My Cousin, Part I

So I discovered my little cousin on Facebook and I read some of his notes, and they are amazing. I wanted to post them (with his permission, of course) since when I was his age, I was no where near this level of awareness. I'm proud. =)

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Yellow Label, a reflection on individualism.

BRUCE LEE; CONFUCIUS; IRON CHEF; YO-YO MA are the persona that I embody to become that shade of yellow that we all know. Or think we know. Or rather assume to be true. "Asian" is what society labels me, how most people label me, and what I sometimes consider myself to be. Whatever that is...

A stereotype? a culture? an ethnicity?
the terms "asian" or "black" or "white" or "mexican" by themselves are meaningless, but with society, people have added meaning and implication and assumption. and history. However, whatever it comes out to be, it is always a biased view. A view that may not always be right, yet may not always be wrong - because that's the thing with opinion: one's never wrong. (Isn't that what our educators keep emphasizing?) Then what I also ask is this: is one's opinion therefore also never right? Opinion is the result of a subjective topic, and what's more subjective then attempting to place one image on millions of different frames. So we arrive at the solution that so many civil rights activists and stereotype fighters have advocated for so long: end labeling.

So what am I if I am not an implication or an assumption? if I do not study every hour of the day? if I don't eat dumplings and fried rice everyday? if I don't know martial arts? if I do not play piano of violin? if I do not play ping pong continuously? if I'm not frugal with money? what am I if I do not fit like a jig-saw into the stereotype puzzle?

I become an individual.

-peta pong

Smile, it's not that bad.

Be forewarned. This isn't about a social justice issue or an -ism.

I was walking to campus yesterday on beautiful Guadalupe Street. It had been a long night of drinking and dancing, and I was already late for my first meeting of the day. I just got finished cleaning my glasses off as I was walking. As I'm passing some person on the sidewalk, she looks like at me with disgust, and says, "Smile, it's not that bad."

When I'm walking alone on the street in the morning, it's not very likely I'll be smiling. Especially when you take into account all the factors listed above. Cleaning my glasses isn't a very smile-worthy activity. And I'm not sure why I should smile constantly, or why someone else feels the need to tell me I should.

What really gets me is that the person who told me to smile wasn't smiling.

Killing American Idol

This weekend at VASCON3, I was in awe at the amount of TALENT and PASSION all the entertainers had for what they do. Amongst them, there were several singers and bands such as Thomas' Apartment and Vudoo Soul. So it got me thinking, why do I have to come to a Vietnamese American conference to hear Asian Americans perform? And why is it that I hear "this is why I'm hot" three times before I get to work? Let's rewind.

A few weeks ago, I read this article: Trying To Crack the Hot 100

For those who don't feel like clicking the link, the article baisically analyzes Asian Americans in the music industry and how we seem to be unable to break that "glass ceiling" into stardom and make it to the radio. Harlem Lee won the NBC's version of American Idol but nobody remembers that. Maybe because it got swept under the rug faster than a stain you're trying to cover up before your in-laws come over. The NY Times seems to feel that the reason being is not that we lack talent or the desire, but rather we have this "Asian thing" going against us. ASIAN THING? Hmm.

Then, I thought WAIT. Every now and then, I watch American Idol. Right now, there's all this controversy about Sanjaya Malakar, the Indian born no-talent laughing-stock who is single-handedly "killing american idol." I know he can't sing, and by no means am I advocating that he should win. However, there is not a lack of talent amongst APIDAs when it comes to musical talent, including singing. Yet the ones who make it past the tens of thousands of eager auditionees and the rigorous and critical eyes of the judges are William Hung and Sanjaya Malakar. Seriously?

Either the process isn't working, or somebody thinks its funny to put William Hung and Sanjaya on national television so that they can help reinfoce the fact that Asian Americans can't sing. Which (per the NY Time's article) is just not true.

So: Is Sanjaya really killing American Idol? Or is American Idol killing the chances that Asian Americans have of breaking that invisible barrier into being taken seriously as performers and artists?

Jean

PAWS Meetings

PAWS stands for Professional Advocates With Students...or something like that. Either way, it's a more structured form of homeroom. Teachers at my school hate it.

The other day, my supervising teacher gets an IEP (individualized education plan) for a student in her PAWS. An IEP is designed for students with special needs. My teacher is livid. "WHY!? Why do I need to modify my instruction for a student that's in my HOMEROOM?! We don't do anything in there anyway?"

Silently, I considered that she was overreacting. After all, if nothing truly happens in advisory, then modification won't be necessary. Done.

But then it was time for our mandatory PAWS meeting to discuss the plans for the next month. My teacher seeks out the special ed teacher, Phyllis, for advice about this new IEP. Now, I knew Phyllis was a little shady when she casually commented during the meeting, "My juniors are more stupid than my special ed kids!"

And what did Phyllis say to my teacher about having to modify instruction for a student with special needs in her homeroom?

"That's SOOO RETARDED!!!"

Blondes, Brunettes, and...?

Check out THIS latest advertisement series for the Sunsilk hair product line. I suppose the hair possibilities are divided into blondes, brunettes, and other? I'm not surprised that the hair care industry doesn't cater to black hair, but its never been this obvious. And yes, there is the argument that brunette includes black hair, but seriously, as Ani points out, brunettes is what white people with brown hair call themselves. Alright, media, woot.

This entry is brought to you by Sunsilk.

Jean

Food Crisis

I suggested we order in Thai food today at work (cause when we work late, we always order in... and its ALWAYS burgers or sandwiches).

Everybody looked at me like I was psycho.

And then a blonde girl said that they try to order American food so that everybody can find something they like.

This is food deprivation, yo.

Can I just take this moment and rant a little about "sandwiches". Why would you pay somebody 6 bucks to make you a sandwich? That's not even cooking, you don't even add heat. You're baisically taking about 5 individual items and stacking it on top of each other. Not too hard or complicated. I don't get what all the buzz is about sandwiches.

Moral of the story? No heat = not cooking = boring food = food crisis.

Jean

Im in my foreign policy class and we are talking about groups who tend to vote democratic or republican and we are looking at a statistic that states that African Americans tend to vote more Democratic.

An African American gentleman raises his hand and says:
"That's cause Black people don't know what the hell they are talking about. I'm from Southside San Antonio, and they are pretty ghetto, you know, they are as black as they come...

Professor stops at this point with the WTF look on her face and says "maybe you need to stop right there..."

and he says, "No no, I'm serious, they are really ghetto, they live in project housing and they don't know what they are doing, they vote democratic cause they think it will get them more money. I can say this cause I'm black, it's ok."

I found it interesting that he chose to say "they" and also that when he wanted to talk about the whole entire African American population, he referenced section 8 project housing. Nice. Seeing as he is the only African American student that showed up in class today and the professor doesn't know jack squat about race relations in America, the rest of the class slowly absorbed this and concluded that it had to be true.

sigh