By Matthew

I’m a member of Asian Crew Clothing, along with Hao-Kai Wu, Ryan Kwan, Kevin Han and Kevin Foo. I started this company because being Asian is cool.

In history classes, Asian Pacific American history is overlooked, and hardly even discussed. Our ancestors who moved here from their homeland faced hatred and were subject to hurtful stereotypes. Somehow, they managed to work hard, earning minimal wage to make their children’s lives better. They instilled in us a work ethic and discipline that has cultivated success. Yet some how, many Asian stereotypes still exist today and are exemplified in the media.

The stereotypes are not true and undermine hard work. For example, in high school, I took BC calculus and it was the hardest class I had ever taken. I struggled, and failed some exams throughout the year, but I worked hard and put the time and effort into learn everything I didn’t understand. By the end of the year I understood a majority of the material and received a 5 on the AP exam. There are people in the world who would think to themselves, “he got a 5 on BC calculus exam because he’s Asian”. For some reason, people think that Asians are born knowing how integrate and take derivatives. But the truth is, I worked just as hard as the rest of my peers, but few people would believe me.

So, we thought making cool shirts that inform people about Asian Pacific American culture as well as combat common stereotypes used against Asian Pacific Americans would be the best way to approach the problem. We all realized that Asian American themed shirts were limited to certain themes and stereotypical shirts. So at Asian Crew Inc, there are no “Got Rice?” jokes, Bruce Lee pictures, or over-used gimmicks here. We’re dedicated to making Asian American themed shirts with style and originality. We want to give you unique and kick-ass gear that makes you proud to rep Asian culture.

We need your help. We need to raise money to order our newest batch of designs so if you agree that being Asian is cool, donate to our Kickstarter project. We need all the help we can get, so tell your mom, your dad, your uncle(s), your second cousin(s), and even your friend you haven’t talked to in a long time, about our project. Help us spread the word. If you have any comments, critiques, ideas, or even experiences you’d like to share with us, send us an email at asiancrewinc[at]gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I’m a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts and partner of Asian Crew Inc.

It seems like the new Super Bowl tradition of late is airing commercials which are racist, offensive, or at least racially insensitive toward Asians. In 2008, it was a set of offensive SalesGenie.com ads (written by an Asian, no less). 2010 gave us the Doritos Samurai Guy (who didn’t know the ways of the Samurai). Last year, Timothy Hutton using the plight of Tibet as a punchline for Groupon’s deals on fish curry, not even a dish that Tibetans are known for.

So what fun anti-Asian ads aired during the 2012 Super Bowl? Seeing as it’s an election year, a political ad is making waves: Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra aired an ad accusing the policies of incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow (or Debbie “SpendItNow” as seen in the ad) as being helpful to China, to the detriment of the United States.

From 8Asians reader Peter L:

If you haven’t seen it already, this advertisement went up during the super bowl in place of a local ad spot. It accuses a political opponent of giving political power to Asian countries in a way that marginalizes Asians as a whole… I’m sort of wondering what that chick was thinking when she signed-up to be in this ad. Her way of speaking sounds like she’s a fluent American English speaker, but mid-way through her schtick it looks like she remembers she’s supposed to sound like a stereotypical fob with missing prepositions. Maybe she liked the size of the cheque.

Luckily, this spot did not air nationwide. But thanks to the power of social media, it is being widely shared and condemned– including by a coalition of black ministers, civil rights folks, and even GOP advisers.

Hoekstra’s campaign says that the ad is “satirical,” but I’d argue that there needs to be a bit of wit behind it if you call it satire.

Colorism, the bias that whiter skin is better, manifests itself in sales of skin whitening creams.  This video from CNN shows how these creams are marketed to both male and female Indians.   Filipinos are also plagued with colorism and are also consumers of skin whitening creams.  I have always thought that colorism and skin whitening were damaging to the the psyches of people of color.  It turns out that some whitening creams can be physically damaging too, and California health officials are investigating skin whiteners after a woman’s mercury poisoning.

Some skin whiteners include mercury because mercury inhibits the production of melanin, which gives skin its color.   Prolonged mercury exposure can lead to neurological problems and death.    The woman who was poisoned was a Latina woman who had gotten her skin whitener from relatives from Mexico.

