#asian americans
I just got the news that a newlywed couple in our community were the target of hate crime. The guy has a broke nose, among other injuries, and the wife is in the ER and needed to get stitches on all of her face. They were merely were out to walk around the neighborhood and this happened to them within the comfort of their neighborhood.
These sort of hate crimes happen all the time, not too long ago, and old man was selling shoes/other little things in front of his house and was beaten up by 3-4 young men. In front of his house. On his porch.
I want to stress that these both cases (among others) weren’t carried out anyone other than the precious ~PoCs~. This is exactly what I mean when I talk about hierarchies, because in people’s little perfect theoretical worlds, everything is created into simple categories, where the Pakistanis/Asians have privilege and can’t be target of hate crime/racism when carried out by Black or Latin@ people because of the apparent political power we hold.
These hierarchies are created by White supremacist thought, and as long as we don’t move away from them, and go on about false sense of power dynamics (in which everything is depicted as one sided) we will not get to the root of the problem.
When people speak on Asian or Pakistani privilege they are completely removed from the reality we live in, and want a simple cookie-cutter theory when in fact reality is much more complicated than that.
I know this is supposed to be “controversial” because I’m going against whatever is held to be the truth on here, that Pakistanis/Asians hold certain power over Latin@ or Black communities and that whatever crime done against us, the constant spying, living under the security/surveillance apparatus is a mere form of “prejudice” without any sort of power behind it, the anti-islamic and anti-pakistani hate crimes exist in some sort of tight limited space of “privilege” but that’s not the reality many of us live in and I would rather not follow some removed-from-reality theory for others convenience.
Of course, I shouldn’t have to stress this as it’s obvious, that I don’t mean if X doesn’t have power than Y obviously does. But this is to complicate the simplistic approach to race most people have where the hate crimes carried out by people who fall into the PoC category get unchecked and unnoticed. White crimes on PoC exists in various forms, but that’s not the start and end of the conversation and racial dynamic.
Simply put, these hierarchic sand faux “privilege” politics distort reality.
Images of Solidarity- Early Asian American activism:
The Oriental Student Union (OSU) at Seattle Central Community College (SCCC) was founded in 1970. It modeled itself after the campus Black Student Union (BSU), which during the 1968-9 school year had used direct action protests to demand black studies and the hiring of black administrators and faculty. When the OSU— led by Alan Sugiyama and former Black Panther Mike Tagawa— decided that the SCCC administration was not moving quickly enough on the its demands that the school hire five Asian administrators, the OSU staged a sit-in on February 9, 1971, and took over SCCC offices more forcefully on March 2, 1971.
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Organization for Chinese Americans: Asian Pacific American Advocates Internship
CONTACT
Jonathan Ho | Program Associate
202 223 5500 | [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, a national membership-driven organization dedicated to advancing the political, social, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs), opens applications for its 2015 Spring Internship Program.
As OCA continues to celebrate the 25th Year Anniversary of its Internship Program, we invite student advocates from all across the nation to apply for the opportunity to be engaged in advocacy and professional development through a national organization.
“For 25 years we’ve been seeing our interns gain valuable professional experience through OCA’s Internship program. We have seen our interns redefine their goals and careers with these placements and want to see the continuation of the success of the OCA internship program,” said Ken Lee, OCA Acting CEO.
OCA interns are placed in a full-time job and are assigned to a variety of positions in federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, congressional offices, and in public affairs units of corporations in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Placements of the interns are based on individual background, interest, and skill level. Past program participants have gained working experience and exposure to advocacy efforts that have allowed them to return home and take on more active roles in their local communities.
Candidates should be recent graduates, juniors or seniors from two-year and four-year institutions. Interns are provided a living stipend of $2,500 dollars for the 10-week program.
Click here to directly access the on-line application. Applications and support materials must be submitted by Friday, February 27, 2015; 11:00 PM EST. For more information on the OCA Internship Program as well as the application, visit OCA’s website at www.ocanational.org and click ‘Internship’ tab under ‘Programs Section’.
Name Edward Hong
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m an actor who constantly obsesses over Cinnabons and is the only actor crazy enough to market myself with the fat pastry product for the past 5 years. My significant accomplishment throughout this acting pastry love affair madness? I met the (former) Cinnabon CEO Kat Cole, had a tour in their Atlanta HQ, and was vouched by the company itself to play the Cinnabon Guy in the upcoming Dakota Fanning dramedy PLEASE STAND BY. Next step: become the Cinnabon spokesperson.
