Author Archives: Imani W.

Kato/Enter the Dragon

The readings in Kato have been so amazing because it was making the Afro Asian connections that I’d been making since last quarter. I think having Jimi and Bruce as the comparisons were excellent because they both broke out of a shell that the media put them into. Not only that, they took their careers and completely flipped them upside down and gave a new meaning to it. I was pumped to watch Enter the Dragon though because the readings were leading up to it! I mean, me personally I had read a whole book about the guy and had never seen any of his movies! Honestly, I never really knew anything about him until now. He was just the original Kung Fu movie guy to me. But I had no idea he was buried in Seattle! I didn’t even know how he died!

But the movie? Oh my god I loved it. I loved it. Do you know how cool it was to see an actor actually doing their own stunts and fight scenes? You don’t see that now a days, the fight scenes are from far away so you wont notice the stunt man’s different face. And actually being able to see and know that it was Bruce Lee made all the difference. That kind of fighting skill? How do you not respect that. Yeah sure, sometimes he was hitting a dummy but the fact that it was him hitting the dummy was refreshing.

Something I did find stereotypical was that the black guy was the first to die. Surprise, surprise. It’s nothing new, watch any action or scary movie and the black person is the first to go. I’ve always found this completely out of character because as a black person, I’m never the person that’s like, “oh? did you hear that noise downstairs? Let’s go investigate.” All you have to do is watch a scary movie with my family to know this. The whole time you’ll hear things like, “GIRL! WHY ARE YOU GOING DOWN THERE? YOU BETTER GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE! GIRL! See…now you dead.” I’m just saying that in real life I’d probably survive a scary movie because I wouldn’t go out the cabin in the middle of no where with no neighbors around in the first place. But that’s just me…as a black person. But you know, I don’t speak for the whole community.

It was especially annoying when I heard that Roper was supposed to die and Lee and Williams were supposed to be in the final fight scene. But you know, two minorities making it out alive and conquering the villain? That would be too much.

Overall though, I’d totally watch it again. You just don’t see afros and evil layers like that nowadays.

Hey Arnold! (Cartoon Obsessions)

If you’re a kid of the 90′s, you know exactly who ‘Football Head’ is and were probably totally jealous of his bedroom with the remote controlled flip out couch. And if you were me you tried listening to jazz to be as cool as him.

Hey Arnold! was a Nickelodeon cartoon series that ran from 1996 to 2004. It centered around Arnold (we never learn of his last name) who lived in a boarding house with his grandparents. The characters around him were often eccentric with exaggerated personalities but he remained very mellow, rarely being caught off guard by anything.

Arnold

Arnold

Arnold’s best friend and right hand man is Gerald Johanssen. He is of African American descent and knows all the town urban legends. Not only is he the class President, he is also known as one of the coolest kids in school. In a particular episode, he got listed as a geek by another character’s “Geek List” and it really seemed to upset him. Unlike Arnold who made the “Cool List” and didn’t really care at all.

Gerald Johanssen

Gerald Johanssen

Another one of the kids at Arnold’s school (and the love interest of Gerald) was Phoebe Heyerdahl. Phoebe was Helga Pataki’s sidekick and one of the smartest girls in school. Phoebe is from Kentucky and it is assumed her mother is from there too judging by her strong southern accent. Her father however is Japanese which makes Phoebe mix raced.

Gerald’s character never seemed to portray any bad stereotypes. Yes, he had obvious and typical ones like him being good at sports and was ridiculously smooth (I expected him to say jive turkey sometimes). But he also had qualities that wouldn’t be seen as stereotypical, like him being the class president and one of the coolest kids at school. Not to mention his family represented the All-American Dream’ better than any other family on the show. His parents were still together and he was the middle child between an older brother and a younger sister. The only thing that was missing was the white pickett fence.

 

Phoebe Heyerdahl

Phoebe Heyerdahl

Phoebe on the other hand fulfilled the Asian stereotype too well. She was the smartest girl in class (in one episode she had the chance to jump two grade levels ahead to the 6th grade). She was short and had a mousy little voice. She was shy and only really spoke up in class when she knew she had the right answer. And to top it off she was basically Helga’s secretary. She was too afraid to stand up to her and often went along with her plans even thought she knew it was a bad idea.

