JasenComstock

theonion: Nation Currently More Sympathetic To Demise Of Planet...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:00:03 -0400

theonion:

Nation Currently More Sympathetic To Demise Of Planet Krypton Than Plight Of Syria | Full Report

The onion is still oddly pro-Syrian intervention

Caught in the Devil's Bargain: From the Defense Department to the Newsroom

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:58:51 -0400

Caught in the Devil's Bargain: From the Defense Department to the Newsroom:

theamericanprospect:

I spent my 20s working in various capacities for the Defense Department, first as a database developer and later as an intelligence analyst. I still take seriously the papers I signed legally binding me from ever deliberately exposing secrets I had access to, and I can…

irishmexi: meow-sense: goodsmellmeow: kzhang: Yep, I just...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:57:33 -0400

irishmexi:

meow-sense:

goodsmellmeow:

kzhang:

Yep, I just yelled “fuck you” at some blow job who said “ni hao” to me in the park.

My good friend Phoenix, posted this Facebook status a few weeks ago that turned into this interesting hotbed of resentful Western White male privilege.

Not only did this guy, Luke, brazenly display an incredibly condescending whitesplaining, mansplaining attitude, but he demanded that my friend, a woman of color, explain to him why the behavior that this man displayed while yelling at my friend in the park was harassment.

I hope I do not need to explain how utterly ridiculous and entitled of him it is to tell a Chinese-American woman to “present [him] with depth” and prove to him why it’s unacceptable for some dude to approach strangers in the park, saying “ni hao” at them. I hope it’s evident as to how absolutely arrogant it is for a White man to defend some stranger he’s only ever heard about rather than believe a woman of color when her life experiences deem this encounter to come from a point of racism/sexism. As obvious as how presumptuous Luke’s entitled reaction may be, I would like to make it clear that White men injecting themselves, uninvited, into conversations women and people of color are having about oppression happens all the time.

All. The. Time.

And worse than White men assuming their opinions are welcome in this place, White men believe their opinions should be valued above all others’, for theirs are the only ones that are “un-biased”. Notice the silencing tactics Luke uses. Women of color who are upset by racist/sexist remarks made to them in public who dare to react to those violations are “angry”, “irrational”, and not deserving of this White man’s Facebook friend list. Welcome to Gaslighting 101, everyone! Racist, sexist, privileged, arrogant gaslighting.

However, I don’t want to write about awful gaslighting today. I actually want to write about something else this privileged White dude brought up, being White in China vs. being Chinese* in the U.S.

Luke wrote,

[…] and for the record, I’ve had numerous similar experiences as being the ‘white guy’ in China for the past decade. I never reacted like that but then I don’t think this is about race as much as it is about Phoenix […]

First of all, way to be an asshole, Luke, by again dismissing the validity of Phoenix’s experiences and her assessment of the situation that she was in and you were nowhere near.

Second of all—and I want White people to understand this so—YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WHITE PERSON IN AN ASIAN COUNTRY IS NOT THE SAME NOR AT ALL “SIMILAR” TO MY EXPERIENCE OR THE EXPERIENCE OF FELLOW ASIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER PEOPLES IN THE UNITED STATES. Got it?

But, “why, Kathy?” you may ask. “Why can’t I just swap out different races/ethnicities in any scenario and the end result be the same?”

Really? Why? Because read a fucking history book—preferably one not crafted by the hegemonic White Western discourse.

The same people who think saying “ni hao” or “konnichiwa” to an Asian person in the U.S. is the same as an Asian person saying “hello” to a white person in an Asian country are the same people who think “reverse racism” is a thing. Guess what? Reverse racism isn’t real and those two situations are not at all the same thing.

Let’s just start with demographics. We all know that race is a social construct, but for simplicity purposes, let’s use it.

Population of China: 1.35 billion
Population of the U.S.: 316 million

Percentage White in the U.S.: 72.4%
Percentage Asian in the U.S.: 4.8%

Percentage Asian in China: 99.x%
Percentage White in China: <1% (the number of White people in China is so insignificant compared to the entire population, it hasn’t bee properly documented)

Wow! There is a significantly smaller percentage of the Chinese population that is White compared to the American population that is Asian! Who would’ve thought?

