Black Like Me

In the classic Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing," one of the most powerful scenes occurs after Radio Raheem is choked to death by the police. The scene is a reference to a 1983 incident in New York City where graffiti artist Michael Stewart was apprehended for defacing public property and killed by the arresting officer in a similar manner.

As in real life, the angry black crowd who witnesses the slaying eventually becomes a riotous crowd. They demolish Sal's Pizzeria and soon their rage turns to other non-Black businesses in the area.

Quickly they head for the local Korean market yelling, "It's your turn now, mothafucka!" But Sunny, the Korean owner tries to fight them off with a broom all while yelling, "I no white! I black! You...me...same! We same!"

The mob spares his store realizing that he too is a racial minority, and begins to disperse with one of the older characters yelling to the mob's leader, "Leave the Korean alone! He's alright!"

It's an interesting situation.

Here in New York City, there has always been tension among the black and Asian communities. While attempts have been made to bridge the divide, there is still no sense of entente between them and they have never considered themselves to be "the same." The rapper Ice Cube even went so far as to highlight the tensions in his classic song, "Black Korea."

I think much of the distrust has to do with the fact that many Koreans don't feel the sense of racial prejudice that has plagued the black community for generations. The so-called "model minority" may face certain obstacles due to race. However, they never faced the oppression and second-class citizenship that defined America in the pre-Civil Rights Era.

And to be frankly honest, I think many Koreans (particularly immigrants) are racist towards black people. I'll take that even further and say that most Koreans are racist towards anyone who is not 100% Korean. This is evidenced by the controversies in Korea right now over whether half-Korean children should be given full citizen status. Where does this sense of ethnic superiority come from? Has their cultural and ethnic pride been reduced to racist xenophobia?

Those are questions for another time.

What surprised me today was coming across this article in the BBC stating that the HIgh Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector. The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court, saying its members had been discriminated against.

An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

The association said their members often failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions because they were regarded as whites. The association said Chinese South Africans had faced widespread discrimination during the years of apartheid when they had been classified as people of mixed race.

Thus far, there has been no protest from the black community with the reclassification of Chinese as black people. In fact, their shared struggle against white majority rule may lead to closer ties in a nation where white South Africans still earn around 450% more than their black counterparts, 14 years after the end of apartheid.

Happy Father's Day, from the Fatherland

Wir sind hier in Frankfurt am Main...

Something I learned recently is that Germans aren't the only ones who refer to their home as The Fatherland (das Vaterland). I had heard of Filipinos referring to their homeland as Amang Bayan, and I knew that the Pilipino word for father was ama, but I'd never put two and two together until recently.

But wait, there's more...

Sing along now:
In the Philippines, they do it
In Tibet, they do it
The Thais and Vietnamese do it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland

Talking Dadblogging on NPR

Quick shameless plug:

In advance of Father's Day, I'm on a dadblogging roundtable on NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin today, with Keith of African American Dad and Jeff of DC Urban Moms and Dads. The streaming audio of Tuesday's show should be up on the website by around 9 a.m. PST (12 p.m. EST).

UPDATE: Here's a direct link to the segment.

[In the meantime, check out my partner-in-crime's blog for videos from our just-ended, amazing family Alaskan cruise vacation, which my parents took us on for our 10th anniversary (the actual date's at the end of this month). The Pumpkin had an awesome time, as did we all.]

Things Asians Don't Do or Say

I was having a random conversation with a buddy of mine yesterday. We were talking about how absurd it was watching the NHL playoffs on television and seeing so many grown adults with their faces painted. Who the hell does that?

I'll tell you who DOESN'T do that...Asian people.

I'll bet in the history of fandom, you won't find any adult Asians painting their faces in support of their team (the sole exception being that scantily-clad Korean chick from the World Cup who was trying to get a modeling contract.)
Anyway, for the next few minutes, my buddy and I tried to come up with a few other things that Asians/Asian-Americans would never do or say. Here's our short list...

1. Leave their kids in the car.

2. Have sex with their students.

3. Get killed by a grizzly bear.

4. Claim they were abducted by aliens.

5. Put leashes on their kids.

Any other ideas? Throw 'em out there.

Rice Daddies Diversity Challenge, dont let it expire!

Sadly, I got an email saying one of the Rice Daddies Empowerment in Diversity Challenges expired due to lack of full funding within its five month window.