So yeah, the show was awesome because the main character was a white male that didn’t come from a traditional family. He lived in a boarding house with his grandparents and a rainbow of different cultures within the boarding house. And let’s be honest, Arnold was just a good kid. But when you look closely, especially at Phoebe’s character, you can see where they took the easy way out and wrote a stereotypical character. And while it’s cool that Phoebe and Gerald were love interest to each other, its also says that kids of color can only be with other kids of color.

 

 

 

My Name is Khan

Something that will forever annoy me to no end is how race and who is dangerous go hand in hand in this country. In the movie, Khan is from India and has aspergers syndrome. After a fight with his wife, Mandira, he sets out on a journey to meet The President and tell him that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist. To be expected, he’s met with obstacles. I mean, it is The President. You can’t just walk up to the guy and ask him about the weather. However, its his race and religion that continues to hold him back.

His journey to meet The President takes place after 9/11 and because of that, America is on high alert and  harassing anyone and everyone who looks like the newest edition of terrorist. This much I understand, I obviously don’t agree but on some level I think its human nature of be scared of something that looks like something else that hurt you. I’m not saying what they did was okay by any means nor do I think its okay to take assumptions to such a high level. But on the absolute, simplest most basic level of human existence, I get that it boils down to plain ignorance.

What I don’t understand is why we aren’t being paranoid of every white, teenage boy. Because that seems to fit the description of most of the people responsible for school shootings. Why aren’t we looking out for the average white male? Because I guarentee you that if you look up a list of the worst serial killer in the United States, more than 90% of them will be white males. Ted Bundy? Jeffery Dahmer? Gary Ridgway? Just to name a few. Despite this though, nobody seems to take them as much as a threat. I mean in the movie it was a group of mostly white males that killed Sameer and they almost got away with it! That’s a privilege of being white I guess, if one member of your race messes up all of you aren’t punished. Not like you would be if you were of color at least.

On a happier note, the minute Kahn and Mandira started singing We Shall Overcome I felt this weird sense of pride and joy and a tightness in my chest that I can’t even describe. I’ve always related that song to the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve always heard it being sang by black voices in church or in peaceful marches. It’s a song that holds so much meaning in my culture that it didn’t even cross my mind that other cultures would sing it too. It was selfish to think that on some level, it just belonged to my culture and black people. No, its a song for anyone with something to overcome. Black or Indian, it doesn’t matter. But when Khan was in the church in Georgia and they started singing it, I started smiling again. That was the version I knew. That was home to me.

Overall, I loved the movie. There were parts that were hard to watch because they were so relate-able. That’s always a sign of a good movie to me.

 

Jimi Hendrix

One does not simply grow up in the world without knowing who Jimi Hendrix is. He’s a household icon that often brings visions of a burning guitar upon hearing his name. No ‘great’ or ‘the’ has to be put in front o his name to realize how amazing he was. Simply put, Jimi Hendrix is enough.

Personally I’ve always liked Jimi Hendrix because he wasn’t the typical black guy. HE PLAYED GUITAR. And he played it like…really good, to say the least. Black people aren’t really in the rock n roll scene and that’s why I liked him so much. I related to him. When I started snowboarding in high school people told me that ‘black people don’t do that’. I did a lot of things that were more stereo typically ‘more white’. But then I discovered Jimi and I felt better.

I enjoyed reading about him mostly because I never really knew a lot about him. His guitar skills were enough to make me a fan for life. I didn’t know about his Cherokee heritage or that he was hesitant to join forces with the Black Panthers. But I mostly liked reading about he went about speaking out against the war. He wrote songs, he made music, he was peaceful about it. While discussing a recent artist, someone told me that one song wasn’t going to change anything. At the time I completely disagreed. After reading the Jimi Hendrix section in Kato I strongly disagree. I think the power of music is highly under rated. Music is such a universal thing that it’s impossible for it not to have an influence. A hundred years ago racist songs were spreading like wildfire and that was long before the technology of today or even the 60′s and 70′s. Jimi was a skillful artist who put meaning behind his words and spread a message the only way he knew how. And for that, I commend him.

pop-ositions

“(Primarily) Middle class white kids merge themselves within the music culture as a way to escape the monotony of their lives, as well as creating their own culture by appropriating things from other cultures and making it their own.”

