I Now Pronounce You Racist

Jenn from Reappropiate blogs about the recent movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and it’s use of yellow face:

A lesser publicized but equally weighty concern over this film, however, is its prominent use of yellowface for Rob Schneider’s (surprisingly) uncredited role as the minister who weds Chuck and Larry. Schneider’s scenes are within a few seconds of the trailer embedded above.

Bearing a stereotypical muschroom cut, bucked teeth, jaundiced skin, and glasses reminscent of Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Schneider plays up the ‘r/l’ slurs and stilted “Chingrish” typically used to mock recent Asian immigrants.

Hot Ghetto Mess

Mark, blogger for Progress At All Costs, writes about the campaign to stop “Hot Ghetto Mess:”

Bronze Trinity has written a post about a current campaign to get the sponsors of HGM to pull their sponsorship of the show. Sponsors such as State Farm have started pulling their sponsorship of HGM. Bronze Trinity has illustrated what is going on in this post titled Stop BETs HOT GHETTO MESS Bronze Trinity has written a post about a current campaign to get the sponsors of BETs Hot Ghetto Mess (HGM) to pull their sponsorship of the show. This campaign is an excellent example of online activism practiced by activist bloggers such as Eddie Griffin and What about our Daughters who is really, really getting up in peoples hind parts, especially BETs. Bronze Trinity has illustrated what is going on in this post titled Stop BETs HOT GHETTO MESS.

Asian Americans and College Admissions

Anabsurdthought posts a blog on college and Asian Americans in the blog The Asian Americanists:

While Asian Americans have long been well-rounded students at elite institutions, they are still perceived to be one-dimensional. Their extracurricular engagement, perhaps, are not catching admissions officers’ eyes in the same way as those applicants of other racial backgrounds. While university and colleges are often lauded for their more comprehensive approach to determining a student’s admissions fate, few are question the socio-cultural implications of what is valued as extracurricular activities or how access to such activities may be limited to particular segments of our society due to any number of characteristics (i.e., socioeconomic status, geography, gender, sexual orientation, race).

That One Black Kid

Vegan Kid posts a comic strip about “That one Black kid” in his blog.

India, Africa, and Their Colonial Past

Diepiriye writes about his trip to Delhi and about the relationship between Indians and Blacks in his Myspace blog:

Just like in most of the colonial world, the whims and desires of the colonial masters determined which Indians would encounter which Africans- and this has unfortunately led to a great deal of conflict and mistrust amidst a people who ultimately must engage one another, even if only for commerce. Nonetheless, there is a lot of mutuality shown by the way that both African and Indian Diasporas lend and borrow cultural traditions, or in many cases, develop whole new cultural traditions.

Via Krish.

The Commodifying of Japanese Culture

Latoya Peterson, writing for Racialicious, discusses those who try to appropriate Harjuku culture:

And it was then, that it struck me – maybe the desire to learn is what separates someone who fetishizes a culture from those who merely wish to appreciate it. As I get deeper into anime and Japanese culture, I learned what causes some of the issues I see. I read about the rampant sexism in Japan, and their colonization of other Asian nations, which explained some of the more unkind images of Chinese and Koreans in manga illustrations. I learned that a social trend I thought was cool — the ability to pick up a part-time job for a day and be paid in cash as a student — was in some ways an outgrowth of Freeter culture which is becoming a bit of a trap for youth in Japan. The anime glitter was knocked out of my eyes, and I started to understand that Japan was… just Japan. Another country, with its own struggles and issues and cool parts of its society — not perfect, not horrific, just Japan.

MC Rove: Not Exactly the Dopest

Nezua blogs over at the Unapologetic Mexican about the racist appropriation of hip-hop at the Radio-Television Correspondent’s Dinner, which included a freestyle performance by none other than Karl Rove.

The point is that for me to see rich, pink, warmongers handling Hip-Hop as a weapon both against black people (see the token grin and clap to lines like “He’s so White, he’ll never be beat”) as well as against the process of Justice creeping up on the GOPs power-hoarding and lording (Fitzgerald tears off “animal tops”?) makes me want to SCREAM.

The Black Baby “Mistake”

Over at Racialicious, Carmen discusses a lawsuit resulting from an error at a fertility clinic. From the New York Post excerpt:

A Park Avenue fertility clinic’s blunder has left a family devastated – after a black baby was born to a Hispanic woman and her white husband, the couple charges in a lawsuit. The mistake, made during in-vitro conception, wasn’t discovered until Jessica Andrews was born – and it became clear she didn’t look anything like her mom, Nancy, or dad, Thomas, the suit says.

As Carmen points out, one can only guess what future effect this legal action will have on the child:

Wonder how Jessica is going to feel when she grows up knowing that her darker skin caused such panic for her parents, and landed her family on front-page news.

