Monthly Archives: February 2009
A rose by any other name
About two years ago, I met a DNC trainer who was of Indian heritage. He told an anecdote about Bobby Jindal, who is pretty actively despised by most of the Asian Americans I know. Anyway, he related how every time he sees Jindal, he yells, “Hey, Piyush!”
“Piyush” is Jindal’s given name. He’s chosen to use “Bobby.”
I had mixed feelings as I listened to this anecdote. It made me laugh, because it was intended to remind Jindal of his heritage. But by the same token, I was more than a little uncomfortable. I knew that it was something that I would never choose to do. And inside the confines of the Asian American community, I thought that perhaps this anecdote was acceptable.
Now I’m not so sure.
Well.
Well, I see some of you folks are still fighting the good fight. You’ll have lots of practice in the years ahead. Because you’ll find that lots of white people don’t truly believe that people of color are equal. They probably say that they do. Or maybe they’re “colorblind.” But if they truly believed that people of color were equal, they would listen to our voices. Maybe they would fight the racism that affects their kids instead of trying to teach their kids how to feel.
Don’t be discouraged. And remember to use your privilege for good and not for evil.
Down with the brown
Remember Michele Bachmann? Wonder how her search for those anti-Americans is going. Anyway, she was at the CPAC listening to Michael Steele speak. When he finished, here’s what she said:
Michael Steele! You be da man. You be da man!
And the result?
Trick Samoan parents into giving up their children. Tell American would-be parents you’ve found orphans for them. Drag the kids to the United States. Tear apart two sets of families with your lies.
And receive probation. Unfuckingbelievable.
News flash: President is black!
Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose’s personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden.
“I was horrified when I read that e-mail,” Price said. “What I’m concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?”
* * *
Grose’s e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, “No Easter Egg hunt this year.”
“I think he’s saying that since there’s a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they’re growing watermelons in the front yard this year,” Price wrote.
She responded to the e-mail with: “Hey, that’s not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that.”
Grose replied: “The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests.”
Huh.
Okay, so another blog titled “Stuff White People Do” had a post titled “Laugh at Asian English.” This was then changed to “Laugh at ‘Engrish.’”
*sigh*
Here’s my suggestion for the title: “Laugh at non-native speakers of English even though they themselves are monolingual” or maybe “Laugh and feel superior towards people who are learning another language.”
In G-d we trust
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that a Utah city that has long permitted a Ten Commandments monument in its city park need not accept the Summum church’s Seven Aphorisms monument.
The justices reversed a lower court decision that said once Pleasant Grove had allowed the Ten Commandments marker and several historical artifacts in its Pioneer Park, it had created a “public forum” where other groups’ markers and messages must be permitted.
Supreme Court justices said that such rationale does not apply in a dispute over permanent monuments.
Because obviously, “park clutter” is against the First Amendment.
Happy Paczki Day
I’m eating one now (except I forgot how to say the singular of paczki). It came from a small Polish bakery. Happy Fat Tuesday. Now this is a holiday I can get behind.
Racism as ‘human nature’
Okay, this story is just plain bizarre. It’s about a white woman who served as a surrogate mother for an Asian couple. Gasp! Can you imagine? Anyway, there’s apparently a huge advantage in being a surrogate to a child of a different race:
Doctors say the arrangement may be to the advantage of the “commissioning” couple because the surrogate mother may be less likely to become attached to the baby, and even to refuse to give it up, if it belongs to a different race.
Professor Ian Craft, director of the London Fertility Centre, where the Asian couple were treated, said: “The major risk in surrogacy is that the surrogate mother may not want to yield the child. The surrogate is unlikely to want to keep a child of a different race. That is just human nature.”
I had about a dozen comments to make on this one, but they are all rude and insensitive. So I’ll just keep them to myself. (Imagine the restraint involved, and please praise me!)
In Whatever We (Dis)Trust
From the New York Times:
On Monday, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a suit by the Navajo, who lost millions of dollars’ worth of coal royalties because the government helped a coal company underpay for their coal. A lower court ruled for the Navajo Nation. The Supreme Court should affirm that well-reasoned decision.
The Navajo’s huge reservation spreads across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The United States holds the lands in trust and manages their large coal deposits. Peabody Coal had a lease to mine on that land. The terms provided that in 1984, the interior secretary could make a reasonable adjustment in the royalty rates paid to the tribe.
That year the department increased the royalty rate to 20 percent of gross proceeds. After Peabody protested, the Reagan administration’s interior secretary met with a Peabody lobbyist, without informing the Navajo. The secretary then signed a memo blocking the increase and called for the Navajo to negotiate with Peabody. The tribe, already under severe economic pressure, ended up agreeing to a rate of just 12.5 percent.
