Author Archives: Imani W.

Steve Aoki

When it comes to privileged white kids going to raves and spending their parents money, Steve Aoki is a common name. He is an electro, house music DJ from Miami,Florida. His father was a former Japanese wrestler and the founder of the restaurant chain Benihana and his half sister is Devon Aoki, who played Suki in 2Fast 2Furious. I can’t say I listen to Aoki much, because I’m not really into the electro house music scene. The video below is my personal favorite song by him and the first song I heard by him.

aoki-t-mobile-sidekick-id-launch-party-01

Dave 2.16 Reading

“For many, race is skin deep, and , as such, race resides at the level of the visible…” (Dave pg. 276)

In Leilani Nishime’s chapter in Dave (Guilty Pleasures) she discusses racial outing and claiming, mainly focusing on Keanu Reeves. The idea is that we like to claim celebrities if our race is the same. Obviously, Reeves, who is part Asian, is a controversial celebrity to claim because he doesn’t ‘look Asian’. But what about the race you claim? That’s always been far more interesting to me.

I used to go to school with a girl named Kaisha who was mix raced. She was very loud and sassy and wore large hoop earrings almost everyday. I think my peers expected me to act more like her and were slightly thrown off when I took up snowboarding or when they’d catch me listening to Blink 182. I, on the other hand, always thought she acted very ‘black’ for lack of a better word. I came to my own assumption that maybe, Kaisha was over exaggerating her blackness because it isn’t as apparent as mine. What I mean is that I never felt the need to ‘act black’. You can see I’m black just by looking at me. Kaisha on the other hand? Honestly, you could look at her and come up with about ten different race possibilities. So maybe she just wanted us to know her race for sure.

Hiram Perez’s chapter in Dave (How to Rehabilitate a Mulatto) focuses on Tiger Woods, who identifies as ‘Cablinasian’. He is a mix of Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian. His word for his race resulted in backlash from the black community who felt he was discounting or not fully claiming his blackness.

Clearly, race is important when it comes to identity. But why? Why do we feel the need to prove or explain what we are to people? And should we? My whole life, I’ve identified as black or African American. I’m sure that there is more in me than African but I don’t know for sure. I’ve never felt the need to find out what I am. Is race only skin deep? Should it depend on what country you were born in? Or does it depend on what country your great-great-great-great grandparents were born?

Kato 171-207

I knew nothing about Bruce Lee before this class. Having read From Kung Fu to Hip Hop I’ve learned why he was so important to minority communities. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but I looked up how Lee died (I know, I knew that little about him). I had no idea that he died while filming Game of Death. Seriously, if that isn’t ironic then I don’t know what is.

Something that I really liked about Game of Death was that the final showdown would be between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbal. When we watched Enter the Dragon, I later found out that the final fight sequence was supposed to be Lee and Williams but of course Williams died and the white guy fought alongside Bruce. So yeah, it would’ve been cool to see two men of color as the good guys BUT having the two being the strongest fighters, pitted against each other? Still pretty cool.

Some could still argue that the black man was the villain. But I’d take a ‘villain’ like Kareem over a gangster like villain any day.

Something that stuck with me in this reading was the idea of death. Not in a morbid way, but more of a spiritual way like the book explains. “To express yourself in freedom, you must die to everything of yesterday…” (pg. 194). I guess not fearing death is the ultimate expression of freedom. It’s funny that death is the only thing that is guaranteed in your life. Nothing you have today was promised when you were born. The only thing we all really know is that we’ll die someday. Yet death is something we all fear. It’s something that is held over our head on a day to day basis. Think of all the risk you didn’t take because you could’ve died. That was Kareem’s advantage. He didn’t think about things as trivial as life and death. He focused on the now. Maybe we start out with simpler things, like not caring what others think of you and eventually work your way to not fearing death. Think of how life could be if you didn’t fear anything?

On a side note though, reading this chapter also made this episode of Spongebob make sense. I remember seeing the episode but I had NO IDEA that it was based off a Bruce Lee movie! See, this class has done wonders for me.

 

**Also, the music doesn’t link up with the video and you should just mute it**

 

Notes/Unfinished thoughts

*When I think of pop cultures I think of the science of pop culture. The trends and what changes and what stays the same…

*”Consensual Hallucination”  (I like that).