More IMDB|Thick Dumpling Skin|Website|College of William & Mary Article
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Name Tommy Li
Location Seattle, WA, USA
What do you do? I am a semi-professional ultimate frisbee player who is applying for physical therapy school in late 2017. I have overcome expectation for what I should be doing with my career. I majored in Mathematics at Pomona College, which was just a slog. Immediately got a job out of college doing digital marketing, and I spent 4-5 years in a field that was a bad fit. But I had always pursued and trained for sports with a passion–playing ultimate frisbee, now at the semi-professional level on nights and weekends. Coming from a strong academic background, I had always expected that I would thrive in the business world. But in late 2016, my career-passion misalignment had come to a head. I got let go from the small marketing team at a startup I was working at in Seattle. I spent the next few weeks thinking hard about what work I wanted to do. I had always been passionate about sports and the way the body works, so I made the decision to apply for physical therapy school in late 2017. Although I have not applied yet, I am loving my path so far. I never thought I could love school after slogging through my mathematics degree, but here I am loving biology. I am just fascinated by the molecular and and cellular mechanisms for life. Physical therapy school has changed over the last few years–it is now a doctorate program, and competitiveness has risen dramatically. On average, acceptance rates hover around 10%. Despite the odds, I’m confident that I will make a great candidate. This is the work I want to do, and I’m not messing around. This year I hope to play the best ultimate I’ve ever played! If you live in Seattle, I invite you to catch me at a game sometime.
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Name Melly Lee
Location Los Angeles, CA USA
What do you do? On paper I’m a conceptual photographer with a BA from the University of California, Irvine and I’ve worked with a few awesome clients including Google, Warner Bros., LEGO, and Harper Collins. Once you go down the rabbit hole with me you’ll also realize that I’m an imaginative adventurer who doesn’t believe in “can’t,” “no,” and “don’t.”
More Website|Blog
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NameRudeboi
Location Daly City, CA, USA
What do you do? I am a Filipino-born, Bay Area-raised musician creating Hip-Hop music. A lot of my content deals with depression, cultural conflict, and metaphysical/philosophical pondering of the mind and how our minds interact and engage with our environment/space.
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In the Field with Jovian Radheshwar
Interviewed by Lara Santos, Field Reporter
Lara Santos (LS): When did you start writing music, writing, or doing anything else you’re interested in sharing that you enjoy?
Jovian Radheshwar (JR): Started writing poems and songs around age 20, but really didn’t get fully into making music more prolifically until I was 31.
LS: What’s the process behind the selected activity?
JR: Usually, I get really stoned and listen to beats on loop over and over again, and start writing what comes out. If I’m clear on my feelings, I can write a song in an hour. I usually revisit whatever I write a day or two later to touch up. Then, I practice the flow over and over again until I have the delivery memorized. Eventually, I like to do variations on the style in live performances, as is the case with good, flexible hip-hop.
LS: What were the influences in making your work/hobby come to life? Are there any businesses, people, organizations, celebrities, etc. you admire or would love to work alongside?
JR: My main artistic influences are Outkast, Nas, DJ Shadow, Modest Mouse, and Pink Floyd. There are many others, too. My man Bobby Musgrave (bobbymusgravemusic.com) is also one of my best friends and he saw so much in me i didn’t realize was even there.
LS: What is your relationship to AAPI communities?
JR: I am pretty estranged but I’d like to be more involved. As a South Asian, I often have encountered a lot of political and social conservatism among my ‘own kind,’ so I gravitate to multicultural, anti-racist, anarchist spaces. I am always interested in connecting with AAPI folks who are radical, but I have no tolerance for mindless ritualism and identity politics that create social division. In Vancouver, I am starting to connect with South Asian Canadians who are politically involved.
LS: Where do you see yourself in the years to come? Furthermore, where do you see your role in the AAPI community in the years to come?
JR: I have no idea what the years to come offer. I hope me and my woman and our cat stay real tight, but beyond that, I like to just work hard day to day and not worry too much about the future. I never thought I’d be a rapper at all, so planning for the future to me seems like it’ll lead to closing down on life possibilities. This is why I’m really interested in connecting with South Asian Canadians, as this is something I have not done much yet in life (never been in an Indian, Asian, or otherwise ethnic/religious club in school at any level).
LS: What do you hope for with the impact of your chosen work/hobby?
JR: I plan on continuing to refine my craft and to include hip-hop education in my curricula in the future in university courses I teach in order to encourage young people of all backgrounds to embrace their own voice through the powerful and liberating technology of hip-hop and poetic expression.
