Texas NOW Blog

It can be easy to think that Asian Americans don't experience racism. After all, they have lower poverty rates, higher rates of education, and higher average household income than other racial or ethnic minorities. They're successful, ergo they don't experience prejudice, right?

Wrong.

As long as there have been Asian Americans, there has been racism and discrimination against them. They are often thought of as a so-called 'model minority,' but that's a damaging phrase in many ways. First, it perpetuates a myth that they are universally successful at achieving the American Dream. But statistics don't really bear that out. And this myth glosses over ethnic differences and promotes an idea that all Asians are the same. Second, that's a hell of a lot of pressure to place on real individual human beings! Many folks, including South Asians, find it stifling and impossible to live up to.

Filmmaker Grace Lee addresses these two issues in her highly entertaining and very thought-provoking documentary, The Grace Lee Project. It's a political film, but not in an overbearing, bash-you-over-the-head-with-a-message, Michael Moore kind of way. What Lee does is explore the ideas of sameness and stereotypes by ruminating on the strangely high incidence of the name Grace Lee among Asian Americans, seeking out those who share her name, and making sense of their stories in the context of US culture and of her own experience.

Warning! Spoilers after the fold

Continue reading "Movie recommendation: The Grace Lee Project" »

Posted by Carrie at 9:43 PM | Permalink

So like a gazillion other people in the US this weekend, Sweet Feminist Boy and I went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean flick. I really dug the first one. Good banter! Fun sword fights! Tough heroine who's openly critical of the stupid, oppressive female wardrobe of the era! Clever, swashbuckling, girly-man heroes! Johnny Depp in eyeliner! What's not to like? Warning!! Spoilers ahoy!

Would that the second one had been as fun. Not nearly as much banter, our heroine had much less to do, and then there was the massive dose of racism. I was irritated by the treacherous and disposable people of color who all suddenly get killed while their white companions survive, and REALLY annoyed by the Token Wise Black Person being a voodoo priestess. And the CAC Review (hat tip to Flooded Lizard Kingdom) does a great job of calling Disney out about the Wicked Cannibal Savages who, in their comical ineptness, fail to roast Depp's Jack Sparrow over an open fire:

A trailer for the film clearly shows the Caribs roasting live people on spits and holding captives to be eaten...in a stark reminder of some of the most vile imperialistic imagery produced in the early colonial era. Such images are getting a new lease on life thanks to Disney, which with the resources that rival those of a colonial power, has now dedicated itself to popularizing and internationalizing images of the Caribs as "cannibals..."

Let us keep in mind that such depictions were used to enslave and murder the ancestors of today's Caribs, there was never anything innocent or "fun" about these portrayals. In addition, generations of Carib descended school children in the Caribbean have been taught that their ancestors were savage cannibals. Shame over ancestry was inculcated as a matter of routine. In my own field research experience, I have encountered individuals in their forties and fifties who told me very directly that the main reason they did not wish to self-identify as Caribs is that people in the wider world see Caribs as cannibals, as inhuman man eaters, and they found the stigma unbearable. Disney is playing its part in centuries of ethnocide.

Oh, those humorless people of color, wanting to be portrayed as... uh... people.

This sounds very familiar to me. It smacks of anorexics who starve themselves because they hate the idea of growing up to be women. Or of Asian women who surgically alter their eyelids so as to conform to Western standards of beauty. Or of African-American people who bleach their skin and straighten their hair after being told that their natural color and texture is 'nappy' and unacceptable. That there, folks, is internalized oppression. What's that I hear? I think it might be someone with privilege asking why this is a big deal.

So glad you asked. (more analysis, plus the names and addresses of the people you should write to and tell them they suck, after the fold)

Continue reading "Action Item: Tell Disney that racism sucks, yarrrr" »

Posted by Carrie at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Shannon over at Egotistical Whining has written a fantastic Racism FAQ. She uses the familiar equation that power + prejudice = racism, but goes on to say:

Q) But I don't have any power! or I don't get any advantages.

A) The power is structural. So if one is rewarded for their degree of whiteness by getting the benefit of the doubt or having their money assumed good in stores, that is an advantage, and that is power. If someone sees your white skin, they assume you're automatically smarter, better and more normal than people of color. That's power.

Q) But it's so hard to not be racist/what can I do to not be a racist?

A) There are two general rules: shut up and listen and don't be an asshole. You'll learn a lot of other things on the way, but those two rules are the key.

Love it. Reminds me of something a social worker I know used to say, a two-sentence summary of diversity training: "Some people are different from you. Please deal." I know, easy to say, hard to do, but if you keep these few things in mind and try to act accordingly, in my book, you can't go too far wrong.

Posted by Carrie at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)