05-04-2005, 11:04 AM | #41 (permalink) | |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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I've started responses, then scrapped them. I haven't been able to organize my thoughts into any more than bullet points for some reason today. 1) I think you're a good friend to your friends, (I hope that I'm going to be included at some point in time as IRL friendship,) because you call it like it is. I have a number of friends like that and feel it's important to keep myself real. I appreciate you pointing it out and calling me on it. 2) My interest in Iceland is genuine. I know alot about Icleand that it impresses some Icelanders, from history to locations. With only 290,000 Icelanders in the world, when I encounter them I try to meet them. There isn't a way to tell if they are Icelandic just by looking at them, I have to wait until they speak. Okay the Flight Attendants that I walk past have the Icelandair emblem on their uniforms but they are so hot I cannot talk to them. We hope to own a house in Iceland within the next few years. If we could expatriate to Iceland for a few years, we'd be there already. (She tried to get a job at Lati Baer (Nickolodeon's Lazy Town) but wasn't able to negotiate through all the political stuff.) I did not approach you and ask you what your heritage was, I picked up on it in mid thread. 3) What has fascinated me since I went to Iceland for the first time was meeting other Asian decents that did not speak their heritage tongue nor did they speak English. They spoke strictly Icelandic (Skogafoss had to translate.) It was an eye opening experience for me because I made the assumption that all Asians would have learned and spoke english. Since that time, I have paid close attention when travelling to other European countries how the Asians perceive themselves and how they are perceived. Meeting Chinese/Koreans in Madrid that spoke perfect Castillian Spanish but no English, unlike the shop owners here who speak somewhat broken Spanish to the customers and laborers.
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
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05-04-2005, 11:31 AM | #42 (permalink) | |
Location: Iceland
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^ Cyn, I appreciate your honesty and time in responding. I hope I'm a good friend to my friends, too! (Btw, what's an IRL friendship?)
I am always glad to meet people who have genuine interests in countries/cultures that are not their "homelands." I think it's the only way we are every going to learn to get along on this planet. And yes, it is interesting how Asians adapt in Iceland... that's the topic of my doctoral research, actually. Not all Asians speak Icelandic well, but I'm going to focus part of my ethnography on how important language is for identity, and whether those people consider themselves to be Icelandic once they learn the language (Icelanders, in general, respect you as one of them if you learn to speak their language.) Quote:
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And think not you can direct the course of Love; for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. --Khalil Gibran |
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05-04-2005, 11:47 AM | #43 (permalink) | |||
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
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05-04-2005, 11:57 AM | #44 (permalink) |
Banned
Location: The Cosmos
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Racial labels are a joke with more and more mixing. Soon we'll all be one race (/sarcasm we already are) Even when someone might actually be considered that label, the people who would use it likely wouldn't know what it meant anyways. The only thing they seem to accomplish is bickering, racism, and seperatness.
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05-04-2005, 12:10 PM | #45 (permalink) |
Americow, the Beautiful
Location: Washington, D.C.
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This may be a stretch, but I see this as similar to global capitalism in a lot of ways. (And that could just be because I'm reading about that right now, but I guess I'll see what kind of response I get before I decide.)
Holding on tightly to cultural values in a way that makes one easily offended - as in by certain words or actions rather than by intentions - is like economic protectionism. In a global capitalist economy (which is what we're in whether all countries want to come out and play or not), it inhibits growth and is generally detrimental to the nation that employs it, not to mention causing friction with other nations. A lot of people blame capitalism, but the real problem is when countries try to put controls on capitalism. A liberalized system of capitalism itself actually allows everyone to benefit, even if not in equal proportions. In the same way, when we make up terms that don't even have a specific meaning, we are protecting something that doesn't need to be protected as well as causing a lot of trouble in the process. We suffer the consequences of this in the form of inhibited growth (lack of political clout, having to experience everyday racism, etc.). If there were a metaphorical free trade of culture (a.k.a. more liberalized views of race and ethnicity) , I could imagine that everyone would benefit from the interchange and that overall racism and inequity in the political and other important arenas would be reduced. In other words, it is not a case of "everyone is racist against us Asians," it's more about "us Asians" not going out of our way to be the "us Asians" GROUP and thus creating an environment where other people who don't know any better don't have anything to react to. When you take on a victim mentality, you reinforce the system which creates situations in which you experience "oppression."
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"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan) Last edited by Supple Cow; 05-04-2005 at 12:15 PM.. Reason: clarity |
05-04-2005, 01:16 PM | #46 (permalink) | |
Addict
Location: Oh God, the rain!
