It’s been a while, I know. As contingent faculty (adjunct) who makes possibly less than your average American Walmart worker, I juggle a few jobs to make ends meet. One of my jobs is bartending at a popular spot in downtown Manhattan that is right off the PATH train from Jersey. Last night–Super Bowl Eve–was maybe one worst nights ever. Picture it: A million drunk frat boys who could barely sign their checks. A Colonel Sanders lookalike whistling at me in a way I imagine one whistles at a horse in a stable (had I ever whistled at a … Read more “NY Daily News: “Asian Wave Escorts, busted ahead of Super Bowl””
Author: Alison Roh Park
Alison Roh Park is a big personality from Queens, NYC. Pushcart nominated poet, communications head, and writer, Alison enjoys raging about, cracking on, and inspiring thought and action on unfortunate things like racism, capitalist greed, misogyny, cultural hegemony and stuff like that.
In the U.S. and worldwide, a hashtag devised by @SueyPark, #NotYourAsianSidekick was trending* since Sunday, prompting the largest scale–and most visible–public conversation related to Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawai’ian** feminism I’ve seen in my lifetime. With the sheer volume of tweets (over 45,000 in less than 24 hours) and no real analysis conducted yet, I’ve only seen what has appeared on my timeline, the BBC, CNN, Buzzfeed and Slate articles that have emerged, and I’ve checked in with some of the fiercest feminists I know and have been digesting all the Twitter furor as best I can.
#NotYourAsianSidekick prompted the … Read more “Not Your Asian [Insert Word Here]: Thoughts on Movement and Liberation”
I bought The New York Times on Sunday for the first time in years this weekend. When I was growing up, we had a subscription and my father would insist that I and my siblings read the Week In Review, which, of course we didn’t, but the few times I tried I had no idea what any of it meant. I lugged the stack to a diner for a little self-date with some waffles and coffee. These were 4 of 5 of the front page headlines, reading left to right, above the fold to below the fold:
Wall St. Mothers, … Read more “NYT Sunday Edition: “All the Propaganda That’s Fit to Print””
Categories
Open Letter to Katy Perry
Dear Katy Perry:
Please stop “liberating” yourself in that White Imperialist sort of a way that relies on the subjugation of women who look like me.
I’m sorry you have had to achieve stardom in a context that only allows you to be a “virgin” or a “whore” but I really wish you wouldn’t also be a raging racist. Maybe you and Miley can start a reading group or something, or just redistribute your millions of dollars in profits to actual women of color and their communities, say, in Haiti or the Philippines, instead of just borrowing elements … Read more “Open Letter to Katy Perry”
Education. More sophisticated work. Higher pay. This is the development formula Mexico has been seeking for decades….Here, in a mostly poor state long known as one of the country’s main sources of illegal immigrants to the United States, a new Mexico has begun to emerge. Dozens of foreign companies are investing, filling in new industrial parks along the highways. Middle-class housing is popping up in former watermelon fields…signaling a growing confidence in Mexico’s economic future and what many see as the imported meritocracy of international business. In a country where connections and corruption are still common tools of enrichment, many … Read more “Exporting the American Dream: Thoughts on “Free” Trade Agreements”
“I want to buy an umbrella [that comes] with an Asian girl…In my experience, girls who stand next to me longer than 20 seconds get a creampie.” Mike Babchik, Host of “Man Banter” on SiriusXM to an Asian American woman at Comic Con, October 2013
You may have heard about the racist misogynist Mike Babchik who sexually harassed at least one Asian American attendee at Comic Con this month, right here in my hometown of New York City. Mike Babchik is a creep. But we’re all familiar with creeps like him. All you have to do is walk outside or … Read more “Sirius XM: Does that Umbrella Come with a Pink Slip for Babchik?”
[Spoiler Alert] This weekend, I watched the new blockbuster Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, ironically at a Queens, New York movie theater next door to a Hooters that was sued last year for inputting a customer’s order under “Chinx”. The movie had me and my friends cracking up in our seats.
Maybe you’re thinking, Wait, but it’s not a comedy! It’s a movie about the rugged individualism and determination of a White American woman astronaut under space duress! I suppose, even though the protagonist is ultimately saved by the apparition of her White male … Read more “Series Premier: Open Season on Asians in the Media (starring actual Dragon Ladies!)”
“One of the defining features between an individual of Asian descent and someone of Western descent is the presence of an upper eyelid crease. Approximately 50% of Asians do not have an upper eyelid crease. The double eyelid operation, or creation of a supratarsal crease, is the most common cosmetic procedure requested in Asia and the third most common procedure requested by Asian Americans.” Marilyn Q. Nguyen, Patrick W. Hsu, and Tue A. Dinh. “Asian Blepharoplasty.” Seminars in Plastic Surgery (August 2009). Cosmetic Surgery in the Ethnic Population: Special Considerations and Procedures.
As you may have already heard, talk and … Read more “What do Chen’s News Director and a U.S. Military Surgeon Have in Common?”
Categories
Meet Miss Saigon, Not the Box Office Kind
“[S]mall, weak, submissive and erotically alluring…eyes almond-shaped for mystery, black for suffering, wide-spaced for innocence, high cheekbones swelling like bruises, cherry lips…. When you get home from another hard day on the planet, she comes into existence, removes your clothes, bathes you and walks naked on your back to relax you … She’s fun you see, and so uncomplicated. She doesn’t go to assertiveness-training classes, insist on being treated like a person, fret about career moves, wield her orgasm as a non-negotiable demand…. She’s there when you need shore leave from those angry feminist seas. She’s a handy victim of … Read more “Meet Miss Saigon, Not the Box Office Kind”
I can be notoriously out of the loop. I’ve “discovered” life-changing songs and excitedly shared them with my friends who respond, “Um, isn’t that from like 4 years ago?” That said, have you all heard about Amy Schumer? Apparently she’s been hot sh*t for at least a year now. There’s an ad for her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer with a pixelated boob hanging out of her dress all over the NYC subway system, so I thought I’d check it out. I watched two episodes shortly after reading Lesli-Ann Lewis’ excellent opinion piece on Dave Chappelle’s shrug-off of White … Read more “Amy Schumer: America’s Answer to Dave Chappelle”