DISGRASIAN™

DISGRASIAN’s Extracurricular Activities: The Remembrance Project & Chinese American Cultural Night

What to do when you’re not studying, calculating your taxes on an abacus, or practicing piano:

The Japanese American National Museum has launched The Remembrance Project, an online “living museum” which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. That order made it possible for the US government to relocate Americans with Japanese ancestry to internment camps during World War II. [Remembrance Project]

Chinese American Cultural Night 2012, an annual event produced by the Association of of Chinese Americans at UCLA, will feature the story of Vincent Chin, along with musical and dance performances. Free tickets to the event, which is Saturday, May 12, will be available starting Monday, May 7. Non-UCLA affiliated folks can send ticket requests to tickets.cacn@gmail.com. [CACN]

Filed under: Asian-American History, CACN, Chinese American Cultural Night, Chinese American Cultural Night 2012, DISGRASIAN's Extracurricular Activities, JANM, Japanese American National Museum, The Remembrance Project

File Under “So What’s Your Excuse?”: Girl Without Hands Wins Penmanship Award

When you find yourself dwelling on who or what is holding you back in life, think of 7 year-old Annie Clark, a first-grader who recently won a penmanship award established for children with either a “cognitive delay or intellectual, physical or development disability.” Annie, a Chinese adoptee, was born without hands.

Annie’s father, Tom Clark, described his daughter’s other abilities to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“Annie has always been very, very determined, very self-sufficient in dressing herself and feeding herself,” Mr. Clark said. “She can ride a bike. She swims. She is just determined that there’s nothing she can’t do.”

Her father said she also types on a keyboard and uses an iPod Touch with no difficulties.

Man, do I feel like a lazy jerk right about now.

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: First-grader without hands wins penmanship award]

Filed under: Abilities, Amazian Jr., Annie Clark, Asian Adoptees, Awards, Chinese Adoptees, Disabilities, Girl Without Hands Wins Penmanship Award, Perseverance, What's Your Excuse?

New Study Shows Black Women Confront Racists, While Asian Women Just Feed Them Nasty Jellybeans

New research is out showing African American and Asian American women react differently to racists. Basically, black women are more likely to confront racists directly, while Asian women are more likely to poison them with disgusting-flavored jellybeans. Or something like that. Here’s a summary of the research, as described in The Atlantic:

PROBLEM: Previous studies have demonstrated variations in the way people of distinct cultures communicate and manage conflict. Do their reactions to racial slurs differ as well?

METHODOLOGY: Researchers Elizabeth Lee and José Soto asked Asian and black American women to talk to another person online using an instant messenger. The conversation partner was a research assistant trained to make either a racist comment, such as “Dating [blacks/Asians] is for tools who let [blacks/Asians] control them” or a rude comment unrelated to race. The subjects then took part in a supposedly unrelated taste test, for which they chose a jellybean for their conversation partner. The jellybean flavors available ranged from delicious (e.g. cherry, lemon) to “bad-tasting” (e.g. earwax, dirt).

RESULTS: The African-American participants were more likely to directly respond to their racist partners than the Asian-American women, who preferred to retaliate in secret by not giving the good jellybeans.

The results of that study (full PDF here) sound pretty stereotype-y to me, and one Continue reading New Study Shows Black Women Confront Racists, While Asian Women Just Feed Them Nasty Jellybeans

Filed under: 1.5 Generation, 2nd Generation, African American Women, Angry Black Women, Asian American Women, Asian Women, Black Women, Black Women and Asian Women Respond Differently to Racism, Cultural Behavior, Research, Stereotypes, Studies, Submissive Asian Women

Coca-Cola’s Launched An Insidious Campaign To Turn Asians Into A Hugging People

And it seems to be working. Quite well. See what happens when you drop a vending machine that dispenses free Coke–in exchange for a hug–on a university campus in Singapore:

This is all part of Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” ad campaign, which will soon be introducing huggable Coke machines throughout Asia. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I probably just need to hug a machine and get some free diabetes in a can to feel better, amirite?

