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Ten Ren's

 - the voice of 14_of_Spades

Speaking to her over bubble tea, I could only recall last weekend's unpleasant dinner at Memories. There she was Miss Judith Yang, with her three closest female friends, Edith Sing, Katie Wong, and Jan Kim. For some reason, we got onto the subject of Asian-female, White-guy relationships. Needless to say I gave my views as the girls sat idly by deflecting my thoughts, feelings, and opinions. It was at this point Judith declared, "So all the girls at this table prefer white guys right?" And in unison, the sopranoic quartet sounded a resounding, "YES!"

In general, Judith was decent company. We were friends of 4 years, but we both knew she had a real ability to annoy me. Whenever the opportunity came, she'd use my opinions on that specific interracial relationship to put me down, and today was no exception.

"Oh, so are you seeing anyone now?" she asked.
"No. You?"
"Yes," she replied.

She went on to tell me how unfortunate it was that I wasn't seeing anyone, the circumstances under which she met this individual, and a few particulars of him. The best part, however, was coming up.

"And guess what, Santos? HE'S WHITE! Haha! HAHA!" she screamed gleefully, grinning wildly all the while nodding her head side to side in an effort to do nothing but elicit anger in me.

She succeeded. I turned away in disgust. No words, only emotions came to mind.

I did not understand what kind of person would say such a thing to a friend.

Racism is Unavoidable

 - the voice of Fervidus Humanus

I am observant of people. Everything from their clothes, their mannerisms, to the way they interact with friends, enemies, superiors, and strangers. I like to understand different people, and that is my forte as well as my hubris (Yes, that was gratuitous usage of the word. Go Hamlet!). I would be one of the first people to praise Canada, but even in our free nation, racism proliferates.

How can anyone believe our society is colourblind when we have so many multicultural groups, programs, and events. Is not the purpose of multiculturalism to share in the wealth of cultures? If we truly were free of racial attitudes, then ours would be a one-culture world, not a myriad of unique cultures. And who would dare speak out against multiculturalism? I believe it brings far more benefits to humanity than conflicts. Culture defines us, and sacrificing a bit of our culture would be akin to sacrificing a piece of ourselves.

Racism pervades all multicultural societies, even in righteous Canada, though the level of racism here is far lower. Usually. It seems only natural to socialize with similar people, thus the grouping of people into social groups. Can I help it that most of my friends are Asian Canadians such as myself? Or that the people I pay the closest attention to in a group of strangers tend to be Asian? Probably, but it would require much effort. I already make a concerted effort to deliberately socialize with all sorts of people, not just Asians (and some people probably frown upon this behaviour). Many Asian Canadian people do not, probably because they do not care, but perhaps because they are arrogant or shy or antisocial.

But even the slightest unconscious gestures made by people indicate racism. The white person at the party that approaches a group of Chinese people. Why the Chinese group formed in the first place. The single Chinese person that responds in an effort not make the white person seem like a fool. Everyone else being less than talkative out of indifference or uncertainty. The inevitable departure of the white person due to inability to sustain a conversation of the level that he/she might obtain with a group of his/her white friends. The white person knowing full well before approaching the group, that he/she would be leaving soon. The Chinese group knowing the same thing with just as much certainty.

I am an exceptional case; I pay attention to far too many details for my own good. Many of you would scoff at my exaggerations of racist intent, but they happen all the time. I see them, as clearly as I see your doubting faces. Part of human nature is to identify people by race (the tall brown guy, or the white girl with short hair).

Am I guilty of microanalyzing every action, glance, and thought I observe? Certainly. Am I mistaken that racism exists even in the most educated and civilized societies? I think not.

We still have kids who resort to racism

 - the voice of Pi

In grade school, I was small and thin with unkempt hair. This made it easy for the other kids to pick on me. Not only that, I also excelled in academics. The other kids thought of me as a nerd. But I spited them and joined the cross-country, volleyball, basketball, and track teams, performing quite well in all of them. The other kids were jealous that I was not just a bookworm, but also a competent athlete. But they had something up their sleeves, something they could pull out when they felt most threatened by me - they could insult my Chinese background.

The most obvious was to make fun of my name, full of 'Z's and a peculiar pronunciation. If you've never had people belittle your name before, it is a very personal attack that feels like as someone took a big swing into your gut with a baseball bat. Of course, my "friends" would also imitate the incomprehensible Chinese conversations heard in my household, and they would also imitate the accents of my parents when they talked in English. It was a no win situation.

I realize now that they weren't necessarily picking on me because I was Chinese, but because they had to find a way in which they were "superior" to me. What really bothers me is that in a multicultural country such as Canada where we pride ourselves in our tolerance of other cultures, we still have kids who resort to racism.

