RIDIC of the Day

Wondering what to get your Person of Color this holiday season? Why, stress no more because the NY Times has come to your rescue with this handy-dandy "Of Color | Stylish Gifts" guide. Because you know, only my POC friends enjoy ethnic-inspired clothing, a DIY henna kit, makeup produced by African Americans, and children books about Obama and Sotomayor. How did they know that I'm always thinking about race when I buy gifts for people?

Bonus RIDIC: The new "GetMommed" advertisement by Kleenex with its wildly stereotypical representations of certain races and cultures.

Today I attended my first Student of Color Conference, it's an annual gathering for students from all the UCs and some from CCs and high school, and it's about activism and working together on the issues that affect our community. I was lucky because it was held on my campus this year, and I had a really great time. I definitely felt like a newbie being in a space like this because I wasn't involved at all during my first two years and I was studying abroad all of last year, so coming back for my senior year and starting my Ethnic Studies minor, being involved with student orgs and attending events like the conference, in this sense, I feel like a first year because this is all new to me.

Every time I go to something that discusses social and race issues, I'm so enlightened and I'm just absorbing all the information. I wish I had gotten involved earlier, but I'm trying hard to catch up right now. I'm new to all of this activist work and I'm still constantly learning, as everyone should be.

It was so interesting to see all the other UCs represented, the system is a community in itself and we're all dealing with how we can promote and energize the minority groups on our campuses, as well as educational issues such as pushing for studies about people of color and combating the tuition increases. And I think the most beautiful thing about it all is that everyone is working toward the same goals. Even though we come from such diverse backgrounds, we all want to create change in not just our own communities, but each other's communities also, because our struggles are not so different as many may want us to believe.

I'm so glad to have joined my campus' API student association, because these people understand why I'm doing a minor in Ethnic Studies and why we're working to make positive changes for our communities. And that's not to say that other people aren't, or that everyone needs to be an activist, but just that, if you have the resources and the ability to do something, especially for those who have barriers and can't, then hopefully your passions will translate into progressive work. After meeting all these groups and see them interact in solidarity, it really makes me want to stay for a fifth year, because then I could also turn my minor into another major and I could continue to connect and build alliances with students and orgs on my campus who have similar goals as me.

Because I realized today that, how the hell am I going to keep up the activist work once I'm out of undergrad? Who can I meet and talk to who have the same ideas and hopes as me for communities of color? And this scares me because I fear that I'm going to fall into the activist trap and learn all of these empowerment tools in the next year and then do nothing with them. Just throw my notes into the pile of papers sitting on my desk and then eventually forget about them. Because for me, meeting these students of color and with my API org, I'm constantly being reminded that there are other people who want to see the kind of change that I want to see and it's incredibly encouraging to have this support system to turn to. None of my close friends here or from high school are involved in the same sense that I'm trying to be, and that's not to say that what they're doing is any less worthy, but activist work is a battle and you're gonna need comrades.

Students of Color

Today I attended my first Student of Color Conference, it's an annual gathering for students from all the UCs and some from CCs and high school, and it's about activism and working together on the issues that affect our community. I was lucky because it was held on my campus this year, and I had a really great time. I definitely felt like a newbie being in a space like this because I wasn't involved at all during my first two years and I was studying abroad all of last year, so coming back for my senior year and starting my Ethnic Studies minor, being involved with student orgs and attending events like the conference, in this sense, I feel like a first year because this is all new to me.

Everytime I go to something that discusses social and race issues, I'm so enlightened and I'm just absorbing all the information. I wish I had gotten involved earlier, but I'm trying hard to catch up right now. I'm new to all of this activist work and I'm still constantly learning, as everyone should be.

It was so interesting to see all the other UCs represented, the system is a community in itself and we're all dealing with how we can promote and energize the minority groups on our campuses, as well as educational issues such as pushing for studies about people of color and combating the tuition increases. And I think the most beautiful thing about it all is that everyone is working toward the same goals.

F.O.B.

If the pilgrims landed on this land by way of ship, then aren't they the original "boat people"?

Yellow Fever

So I get off work yesterday and was waiting at the bus stop when a white guy, probably a little older than me, comes up and comments on my bag (it says New York all over it, even though I've never been there), and then he says:

-"Are you Japanese? Chinese? I LOVE Japanese culture."

Mmm hmm. I'm sure you do.

-"You see that girl over there? She's Japanese. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, they're all different languages. Where are you from? Are you Americanized?"
-"I was born here. I am American."

Then he goes on to say something about how some people lose their culture and how America doesn't really have a culture, like China, and that "culture is a really beautiful thing."

-"Uh huh."
At which point I start pulling out my reading, hoping he gets the hint that I don't want to talk anymore.
-"You have a boyfriend huh?"
-"Why do you think that?"
-"From the way you're dressed."
As if to insinuate that one had to dress "sluttier" to get a guy. Note: I was dressed in my work clothes, which consisted of black slacks and a collared shirt.
-"Ok, I'll let you get back to your work."
And then he walks away.

The irony of it all was that I had copies of the newspaper I work for in my bag which says ASIA Journal on the front, and I was studying for my Asian American Studies class. So yeah, I'm a little "Americanized."

I actually found the exchange humorous, in the "I can't believe people are still ignorant" kind of way. I should have probably kept talking to the guy, just to see how far the ridiculousness would have gone, or to educate him a little, but I was in no mood.

