#aas218paulat

[shrugloud]

BLOG #7: POLITICS-- UGH!

Trump doesn’t care about the Asian American community, so much so, he doesn’t bother to do his research to respect a group of people.

Ethnic Enclave: a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. A place where a group of people found solidarity and a home, because America wouldn’t give them one.

I understand where Nancy Pelosi is coming from, trying to combat underlying racist acts because of current events, but I don’t think the method was fit. She wanted to support local Asian American business that have been losing money due to the racism surrounding COVID-19.

“Growing up, the assumption was that once we became American enough, there would be no need for such warnings—that we would be safe.”

People don’t understand how a sickness works. Or maybe they do, and they’re using this as an excuse to be racist and push out a group of people they don’t like. A group of people they’re afraid of. A group of people they find a threat by existing.

“the ‘model minority’ myth can provide the illusion of ‘raceless-ness.’ Putting select Asians on a pedestal silences those who question systemic injustice.”

“It seduces Asian Americans and recruits us to act on its behalf. It converts our parents, who in turn, encourage us to accept it. It makes you feel protected, that you’re passing as one of the good ones. And because the stereotypes may be complimentary, it makes people—including us—think that anti-Asian sentiment is somehow less serious, that it’s racism lite.”

There’s no solidarity. There were accounts on Twitter stepping up and explaining how COVID-19 has sparked racist acts against him and assuming he was a carrier, and the comments were downplaying his experiences, how black people have had it worse, and how he shouldn’t have been complaining. Regardless, we can’t play oppression Olympics all the time. Solidarity means solidarity. We take every event seriously.

“You can’t stand up for some and not for others.”

[shrugloud]

BLOG #6: CLAUDIA KISHI CLUB RULES!

I have not read babysitter’s club. But I do understand the importance Claudia Kishi made to them. It may not seem so important to white people because they see themselves everywhere in commercial media, but when you live in a world where you’re aware you’re different because your peers won’t let you forget it; it is all you think about. It could have been a conscious decision to make Claudia Kishi the vice president of The Babysitter’s Club. I imagine it being a metaphor to where white people see where Asians fit next to them—2nd place. Seeing mostly Caucasian folx on TV had me think white people were the default. Especially when minorities were portrayed in a major production, a white actor would act offensively, or when a role should have casted a minority, white actors would assume the role. Two examples of this are Balls of Fury with Christopher Walken, and the film adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I think Asian American representation is rooted on tricky ground. Tricky ground because American culture doesn’t take East Asian culture very seriously. Because Asians are categorized under docile and submissive, it’s unlikely we could be a threat, so people are comfortable with harassing and bullying us.

It’s important to see Asian American characters in popular culture. People are very influenced by media and what they see. I wish it were untrue, but I don’t think it would be unfair for me to say immigrant parents are at times detached from their kids’ learning experiences, passing the responsibilities onto the public school system and pop culture, so the immigrant parents may focus on breadwinning and putting food on the table. I had never thought about Asian American representation before ethnic studies. I saw The Babysitter’s Club on the shelves in my elementary school, but it wasn’t the narrative I wanted to read. At the time, I wanted to read adventure-genre books, The Boxcar Children, choose-your-own-adventure, Captain Underpants, etc. Was Claudia Kishi the only Asian American character in books at the time?

[shrugloud]

BLOG #5: COVID-19; “APRIL 4″

It’s honestly heartbreaking to hear these acts of racism as if Asians only migrated to the US yesterday. Many Asian American families have been living in America for a few generations now. I think racists act because of ideas surrounding the model minority myth, as if they believe their actions are valid to “even out the playing field” because Asian Americans have not experienced enough thus far. But there’s a lot of Asian American history in the states. It’s a shame it’s not recorded well enough and not as emphasize as slavery. Not to downplay how monumental slavery is in hxstory, but to recognize where recognition is due. If that was the case, the definition of minority would change.

Because of the less than unjust ideas around China’s government and their enforcers of their law, the use and sale of undomesticated animals and unsanitary practices were opened to create more jobs. I don’t think China is to blame. Yes, it’s an unfortunate circumstance, events were canceled, but we’re all trying to survive. We can learn a lot from how different countries are responding and how “the economy” responds when only essential services are active.

[shrugloud]

BLOG #4: HOW SF ERASED A NEIGHBORHOOD

A year ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the new rebuilt I-Hotel. It’s beautiful and well-kept. The main lobby presents a small museum of what a typical room looked like before it was torn down, special artifacts are kept preserved, there’s a small stage for intimate concerts, and a makeshift theatre where I watched the full I-Hotel documentary, “Fall of the I-Hotel” for the second time. Each room is occupied, and I hear there is a heavy waitlist reserved for San Francisco’s marginalized elderly at low rent. The roof is a beautiful space for gardening, overlooking SF’s Chinatown and South of Market. San Francisco is a wonderful city and I love its history. Built on resistance, survival, and home to many resilient people, it’s also a place of many different protests, passions, and stories. Along with the Ethnic Studies movement, and the United Farmworkers movement, the Fall of the I-Hotel was one of three defining conflicts between Filipinxs and the United States. All three are connected.

Today, the I-Hotel is a staple event to teach in Ethnic Studies. San Francisco lost their Manilatown, a place where Filipinxs could have their safe place, a home for themselves. Gentrification is also still an issue that continues throughout the Bay Area. If gentrification will continue, if those with money continue to expand their businesses, in search for more wealth, marginalized communities will continue to be marginalized, and their space will become smaller.

