6 Comments
From Min Jung by way of gigglesugar, this OMGWTF billboard:
Shocked? Of course you are. And, after some investigation by gigglesugar reader vegan musician, that’s exactly the kind of response they’re looking for, albeit in a slightly roundabout way:
I looked on their website. they’re an anti-homosexuality “ministry.” someone doctored their sign [in Photoshop] to try to make the point that trying to change someone’s ethnicity is as ridiculous as trying to change their sexuality.
here’s the link.
While I’m happy that it isn’t for real, a part of me wonders if people casually glancing by the billboard would make the link that undoing your gayness is just as outrageous as undoing your ethnicity. Also, “asian” should be capitalized, but hey, those are just details.
6 Comments | Posted in: Discrimination
6 Comments
Twenty-five years ago this week, Chinese-American Vincent Chin was murdered. Who is Vincent Chin you ask? Vincent Chin was a draftsman who was bludgeoned to death 25 years ago in Highland Park, Michigan by two men who blamed Japanese carmakers for the demise of the U.S. auto industry (and thought incorrectly, like as if that would make things right, that Chin was Japanese-American instead of Chinese-American). To many in America, Asian-Americans are all the same. Chin was celebrating his bachelor party at a topless bar on June 19, 1982 and was beaten by two displaced
autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz. As The Detroit Free press goes on to describe in “Fighting hate, 25 years later“:
The men reportedly mistook Chin for Japanese and blamed him for their unemployment. The men later tracked Chin down at a nearby McDonald’s parking lot, where Ebens admitted to repeatedly bashing Chin’s skull with a baseball bat. Chin was buried the day after he was to be married.
The two later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, sentenced to three years of probation. Rightfully so, there was an outcry of injustice by Asian-American organizations and civil rights groups and the Department of Justice ordered an investigation to see if Chin’s civil rights were violated (you think?). Ebens was found guilty by a federal court jury in 1984 of violating Chin’s civil rights and sentenced to 25 years in prison (Nitz was acquitted). BUT, get this, the decision was overturned two years later after it was proven that a witness was (illegally) coached. There was a retrial and Ebens was cleared of ALL charges!
This was the first modern day hate crime murder of an Asian-American to be nationally covered and considered a seminal event in Asian-American history, uniting disparate groups of Asian-Americans. In 1987, there was an Oscar nominated film released titled “Who Killed Vincent Chin” I think I recall first learning about Vincent Chin in a 60 Minutes piece on the events and feeling outraged and revulsion that those who had killed Chin had gotten away with murder. That makes you wonder - what is the value of an Asian-American’s life in America?
May we all take a moment of silence to remember Vincent Chin twenty five years - may he rest in peace.
Asian Pacific Americans for Progress is sponsoring a “town hall” event on Vincent Chin & hate crimes in San Francisco on June 27th.
6 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Discrimination
4 Comments
(Full disclosure: I previously worked for Yahoo!, as well as Genghis and John. Mike currently works for Yahoo! as well.)
So, the geeks in Silicon Valley are currently talking about Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang taking becoming the new CEO of Yahoo!, replacing former Hollywood mogul Terry Semel. As a former Yahoo! employee, I would see Jerry in the cafeteria every so often, talking to an executive or someone from the media, and he definitely has a larger-than-life-presence. (He’s pretty tall, but then again, I’m 5′7″ - so most everyone is pretty tall to me.) Times like that make you forget that Yahoo! was started in 1994 with some humble beginnings:
There’s still a fairy tale quality to the events that began in the spring of 1994 when Yang put up a web page containing his name in Chinese characters, his golf scores and a list of his favorite internet sites. Six months later he and David Filo hit on the idea of Yahoo!, a name suggested by a slur tossed at them by Filo’s dad. The yahoos turned it into an acronym by reverse-engineering the mock-sonorous “Yet Another Highly Officious Oracle.” Whatever, it worked. By early 1995 the site was bookmarked on every browser in cyberspace.
The fact that Jerry Yang grew up in Taiwan, “Yahoo!” is easily pronounceable in Chinese and has had an relatively early Internet presence (Yahoo! China, Yahoo! Taiwan, and Yahoo! US sites in Chinese exist) also make it a big hit with my elderly parents as well, who constantly remind me that I “lost face” when I left Yahoo! last year.
4 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Technology
2 Comments
If you have been following San Francisco local politics, you will have heard that Ed Jew, one of eleven members of the city’s Board of Supervisors (Jew represents District 4), is accused of falsifying his residency on 28th Avenue while actually living
in Burlingame three-plus years before he filed to run for his seat in 2006. As The San Francisco Chronicle has reported:
“It wasn’t just Chinese Americans sticking up for Jew at the rally Friday. Joe O’Donoghue, former head of the Residential Builders Association, said Jew should stay in office and fight what he characterized as a media witch hunt. “The press has not played fair,” he said. “If you’re an immigrant or a minority, you’re a second-class citizen in this country.” Rita Goldberger, a Sunset resident and a Green Party member, said she just about always disagrees politically with Jew, a former member of the Republican Party. But she thinks it’s unfair that several of Jew’s more liberal colleagues on the Board of Supervisors are calling for his resignation. “Not one of them cares where Ed sleeps,” she said. “The only thing they care about is how he votes.”
