Dialectic
Oct 30th, 2004, 11:41 AM
This forum is always at risk of degrading in one of two ways:
1) The dumbass bigots make it into a woman-hating, non-Asian hating, China/Korea/whatever-loving shithole.
When I was growing up, my family and I went to Chinatown all the time to eat or buy groceries. Ten, fifteen years ago, there weren't as many Asian folk in my city as there are now. Chinatown was more like Chinastreet; it's still that way. For a while, I was the only Asian in my whole school. When another Chinese kid joined my class, we were best friends immediately.
I'm from Taiwan. My family speaks Mandarin. Until recently, almost all Chinese immigrants in North America and Europe have been Cantonese. Whenever we went to Chinatown, we weren't treated all that well because we couldn't speak the damn language. We'd be ignored, or served poorly, or catch that hint of disdain in a tone, in an expression. How can Chinese people not speak Chinese?
Imagine that. Being made an outsider by the Whites, and THEN being made an outsider by my OWN damn people. None of the Cantonese crews would say shit to the few Mandarin families around.
So should I hate them? Should I hate the motherfucking Cantonese, with their loud wailing, their pig-noses, their gutteral dog language?
'Cause from the way some of you fuckers have been acting on this forum, from the "logic" you're spewing about hapas, Blacks, browns, even Whites, I SHOULD. I should beat the shit out of every southern Chinese motherfucker I meet.
Two of the Core44s are Cantonese. Tojo's a good buddy and Lopan's like a brother to me: if they or their families ever got into any trouble, I would do everything in my damn power to help them. I can say the same thing about any of my friends: Korean, White, Brown, Arab, Black, whoever the fuck in my crew is a good and decent human being.
Joking is one thing. We can all break eachothers' balls over color, sex, or intelligence. But some of you bastards are seriously treading bigot territory. That's not what the Fighting44s are about.
2) The dumbass P.C. bitches make it into a hypersensitive, pathological liberal, peace-love-one-with-the-universe-never-say-or-do-a-"bad"-thing shithole. Not as much has been said about these men and women.
(And no, no one is just a bigot asshole or a P.C. motherfucker, everyone has complexity and depth and blah blah blah ....)
From day one, one of our central aims was to stir shit up. We are taking something like an Eminem approach to this shit: attack through Art. Spit everything inside you, the joy, the rage, the hate, the sadness, the addiction, the loneliness, the ecstasy, and don't give a fuck what people think. Don't try to enforce some ideology, and don't riddle Artistic pieces with blatant morality and causes and crusades.
But IN DOING SO, in stirring shit up and baring your soul, you AUTOMATICALLY and INTRINSICALLY become an advocate, but not a dumbass weak one. Look at what Eminem ultimately stands for: he's a voice of the outcast, a voice of poverty, a voice of revolution, a voice of racial equality. He said shit he didn't necessarily mean, 'cause people say shit they don't necessarily mean. A lot of people called his work sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, but he has proven time again that he is not: he's a caring father, he's repectful to those who respect him, he abhors gang violence, and he and Elton John even did "Stan" together, which was more than just a marketing ploy, but a statement that he didn't actually hate gays, and that at least one gay, a damn knight, no less, understood that.
And now look at him: he actually has the potential to be a force for change. Anyone who has listened to or watched the "Mosh" video understands that. I view Matt Stone and Trey Parker the same way.
The only way Art has legitimacy and credibility is if people believe you're not trying to spread some inflexible ideology. A lot of you would love to see a movie with a heroic, charming, attractive, dashing Asian male who saves the day and gets the girl and anything that offers less than that (we even heard bitching about Harold and Kumar here!) is racist or disappointing or not good enough. I'm telling you right now that if someone makes that movie, and makes it with that as a primary goal, that movie is going to be GARBAGE because it's going to be so riddled with a political agenda that it's not going to change anything, just like women-power movies don't get wide respect, just like Black-power movies don't get wide respect.
There's gotta be a genuine story, there's gotta be legitimacy and emotional sincerity and intelligence and skillful execution.
