House and Asians

Dear House and the writers of the show "House",

I was watching the marathon going on last night for Thanksgiving and I do not appreciate one of your comments about Asians.

While interviewing a hipster client on T.V., that you ended up rejecting, you mentioned that you'd rather hire an Asian because they all sit in libraries and they don't have time to care about being cool. Then, you said after the interviewee left, that you probably wouldn't hire an Asian because the only reason why they wanted to be doctors were because of parent pressures.

What freaking Asians are you talking about? Have you heard of the "model minority myth"? Probably not, since you've had the privilege of never having to think about your race or anybody elses. And can we REALLY not be doctors other than because our parents wanted us there? Do we have to justify our need to just want to help people?

And THEN! In the episode right afterward, you are helping a poor prison inmate starring LL Cool J. You raise issues of black people and how they are more likely to be incarcerated, not because they are "bad people", but because of the criminal justice system. You talk about societal and biological factors for why people may turn into criminals. And while I am thankful, I am sad to say that there will never be an episode specifically about Asians and health. Will we ever be taken seriously? Not in the near future.

Luckily I had good food, an Asian family full of doctors, construction workers, salespersons, and social workers, and bad reality TV shows to make me feel better.

Not yours,
an in-your-face-not-fitting-the-model-minority Asian.

Biology in Men and Women

So, I'm back for Thanksgiving and I came across this show on KTEH. This doctor is talking to an audience, of white men and women (who can probably afford to be at a lecture like that) about the biological differences between males and females. And dang, was it interesting.

For one, I feel like its really problematic to say that these biological differences are the only factors that allow men and women to be different. Did he consider social factors that would allow these biological difference to come out? Not really.

What I found really disturbing was when the doctor talked about his wife. His wife, he described, was not cuddly, liked masculine dogs, and was really assertive. But then, she was diagnosed with some sort of disorder where she had too much testosterone. After taking a bunch of medicine, she was much more affectionate and got a small dog. What is wrong with women being more masculine and assertive? What is wrong with men being more feminine? His tips were based on a standard of what women and men should be. Men are football playing idiots whose 70% of their brain shut down when they are relaxing and women are nagging sensitive beezies whose brains are 90% working when its "relaxing". But when a female moves away from that, is she being what people would call back in the days, a "deviant"? Can we not recognize that indigenous people before colonization actually had women as the leader of tribes, as the aggressive ones, etc?

And don't even get me started on how heteronormative this is. I wonder what he would think about queer folks. RAWR. Stupid science.

Halloween Reflections

I know Halloween has just passed but I just wanted to reflect a bit on Halloween.

One, I went to a queer co-op and it was mostly queer white folks and white allies. Sigh, how little we've come in terms of breaking down racial boundaries, even in queer spaces.

Two, I hate people dressed up as Native Americans, Mexicans, or exotic Hawaiin dancers. Why? Because they still exist, they could be your peers, and they do not all wear feathers, ponchos, and grass skirts. Thank you.

We're not thin-skinned liberals. We're progressives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LibK0SCpIkk&feature=related

So I'm just finishing my lunch and I came across this video on the wonderful world of youtube. It's different racist Disney clips put into one video. To me, the video made so much sense but to others, I guess not. It definitely reminds me of how much of Berkeley bubble I'm in. The comments about how its not racist or how "this is racism back then" or "people are too sensitive" or "thin-skinned" reflect the attitudes people have about race in the present.

First, people commenting on this video and saying that "people of color just complain too much", need to realize that one, they probably had the privilege to never really experience race in their life. They never had offensive names such as "chink", "nigga", or "beaner" called at them. And their race never hindered them from getting the same life chances. If they have been called these things, many don't understand how they are racialized because it is something they choose to push out of their minds.

