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In my opinion, this is “must see”. It reminded me of some older Tyra Banks talkshow clips on the same subject, however this segment is even more blatant and clear so that there is no mistaking what is going on.
(excerpt below):
“Dark Matter,” the filmmaking debut of Chinese-born opera and theater director Chen Shi-zheng, gets full credit for slamming head-on into any number of hot-button topics in American society. First and most interestingly, Chen’s film captures, from the inside, the strange and insular world of the Chinese graduate students who increasingly dominate the math and science fields at major American universities. It also engages the subtle forms of racism and stereotyping that continue to inform non-Asians’ perceptions of this “model minority.” I guess this is a spoiler, but there’s no way around it: Finally, “Dark Matter” tries to convey how an underslept, overworked, culturally dislocated student could erupt in a psychotic outburst of violence, as has happened in a couple of notorious cases.
Chen’s film (written by Billy Shebar, from a story he co-wrote with Chen) is based on a shooting incident at the University of Iowa in 1991, and was completed well before the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007. Neither the movie nor the Iowa case bears any resemblance to the Virginia Tech case, in which the shooter was an undergraduate English major and a longtime legal resident of the United States, not a foreign student. (If you don’t want to know more about the plot of “Dark Matter,” don’t read news accounts of the Iowa case, as the fictional events follow the real ones closely.)
“Dark Matter” is rich with interesting themes and ideas, from the slippery, sycophantic nature of academic success to the Orientalist attitudes of rich Americans and the outer edges of astrophysical theory.
A GROUP of South Korean women were falsely lured to Australia and forced to work up to 20 hours a day in a Sydney brothel, police say.
Federal Police officers raided six inner-Sydney properties yesterday, arresting three women and two men allegedly linked to a sex trafficking syndicate worth more than $3 million a year.
“Police will allege the syndicate recruited women in Korea by deceiving them about the conditions under which they would be employed and then organised their entry into Australia under false pretenses,” the Australian Federal Police said today.
A 46-year-old woman from Greenacre in southwest Sydney, a 42-year-old woman from Hornsby in north-western Sydney and another 35-year-old woman are due to appear in Central Local Court today.
They are charged with offenses including people trafficking, deceptively recruiting for sexual services, dealing in the proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million, and arranging a non-genuine marriage.
Two Sydney men, aged 23 and 28, have been charged with knowingly conducting a business involving the sexual servitude of others and will appear in court at a later date.
According to this article, women in Afghanistan are trapped by a “backward society, ignorance, illiteracy and cultural retardation.” Most are treated as property once they are married and few enjoy equal rights in the post-Taliban constitution.
Attorneys for same-sex couples presented arguments to the California Supreme Court today in a historic lawsuit seeking to strike down a state law that bars lesbians and gay men from marriage. In the last 55 years there have been enormous changes in California law concerning lesbian and gay people. The California Supreme Court has a rich history of making sure that all Californians are treated fairly, according to me if two people love each other the law should support them, we hope California Supreme Court will affirm that lesbian and gay couples are entitled to celebrate their relationships through marriage, we also hope their should be full equality for same-sex couples and their families. The marriage cases are among the most heavily briefed cases in the history of the California Supreme Court. More than 20 counties and municipalities filed a friend-of-the court brief in support of marriage for same-sex couples, including some of the most populous cities in California, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, and National Black Justice Coalition, filed briefs supporting same-sex couples seeking the right to marry. Click here to read more.
Ramiele Malubay is the latest American Idol wannabe that has been caught up in an early American Idol scandal .
The young Filipino-American appears in photos being sent across the Net that show her breasts being groped by other females, hence, the act by some is being dubbed as an “American Idol lesbian scandal”.
Jewish community is opposing the same sex marriages because they say its against their tradition.
Jewish legal tradition is grounded in the notion that the law should be applied equally to all, friend and stranger alike. Same-sex couples are relegated to second-class citizenship when denied access to marriage, a fundamental institution of our society. Those who would stigmatize or criminalize gay and lesbian marriages are the heirs of those who once fought against the legalization of interracial marriage in this country. Click here to learn more.
FIRST, A COUPLE EXAMPLES
In the 2006 remake of “The Pink Panther”, Kevin Kline plays a detective who, upon learning that a suspect in a high profile murder case may have been Chinese, states something to the effect of: “go to China and round up and question every Chinaman there.”
Understand:
- It’s a lighthearted comedy
- It’s not meant to be taken seriously
- It was designed to make the detective (Kline) look moronic
- It was an isolated incident (within that particular movie)
Do the points above make you feel any better about it?
In Rush Hour 3, a conversation between Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan goes something like:
Tucker: “I’m half Chinese.”
Chan: “YOU’RE half Chinese?”
<Tucker then looks down at his crotch>
Tucker: “From the waist up”
Why a martial artist would let some clown disrespect him throughout 3 consecutive films is another topic altogether.
Understand:
- It’s a lighthearted comedy
- It’s not meant to be taken seriously
- The topic wasn’t a focal point of the film
- Interracial jokes are an integral part of the Rush hour series
Again, do the points above make you feel any better about it?