So bigots and bitches and remember: racism is stupid, but P.C. is just as retarded. Think bigger.
1) The dumbass bigots make it into a woman-hating, non-Asian hating, China/Korea/whatever-loving shithole.
When I was growing up, my family and I went to Chinatown all the time to eat or buy groceries. Ten, fifteen years ago, there weren't as many Asian folk in my city as there are now. Chinatown was more like Chinastreet; it's still that way. For a while, I was the only Asian in my whole school. When another Chinese kid joined my class, we were best friends immediately.
I'm from Taiwan. My family speaks Mandarin. Until recently, almost all Chinese immigrants in North America and Europe have been Cantonese. Whenever we went to Chinatown, we weren't treated all that well because we couldn't speak the damn language. We'd be ignored, or served poorly, or catch that hint of disdain in a tone, in an expression. How can Chinese people not speak Chinese?
Imagine that. Being made an outsider by the Whites, and THEN being made an outsider by my OWN damn people. None of the Cantonese crews would say shit to the few Mandarin families around.
So should I hate them? Should I hate the motherfucking Cantonese, with their loud wailing, their pig-noses, their gutteral dog language?
'Cause from the way some of you fuckers have been acting on this forum, from the "logic" you're spewing about hapas, Blacks, browns, even Whites, I SHOULD. I should beat the shit out of every southern Chinese motherfucker I meet.
Two of the Core44s are Cantonese. Tojo's a good buddy and Lopan's like a brother to me: if they or their families ever got into any trouble, I would do everything in my damn power to help them. I can say the same thing about any of my friends: Korean, White, Brown, Arab, Black, whoever the fuck in my crew is a good and decent human being.
Joking is one thing. We can all break eachothers' balls over color, sex, or intelligence. But some of you bastards are seriously treading bigot territory. That's not what the Fighting44s are about.
2) The dumbass P.C. bitches make it into a hypersensitive, pathological liberal, peace-love-one-with-the-universe-never-say-or-do-a-"bad"-thing shithole. Not as much has been said about these men and women.
(And no, no one is just a bigot asshole or a P.C. motherfucker, everyone has complexity and depth and blah blah blah ....)
From day one, one of our central aims was to stir shit up. We are taking something like an Eminem approach to this shit: attack through Art. Spit everything inside you, the joy, the rage, the hate, the sadness, the addiction, the loneliness, the ecstasy, and don't give a fuck what people think. Don't try to enforce some ideology, and don't riddle Artistic pieces with blatant morality and causes and crusades.
But IN DOING SO, in stirring shit up and baring your soul, you AUTOMATICALLY and INTRINSICALLY become an advocate, but not a dumbass weak one. Look at what Eminem ultimately stands for: he's a voice of the outcast, a voice of poverty, a voice of revolution, a voice of racial equality. He said shit he didn't necessarily mean, 'cause people say shit they don't necessarily mean. A lot of people called his work sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, but he has proven time again that he is not: he's a caring father, he's repectful to those who respect him, he abhors gang violence, and he and Elton John even did "Stan" together, which was more than just a marketing ploy, but a statement that he didn't actually hate gays, and that at least one gay, a damn knight, no less, understood that.
And now look at him: he actually has the potential to be a force for change. Anyone who has listened to or watched the "Mosh" video understands that. I view Matt Stone and Trey Parker the same way.
The only way Art has legitimacy and credibility is if people believe you're not trying to spread some inflexible ideology. A lot of you would love to see a movie with a heroic, charming, attractive, dashing Asian male who saves the day and gets the girl and anything that offers less than that (we even heard bitching about Harold and Kumar here!) is racist or disappointing or not good enough. I'm telling you right now that if someone makes that movie, and makes it with that as a primary goal, that movie is going to be GARBAGE because it's going to be so riddled with a political agenda that it's not going to change anything, just like women-power movies don't get wide respect, just like Black-power movies don't get wide respect.
There's gotta be a genuine story, there's gotta be legitimacy and emotional sincerity and intelligence and skillful execution.
So bigots and bitches and remember: racism is stupid, but P.C. is just as retarded. Think bigger.