[shrugloud]

BLOG #3: WHO IS VINCENT CHIN?

Americans created the free market but then become upset when people of color take their, create better businesses in the same space. The system they created only works for them when events are in their favor. The way the automobile propaganda videos described the boom of foreign automobiles in America as “across the ocean” and how “America as unprepared for their arrival” is xenophobic and suggests America needs protecting from outside entities. The phrase the news used to describe the situation as “[targeting] Japan as a major source of its problems.” The words and phrases the media uses are powerful. Using phrases like “we are going to keep losing if. . .” suggesting this “battle” is something to be won. The free market as something that needs to be won. Capitalism is Americans’ game they hate to lose.

“It’s not a prejudice, that’s a foreign car to me.”

I’m not racist, I hate everyone

There is a strength in our numbers. But there is also a weakness. A weakness because some people believe in the model minority. They might not see it as racism towards Asians because we are submissive, able to be dismissive.

“Other minorities have had it worse.”

Oppression Olympics: a characterization of marginalization as a competition to determine the relative weight of the overall oppression of individuals or groups, often by comparing race, gender, socioeconomic status of disabilities, in order to determine who is the worst off, and the most oppressed. Shedding light on one racist event does not invalidate all other acts of oppression.

[shrugloud]

BLOG #2: MIDSEM C.A.R.

THE FEELS (2017)

CONCEPTS

Andi & Lu as an interracial lesbian couple.

Josh, the cisgender heterosexual male, asserting himself as “Andi’s best friend” to the group and expressing his true feelings for Andi the weekend of her bachelorette weekend.

Asian Americans feeling inadequate because of a stigma created by the West around being a submissive group of people.

ANALYSIS

Orientalism as stereotyping the East, through the eyes of the West.

Hegemony as the dominance of one social group or class in a society.

Hegemony as ‘common sense.’

“Common sense” as viewing Asian Americans as desirable because of their “submissive nature,” being “easier to control.”

Because Lu has ideas about Andi being “submissive” rather than sexy and as a valid sexual partner, Lu has trouble reaching climax.

RESPONSE

It was irresponsible for Lu’s sister to bring molly to their bachelorette weekend. Drugs aren’t toys, but tools. Tolls to experience feelings of euphoria that may be difficult otherwise. Tolls to experience feelings of euphoria when one has a comfortable mindset.

Orgasms could be a sensitive topic for some, the group shouldn’t have continued discussing Lu’s issues. If Lu and Andi are having intimate issues, it’s a conversation between the two, as consented. Lu having difficulty expiring orgasm puts Andi in a space of pressure. Experiencing feelings of inadequacy if Andi can’t satisfy Lu intimately.

I empathize for Andi and Lu. People don’t talk about sex enough. They don’t talk about sex and orgasms, and how one should feel during sex. Because we don’t talk about sex and feelings of inadequacy, it becomes taboo. It becomes hegemonic, or common sense, to not discuss intimate times in public spaces.

It’s important to have these narratives because current narratives suggest having regular, satisfying sexual experiences as the cultural norm. Its cultural norm to assume queer folx as “sexually charged monsters,” knowing how to satisfy everyone because of how often they indulge in sex. There’s a lot of pressure in having sexually satisfying experiences and not being able to satisfy a partner during sex suggests being an inadequate individual, or not “dateable material.”

Normalize having trouble reaching orgasms because it may not always come naturally to everyone.

[shrugloud]

BLOG #1: WHOIBE

PAULA ASHLEY TRINIDAD

I am the Earth of 9/8ths.

A jack of all trades, I’m a womxn of many interests. From the art of the balisong, to PC building, I like to dip my toes in pastimes where I can work with my hands. I came into State with a Computer Engineeriing major then changed to Asian American Studies and today I want to pick up an education minor. I want to empower the queer youth of color through the American education system. I’m pescatarian, I have eczema, and I love plants. In my free time I like to paint, collect pocketknives & balisongs, burning candles, the occasional spoken word, and I also like to play games on my PC. I love listening to EDM, hip-hop/rap, and lo-fi hip hop. At the time of this post, some of the artists I listen to are San Holo, Madeon, Logic, Bambu DePistola, atlas, and Khai Dreams.

My mother, Socorro Gonzales Trinidad, with a degree in accounting, is the administrator in an assisted living facility, with values around money equaling success. My father works full-time at the International Airport. Their first daughter, first in the family to go to college, Patricia Gonzales Trinidad graduated San Jose State University with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and is now a physical therapist’s assistant. She loves her job. And finally, my brother Patrick Joseph Trinidad eventually finished his high school education and supports his son as a dialysis technician.

I was born in the Los Angeles County, have stayed in the Los Angeles County all throughout grade school, but never had much connection to the city, its roots, nor my parent’s roots. I found a safe place in marching band playing brass and percussion.

By the time I moved to San Francisco I was prepared to not make any connections, go from class, the library, and back to my dorm, focusing on school without “distractions.” My high school senior circle had stopped acknowledging me after I came out as queer. But the people at Asian Student Union were nice to me. I continued to make friends; I felt a sense of solidarity. From here I found my current housemates, more understanding friends, and my partner.

I was a strong active member, and eventually became the External Public Relations coordinator. I gained a higher consciousness, confidence, and found I’m more capable than what I thought. The following year after my coordinator term I explored PACE’s programs and experienced their 10-week internship. It revived my spirit in learning about myself and where my parents come from. I’ve met amazing individuals, and I can’t wait to see their success.