LS: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
JR: I think it is very important for AAPI youth to build bridges with Black youth, Latino youth, Muslim youth, and others who will feel the wrath of white supremacist revanchism in Drumpf’s Amerikkka. Staying in your own community will be dangerous and will divide us all when we need allies and need to confront injustice. Very important!
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Name Peter Su
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? Hi ADE readers! I am a songwriter and performer in LA. The last 2 years I’ve been performing regularly as a street performer at the Santa Monica Pier and recording my 60s-west coast pop album Lions on the Beach. Crazy things happen when you follow your dreams. Before jumping all-in into writing music, I was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. I had graduated from UC Berkeley and found out the hard way that chasing blind ambition only left me feeling empty. I had to decide whether to stay on the safe path or venture out into the unknown to really find my calling. It’s been a wild journey so far, with all the ups and downs. I’m really proud that I’ve contributed something pure to the pop music canon, in the form of Lions on the Beach. Some highlights were recording at Sunset Sound (the same studio where The Beach Boys and Prince recorded), releasing my album to a sold-out crowd at The Hotel Café in LA and Hotel Utah in SF, touring the country, and releasing my first music video for “Santa Barbara.“ I hope my music can be a comforting soundtrack for you on your own journey!
More Website|“Santa Barbara” Music Video|Huffington Post Article
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Name Alice Ko
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I am an actor and singer. The most exciting moment in my acting career so far was working with director Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Charles Randolph (The Big Short) in 2014. I was still living in San Francisco at that time and it was my first principal role on a SAG pilot. I had no idea who I was working with but I do remember the moment I walked on set. I was greeted by Patty’s friendly face and extended hand. At that moment I knew I was in for a treat. She exuded such a powerful presence and positive energy. The way she worked allowed me the freedom to bring out very nuanced performances in the scene. Sadly, the pilot was not picked up by the network but it remained one of the most memorable moments in my career and it was what inspired me to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting further.
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Introducing In the Field with Asians Doing Everything! We are happy to announce that our former blog intern Lara Santos is taking on the role of Field Reporter, bringing you news from the ground on Asians doing everything and anything. Our first feature of our In the Field series is an interview with Ryan Bautista and Rachel Agbayani, President and Info Chair of the California State University Northridge Filipino American Student Association (FASA). Enjoy!
Lara Santos, Asians Doing Everything Field Reporter: How did you start this organization?
Ryan Bautista: It was already started way before I was born, in the 1980s. It’s the longest active running cultural organization at CSUN.
LS: Do you know how the organization began?
RB: I’m not too familiar with it, unfortunately. However, there are some members who are kids of those who did start it–so a couple of the past presidents have been the kids of the founding members of FASA. I personally don’t know how it started.
LS: What were the influential reasons FASA was founded?
RB: There weren’t a lot of cultural organizations on campus at the time, so a group of people wanted to start something where they felt they belonged. They created events like PCN, Filipino Culture Night, in which they showed the rest of the CSUN campus what Filipino culture is about.
LS: What is your organization’s relationship to other API communities?
RB: We have a lot of members in multiple organizations. Some are also part of the VSA, the Vietnamese Student’s Association, as well as the Japanese Student Association. We have not coordinated any events together this semester, but I know we’re trying to; it’s still in the works.
LS: Where do you see this organization going in the coming years?
RB: It’s always our goal to try and open up more of our cultural stuff to the rest of campus. Recently, we’ve been having our cultural dance practices, as well as our PCN practices, out in Matador Square and in public open spaces. We always get like a ton of people coming up to us and asking, “What kind of practice is this?” or “What ethnicity are you guys?” We’ll tell them, and some actually come to PCN to see the finished product–the actual show.
LS: Do you have any hopes for the impact this organization will make on not only the CSUN community but beyond it?
Rachel Agbayani: For me, I think we’re growing as a bigger group, and we’re seeing people who are not just Filipino–we’ve become very diverse. So we just try to keep our culture out there and keep our ties with everyone. We just want to be more involved in our community and we’ve been reaching out to JFAV, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, an off-campus organization. I see us growing there, not just as a club, but more as an organization that reaches beyond CSUN.
LS: Is there anything else you want to add or anything you’d want to tell anyone reading this?
RB: You don’t really have to be Filipino to mesh with us. It’s an open group of people, so it’s always fun to do a lot of cultural stuff, but at the same time, we are a social club as well.
