Whitey's Revenge

2006-08-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

The next installment of the reality show "Survivor" plans to divide their contestnats into racial teams. That's right. We'll get to see which is the best race at...surviving. A wonderful little eugenics experiment.

This idea is atrocious. Not only does it reinforce the idea that race is something remotely tangible, but it encourages social discrimination within the little "community" and competition between races. So what, you may say? It's just a ridiculous reality show. The problem is that this confirms to people, albeit in an amusing but perhaps more effective way, that the social division of "race" is normal and acceptable. It's not. Thank you "Survivor", for not just maintaining the status quo, but giving it an injection of adrenaline. I for one am glad to finally find out which race is best - then I can plan to make friends with them for the coming Apocalypse.

2006-01-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Ken Watanabe defended the casting of Memoirs of a Geisha today, likening it to casting non Italians in opera. As I've noted before, I would tend to agree. People have argued that casting other Asians in the roles of Japanese characters stems from the Eurocentric "they all look alike" mentality, but I would argue that ethnic nationalism is in play on both sides. In my humble opinion, anything that blurs the distinction between ethnicity (and ultimately race) is a good thing. One might want to be more concerned with how the West is portraying these characters, and not solely with who they cast.

2006-01-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching the golden globes. Sandra Oh won best supporting actress in a television series or motion picture (for Grey's Anatomy) and Ang Lee won best director (for Brokeback Mountain). Zhang Ziyi lost out to Felicity Huffman, and Naveen Andrews lost out to Paul Newman. My fellow Staten Islander Yoon-jin Kim was also on stage for Lost's best television drama award!

Overall there seemed to be a bit more diversity in the proceedings than usual - a good thing to be sure.

2006-01-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how little people truly still understand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of tolerance as we continue on through the 21st century. Despite living in a society that praises his words of peace and unity, both racists and racialists continue to resort to violence and self-imposed segregation. His untimely death has left a nation and a world that takes baby steps towards integration when it is strides that are desperately needed. But only when "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls", and when boys and girls of every race and creed acknowledge each other as brothers and sisters rather than antagonists will we finally live up to Dr. King's dream.

2006-01-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

Found this great article from last year about Anna May Wong, the first Asian American actress in Hollywood. It also has links to some cool resources like TIME magazine's archives (if you're a member) and this website, which has mp3s of old radio shows including Wong's The Patriot. Check it out.

2006-01-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

I posted a review for "Memoirs of a Geisha", which I saw on New Years Eve.

And here's a link for Sam Magazine, the "first" magazine for Asian American men. Just another case of the media profiting from racial division, I suppose. And why is it that How to Attract Asian Women is considered racist, while the headline on the right side of the magazine cover is not? Is it because one profits off of love-sick white guys while the other profits off of love-sick Asians? Or is it because it's normal to date within your race and abnormal to date outside of it? Whatever the reason, I think I'll play it safe and say that both are grossly offensive.

2005-11-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ex-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was arrested in Chile on Monday after a "surprise visit". (Okay, that's kind of funny). He's essentially been in a self-imposed exile from Peru after being accused of corruption and threatened with arrest. Fujimori, who was the son of Japanese-Peruvian immigrants, had been living in Japan since 2000 and was hoping to (somewhow) run for president in Peru next year. He was the second Asian to become the leader of a non-Asian country.

I first found out about Fujimori when I saw him interviewed on some bubbly Japanese talk show. I then learned that he's had quite a few authoritarian tendencies in his day, including the curtailing of constitutional rights. He's also been accused of connections to political murders. Well, now that he's been detained I suppose we'll find out how much is true.

Asian presidents in Latin-America = awesome. Asian presidents becoming dictators in Latin-America = not so awesome.

2005-11-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

So Paris has been seeing riots for the past two weeks, and the unrest is spreading. The riots started when two Arabs, believing that police were following them, hid in an electric station and got electrocuted. But the real drive behind the conflict is the inequality between native French and the Arab/African minority groups.