For those who have studied race, does it ever make you more conscious of it in your own life, and not necessarily in a good way?

From PostMimi, the Asian American version of PostSecret.

Here's a video from singer David Choi about race and the kinds of friends we choose:

Ridiculous X 2

(source)

It's official: Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been sentenced to 12 years in a hard-labor prison camp. It's absolutely horrible news. When I heard they were going to go on trial in NKorea last Thursday , I've been nervous every time I checked my Yahoo! front page, worried that I was going to be met with, a "Found Guilty" headline. Even finding out about their arrest was ridiculous, these women had done nothing wrong. And given that they are Americans, I guess I had one of those momentary lapse in U.S. arrogance, assuming that there was no way they would not be freed soon, after all, they're Americans! Countries don't want to mess with us! I'm still in disbelief, it seems incredibly surreal, like I'm waiting for North Korea to come out with the statement, "On second thought, because we like to think we're such a good country, we're going to free them. Of course, that should mean that you, the U.S., can't say anything more about our bomb pursuits." I just can't imagine what they've been going though and what will happen to them in the future..

And the other ridiculous news of the week:
Given the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown last week, police in China were patrolling the square, as well as shutting down certain Internet sites and keeping watch over dissenters, for any show of remembrance of the protest 20 years ago. And what was their bright idea to stop the media from filming on site for news coverage? Umbrellas! Really now, it's so juvenile. When I read it on AAM, I thought it was really bizarre and didn't think it would be effective. But then I saw the videos of it happening in person and it makes the whole attempt look even more absurd. I literally shook my head in amused disbelief. Really, Chinese people? This is your solution?

It's Time

A couple of months ago, I had this idea of creating an Asian American club on my college campus. But not the kind that you're probably thinking of, as in the cultural, getting-back-in-touch-with-my-roots kind of club. I usually shy away from clubs of that nature. Part of it comes from my slight aversion to things that sort of blare out my heritage. That may come off as sounding xenocentric, but I really don't mean it like that: I love my culture and heritage, I'm proud to be Chinese. But it's like that adolescent reaction where your parents push you to do something and you don't want to do it, like a disobedient reflex.

But anyway, I just don't see those clubs as having to do with what I'm really passionate about, which is working with Asian American issues, what it means to grow up in a hybrid culture as a second generation Asian American, and making AAs visible in the media while fighting the stereotypes that burden us. All I want is a forum for a debate, a discussion, a conversation, with others who have opinions on all these topics but who also don't know how to find each other in the real world. Because as much as we owe to technology, everything that really matters goes on outside of one's computer.

After some Google-ing about how to start an Asian American club, I found out that my campus already has one! And a working one at that. I guess I was wrong to write off those cultural clubs during Welcome Week. Though I have to say, I don't remember the last time I've even heard of them hosting anything. I'll have to look into it when school starts again in the fall. Maybe I don't need to create a whole new organization. Maybe I can use their resources and offshoot a discussion panel. There must be members who are interested, right?

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one my age who's interested in the Asian American community. Online, it's a totally different story, with so many blogs and websites that do show, "We're here and we care. You just have to find us." And it's true. When I mention to my friends that I aspire to be an editor for a mainstream Asian American magazine, I usually get questions such as, "There are magazines that target that demographic?" or "Is there even a demographic to target?" And every time I hear that, it only shows to me that there is a reason to be working on AA issues, to fight against the stereotypes and prejudices that cause hate crimes and to use media as a tool for equality. That's the thing about the APIA media community: we exist, you just have to search us out on the web and in print. I also get questions of why a publication would focus on such a narrow spectrum. Well, it's the same reasons why magazines like Ebony, Essence, and Latina exist. The kinds of perspectives that we want to hear from are not as prominent or as available as we'd like in mainstream media.

It's a double blow to be an Asian American magazine: not only is the news print industry going through hard times, it's even harder to keep up an ethnic publication for more than a few years. When I cite examples for friends (Hyphen, Audrey, East West, KoreAm, and Giant Robot are among the more popular ones), they've never heard of any of them. And in case you haven't either, any major bookstore chain, and possibly smaller ones, should carry them; just look outside of eye-level. Even my campus bookstore has some of these titles and it's where I get my fix every month. It's almost like a hidden community, out of sight from the mainstream, but once you break in, you see that it's loud and vibrant and busy and angry, because there's so much injustice and not enough exposure of that injustice. That's one of my main motivations of why I want to be involved--because there is a reason to be. It's everything that MANNA is about: "monitoring the media and advocating balanced, sensitive, and positive coverage and portrayals of Asian Americans."

My interest, or at least my cognizance, of the AA world happened sometime around middle school. I grew up close to L.A.'s Chinatown and was a library frequenter at a very young age. Given the obvious Asian community in the area, there was a wealth of Asian and Asian American literature available. But it wasn't until I happened upon the now defunct Monolid magazine (“For those who aren’t blinking.”) that I started to take advantage of it all. Finding that magazine and reading it was like this whole undiscovered world opening up for me: you mean there are Asian Americans out there who write about this hybrid identity? There's a community of people who are just like me? That magazine was my only link to this world at the time, and it was such a good magazine. After that, I read YELL-OH Girls!, which was another eye-opening experience that got me started on AA literature. So yeah, the blog name is an homage to the magazine that started it all for me. I'm also a monolid.