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.

Does he look like a mastermind to you?

The FBI just reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to "masterminding" the 9/11 attacks and other awful atrocities including beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl. His statement was made after FOUR YEARS of illegal detainment (and interrogation and torture) in Guantanamo Bay.

I don't know. Seems dubious to me.

Vote No on Prop. 83 & 85

Tomorrow (well, today) is Election Day. Please remember to vote. And let's pray that the Democrats will take back both the House and the Senate. I think it may be possible.

Also, if you reside in California, please vote NO on Propositions 83 & 85. Prop. 85 requires parental notification for a minor to terminate a pregnancy. Of course, we all know how wrong that is, so there is no need to discuss it (I hope).

Many liberal and progressive organizations and unions, however, are silent (likely due to political reasons) on Prop 83, which prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of any school or park and expands monitoring of such offenders to include lifelong global positioning system tracking. That is so fucked up. Why must sex offenders continue to be punished for their crime, even when they have already served their time and paid their debt to society? We as a society already have a website to monitor the residences of sex offenders, but now we're going to tell them where they can or cannot live? Don't we all know by now that most sex offenses are committed by people we know, rather than random strangers on the streets?

I know I am a minority when it comes to this view, but I feel very strongly about it. There are better ways to reduce recidivism.

Read this LA Times article about how Prop 83 can negatively impact our communities. The article is actually quite neutral, but it does a great job outlining the arguments for both sides.

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.

Violence against girls, not rural areas

When NPR reported on the school attacks this morning, it commented on the most notable similarity between the shooting in Colorado and the shooting in Pennsylvania... that both shootings occurred in a rural area.

Are you kidding me? That was your analysis?

To me, the most obvious similarity is that the victims of the shootings were girls only. Each shooter ordered the teachers and boys to leave the premises while he held the girls hostage. The Colorado shooter sexually molested the girls before he fatally shot one and himself. The Amish shooter brought two tubes of KY jelly with him, presumably to also sexually violate the girls before killing them and himself.

The fact that the targeted victims have been girls is the most appalling aspect of both shootings. I have yet to hear a report from the mainstream media that speaks to the rampant and continuous sexism, patriarchy and violence against women and girls, as evidenced by these shootings. Instead, I hear and read bullshit about the shooter's past, the quiet Amish community, life in the rural areas... dude, whatever.

End Times by Jill Greenburg

Misinformation

Jill Greenburg's exhibit of crying children, featured at Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles, has drawn public criticism by those who are probably hypersensitive, narrow-minded, overtly judgmental parents who have no life or ambitions to make real positive change, so they complain cowardly 0n the blogosphere, and send anonymous hate mail to the artist and gallery exhibiting the photos.

Faith?

The work depicts how children would feel if they knew the state of the world they're set to inherit, explained Greenberg, whose own daughter is featured in the show. "Our government is so corrupt, with all the cronyism and corporate lobbyists," she said. "I just feel that our world is being ruined."

Four More Years

To be fair, however, the reason why no-life bloggers are up-in-arms is because of the method Greenburg used to elicit such powerful emotional responses -- she took a tootsie pop away from the children, I presume, while the kids were enjoying it. Hmm... art imitating life? But the wailing and the shoot lasted 20 or 30 seconds. The kids "sniffled a little" afterward, but then got multiple lollipops in trade for the stolen one.

Shock

Wow, she's really pissed about that lollipop.

The Truth

The images were enhanced during postproduction, Greenberg said, to make the children appear more upset than they really were. She used Photoshop to darken furrows in brows, shine tears until they glistened.

Torture

In the end, "This is more a story about blogging than about photography," said Stephen White, formerly a gallery owner and currently a private dealer and collector in Studio City. "It's about a generation that's so caught up in itself that everything it says it thinks is significant, even though it's not saying anything at all.

Trillions

I recall first seeing these photos on a billboard at the intersection of La Brea and Beverly. I was with Blu-Tooth, who was disturbed. Yeah, I guess I can see why people are bothered. I just don't agree. I think the raw-ness of anger and frustration and hopelessness, especially in subjects as pure and innocent as toddlers, is beautiful and breath-taking. We as adults try to shelter kids from "negative" emotions, but those emotions are real, you know? How can you truly appreciate joy if you don't experience sorrow?