From the little I have read and seen in local TV, the evidence against Jew does seem damning, but the media coverage and Jew’s critics have been calling for his immediate resignation. But I do agree, that in the United States, one is innocent until proven guilty. It’s interesting to see how the “race card” in this incident is being played up, and there is great sensitivity since Ed Jew is Chinese, as San Francisco has a lot of Asian Americans:
“Asian Americans are often called “the sleeping giant” in San Francisco politics because they make up a third of city residents, but don’t have much political representation. Jew is the only Asian American on the Board of Supervisors.”
I kind of always knew the percentage of Asian Americans in San Francisco was high, but am always surprised to always read the actual figure.
2 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Discrimination, Politics
2 Comments
It was reported earlier this week that Kenneth Eng, “Former AsianWeek columnist charged with attempted assault in NYC.“ Yes, the same Kenneth Eng who wrote the idiotic column in AsianWeek “Why I Hate Blacks.” I wrote about Kenneth this past February in “How Stupid Do You Have to Be to Write or Publish “Why I Hate Blacks”?”
Apparently Eng threatened to kill his Queens neighbors if he was bitten by their dog. Additionally, in a Village Voice interview, Eng took credit for inspiring Seung-Hui Cho’s Virginia Tech’s killing spree and aspired for his own killing spree at New York University, but didn’t because he didn’t have the money to buy a gun.
Prosecutors ordered a psychological report for Eng, but apparently that report “seems to pose more questions than it answers. Let’s hope Eng gets the help he needs, since it seems from at least from afar, Eng is definitely a troubled man.
2 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Discrimination, Lifestyles
My friend Linda just sent me this AsianWeek article on “Baring it All: Speed Dating for Asian Singles” (Note: Linda is profiled in the article as one of the co-founders of Bay Area Asian Rendezvous Events. The article goes on to discuss the busy nature and lives of
Asian-Americans and how speed dating is one additional venue for meeting that special someone. Speed dating, much like how online dating, is becoming somewhat mainstream.
“Speed dating, contrary to popular belief, is not for losers who can’t get a date,” the hostess of HurryDate explained. “Even Yul Kwon tried speed dating, and this was way before he got on Survivor. There used to be a stigma about it … it was embarrassing. But now, with the popularity of dating sites and online social networking, the tables have turned.”
I must admit that I’ve attended Linda’s speed dating events in the past (with not much luck - then again, my friends say I’m too picky… where can I find my Zhang Ziyi? 
). There are also other speed dating organized events such as Click2Asia, and Asian-American social events organizers ELEMENT/2degrees’ “20firstdates” where you have to “apply” and submit a photo. I know someone who met their wife at a Hyphen Magazine-organized speed dating event.
15 Comments
Before I say anything else, for the record, I am quoting someone else! I do not feel this way at all!
Ok, now that’s clear, I want to make some commentary on the statement above. I, for one, have always been proud of my Asian/Taiwanese heritage. Sure, when I was a kid on the playground and I went to a predominantly white elementary school, it was tough “not fitting in.” But I was raised by my parents to really understand our roots… that being Taiwanese was something special and that fitting in was less important than knowing who I was. I will admit there that I had passing thoughts of wanting to look like Barbie, but for the most part, I find it hard to recall a time that I wished to be anything other than Asian.
This morning, I was checking out the Yelp* threads and I saw this Yelp Talk topic started by a gal named “Anh T.”
Here’s what she said:
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t Asian…
My main reasons:
1) My English is probably better than yours so you don’t have to use one syllable words as often as possible.
2) I’m not interested in talking to you about martial arts or Chinese horoscopes.
3) I’m not that compliant; in fact, I bitch all the time.
4) I do not provide pre-coital massages or post-coital tea.
Since I don’t know her and I don’t know where she’s really coming from, I’m not trying to judge her or call her out by saying she’s some sort of self-hating racist or anything beyond thinking that this would be an interesting topic for 8Asians. (I actually think she’s kind of kidding; she explains later: “I was just venting about some recent experiences. I’m not rejecting my background, I just wish that I didn’t have to deal with these dumb stereotypes from dumb people.”)
Anyway, it’s an interesting thread and I’m wondering what you think about it all.
Have you ever felt this way?
*Yelp account may be required to view thread.
15 Comments | Posted in: Lifestyles
2 Comments
A week ago this past Saturday (June 2nd), San Jose native Joey Chestnut broke Takeru Kobayashi of Japan world’s re
cord by eating 59 1/2 hot dogs and buns at the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship in Arizona.
As you may or may not know, Kobayashi’s old record of 53 3/4 was set last year at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, held at Coney Island in New York.
Kobayashi for the past several years has been the world record holder in competitive hot dog eating, and no doubt will try to regain his title this July 4th!
2 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Sports
Blog RSS Blog Comments RSS