California officials will be testing a sampling of skin whiteners for mercury.  They will be targeting business catering to three priority groups:  Chinese, Filipinos, and Latinos.   In 2010, the Chicago  Tribune found that six skin whitening products had mercury, and were manufactured in Lebanon, China, Taiwan, Indian, and Pakistan.

I was watching MSNBC the other day and caught this commercial, which apparently has been around (at least on YouTube) for almost a year. The commercial has testimonials from a wide, diverse group of Tempur-Pedic adjustable bed owners, who express, in English, their love for the product until 0:36 seconds into this this 1:00 minute commercial, where an Asian man speaks in what I think is Cantonese with his wife standing by his side.

WTF is going on? I had to rewind my DVR to see if I thought what I saw was right. This just reinforces the perpetual foreigner concept, and reminded me of the KFC commercial I had blogged about a while ago. I mean, if Tempur-Pedic wanted to reach a wider audience, why didn’t they also have Spanish speaking bed owners in the commercial as well? There are a lot more Spanish speaking Americans than Chinese speaking ones for sure.

I have written before about the character of Ravi on the Disney Channel’s Jessie show and talked about how some wonder why this Indian American character has to have an accent.  The reason why is apparent in this clip which makes Ravi’s Indian culture the entire joke. Not surprisingly, the clip has raised a stir in blogs like this and garnered many dislikes (I can see why Disney turned off comments). Some people don’t think it is so bad, but then again, others react to lines like “I am a human samosa” (not in this clip but in other episodes).  What do you all think?  Is the portrayal racist, unfunny, both, or neither?

Number Two Son’s reactions to the clip was that it was “culturally ignorant.”  He no longer watches the Disney Channel.  My personal take is that it is both racist and unfunny.  Even Baljit’s portrayal on Phineas and Ferb is better than this, as it is funny most of the time and doesn’t drive all of its humor out of weird versions of Indian culture.  There is a chance that Jessie“can get better and more nuanced in how it treats Ravi, but I’m not holding my breath.

Unfortunately, Japanese American women don’t get enough credit for their contributions to the civil rights movement. I want to change that. So I created a list of five JA women activists that I think everyone should know:

Yuri Kochiyama

Kochiyama is most well-known for cradling Malcolm X’s head in the Life Magazine picture when he was assassinated. However, there is so much more to her story. Her passion for social justice began when the FBI came to her house after Pearl Harbor and arrested her father. While in the camps, she organized a campaign to write letters to Japanese American soldiers who didn’t have anyone to write to. After the war, she and her family moved to Harlem, where she became an outspoken advocate for social justice. She continues to fight for the rights of others in her nineties.

Mitsuye Endo

Endo was one of few Japanese Americans brave enough to take on the government’s “relocation” policy during World War II. After she was dismissed from her job and “evacuated” to Topaz, Utah, she hired a lawyer and sued the government. The government didn’t want to test the constiutionatlity of what they were doing so they offered her a deal: relocation to somewhere other than the West Coast. Endo refused and was confined for two years while the case worked its way through the court system. Eventually, the case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, where they ruled that “Endo’s loyalty was clearly established and there was no ground for confinement.” Her case was one of the reasons Japanese Americans were released from the camps.

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga

Herzig-Yoshinaga was the primary researcher for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Interment of Civilians. She was the person who found the smoking gun document that proved that the United States government incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II not because it was a military necessity but because of racism. Her research provided the evidence needed to overturn the Korematsu decision and led directly to the case for Japanese American redress and reparations.

Michi Nishiura Weglyn

Weglyn’s book, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, published in 1976, is still the most important book about Japanese American history during World War II. She was the first to expose the truth about what happened and prove (without a doubt) that Japanese Americans were not to blame for what happened. Her book was an important step toward redress and reparations.

Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mink was the first woman of color elected to the United States House of Representatives. She fought for civil rights and the rights of women – most notably she was the author of the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which banned sex discrimination in schools. Something I don’t think most people know about her is that she was the first Asian American (male or female) to seek the presidential nomination.