A Sense of Humor

This Thanksgiving, I contemplated writing a Thanksgiving/Thankstaking post, discussing my feelings on the holiday and surrounding blahdeeblah. But I didn't, because I had a conversation that went something like this:

We killed all the Native Americans! We destroyed Europe, then North America, now we're destroying Africa! Humans are bad for the planet! Oh, and all the TV shows on right now are trashy!

I don't want to sound like that. I don't want to make life into a guilt trip for myself and everyone around me. Yeah, the white folks who made the middle of North America did some really, really bad stuff to the indigenous peoples-- scalping, small pox, broken treaties, reservations, genocide, etc. And the repercussions of those actions continue, along with completely current bad policies.

And it doesn't end with the Indians. We all know this, yeah?

But, talking about it like that doesn't really convince anyone. So, let's make the effort to enjoy life, too. We all need a sense of humor, sometimes.

On the Lighter Side of Life

The business going down at UC Berkeley is deadly serious, but we've got to celebrate too, yeah? Let's take a mental break.

On my Facebook this morning, I looked down to check who's birthday is coming, you know, to be a good friend. The next three birthdays of my friends are:

Andrea Wong! Andrea Huang! and Andrew Huang!

A plea to the next generation of Chinese American parents-- we don't have that many last names. Let's switch up the first names a little bit.

A Look at Chancellor Birgeneau

A couple of comments on the emails that Chancellor Birgeneau sent out.

First, the length of each message. Whoever wrote those emails knew a thing about people's attention spans. The great drawback of many activist emails is the way they pack in tons of important information, until the reader is on overload and misses important details.

Second, the sterility of the language. Whoever wrote those emails wrote them dispassionately, as if writing about facts. The idea is to make the emails sound, well, factual. "A few campus members may have found themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers (who)... did very well." How different would the email sound if we rewrote it to say "Campus administration sent police officers to deal with members of the campus community. There are reports that the officers threatened and hit students with batons."?

Third, the choice of individual words. Whoever wrote those emails very subtly paints the people inside and outside of the Hall as two different camps: the campus police and administrators working to protect the campus and the rights of faculty and students to teach and be taught; the protestors as misguided and disruptive; illegal but understandable.

The police and campus administration are: working to resolve, striving to end the occupation, reaching out, encouraging the protestors, and diffusing. In everything they do, they are working on the side of the faculty and students outside Wheeler Hall. The faculty and students are addressed as passive, and told to wait for instruction, as if the protesters have no support outside. The faculty and staff are: asked to remain, advised to leave, affected contacted, and unable to attend. Compare this with the protestors who are: demanding, taking over, and trespassing.

From Chancellor Birgeneau

While a group of protesters occupied Wheeler Hall, Chancellor Birgeneau sent these emails to the campus community:

1.

The campus police are working to resolve a protest action that is occurring in Wheeler Hall.  Staff, faculty and students who would normally be working in Wheeler Hall  are asked to remain out of the building until further notice.  Employees who can contact their supervisors should talk to them if possible to determine whether telecommuting or relocation to another work area is an option.  Those in the building right now are advised to leave until the situation has been resolved.   Employees who remain on campus may check in at Dwinelle Plaza at 10am. for further information.  Thank you to all of the members of the campus community for your patience in this matter.  

2.

Campus police continue to work to resolve the protest action at Wheeler Hall.  Campus police are striving to end the occupation of Wheeler Hall with the safety of our campus community, including all those involved in this action, as an uppermost priority.  Wheeler Hall will remain closed until further notice.  Instructors who teach in Wheeler Hall will be contacted shortly by e-mail.

3.
Since 3:00 p.m. today a group of senior administrators, faculty, and student leaders have been reaching out to the protesters inside Wheeler Hall.  Attempts to engage in a conversation with the 15 to 30 protestors estimated to be in the building have been refused.  The protesters are demanding reinstatement of 38 AFSCME custodial staff who were recently laid off and amnesty and the dropping of charges against any of the protestors.  Today's takeover of Wheeler Hall has affected 3800 students who were not able to attend classes in Wheeler Hall, as well as many others who have offices and work in the building.  Activities in many other campus buildings were disrupted by falsely activating fire alarms. We continue to attempt to resolve the situation and encourage the protestors to leave the building of their own accord.