Tuesday Sem Chapter 8 Questions -Why do you think Indians are rarely counted when the term Asian arises? What similarities did you see between the Japanese Americas and the Asian Americans? Pay 307 says that compared to the Japanese, the Punjabis had a low literacy rate. Why do you think that was? What effect of not having wives have on the Asian-Indian community? Now a days, Asian-Indian often have the stereotype of being very smart. However, this passage continuously talks about them having low educational scores. Do you think this stereotype came from them trying to be model minorities or the association they have with Asia?

“If you repeat something enough times it becomes a part of you” -Better luck tomorrow

“Spector”-something that haunts you.

-Love hate relationship between white men and black culture. Eminem, black face? Why is struggle so associated with black culture? Still happens today. Black women? Both sexualized and unwanted at the same time.

Say it loud! I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD! -Does black culture and Asian culture overlap so much because they see so many similarities? Why isn’t this apparent between other cultures? The idea of being proud of your culture. T-shirts in Forever 21 with Biggie and Tupac. The idea of your culture being cool. The underdog sciece.  THE NEW KUNG FU. The idea that underdog tend to stick together and relate. How underdogs are “cool”. How Kung Fu started out Asian and gave black people a voice and now hip hop has done the same for Asians. (ex. ABDC and Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting) Do Asians do ‘thug’ better than black people?

2.18.14 (Review chapter 8 in Lee. 7 post this week. Look up Star Spangled Banner. Frances Scott Key (send blacks back to Africa))

 

Dat Rap Game Doe (Unfinished Thoughts)

When I was a junior in high school Blue Scholars were like, that group. Like the cool new underground rap group that was even cooler because they were from Seattle. And even though we lived in Bellingham we had this sense of pride like “YEAH WE’RE BASICALLY IN SEATTLE” which we aren’t because we were like…two hours away. And then when I was a senior in high school I was able to see them at Whatcom Community College and I climbed up onto a ledge and Geo totally gave me a thumbs up while they were preforming and it was awesome. Anyways, I never really listened to the lyrics until last quarter when Chico brought them up. When I was 16, 17 even 18 I was just digging the beat and flow but not listening. I mean, I don’t know…I like learning without realizing that I’m learning. Or how many references they’re making that we learned about! It’s amazing…and I still get a sense of pride because they’re based out of Seattle and it makes me smile.

Also I fan girled one time when I saw Geo walking down the street in Seattle and I hugged him and it made my whole day.

But on the topic of Asian American rappers is this girl named Awkwafina. I read about her on buzzfeed in an article about female rap artist to look out for and not only is she hilarious in her songs, she’s actually good. Her birth name is Nora Lum and she actually went to Beijing Language and Culture University in Beijing, China and studied Mandarin language. Songs I’d recommend, Mayor Bloomberg (Giant Margeritas) and My Vag

Dumbfounded. I heard about him when I was listening to a Latin American rapper by the name of Wax when they had a song together. He’s a Korean

 

Females in the Media (Unfinished Thoughts)

From what I know from first hand experience, what I’ve read about and what I’ve learned in class is that it basically sucks to be a girl. Let’s start out super, ridiculously basic. All girls, no matter race, are taught from a young age that are bodies are basically toys that we need to control. You see it as early as elementary school when girls aren’t allowed to wear spaghetti string tank tops, because boys can’t possibly focus in class. Because who doesn’t automatically start thinking about sex when they see a bare shoulder?

But then we move onto races and it only get more complicated and ridiculous.

Throughout history, white woman have always been this ideal of how all women should be. They were pure, innocent, holy, wife material. They were the girl next door, the cheerleader, the girl you bring home to mom. She’s the trophy wife that has dinner ready when you get home. She’s the Disney princess that’s waiting for her prince. But she’s also extremely defenseless according to propaganda. Ever notice that regardless of who the new scary minority was, the white women always had to be protected from them? Like they were so helpless that any man cold just steal her away at any moment, as if she had no say in the manner.

And then there is the Asian women. They’re more complex than the white women now. They are one to two things and only these things. 1.) they’re the sweet by nature, barely speak English, wife that will bathe you and cook you dinner and never talk back to be. They live for him. They’re even more ideal as a wife than the white woman. AND they’re exotic. They’re something new, something different. Or they’re the dragon lady. She’s coy and mischievous and can’t be trusted. She’s evil, still sexy, but pure evil and still desirable.

