Honesty, she shouldn’t be embarrassed by girls who enjoy Asian paraphernalia; we should be embarrassed by people like her who draw on superficial features as salient measures of identity. I see no real difference in her article and the numerous video postings on Youtube on “how to be a fob”.

Monte’s take: Wow, an azn hater. I didn’t even realize the concept of being “azn” had escaped middle school but wow, here it is. Are you kidding me? This girl isn’t embarassed of her own race? Nobody who respects her own culture would spend 2/3 of an article spewing hate on it, and then spend the last 1/3 reconciling with it. First off, being “azn” shouldn’t be classified as emoticon loving, peace sign waving, hello-kitty loving people. If that’s being “azn,” a subgroup of “asian,” then I know too many confused white people. Emotions, hello-kitty, and peace signs are all pretty popular cultural norms that deserve respect in their own right, not hate. I personally don’t care for hello-kitty, but I certainly do not judge others for doing so. I don’t understand where this concept came that the aforementioned traits are “embarrassing.” I think what’s embarrassing is being on a newspaper staff belonging to the most prestigious public university in the world and having the audacity to publish an article that reinforces stereotypes. This article tries to redeem itself at the end saying it embraces “azn,” but it really doesn’t. It just reconciles it. There is no celebration of culture, and what’s especially sad is that there’s so much more to Asian American culture that is never mentioned );

Cecilia’s Take: what.the.hell. I think a part of my soul just shriveled up and died after reading this. First off, Daily Cal, when did self-deprecation, cultural ignorance, and general ludicrousness become news? Pang begins by saying it’s ridiculous for her to hide her oh-so-embarrassing Asian-ness because of her “squinting eyes” and ethnic last name, as if she’s tainted and marked as inferior. Internalized racism much? More than being angry at her, I’m incredibly disturbed by the fact that she just doesn’t get it. Even when she embraces her “azn” side, she still speaks about Asian identification as a disorder or illness that cannot be suppressed in spite of desires to absorb mainstream American norms to remedy her internal handicap. What really gets me though is a certain retort that follows someone’s comment that the writer should take an Asian Am class: “Don’t you know the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans?” Being azn is cute.. IN ASIA. Being an American-born azn IS NOT. How is flashing the peace sign in photos a part of Asian culture? Um, what? And what in the WORLD does Asian American studies have to do with anything? How would Asian AMERICAN studies help??” Um I don’t know, generate some sort of intellectual thought on racism and identity? Thank God for alternative media is all I can say.

Denise’s Take: Playing on Cecilia’s aformentioned “disease” metaphor, I really feel that this author’s discomfort with her identity is the result of a misdiagnosis. “Asianness/Aznness” is not a virulent disease-like state that can only be “lived with”; however, idiocy and ignorance are. But I’ll refrain from being as mean as I’d like to be; while Pang’s uninformed, judgmental generalizations of “Azns” and her self-deprecating fear of being judged are indubitably HILARIOUS, they are also tremendously tragic. The quality of this piece’s writing as well as the mention of a “dorm room” at the end of the article already suggest the author’s youth, and it may be possible that she comes from somewhere where poorly-crafted, racist vitriol is tolerated or even considered funny. No biggie. Humans make mistakes to learn, and it may just be incredibly unfortunate that this one was racist, horrid, and made many people feel very, very sad for society (especially that rather distasteful remark about the Wah Ching Gang. Classy!).

The real culprit is whatever idiot at The Daily Cal who thought this was appropriate to publish. This was essentially the only piece in this issue that did not have to deal with the walkout–really? Of everything in the world to have an opinion about aside from the walkout, the only one worth publishing was this sophomorically written regurgitation of antiquated stereotypes. This is absolutely pathetic that The Daily Cal thought this passes off for news, or even intellectual thought worth representing at this university. Maybe this was an attempt to join the illustrious ranks of such schools as Yale and Dartmouth in terms of unfunny, anti-Asian “satire”  (disclaimer: I realize that the vast majority of students at Yale and Dartmouth are probably far more intelligent than the perpetrators of those two articles). In any case, it’s a particular slap in the face,considering the complete lack of discussion on how the budget cuts will affect API students outside of API spaces. Nah, don’t worry, our progressive spaces, representation from underserved API demographics, and classes that speak to our communities’ interests aren’t in danger at all. The biggest problems we have today are making sure we don’t look like “wannabe geishas” or choosing between the “ordinary square eraser, or handy and efficient but Azn clicking eraser.”

On a lighter note, I found this online comment on the article pretty fucking funny:

“One last thing.. Democrats make fun of Republicans all the time, stereotyping them as gun-toting, Bible-thumping conservatives.

Do white Democrats then have “classic internalized racism” for their own race as well??”

….LOL.

In case you can’t access the link, here’s the recap of the article.

A rep from the Organization of Chinese Americans spoke at a House testimony on voter registration about the difficulty some Asian Americans have during voting “because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.”

Republican Betty Brown from Texas responded, “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

People called her out making racist, ignorant statements, and of course, her spokesman says this is just being blown out of proportion.

Okay. Let’s forget how messed up (and freaking racist) her statements are for a second and just enjoy how purely stupid this whole thing is.

Who are these Americans she’s referring to? The whole issue is on VOTING. You must be an American citizen to vote. Every last person in the Organization of Chinese AMERICANS is an American. When Brown suggests that Asian Americans “adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with” and refers to the OCA as “you [the rep] and your citizens,” she’s making a distinction between Chinese Americans and Americans.
Chinese Americans are Americans.

