Actually, in my Japanese blogging post, I was going to say that the American habit of blogging to try to change the world actually comes from the Christian evangelical tradition. I was going to write that that same tradition helped us to eliminate slavery, and that it’s that legacy that has us going around the world and trying to change the world. But then I realized that the post was already too long.

So if anyone asks, I actually do respect religion and how it has historically influenced our culture, even if I’m not religious myself. And I like the imagery and symbolism. Thanks for the props!

HAHAHAHA!

Props, jaehwan. Maybe people don’t always like what you have to say or write here on the F44s, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily unproductive or invalid.

I know you’re not a religious guy, but the term “prophetic voice” comes to mind via the writings of Professor Cornel West - he argues that people have a duty to speak up and declare “the truth”, especially when it comes to pointing out and critiquing what’s wrong with our culture and society (which is identical to the function of the prophets in the Bible… God would send them to the Jewish people to remind them they were becoming corrupt or screwing up).

So in short… embrace your role as a “prophetic voice” in the bloggosphere! ;)

Surely it’s your job to stir things up. You’re submitting what’s equivalent to an OPEd page every few days here. If you don’t tick people off, IMHO there’s no way that you’re doing your job.

Perhaps a clearer delineation should be drawn between disagreeing with a column and disagreeing with the person who wrote the column. In other words it’s legitimate to say, “That column was stupid!” but not to say that “Jaehwan is stupid for writing it.”

Thanks, King.

I guess “Jaehwan is stupid” is okay too if it’s backed up by reasoning. Haha! Seriously though, I think the 44’s is also complicated by the fact that some of here have known each other for a while. For me, anyway, that adds in another layer of complexity.

Caocao:

Good points.

Xian:

This is false, and I’m not pointing that out to treat you, I think it’s illustrative of the force of vilification–there have been at least two examples of positive work by Kingston which have been lost in the flames going back and forth.

Xian,

I still stand by my original statement. What positive work? One person simply says that she is a “scholar,” and while that may be true, it doesn’t necessarily equate to good work for Asian Americans. It’s like evaluating Bush and saying, “He started a big war by misleading the American people, but he is a politician, so that’s a good contribution.” (In all fairness to Bush, he has appointed minorities and given lots of money to Africa for the fight against AIDS, so I believe he has made some positive contributions, even if the negative outweigh the positive.) It’s not vilification; it’s evaluation. She hasn’t made one positive contribution, unless you take the alternative interpretation argument about her fiction, or unless you believe that she contributes by creating dialogue.

I think our differences come from the teacher vs. businessperson thing. Both are important because we need to help our least fortunate, which our teachers do well, but I think we also need to manage by having the ability to “fire” those who are not up to the job or who have not conducted themselves well. It’s like Martin Luther King must’ve said to some of those unfit people who wanted to march: “I don’t think so.” Keep in mind too, Xian, that I’m not just aiming and shooting at everyone and everything. I think I may have made fun of Natalise, but I don’t identify her as a demogogue or leader of a negative movement.

But you’re right, let’s move on. I agree with everything else you say. Let’s definitely revisit that AM/AF question in August.

Perhaps a clearer delineation should be drawn between disagreeing with a column and disagreeing with the person who wrote the column. In other words it’s legitimate to say, “That column was stupid!” but not to say that “Jaehwan is stupid for writing it.”

it has to come from a position of power where those perpetuating it doesn’t believe it’s offensive, but those who are affected by it believes it to be.

namely, most pseudo-liberals think they’re so enlightened to promote PC rhetoric of saving the savages from their heathen civilizations — how many works of fictions have there been for this?

while whites view it as noble or liberal, POC see it differently as colonialist and ethnocentric and racist.

the same goes for “interracial marriages” that from a pseudo-liberal perspective seems progressive because of “colorblind love.” however, when you take it in actuality of AF/WM and the history of colonialism and sexism and why “colorblind” will always mean white, it becomes problematic for the POC.

until the playing fields are leveled for everyone involved, there’s just no such thing as the dominant power structure’s “fiction” being open to interpretation.

I think you are a passionate visionary for the Asian American community. Any critique comes not from a lack of a respect, but from the knowledge that we must win. I would argue the opposite from what you’ve said–the activist pieces are absolutely MUST reads, and represent a compass to our future triumph as an Asian American community.

The “let’s get them” posts’ massive comments are a testament of how easily we can get distracted by in-fighting and how much energy is being spent on that. We won’t win doing that.

2) no one has posted anything positive that Kingston has contributed other than just being there and drawing attention to Asian people

This is false, and I’m not pointing that out to treat you, I think it’s illustrative of the force of vilification–there have been at least two examples of positive work by Kingston which have been lost in the flames going back and forth.

3) This is all rearranging furniture on the deck of the Titanic. We are still politically reactive, and until our action list is something other than “respond to Chink’s steaks”, and is rooted in a cohensive, strategic ideological stand, we will continue to spend our energy in-fighting. Rather than just critique, I’ll start:

Resolution one: We as a community recognize that both AF self-hate and AM self-hate are actually manifestation of the same condition–a lack of secure self-image in reaction to wide-spread sexism and racism along sexual lines that rooted in mainstream values and ideology.

In other words, what are referred to as “AM misogyny” and “AF selloutism” are actually the exact same thing.

We as a community, rather than fight a pitched battle over which side is to blame, will unify to compassionately treat those with this sickness, and build alternative images of Asian American sexuality that can replace this damage imagery from mainstream racist/sexist society.

Yes, I don’t expect people to comment on the positive ones because…well, there’s nothing usually to say, other than, “Good for that person!” I was just making the point that it seems negative even when it really isn’t.

Speaking of negative, even though I was fighting against Xian’s point about negativity, the negativity in The Feminine Mystique actually is making it hard for me to finish…

Sargasso,

Thanks for the argument. I’m absolutely beat (and exhilarated) right now because I’ve been working on the aforementioned event, but I will definitely read that article in the future. I read the first couple of pages, and it looks like it’s the same fiction argument that I’ve seen a few times. The problem with the argument (as it seems right now) is that Kingston’s fiction represents many things as fact, like the previously discussed slave/woman thing. Or it creates fiction based on exaggerated accusations of footbinding against Asian men.

Also, she’s done some really dirty politicking outside of her writing, such as when her friends stripped Frank Chin of a literary award. She’s also said some really stupid nonsense that basically branded any angry Asian American activist as being out of touch.

I haven’t read the article yet, but I eventually will. I might actually want to get Kingston out of mind for the next month or so with this event, but I (and hopefully we!) will return to it. Actually we have to return to it since it’s such an important battle in Asian American culture. Let’s definitely revisit it soon.

Thanks for posting!