Okay. That shouldn’t be a shock, right? The United States is a “land of immigrants” (even if certain states and politicians seem to spit on that fact). Being non-White in the U.S. isn’t supposed to be a novelty, it’s a truth. The U.S. census estimates that in 30 years, non-Hispanic/Latin@ Whites will make up less than half of the population. So seeing a non-White person really shouldn’t be a shock in the U.S. in 2013. And considering Phoenix works in Boston, and not middle-of-nowhere, Maine, she shouldn’t be treated as an anomaly walking through a park.

Approaching a random person of color or any person you do not definitively know the ethnicity of and saying “ni hao”, “hola”, or “jambo” at this person (particularly if you do not speak Chinese, Spanish, or Swahili) is not only obnoxious, but it is othering. The effect (regardless of whether it’s intentional or not) of this action on the person of color is to point out that they are somehow different from the White person (and legitimate American) speaking to them while transmitting the message “you are not welcome here”. API peoples constantly receive this message. From “where are you from?” to “what language do you speak?” to “what does your name mean?”, White people are consistently reminding us that because we are not White, we are not American.

So when some stranger says “ni hao” to my Chinese-American friend in the park, it is absolutely not to be “friendly”, it is to invade her space and remind her that no matter what her birth certificate, voting record, or life experiences are, she will never be considered American and she will never be welcome because her hair isn’t blonde and her last name isn’t Smith.

People of color built this country. They did so despite political, economic, and social barriers erected to prevent them from prospering. The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the 1800s, brought over to work on the transcontinental railroad as cheap labor at wages. Chinese workers were paid $27-$30 a month, compared to Irish workers, who were paid $35 a month and provided with living arrangements. Not only were the Chinese paid less than the Whites, they were also treated terribly. The White construction crews would order Chinese workers to enter caves where not all the dynamite had gone off, killing dozens of Chinese men. These men were forced to risk their lives, placed in to baskets and lowered over cliffs or into mines to drill holes and place dynamite, staking their luck and their lives on how quickly their fellow workers were able to pull them up. The term “Chinaman’s chance”? This practice is one of it’s origins. Over 1,200 Chinese workers died building the Central Pacific Railroad alone.

And what did the U.S. do to repay these Chinese immigrants for building such an extensive railroad system in this country? They passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to prevent Chinese immigration and then passed the Geary Act to extend the exclusion and placed new requirements on existing Chinese residents of the U.S. Among these requirements was a law that Chinese residents must carry proof of their residency at all time or risk a year of hard labor or deportation. Sound familiar? The Geary Act also forbade Chinese residents from bearing witness in a court of law and denied Chinese bail in habeas corpus proceedings.

For a country so proud of its immigrant-roots, its laws speak differently. Or are only White, Anglo-looking people allowed to claim this country as their own and all people of color must simply accept that we can never call the United States our homeland?

Let’s just step back a minute. Many Chinese families have been in the United States just as long or even longer than your European ancestors. Chinese workers played a big part in building this country. Yet, Chinese-Americans are being treated like they don’t belong in this country daily. Yes, even in the 21st century.

So don’t you dare fucking compare how you as a White man are treated in China to how a Chinese-American woman is treated in the United States. I haven’t even started exploring the rampant sexism that’s entwined with White men fetishizing API women as submissive and exotic. This view is a stereotype. It is a stereotype largely rooted in a history of Western colonialism and the geo-political dynamics between American soldiers and local women in the various wars and military aggressions of the late 20th century waged in East Asia and the Pacific, a stereotype that’s been perpetuated by Western, White, male-dominated mainstream media.

If you are a White person in China, you are most likely a tourist, or your job has located you there and you make significantly more money than the average Chinese worker (~$9k/yr). If a Chinese stranger approaches you and says “hello”, that might be annoying, but it doesn’t come with any of the same history and implications as a White stranger saying “ni hao” to an Asian person in the U.S., regardless of whether that person is Chinese. Considering the fact that British and U.S. imperialism has made English the default official language for multinational organizations and the forced lingua franca of many states in the Global South, the power differential between the White person and the Asian person in both of these situations favors the White person.

To Luke and every other White asshole who doesn’t “think about race”:

Your experience as a “minority” in an Asian country is not comparable to Phoenix’s experience as a Minority (Capital M for all of the historical, political, social baggage of that word) in the United States.

So sit down and shut up.