I absolutely adore the photos. Jill, you rock in DYY's world! Fuck the rest.

English-only bullshit

English would be declared the "national language" of the United States under a measure the Senate approved Thursday, a move that supporters said would promote unity and encourage assimilation by immigrants. The measure would establish that people have no right or entitlement to ask government officials to provide services or materials in other languages, unless authorized by law.

I don't understand why so many White Americans are threatened by other cultures and languages. It's not like limited-English speaking individuals have tons of power. They are not a threat. Immigrants are not de-unifying America.

My father, Yip Yee, can hardly speak, read or understand English, but he is a good citizen. He pays his taxes. He votes. He raised his children to be law-abiding (well, some of them...) and morally responsible. His kids speak perfect English, even better than Chinese. He taught us to value our education and opportunities, because there would be no chance in hell we would have received the same opportunities if my family didn't immigrate to America.

Yip Yee was able to do all this by leaving his beloved home country, away from all his friends and family and his culture, to come a foreign and intimidating country with little money and resources. He worked nearly everyday for the past 40 years, from morning to night, as a chef with no benefits and on wages that "real" Americans would never work for. He never received any public benefits, and never asked for hand-outs. At 70 years old, he continues to work even though he should clearly be retired.

Now you tell me when would my dad have had a chance to learn English? Do you think he should have gone to English language school after he worked 14 hours a day? Do you think he should have sacrificed the limited time he had to spend with his children so that he could study his English language books? Do you think he should have spent his hard earned dollars on English classes than spend it on diapers for his babies, or tuition for his kids?

These English-only proponents need a wake-up call. This measure would clearly divide America. It's unrealistic and places an extra burden on already struggling immigrants. But I know the truth... these English-only fucks really don't give a shit. I wish they would stop posturing it's about unity. I hate how the right has appropriated good concepts and has used it as a pretext for evil. They make me wanna throw up.

Economic Boycott

I would like to take this opportunity to applaud all the committed individuals who refused to purchase anything on May 1st. Whether or not the boycott truly made a detrimental impact on our economy (I have been hearing differing reports), it made people notice and, I bet, worry just a little bit...

I wholeheartedly disagree with all the critics who felt the boycott would alienate the public. That part of the public hated immigrants or never cared about immigrants to begin with.

Marc Cooper (a columnist from the LA Weekly who I followed and sympathized with when he was harassed for reporting about the UFW scandal) wrote an opinion piece in the LA Times that stated, "Boycotts are powerful and volatile weapons used as a last resort to bust open dams of dogged resistance. You don't use them when the political tide is even vaguely flowing in your direction." As you might have guessed, he doesn't agree with the boycott/walkout.

Yo Marc, wake the fuck up! Immigrants lack power. They don't own media, they don't have much money or resources, and most of them can't vote. The power immigrants have come from their labor, their numbers and their principles. That's why a boycott was necessary. And considering the height of anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment, the time is now to use the most "powerful and volatile weapons" we got!

Marc, perhaps you should apply for a correspondent position at Fox News or CNN? I heard they reported mostly negative portrayals of the rally and boycott. However, I think I get why you wrote what you wrote -- BF informed me that you created a nice little niche for yourself as a progressive who criticizes other progressives. Dude, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do... but you lost a fan. Hey, I'm sure you and Ann Coulter can be best buddies though.

Star Spangled Banner in Spanish

The release of ``Nuestro Himno,'' which means ``Our Anthem", features artists such as Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon. As exciting as this collaboration sounds (not!), the song's release coincides with a planned May 1 national boycott in support of immigration reforms. President Bush said Friday that he doesn't support boycotts and believes the national anthem should be sung in English and not Spanish.

Oh how I cringed when I heard that.

My neck still hurts from that cringe too.

Anyway, Tonkhero and I had a debate about the issue this morning. Although he doesn't have some weird patriotic objection to the song being sung in Spanish, he feels it's un-strategic for the movement, and may turn off or distract potential supporters and allies from the real issues at hand.

I agree that the Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner may not solve anti-immigrant legislation, but I find the act very symbolic and powerful. The Spanish SSB salutes to a multicultural, multi-lingual America. In fact, when I think of the music video for the Spanish SSB, I see little children from all over the world, in different shapes and colors, linked together holding hands across America (with Wyclef swaying on a cloud). It's all one love.

