This film focused on showing aspects of the Filipino culture.  I can relate to many of the things that were shown in this film.  Mostly when it came to the family interactions that were portrayed.  There was a lot of family pressure on the main character to live up to a certain standard.  They wanted him to be a doctor, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  However, I think it’s frustrating for the kids because they don’t feel like they’re talents are being acknowledged.  Personally, I have experienced similar family pressures.  My family is from Trinidad and the culture and expectations are very similar to what I saw in this film.  However, my grandma is the one who tries to pressure me because my parents are out of the picture.  I recently talked to my grandma, and she asked me for the millionth time what I was studying in school.  I told her I was taking musical theater and she asked me how I was gonna make money and support myself.  Usually I deal with this by ignoring it and making a joke or something.

There was a strong family connection in this film.  It was obvious that Ben really loved his family, but at the same time he didn’t agree with everything they did.  He wanted to make his own choices.  He also struggled with being embarrassed by his family.  At one point in the film he didn’t want his friends to be around his family and see how they were.  I really liked how later in the movie he began to understand his culture and appreciate it for it’s differences rather than being ashamed of being different.

“These persons and practices only became visible after a change in consciousness” (pg. 122)

You know how you can not notice something forever, until that one time you notice it or hear about it, and then you start seeing it everywhere?  This is what that quote reminded me of.  In this case Bascara was referring to the queer world that went completely unnoticed, until people were ready to notice it.  I feel like this is true for many different areas of life.  It also makes me think of what we talked about in seminar on Thursday; about a slanted truth.  People sometimes need the truth to be given to them piece by piece rather than all at once.

Also, kind of off topic, but I read an article that said that Disney Channel introduced their first same-sex couple on the TV show Good Luck Charlie.  I thought this was interesting and sort of tied into this quote because, why now?  I guess people are used to it, or are ready for it now.  I’m curious though how this can be applied to Asian American stereotypes and breaking away from those stereotypes.  Has anything changed since “The Slanted Screen” was made?

I found these chapters to be a combination of interesting, educational, and disturbing.  Some of it was a review for me, for example the parts about the Japanese Internment Camps, however some of it was new to me and made me think.  Unfortunately, a lot of what was in these chapters wasn’t pleasant to read.  In chapter 10, it was crazy to read about all the different Asian groups and how they reacted to WWII.  Most of them went out of their way to make sure that America knew that they were loyal and most importantly, that they weren’t Japanese.  It was amazing how it took WWII to get America to see how unfair they were being to the Asian Community.  ”‘To be fighting for freedom and democracy in the Far East, at the cost of seven million lives in five years of hard, long, bitter warfare, and to be denied equal opportunity in the greatest of democracies, seems the height of irony.’ The contradiction was too evident to be ignored and too embarrassing for the United States to be allowed to continue.” (pg. 375-376)  The lives and conditions of the Asian communities now had a chance for things to improve.

Breaking Silences was a difficult, but educational chapter to read.  The new stereotype that emerged during this time was interesting.  The new wave of immigrants that came to America during this period were much different from the immigrants years before.  They were much more educated and wanted a better life for themselves.  However, now the stereotype became, “Asian Success” (pg. 478).  A perfect example of the problem with this is, “Failing to realize that there are poor Asian families, college administrators have sometimes excluded Asian-American students from Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP), which are intended for all students from low-income families.” (478)

The story of Vincent Chin was horrible.  ”In their protests, Asian Americans recount a long, unhappy history: ‘The killing of Vincent Chin happened in 1982, not 1882–the year of the Chinese Exclusion Act!” (pg. 483)  Vincent was brutally murdered by two white guys that went to the same college that he did.  They felt threatened by him because he was Chinese and because of the stereotype that all Asians were too smart and were taking jobs away from the white Americans.  That sounds way too familiar to what was happening when Asians first began immigrating to America.  They worked hard and prospered, so naturally they were a threat and must be taken care of.