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Name Roxy Shih
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m a for-hire producer and director living and working in Los Angeles. I’ve been working in the industry since 2011, but my path to where I am today was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. I started off in post-production as an editor for two years - despite the more consistent income I never felt like it was my thing. It took the universe to give me a little push by getting me laid off from my job for me to realize what my strengths truly were and how to nurture them. Since then, I have produced over 300 shows ranging from series to music videos to feature films. I have my directorial feature, The Tribe, getting released domestically in the US next year by Terror Films and I just wrapped directing a sci-fi/horror anthology series called Dark/Web that will be coming out next year as well. I am currently writing and developing my next feature film.
More Website|IMDB
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Name Elijah Chiang
Location Tempe, AZ, USA
What do you do? I’m a Physical Therapist with Foothills Sports Medicine and received a degree from Washington University in St Louis. Physical Therapy is often an occupation neglected by Asians. As such, it is very rare for me to see Asians in my clinical practice as many of them would rather take prescription drugs or seek oriental medicine. It’s not easy to convince my immediate Asian circle of what we do and the potential benefits of exercise and strengthening. I usually get the you’re a doctor? Oh…. That kind of doctor. However, there seems to be a growing awareness of the importance of physical health in the Asian community which is promising. I hope to one day go back to Taiwan and change the entire practice of physical therapy in Taiwan.
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Name Lin Chen
Location New York, NY, USA
What do you do? I made a career out of one of my passions: wellness. I’m working at a small organic beauty brand, where I manage everything under the business umbrella (biz dev, social media, PR, sales, marketing, etc.). I love my job, and I feel incredibly grateful to be able to say that. I hope to inspire others to make positive, healthy changes for their life. It’s not always easy because living organically and healthily is often perceived as unaffordable, but actually it is easy to avoid toxic chemicals (i.e. parabens, petrochemicals, formaldehyde, etc.) in every aspect from beauty and household products to produce and food. It’s all about informing yourself and carefully reading labels.
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Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! We are honored to share this special event. On May 13th, 2017, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with a special installment of the InFocus series, InFocus: Asian Cinema. The first program in the evening line-up features 6 short films from emerging Asian filmmakers, both local and international. These voices bring us tales ranging from a family affected by nuclear warfare to a pair of stoners seeking to make their name in Hollywood.
The second program celebrates the US Premier of the Japanese feature film “Where Florence Sleeps.” From the talented brother duo of Katsuto and Kenji Kobayashi, experience a dramatic tale of sabotage, kidnapping and ransom.
Throughout the night, you will have the opportunity to mingle with the filmmakers, industry supporters and film lovers over cocktails and beats at the filmmakers’ lounge adjacent to the private entry of the South Park Center’s 500 seat theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
Tickets are $5 advanced purchase / $7 at the door for single film programs and $15 for All-Access passes which includes all films with open bar.
Event information and tickets here: https://goo.gl/Hq6Vjq
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Knowledge is power, but power can corrupt. White institutions teach a select class of Asians to adopt elitism and gatekeeping in order to harm their community and deny lived experiences.
Asian Americans have the largest wealth gap of any U.S. racial group. Elitist Asians are a small percentage, yet they’re purposely given the largest AsAm platforms and resources in order to perpetuate the Model Minority myth and downplay anti-Asian racism. (for more info, see my Monomyth comic)
To be clear, higher education isn’t inherently bad. It’s like any other tool—it can enlighten and empower, or be misused. There are many Asian academics, educators and journalists who resist white supremacy and fight for their communities. But we’re talking about the ones who don’t.
These elitist tokens claim to fight for the most marginalized. In reality, they want to be the only Asian at the white table—the voice for the “voiceless.” White supremacist institutions are happy to seat them there, since tokens don’t dismantle the system but reinforce it.
Netflix’s show The Chair inadvertently captures this dynamic. It was widely touted as positive Asian rep, yet Sandra Oh’s character protected and prioritized a white male colleague/lover from accountability while treating marginalized students and her Black colleague as obstacles. When I saw prominent Asians and other POC gush about feeling seen by Sandra Oh’s The Chair character, I was disappointed—but not surprised. It speaks to their lack of self-awareness and how accustomed they are to trampling over their own people that they don’t think it’s wrong.
This is the major disconnect. We supposedly understand how structural racism works and that higher education—like every other industry in the U.S.—perpetuates white supremacy. Yet POC who get accepted to ivy leagues are not only celebrated, but viewed as automatic leaders.
