Model My Voice

Asians and Pacific Islanders are often stereotyped as one homogenous community, without issues to address and without a voice to do so. The nuances of our communities are often swept under the "Asian" rug. With this blog, we invite you to sever the ties of these deceptive stereotypes. Additionally, we wish to promote the cultural, sexual, religious, migrant, and class diversity of our multi-ethnic communities under the API framework, especially for communities that are often overlooked when referring to APIs (e.g. South East Asians, South Asians, and Pacific Islanders). Posts on this website do not represent the views of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP). Share your story here! var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24978390-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[modelmyvoice-blog]

HI! Could you please follow us and help us get the word out about our tumblr? API Collegiate Press is a collaboration between API presses from UC Berkeley, UCLA, Duke, NYU, and USC. We love your tumblr, and we hope you like ours! :]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

Chasing Bruce Lee

Keep fighting the good fight! Best of luck to everyone out there. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPhHbqCOV-c

Entitled "Chasing Bruce Lee", inspired by the poem of the same name by Beau Sia 

[miraging-blog]

You begin to liquidate a people by taking away its memory. You destroy its books, its culture, its history. And then others write other books for it, give another culture to it, invent another history for it. Then the people slowly begins to forget what it is and what it was. The world at large forgets it still faster.

Milan Hübl, quoted in Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, as translated by Aaron Asher (via miraging)

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

wow. occupy wall street going all the way to lahore, pakistan.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

The launch of Occupy Lahore: Labor/student solidarity with Occupy Wall Street from Pakistan. 

 Photo by Umar Shahid

[mutinousmindstate]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

read the description.

mutinousmindstate:

Button created by Vipul Divecha around the actions for #OccupyWallSt circa 2011.

[fuckyeahapihistory]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

remember

fuckyeahapihistory:

Vincent Chin Protest

The murder of Vincent Chin and the subsequent sentence of his attackers (probation and a fine) brought Asian Americans together in protest and supported the growing realization that they could be a more effective political force if they worked together. (Courtesy of Helen Zia)

[lawgaymer]

This is what I think about “Occupy (nice wording, by the way) Wall Street”: “The point to me is that we are including THEM. WE laid the ground work for this moment in time with our bodies, communities, love and strength. WE created the critical analysis for this moment, WE created the models of resistance and transformative change, WE have been organizing for the past 500 years, and WE have been the ones organizing especially hard in the post-911 world—THEY are joining the rest of us. THAT is the point to me—to make sure the question does not get rewritten to “where are all the people of color” when we all know the real question is “where have the white folks been?”

Sasha Neha Ahuja and Sonia Guinansaca. (via queerdesi)

[pastperformance]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

Talk about the way racialization/racialized images change over time...but are always connected.

resexualize:

“The Yellow Terror in All his Glory”

It is images like this that demonized Chinese-American men and depicted them as unclean, uncouth, and inhuman.

This image is particularly interesting to me because of the helpless woman he’s skipping over. He’s out to get something that he apparently needs a gun, a mouth-knife, and bouquet of explosives for- but he certainly holds not sexual threat (or interest) towards the woman. The creating of a menacing asexual image of Asian men in America.

[mutinousmindstate]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

mutinousmindstate:

SLAAAP!! (Sexually Liberated Asian Artist Activist People!) was a queer Asian arts-activist collective, active from 1997-2001, who produced activist print media projects with camp and humor to engage issues of HIV/AIDS, sexuality, immigration and homophobia in the Asian community. Initiated through APICHA (Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS), the collective collaborated with several community-based organziations in its time, including the Audre Lorde Project, Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York, South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association, and Kilawin Kolektibo and the Queens Museum of Art.

Installation view and details of a collaborative project with SLAAAP! (Sexually Liberated Asian Artist Activist People!). Recognize creates an alternate family history and genealogy. We gathered images donated by Queer-identified Asians of openly and ambiguously gay family members and linked these to imagined stories. This project shares my interest in mining untold histories, and engaging an audience with complex issues such as sexual health and desire by a situating them in a cultural context. [link]

This poster is titled “Recognize” and came out in 2001.

MutinousMindState is an amazing tumblr, collecting images of the South Asian diaspora in the U.S. This is one of my favorites, so powerful.

[downlo]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

Important history that so many of us don't know: Punjabi and Punjabi-Mexican communities in the Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. Also check out Karen Leonard's book Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans.

downlo:

In California at the turn of the 20th century, a community grew in southern California with an interesting history: Punjabi-Mexican families of the Imperial Valley. This unique community stemmed from the effects of British colonialism, transnational labor immigration & American economic opportunity (and American anti-Asian discrimination laws). Many multi-generational families in the area today can trace their multicultural and multiethnic histories back over a hundred years, and refer to themselves as “Mexican Hindus”, “Hindu” or “East Indian” today.

