Tag: anti-Asian racism

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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”

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Series Premier: Open Season on Asians in the Media (starring actual Dragon Ladies!)

[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!)”

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What do Chen’s News Director and a U.S. Military Surgeon Have in Common?

“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?”

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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”

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After Miley, Remembering Hottentot Venus and Ah Fong Moy

Many excellent perspectives have emerged among the media pandemonium following Miley Cyrus’ performance at the VMAs this week. Before I get to the main point of this blog, I just want to say Robin Thicke is gross. In the world I want to live in, an artist 16 years Cyrus’ senior would have wanted to mentor her, not just attend rehearsals where she grinds on him (an apparent fetishizer of black women) and a foam finger in preparation for an international stage. I also find the “Is Miley racist or not?” debate ridiculous. Of course she is. Cyrus is descended … Read more “After Miley, Remembering Hottentot Venus and Ah Fong Moy”

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Asian America’s Overlooked Diversity: A Video Interview with Scot Nakagawa

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/r9TpomsIj50″]

The above interview was conducted by Laura Flanders of Grit TV and The Nation on the occasion of the release of the Pew Research Center’s report, The Rise of Asian Americans and my response, here, on Race Files.

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Why I don’t date White Boyz

Are you alarmed? I won’t be offended if you are. Many White Boyz have been alarmed by this, for instance on Craigslist where once upon a time I sometimes looked for dates. “You’re a reverse racist!” “White guys can’t catch a break!” If you aren’t alarmed, it’s possible that you are an Asian woman who has visited the Internet during the last 2 decades. Maybe you, like me and the creator of Creepy White Guys, have been messaged by this guy on OK Cupid (yes, he copies and pastes this message to many lucky Asian ladies):

 

Or maybe … Read more “Why I don’t date White Boyz”

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The Origins of “gook”

I was walking down the streets of downtown Seattle with a friend the other day when I heard the word “gook” directed at me for the first time in many years. A small group of young Black men were standing by the wall. As far as I could tell, one of them was on some confused, pseudo-Black nationalist diatribe while another was videotaping him. As we walked by, he shouted, “…Death to whitey! …And to all gooks too!”

After about half a stride, I looked back at him, and we made eye contact for one moment – one seemingly infinite … Read more “The Origins of “gook””

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Racism is Like Cell Phones

 

I might’ve become one of those people who buy into the whitewashing hype that race no longer matters in America. Having grown up in the environment in which I did, if I ever commented on racism, people would typically dismiss it with, “Don’t be so touchy.” Racism was a thing of the past. The End. As I wrote in an earlier post, as a young person, I had few tools to understand my own racial oppression as anything more than a hangup that I needed to get over. If I hadn’t met the remarkable racial justice organizers that I … Read more “Racism is Like Cell Phones”

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When No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

In Philadelphia, restaurateur Joe Groh experienced a 10 percent drop in business in June and another 15 percent drop in July when he changed the name of his restaurant to Joe’s Steakhouse + Soda Shop. Joe was also attacked on social media. His restaurant has been vandalized. Some old time customers have furiously vowed never to return.

Why did the name change piss people off so badly? Because it made a statement about racism. Used to be that Joe’s Steakhouse + Soda Shop was called Chink’s Steaks.

“Chink” was the nickname of the founder and former owner, Sam Sherman, … Read more “When No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”