AGREE OR DISAGREE?
When a blatant racist attack is launched (E.G. Sarah Silverman/Conan O’Brian, O’Shea Jackson (aka “Ice Cube”), Eddie Murphy, The Bloodhound Gang, et al) there is an obvious argument against it and a reason (for those who have a sack) to stand up to it.
However, when the degradation is subtle and in passing (as in the aforementioned examples), it is as effective (if not more so), yet more difficult to defend against as there is less proverbial meat to grab a hold of.
ARE APA FILMS OVERLY PASSIVE?
With all this Asian stereotyping, racism, etc. in the media, an APA rapper or film really has “carte blanche” to produce “no holds barred” recordings/films.
Where David Chang (creator of Ghettopoly) made his mistake was using a different medium. In other words, he couldn’t use the “defense” that “other board games degrade Asians”.
But since nothing’s been off limits against APAs (our culture, our physical features, our language, our names, our countries of origin, etc.) in film or music, shouldn’t we be justified in “returning the favor”?
Nuts in her mouth: I guess she’s straight after all
This past Tuesday saw the long-awaited finale of MTV’s “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila”, the trashy “reality” dating show that featured 16 straight men and 16 lesbians vying for the elfin hand of the supposedly bisexual professional MySpace friend Tila Tequila.
After two months (which I’m guessing took a mere two weeks to actually film) of hot tub shenanigans, crocodile tears and lesbian kisses, Tila’s final two contenders were a white guy named Bobby and a white lesbian named Dani. Perhaps following in the great tradition of well-worn interracial dating paradigms, Tila chose Bobby.
Maybe I’m being naive here but since she’s “bisexual”, couldn’t she have just picked both?
I’m not gonna get started on why this show sucks because I’m sure many of you already know. It was bad enough that none of the male suitors appeared to be Asian (for the politically correct, if one of them happened to be half or a quarter or an eighth or a sixteenth Asian, they certainly didn’t look it, and, unfortunately, that’s what counts when we’re discussing media representation), but as someone with a young sister, I’m concerned about the message “Shot” sends to the young people of America: Asian women are sexually promiscuous playthings.
Unfortunately, instead of being a pimple on my ass that will soon go away, this Tila Tequila phenomenon looks like it’s developed into a full-blown anal fissure that’s gonna stick around. The show was a ratings smash, according to an MTV press release, that averaged 6 million viewers per episode and was MTV’s second highest-rated telecast of the year. More alarming, however, was the series finale was the most watched telecast across all of television among 12 to 34 year olds.
Now call me an old fart, but as a concerned adult, should early adolescent kids be exposed to theatrical bisexual antics (as opposed to a real lifestyle) at a time when many are still developing and/or exploring their sexual identity?
My other beef with the Tila Tequila show is that it continues to reinforce the American public’s narrow perception of who Asian folks are and what we’re all about in American society.
While some idiots will point to VH1’s own trashy “reality” dating show “I Love New York” as an example of mass media’s colorblindness when it comes to the stereotype-affirming exploitation of minorities, there are some major differences. For every New York, Mo’Nique and Chris Tucker, there is a Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith. In other words, there is an arguable balance and the Average Joe’s perspective is ultimately left to their own common sense.
Unfortunately, for us yeller skins, the decision makers in Hollywood don’t feel the same obligation to provide a wider definition of our community. Therefore, when we’re given a mainstream platform, like Ms. Tequila, we shouldn’t squander it by acting like a jackass and pandering to the Oriental sexual fantasies of the Western male.
But then again, maybe I’m asking too much of Ms Tequila. After all, this is a woman who makes a living dry-humping cars in her underwear.
– Telly Wong
Researchers from Western Carolina University have concluded that sexist humor can promote discrimination against women.
The study focused on male reactions after being subjected to either a) sexist jokes, b) comparable non-humorous sexist statements, or c) non-sexist jokes.
The news article points out 3 important findings. First, men with a high level of sexism were less likely to donate to a women’s organization after reading sexist jokes. Second, those same types of men implemented larger funding cuts to women’s organizations as opposed to other organizations. Third, participants believed that other participants would approve of funding cuts to women’s organizations when sexist humor was present.
Well, well, well. You dont have to a minority to know that this is all obvious. As a matter of fact, we have pointed this out before here on Fall Out Central. Remember Allport’s Scale of Prejudice? It is a measuring stick for different levels of prejudices. It starts with Scale 1, which is Antilocution - a group freely makes jokes about a minority group. Then escalates up to Scale 5 - Extermination.
Tip to the researchers at Western Carolina University: sexist jokes can very well lead to physical attack, even worse. It should be noted that their research is based on verbal interaction that takes place not in the presence of the victims. In other words, the sexist jokes are not said face-to-face to a woman.
And what if those sexist jokes are said to directly to a woman? We have also pointed out in the past that routine discrimination puts minorities under significant stress that can lead to chronic illness.
Good job guys at Western Carolina University. Now ignorant people can stop using the excuse, “Well it’s just a joke.”