4.
The Wheeler Hall protest ended peacefully this evening when 40 protestors who had occupied the second floor of the building were cited for trespassing by UC Berkeley Police and released.  Thanks to the efforts of ASUC student leaders and faculty who worked with Vice-Chancellor Student Affairs Harry Le Grande, Executive Vice-Chancellor & Provost George Breslauer, and me, our police were able to diffuse the situation and end the protest.   Throughout the day, the large crowds that gathered around Wheeler Hall necessitated significant police presence to maintain safety.  It is truly regrettable, however, that a few members of our campus community may have found themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers.  Overall, the officers who managed the day's events did very well under difficult circumstances.  I understand that our students are justifiably angry over the fee increases and reductions in staff necessitated by the egregious disinvestment by Sacramento in the University of California.  They are not alone in this.  Clearly, we cannot allow illegal occupations of our buildings and disruption of our academic programs.  Today 3800 students were unable to attend class in Wheeler Hall.    We have a strong tradition of free speech on campus.  Let us not forget that we are all fighting for the same cause:  to maintain the public character of our university by sustaining Berkeley's excellence and accessibility.  Taking over our classroom buildings is not a productive way in which to advance our shared interests in gaining support for public higher education.  Let us work together, not in opposition, to move forward our cause. 

Update on UC Berkeley

And this one forwarded from another friend at UC Berkeley:

Please forward to UC faculty, grad students, and friends

Dear UC Faculty and Friends,

There are few words that can describe the horror of police violence against students on UC Berkeley’s campus Friday November 20. Chancellor Birgeneau’s dispatches to the campus community, most recently those today pre-empting a critical outrage to what transpired, are disgraceful and must be met with a forceful response by UC faculty and students. What started as aggressive and unjustified provocation by UCPD was soon supplemented by the vicious behavior of officers from Berkeley Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff. As students peaceably assembled in support of those occupying Wheeler Hall, Chancellor Birgeneau ordered or approved the deployment of hundreds of police brandishing their batons to beat the spirit of ownership out of them.

Chancellor Birgeneau characterizes the role and presence of armed and aggressive police officers that engaged in violence against students on this campus as positive and necessary in resolving the situation. When I arrived on campus early in the morning as a supportive alumnus, two UCPD officers attempted to ram a metal barricade through a crowd of students I was in — without announcement, notice, or even a chance to move out of the way. Students had no choice but to push back in self defense to prevent injury to themselves and their peers. Yet Chancellor Birgeneau says that the situation “ended peacefully,” and thanked the police for their allegedly positive role.

On at least two later occasions students at the front of barricade lines were threatened with batons thrust into their chests, stomachs, shoulders, and backs. Berkeley Police Department officers once again violently confronted students, placing barricades on police lines. Their blows rained down on the students at the front line, who had absolutely no opportunity to follow police instructions to move because the crowds were too thick. Apparently the officers did not care about this fact or did not understand it because they struck student after student, marks on whose bodies are still apparent today — even as Chancellor Birgeneau announces the situation “ended peacefully.”

A graduate student’s fingers were maliciously destroyed by an officer who struck her with a baton for placing her hand on the barricade. She requires reconstructive surgery, as after the beating her fingers were left hanging by a thread of flesh. And yet Chancellor Birgeneau claims that the student protests ended “peacefully.”

At least one undergraduate student was shot by an officer with an unidentified projectile. There is a mark on his stomach today, but Chancellor Birgeneau claims that the student protests ended “peacefully.”

I saw one camera man threatened by a police officer who screamed: “if you’re close enough that my baton can hit you, I will hit you!” And yet Chancellor Birgeneau says that the police “did very well under difficult circumstances” and that the situation ended “peacefully.”

Students who intended nothing more than to sit-in on their own campus to confront imminent issues were met by the Chancellor’s police officers who showed nothing but disrespect, violence, and brutality. In some areas these violent acts were more prevalent than others. But in all spaces the police presence was overwhelming; a University campus was transformed into a battle ground under police authority. UC Faculty must move to hold Chancellor Birgeneau accountable for endangering the safety of students by exposing them to violent police forces and completely mishandling and misunderstanding the nature of student protest actions on this campus.

Faculty must lead an effort to collect student testimonies and anecdotes about the police violence of the Friday Nov 20 protests. Those mentioned above are only those witnessed first-hand by myself or by people I know personally. Surely there are countless others instances to be documented and for which the Chancellor must be held accountable.

