"And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer." -- Hans Gruber, apparently. Something like that is what I want to achieve in life, but at the same time it's so scary. And I know I'm having premature bouts of that emotion.
This comic is so epic.
Also, something Da said a while ago got me started thinking about the song "Like a G6". Nothing deep, just actually listening to the song and perusing the wikipedia page. Aside from the band (Far East Movement) being Asian-American, and a few visual cues such as a neon "Korea town" sign in one of their music videos, there isn't anything that deviates from mainstream American party culture; maybe there are subtleties I am missing as well as this just being a song aimed at mainstream (cf. Utada Hikaru's latest English album), but as such I don't see any reason for the rallies of Asian-American identity that are evident at times in places like angryasianman (a wonderful blog, most of the time).
Just now I read an article from his blog, with calls to vote for Eliot Chang, an Asian-American comedian trying to get on comedy central. In a spot, he appeals to his "Asian brothers and sisters" to get a face like his on television. For all of his appealing to his identity in the video though, on his homepage there are two white models to the one asian model surrounding him in the main image; so perhaps the video was more aimed specifically at angryasianman than it let on, although there is a button called "Asian SexyStar". He also has a bunch of highlights and tv spots posted onto the site. In two of his initial clips, he does make mention of his identity as a sort of icebreaker for the crowd, but he rapidly shifts to more, race-less topics (such as deaf/blind students and a conspiracy theory, and fun things to do with sign language instructors). Perhaps it's the target audience, and also the fact that in-house comedy is largely dependent on creating a mood that is special to the audience/participants, a context that largely does not carry outside of the comedy club.
But then again, this reflects a larger syndrome that is probably within all the races. Just like with what the Black Power Movement has become (or in retrospect probably been all along, to some degree), public minority figures (see Jeremy Lin the latest Asian-American NBA player) inevitably are seen as representing their own race. But at the same time in many cases the ideas they are representing are more attuned with a set of general American cultures or an ideal version of it, or are simply using their identity to garner support among people who identify similarly to them. This is endemic in regards to race, gender, sexual identity, military veteran status, you name it.
The scary thing is seeing these repercussions in my own life. It's nothing new, but thinking about ACF in particular, and campus culture in general, gets me a little riled. In an echo of the same principles that threatened to divide Heisei this year -- although in our case they are just sort of ignored and are simmering under the surface until our class graduates, after which things will hopefully be peachy (perhaps for the first time?) -- there's a theory that the model minority myth places strains on Asian-American children to cope by either being "whitewashed" or by redoubling their identities as Asian-American by forming peer groups with pure or high concentrations of Asian(-American)s, probably helping to enforce the idea of Asian homogeneity and emerging as the youth movement/slogan "Asian Pride". How recent "Asian Pride" as an emerging identity-forming slogan came about in the United States is another question (around the time of Vincent Chin, or the civil rights movements in the 60's/70's?), but ours is probably the first generation to grow up with such a unifying type of thinking. It continues to college, where you find people (this is the crux of the threatening split for Heisei, and this was so shocking to me! Just this past semester I only fully realized after I was told by a practitioner that people really do this) who just want to have a place (a safe space, perhaps) to gather with people who are "like them".
I mentioned ACF because on an individual basis that's where I have personally received the most antagonism, although I was active in MOI (think subsidiary of Harambee) and realize that the divide runs deep through Indian, Black, and Asian students (within the racial/cultural divides as well). But it's really interesting/sad how, for the most part, we divide into these groups and largely do the pursue the same goals and talk about the same topics.
Maybe I was a naive underclassmen, but I always felt KSA (under Mary/Seonha/Jarod) had made the most progress in terms of being a challenging, welcoming space for everyone involved. If I get a chance this semester, it will be interesting to see how it has grown.
I've been a TSO groupie for as long as I can remember. Renault/Alex encouraged me to go, that Kathy and her sister were most beautiful girls I'd ever seen made me stick around, and that the group is actually a family made me want to join. Experiencing a bit of Taiwan validated, in some small way, that idolatry. I still wonder how different I would be if I had applied, and been accepted, into the "TSO Family"...
I've really digressed, and once again done the bulk and the best of my writing at 3 am on a subject completely unrelated to the more pressing schoolwork bearing down my throat and that damned econ thesis I foolishly agreed to edit. I'm going to choose to treat it as preparation for attempting again to conquer Ronald Takaki's "Strangers from a Different Shore" and "A Different Mirror". I will have time now to decide whether going into Asian-American Studies is really a right and viable option for me. Going to Berkeley or any other school in the California system will undoubtedly expose me to higher levels of this grouping, immersion and exclusion phenomenon; if WU bothers me, that is undoubtedly a good thing academically and in terms of a drive for social justice but, psychologically it could be a problem down the line.
A few videos related to the "research" I did on Like a G6. Interesting parodies. Kinda interesting how all the Jesus figures are bearded white guys haha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBxfGdRZvaI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxljT2kcdmY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBFACBEEks8
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