Apparently the discrimination is far more overt than here in the States. Kids with Arab-sounding last names have far more difficulty getting jobs than those with French names. I am a bit dissapointed that people seem to be pointing fingers at France's "colorblind" policies as the culprit. France classifies people only as "nationals" and "foreigners" (not the best word in my opinion by the way), with no racial or ethnic classifications. While affirmitive action would seriously alleviate inequality, it can't be the only solution. Remember: "race" isn't the cure to racism. Admittedly, I would probably be naive if I thought that inequality could be ended without some kind of affirmitive action, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a quick fix to a larger problem. Ever wonder why affirmitive action hasn't lifted up the millions of African Americans still living in poverty?

Poverty begets poverty and hopelessness begets hopelessness. When you clump a bunch of poor minorities into poor neighborhoods, they're going to stay poor. Giving a few of them jobs just drains their communities of valuable members. And moving them into pretty suburbs will just make the whites to leave, (probably gentrifying the old ghettos in turn). What's necessary is a coordination of initiatives: education, neighborhood reform, anti-discrimination laws and, yes, affirmitive action - if it helps integrate whites and minorities in the workplace. Familiarity breeds friendship and people might just be more willing to live alongside eachother as a result. Luckily, Prime Minister Villepin is pursuing reforms to make some of this happen. That's more than can be said for our government following the New Orleans flood.

Let's hope the violence ends quickly, but that it's not forgotten either.

2005-10-25T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a Time article aboutClint Eastwood's decision to simultaneously release two movies about the battle of Iwo Jima - one concerning the American side and one concerning the Japanese. I'm certainly very interested in seeing both of them (what would they be called...sidequels?) Now we just wait and see whether or not the dialogue is in Japanese.

2005-10-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Rosa Parks, probably the most well known name of the Civil Rights Movement right behind Martin Luther King Jr., died yesterday at the age of 92. The Civil Rights Movement made incredible strides in racial equality, but pretty much burnt out just as it started to tackle economic issues. Hopefully her legacy will still rekindle future progressivism.

2005-10-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I just added a new essay on racial profiling, which you can find on the right. You might notice I like to play devil's advocate when discussing these types of issues, but I find it makes it easier to organize my opinions. As always, send along any responses - I'd be happy to read them.

2005-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Angry Asian Man linked to this interview with The RZA yesterday in Asia Pacific Arts. In it the musician made one particular comment that struck a nerve: implying that melanin, or the pigment for dark skin, is connected to life, intelligence or spirituality, and that Caucasians weren't "in sync" with all that jazz until we read books left for us by blacks and Asians. Harmless spiritual rhetoric? I wouldn't say so, especially if the situation had been reversed. Such thinking places values on race and implies human beings as possessing some kind of inherent quality.

Besides that, the interview was pretty interesting, and his views on culture were encouraging. I can't hate on the RZA too much, considering we're both alumni of the same highschool.

2005-09-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

I was surfing imdb.com when I found this upcoming indie film: The Shanghai Kid. It seems to be a dramedy (if I'm even using the term correctly) that addresses some of the issues facing Asian Americans as an underrepresented minority in Hollywood. Starring Kelly Hu and Ken Leung (known, at least to me, as that badass who fought Jackie Chan with an axe in Rush Hour). It's filming now, so keep an eye out.

2005-09-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Check out this lovely editorial, which I found via AngryAsianMan. Why is it that college students feel the need to start off every article with an inflammatory and aggressive statement like "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport."? Do they just want to be popularized for a week with some controversy? Or do they actually think such a statement isn't humiliating and degrading? Well whatever the answer, this columnist was fired for misquoting some Arab-American students in an attempt to validate her opinion.

People are allowed to have any opinions they want, and a university should absolutely be a place to discuss them, perhaps even with a degree of playfulness. But we seem far too eager to cross the line and shove our thoughts down people's throats, with the intent of angering and embarassing them. It's all the result of ridiculous partisan divides, to which liberals contribute just as much as conservatives. As for racial profiling itself, I'll write something a bit longer on that issue at a later date.

2005-09-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

The U.S. trailer for Memoirs of a Geisha is online, although I personally like the international trailer better. Having never read the book, I can say that the plot seems interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing the film's depiction of the time period (I have a fondness for stories set in the 1920s and 1930s, especially when they take place outside of the U.S) On the other hand, the characters seem to fall into typical Hollywood depiction of "non-Americans" - foreign enough to speak in exaggerated accents, but not enough to speak in Japanese with subtitles. I have to add however, that the film looks visually stunning. I plan to post a review for the movie as soon as I see it in theaters.