And now, what might be the most complicated of all these, is the black women. Now, I might be biased in saying that and I’m fully willing to acknowledge that but hear me out. A few weeks ago my roommate (who is African American) was telling me that black women are both sexualized and unwanted at the same time, more than any other race of women. I never really thought about it but its true. Explain to me why women get plastic surgery to have features that we are often born with. Fuller lips, bigger breast, rounder backsides yet black women who have all these naturally remain unwanted. Do you know how confusing that is? To people want to look like you but not want anything to do with you?

At the very least, at least the other two women are still wanted on some level. Yes, the desire is in the completely wrong place and for bad reasons, but they’re wanted. Black women aren’t wanted, only our features are wanted on different races. Because we’re scary. We’re aggressive. We’re loud. We’re whores. We’re gold diggers. We’re angry. We’re uneducated.

Ozeki pp 109-203

Theme: Growing up

“Do you have to live to be a hundred to really grow up?”

This particular quote really had me thinking and relating to my own life in this time being. I remember when I was thirteen, I’d imagine myself ten years in the future. Where would I be at twenty three? In my head, I would’ve already graduated college and be in California, living on the beach. I’d have a stable job and be taking care of myself. I’d be an adult. I’d be a grown up.

I turn twenty two in May and I can tell you that my life has not turned out like I thought it would. I don’t feel like an adult AT ALL. Sometimes I think I do things that are adult-like. For example, paying bills, not living with my mom, going to work, doing taxes, blah blah blah. But more often than not, I’m doing things that aren’t traditionally ”grown up”, like playing Mario Kart and spending hours in bed on Netflix.

So what does being a grown up entail? When does it start? Would you consider Nao’s dad a grown up? Because being an adult has a stigma as always having your shit together. When you become an adult, you accept responsibility and stop having fun and you ‘do what you have to do’ (whatever that means). But Nao’s dad has literally been doing the exact opposite of this…as in not accepting responsibility and doing what has to be done. Maybe being an adult means not taking short cuts? And if that’s the case then her dad is deff not an adult.

But maybe there is no age when you become an adult. There are fifteen year olds out there that are more responsible than me. And there are fifty year olds out there who have yet to step out into the world on their own. What does it mean to grow up? Why does growing up and being happy always seem to be polar opposites?

When can I just be like old Jiko and live forever?

Ozeki 305-403

Theme: Endings

I think an appropriate theme for this Ozeki post would be endings.

In this section of the book Nao’s grandmother dies, which was particularly upsetting to me because I really liked her character. But when I was reading this part, I expected Nao to be more…emotional I guess? I found it funny that I was having this reaction to this section because of my own experience with death. Like I’ve said in earlier post, my brother died when I was 8 and he was 12. My mom, sister and I went to see a therapist and apparently I was the only one that was adjusting to the accident. Looking back now, I didn’t show much emotion, in my head, there was nothing I could do to make him come back so there was no use freaking out.

I think that’s how Nao felt. I expected her to be really sad because her grandmother seemed to be the only good, positive, stable, person in her life. But she didn’t, she kind of just…let her go. Ruth’s story ended kind of the same too,her writing a letter to Nao as a kind of goodbye before she let her go. I guess we all deal differently though. Some of us need physical closer, like a face to face goodbye or a letter that you’ll never send. And some of us just let it go as easily as they let us go.

Endings can be confusing.

Mississippi Masala

If you’ve ever seen a movie with a mostly black cast then you know that usually, someone dies. And it isn’t because of natural cause like cancer or something. Can you take a guess as to what it might be?

Gang Violence!

During all of Mississippi I was waiting for something bad to happen. I was waiting for the younger brother to get shot in a drive by. I was waiting for someone to get called the N word. I was waiting for something really racially wrong to happen. And even though there was a clear diversity happening, not once did something ever go really wrong. Yeah, the parents forbid her from seeing him but that didn’t stop her! (She was in love which is on a whole different level of being ridiculous.) No, her parents said no and she ran off with him anyways! That’s how the story ended! They ran away together!

I did enjoy the movie overall. It was interesting seeing how race doesn’t necessarily determine  culture. Mina was racially Indian but she was born and raised in Africa. Demetrius was racially  African but was born and raised in America. There was definite similarities, like who important family was to both of them, but at the end of the day they chose love. That could be an American thing though, culturally, we don’t look up to our elders and keep up with traditions like we used to. Honestly though I felt like this movie portrayed my black culture pretty well. Like I was saying earlier, it was nice to see a black family and not see gang violence with it.