Totally fascinating. I love learning about these obscure corners of American history.

[modelmyvoice-blog]

Response to response to mod post.

Just for clarification purposes, the original post was written by Kat, a "mod" of sorts. The response post was a submission that was sent in to Model My Voice. And this post is now a response to this post.  I love that we're having dialogue about how to respond to racism and what is the best way to discuss racism. Personally, (this is Kat by the way), I would have to agree with anon and add that her "opinion" was not an opinion at all, but an irresponsible and juvenile video that trivializes Asian culture and Asian identity. 

In a discussion with one of my mentors about a racist situation that I once encountered, I sighed, saying "I understand that I have to respect others' opinions, though." She then cut me off and said "no you don't. You have to respect their right to express those opinions, but you don't have to respect their opinions at all." Life shattering for me, since up until that point I functioned on respecting all regardless of what they may say or how they may hurt.   I think that the person who wrote "Dear Model My Voice" has great intentions and pointed out that I was rather harsh on the person in the video. However, I reject the idea that I should "accept" the projections of racism presented in the video.

I agree that we should move past what I've come to know as "internet activism" and internet trolling--endlessly complaining about racism over the internet without affecting change--and work towards educating ourselves and those around us. However, I think it is important to acknowledge if something is (at least by my definition) blatantly wrong and racist. Writing it off as an opinion, to me, is like saying that it's okay for people to continue to perpetuate racism. I will definitely work on being more constructive in my posts, especially here on Model My Voice and I apologize if my other post or this post has offended anyone. I want to encourage this dialogue to continue both on and off of this blog. Keep on exploring those API identities and thoughts, folks!

-Kat 

[modelmyvoice-blog]

Response to Mod post

I was all on board with the mods' post here until they suggested that "This “ranchet white girl” has her own ideologies, and we must respect that."

I cannot respect her ideology. At all. Her video was racist, first and foremost, and as a general rule, I don't respect racist actions/words/views. She wasn't approaching her racist views from a point where she was trying to gain understanding of what APIA people are like, something I could genuinely give kudos to. She was going for a joke in a cheap, demeaning fashion.

Perhaps I am being pedantic, but using the word "respect" seems to almost suggest that this is like two people who differ in religious views or one prefers the beach and another prefers the forest. Racism is just flat out wrong.

I can acknowledge or maybe accept her ideology exists, because it does. But respect? No, I don't respect it at all.

[cia-chelseyinaction-blog]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

cia-chelseyinaction:

Our Mural Project:

Entitled: The Roots of Our Generation

We used a Matsu Tree to symbolize the History of Japanese America.  The mountains in the background represent the San Gabriel Mountains. The ship signifies the first wave of Japanese immigrants coming to America.  With each tree branch, it represents the generation of Japanese Americans. The first branch is the Issei (first generation). The second branch represents Nisei (second generation).  The third generation represents Sansei (third generation).  The last branch represents Yonsei (fourth generation) and the future generations.  With each bush, we chose a quote we liked that best represent that generation.  11,000 means the number of Japanese and Japanese Americans interned in WW2. In the top most branch, we had the tree forming into silhouettes of doves.  The doves are flying into the sun.  We wanted the sun to be a combination of a Japanese and American flag.  In a sense, the doves are flying into the future of Japanese America.  

[pastperformance]

[modelmyvoice-blog]

This makes me want to vomit a little bit. "Chop suey" specs. What's there even to say about this? It speaks for itself.

-Kat

[psychotherapy]

I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn’t create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.

Ram Dass (via psychotherapy)

[modelmyvoice-blog]

But I still did not know how to communicate across the gap between our worlds, which had become a chasm in the three years since I had left home. For the children of immigrants are also migrants; we cross the waters daily. Some of us become seasick. Others close their eyes and inhale the salt wind. Its fragrance is always bittersweet.

-Minal Hajratwala, Leaving India, pp. 331-2

[modelmyvoice-blog]

API Equality - LA Volunteer Orientation

Join API Equality-LA for an afternoon to have fun, network with passionate activists, and find out about our amazing volunteer opportunities. Once again, California’s LGBTQ community is under attack. Now is the time for us to come together to learn about the challenges we face and take action for LGBTQ equality.  Volunteering with API Equality-LA offers opportunities to:

 Work with seasoned activists in the API community

 Stay informed about LGBTQ community issues

 Be a part of a great community. 

Join us on Saturday August 13! As a community of activists united across generations, we will work together to change hearts and minds for LGBTQ equality. EVERYONE is welcomed!  Lunch and snacks will be served, please RSVP with Tran Le at [email protected]  When: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Saturday, August 13, 2011 Where: Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) | 1145 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017  Questions/RSVP: Tran Le | [email protected] | (818) 292 - 6922

Visit API Equality - LA to learn more.