Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Website
A struggling artist trying to make it. Sometimes I'll indulge in fandom amidst artwork postings and sketches. Actually most of the time. Also, I apparently have a lot of feelings about racism and sexism.
Current shows I'm watching are Nikita, Glee, Hawaii Five-O, The Walking Dead and Legend of Korra (MAKORRA). Asian Fusion is my OTP, Daryl Dixon and Glenn are my TWD faves, and I just love everyone in HFO.
Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King, Jr. having a good laugh together.
(Source: aaknopf, via thewayistare)
“You’re clearly not white and encounter tons of ignorance from that circumstance, but you’re still more socially accepted than black and latino group due to “positive stereotypes” (bullshit IMO) and thus receive better access to resources i.e. health care, education. “
As an…
I appreciate your thoughtful posts though, and from the looks of it, I can tell that you’ve been opening up to discourse on these issues with respect that not many other people have with such sensitive issues, hah.
I understand that it does get really confusing with the generalizing term of Asians, since it is very diverse in itself.
To clarify a little bit, it is true that Asians are often the bigger minority when it comes to education, actually especially to education, and that is honestly, I think, coming from a big part of the traditional cultural family values, but we’re just as invisible where it matters just as much: the media, where people will judge how socially acceptable different ethnic cultures and people of that culture are.
For example, look at how anime and manga have grown so popular in America. Look at how everyone knows what Korean BBQ and sushi are, and the list goes on.
Now look at Hollywood movies. How many of those do you know actually come from Asia? The Departed is based on the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs. The Grudge and The Ring? Japanese horror movies first. Dragonball Evolution. Speed Racer. 21.The Last Airbender. And just recently, the Akira remake that’s revived its whitewashed self 4 times, Hollywood won’t let die.
These are all stories that originally have rich Asian cultural traits and meanings behind them with Asian characters in those stories. But when it comes on the big screen, where it all matters, where the most people will see it, the people themselves are conveniently erased or replaced with white actors and the stories become botched Americanized versions that most of the time do not honor the source material at all. My biggest gripe is The Last Airbender, which the cartoon series was made in America, and it honors Asian culture like I’ve never seen anything else do, and that’s why many people love it, and to have all those Asian characters be portrayed by obvious white people in the movie, it was such a huge slap to the face.
That’s where I’m coming from when I say the people themselves aren’t as socially acceptable as many think. It’s what these ethnic people bring and what they offer and whether that can be used for the audience they’re catering to (most likely white) that matters. If you look at history a bit, that mentality has held true for a long time. What did the people take from the Native Americans that can be used for them alone? Land, resources, etc.
Anyways, I digress, but thank you for the opening the convo up, and you’re doing just fine with how you’re handling the topics.
(Source: voguedissent)
”One day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s market place. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the oil?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the iron ore?’ You begin to ask the question, ‘Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two thirds water?’ These are questions that must be asked.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"(Source: black-culture, via thewayistare)
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and in his honor, the Black students’ union sent out an email summing up MLK’s life, politics and legacy, along with a reminder of what we students can do. The email was sent to the Black students’ union email listserv and the Latino students’ union listserv.
But not to the Asian students’ union listserv.
Why the resistance to including Asians as people
“You’re clearly not white and encounter tons of ignorance from that circumstance, but you’re still more socially accepted than black and latino group due to “positive stereotypes” (bullshit IMO) and thus receive better access to resources i.e. health care, education. “
As an Asian American, I will have to slightly disagree with that statement, that Asians are more “socially acceptably.” It is not the people who are socially acceptable, it is our products.
By products I mean our food, history, mythology, culture, our martial arts, and dare I say it, the “exotic” nature of all that and more. Our products eventually became fetishized for most white people to consume and mold into their society.
In media, the Asian people are just as shafted and pigeon holed into the typecast roles that a white consumer society established for them, and if an Asian isn’t emulating any of those “positive stereotypes,” (ie if you don’t know kung fu, if you’re not nerd or geek smart, if you are not an Asian female that can be hypersexualized into an exotic trophy for the white man to win), you are denied opportunities and privileges just like anyone else of color.
Anyways, yeah wtf Asians are too of color and we love MLK as much as anyone does.
(via kryptoswag)
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967
Oh, America.