The Black Baby “Mistake”

Over at Racialicious, Carmen discusses a lawsuit resulting from an error at a fertility clinic. From the New York Post excerpt:

A Park Avenue fertility clinic’s blunder has left a family devastated – after a black baby was born to a Hispanic woman and her white husband, the couple charges in a lawsuit. The mistake, made during in-vitro conception, wasn’t discovered until Jessica Andrews was born – and it became clear she didn’t look anything like her mom, Nancy, or dad, Thomas, the suit says.

As Carmen points out, one can only guess what future effect this legal action will have on the child:

Wonder how Jessica is going to feel when she grows up knowing that her darker skin caused such panic for her parents, and landed her family on front-page news.

The Invasion of the “Yeux Bridés”

On the blog Gay Persons of Color the blogger comments on the “yeux bridés” (slanted eyes) incident:

If we are to accept and appreciate Canada and the United States as ethnically and racially plural, then we really have to remind politicians and the popular media that if we are not white, this doesn’t mean we are from somewhere else. Yes, the term “yeux bridés” has offended many, and even more have been offended by the lack of an apology or correction, but identifying someone as foreign based solely on physical features is a more insidious kind of offense of which far more individuals than just André Boisclair are guilty.

The Invasion of the “Yeux Bridés”

On the blog Gay Persons of Color the blogger comments on the “yeux bridés” (slanted eyes) incident:

If we are to accept and appreciate Canada and the United States as ethnically and racially plural, then we really have to remind politicians and the popular media that if we are not white, this doesn’t mean we are from somewhere else. Yes, the term “yeux bridés” has offended many, and even more have been offended by the lack of an apology or correction, but identifying someone as foreign based solely on physical features is a more insidious kind of offense of which far more individuals than just André Boisclair are guilty.

Hutch Bill, Simple Enough a Native Can Do It!

m. blogs about a recent Hutch internet ad:

it speaks volumes for how effective colonial conditioning has been, and how it continues to dominate the way we think. any system of discrimination is most effective when the subject starts internalising the discriminatory notions. so while it’s awful enough to have a seemingly liberal white man write racist literature and be praised for it, it’s a different set of worries and fears to see people beholding themselves through a racist lens and hating themselves.

Originally linked by Shruthi on Blog Bharti.

Virginia’s Good Intentions

Sylvia at The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum alerts readers to a problematic public health campaign in the State of Virginia that aims to raise awareness about statutory rape in the Latin@ community. A quote from the article at CNN.com:

“Gracias Papi: A fotonovela about a young woman, an older guy and a loving father” will be distributed across Virginia starting in April. The Health Department already has received calls from interested health care workers in Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee. The effort stems from Virginia’s “Isn’t she a little young?” statutory rape campaign, a 2004 project employing everything from billboards to napkins bearing the provocative question. Robert Franklin, a Health Department male outreach coordinator, immediately got requests to translate the materials into Spanish. “Getting males to challenge their peers about having sex with teens is hard in any culture,” said Franklin, who felt a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work. “I can’t just translate ‘Isn’t she a little young?’ into Spanish.”

Franklin instead began targeting Latino men through Spanish-language radio ads. When he realized he was only addressing part of the problem, Franklin searched for ways to reach Latina teens.

Sylvia weighs in at the comment section:

Those identifications are pretty shaky to suddenly conclude that half of all Latina mothers in VA are having sex with adults. Teen pregnancy is often a sensitive subject in the first place — women are not often gungho to reveal who the fathers of their children are, even if they are the same age or within the legal guidelines. It could be a parental intervention; it could be the father has disappeared and aren’t going to be present in the child’s life… It could have nothing to do with statutory rape. But this article seems to paint statutory rape as the only reason for these causes because they can find a “cultural” link for it. And that’s not a very responsible assertion.

Virginia’s Good Intentions

Sylvia at The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum alerts readers to a problematic public health campaign in the State of Virginia that aims to raise awareness about statutory rape in the Latin@ community. A quote from the article at CNN.com:

“Gracias Papi: A fotonovela about a young woman, an older guy and a loving father” will be distributed across Virginia starting in April. The Health Department already has received calls from interested health care workers in Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee. The effort stems from Virginia’s “Isn’t she a little young?” statutory rape campaign, a 2004 project employing everything from billboards to napkins bearing the provocative question. Robert Franklin, a Health Department male outreach coordinator, immediately got requests to translate the materials into Spanish. “Getting males to challenge their peers about having sex with teens is hard in any culture,” said Franklin, who felt a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work. “I can’t just translate ‘Isn’t she a little young?’ into Spanish.”

Franklin instead began targeting Latino men through Spanish-language radio ads. When he realized he was only addressing part of the problem, Franklin searched for ways to reach Latina teens.

