Tuesday, March 31, 2009

soar conference

this past weekend i took some time off from spring breaking at home to travel down to hartford, ct to participate in the SOAR conference aka society organized against racism (in new england higher education) which was pretty interesting although much better at talking about stuff than actually coming up with anything about what to do about it or how to think about what's going on. some interesting speakers from the 60s, including charles mcdew who started SNCC. maybe i'll write more thoughts on that later, or put up some of my notes from the conference. but one other thing that was particularly interesting to me was that i was one of a handful of asians and i'm not even just counting east asians, that includes south asians too and could probably even include the middle east which is technically southwest asia. it was a very typically expected group of people, black and white. now i'm not saying that that's a bad thing, just that racism on college campuses doesn't just affect black people, the most recent event on my college campus happened against an asian girl. i guess all i'm saying is that i wish there was more variety because it is an issue and it's not just a matter of black and white.

Monday, March 23, 2009

profiling

ever been profiled?

for me, it's never been damaging or detrimental to me in any kind of deep, profound way, just something that bothers me. a recent incident reminded me of how prevalent it is in our society. a really nice guy at the snack bar where i go to school asked me if knew this girl tiffany who apparently tutors his daughter. i didn't at the time. turns out, tiffany's asian like me. i guess all the asians know all the other asians...and i guess it is partially true - most of the asians where i go to school know most of the other asians but really thats because there aren't all that many of us, so it's not too hard. still. it does seem that in society as a whole, often times people act like if your asians you will probably know this other asian they know. ummm not true. there are more east asians in the world then i count to in a sitting and if you throw in the rest of asia too, it becomes a number i don't think i'd ever have the patience to count to (not that i'd have the patience to count to the number in east asia either, but that's besides the point).

a friend of mine made this joke the other day about how some of the lacrosse equipment hadn't come in yet and it was "made in china" so could i just make a phone call and fix that problem? yea, it was funny. i'll admit that. but. part of me was like, you're kidding. another asian joke. in retrospect, it was even less funny, but i've sort of gotten used to being profiled and teased (mostly endearingly) about being asian (not even usually specifically about being chinese), and that in itself it a little disgusting to me because sometimes i feel like it should bother me more. who knows. i'll think about it some more and get back to you.

Monday, March 9, 2009

"seeking justice, chinese land in secret jails"

"i know my life is in danger but I just can't swallow this injustice" - wang shixiang, a Chinese businessman who has made 10 trips to beijing to petition for the prosecution of corrupt policemen, each visit ending in detention

ick. in a political system where petitions are means of getting your voice heard but where petitions mean black marks on the records of the local politicians, it's no wonder that government officials play dangerous games to prevent one of these petitions from being successfully filed and those who help them are rewarded lucratively.

the whole system has turned into an official way of saying here, have your say, while unofficially squashing any and all complaints and opinions.

all i can say is that as glad i am to be chinese, it's articles like this that make me glad there's a hyphen american after that. (not that petitions around here are oh so much more effective, but at least we don't usually get arrested into black houses for doing it).

via nytimes

Saturday, March 7, 2009

alvin lau

just saw slam poet alvin lau and was reminded how great poetry and spoken word are for laughter and meaning and back in split seconds. how it stays with you even after the perfomance is over.

two samples that have particularly great messages



Monday, March 2, 2009

a pale shade of yellow

"I tried hard to be white, and there were people who hated me to trying to be too white. And then I tried to be yellow again and there were people who hated me for being too yellow, so I tried to be a paler shade of yellow to please everyone, and there were people who hated me for being a little too white; and so I tried to darken up a bit and there were people who hated me for that too.

So all I’m left with is something in the middle; not yellow nor white, not one thing or another. Just something halfway in-between."

-A Pale Shade of Yellow by Patricia Pham via 8asians.com

my my does that sound mighty familar or what? it took me awhile (until late in elementary school) to even truly realize that i was different from everyone else because of the way i looked and it was a struggle from then (and still is) - a constant oscillation between proud and shameful