Anonymous asked: Do you define API as polynesian? (samoan, tongan, micronesian, etc.) in addition to Japanese or Korean or Chinese? Does the term encompass both?

That’s tricky and, ultimately, not up to me to decide. I identify as Asian American (politically, anyway), but I can very much understand why people of Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, Micronesian, etc. descent would not. For all its good intentions, the APIA movement/community has historically and continues to look over people of those cultures and communities. Therefore, while I would like for it to, I think it is up to the individual to decide. It would be unfair of me to push a specific label or otherwise on a group of people who do not feel the movement the label stands for represents them.

seasquared:

cmao:

“Asian-American identity was meant to be a means to an end rather than an end in itself. It was created as an organizing tool to mobilize Asians to participate in the progressive movements of the times. It was as much a mechanism to identify with one another as to identify with the struggles of others, whether it is African-Americans or Asians overseas, and [significantly] it was less a marker of what one was and more a marker of what one believed. That it has now become synonymous with “pride in one’s ethnic heritage” is a complete evisceration of what it was originally, and what it was meant to BE.”

—

Chris Ijima

(via baysian)

I mean this non-facetiously: what the fuck does this quote even mean? Why is pride in one’s ethnic heritage an evisceration of trying to identify with the struggles of others? Why is Asian-American being a marker of what you are divorced from being a marker of what you believe? Chris Ijima also says about his musical group: “it was a group driven by this idea that to be an Asian American was to refute what the mainstream was saying – and what the mainstream was saying is ‘this is not your place and this does not belong to you’.” Which, hello, seems to me to say, “I am proud that I am from this particular Asian country, and yet still part of America, and that I embrace the divide and differences, and America should be equally proud of me for being a part of this country.”I don’t get his arbitrary divide between “what one is” and “what one believes in.”

Being Asian-American is about what you believe in, because you are who you are. It says both “I can love you because I am American” but also “I can love you in the way that I love you, because you, like me, may not have started off as American.” Pride in one’s ethnic heritage should have a place in that discussion. We can all use more unity and identification and progressive movement, but Chris Ijima needs to stop telling me to get off his Asian-American-identity lawn.

Well, the way I interpreted this quote was - ‘Asian American’ was a term created in the name of coalition-building and political mobilization, this is undeniable, which is the only way that it can possibly serve as a political identification for Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hmong, even Middle Eastern, etc. peoples, all of whom have such different cultures and histories. Now it has come to occupy more spheres than just a political one, and has the (possibly?) undesired effect of it being synonymous with “pride in one’s ethnic heritage” when, I think anyway, there is no ‘Asian American heritage’. To say there is would be insulting to those people and their cultures.

I guess, to put it in a more personal way, I am Chinese American - this is where the ‘pride in one’s ethnic heritage’ that Ijima talks about comes from. I believe in the Asian American movement, or I use a language that asks me to identify as Asian American for mobilization or coalition-building or other political purposes. This is something I am still not 100% on, that I am still trying to work out, but I believe it is true. I guess, to put it in metaphor form (I only know how to speak in metaphors, apparently…), ‘Asian American’ is the suit I wear when meeting people and making business deals (or smth), but when I go home at night and take the suit off, it is ‘Chinese American’ that still remains.

Soldier’s Death Raises Suspicions in Chinatown

This is terrifying to read - nineteen, Asian American, and lives in Chinatown? How many of these boys did I go to middle school with? How many of these boys did I meet at various friends’ birthday parties? I am just so frustrated, so angry, so saddened. Why doesn’t anyone talk about this? When are Asian Americans going to be recognized as citizens too?

God, it’s just - I read this article and I knew Danny Chen. He was literally almost every boy I knew in middle school and high school, and wherever this investigation goes, I am almost positive his family will never get the justice they deserve.

his 202: modern latin america has taught me one thing:

all of history can be summed up as such: stuff was fine and progressing naturally and then EUROPE and THE UNITED STATES came and FUCKED SHIT UP and now everyone else is trying to pick up the pieces.

mllesong:

Dealbreaker: He’s Got an Asian Fetish | GOOD

lenachen:

As promised, here’s my essay for GOOD. An excerpt below:

I was born in San Francisco and raised in Los Angeles. If you heard my voice without knowing what I looked like, you’d probably assume that I was a teenage white girl. My idea of fashion is a pair of skinny jeans, not a kimono. My parents are immigrants, but I am, for all intents and purposes, American through and through. Yet I wasn’t even out of high school when men began greeting me with “konichiwa, beautiful” on the street. (I am not Japanese). As I got older, the catcalls took a turn for the lewd: “Me love you long time!” “Sucky sucky!” I’ve lost track of the number of times a guy has gotten in my face and yelled the name of a random Asian country as a primitive courting strategy: “Hey, Korea!” “Vietnam?” “You Thai?” Even seemingly respectable men in respectable settings would introduce themselves and ask, “Where are you from?” only to frown and follow up with “No, really” when I responded with “California.”