This is a bit tangential, but still relevant. Up until this year, I used to be wary of calling things racist. Especially as an Asian American Studies major, I didn’t want to be seen one of those people who see racism everywhere – from tv shows to textbooks to the bottom of my coffee mug. So I would use phrases like “poor lack of judgement” or “unfortunate choice of words” or “momentary lapses of sanity and reason.”

I’m done with that. This year, I’m calling them like I see it. Remember kids, “racist” is not a bad word, it just refers to bad people.

“Wasn’t Bobby great in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’?”

Um, excuse me? I’m actually speechless …

While Coulter, a self-proclaimed champion of Conservatives, is notorious for her extreme remarks, this one has reached another low. Not only is she assuming that all Indians look the same, she actually thinks it would be funny to make a joke about it. I’m sorry, but not all of us are heartless, anorexic, ignorant, and attention-seeking like you are.

Some other Coulter-isms, just because

“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.” -From her book, If Democrats Had Any Brains They’d be Republicans

“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. ” -On Muslims, in her column

oh ann … please just go away

Ad 1: “Want to date some sexy ASIAN LADIES? Go online to visit our dating website.”
(i am not going to list said website b/c some creeper will probably go visit it for said reason).
Ad 2:”Hot Chinese Girls” + link to stupid website #2.
(Once again, no free advertisement for you, racist “Hot Chinese Girls” website!)
Ad 3: “Enroll in Martial Arts Classes NOW!”
Yes, because Wong Fu = Asians = Bruce Lee = Martial Arts … duh.

Really, Google, really? Someone needs to fix that shizz asap.

Firstly, some things to address:

1) See community rules for posting. Because of the multitude of comments that have been posted onto our blog unfiltered, providing no insightful commentary, the hardboiled core has decided to post rules for comments. All comments that do not adhere to these rules will be moderated. We deemed this important as to prevent spamming of our blog. Anonymous comments will continue to be allowed, however, it would be wise to leave a legitimate email address so that we may contact you, in case your comment does not follow our rules. Regulation will not occur retroactively, however. But be warned that from this moment onward, we will be following through with these regulations for our blog.

2) In regards to my post…. From the beginning, the intention of the entry was never to attack an individual for being a racist, but rather to note one of the many things that spurred me to feel disgusted towards acts of racism, hate speech, and hate crime. I took great care to conceal the identity of the owner of the album, because I felt it would take away from the purpose of the post. My point was not to direct attacks towards a person, but rather, to promote thought on hate speech and hate crime that continue today, despite a belief that our society has advanced and is no longer racist.

It is worthy to note that this post was published a while ago: after the post was written, I took the initiative to talk with the person whose Facebook photo album I noted. The person themself noted that the photo album could be construed as racist, and agreed to take them down. The act, to me, was their acknowledgment that the photos were harmful and inappropriate.

Racism appears in all sorts of forms and too frequently. However, I firmly believe in redemptive actions and that racist actions cannot be considered within a vacuum. Education should be the first steps we as a community should take in response to racism, instead of jumping towards condemnation and punishment. That may sound idealistic and naive, but it is a belief that I hold strongly. It is important that we as a community continue to strive to educate others as well as ourselves so that we can truly tolerate one another and create the cohesive APA community that for so long has been so divisive.

However, it is also bad for us to let actions like this to continue. If education does not work, then the next step is to take more serious actions. Ignoring racism when it occurs is just as detrimental as being racist. I’m still admittedly naive and inexperienced, but I hope that these words are taken with weight

3) Although I’m pleased that the hardboiled blog has been getting more hits and has been receiving a lot more attention, I am largely disappointed with the reasons for this jump in activity. As many in the comments have cited, the post was condemning all forms of hatred, especially senseless hatred. Although racism is always terrible, fighting racism with further hateful speech perpetuates the problems and does not create meaningful solutions. So I, again, would like everyone to refer to the community rules that this blog will now be regulated by in order to prevent this sort of recklessness in the future

Finally, I encourage anyone to contact me at my email address, in the chance that people feel personally offended by the things I said and would like to shoot some angry comments directed specifically at me. I do not regret the things I wrote, though I do regret the actions and hurt feelings that occurred around them.

NOW, with all that being said, I hope people continue to visit this blog for future updates. Like I mentioned before, hopefully more of core will participate in blogging once finals are over and we’re at home with nothing better to do than blog more!

I get the feeling a lot of times that people are certain that racism is erased from our more modern contemporary progressive times, and that any forms of racism that do show up are just the anomaly: a rare incident by people who are not up with the times. But that thought is naive, and just plain ignorant. Here is an article we were discussing in class. Note the date of this article. Is that not ridiculous?

Although I’m a firm believer in the notion that racism nowadays appears in more subtle forms, with these discussions in class and personal incidents of racism manifesting itself into hateful actions, I can’t help but accept the fact that there is still hatred and racism within the minds of many in America.  It’s so messed up, because it’s wrong. In my heart there is a deep aversion to that type of senseless hatred.

So let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that our culture is more colorblind nowadays and that minorities who are complaining about racism are just “being sensitive” or “playing the race card.” Let’s not claim that these thoughts and actions are the outliers. All of us must accept and develop an awareness for these things, or else they’ll just continue to be perpetuated in society.

Jeez, racism friggin’ sucks.