 

Ozeki pp. 204-304

Family Relationships/Superpowahs

I’ve always found the bond between family interesting. I had never really thought about the impact our immediate family has on us. My senior year of high school I lived with my friend Catherine. We always joked that we’re basically the same person but opposite races (she’s white and I’m black). Catherine and I grew up on completely different ends of the spectrum. My family has always been lower class, my parents were divorced, I’d lost a sibling, the only time I’ve traveled out of the country was to Vancouver, Canada and I’d only moved towns once in my life. Catherine was born in London, she’d moved around Europe until she was twelve, her parents are still together, her family was constantly taking family trips around the country during the summer and she lived in a huge three story house. Despite these differences our personalities are very similar. Home and family life clearly has a large impact on our life outside of the house.

Nao is having trouble at home with her dad’s repeated suicide attempts. Her mom is so concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and keeping an eye on her husband that she doesn’t have time for Nao. Having all of this on her mind, Nao’s last concern is herself. I think that people feel that sense of vulnerability. Despite everything that happened in my life, none of them had long term affects on me. I had my mom and she has basically been the only stable thing in my life. Maybe that’s my superpowah? Having one person in my life that I can trust. Maybe that’s everyone’s superpowah.

Nao didn’t really start coming into herself until she spent the summer holiday with her grandmother. You could argue that her sense of self was from getting away from her home and just being away from the negativity. I think it was more than that though. She felt safe.

Its that simple, to me at least. It comes down to feeling safe. And not the kind of safe that involves you staying inside your comfort zone. The kind of safe you feel when you have someone in your life that you can rely on. That kind of safety makes it feel like one wrong move won’t cause your whole life to fall apart.

Jhene Aiko

Jhene Aiko (full name Jhene Aiko Efuru Chilombo) is a mixed raced up and coming recording artist who has worked with Drake, Big Sean, Childish Gambino and several other artist. Yes, her music drew me into but I couldn’t see her name and relate it back to our pop culture class. Her mother is Japanese, Spanish and and Dominican.  Her father is African American, Yaqui, Choctaw, Cherokee, Navajo, and German Jewish.

But don’t take my word for it, listen to it yourself

Ozeki (1-108)

I moved to Bellingham when I was 12 years old with my mom after she got into Western Washington University for graduate school. We lived in a two bedroom, one bath apartment that was down the street from the college and probably designed for younger college students. You know, it was meant to be someone’s ‘first’ apartment. It wasn’t meant for a mom and a daughter. But I loved it there. It was home and I loved it.

Reading Nao and her situation after moving back to Japan it was hard not to remember being the new kid. Honestly, my first days there were kind of a blur but I remember being like, one of ten black kids in the whole school. And I remember kids calling me Denzel because my last name was Washington. And I remember a kid (who would later become one of my close friends) asked me to tell him what a 50 cent song was saying. Because he was white. And he couldn’t possibly know what they were talking about. Because he was white. At the time it was all kind of funny to me because I liked the same things the white kids liked. We were only 12! We all liked the same things because we were kids! But I took it in stride and to this day I’m pretty sure that the only reason I was remotely known throughout middle and high school was because I was ‘that black girl with the dreads’. Which I’m okay with because reading Nao’s perspective I’m aware that my grade school days could have been a hell of a lot worse.

I could relate to her though. I spent a lot of nights alone, making my own dinner and putting myself to sleep because my mom worked at night. Or sometimes she was just studying at the library. And that’s get lonely.Or being the kid at school that doesn’t have the latest fashion because you can’t afford it. Or hanging out with friends when they go out to lunch and not being able to get any. But the difference between Nao and me is that I had friends.

I once heard somewhere that if you have one friend, just one friend, then you’re good. I believe that. Anyone that has been through middle and school school knows that. I don’t know how I would’ve survived without my friends. I commend Nao though, she still has this sarcastic and sometimes hopeful tone in her voice. I think its because she knows its only for a time being. You knows something that a lot of kids in high school don’t. That one day, this will all be over and none of it will matter. Take it how you will, whether high school won’t matter or if in the grand scheme of THE WORLD your actions make little to no impact. When times get hard that notion can be a double edge sword. Do you just give up because it won’t matter anyways? Or do you decide to make the most of it while you can?