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I guess what I originally said was ambiguous. This thread just made me remember that time. |
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05-04-2005, 01:49 PM | #47 (permalink) | |
Location: Iceland
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Supple Cow: do you believe in liberalizing the flow of labor across borders, too? (Meaning basically, open borders, no regulation on that, just as there is no regulation on "free trade")... I think it would be interesting, and very equalizing (though that means the rich would get poorer, ooohhh too bad).
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And think not you can direct the course of Love; for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. --Khalil Gibran |
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05-04-2005, 02:13 PM | #48 (permalink) |
Submit to me, you know you want to
Location: Lilburn, Ga
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I consider anyone born in america, american...period
The thing I've had trouble overcoming, in my shortsouthern life, raised by your characteristic blue blood southern belles, is that there ARE some loveable yankees out there
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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!! |
05-04-2005, 03:21 PM | #49 (permalink) | ||
Americow, the Beautiful
Location: Washington, D.C.
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"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan) Last edited by Supple Cow; 05-04-2005 at 03:30 PM.. Reason: I need to start using a text editor |
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07-24-2005, 04:24 PM | #50 (permalink) | |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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"Were you born here?" "yes" "Oh cool. Do you speak Tagalog?" "yes, I can. I can understand better than I speak" If I don't say that and just answer yes, then the conversation switches to Tagalog, which I don't mind, and I speak what I can and answer as I can. "Have you been back "home?" Now this one is a tricky question to answer because I know what they mean, but it infuriates me that they think that my home is the "homeland" I think this really underlines the differences that the Asian American challenges since we don't fit into either camp and both camps feel that they need to know more information about us since we seem to be total and completely foreign to them. And yes, I have been a "Balikbayan" (person returning home) 3 times. I'm looking forward to my next trip back but will have to bone up on my Filipino english accent so that I can just speak to people as such in english and not worry about the "American" baggage and "extra charges."
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
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07-25-2005, 06:58 AM | #51 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: Toronto
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lol to us y'all are Yankees.... and you know what? y'all are loveable!!! |
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07-25-2005, 07:07 AM | #52 (permalink) |
Insane
Location: You don't want to live here
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I tend to ask anybody where their ancestry is from. I love all kinds of accents and I like unusual names and it often leads to a conversation about where parents and grandparents are from. Instead of being insulted, I would take it as flattery that somebody has been interested enough in your "look" to want to find out more.
In conversation, I often dare people to guess my ancestry since I look nothing like what I am.
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Maybe it was over when she chucked me out the Rover at full speed. Maybe Maybe... ~a-Ha |
07-25-2005, 10:39 AM | #53 (permalink) |
32 flavors and then some
Location: Out on a wire.
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Grace sometimes is asked if she speaks Japanese/Hawaiian (she speaks both fluently) and then tends to get "How do you say . . ." questions. It doesn't seem to bother her most of the time, not as much as "What are you?". Most of the time she'll just give her standard answer, (Hawaiian of Japanese and native descent), but sometimes the questiioner, especially if it's a stranger asking out of the blue, will get human, American, a paramedic, a woman, her age, "hotter than a firecracker", "an aesthete", Dr. Light (my suggestion), her height (which surprisingly, is sometimes what's being asked), "formal model Pat Stevens", or Tia Carrere (which, sadly, has been what was being asked on two occasions that I know of). She doesn't try to embarass people, but she does seem to enjoy their discomfort at wanting to ask but being unwilling to ask directly where her ancestors are from.
There does seem to be a little bit of subconscious racism going on here, as people tend to ask me where my ancestors are from a lot less often, even though it's a subject I do enjoy talking about. Most of the time she uses it as the opportunity to dispel a misconception or two about Hawaiians.
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I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert |
01-13-2006, 09:24 AM | #54 (permalink) | |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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I was just reading something and a Time Magazine article caught my eye...still have to fully digest the article and comment.
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__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
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01-15-2006, 03:19 AM | #55 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: South Carolina
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i admit i didn't read every response in this thread, but i just wanted to agree with everyone who is sick of the hyphenated labels. Seriously, nobody ever stopped to see if i wanted to be called an "Anglo-german-irish-scottish-african-icelandic-native-asian-welsh- .........-american" (if you're wondering, my family tree has 57 confirmed different nationalities..what can i say, my ancestors slept wiht just about anything that moved...
Besides, when you look at me, you see, "White", which kicks out about half of my ancestory or "American" which includes everything that is just me. So, screw it all, i'm american, anyone born here is probably american unless there is some weird law with which i'm not familiar, but suffice it to say, there are no true "fill in the space here-Americans", just plain old, run of the mill, "American" the rest just really drives me insane.
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american, asian |
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