As the Chancellor characterizes the unreasonable presence and activity of police officers on campus as a faithful attempt to restore some sort of “normalcy” to this threatened and beleaguered campus, several clarifications are in order. The students on campus Friday were not rioters. The police presence neither in fact nor in aspiration offered safety or protection to the student body. Police were likely not justified in any use of violence against students yesterday. Chancellor Birgeneau did not resolve or contain the situation. His actions have only highlighted how out of touch he is with the student protesters. On whose behalf he ordered or facilitated the deployment of hundreds of armed police officers on campus is unclear — but it was certainly not on behalf of the thousands of students assembled to achieve a degree of control over their own education and fate yesterday.

I hope you will forward this letter to other faculty and that action can be taken soon to hold Chancellor Birgeneau accountable, to conduct credible inquiries into student interactions with police, and to adopt a faculty statement against the deployment of non-UCPD personnel against students on this campus in the future. In addition to students’ limbs, something has been broken, and Chancellor Birgeneau’s cover-up will not fix it. Corrective action must be taken, and faculty are in the best position to do this.

Thank you, sincerely,

Yaman Salahi

http://www.yamansalahi.com/2009/11/21/current-events/chancellor-birgeneau-must-be-held-accountable-for-violence-against-students/

Update on UC Berkeley

I received this from a friend of mine, a current undergrad at UC Berkeley:

for couple of months the students in berkeley have been working w the workers on campus and some faculty to talk to the regents and the legislature to pressure the state in giving us the funding we need. other demands include fair and living wages for the janitors librarians custodians untenured lecturers. many ppl lost their jobs recently, so there have been walkouts and protests all over the college campuses since sept.

most recently, this week from tuesday to thursday, the uc regents met @ ucla to vote on the fee hike of 32% starting next semester which would kick tons of students out bc we cant afford to pay that much. especially the middle class international and undocumented students (i was one of em until the spring of my freshmen yr) who dont qualify for government financial aid.

thats why i went down w my friends and union ppl to protest. thanks for those of you who txted called back and prayed for me. that 24hrs experience was something i will never forget. but i dont want to digress now.

the vote went through anyway. and today more than 60 students took over one of the campus buildings and locked themselves in to make the chancellor negotiate w us. the demands are rehiring the union ppl who got laid off and amnesty for students occupying the building. i was there all day through the rain, and even as i speak right now there are cops (ucpd, berkeley police, alameda county sheriff, and even swat!!!) everywhere pushing students around, barricading us, and even gassing and beating some ppl.

i dont intend to bombard you w all these crazy stuff or even to push my own political social values. i do want to ask for prayer though. bc i believe that for all of us at some point in our lives education meant and still does mean something. many of my friends are out there, and i personally have so much at stake in terms of what i believe access to higher education should be, i would LOVE your prayer for everyone's safety and God's peace and justice to reign on this campus.

thanks. PLS let me know if you want more info or have questions or are curious about whats going on.

GOD IS GOOD, HIS WAYS ARE HIGHER THAN OURS, AND JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE THE FOUNDATIONS OF HIS THRONE

in Him, peace

Identity First

A friend of mine sent me to a blog called iamkoreanamerican.com. She's half Korean American, but tends to associate with the Chinese American community. I'm not at all Korean American, but she said that the profile for the day reminded her of me. I clicked through, and bam! another Asian American artist and community organizer's picture was smiling at me.

Still with me? Where am I going with this? Identity!

The site asked people to submit a picture and a short description of how they consider themselves Korean American. Everyday, they post a new profile. That's it. Nice and simple.

Identity, being comfortable with yourself, being and individual and being part of a community/communities is an important aspect of Asian American Studies and organizing. We should remember, however, that its only the beginning. I'm not hating on iamkoreanamerican.com by any means, just making an observation. Many people get involved in Asian American activism because they are looking for their own identity, and protecting their own community. Forging connections between otherwise unlike people is wicked important.

Speaking of Narratives

The story about the judge in Louisiana refusing the marry a mixed-race couple just won't fade away. The judge continues to make appearances in conversations intermittently. And that got me thinking about interracial marriage.