Secondly, by saying "this is racism back then" assumes that there isn't racism now and as we all SHOULD now, that's not true. RACISM IS REAL. Just because certain legislations do not explicitly TALK about race anymore, the policies are still inherently racist. For example, look at the way the census is conducted. It has racial categories, but theres so many groups excluded, not recognized, lumped together, etc. I'm sorry but I am not just Asian. I am, one, Asian-American and two, a VIETNAMESE-American. There are differences.

Lastly, I hate it when people say "but I'm liberal so I'm not racist". People need to realize that being liberal doesn't equate to a racially conscious mind. There are liberals who will go and try to help out us poor "colored folks" but that just reflects upon the idea that white liberals believe that they are inherently more superior than us "poor" people of colorful. Furthermore, being a "liberal" is a political stance, not always the level of consciousness one may have. That's why I get scared of calling myself a liberal. My politics is not about being on one side of a spectrum but a philosophy I carry with me throughout my life. We need to rethink the way we label ourselves.

So, please. To these so-called non-racists, accept the fact that race is real, that it definitely appears in everyday cartoons you watch, and that you may be a liberal but you are not racially and socially conscious as you may think. Watch it. And accept that others may feel offended by these clips because they are just trying to complain, because their life experiences has led them to be ultra aware of how they are portrayed. Thank you.

Modern Family - Adopting a Vietnamese Baby

After hearing all of my friends telling me "you need to watch Modern Family!" or making me feel left out when they would make inside jokes about it, I finally decided that I would watch it. I convinced my boyfriend to watch it with me after many grunts and groans. We watched Modern Family and omg, it's amazing! Modern Family is a comedic mockumentary that "documents" the lives of 3 related families. It goes through the lives of the first family, which consists of a uptight mother, a horny and ridiculously dumb dad that tries to be "down" with his kids, a spoiled teenage daughter, a identity-seeking middle child, and a normal troublesome younger son. The humor really comes from the dad, who goes through outrageous lengths to not appear stupid..but he does. He even shoots his own son and his daughter's boyfriend with a bebe gun at one point.

Secondly, we have a homosexual couple, one who is more uptight and afraid of being openly gay and another who is extremely dramatic and flamboyant. What's really interesting is that they adopt a Vietnamese baby in the movie. In a time when everyone thinks adopting 3rd world babies is "liberal" and "morally good", this show is really making fun of these "neo-liberals" by making comments about how they are consciously aware that they are tearing the baby away from her country. You really fall in love with this couple as well because of the interesting dynamics between a more conservative boyfriend and the more outrageous one. Although they face problems with raising their child (as any other parents would), they challenge the notion that queer couples cannot raise a family.

Lastly, we get a grandfather with a hard shell and a soft exterior. He marries a young Colombian wife who also has an extremely mature son. There are a lot of jokes made in this movie about the Colombian wife because of her accent and her constant references to her "country". For me, she is extremely hilarious but I wonder if this show just perpetuates stereotypes about Latina women marrying white American men for their money. As I continued watching the show, though, I realized that they she carried strong family values and how much she actually cares about the family. Whether this solidifies gender binaries, we will have to see.

Also, they make some really racist comments. In one instance, the queer couple introduce their newly adopted daughter to the family. One of them ask, "what's her name?" and when they say "Lily", they ask "isn't that going to be hard for her to say?". Being Vietnamese myself, I didn't really understand that comment because I know for a fact, that we can say our "L"'s. Comments like this in the show made me wonder if they were trying to MAKE FUN of racism or not. Because it is in a mockumentary style, it tries to give viewers a glimpse of how families interact on a daily basis and in turn, how they view race, gender, etc. Therefore, it is possible that they are trying to show us how we talk about race regularly.

But we are just going to have to see. So far, this show is amazing. I'm definitely going to stay up to date.

