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On Yellow Face, Racial Parody, and White Denial

The fight over the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of The Mikado, that just closed it’s summer run, has been noisy and contentious. So noisy and contentious that it earned a special segment on the MSNBC show, Melissa Harris-Perry, this past weekend.

What’s all the noise about? Yellow face. Yellow face refers to a form of racist caricature wherein non-Asian actors wear stereotypically Asian costumes and styles, and speak in ridiculous accents for laughs. Yellow face is the anti-Asian version of black face.

The controversy went wide when Seattle Times columnist Sharon Pian Chan went after the … Read more “On Yellow Face, Racial Parody, and White Denial”

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No Buffer Zone, No Pill, No Power

“The right to have an abortion is a right to equity, it is the right to choice and is a right to allow a women to make the best decision she can about her situation without handing over the reigns to the judgment of others to make that decision on her behalf, often against concerns for her own safety.” Nadia Hussain, Why Abortion Matters to Me

It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning in Jamaica, Queens. It’s January, so underneath the lab coat clinic escorts are wearing, I’m bundled up in a heavy coat, sweater, tights, and knee socks under … Read more “No Buffer Zone, No Pill, No Power”

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No Simple Answers to Achieving Racial Justice But One

I’ve been reading transcripts of six months worth of episodes of the Big Five Sunday political talk shows to wrap my mind around how these shows talk about people of color.

The excerpts on African Americans reveal some predictable trends. Among them, that one of the most popular “solutions” to intergenerational poverty in African American communities is education. And that’s too bad. Yeah, that’s what I said. I know that seems counter-intuitive, but bear with me.

On one episode of Face the Nation, James Peterson, Director of Africana Studies at Lehigh University, and Condoleeza Rice, who needs no introduction, I’m … Read more “No Simple Answers to Achieving Racial Justice But One”

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HOT ASIAN WOMEN!

Alright, I know in Internets chronology I am a million light years behind, but how f*cking great is this “If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say” thing! Why am I NOT Jenny Yang’s stand up twin? Plus, all Dis/orient/ed Comedy needs now is a Korean American to complete its East Asian representation….

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/PMJI1Dw83Hc”]

All jokes aside, I got put on to this video from a few different people on Facebook, my friend who grew up in Utah and now struggles with this kind of nonsense in a very white area in the midwest, and Colorlines (thank you Jamilah … Read more “HOT ASIAN WOMEN!”

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What “Racial Equity” Does and Doesn’t Mean

An article I wrote responding to UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh’s Washington Post editorial, “How the Asians Became White ” ended up creating a bit of a flap. There was a flood of angry comment, most of which was deleted.

Note to readers: comments that begin with “you f**king Nazi,” or that refer to me as a “genocidal maniac” don’t ever make the queue because, well, comparing racial equity in employment to the Holocaust is not something I support. Genocide, as well, is not something to be trivialized. If you want to do something to stop genocide, I suggest … Read more “What “Racial Equity” Does and Doesn’t Mean”

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How The Asians Did Not Become White

In a May 29, 2014 Washington Post editorial “How the Asians Became White,” UCLA law professor, Eugene Volokh, argues that the claim that “Silicon Valley remains a white man’s world” resulting from a recent report on racial diversity in employment at Google overlooks the fact that 30 percent of Google employees are Asians, and in a manner he thinks is manipulative. To quote Volokh,

Google on Wednesday released statistics on the makeup of its work force, providing numbers that offer a stark glance at how Silicon Valley remains a white man’s world.
But wait — just a few paragraphs down, … Read more “How The Asians Did Not Become White”

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Growing Up To Be Like Yuri Kochiyama

She may be best known in the public eye for the iconic picture that shows her cradling Malcolm X’s head in her lap after he was killed in a Manhattan auditorium, but Yuri Kochiyama’s life and legacy stood for much more, especially to Asian Americans. Many of us learned of Yuri Kochiyama’s recent death, not from mainstream news outlets, which have yet to do her legacy full justice, but from one another. And we have had very similar collective responses: tremendous gratitude for how she influenced us, coupled with a redoubling of our commitment to the principles she lived by.… Read more “Growing Up To Be Like Yuri Kochiyama”

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Race Basics: The Trouble With White People

Despite U.S. Census projections indicating that whites will will no longer be the majority of Americans by 2042, racism will continue to be a definitive force in American politics.

Why? A growing body of research indicates that an increasing number of whites believe racism continues to plague us, but that whites, not people of color, are the new targets. That brand of racial denial appears to be inspired in no small part by the perception that people of color are taking over. And if that’s the case, white racial denial is likely to be reinforced as whites are relegated to … Read more “Race Basics: The Trouble With White People”

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Deeper Than Words: Donald Sterling’s Racism and the Model Minority Myth

By now much virtual ink has been spilled about the racist comments made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. I’m not going to draw any more attention to that. Instead, I want to focus on a pattern of racial discrimination lawsuits against Sterling, and on the complex and critical role that Asian Americans play in battles over race.

More disturbing and worthy of bigger news than Sterling’s verbal faux pas are the civil rights lawsuits that his real estate business has faced. Sterling is best known for owning the Clippers, but his wealth comes from real estate investments he … Read more “Deeper Than Words: Donald Sterling’s Racism and the Model Minority Myth”

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Those Asian American anti-Affirmative Action Ads

That’s a screen shot of the most popular video circulating on the internet on Monday of this week. The video is pretty cool, but ultimately not a big deal, just some footage of a cat protecting a little kid from a dog attack. Sweet. I want a cat like that, don’t you? But if you look on to the left of the video link, you will notice something that might just be about to become a really big deal.

When you’re done cringing, you might want to read Wanted: Disgruntled Asian-Americans to Attack Affirmative Action, by Julianne Hing, published … Read more “Those Asian American anti-Affirmative Action Ads”