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1. Asians Rock « Reading While Black on 08 May 2008 at 2:21 am

   [...] Asia Society YouTube Page [Source] [...]

Comments

1. F wrote:

   I really admire this, but in a weird way it makes me feel a little jealous because my own identity is quite confused (this is not usually a problem at all for me, but sometimes I wonder about it). I’m South African – all of my extended family going back generations has lived in South Africa – but my actual ethnicity is mixed (Cape Coloured/Indian), and I grew up in Australia, the US and the UK. I’m also Muslim. So sometimes, I am not sure what ‘category’ I fit into. As much as I like that, it would be nice to have some kind of recognisable community. Then again, all my friends are people with mixed/international backgrounds, so I guess there is a joy in being everything and nothing all at once.

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 8:26 am ¶

2. Ike wrote:

   My favorite part is Daniel Inouye on being a US Senator: “It’s an important job. Join up.”

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 8:57 am ¶

3. atlasien wrote:

   I’m Japanese-American but I wasn’t raised in a Japanese-American community. I feel sort of the same way as you, do, “F”… when I went to Hawaii and saw the vibrant JA community there, it made me a bit sad for what I had missed.

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 9:01 am ¶

4. Mike Haddad wrote:

   I’m really happy Sandra Oh started by saying she was a Korean Canadian. I’m really sick and tired of Americans claiming our celebrities. Heaven forbid someone talented come from north of the border.

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 11:41 am ¶

5. Josh wrote:

   I’m kind of confused by Daniel Inouye’s statement that there’s only one Asian American Senator. Aside from Inouye himself, there’s Daniel Akaka, the other Senator from Hawaii – according to his website, Akaka is of Native Hawaiian and Chinese American descent, while Inouye is Japanese American. Maybe he doesn’t count Akaka as Asian American because he’s part Pacific Islander?

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 12:07 pm ¶

6. Keke wrote:

   Wow, great vid. I think we need more projects like this to combat the stereotypes out there. And I’m with you Latoya, George Takei really gave me something to think about when he said he grew up in internment camps. It’s a shameful and terrible part of U.S. history, and I hope that projects like this, that focus on combating stereotypes and assumptions, keep us from repeating that history.

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 3:03 pm ¶

7. jvansteppes wrote:

   Sandra Oh continues to dazzle me, what with her wicked labor analysis during the writer’s strike and her participation in Zinn’s people’s history…

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 3:35 pm ¶

8. Anonymous wrote:

   Thank you for posting this video, it was great.

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 4:51 pm ¶

9. Torontonian wrote:

   What’s wrong with calling the people in the video just “Asians”? “Asian” doesn’t mean “foreigner”; it’s an ethnicity.

   Do American-born Asians in the United States have to call themselves “Asian-American” in order to “prove” that they are American?

   It’s somewhat annoying to group Sandra Oh, a Canadian, into a video about “What it means to be an Asian American“. If I’m referring to both Asian Americans and Asian Canadians, can’t I just call us Asians?

   Stop appropriating our Canadian actors and musicians, Americans!

   Posted 06 May 2008 at 7:39 pm ¶

10. Torontonian wrote:

    Stop appropriating our Canadian talent!

    (Now I realize what annoys me so much: American appropriation of Canadian talent.)

    Posted 06 May 2008 at 7:44 pm ¶

11. Torontonian wrote:

    See, even if we have people like Sandra Oh and Kristin Kreuk, people will still think that all Canadians are white. Because Americans misrepresent them as Asian Americans.

    Posted 06 May 2008 at 7:50 pm ¶

12. Phrone wrote:

    I really liked this video, and I thought it had a nice balance between celebrating the advances of Asian Americans and talking about past and current struggles.

    My only complaint was that smaller Asian ethnicities which tend to get marginalized in the view of APIA (like Vietnam, the Phillipines, etc.) weren’t really represented here, except for being briefly mentioned by the last speaker. But I was glad to see it mention Indian-Americans; I think when (non-APIA) people think of APIA, they tend to think more of East Asia.

    Posted 06 May 2008 at 8:56 pm ¶

13. Ana wrote:

    This question really gets under my skin sometimes: “Where are you from? No, where are you REALLY from?” (Or worse, “What ARE you?”) I live in New York too, but I’ve gotten this everywhere I’ve ever lived — probably largely because I’m “racially ambiguous” and people can’t stand the suspense. My response/defense mechanism is often to explain all the ways that, no, I REALLY AM from the U.S., because I don’t want people claiming the whole country only for the subset of people who supposedly belong more than I do. Even if that makes me feel like I’m ignoring the other parts of me that are equally valid and maybe have been more integral in defining who I am. Like the fact that I am the child of immigrants and that I do identify with a place that is outside of the U.S.

    By the way, longtime reader, firsttime commenter here. Thanks for a great blog — I always look forward to reading it (even at work, when I probably shouldn’t be).

    Posted 06 May 2008 at 9:08 pm ¶

14. jmn wrote:

    Thanks for posting! Here is my video response: http://youtube.com/watch?v=d2CoExcA94A

    Posted 07 May 2008 at 10:28 pm ¶

15. Undercover Black Man wrote:

    Stop appropriating our Canadian talent!

    We will never give back Catherine O’Hara!

    As to the video, I particularly enjoyed seeing Jennifer 8. Lee… who has the coolest byline in American journalism.

    Posted 09 May 2008 at 12:12 am ¶