Stereotyping exists among your own race

 - the voice of Li'l Polar Bear

Being raised in a city where there is a thriving Chinatown, one would think that a Chinese person, regardless of where they were born or raised, would not be subjected to stereotyping or prejudice in Chinatown. However, this is not the case as I have found time and time again.

Even though I can speak fluent Cantonese, I am still greeted in English in most, if not all, the Chinese stores in Chinatown. The only ones that speak to me in Cantonese are those that I frequent.

A common scenario played in a cyclical loop is when I go for dim sum with my mom. I am greeted with a "Welcome!! How many??" while others are greeted with "Gey daw wai?" - "How many" in Cantonese. After I tell them 2 in Cantonese, they realize I CAN speak "their" language and proceed to show me to the table while asking me what kind of tea I would like.

Then comes the dim sum carts. "Shrimp dumplings, beef balls" in broken, heavily accented English. "What else do you have?" I reply in flawless Cantonese. I am then greeted with a rapid listing of the dozen different dim sum they have sitting on their trolley. If I could not speak Cantonese, would I be limited to shrimp dumplings and beef balls?? Or would they gesture to me to look at all the selection they have and point to the ones I fancied??

Either I am greeted in English or they ignore me completely and just talk to my mom. As soon as I speak up in Cantonese, they sigh in relief, telling my mom that they thought I was a "tou sang" and a "jook sing" or "heung jiew". This is usually followed by my mom proudly saying that I *am* a "tou sang", born and raised in Vancouver, I speak fluent Cantonese, and that I can read and write in addition to Chinese brush painting.

It is embarrassing at times, especially since Cantonese is a "loud" language, but I smugly let my mom carry on with her bragging; not because I enjoy her listing my non-"tou sang"-like accomplishments to the entire restaurant/store, but because I think that the stereotype in which "tou sang"s cannot do or say anything Chinese should be refuted.

Sometimes, I wonder if they would still treat me like a "tou sang" if I dressed in those "yeah" styles you see most new immigrants in and/or I was a size 0 or 2. Probably not.

A person's appearance is the cause of stereotypes. Their race is usually a determining factor in how you would act towards them. For example, while I was in Japan, white guys tried to pick me up in Japanese or talked about me in English and Japanese guys would talk to me in Japanese, neither of them knowing that I was fluent in English and had less Japanese skills than a child in kindergarten. But then, I assumed non-Japanese guys spoke English and that most Japanese didn't speak any English and I was proven wrong time and time again.

How people from different races stereotype me due to my appearance is something I cannot avoid since I am also guilty of that. However, I wish this stereotyping would not be something delivered by people of my own race.

Stereotyping vs. Belligerence

 - the voice of banana_appeal

Racism is everywhere. And to many different degrees. Sometimes it is stereotyping, other times it is belligerent with pure hatred, with no real reason behind it.

We're lucky that in Canada most of the racism is just stereotyping. At least with stereotyping you can reason and try to open people's minds, or even ignore them. But belligerent racism and pure hatred is a scary thing. There is no reasoning and it's very difficult to protect yourself.

However if we're not careful stereotyping combined with a mob mentality can morph into belligerent racism.

I've been lucky my experiences have mostly been stereotyping. It can still be very frustrating though. One to have my own people look at me and think I'm not good enough to be considered one of them if I don't speak the language or read and write. (I'm lucky enough to be able to speak the language but when they first meet me and don't know me that's what they assume, and I can fake reading and writing enough). Secondly, to have other people treat me differently because I'm asian and female.

My isolated experiences with belligerent racism have included cars and stupid white guys yelling "chink - go home" or people spitting at us. We asians are lucky we don't have to face belligerent racism as do the African Americans living in the Southern United States. My rare isolated incident was when I accidentally looked into a Pro-White youth's eyes and all I could see was hatred. I was a girl so he didn't threaten to hit me, but if I was a guy I wonder if he would have grabbed me by my collar and threatened me. All I could do was quickly look away and get out of there.

The kind of stereotyping racism that occurs is really due to the "normal" population's fear of the unknown. How many times have you yourself felt curious and unsure of someone of a different culture, speaking a different language other than english, perhaps someone carrying a ritual knife?

Kids often make fun of things they don't understand or find different. A weird accent, funny burning incense smell found in most Asian homes. Asians can fit in with white people if they act white-washed. Not that there is anything wrong with not identifying with your Asian heritage - it's a personal choice.

It's easy to preach tolerance if you don't really have to tolerate much except for the person's skin color. Would you be as tolerant if your neighbor blasted music in a language that you neither understood or liked? Or if you're one of the few people out there who don't like the smell of curry but your neighbor can't live without it cooked the traditional style - strong, very strong?

