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Jul. 5th, 2005 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pearwaldorfSo I found this magazine about Asian Americans. I think it's totally cool, and when I get a job (which may be soon; yay for job/blergh for call centering, AGAIN) I will subscribe to it. I don't think there's enough coverage on Asian-American issues, and independent coverage is damn near non-existent. So I'm really happy it exists.
Of course, immersing myself into the Asian-American activist awareness also makes my life so much more depressing, because the blogs I read are all about the bright and shiny anyways. There's nothing to make your day like finding out about the whole McDonalds commercial in China thing. Or the T-Mobile commercial wherein they depict all sorts of unsavory ethnic stereotypes, including our very own "25 cent" Chang. But most issues about being Asian-American aren't matters of blatant stereotyping. The myth of the model minority is as much of a shackle as it is a compliment. Of course, it homogenizes many disparate groups of Asians, who may or may not be at the same level of economic success (for example, Southeast Asians and the Hmong). It also creates problems in multi-racial coalitions, especially when people point at Asian-Americans and go "Hey, they did it, why can't you?"
It's weird, because race matters both more and less nowadays, and it's sometimes hard to figure out which is which. I can understand why people are nostalgic for times when things were more clearly defined, but it's idiotic to try and recreate them. All of the above is just a really long-winded way of saying, Jessica "Washingtonienne" Cutler is hapa? And in the gigantic scheme of things, is it really that important to note?
Of course, immersing myself into the Asian-American activist awareness also makes my life so much more depressing, because the blogs I read are all about the bright and shiny anyways. There's nothing to make your day like finding out about the whole McDonalds commercial in China thing. Or the T-Mobile commercial wherein they depict all sorts of unsavory ethnic stereotypes, including our very own "25 cent" Chang. But most issues about being Asian-American aren't matters of blatant stereotyping. The myth of the model minority is as much of a shackle as it is a compliment. Of course, it homogenizes many disparate groups of Asians, who may or may not be at the same level of economic success (for example, Southeast Asians and the Hmong). It also creates problems in multi-racial coalitions, especially when people point at Asian-Americans and go "Hey, they did it, why can't you?"
It's weird, because race matters both more and less nowadays, and it's sometimes hard to figure out which is which. I can understand why people are nostalgic for times when things were more clearly defined, but it's idiotic to try and recreate them. All of the above is just a really long-winded way of saying, Jessica "Washingtonienne" Cutler is hapa? And in the gigantic scheme of things, is it really that important to note?