Excellent.

 In that sense, the random dude on the street shouting “”Ching-chong! Ching-chong!” at every passing Asian gal is not so different from the guy who invites me to dinner and earnestly asks, “Do you prefer to eat with chopsticks?”

Hahaha.

(via herocountry)

Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race

mikachu:

Please Don’t Stop Reading This Story About Race Just Because You’re Not Racist

Important to read, though - and I suppose this is just a personal annoyance - I am a little tired that it seems to always be articles written by white people admitting to their racism (generally written in a way that I come away from feeling like the author expects my praise now, having owned up to their privilege) that get reblogged. Or, perhaps, that it almost seems white people (a very certain kind of white person, to be fair) are falling over themselves to acknowledge their privilege, to wear the racism shirt in an effort to be accommodating and to truly show off their investment in social justice. Of course, this isn’t fair and white anti-racism is, of course, a good thing. It’s just that the racism debate focuses so heavily on black-white race relations that I always feel Asian-Americans (and Latinos/Latinas, Native Americans, and other racial groups) are a little, or a lot, shafted. I guess my discomfort comes from the title. There is only one (count ‘em, one) other mention of a racial group in the article, and that is a passing aside that paints Asian-Americans as the model minority. (Here is the line, for those interested: “Nonwhite high-school graduation rates in Seattle are significantly below white graduation rates—even if you’re Asian, regardless of income level.”)

So, yes, this article is important to read, though I remain frustrated because I feel that I am kept on the outside, that this is a discussion about race, but not one that includes me. It might be unfair to say, but to me, this article is not quite “Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race” but rather “Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Their Relations With (And Guilt Regarding) Black People”.

(Source: uglychu, via throatripper)

me: ugh I had to write a paper once for human rights from the pov of hu jintao
about the human rights condition in china
and like after a while I was just like
“WELL HONESTLY FUCK THE WEST WHY ARE WE HELD TO YOUR STUPID HUMAN RIGHTS VALUES???”
“DID YOU ASK US WHEN YOU DRAFTED YOUR SHITTY HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATION?????”
“AND NOW WE’RE VILLAINIZED FOR NOT HOLDING TO YOUR STUPID STANDARDS?????”
me: I got a B- on that paper y’all
tori: lol fuck that
you should’ve gone to see your prof
like
YOU’RE RACIST
by the time clare mao finished the concluding sentence of her essay she realized that she was now hu jinmao

Chicken toenails, anyone?

mllesong:

David Sedaris would eat Chinese food – but only as an alternative to starving. So a visit to China was always going to be tricky…

Wow I have not been this fucking offended in a while.

Found this while browsing Disgrasian, along with a response from Jeff Yang on Posterous.

The comments on the latter ranged anywhere from righteous indignation agreeing with the author, to claims of “well it’s true! What, does Sedaris have to write a fucking disclaimer before all of his pieces? This is his modus operandi! All of his essays are like this! By the way, I’m Chinese so this legitimizes this comment and I give Sedaris the racist-comedy OK!” Unfortunately, the latter make up the bulk of the comments.

For Sedaris, this was one awful week in his life that culminated in a hilarious essay that got published in The Guardian. He will probably never think about it again, except when someone asks him why he doesn’t like Chinese food and he will say “well, when I went to China…” For me, I read it and I felt so, so helpless and powerless because I can write all the angry blog posts I want about it, but some fucking asshole expat who’s spending a year doing business there will always have the power to say, “well, Sedaris is right! It’s all true!” And of course that opinion will always hold more authority than all the angry blog posts written by Asians and Asian-Americans on the internet.

I just hate when people in positions of power or social influence do things like this so thoughtlessly. I’m sure it was nothing more than a humorous essay topic for Sedaris, but people are going to read this and think oh, so I was right about China or, oh, so this is what China’s like, and what is my opinion against a man like David Sedaris’? Being Chinese-American, funnily, will never make me the expert on China white Americans apparently are.