Now the above was obviously stereotyping that a) your neighbor would listen to loud music, instead of soft classical music, or b) that your neighbor even cooks =)

But that's how stereotypes start off, some strong characteristic and the only attributable link was difference in skin color.

Speaking of stereotypes. I have to admit I have some of my own. I tend to find Asian guys, especially the Vancouver CBC's, to be in a class of their own. They're very different from CBC's elsewhere in Canada. They tend to be more appearance obsessed -> especially of their significant others. Even the geeky ones, the ones you think would be happy to have someone not too bad looking and appreciate them. But the geeky ones are especially bad because they surround themselves with the images from North American pop culture, the images of Asian pop culture - which emphasizes frailty, thinness, and paleness - and of course the impossible to live up to feminine ideals of Anime and comic books. None of these effects are offset by their interactions with real people though because they a) don't get out much, b) only hang out with guys, and c) have all the women in Asian culture agree with them that this is what the feminine ideal should be.

That's whey when some people look at me ask me, "if you're so pro-asian then why don't you date asian guys, why only white guys?" My only answer to that is that most of the asian guys I know don't like my type - they're either chasing the size 0 and 2 asian girls, or they exclusively go after non-asian girls.

And again that's the asian guys stereotyping me. Just because I'm interested in more than Asian pop culture: I actually listen to Jazz or I enjoy non traditional artistic pursuits and actually participate in modern literature, and of course I'm also adventurous, independent and unconventional, they stereotype me as white-washed and automatically write me off. Hey guys! I actually enjoy chinese movies, I enjoy dim sum, I grew up going to the Buddhist temple, and I know all the asian superstitions and holidays.

But it's not easy dating just white guys either. They either have an asian fetish or they expect you to be completely white washed. I'm sorry I'm neither, I can't subsume my asian culture, nor my asian traditions. I know I'm not super ugly, guys don't automatically run away screaming.

So what does that leave me? I'd prefer to find an Asian guy who can appreciate me for who I am, or at the very least I wouldn't mind an Egg. Here's more stereotyping for you. =)

Sarcasm's Not the Lowest Form of Humour... Silverman Is.

 - the voice of Ter

Haven't had much time to write anything lately... I'm leaving my day job and am going through a heart-devouring breakup. But here's an older rant from the "unsound mind" portion of bananaboys.com. I just read that Silverman's newst sitcom, "Greg the Bunny," was cancelled. Ha! Karma's a bitch, bitch.
A Tale of Racism, Arrogance, Childishness, and a Downright Pitiful Lack of Talent.

After an exhausting few days of searching on the web and posting on message boards, I think I can safely say that I'm tired of hearing about Sarah "The Hack" Silverman. In case you didn't know, Silverman is a so-called comedienne who ignited a small firestorm of controversy surrounding her use of the word "chink" in a joke that turned out to be far less funny than controversial.

A while ago, Silverman did a bit on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" that went something like this:

Silverman: "Yeah, you know, I got a jury duty notice... and I had to fill out a form. You send it in. You're randomly selected" and I don't wanna get selected for jury duty. So I'm filling out the form. And my friend said, 'Why don't you just write something really inappropriate, like, 'I hate Chinks'?' And I said, 'Yeah, that's a good idea.' But when you think about it, I don't want people to think that of me, you know? I just wanna get out of jury duty. So I just filled out the form, and I wrote, 'I love Chinks.' "

(Insert tumbleweed rolling by and ominous blowing of wind here. Stunning how comedy has evolved from a pie in the face and "pull my finger" to Sarah "The Hack" Silverman...)

The show issued some sort of apology for the usage of the slur on national television, and (apparently) so did she, but not meaningfully, as evidenced on her appearance soon afterwards on "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher." On PI, she rehashed the joke and, along with Bill's typical self-righteous bombast and some other indignant anti-PC neanderthals as panelists, proceeded to whine and cry "boo hoo hoo" about how's she was vilified by the media. Their main target was Guy Aoki, this Asian American activist dude who was calling on her for an apology. She even went as far as to say that this stupid excuse for a joke was socially illuminating - you know, with profound social value!

Silverman: "Yeah, it's clearly a joke, you know, illuminating racism. It's not a racist joke. It's a joke about racism."

(Gee, thanks bitch... you know, for emancipating me with this joke. We're knocking down the Lincoln Monument to put up a statue of your pathetic ass to thank you for your hallowed efforts... all hail!)

(A side note: Silverman, Bill Maher, and some of the other neurosurgeons PI had on as guests were also trashing this Aoki dude as some sort of political opportunist who "didn't really care" about the issue - like that makes sense. Very classy - trashing the guy and his motives with him not present to defend. The guests included Howie "Where The Hell Has My Career Gone?" Mandel, who made fun of Aoki's name - "okey-dokey." Howie, man, don't come back to Canada, unless you're gonna castrate yourself and feed your limp dick to the polar bears, eh?)

