Hotashi - Jack’s Blog

The Spanish basketball team sparked up some controversy over their pre-Games ad. This ad shows the entire Spanish basketball team making the slit-eye gesture. It’s nothing new really, and among the comments from readers are the usual dumbass ones.

When will people get proper education about racism? geez…

In my earlier post, I brought up an anti-Asian “satire” piece that ran in University of Colorado’s school newspaper. I mentioned that the column did not read like a satire to me, but I didn’t fully extend on that. Truth be told, I’m no literary expert, so it’s hard to explain it in technical terms. However, I found a follow-up comment on another blog that goes into better detail on why Karson’s article is not satire.

Taken from Alas, a blog.

satire is a punch in the eye of Power. satire’s anger, its needle, is directed upward - never downward. if it is, then it ceases to be satire and it’s just another way for those in power to bully the powerless or to scream to the public that you’re just another tool of the status quo.

this is satire:

it is a precise literary term (which means you have to have some measure of intellectual weight to pull it off, which Karson doesn’t)
in satire, your target is held up to merciless ridicule that is often very angry, ideally in the hope of shaming your target into reform (what is Karson advocating for reform? asians themselves or the treatment of asians on campus?)

it has a strong vein of irony or sarcasm (parody, burlesque, exaggeration and double entendre are all devices frequently used in satirical speech and writing - again, pointing to intellectual rigor in the person who calls herself a satirist, and while Karson’s piece is certainly full of sarcasm the racial justice angle is completely submerged, thus undercutting any satirical purpose.)

who is the target of Karson’s ire or sarcasm?
certainly not the white power structure that marginalizes a community of color on campus, making them a racial Other.
certainly not asian stereotype - in fact, his piece replicates them and justifies them.

asian students are the target of his clumsy sarcasm and ’satire’ and to what end? there is none, except to vent some feelings of inadequacy. Karson, as part of the white majority, is bullying a racial minority on campus and joking about reeducation camps so that they can be more ‘white.’ how is this column supposed to criticize the marginalization of asians on campus, or the treatment of asians on campus, or anything about racial justice??

it doesn’t do any of those things so it just becomes, perhaps inadvertently, a racist fantasy of forced assimilation.

I was reading through today’s Globe and Mail paper, and saw this post left by a reader.

Allan C. Hutchinson’s letter (Obama And Canada - Jan. 7) complaining about the absence of ”visible minorities” among Canada’s political elites is misguided for several reasons.First, the use of the term ”visible minority” has been condemned by the United Nations and it is time Canadians stopped using it.

Apparently the UN warned Canada last year that the term “visible minority” is a racist term. The UN believes that the term is used to discriminate against people. According to the quote above, it seems the writer thinks that distinguishing white people from racial minorities is racist. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem like he has a problem with the lack of visible minorities in Canada’s “political elites.”

I’m not entirely sure why the UN thinks visible minority is a racist term. But I’m tempted to think that the UN, like the vast majority of Canadians, view all races as being equal now, thus any racial labeling is inherently a form of discrimination — by the very act of labeling. How then can we help those that need help if we don’t even have a vocabulary to describe them?

US presidential candidate Tom Tancredo has approved a TV ad talking about “[securing] the borders, deporting those who don’t belong, and make sure they never come back.” This ad comes after another that says the US needs to close up the borders to immigrants that has “come to take our jobs” and to “kill.”

Does anyone actually take this guy seriously? Why the hell would you have someone like that running for president? This all reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Mayor Quinby blamed Springfield’s woes on the immigrants.

I also read an article on MSNBC, which quoted Tancredo saying, “If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses.” Excuse me? who said anything about wanting a color-blind society. As long as racism exists (and it is very alive right now) we will need race-based laymakers because they are the ones who will speak for the oppressed. Even though the concept of race is only a social-construct, it is also a social reality and we need treat it as such.

Mr. Tancredo is sounding wackier and wackier the more I read about him.

A teenage staff member at a Tim’s Horton’s posted a racist poster that reads, “No Drunken Indians Allowed.” Furious First Nations resident are now calling for a Boycott on the coffee shop. (story here)

While I think the action of the teenage is stupid and wrong, I don’t agree with the boycott at all. It was an action of one individual that acted independently of the corporation. If it was a business decision by Tim Horton’s to put up that poster then I would agree with the boycott. But come on! I know the First Nations are outraged, but don’t react by doing something just as stupid. The teenager in question should be fired, and that’s the end of that.