[via Gawker]

[Forbes: Coca-Cola Introduces Gesture Based Marketing in Singapore]

Filed under: Advertising, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Ad Campaign, Coca-Cola Ad Campaigns, Coca-Cola Ads, Coca-Cola Open Happiness Ad Campaign, Coke, Coke Ad Campaign, Coke Ad Campaigns, Coke Open Happiness Campaign, Drugs Not Hugs, Emotional Machines, Hug It Out, Huggable People, Needy Machines, Singapore, We Are Not A Hugging People, Weird

DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Vagina Whitening (That’s Right, You Heard Me)

One year I vacationed in Mexico and spent the entire time in the water, body surfing and boogie boarding. My skin got really dark, which I don’t care about one way or another, though I am afraid of sun damage and skin cancer, in that order. I made one mistake that trip though, and it wasn’t forgetting sunscreen (always, always remember sunscreen). My mistake was going to see my grandmother right after. The first thing she said, once she got over the shock, was “How did you get so dark?!” For the rest of the visit, she introduced me to her friends as “My Granddaughter-Who’s-Normally-Not-This-Dark.”

Light skin is still prized in Asia for a number of reasons that have to do with longstanding notions of race, class, and gender. Good thing then, that there’s a booming market for skin whitening creams, many of them manufactured by Western companies! And good thing the companies who make these creams also make commercials, because quite a few of them–beyond their creepy, disturbing premise–are kinda hilarious.

1. Skin Whitening For Young Girls

There’s this commercial for SkinWhite Teens, produced by Filipino company Splash Corporation, a skin whitening product designed specifically for young girls:

Continue reading DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Vagina Whitening (That’s Right, You Heard Me)

Filed under: Advertising, Advertising in Asia, Asia, Asian Obsession with Light Skin, Badvertising, Beauty Products, Bollywood, China, Class Issues, Dark Skin Bias, Dark Skin Prejudice, India, J, Japan, Korea, Lady Bits, Lady Parts, Oppressive Notions of Beauty, Philippines, Pond's, Skin Bleaching, Skin Color Hierarchy, Skin Lightening, skin whitening, SkinWhite, Vagina Bleaching, Vagina Lightening, Vagina Whitening, Vaginal Bleaching, Vaginal Lightening, Vaginal Whitening

How To Make Friends With Asians, Part 1 Of (Hopefully) An Ongoing Educational Series

Like us. Love us. After an appropriate amount of time spent getting to know us, hug us, even. (Gingerly though…not too much…one second, one and a half, OMG this is so uncomfortable…okay, that’s enough.)

But please–and by “please” I really mean, for fuck’s sake–don’t show us you care by loving us long time.

If the Asian? Latino? dude in this pic did not exist, it would be necessary to photoshop him

[Big League Stew: Yu Darvish recovers after shaky start for Rangers]

Thanks, Dean!

Filed under: Baseball, Educational Series, Etiquette, How To Make Friends With Asians, Japanese Pitchers, Me Love You Long Time, Mixed-Race People, MLB, Texas Rangers, Things That Should Die, Things To Never Say To An Asian Person, Yu Darvish

DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Marion Barry’s Yellow Peril

After winning the DC city Council’s Ward 8 primary Tuesday, former mayor and current Councilman Marion Barry said some fantastically creepy and racist things about Asians that harkened straight back to 19th century America’s Yellow Peril, when unemployment was blamed on Chinese immigrants and slogans like “The Chinese must go!” became a political rallying cry, leading to violence committed against Asian workers and businesses.

In his speech to supporters, he stated:

“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses Continue reading DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Marion Barry’s Yellow Peril

Filed under: Black-Asian Solidarity, Blaming Asians, Councilman Marion Barry, DC, District of Columbia, Fight the Power, Marion Barry, Marion Barry Asian Business Owners, Marion Barry Dirty Asian Shops, Marion Barry Racist Comments, model minority myth, Pitting Minorities Against One Another, Ward 8 District of Columbia, Washington DC, Yellow Peril

Asian Americans Marrying Other Asian Americans Is Fashionable And Stylish

Over the weekend, the front-page, top NY Times Fashion & Style story was one about the “trend” of Asian Americans marrying other Asian Americans, even while Asian Americans as a group still “trend” among the highest in intermarrying. Follow?

The reasons cited in the NYT for this so-called trend seemed to boil down to Asian Americans wanting to get back to our Asian-y Asianness. A few examples:

Continue reading Asian Americans Marrying Other Asian Americans Is Fashionable And Stylish

Filed under: Asian Americans, Asian Americans Interracial Marriage, Asian Americans Marrying, Asianness, Asians Americans Marrying Other Asian Americans, Intermarrying, Marrying In the Race, So-Called Trends, Trends