When I think of interracial marriage in my own admittedly illogical brain, I find archetypal stories. The first: two individuals transcend racial boundaries to find true love, throwing society's prejudices back in its face and paving a path to the future. The second: two individuals hook up based on their desires to be with someone exotic or who gives them the social mobility of whiteness, claiming to love the other as an individual, but consciously or subconsciously expecting the other to fulfill racial stereotypes.

This is the part where I worry I make no sense. I tend to associate the first archetype with interracial marriages before 1967 (Loving V. Virginia) and the second with interracial marriages after 1967. Is it because I think people had to be more serious in marriages that broke laws? Am I just glorifying the past? Am I going crazy? Where did this strange assumption come from?

A Village Called Versailles

One of my professors in college described my generation like this: "You've got 9/11 in one pocket and Katrina in the other." You get it, yeah? Each generation builds a corporate identity around shared experiences. The key word being shared. In order for a corporate identity to work, the narrative around shared experiences has to be a narrative that everyone accepts.

The narrative for Katrina goes something like this: a hurricane named Katrina swept through New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, exposing the horrific poverty that the black community lived in. George Bush hates black people, so the hurricane destroyed communities and the government didn't really try to help that much. White people salvaged supplies from the wreckage and black people looted. People were transformed into refugees in their own country by the media, but an outpouring of help and support from colleges, churches, and celebrities like Bradd Pitt proved that the American public really did care about their countrymen.

Among the things missing in the narrative is an acknowledgement that the US isn't just black and white. That the Vietnamese community of New Orleans got no love in the aftermath of Katrina. In fact, even as they rebuilt their community, the city decided to place a toxic waste dump next to it.

A group of filmmakers has made a documentary about the Vietnamese community's experiences, "A Village Called Versailles".

For those of you in the Boston area, there will be two screenings of the film next week. Check it out!

UMass Boston Screening, Fri 11/20 @ 1pm

WHAT: UMass Boston Screening sponsored by Asian Am Studies Program
WHEN: Fri 11/20 @ 1 – 3:15pm
WHERE: Snowden Auditorium, Wheatley Bldg., 1st Flr, Rm 088, UMass Boston
TICKETS: No admission fee. Open to public.

Boston Community Screening, Sun 11/22 @ 11:30 am

WHAT: Boston Community Screening in Fields Corner
WHEN: Sun 11/22 @ 11:30 am
WHERE: Vietnamese American Community Center • 42 Charles St., Boston, MA 02122
TICKETS: No admission fee. Open to public.

Free screening at the heart of Boston’s Vietnamese American community in Fields Corner. The film will be screened with Vietnamese subtitles. Director S. Leo Chiang in attendance.

Units of Analysis

Imagine reading a book/paper/article. It's like diving into the ocean. Once you break the surface, you can swim down through layers. The water gets progressively colder and darker and more mysterious, but there's always something down there. Fish that you cannot find except for in the deep, plants that only grow on the ocean's floor. And then at some point, you can't see the surface any more.

When engaging in analysis, it's possible to go too deep, it go so far into a text/film/sound byte that you lose track of the original piece. It's possible to get caught up in the minutia and lose track of the whole.

I'd give an example, but I can't really think of one right now.

Hines Ward is The Man

Normally, I'm not a big Steelers' fan, but Asian American athletes always take a spot in my heart. Mixed Asian Americans even more. And Hines Ward is pretty damn cool. Cause he's half black half Korean and he talks about it. Its refreshing to see someone in the mainstream talk candidly about race relations.

He speaks to his experiences feeling cast out by blacks, whites, and Koreans because of his heritage. He wants to fit in, but on his own terms. And instead of using his fame to gain acceptance for himself, he's using it to bring the issue to light and gain a little respect for other people who have similar experiences being half Korean.

Check out the article from today's New York Times.

Lee Herrick

Super excited. Korean American poet Lee Herrick is comming to Boston this week. Catch him in Cambridge at 45 Mt Auburn St. in Harvard Sq on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 7.00 pm. Sponsored by the Boston Korean Adoptees. For full info, check the link.

Poets tell a kind of truth that no one else can. A good poem tells the truth, even (or especially) when it's lying.

Happy BIrthday BCNC

Early Comparison

Today, an army psychiatrist about to be deployed overseas opened fire on Mt Hood army base, killing 12 and injuring 31.

