room. There's a problem we never talk about. The fact is that life isn't getting any fairer…. 20 billion people live below the poverty line." On the other hand, I could see why animal activists were upset. Although nontoxic, the paint was unsafe and illegal to be used in such a manner. Plus, there was a huge crowd and it was very hot for the elephant.

Despite this, Banksy is cool as hell. His graffitti art has been all over LA. He's very anti-corporate, anti-government, yet his art is not didactic or obvious. It's actually very artful. It makes you think but not too hard. Just the way I like it.

So Banksy's just as political as Cultural Clash, but different. You should check out both websites that I conveniently included in my entry above (especially Banksy's).

Me entiendes, Chingadera? You get me, you piece of crap?

Si? Sabes! Palabra.

I missed the first 1/2 of racist Survivor

... so I have yet to develop a sociological analysis of the most controversial show of the year! And I will assume that a group of bickering, backstabbing Latinos (that's all I saw during the 2nd half of the show) does not reflect the scope and importance of the show.

Here is an analysis from columnist Joel Stein. He cracks me up... and he's rooting for the Asian team. WERD.

Finally, Some Prime-Time Racism

Battle of the races on 'Survivor' places discussion of stereotypes where it belongs -- in the mainstream. -- September 19, 2006

I'VE NEVER BEEN interested in "Survivor," but the new, racist "Survivor" — that, I was psyched about. If "Battle of the Network Stars" made good TV, weekly competitions between poorly fed "tribes" of African Americans, whites, Asians and Latinos were going to be awesome. So, last Thursday night, I got some brie and water crackers, put on a J. Crew sweater vest and settled down on the settee to root for whitey.

None of my white friends wanted to watch with me because — although it was fine for the other races — they felt it was unbecoming for Caucasian Americans to root for their own kind. I found that condescending. Cheering for the whites is no different from rooting for my college football team, for U.S. Olympic teams or for men to finish before women in porn scenes. The latter, unlike the men's Olympic basketball team, never let me down.

But it turns out lots of people got freaked out about this. As soon as CBS announced this season's theme, leaders of the New York City Council demanded that the network abandon the idea, and GM, Coca-Cola, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and Febreze ended their advertising on the series. You know you've stumbled into a huge pile of it when even Febreze walks away.

No one got upset in past seasons when the show used gender and age to divide people. But we've somehow decided that racial issues can only be discussed in books, college lectures, NPR and other mediums that are so boring people can't get riled up. Songs by Coldplay are probably largely about race.

Unlike 30 years ago, when "All in the Family" and "Chico and the Man" made cutting jokes about race, we've set so many rules about talking about skin color that we rarely do it at all. "Survivor: Cook Islands" isn't trivializing race — it's just not avoiding it like the rest of us. If there really were a group of people stranded on a deserted island, this is exactly how things would go down. Just like in jail.

So I was pumped for some serious racial tension as soon as the contestants pulled up to the island. The giant old ship conjured different images depending on which team was on camera: a slave ship, a makeshift raft from the Dominican Republic, a boat full of Vietnamese or an afternoon sailing cruise to Nantucket. My team was going to rock.

Not only, to my delight, was my team the best looking, but the whiteys seemed to have a really fun attitude, joking and bonding and having a great time. A few minutes into the show, however — long before any contests or voting anyone off — something weird started to happen. I started to turn on my own people.

These white people were a little too preppy, too frat-boy, too happy with themselves. While other teams were fighting over hut building, the white folks were making toasts to each other over little bits of coconut milk and lying down to sleep half-naked and spooning en masse, thrilled with their total super awesomeness. It turns out I kind of hate white people.

The black team wasn't doing it for me either, with its sexism, infighting and talk about representing and feeling each other's vibes. They loved themselves almost as much as white people do.

The Latinos were kind of likable and hardworking if quiet, but those Asians — they were terrific. In fact, better yet, they were like me. They were laid-back and self-effacing. There was a journalist, a lawyer, a management consultant — just like my friends. One of them even went to Stanford four years after I did. And they won the first contest handily, even though their chicken was stolen by the white people. White people who probably didn't even eat the feet or eyeballs.