(Source: herocountry)

"Male Sex Abuse and Female Naiveté"

This is nothing new to the internet. I am late on the bandwagon, no doubt. Still, here are some thoughts:

I am SO. ANGRY. about this article and I hope it is understandable why. I read this about an hour ago and I’ve just been fuming here at work. Hopefully I’ve calmed down enough to be able to write this without being influenced by my first reaction which was: ASDJGHEDGUIAGHDJKSLGHAIEGHDSUGHLsdj FUCK. There is still a little bit of that nonetheless.

Some Reasons Why This Article is Awful and I Am Angry:
1. First off, it takes someone who did something incredibly brave and suffered terribly for it, and then did something incredible again by speaking up about it, and using her as an example. How she dressed at an awards show is completely 100% unrelated to the fact that she was gang-raped.
2. Rottenberg’s idea of ‘sensible’ precautions include not trusting male friends, not going to a male friend’s house at night unless you’re planning on having sex with him (this shit is verbatim y’all), not taking on certain jobs because people will think you’re a prostitute, and if you’re a female with a professional job, don’t take pictures where cleavage is shown. Yes. This is all, of course, highly sensible advice. Now I can truly live a full and free life! Thanks Dan Rottenberg! Just dictate my life for me, why don’t you! The fear of being raped already dictates my ability to walk the streets along at night! Now I guess the fear of being raped will dictate my friendships and clothing choices as well!
3. His closing suggestion is that it is easier to change one’s own behavior than it is to change another’s behavior. While this may have its merits in some situations - my God, am I tired of women being made out to be the perpetrator in situations of rape. “If women didn’t wear revealing clothing and dress like sluts and whores (words I hate. Words that I hope will never leave my mouth in reference to someone else), they wouldn’t be raped!” No. No. No. Rape can happen anywhere and at any time and to anybody, regardless of what one is wearing.

I hate hate HATE allegations that the way a women dresses can give off “the wrong vibe” or, the worst of it, that it means she’s “asking for it”. FYI, IF I WAS ASKING FOR SEX IT WOULD JUST BE CALLED SEX. THERE IS A REASON RAPE IS DEFINED AS AN ACT OF VIOLENCE. And you know what - yes, I can choose how I want to dress. No matter how revealing one’s dress is, how so-called “slutty”, no one is ever asking to be raped. No one. So dear Mr. Rottenberg, stop telling me how to dress and start telling men not to rape.

crimsonink’s response to my post (my response included)

Thanks for a response! And haha, sorry. I guess my response to your post wasn’t as direct as it could’ve been. I was thinking about writing a short expository blurb about the Asian American community for a while now, and I was somewhat inspired to write about it when my friend posted a question.

Well, first off, I agree that Yang’s article is definitely on the more arrogant side (among other things). Yang doesn’t eloquently state many of the issues in the Asian American community. Some of his anecdotes are just pity-party cases. However, his article does bring to attention very legitimate issues in the Asian American community. I have a pretty neutral opinion of it, though I am so glad that this article has created so much discourse. So addressing the point about Asian dating that you brought up, I do agree that Yang does not articulate this portion well at all. It’s very spiteful, vindictive, and somewhat demeaning. However, the larger issue at hand is that asian men need serious help in the dating arena. (http://www.abcsofattraction.com/blog/asian-american-paper-tigers-by-wesley-yang-jt-tran-response-to-new-york-magazine/). While Yang’s example might not have been the most socially ‘correct’, it has been a solution that has yielded results, and the fact that this has been a working solution for some guys gives it a right to be exposed. Whether or not people agree with it is a different story.

For me I’ve always thought of being white-washed as a neutral characteristic. It was just another description, and I’ve never been offended when someone used that term to describe me. I agree that “There are no two extremes here, with the Asian-American stereotype on one end and white-ness on the other,” but I have my doubts on how practical it is. I feel like (and kind of going back to the points I brought up in my response) that living in America, Asians are perceived as being one extreme or the other. Of course, in the Asian American community, we know that is not the case, but that is not so easily translated among other communities. Like I said, all minority races are so easily objectified.

And in response to your disagreement with my post, I’d like a little more clarification when you say “It is about being able to choose everything from my culture and having that be okay, as well as being able to choose nothing from my culture, though still retaining a sense of it, and having that be okay too.” I’m a bit confused on what you mean by “okay”. And in response to “I am not some kind of stranger to this foreign land and I refuse to be treated as such.” I mean, technically, Asian-Americans immigrated from a foreign land, and though you were born in the United States, there still exists the problem of having dual races/dual cultures. Asian-Americans feel obligated to choose between being ‘Asian’ and to choose between ‘American,’ and this mindset is largely formed from how we are perceived by the ‘white’ community. As proud Asian Americans, we need to stress that is not the case, like you said before, there are no two extremes. Furthermore, there is a difference between being “Asian” and “Asian American”. I feel like being Asian-American, we inherently lose part of our Asian culture, regardless of what we do. I mean, there is a reason our ancestors chose to immigrate, and we should establish an Asian American culture instead of a strictly Asian culture. Though, of course, there exists the issue of having to reconnect with our roots.