So maybe I was so interested in this chapter because I related to it so well. I’m not ashamed to say that at one point, I was trying to be one of those kids that went to every rave and festival. And I’m pretty sure I could’ve pulled it off if I wasn’t focused on school and basically broke.

Around two years ago I was close to giving up on school. This was back when I was nineteen and still had it in my head that I would become a veterinarian. I mean sure, I was horrible at math and chemistry was my own personal hell but I liked animals and that was enough to get me to vet school, right? Obviously not become I’m an English major now but hat’s kind of besides the point. The point is that I get it. I get the idea of wanting to escape to a whole different world. At the time I didn’t have the patience to study hard and get good enough grades to transfer schools. I thought changing majors was like giving up, like failing. And instead of facing these problems I wanted to go to raves and festivals and concerts. It was easier to loose myself in the drugs and music than to grow up.

It’s easy to mistake the ‘spiritual awareness’ you’re feeling with the typical high though. I get why it’s so appealing to youth. Its a time when you’re supposed to be ‘finding yourself’ and here the media is, shoving the possibility of if in your face. In Washington alone we have Sasqatch, Paradiso, and every single USC event for every single holiday at the WaMu theater (ex. Lucky, Resolution, Freak Night). Honestly, I’d take the whole thing more seriously if drugs weren’t such a huge part of the culture. But believe me, it’s not bearable if you’re sober.

But it is its own culture now. Guys running around in headdresses with paint on their face, girls in swimsuits and fuzzy boots. Everyone is on multiple drugs and drowning in the sounds of Skrillex. Everyone claiming that they’re their for the music. Taking aspects from as many cultures as they can to make up for their lack of one. Spending the check their parents send them for food to pay for their molly and honestly believing that it’s worth it.

But this is what being young is about, right?

YOLO

Non-Traditional

I come from a non-traditional family. It started out simple enough. A mom, a dad, an older brother and an older sister. I’m the baby. As Lilo from Lilo and Stitch would say though, we got kind of broken along the way. My parents divorced when I was six and my brother died when I was eight. My dad has since been remarried and my mom has been with the same woman for the past seven years. So now I have a mom, a dad, two step moms and all together, three step brothers. I come from a non-traditional family.

What I liked most about the Wedding Banquet was how normal they made the ‘not normal’. They didn’t have this stereotypical gay couple where one was the man and one was the woman. Or even more annoying, where they were both ridiculously flamboyant and feminine. They were just two average guys, one wasn’t ‘the man’ in the relationship and if there was then I couldn’t easily tell who. They behaved like a normal couple. They fought together, the slept together, they kissed, they cooked. That’s what its like when I’m at my mom’s house with her girlfriend and my step brother. They fight like any other couple. My step brother can annoy me like a full brother would. We’re technically non-traditional but if you hung out with us for a day, you’d see just how traditional we are. I was excited at the end o the movie, when all three of them decided to raise the child. I wouldn’t trade my childhood for the world. I have stories and experiences that I wouldn’t have if I grew up ‘normally’. I have perspectives and I think I’m a pretty open person because of the way I was raised.

As I’ve mentioned in a different post and briefly in this one, my brother died when I was eight. He was twelve. In The Motel Sam’s character talks about how he would wish to die at twelve when he was eight years old. I felt my throat close up when he said that, it was such a coincidence. He was saying that nothing good happens after you’re twelve, that it’s all downhill from there. I’ve always felt the complete opposite. I often thing about all the things that my brother didn’t get the chance to do. He never graduated from middle, never went to high school, never got his driver’s license. He never got to graduate from high school and then go to college. Or not go to college, he never had that choice. He never got to fall in love and move out and explore the world on his own. There is so much that he didn’t get to do. It was strange to me that anyone would see life being pointless after twelve. All the best and the worst things happen then.