2005-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Japan's economic bubble may have burst, but they're still set to beat us out in the robot industry. Interesting stuff, but am I the only one who finds it unnerving that robots (presumably designed to be as intelligent as possible) are destined for the service industry? Silly humans, we never learn!

2005-09-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

If you have a subscription to Time magazine, or can easily pick up the most recent issue, check out this article: Black Guy, White Music. Ah the joys of cultural isolation. Although I don't know how much I like the idea of "black music" and "white music". But maybe I'm just naive.

2005-09-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I was walking around my school library today, trying to look academic, when I spotted this book: "The Lives of Dwarfs". It goes into the history and prejudices against dwarfism, as well as depictions of dwarfs in modern media. Like blacks and Asians, dwarfs have faced vicious stereotypes in early cinema (the book calls it "heightism"). Only recently have things started to get better, but it's not hard to find that amusingly angry little person on TV. The entertainment industry capitalizing on prejudice? Who'da thunk it?

Also check out Kanye West's rant against the federal government and media regarding Hurricane Katrina. It may not be smart to alienate conservatives during a charity rally (especially considering who has the money) but the look on Mike Meyers' face is pretty funny.

2005-09-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Poplicks.com has a very good article which illustrates my thoughts perfectly, and far more eloquently than I could. It also provides a bunch of links to other editorials on the same subject. Check it out.

2005-09-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

So this came to my attention a number of times over the last day or two. "Black People loot, white people find". The blogger makes the good point that "finding" or salvaging is taking things that you need, while looting is taking things that you don't need, like electronics. Now there is a lot of looting going on in New Orleans (and much of it will definitely be harming small business owners). But those pictures, as far as I can tell, don't depict any kind of unnecessary products being stolen.

The problem here is a combination of racial and class prejudice. Poor and black = looting, while middle/upper class and white = finding, or needing. We associate the "well-to-do" masses with proper ethics; that is, they would steal only when necessary. Heck, it's not stealing, it's finding! But the poor don't have proper ethics. They steal because they want to. Hence "looting".

I really doubt there is any conscious intent on the part of journalists here. It's simply an example of biases that are a part of our culture. Personally I'm more distressed by two things. One, that the lower class (either because of residential segregation or lack of resources) were left particularly vulnerable to this natural disaster - something that may result in increased social tension. And two, that our culture of favoring private charity over public works has made the damage worse. Apparently the National Guard is not even allowing Red Cross officials in yet. We refuse to (dare I say it!) raise taxes and fund public services so that we can give to charity, only to take away those charities' ability to do anything helpful. The exposing of racism in the coverage of looting is important, but it' indicative of the much larger systemic problem of race and class in America. And that much larger problem led to a particular group of people being left behind among filth, disease, violent gangs, rape and lack of food in the destruction of New Orleans.

The convoys have arrived and people are finally getting the food and medicine they need. Let's hope the messing around stops now and we get those victims the hell out of there.

2005-09-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Being completely isolated from most forms of televised and printed media made the totality of Hurricane Katrina dawn on me slower than most. This is shaping up to be a tragedy comparable to 9/11. If you can, please donate to help relieve the historic city and birthplace of much of American culture.

2005-08-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

You'll find that one of my core beliefs when it comes to race is that it is a social construction. This is certainly nothing that others haven't said before, but I think my conclusions concerning racial identity and culture may be a little different. The question of race's validity is bound to be a sensitive topic and I hope people don't take my opinions as any kind of attack, even when I might write them passionately.

In the links section is the first of a series of "articles" I'll write every once in a while. It's basically a long post that doesn't necessarily relate to current events. I may also post movie reviews that relate to Asians, Indians or other underrepresented groups. (I am a film major, after all). Take a look at "The Myth of Race", and send along any comments you might have.