—————

*You can apply this same theory to Japanese-, Korean-, and other API peoples in the U.S., in so much as noting that being White in Japan is nothing like being Japanese in the U.S. (or Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, etc.). However, remember that although API peoples have a shared identity, the histories of each ethnic group’s legacies in the U.S. are different and the geo-political histories of the U.S.’s respective relationships (and wars and imperialism, etc.) are also distinct. It is ludicrous to assume that all 17.3 million Asian-Americans have the same histories and that nations with a combined population of 4 billion people have the same diplomatic relationship with the U.S. It is not only irresponsible, it is also racist.

My cousin’s white boyfriend brought up being white in China as a parallel to being a person of color in the U.S., and I had to tell him, “Noooooooo…”

Read the whole thing.

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:48:34 -0400

I mean ok, but dude has a katana.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:44:33 -0400

I mean ok, but dude has a katana.

I became a Virginia resident 15 and a half years ago in a truck...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:31:58 -0400

I became a Virginia resident 15 and a half years ago in a truck headed to an aircraft carrier in Norfolk. I’m leaving Virginia and becoming a DC resident on the metro with a bike.

"Asking someone for “shrimp on the barbie” was maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve..."

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:23:20 -0400

“Asking someone for “shrimp on the barbie” was maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve spent years railing against the very concept, declaring that I’ve never had a barbecued shrimp because it’s basically made-up — no one barbecues shrimp in Australia. “We’ll have the shrimp on the barbie. And the Toowoomba pasta. And the Bloomin Burger.” My soul cracked at the edges with each word.”

- An Australian food critic reviews Outback Steakhouse. (via nedhepburn)

Oh god I just drank someone else’s drink

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:33:03 -0400

Oh god I just drank someone else’s drink

I'm content with the honesty age allows you

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:32:10 -0400

Sometimes

Problem solving with Jasen Comstock

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:58:38 -0400

So I have an apartment. I signed the lease yesterday. Pressing issue: I start work Monday. Problem: I’ve been house sitting in Columbia heights for three weeks and most of my clothes are there except for suits and shit like that. My furniture and suits n shit are in Springfield, VA.

Anyway, I gave my bed to a friend because my California king FUCK PLATFORM won’t fit in my new place so me and said friend got a uhaul to go get it and everything else we could fit.

We got it all and set up the bed in his dumb place with floors that scratch all the time and we got all the furniture I have left into my platz, except for my clothes and my crap clothes like suits and shoes and belts and white undershirts. I also need to go to the hoodbridge va IKEA to get a new FUCK PLATFORM that fits. Also I have a list of poop to get at target, like a shower curtain.

So I’m drinking at a bar now and I have a party tomorrow. No G/D problem, right?

brainstatic: When Xaro was cast with a black actor all the Game Of Thrones fans got into a tizzy...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:45:54 -0400

brainstatic:

When Xaro was cast with a black actor all the Game Of Thrones fans got into a tizzy and cried about staying true to the books. So I guess any day now we should be hearing the fan outcry that in the books the slaves of Yunkai are described as being of many races from many different lands who all speak different languages. Yup, I fully expect the fan freak out aaaannnny minute now.

Yo so the only thing I thought about xaro was like, that dude’s fat. Fans are awful and I for know why people listen to them. Delete your tumblr.

thenoobyorker: autosuficiencia: In Spanish, we don’t really say “I love you” we say “traeme una...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:42:55 -0400

thenoobyorker:

autosuficiencia:

In Spanish, we don’t really say “I love you” we say “traeme una cerveza” which roughly translates to “you are the light of my soul” & I think that’s beautiful.

I say this all of the time to the people I love.

I thought a cerveza was a beer. Works.

If you’ve followed me since the Arab Spring, you know I think intervention in Syria is an...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:07:06 -0400

If you’ve followed me since the Arab Spring, you know I think intervention in Syria is an awful idea.

We are following our typical pattern of escalation into conflicts. we provide essential aid to one side, and strategic enemies step up slightly with weapons to their side. We provide small arms, they will provide bigger ones. We will then create a no fly zone, and the Russians will either provide surface-to-air missiles. If they have those we will need to provide covert ground actions.

Syria is either a strategic interest or it is not. If it is than the full might of the US military should be used. Since we aren’t going to do that, we will have yet another oozing festering sore bleeding lives and money for nothing.