Let it not happen again!

I took the donation I was refunded, and used it to partially fund another RD challenge looking to buy Multicultural Celebration books. It's only got two weeks left before it too gets its plug pulled, too!

No! Think of the cutest pound puppy, and then imagine that its a multicultural book. Or the promise of a multicultural book. You don't want that potential multicultural puppy to stay in the pound do you? It might make Soulsnax cry.

blatantly-heart-tugging photo from Pound Puppy Rescue's facebook site

Mad Face Invasion

One of the fun games we play is for young Mace to show us his faces: happy, sad, surprised, and mad. So when photo day rolled around, guess which one he wanted to flash? No coaxing from the staff could dissuade him.

A brief moment of 2.5 year old folly or a sign of future rebellion?

SD

THE SICHUAN QUAKE

The last time a quake this size hit China, about a quarter million people died. However, much of that was because China then - like Burma today - shunned foreign aid. Not this time: China seems willing to accept whatever help it can get.

NPR - whose All Things Considered staff was already in Chengdu when the quake hit - has a list of possible charities for those interested in contributing.

The story about the Dujiangyan middle school which collapsed is heartwrenching. I cannot remotely imagine the anguish running through these victims' parents.

Happy Mother's Day, RiceMommies

It's Mother's Day, and whether you dismiss it as a "Hallmark Holiday" or you do the full-on brunch/flowers/jewelry thang, one thing's for sure:

We love ya, mamas, and we wouldn't be here without ya. [Heh.] Thank you for everything - for putting up with our crap, for being the partners and mothers we and our babies need, for being you.

And remember - it's always Mother's Day on RiceDaddies.com.

Where the First Asian American Head Coach Happens

If MetroDad is the resident baseball expert—with Soccer Dad reppin’…er…soccer—I guess that leaves me as the sole NBA enthusiast at Rice Daddies. (By the way, that Lakers-Celtics Finals everyone’s salivating for isn’t looking too good right about now.)

Anyway, today’s a big day for Rice Daddies with an affinity for professional basketball. As expected all season, Miami Heat head coach Pat Riley resigned yesterday after a disastrous 15-win season. Assistant coach Erik Spoelestra has been hired to replace Riley on the bench. (That's him on the left, next to J-Will). Why is this significant to Rice Daddies? Well, Filipino American Spoelestra is the NBA’s first Asian American head coach. And, if I’m not mistaken, the first Asian American to lead a major professional team in any of the big four sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL). Interestingly, I don’t see this fact getting much play in the sports world.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this historic moment will allow me to actively cheer the Heat as long as they're in the same division as the Wiz, unless of course, Miami is able to trade for Yao Ming or Yi Jianlian. That said, I still wish Coach Spo and the Heat well next season. Represent!

So why should RiceDaddies care about Mainstream Hollywood?

After reading RakuMon's post, some of you may have wondered okay, so what does this have to do with being a RiceDaddy? After all, mainstream Hollywood is all about fluff, fantasy and fiction, while we RiceDaddies concern ourselves with parenting within the context of Asian culture and tradition, right?

Well, since many of us are Asian-American dads, RakuMon's post is especially relevant to our experience because it's important to know how mainstream American media affect our children, and their relationships with their peers.

It's an undeniable fact that as a modern component of culture, the media play a primary role in shaping Americans’ perception of who exists within and outside of the human, and thus the moral realm. We are eight years into the 21st Century, but the lack of meaningful portrayals of Asian-Americans still relegates us to the periphery of the American experience. It is this cultural exclusion that makes it difficult for our peers to relate to us as human beings, let alone fellow Americans.

So, considering the fact that the psychosocial causes of bigotry and genocide are rooted in the process of moral exclusion, is there any wonder why a group of teenagers thought it was acceptable to assault Filipina student Marie Stefanie Martinez on a New York City bus simply because she “looked Chinese?” Is there any wonder why Kwok Po Lui was beaten with brass knuckles by classmates who exclaimed, "Hitting Chinese is very fun?"

As red-blooded American fathers, we RiceDaddies want our children to be seen as they truly are: multifaceted, three-dimensional human beings, capable of experiencing the same joys and sorrows as every other red-blooded American. We want their non-Asian peers to see them as Americans to whom they can relate, and not as perpetual foreigners in the land of their birth.