Carl Bell was waiting his turn to check in at his hotel. A well-regarded psychiatrist and academic, he was traveling for a television appearance. The TV station had flown him first-class and sent a chauffeur-driven car to pick him up at the airport. But just before he stepped up to speak with the hotel clerk, a white man marched in and cut him off. Bell, who is black, was indignant.
“Do you think I’m waiting for a bus?” He demanded. “I’m standing right here!”
The man claimed he simply hadn’t seen him.
(excerpt from “What Was That? Researchers Explore Below-the-Radar Racism“)
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Popularity: 52%
February 15th, 2008
Posted by
em8chel <<
a Taiwanese in Berlin, close encounter of the slurred kind, the unwearable proudness of being (Asian) >>
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The Korean Women’s Group in Berlin (Koreanische Frauengruppe in Berlin e.V.) was formed in 1978 in protest against the Court’s decision to send Korean nurses back to their home country, whose help Germany had enlisted earlier out of an urgent shortage of caretakers. The group has been active in various political engagement ever since. With “Asian Women’s Film Festival” the Korean Women’s Group wants to confront prevalent stereotypes with their own multi-layered, contradictory images of Asia.
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Popularity: 45%
September 14th, 2007
Posted by
em8chel <<
a Taiwanese in Berlin >>
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I just finished reading the wonderful American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. The graphic novel opens with Monkey King attending a dinner party in heaven with the gods. Monkey King is a fictional character from the Chinese Classic novel Journey to the West written in the 1590s. The wildly imaginative fantasy story chronicles a monk’s journey to India to bring Buddhist scriptures back to China. The monk has recruited three disciples before his treacherous odyssey: a flamboyant monkey, a deferential fish, and a lascivious pig. These creatures, appearing in human form, all know their Kong Fu and have magic powers, for their task is to protect the monk from all sorts of monsters along the way, who want to eat the monk in order to gain eternal life. In Yang’s book, the story of how the handsome Monkey King, who once defied all the gods, succumbs to the Monk and becomes his faithful apostle is beautifully captured and succinctly adapted into the first of three interweaving tales.
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Popularity: 43%
February 9th, 2007
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em8chel <<
judge a book by its lover, the unwearable proudness of being (Asian), thought for food >>
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The phrase “fresh off the boat” has been around for years. If you forget for a minute the derogatory way in which it’s used and focus on the words literally, the expression actually conjures up vivid imagery of undaunted immigrants who left everything behind, venturing to a new world looking for a better life at a time when ship was the only transportation between their homeland and the land of milk and honey. It was not easy to get onto that ship. People spent months on the sea. Some never made it. Imagine the joy and relief when they first spotted the land. Picture their excitement and hopefulness when they finally set foot on the solid soil, promising themselves that life would never be the same again. What greater consolation could it bring in a strange land full of strangers than bumping into a familiar face from the old neighborhood that shots out gleefully,”What a coincidence! I just got off the boat myself!”
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Popularity: 24%
February 2nd, 2007
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em8chel <<
the unwearable proudness of being (Asian) >>
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Jian Li immigrated from China to the United States at the age of four. Now a freshman at Yale, he is taking legal action against Princeton university for rejecting his application last summer, claiming the elite university favors other minority groups and discriminates against Asian-Americans in admissions.
Is Li racializing his individual setback for personal gain or do Asian-Americans indeed face a higher hurdle in the fierce academic competition? A lot of worthy discussions emerged. Things heated up quickly though when on January 17th Daily Princetonian, the campus newspaper, published a parody of Li on their annual joke issue. The op-ed, bylined “Lian Ji”, opens with:
“Hi Princeton! Remember me? I so good at math and science. Perfect 2400 SAT score. Ring bells?
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Popularity: 27%
January 26th, 2007
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em8chel <<
the unwearable proudness of being (Asian) >>
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Evening at the Clapham Junction railway station, the clock hanging above indicates 5 minutes past seven. Cell phone vibrates.
ME: Hello?
HIM: Hey it’s me. I’m really sorry but my train just got canceled. I’m catching the next one but it’ll take another 15 minutes to get there.
ME: No biggies. I am inside the station now…why not look for me in either Blockbuster or WHSmith? You know where they are right?
HIM: Yeah. There’s also Caffee Nero at the entrance of the station. Why not grab yourself a coffee, have a seat and wait for me inside?
ME: Aw I would if I had a book with me to read…not a coffee drinker by the way.
HIM: Well OK. I’ll give you a ring then when I get there.
ME: Great. See you soon.
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Popularity: 22%
January 19th, 2007
Posted by
em8chel <<
close encounter of the slurred kind >>
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