Sylvia weighs in at the comment section:

Those identifications are pretty shaky to suddenly conclude that half of all Latina mothers in VA are having sex with adults. Teen pregnancy is often a sensitive subject in the first place — women are not often gungho to reveal who the fathers of their children are, even if they are the same age or within the legal guidelines. It could be a parental intervention; it could be the father has disappeared and aren’t going to be present in the child’s life… It could have nothing to do with statutory rape. But this article seems to paint statutory rape as the only reason for these causes because they can find a “cultural” link for it. And that’s not a very responsible assertion.

Society’s Creation

Dumi (who’s blog is BlackatMichigan) writes about Nathaniel Abraham and tries to get to the core issues surrounding that person’s life:

I wonder about Nathaniel, not simply because he’s a human, but because I wonder what kind of world produces a manchild like him. I remember reading Fox Butterfield’s account of Willie Bosket and thinking that he told part of the story. Though I may not be able to retrace Nathaniel’s life, I’m sure there are more than enough elements that would trouble us. While the national cameras usually fixate on Detroit as a city in decline or post decline, seldom do people think of Pontiac. Pontiac, which sits not far from Detroit, is just as ripe with social ills and dangers: high amounts of crime, drugs, unemployment, and single headed households. While we all love the stories of “beating the odds” and want to highlight the exceptions to the rules of poverty, these stories are in many ways disingenuous. I think Nathaniel represents the rule, the rule that we need to grapple with, simply put: Your chances for success (however you define it) are severely limited (if not eliminated) if you grow up poor, Black, and male in America.

Society’s Creation

Dumi (who’s blog is BlackatMichigan) writes about Nathaniel Abraham and tries to get to the core issues surrounding that person’s life:

I wonder about Nathaniel, not simply because he’s a human, but because I wonder what kind of world produces a manchild like him. I remember reading Fox Butterfield’s account of Willie Bosket and thinking that he told part of the story. Though I may not be able to retrace Nathaniel’s life, I’m sure there are more than enough elements that would trouble us. While the national cameras usually fixate on Detroit as a city in decline or post decline, seldom do people think of Pontiac. Pontiac, which sits not far from Detroit, is just as ripe with social ills and dangers: high amounts of crime, drugs, unemployment, and single headed households. While we all love the stories of “beating the odds” and want to highlight the exceptions to the rules of poverty, these stories are in many ways disingenuous. I think Nathaniel represents the rule, the rule that we need to grapple with, simply put: Your chances for success (however you define it) are severely limited (if not eliminated) if you grow up poor, Black, and male in America.

Yo Quiero Taco Bell!!

Carmen Van Kerckhove posts a blog on Racialicious about a “Latino party:”

The latest racist campus party comes to us from California’s Santa Clara University, where students decided to um, honor their Latino brothers and sisters by throwing a”South of the Border Party.”

Clash of Civilizations

Cubano writes about the absurdity of the “clash of civilizations” in the blog Eccentric Optimism.

The word civilization is used to refer to a culture and society. Society is composed of various things and it’s not just based on religion so I don’t know why Islam is being singled out and being referred to as a civilization. If you are naïve enough to believe that all of Islamic world is composed of one entity that thinks, believes and acts in an identical or a very similar manner then you may also add to your naivety by believing that there is a clash of civilizations. But, please save the crap for yourself and stop poisoning our minds.

I first found this linked at Blogbharti by Krish.

White Feminists

Rosarose07 writes about white feminists and their views:

Sorry, but I don’t care how many black women, Asian women, latina women, other non-white women you know, or how many Men of Color you’ve married, slept with, made babies with, or how you, as a white woman, might identify culturally, you are STILL a WHITE WOMAN. You do NOT know what it is like to really be anything but a white woman, no matter how much you think otherwise, and all the hip-hop, biracial babies, and spicy salsa in the world isn’t going to change that.

Damn ABCs!

Alex, from the Chinese-American hardcore band Say Bok Gwai (Damn White Devil), responds to an e-mail by a young Hong Kong youth who had seen a show done by the band in Hong Kong and had called the band “yellow on the outside, white on the inside.”

Growing up in America, it is very easy to lose all of your ethnic background if you don’t try to hold on to it. It is very easy to be another white American as I have seen very much in my life with Chinese, Filipinos and Japanese people in America.

And a blog is a blog is a blog, and Myspace (and Live Journal) blogs count as well.

Dog Eaters and Mass Media

Jenn, a native born Canadian of Chinese descent, writes about the stereotype of dog-eating.  Her blog is Reappropriate:

I’m really sick of American entertainment constantly harping on the dog-eating stereotype. Even though I’m not a native-born Chinese, I feel insulted because Chinese culture is a lot more in-depth and complex than the differences between our cuisine and American cuisine. And besides, characterizing Chinese culture as nothing but a bunch of weird, amoral dog-eaters isn’t more than a step or two removed from nineteenth century depictions of Chinese as barbaric rat-eaters[…]