Wasn’t your Asian fantasy
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Check out this awesome addition to Project Canadian Club from our friends at Resist Racism:
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Comments
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Love it! Love it! Love it!
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Can we get some of these poster sized?
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I LOVE IT!
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rock the fuck on. i’m posting this on myspace!
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This is beautiful.
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Wow, that made my day. I love that one girl’s “power to the people” sign, too.
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Awesome, awesome, awesome. I am beyond ecstatic over this.
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oh. my. god.
I love it! Yuri was very instrumental in my whole Asian American experience in college. I 2nd Latoya-would love to get this poster sized so I can put it right next to my “positively no filipinos allowed” poster. -
Awesome!
Has anyone come across any Richard Aoki, or Mike Tagawa artcles, para, photos, etc?They were 2 of the 3 asian american founding members of the Black Panther Party…..
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can you guys get us info if this becomes available for purchase in poster size?
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Now I like that, I remember reading David Hillard’s book that White, Brown, Asian and others needed to form organizations like the Black Panthers and do field work in the fight for social justice. And to me the 60’s was a world -wide revolution not just in the arts but in politics and social movements, I wish there would documentaries on the Asian- American movement in the 60’s like there are with AIM, and the other progressive groups.
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So awesome.
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Here’s Yuri Kochiyama rockin’ a Mumia t-shirt. She cradled Malcolm X as he lay dying.
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Amazing & very refreshing to see.
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Yah, seriously, where can I, too, get this poster sized? Awesome, wonderful and inspiring.
Is that Grace Lee Boggs(?) in the lower right hand corner?
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cinechica - what is the “positively no filipinos allowed” poster?
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heyhey - Yes, that’s Grace! I’m bookmarking this page and coming back - you better keep me posted on when this will be available in posters, t-shirts, etc. LOL!
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YEEEEUH!
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Thank you! I’mma set this as my desktop background.
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So inspiring !
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I don’t like the “power to the people” poster. I can’t quite figure out why… Anyone?
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@giggles: Is it because you could possibly mis-interpret it as “separate but equal”– “you get yours, I get mine, never the twain shall meet”? I don’t think that’s the intent at all, but I can see how it could get misread. It’s more sign (no pun intended) of support, while acknowledging our own struggle.
That’s *my* read of it, anyway.
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@heyhey: I don’t know how to interpret it. I’m Af. Am. I noticed that I get uneasy when my As. Am. acquaintances comare the two communities too. We have very different histories and experiences. I wonder if there is/was another way of fighting for one’s rights…
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Perhaps, and this is not meant to inflame but to merely offer an honest look at what it could be, that feeling could stem from an amount of bias or prejudice, giggles?
If you feel like, because of how black history differs from APA history, you cannot support a campaign where people in both races relate to each others’ struggles under a larger umbrella of “power to the people” or civil rights, maybe that’s because the idea of equating Asian Americans with African Americans in that way seems hurtful or wrong and I believe that may be because of a bias for black history and rights to be counted **first and foremost**. In other words, I believe it’s possible that the Oppression Olympics are going on inside that noggin and blacks win each and every time. Does that make sense?
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Sign me up for wanting a poster too. Damn that’s awesome.
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Very, very awesome indeed.
I’d take one too. I like some of the others from the other posts as well, I’d hang a lot of them up!Great work!
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To giggles and Colin A.B:
I get where both of y’all are coming with your analysis about the sign—you’re both on point about that. I feel as an African-American myself, that,yes we are two different peoples with two completely different histories, but both of us still share a history of being brutalized/victimized by racism/oppression as slaves/cheap labor in this country,despite the fact that Asian-Americans chose to come to this country and African-Americans didn’t. Also the fact that AAs (the former) chose to come here dosen’t justify at all the racism/hate that they were forced to deal with as soon as they set foot on American soil. I admit to being a little disturbed by the sign at first, but when I really thought about it, it makes sense,and I wanted to hug the little girl holding it.
For Cara:
Just ran across this trailer about Richard Aoki the other day:
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Absolutely love it!!
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Put me down for a poster!
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Hi, could anyone tell me who are the women featured at the bottom of the poster?
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hey, excellent question! These four women are icons in Asian American activism. From the left, they are: Mari Matsuda, Yuri Kochiyama, Helen Zia, and Grace Lee Boggs.
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@ G.K.: Yes, nothing justifies racism or hate.
@ Colin A.B.: I didn’t like the “oppression olympics…inside that noggin” part of your comment.
Yes, the “…idea of equating Asian Americans with African Americans in that way seems hurtful or wrong…” to me.
However, it’s not because I have a “…bias for black history and rights to be counted **first and foremost**…”
The other day, a classmate equated Irish Americans with African Americans.
In another class, we read a book that equated Af. Am. women who had forced sterilizations with Eu. Am. women who were denied sterilizations.
I got the same funny feeling.
Is the ban on same sex marriage really like the ban on interracial marriage?
Why are people/issues lumped together like this?
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I’m back. I searched around the site and read/listened to a little bit about this idea of the “oppression olympics.” In my opinion, the term makes this issue of oppression seem like a game… Who came up with it?
On Addicted to Race, Carmen acknowledges the existence of a “hierarchy of oppression” (it’s in quotes because it’s new to me…I’m still processing this) in the United States.
I sort of understand why participation in the “oppression olympics” is troubling. It does seem to divide rather than unite. However, I wonder when any non white communities were ever united?
My mother’s from the Caribbean and my dad’s Af. Am. Growing up, she told me how she was not allowed to play with the Af. Am. kids. She could only play with other West Indian kids. According to my mother, this is an example of how many West Indians and people of West Indian background do not want to associate with Af. Am. for fear losing their place in this “heirarchy.” She still thinks she is “better” and “stronger” because of her West Indian heritage. She would always say: “At least we have a country.”
This is what it’s like between two communities of African descended people. What’s it like between say, descendants of Asians and Africans here?
I’ve been yelled at (literally) for being higher on this totem pole by other Af. Ams. before because of my West Indian heritage. I understood their anger. Yes, many West Indians “think they’re better.” I hear it all the time from my mom’s side. Also, from my experience, I know we’re treated differently. I know very well why I occaisionally distance myself from my Af. Am. background.* It’s often advantageous. I’m seen as a different kind of black person…a safer one…It’s great not having people be afraid that you think they’re racist. It’s because they often have no reference for how West Indians think. I have the freedom to act like myself without worry.
I think that the “oppression olympics” is a symptom of the “hierarchy of oppression.” The “oppression olympics” will subside when people (myself included) want to jump off this totem pole.
Many don’t want to though and I think more people should acknowledge that they like where they are…
*No, I don’t like hierarchies. I do like the sense of having a stable identity. I also do this because I know more about my West Indian background than my Af. Am. background. My dad didn’t tell me much.
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Yeah! I just did a research paper on Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama!
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That’s cool.
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Awesome.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
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