A perfect lesson in anti-racism

[yeloson]

When someone says something foolish AND hateful, instead of hemming, hawing, and giving excuses to defend such ignorance, saying "they didn't mean anything", or "that's what's crazy, they're not racist", "Stop being so sensitive", etc.

Maybe you should simply check their dumb ass and admit where you fucked up.

See, unlike Michael Richards or Rosie O'Donnell, etc. instead of excusing or protecting racist behavior, or standing by silently, several folks stepped up to criticize and question the institution which supported him, and get a policy change in little over a week.

What happened here wasn't pressure from outside. Black folks didn't have to TELL asian folks that this was fucked up and that we should do something, and PUSH us into giving a half-hearted effort. For the same reason public defecation isn't a -common- problem in our society- all we did was see crazy behavior and say, "What THE FUCK is wrong with you?!?"

Is Kenneth going to learn anything? Probably not. But we saw the problem wasn't Kenneth's craziness, it's whoever the fuck thought that this was good to spread around and publish as "The Voice of Asian America". It's when people protect and promote the crazy that you have to wonder about the society you're living in.

So please. Check your people shitting in public. It's only civilized.

Comments

[conditionbronze.livejournal.com]

Did they fire or just suspend this fool?

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

He's a freelancer. Suspended = fired for all purposes.

Though I'm pretty sure AsianWeek is probably bankrolled mostly by the Fang family and not really concerned about it's advertisers, I don't think this is going to be quickly forgotten. Over the years, they've always had fairly mediocre quality but at least got props for hanging in there with having their heart in the right place, but this just wiped that out as well.

[shadowfae.livejournal.com]

So please. Check your people shitting in public. It's only civilized.

Word.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Icon love! Eshu + Spooky only makes too much sense.

[shadowfae.livejournal.com]

Nothing says "Eshu" like Tenna's squeaky toy!

[kristy-chan.livejournal.com]

Asian people have been and are economically exploited left and right. So, it's not like only Black people were enslaved. Ever heard of Chinese coolies?

And how can you use one myopic observation from high school to explain the state of the entire world?

There's also historical context for Black/Asian tension, and it's much deeper than "Rush Hour."

This is so dumb, it hardly warrants a response.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Yeah. See, if this was just random intardnetz stupid, we could probably write it off. But when a paper with 2 decades of history and having covered topics about race prints something this stupid- you have to wonder what's going on.

And this is the problem- we HAVE to give it a response, because when no one says anything, MORE people start seeing it as acceptable behavior. For example, the endless blackface parties at colleges...

[kristy-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, now I'm reading the SF Gate article.

WTF were they thinking?
Maybe they thought it would be "edgy" or something.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

I think they never bothered to read it. It's a family owned legacy paper, started way back. At this point, I think anyone working on it (who isn't freelancing) is a matter of family obligation rather than a real commitment to publishing. ("Get enough content, slam into paper. Throw in ads, print. Happy now, Uncle?")

They've always had a lot of youth and intern articles, but here was a guy willing to provide content and probably regularly. Plus he was published (and sadly, I'm sure no one bothered to really look at the book he published, and if they did, they probably assumed all fantasy books are equally crappy, whatever).

And now here they are with a big media fiasco upside the head.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

Kenneth seems to barely be past potty training, but what I'm trying to figure out is why he's been published in whats supposed to be a legitimate news publication.

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

So please. Check your people shitting in public. It's only civilized.

co-signed.

[soothai.livejournal.com]

triplet.

[maerhys.livejournal.com]

*nodding*

If we're not checking our own, who will?

[itsmrwilson.livejournal.com]

Every time a minority group blames another minority group, Karl Marx gets +1 XP.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

He must be Epic Level at this point.