The New Kung Fu

Readings from East Main Street, From Kung Fu to Hip Hop and the last kung fu movie we watched on Thursday have been drilling the same thought into our heads. Black people loved kung fu. The thing is, I was aware of how cool the fighting style was among my community, on some level at least. The images of afro haired black men doing Bruce Lee moves was nothing new to me. My dad listens to music from that era all day everyday and Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting was one of my favorite songs as a child. I knew it was a part of my culture, I guess I just never knew why.

These readings and movies made it clear though. Minorities relate to minorities. When Bruce Lee came out on the big screen as THE GOOD GUY, the guy that was kicking ass and taking names he wasn’t just an icon for the Asian community. He was a symbol for everyone who was different, everyone who didn’t look like the typical blonde haired, blue eyed, white male who swooped in and saved the day. I mean sure, he wasn’t a black man but he wasn’t white and that was the important part. During The Civil Rights Movement, kung fu gave the black community another voice, an added voice.

In recent years though, we’ve seen a lot of Asian influence in the hip hop community. You could argue that it started with Cibo Matto in the 90′s but regardless we have several Asian Americans in the Hip hop scene today. Blue Scholars, Dumbfounded, Far East Movement, Jin, Apl of the Black Eyed Peas and my most recent find, Awkwafina. It isn’t just the music scene though. I mentioned it briefly in another post but they are also huge in the hip hop dance community too. In the first movie about Kung Fu that we watched, some of them could do a back flip onto their head as part of their training! Where else have you seen this? Break dancing, B-boy style! Jabawakeez, Poreotics and Quest Crew, three winners and three of my favorite crews on America’s Best Dance Crew. While Jabawakeez was mostly Asian American, Quest Crew and Poreotics were all Asian American and they were excellent. So is Hip Hop the new Kung Fu? Is hip hop giving the Asian/American community a new voice the same way Kung Fu did for my community 40 years before?

But on the real, you should probably watch all these videos.

Quest Crew

 

Jabawakeez

 

Poreotics

 

And also Kaba Modern who didn’t win but was all Asian/American and had three female crew members

KungFu Movies first thoughts

So can we start out with the fact that everyone in the movies we watched looked like, ridiculously good for their age? Like the guy who moved to St. Thomas and said he stopped competing at 60!!!! Like seriously? I know they say black don’t crack but they all took it to a whole new level.

Something that I found interesting and funny was when they were talking about the shackle hands technique. He said it originated in America, with the slaves. He said that it was as American as apple pie. He smirked and laughed a little bit and I found myself smirking too. No one else in the class seemed to find it funny but I guess I found it funny…maybe funny isn’t the right word. Clever. I found it clever that they took something like slavery, something that bounds you and is supposed to hinder you and they turned it into a fighting form? I don’t know, I guess I’m constantly amazing by the way minorities turn negatives into positives and make it work. Also the fact that slavery is as American as apple pie is funny in the darkest way possible and maybe I’m a horrible person for finding it humorous.

Another one of the guys in the black kungfu movie was talking about how African warriors would play music while they fought and how dance moves came from fighting styles. I can see that, they’re both art forms and I feel like when they’re done properly, there is a sense of fluidity. I started thinking about hip hop dancing, break dancing and the B boys and how they can flip on top their heads just like the kungfu masters can. Interesting, no? How closely they correlate. How you can almost vividly trace the origins of a dance move to its fighting ancestors.

And then thinking about hip hop and dancing made me think of ABDC which I was obsessed with until the last season because it got stupid. But ABDC stands for America’s Best Dance Crew and two of the best crews to ever step foot on that stage were primarily Asian/American. Jabawakeez and Quest Crew ( the winners of season 1 and season 3).