You know, I would be ecstatic if a group of limited English speakers wanted to translate one of my songs into their respective language, so that millions of them and others could sing it... and to sing it with pride. I would be honored. These English-only Americans are fools.

Also, when did English speakers own the rights to SSB? I would think SSB is public domain by now.

Asians and the immigration debate

Many have wondered and discussed the role of Asians and Asian Americans on issues regarding immigration policy and reform. Unfortunately, the voices of our community have been widely ignored or subordinated, despite that most, if not all, Asians and Asian Americans in the United States are immigrants, come from immigrant backgrounds, or have close ties with an immigrant community. Additionally, it is a fact that decisions ultimately made in Congress as well as whatever happens on the streets by wacko xenophobic vigilante groups, like the Minute Men, shall undoubtedly have an impact on the Asian community. You may not see many of our faces during protests and rallies, but it's a complex issue that affects us and our families everyday.

The LA Times recently published an article that I thought was a pretty good introduction to the dialouge of Asians and the immigration issue. I also just read a really interesting article in the lastest New Yorker regarding "snakeheads" -- individuals in the Chinese community who make a lucrative career out of illegally smuggling undocumented Chinese natives into the United States. Despite the wretched and inhuman conditions of their transport, the enormous debt they owe, and the risks of detainment and deportation and death, it seems that many of the Chinese are not regretful, even the ones who didn't make it. Rather, they are extremely grateful to the snakeheads.

It makes you remember how fortunate we Americans are.

**Long live Sister Peng, the greatest snakehead of all time! (By the way, she's Fukinese, for my two Fukinese friends out there... I think she kicks ass. She can be your role model!)

God to blame?

Mayor Nagin of New Orleans said in a speech that the hurricanes were a sign of God's anger toward the United States and toward black communities, too, for their violence and in fighting.
I'm all for passing the blame onto others, but I'm getting really tired of everyone attributing natual disasters and illness and just plain inexplicable bad things to God. There are reasonable and scientific explanations to most everything, yet people throughout history have been blaming God. Take the Bubonic Plague for example... those dirty Euros blamed God when they should have been taking showers and disposing their garbage in a civilized manner. As for the hurricanes, has anyone heard of GLOBAL WARMING? The more we blame God, the less we are accountable for our own actions and do what is necessary to prevent future disasters, like building adequate levies or developing alternative energy sources. Anyway, enough preaching... all I have to say is when the bird flu pandemic finally breaks out, don't blame the Chinese for sleeping with the poultry, you better remember to blame God.

Behind Brokeback Mountain

No doubt Brokeback Mountain is a beautiful movie. The scenes are breathtaking; the men are hot; the performers are remarkably convincing (with the exception of Jake Gyllenhaal's occasional whiny Angeleno accent seeping through); and the costume designs are excellent (if I were a rodeo girl, I would totally sport the red cowboy hat and outfit that Jack Twist's wife was wearing!). But let's give some kudos to the director, okay? When a Hollywood director, such as Steven Speilberg or Oliver Stone, directs a critically-acclaimed movie, you always hear his name in conjunction with the film... so why haven't I heard anything about Ang Lee when the masses speak so greatly about Brokeback? Just like how some people can't accept that an American cowboy can be gay, people are not ready to acknowledge that an American cowboy movie was successfully directed by an Asian.

It's time for Americans to acknowledge that Asians can do anything... and better. Sorry, but it's true.

The first time I became acquainted with Ang Lee was when Wedding Banquet came out. You think being gay in the wild west is hard, try being a gay Chinese son. He then directed Eat Drink Man Woman, and I knew right then that Ang Lee is going to be big in the film industry. Although native Taiwanese, Lee studied in the States. He went to my alma mater for his bachelor's degree and then to NYU for his MFA. His most notable films are Sense and Sensibility, The Hulk, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, for which he was nominated for an academy award but did not win. I believe Lee was nominated again for Best Director for the 2006 Oscars, and I think he may have a chance... thank god most of the members of the academy are gay.

From this day forward, I will refer to his film as "Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain". Word to yo mama.

Mad props belong to Harkim and YuCo for designing the titles in Brokeback. That "Wyoming 1963" was grand.