The New York Times just released an more in depth article to follow up their initial report, and the writer speculates as to what could make a man do such a thing. The lead before you click through to the full article cites a cousin, who said the man was unnerved by all the trauma he had seen in treating soldiers coming back from their tours. So far so fair?

The actual article opens with the fact that this man's family immigrated to the US from Palestine. Its not my imagination that the article fixates on his nationality and religion, as if to say, "He tried so hard to be American, he was so proud to serve the country, but in the end, his conflicting loyalties to his religion caused too much turmoil within him."

If not to suggest that he was overly zealous, why end the article by saying he was unmarried because he couldn't find a woman religious enough?

He is the cause of deaths and tragedy. And now he is doubly suspect because he is Palestinian, and Muslim.

I'm reminded of Cho Seung Hui, who opened fire on his college campus three years ago. All the media wanted to talk about was the fact that he was Korean. Korean movies are so violent they said, it must have pushed him to this.

It was America that made us who we are.

Same Sex Marriage Update

Maine residents voted this week to stop legislation that legalized same sex marriage. If you remember, California voters pulled a similar move last election, voting to stop same sex marriage after the Court ruled that it was constitutional.

Let us assume that same sex marriage is a constitutional right (I think it is, but maybe some of you don't). If the courts or legislature decide something is legal, is it up to the people to decide whether or not they agree with the courts? Which of our constitutional rights can be decided by majority vote? And if the legislature passes an unconstitutional law, isn't it the job of the courts to to decide that, not the voters? I'm all for the power of the people (the US has passed a lot of bad laws), but the people shouldn't have the power to vote for things that go against constitutional rights, right? After all, the idea behind constitutional amendments, in part, is to protect the rights of minority groups.

It's wistful thinking, I know. Unless the federal government decides a constitutional amendment, the states have the ability to change it, so there's really no saying that its unconstitutional. But its frustrating. Very frustrating.

Completely Unrelated. Kind of Gross.

Eating meat is a little bit gross. This is a case in point. If you're looking for contemplations on Asian America and ethnic studies, skip this post.

On Sunday, I decided to cook. Never mind what. And like a tool, I burned my arm pretty bad. The area is the size of about two fingernails and resembles nothing so much as a very small piece of steak cooked medium rare.

I find it disgusting that my arm looks like a piece of steak. I can imagine someone slicing a piece off and seeing that my arm is really just a piece of cooked meat, not all that different from other pieces of cooked meat.

Since Sunday I've pretty much been eating bread and cheese. Delicious, requires no cooking. Doesn't look like my own arm.

Yum.

Positive Politics

I've got a bad habit of asking questions then not answering them. Yesterday I asked can politics bring positive social change? Today, I attempt to answer that question!

Wasn't it MLK Jr. that said "Law can't change people's hearts, but it can stop people from lynching others"? I think the quote is a pretty good description of politics. Politics, like most other things, is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. At its core, politics is the constant transfer and manipulation of power and influence.

Politics is big, so it can make big moves, like making lynching illegal or marriage legal. Politics may even be able to give everyone health insurance, but it can't do it on its own. Its up to all of us to harness its power for positive social change.

The Story of Floon

Boston's mayoral race is pretty heated this year. In one corner is Thomas Menino, long time well-entrenched mayor of Boston. I mean, he's been mayor of this town since I was in elementary school even though no one can understand half of what he says. Menino doesn't give speeches so much as he mumbles in front of a microphone. In the other corner are Flaherty and Yoon, running together as a team some call "Floon".

This post is more about Sam Yoon than it is about the rest of the mayoral race. Yoon came to Boston as an adult, became a community organizer and then the first Asian American to be elected to Boston's City Council.

As I decide who to vote for, I admit that I wonder if I should vote for him because he's an Asian American. Intellectually, it seems like a poor reason. If he's going to be the first, isn't it even more important to make sure that he'll be a good one? Should I vote for him because he has community organizing in his past? As a reason, it may be a slightly better one since it points to experiences and values that I want to support.

Behind these questions though, is a deeper question: as an organizer/activist/etc, do I think that positive social change can be achieved through politics? Sometimes Boston politics seems synonymous with corruption (think DiMasi and scalping legislation, or more recently, Menino and the missing emails). If politics corrupts, why corrupt people who could do good elsewhere?

Even if I don't trust politics all that much, it's good to have friends in the right places, right? Someone sympathetic to your causes?