As Told by Ginger (Cartoon Obseesions)

In the world of Rugrats and Spongebob, As Told by Ginger was a cartoon for the average preteen girl that was battling the challenges of everyday middle school life. The show focused on Ginger Foutley, a 13 year old girl being raised by a single mother, dealing with a really weird younger brother and trying to avoid the mean girls at school. I remember loving the show because it was the first cartoon I saw where the main character had divorced parents. Not like one parent died or one parent just isn’t talked about. No, she had two parents but they were divorced, just like me. Also, she was basically the only cartoon character that hanged her clothes and I thought that was pretty dope.as-told-by-ginger-2

Ginger had three best friends. Dodie, who was that one friend with the over protective mom and she kind of acted like she knew everything? Also, she was that friend that would somehow back up your bad ideas then panic when the plan fell apart and you were moments away from being grounded for life. Then there was Darren who was her next door neighbor who started out as just her friend until he got his braces off and was suddenly hot and muscular and could play football? Because braces hold you back from all of that. AND THEN there was Macie Lightfoot.hqdefault

Macie Lightfoot was the definition of awkward. She had really bad asthma so she was constantly wheezing, her nose was stuffed up a lot too? I think? I just remember her always having tissues. She was short and shy and wore glasses and was really smart too. Upon more research I found that she was also half Asian. They never specify what race of Asian but her mom is apparently Asian. The Internet defines Macie as such:

“Ginger’s other best friend is Macie, 14 years old (Jackie Harris). Macie is in a constant state of panic, as she is allergic to everything and fears change. She is portrayed as the “geekiest” one of the group, and is very knowledgeable.”

Now, because this is middle after school there was also a group of mean girls that ran the school. They were basically the original Mean Girls with the exception of Heather’s and the Pink Ladies. So they were basically just before Mean Girls. There was the leader, Courtney Gripling who was blonde, fashionable, pretty, rich and popular. Even though she was the ring leader she was also the nicest of the group because she liked Ginger. Her best friend however was Miranda Killgallen.tumblr_m2w31tVP9f1ru81evo1_500

Miranda was one of the popular girls and also the girl you never wanted to mess with. She kind of just gets everything she wanted and if she didn’t she found a way. She’s constantly trying to ruin Ginger’s reputation or finding way to get her in trouble. Her father is a police officer and she is African-American. The internet had this to say about her:

“Miranda Killgallen (voiced by Cree Summer) is Courtney’s right-hand woman and possibly the wickedest girl in school, serving as Ginger’s main antagonist on the show. Apart from having totally different personalities, Miranda’s dislike for Ginger mainly stems from her fear that “Foutley” may replace her as Courtney’s best friend. On top of that, both Miranda and Ginger have a romantic interest in Ian Richton.”

In my opinion, the show did several things right. They had a main character being raised by a single mother and portrayed it well! I mean, the mom was a nurse and reminded me a lot of my own mom, she often came home tiered and she could be kind of embarrassing but she was always there when they needed her. Ginger had legitimate problems that 13 year old girls have, like liking a boy that barely knows your name. And how spot on they were with how cruel girls can be! They had episodes about depression, peer pressure, crushes, sexual harassment. They dealt with her mom dating a guy who has kids and how annoying that can be if you’re the kid.

But going back and watching the show its easy to see where they took the easy way out and used race against the character. Macie totally fuels the Asian stereotype the same way Miranda does with the black women stereotype. Macie is the classic nerd, wearing glasses, allergic to everything, ridiculously smart and shy. Not to mention I can’t remember her ever having a love interest in the series. And Miranda is loud, she’s sassy, she’s evil, she’s inconsiderate and she does what it takes to get what she wants.

Typical I guess. The Asian kid is the nerd while the black kid is the villain.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cartoon Comparisons!

So I was doing some research and looking up a whole bunch of cartoons that aired on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network and I came across this show called The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. At first I didn’t know what it was then I vaguely remembered it as something I’d watch if there was nothing else on TV. But to job my memory I watched the opening sequence of it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s basically about this girl (Juniper Lee) who runs around defeating magical monsters with the help of her wise old grandma. Sound familiar?

Okay, what about American Dragon: Jake Long. It’s basically about a boy (Jake Long) who run around defeating magical creatures with the help of his wise, old grandpa. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both characters are Chinese American too…

Just interesting.