The truth is, these institutions would never allow POC to matriculate if there was a real threat of them dismantling their bigoted systems. The token’s purpose is to insulate these institutions from accusations of bigotry, promote bootstrap narratives, and keep other POC out. Asian tokens know that to keep these prestigious positions of power, they must avoid being seen as a threat by white people. So, despite making outward claims of dismantling the Model Minority myth, they internalize it as fact—to the point of adopting white guilt as their own.
Tokens mask their gaslighting, bullying, and abuse by over-intellectualizing racism—the way white people taught them to. We’re seeing this with anti-Asian hate crimes, and how tokens police language and emotions while creating a hierarchy of which victims matter and which ones don’t.
This includes the thorny but necessary conversation of holding other POC accountable for anti-Asian violence—especially the Black community. Even though white people commit the majority of anti-Asian hate crimes, there’s also a significant pattern of Black people doing it too.
But according to elitist Asians tokens, that pattern isn’t relevant, and Asians shouldn’t be upset or talking about it. This is because, in internalizing the Model Minority myth, elitist Asians see themselves as above other POC and think accountability is anti-Black. It’s not.
Let’s be clear: assaulting Asians for being Asian is violent racism. The attacker’s race doesn’t change this. While we should be sensitive to the context of white supremacy when holding Black people and other POC accountable, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t discuss it at all.
Yet elitist Asian tokens sabotage efforts towards solidarity, healing, and progress because they project their class privilege onto a community that is larger and far more vulnerable than them. Meanwhile, white people are happy to let tensions between Asians and Black people remain.
The situation is frustrating and sad. How much violence could we have prevented if our communities did a better job of educating and tackling difficult conversations head-on instead of avoiding them? How much solidarity is lost because we’re at the whims of tokens who don’t care?
It’s ironic that the ones who supposedly understand the power of education the best are using it the worst. But that’s exactly what white supremacy wants: violence, division, and ignorance. That’s why it’s up to all of us to speak up and spark these conversations—so we can learn.
(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)
If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent
https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
https://patreon.com/joshualuna
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Make America Mask Again (even though it barely did to begin with).
Unlike Asia, the West associates wearing masks with weakness and fascism, rather than a civic duty to protect themselves and others. As if forcing sick individuals to work or be in situations that can literally kill—just to keep the capitalist machine running—isn’t tyrannical.
Asians are triply targeted in this pandemic. We are potential COVID victims like anyone else, yet also get blamed for the pandemic, and then get treated as “dirty” carriers of the disease even more when we wear a mask. This leads to violent anti-Asian hate crimes against us.
It isn’t Asian to care about others and mask up. It’s basic empathy and hygiene—which many Americans lack. To my fellow Asians out there who’ve been masking from the start and never stopped even though it added another target to your back, I see you. Hang in there.
(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)
If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent.
https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
https://patreon.com/joshualuna
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics
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Hollywood dehumanizes people of color on screen using racist media narratives in order to justify oppression and violence against people of color in real life.
These comics touch on a lot of complicated subjects about race and gender in media, but I realized mainstream representation metrics like the Bechdel-Wallace Test, Riz Test, DuVernay Test, and Aila Test don’t fully cover the criteria to discuss those issues, so I made a test of my own.
I didn’t want to name it after myself at first, but after years of experience in both comics and Hollywood and having my work and ideas stolen and reposted online too many times to count, I know that no one will give you credit unless you claim it, so I decided to put my name on it.
These are just a few of many stereotypical roles for POC but there are others, all designed to depict POC as inferior. Overall, the purpose of Hollywood is to produce propaganda to benefit cis-het white men—by lying about how pure and good they are—at the expense of everyone else.
Basically, films are required to fail this test in order to reach the screen—even with leads of color. Let’s use Asian American films as examples: To All The Boys fails 1, 4 and 6. The Big Sick fails 2, 4 and 5. Always Be My Maybe fails 6. It’s hard to think of a film that passes.
Some say representation is a frivolous concern, but the fact is that movies and TV are not an escape from reality—they tell us what our reality should be. Media messaging is an integral part of the systems that perpetuate state violence and oppressive policies against POC.
That’s why having tests like these matter—it forces us to think deeply about the kind of content we’re creating and consuming, and to push harder to do better. It requires that the world sees POC and other marginalized people as people, and to treat us that way, both on screen and off.
Note: I didn’t include non-binary POC in the comics because they tend to not get roles at all, and if they do, are usually put into either the men or women category. I also didn’t include white women, who are dehumanized as women but differently than WOC due to white supremacy.
(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)
If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent
https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304
https://patreon.com/joshualuna
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics
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