"[For two years, President Obama has resisted being drawn deeper into the civil war in Syria. It was..."

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:00:00 -0400

“[For two years, President Obama has resisted being drawn deeper into the civil war in Syria. It was a miserable problem, he told aides, and not one he thought he could solve… . So when Mr. Obama agreed this week for the first time to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, he had to be almost dragged into the decision at a time when critics, some advisers and even Bill Clinton were pressing for more action. Coming so late into the conflict, Mr. Obama expressed no confidence it would change the outcome, but privately expressed hope it might buy time to bring about a negotiated settlement.”

- Heavy Pressure Led to Decision by Obama on Syrian Arms - NYTimes.com

The President didn’t want to intervene, and believes it won’t change the outcome … so we’re going to intervene. Change, Hope, Forward, and such.

(via jeffmiller)

Iranian exit polls reporting that rick santorum projected winner. Suggest a conservative shift from the ahmedinejad administration.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:56:01 -0400

anticodon: So I was on the train today and these two black guys were having a conversation not even...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:42:55 -0400

anticodon:

So I was on the train today and these two black guys were having a conversation not even that loud and said “nigga” like once when this white lady turns around and says “How do you think MLK Jr. would feel about you using that kind of language” and one of the guys snaps back and said “Idk maybe if your people didn’t shoot him I would know”

Selections from "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (Harriet Jacobs, 1861)

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:40:05 -0400

Selections from "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (Harriet Jacobs, 1861):

theyearofselfeducation:

“I well remember one occasion when I attended a Methodist class meeting. I went with a burdened spirit, and happened to sit next a poor, bereaved mother, whose heart was still heavier than mine. The class leader was the town constable—a man who bought and sold slaves, who whipped his brethren and sisters of the church at the public whipping post, in jail or out of jail. He was ready to perform that Christian office any where for fifty cents. This white-faced, black-hearted brother came near us, and said to the stricken woman, “Sister, can’t you tell us how the Lord deals with your soul? Do you love him as you did formerly?”

She rose to her feet, and said, in piteous tones, “My Lord and Master, help me! My load is more than I can bear. God has hid himself from me, and I am left in darkness and misery.” Then, striking her breast, she continued, “I can’t tell you what is in here! They’ve got all my children. Last week they cook the last one. God only knows where they’ve sold her. They let me have her sixteen years, and then—O! O! Pray for her brothers and sisters!

I’ve got nothing to live for now. God make my time short!” She sat down, quivering in every limb. I saw that constable class leader become crimson in the face with suppressed laughter, while he held up his handkerchief, that those who were weeping for the poor woman’s calamity might not see his merriment. Then, with assumed gravity, he said to the bereaved mother, “Sister, pray to the Lord that every dispensation of his divine will may be sanctified to the good of your poor needy soul!”

The congregation struck up a hymn, and sung as though they were as free as the birds that warbled round us,—

Ole Satan thought he had a mighty aim;

He missed my soul, and caught my sins.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God!

He took my sins upon his back;

Went muttering and grumbling down to hell.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God!

Ole Satan’s church is here below.

Up to God’s free church I hope to go.

Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God!

Precious are such moments to the poor slaves. If you were to hear them at such times, you might think they were happy. But can that hour of singing and shouting sustain them through the dreary week, toiling without wages, under constant dread of the lash?”

dennys: Happy Flag Day!

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:35:41 -0400

dennys:

Happy Flag Day!

manofsteel: “Emotional, beautiful, and filled with brutal...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:57:21 -0400

manofsteel:

“Emotional, beautiful, and filled with brutal battles, this is a winner top to bottom.” - Drew Mcweeny, Hitfix.com

Man of Steel, from director Zack Snyder & producer Christopher Nolan, NOW PLAYING in theaters. Get tickets now: http://bit.ly/ManofSteelTix

This is a winner top to bottom- my okcupid profile

"The Obama administration, concluding that the troops of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria have used..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:38:06 -0400

“The Obama administration, concluding that the troops of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria have used chemical weapons against rebel forces in his country’s civil war, has decided to begin supplying the rebels for the first time with small arms and ammunition, according to American officials.”

- U.S. Is Said to Plan to Send Weapons to Syrian Rebels - NYTimes.com

This always goes so well.

(via sexartandpolitics)