Anyways, keep up the good work! I’m really glad your blog promotes discourse on a lot of issues in the Asian American community. I’m really glad discussion on Asian American issues is becoming more and more frequent. I do have a few questions for you though, so answer them with as much breadth and depth as you’d like. You talk about never forgetting what being an Asian American means, but personally, I still have no clue what it means to be Asian American. So what does bein Asian American mean to you? Also, how would you define “white washed,” and what’s the difference between being “white washed” and “Asian American”?

(My response will be after the jump.)

Read More

Anonymous asked: This is in reply to your "things I’ve learned from growing up asian-american" post. Where did you grow up if you don't mind me asking? Location (as I'm sure you know) can play a huge role in how we are perceived by people. I had the benefit of growing up in Hawaii, truly a melting pot. My own family is a melting pot of different races and cultures. I hope you don't mind me telling you this. My grandfather is a 100% Japanese but was born and raised in Hawaii as well as his mother. He told me that when he first left Hawaii to go to the "mainland" (what we locals call the continental US) he experienced a significant difference in the way he was perceived by people. In Hawaii, race isn't so much an issue as it is in the other 49, the main issue is if you are local or mainlander for the most part. It was a shock to his system to encounter racial stereotypes and ignorant mindsets.

I don’t mind at all you asking - I grew up in and still make my permanent residence in New York City, though I go to college in Iowa (which, oh man, has been an experience in and of itself). And thanks for sharing your story! I’ve only ever been to Hawaii once, and as a 10-year-old tourist. I can imagine that being Asian-American would be very different in Hawaii, especially considering its history. It’s fascinating to hear the stories of other Asian-Americans, especially when it includes how location has shaped them, so thank you very much for sharing. Feel free to anytime!

crimsonink asked: so your post somehow maneuvered its way into my ask box. here's a (limited) response:

http://crimsonink.tumblr.com/post/6322655421/how-do-you-feel-about-this-do-you-relate-to-it

Thank you for the response. I am a little unsure as to what exactly you’re responding to in my post (well, until you say it outright at the end anyway), so I will respond to your response as it is?

First off, I’ve read that NYMag article and I have to say that I’m not a very big fan. Any clarity Wesley Yang finds regarding Asian-American culture, he immediately buries under a heap of condescension, misogyny, and reiteration of his own special and atypical Asian-ness. The parts about the dating service for Asian-American men made me, as a woman, have to stop reading, I was so offended. And at the end, when he starts to share his life philosophy (or whatever)…I mean, my only response is this: okay, Wesley Yang. Good for you. It is hard to care about a man who seems so concerned about showing how much better he is living his life than others of his race. This article does a good job of responding to it (thanks to @baseln, who also had a good response if only I could find it).

Second, I will be the first to admit - there was once a time when being “white washed” was a point of pride for me. When being called that made me happy, like I truly was breaking out of the Asian-American shell or like I was “assimilating”. Now, I don’t even know what that means. What does it mean to be white-washed? Does this mean that my pride as an Asian-American and that even being outspoken about that pride is a ‘white’ feature? In my indignation, even in having written that post, am I betraying my natural timidity as an Asian to embrace the white-washed American in me? There are no two extremes here, with the Asian-American stereotype on one end and white-ness on the other.

I suppose that is where my problem with your reply comes from (though I don’t mean to criticize you at all). It is summed up in this line from your post:

 as asian-americans, we have a duty to decide what would be best to maintain in our culture and what we can learn from living in our new environment.

I would like to respectfully disagree. I am not some kind of stranger to this foreign land and I refuse to be treated as such. I don’t mean to speak for all Asian-Americans, nor is there any way I possibly could. But for myself, this was never about that. It is about being able to choose everything from my culture and having that be okay, as well as being able to choose nothing from my culture, though still retaining a sense of it, and having that be okay too.

I wrote my original post to highlight the casual racism in my life and how I can never forget what being Asian-American means (though I wouldn’t want to forget anyway), nor will anyone ever let me forget what it means, through their words and their actions. It was a personal post, written solely from my own experiences; I do not pretend to speak for anyone else, much less the Asian-American community at large. I am thankful that you have found things in it that you agree with, though I also respect your opinions on the things in it with which you don’t.