I saw this movie a few weeks ago and I still don't know how I feel about it. My office really wanted to go watch it to see if we wanted to screen the movie at UC Berkeley. We had already made plans to go watch it in SF and to our surprise, one of the guys that worked for them (a producer? maybe.) came into our office to publicize for the show. Man, I thought "This is freakin crazy! Maybe I'll ask him if he ever needs more actresses...ahem ahem". But no, I didn't. Then I told him about a few organizations on campus that he could contact because I thought they would love to watch it. One of them was Theatre Rice. After dropping so APA orgs to him, he said "well, this movie is really not about Asian American identity or anything. It's pretty much like '40 year old virgin' except Asian". I was a little taken aback. I stared at my friend to see if she was thinking the same thing and I think for a split second it worried her too.

When we watched it on Sunday though, it wasn't too bad. And it definitely wasn't an essentialist identity politics based film. It wasn't saying "we are Asian Americans and this is how we, as AA, live like". It's pretty much about a guy named Jimmy who acts like a 10 year old. Loving dinosaurs, living on the top bunk of his nephew's bed, and still living with his sister and temperamental husband, he definitely gets on everyone's nerves. After falling in love with his niece Ramona and trying everything possibly dorky to hang out with her, things go crazy and a little out of hand. It was pretty damn hilarious but also freakin weird. There were parts where I turned to my friend and said "WTF..is this a dream"? And one of my favorite scenes was when Jimmy's sister laughs at a white man for making a racist assumption about Japanese people. LOVE IT! And after hearing from the guy in the office that it was a 40-year old virgin film, I thought "Great, emasculated Asian male once again!" But with the use of other characters who do build good families, good relationships, etc. it wasn't that bad.

It's a feel-good film for sure but I don't think we were ready to screen it, especially when we were looking for something more politicized. It make me wonder about Asian American films. Does it have to be more politically centered? Is it necessary or a social obligation to make art that represents for all Asian Americans? Because, if we fall prey to the "burden of representation" aren't we bound to fail in some way or another for those that have such high expectations of us? I don't know. Just something on my mind. Other than that, this film is definitely worth seeing.

Nikki S. Lee

I love this person. Nikki S. Lee. She is a Korean American artist that delves into the lives of people living in different communities. She spends a few months in these areas until they are comfortable enough to let her take pictures with them and for her to understand these lifestyles. She even completely changes her style of dress, hair, makeup, everything. And whats even better, the people in these photos, no matter how candid it looks, are in on it.

I saw these photos in my Ethnic Studies/LGBT studies class. When my teacher put up these photos onto the website, I thought...wooooow..she's pretty courageous. And then, I thought, this makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable. It made me question, what the hell is she doing?

And then I realized, that these pictures are MEANT to make us feel uncomfortable so that we can question why we feel this way. She uses numerous stereotypes in her photos so that we may think its a "typical" photo of a community but she uses her racialized body to make herself stand out like a sore thumb. For this exact reason, we have to wonder...why does she even have to stick out? Purely because of her looks? Because if we look at her mannerisms, her comfortability in each photo, her style, she seems to fit. She is pointing out the fact that our identities are fluid and move beyond racial borders but that our own uneasiness with these photos is pointing out our own racial stereotypes. We are uncomfortable because we are not used to racially different people working in the same photo. Even when I grew up in a pretty diverse community, the fact that she frames her photos as the "Hip Hop Project" or the "Hispanic Project", and then goes on to use hella stereotypical symbols, shows me how I can even feel uncomfortable.

It's funny though. With the "Yuppie" project, or the picture at the very top, I don't feel uncomfortable. It just reminds me of those photos in company brochures where there is that one successful Asian or Black person among other white people. Thus, it also points out how "whiteness" is something not racially defined but something that we all want to culturally achieve. Therefore, when we see someone that is not white in the corporate world, it seems normal. It seems like we're achieving "diversity", whatever that means.

I guess I love her work a lot. Can you tell? She really plays on my own biases, even when I am constantly trying to check myself. Good stuff. Check her out!

Finally.

After seeing all the messed up shit, or all-the-stuff-that-you're-not-sure-if-its-fucked-up-but-probably-is-fucked-up shit, on T.V., movies, media, I finally decided that I need to make a blog that will address my views on the racist, sexist, homophobic shit that I see in the media. For me, we just don't talk about it enough. Furthermore, I don't want to turn this into a rant but a way to critically look at the way people of color have been portrayed in the media.