2005-08-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Whitey’s Revenge! Here you’ll find my musings on political, social, and racial issues, particularly those concering Asian and Caucasian Americans. If you’ve come expecting some ultra-conservative railing against minorities getting too many hand-outs, you’ve come to the wrong place. I myself am quite out there on the left, but I don’t necessarily prescribe to beliefs that one would expect from a liberal.

Some time ago I became interested in how various races were portrayed in the media. Stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics were obvious, and I was particularly interested in depictions of Arabs, South and East Asians who were significantly underrepresented. As my opinions on issues grew in quantity and frequency, (and also after taking inspiration from the excellent Angry Asian Man blog) I decided to start my own corner on the internet where I could discuss issues surrounding the less present minorities from the perspective of arguably the most present character in Western media - the white male.

As I started to think of what kind of stereotypes might exist for whites in the media, I debated whether or not that might be a ridiculous concept. After all, America is still a white dominated society to be sure, what possible injustices could whites as a social group face? But I realized that my very reluctance to explore the issue was significant. I had been conditioned to think that I could never be a victim, or more importantly, that the very thought of being anything other than privileged was selfish and offensive to non-whites.

Now, I’m not about to claim that I’m anything but privileged. But much of that is a result of my class, not my skin tone. The fact is that lower class (particularly rural) whites are very often stereotyped and generalized as ignorant racist simpletons. In fact, whites from various backgrounds face similar stereotypes in the media, although they may be given more credit when it comes to intelligence. The result is a perception that whites are always just on the borderline of being racist, and that anything they possess has been achieved through little struggle, at least in the large social sense. A conception such as this one, if present enough in the mainstream media, is enough to make anyone feel guilty and ashamed of their racial group.

White people, it seems, deal with this guilt in two ways. Either they become frustrated and angered by it, in which case they begin to deny that racism exists at all and rail against the perceived over-sensitvity of minorities. Or they become the guilt-ridden white liberal, a kind of Catholic in the political world, for whom only self-deprecation and rejection of rural/Western/mainstream American culture provides any kind of solace. (Then of course there’s your typical frat-boy urban professional, who seems to be oblivious to the entire issue. Unless they’re a politician, in which case they agree with every side)

Of course I’m exaggerating (satire seems to be a self defense mechanism of mine) but I think there’s some truth in it. Whether or not you agree on the existence of these stereotypes in the media, whites in America are certainly confronted with race and racism in a very specific way. They belong to the largest ethnic group and are faced with a legacy of violent dominance in our nations history, and indeed the world. “Black pride” and “Asian pride” are considered to be generally benevolent concepts, but what reaction do the words “white pride” evoke? Most people can look to ethnic heritage for cultural background, but as a race, whites are culturally emasculated. And in many ways, this is another way whites are stereotyped in the media – as being “normal”. Their culture is normality; it is the standard culture of America. While “minorities” fight the perception of being foreign, whites simultaneously strive to be different, embracing the cultures they perceive to be “black” “Asian”, or simply something counter to the conformity of the middle class.

What possible purpose could these stereotypes serve? Why would the mainstream media in America, dominated by whites, want to maintain these portrayals? Quite simple - because they make money. There is big business in making people feel inadequate about who they are, and whites are no less a target than anyone else so long as they have cash to spend. The portrayals of whites as the standard, while at the same time borderline racist, exacerbates racial tensions and divides people into neat little audiences that will not only swallow race-specific programming, but also exotic depictions of “foreign” races.

So why “Whitey’s Revenge”? What am I avenging? Consider it my revenge against the system that turns us against each other in order to maintain itself. Although it may not objectify whites, “commodify” whites, or stereotype whites like it does others, it profits equally from us all by dividing us. I’m not trying to push some kind of grand conspiracy theory that a shadowy media conglomerate has some master plan for turning every racial group against each other. But when the media profits from social antagonism, consciously or unconsciously, it will be hard pressed to take more progressive action. Minorities should not be the only one’s concerned about their representation, or lack thereof. Everyone should. And that’s what this website is about. If you saw “Whitey’s Revenge” and were surprised that a white dude could be angry at a system of race-objectification in society, then maybe that’s an indication of the problem. We’re all in this together, no matter how different our experiences may be. Now, let’s do this shiznit.