So hey... innocent me was just surfing the channels and I landed on "Politically Incorrect" to witness this moon-landing of a bad joke (It's been submitted by some other idiots that we - you know, Asians as a whole - should just turn off the telly or throw out the paper or leave the movie when crap like this happens - real empowering move there - so I, er uh, guess it was my fault my fingers weren't fast enough to switch the channel before I was offended, eh? But that's neither here nor there...) I have to admit that I found the joke only merely distasteful, nowhere near the disgust that I felt after listening to Silverman's whining and then wading through two country miles of electronic crap posted on the matter... seems like there are a lot of Angry White People out there upset because these uppity Asians are actually upset about this and aren't content to shut up and continue doing laundry for The Man (waaaal that's just too bad, innit caveman?) - and would prefer that all power of determination be immediately transferred back to their over-privileged asses.

I guess what really pissed me off was Silverman's Christ-like "Ooh look at me I'm a victim!" bit, coupled with a large dose of "I'm a progressive social mirror!" C'mon, now really! You're a goddamn comedian - with that claim lessening every day now - and the original joke wasn't even funny... if I were the owner of "Joe's Comedy Club and Fishmonger" in Haupaugge, Long Island, I'd fricken well to tear up her residency there. It's obvious that this Silverman character / caricature wasn't going for a profound social statement... she's giving herself far too much credit for "illuminating racism." Let's face it: she used "chink" because it was a cheap way to be edgy and controversial, because she assumed that she could get away with it... we should be asking ourselves if she would use the word "nigger" in place of "chink" - probably not, ay? Because she wouldn't have the guts to on national television, knowing full well that there'd be twenty-plus African-American Aoki's on her ass, with zero support from the masses except for the Montana Militia or something.

There's nothing progressive or Christ-like about this pathetic excuse for a comedienne at all - I dare say that the only thing she has in common with Christ is that they're both Jewish.

What really surprises me is her surprise and indignation at the backlash she's receiving from Asians: I mean, I know we have this rep for taking shit like this up the ass and not saying anything, but we have our moments, ay? Sometimes our voice gets heard. And so this guy Aoki publicized this lame excuse for a joke and called for an apology, and now she's whining that she's being vilified and probably sucking up to Bill Maher's for all the appearances she's getting on "Politically Correct" to dish out this Pollyanna crap.

Baby, just admit that you tried something, it fell flat on its face. Now grow the fuck up and take your lumps, or else get a new day job.

But that ain't all: "Politically Incorrect" responded to this guy Aoki's request for equal air time to tell his side of the story, so a few weeks later, he was on along with Silverman. Aoki was all right, but not stellar: he was academic at times, and not particularly charismatic. I can't say I'm entirely sympathetic to Aoki's methods, but definitely his cause. Then again, there aren't too many people like him out there, so he deserves a whole lot of credit for saying something while most of us would just whine on a message board or something. In one bit, he was cornball but entirely correct when he said this:

Aoki: "You know, when you're playing with racial slurs, you're playing with fire. And if you're gonna be playing with fire, expect to get burnt."

...and to which she replied in typically-witty Silverman style: "That is so jackass." (that doesn't even make sense...)

Actually, throughout the entire second episode of "Politically Incorrect," she showed she was whiny and immature, incapable of handling the fire Aoki was dishing out, and she falls back on schoolyard style insults like calling Aoki a "douche-bag," and this comedic gem:

Silverman: You know what? There are only two Asian people I know that I don't like. One is you, and the other is... my friend Steve, who actually went pee-pee in my Coke.

(Grow up little girl. Bill won't be around to protect you with his bombast all the time...)

In all this, I guess I ain't calling her an out and out racist... but I am calling her a talentless hack, and a shameless opportunist who uses race for the advancement of her own career. She should leave "edgy" and "innovative" to real comedians like Janine Garafalo. That's something that's sadly been ignored in this blasted controversy: Silverman's pathetic lack of talent, and the way this brouhaha gives her far, far more publicity than she deserves. She reminds me of Andrew Dice Clay back in the eighties heyday: sure, he was had his 15 minutes because he tapped into the misguided anger of the white mainstream masses, but the humour was offensive and funny for exactly 15 minutes before the eyeballs start rolling. With The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, his humour was mainstreamed and neutered, and that spelled the end of that hack, and good riddance.

And so shall this be for Sarah "The Hack" Silverman, because edginess with no real talent or maturity is doomed the way of the Dice and the Dodo.

Keep the faith! Ter.