I guess I created this blog for a few reasons. When Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" came out, I was excited to finally see a movie that was going to talk about Asian American gangs. After growing up in San Jose and having friends that had to deal with this type of shit, I thought "FINALLY, a film that addresses this". But no. I went to watch it with a friend at the drive in and as expected, my friend took Hmong people to mean Mongolians. Then he just laughed hysterically as Clint Eastwood pronounced Hmong as "Ha-mong". It makes me just want to shout at my friend "SOUTHEAST ASIANS EXIST! and we're not all Vietnamese!" (even though I am). In the end, "Gran Torino" became another "white man saving the poor colored folks" film that disappointingly, did NOT address the reason why some Hmong folks may join gangs. I do give it credit for making Hmong folks more visible in mainstream media, but I wonder why Hollywood has to take such small steps in contextualizing a history of gangs. It is a step up from movies such as Better Luck Tomorrow, but the lack of a historical background is still an issue. I mean, if we talk about how powerful media is, we can definitely say that we cannot fix the symptoms of inner city gangs if all we see are these decontextualized violent scenes. Moreover, this film perpetuated the stereotype that us Asian folks cannot "assimilate" and if we try to, we are either smart Asians nerds or Asian gangsters. Yay for binaries! Which one should I fall under? So many choices! And lastly, although Clint Eastwood's excessive use of racial slurs were meant to point out the racism in our society, the fact that my Vietnamese-American friend thought it was hilarious and that he would want to use them later was indicative of how those messages just don't translate to a general audience.

Secondly, Transformers 2? Please. Its a movie saying "I think its okay to make robots dumb, have gold teeth, and obviously "ghetto" accents because they are robots and no one will know its racist" film. Besides the numerous plot holes, this "action-packed" film made me groan for the way it used sex to sell. I mean, Transformers is already cool but now you gotta objectify women too? I mean, I didn't know only hot girls were accepted to college. And in Megan Fox's opening scene, can she REALLY only paint a motorcycle in that obviously look-at-my-booty pose? There's gotta be an easier way. And how does this translate to my own life? Well, I would like it if people would stop thinking its ok to stare at my body as if its on display. Just because you see it on films, doesn't mean you got permission to see it with me. I'm sorry, but there's way more to this body of curves. Conclusion: Stupid film.

Before, when I saw these things, I would just tell one of two friends. But after the recent release of the movie Avatar, based off of my favorite show in the world, I couldn't handle it anymore. I mean, honestly? You are gonna hire white actors to star in a movie that is obviously influenced by different Asian cultures? Can we say...appropriation? I'm sorry, but it is rare to see an Asian person playing a hillbilly white character but its definitely fine for whites to pretend that they can adapt to other people's lifestyles and communities. This statement is possibly problematic, and I probably need to put more thought into it, but I am honestly just tired of having APIA (Asian Pacific Islander American) actresses/actors getting pushed to the side because they are not appealing enough to the general audience. WE CAN ACT, PEOPLE. I've seen it in my classes, independent films, theatre groups, and various theatre companies in the East Bay. And I can see why I became one of two APIA folks in my theatre class. I mean, why should we want to pursue acting if we don't even see ourselves regularly on films to begin with? And would I really want to be cast as something like a kung-fu master, exotic mistress (ex. Rush Hour), or a scary corporate person competing with American weed (ex. Pineapple Express)? No thanks. Check out www.racebending.com - awesome critiques of Avatar.

So yes, this blog is for me to finally express my frustrations and to reach out to others that may feel the same. Furthermore, its here that I want us to start a dialogue. Lets agree to disagree, yeah? But you know, as many blogs are like, I might not even have followers. And that's fine too. At least here, I can finally get my thoughts out. So here it is, my first blog entry.

Why am I doing this? Cause we need to talk about this shit.