I don't know if my feelings are because of the fact that this is a particularly nice group of Asians, or if Jews are culturally more akin to Asians than other white people, or because Asians are a completely superior race destined to rule the planet. All I know is that the show is allowing me to make these kinds of racist comments in public.

And I think that's good. Not just because, as CBS argues, getting to know these contestants will help dispel stereotypes. It also will allow us to see which stereotypes are true and discuss which differences make us uncomfortable. Maybe if we admit that race is a factor — just like gender and age — we'll be a little more honest with each other. And maybe we'll also realize that, if we're going to survive, we really need to band together against the yellow people.

Sooooo fucked up

Mister Markus alerted me to this book in my previous post about racialized Survivor.

How fucken gross! For the most part, I don't get offended by racist shit anymore (desensitization is a bitch)... even the racist Addidas shoes didn't bother me. But this is really offensive. What's worse is the author is an Asian guy -- Adam Quan. Fucken self-hating sell-out whore!!

The book came out in 2004, and apparently, many negative comments were posted on Amazon as a result. I was going to post something nasty on Amazon too, until I learned that Amazon eliminated many of the comments regarding the race issue. Fortunately, the Melting Blog captured some of the comments before Amazon erased them.

Who says race doesn't matter?

CBS has announced that the castaways from this fall's Survivor: Cook Islands will -- in what the show's producer and host both acknowledge to be a controversial move -- initially be organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines: African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and Caucasian.

Damn. I think that is all I have to say. Damn.

In silent protest (as I do not watch Survivor, although I might this season), I refuse to cheer for any specific racial team. Still, let's review the cast mates on the Asian American team, shall we? They better represent...

• Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui, a 42-year-old nail salon manager from Christianburg, VA

You go, Bui! I like the untamed hair. It gives him a competitive edge cuz he looks all psycho and barbaric and shit.

• Jenny Guzon-Bae, a 36-year-old real estate agent who currently resides in Lake Forest, IL and is originally from Melrose Park, IL

Illinois in da house! I'll give her some love even though she's from the booty suburbs of Chicago.

• Yul Kwon, a 31-year-old management consultant who currently resides in San Mateo, CA and is originally from Flushing, NY

This is good. Koreans are wild. He will be the muscle.

• Becky Lee, a 28-year-old attorney who currently resides in Washington, DC and is originally from Pittsburgh, PA

Becky Lee? Like Becca Yee? And she's an attorney too... except I would never strike a pose like that. Ewww.

• Brad Virata, a 29-year-old fashion director who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and is originally from Seattle, WA

Fucken pretty boy. You just better not cry and embarrass your race.

If the glove don't fit...

Poor Johnnie. I wonder if he would have ever suspected his white associates to take over his firm when he died? I give mad respect to Johnnie, but it's his bad for trusting whitee in the first place...

In Bomb the Suburbs, William Upski Wimsatt, a white "hip hop" writer from Chicago, writes, "...But let me offer this advice to black artists: Next time y'all invent something, you had better find a way to control it financially, because we're going to want that shit. And... you won't even get to hear us say 'Thanks niggers'."

No Chief on the Basketball Court

I'll be the first to admit that I have not kept abreast with the politics at my college campus. However, to my credit, not much has changed. It's 2006, yet U of I continues to use a Native American Chief as a mascot for the university. It's really disgusting.

But to my delight and surprise, I learn today that the National Collegiate Athletic Association created a policy that requires the university to drop its Chief Illiniwek mascot and logo because the image is "hostile and abusive". Illinois was one of 18 schools deemed by the NCAA executive committee last August to be using improper imagery or mascots. The organization decreed that any school continuing to use the images after Feb. 1, 2006, would be barred from hosting postseason competition and could not display the image at any postseason tournament.

The university, of course, is appealing and calling the policy "arbitrary and capricious".

Someone might want to inform the university that before they make such an argument, they should advise their student body, mostly made of drunk fraternity guys and dumb sorority sisters, to stop wearing the sweatpants with the big fat Native American face on their asses...

Brand New Muslim Barbie

Mattel should have a Miss Barbie Universe Contest... but then this doll couldn't compete in the swimsuit competition.






At least Muslim Barbie looks modest and (a little) more true to form... Chinese Barbie looks like an Orange County white girl dressed as a geisha for Halloween.








Dragon Lady Edition

Fuck you, Mattel. Fuck you.