The Fighting 44s

This is, in my opinion, a very important article on the role of “ethnic nationalism” or as I would put it, “ethnocentrism” in world history and politics. While it doesn’t go into the psycho-social roots of a “mythic membership” or “rule/role” mind (which are other terms describing ethnocentrism; others include “conformist,” the “conventional mind,” or the “concrete operational” mind in cognitive terms), it acknowledges that ethnic nationalism is a fundamental aspect of human psychology, and that the liberal, pluralistic, “worldcentric” ideals of the West are actually the anomaly.

Developmental psychology tells us that an ethnocentric mind (whether it relates to a nation, a race, a culture, a religion, or some other ideological “pre-rational” ideal) is a universal stage in the developmental sequence, and must be respected as such. The question is how we can best structure a world where people at different stages (e.g. tribal, nationalistic, classical liberal, pluralistic) can live together without killing each other or paralyzing ourselves.

This article from Foreign Affairs is way too long to re-post here, so I’m only including the beginning, but I highly, highly recommend that all of you read it.

Us and Them
The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism
Jerry Z. Muller

Posted in Integral, Newsworthy, Politics, Racism, Religion, Social Issues, history | | Permalink

For the last few years, I’ve been using the term “hyper-fragmentation” to describe “post-modern” academic, political and cultural changes happening today. What I mean by this is that we are seeing, more and more, increased diversity in overall interests and political/ social positions, but increased insularity within those groups. This is happening at individiual, national, and even international levels. The Economist has written a great article about what’s happening at the neighborhood level in the U.S.

On a personal note, this is why the Fighting 44s has striven to include as many voices in its debates and articles as possible (whether people wish to participate here is a different matter), and where we can’t, to at least be relentlessly critical, both of ourselves and others. Readers may note that Lopan and I do not hold typical sets of “liberal” or “conservative” opinions, and that we have a tendency to annoy both new and long-time readers, which I view as, generally, a good thing. We are not too insular or ideologically unified amongst ourselves, but at the same time, we do have a core of shared values which enables us to function as more than an undirected collection of opinions. We apply this same approach to AA identity politics and advocacy: you need some element of “conservatism” (as we udnerstand that word politically today) to have a unified foundation from which to move, and some degree of “liberalism” to retain dynamism and the ability to think critically about both the self and the world.

Posted in Newsworthy, Politics, Social Issues | | Permalink

This is an interesting article on “racial” classification based on economic need in South Africa. Thanks to kikiandlala for pointing this out! As I’ve said in my first comprehensive statement on race, “race” is an amalgamation of a number of factors, both subjective and objective, including participation in political, economic, and legal systems. And as I’ve said for years, in the beginning, we was all black.

S Africa Chinese ‘become black’

The High Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector.

The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court, saying its members had been discriminated against.

An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

The association said their members often failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions because they were regarded as whites.

The association said Chinese South Africans had faced widespread discrimination during the years of apartheid when they had been classified as people of mixed race.

Posted in Newsworthy, Politics, Racism, history | | Permalink

Lawson Inada has generously volunteered to serve on the panel of the Thymos Frank Chin Event on July 11th, at Doernbecher Childrens Hospital!  Lawson is the Poet Laureate of Oregon–appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski last year.  He is a nationally recognized poet, and he was co-editor with Frank Chin, Shawn Wong, and Jeffrey Paul Chan of Aiiieeeee! the groundbreaking first anthology of Asian American literature.  He is one of the featured interviewees in Curtis Choy’s “What’s Wrong with Frank Chin,” and we are fortunate and appreciative of his support and participation in our event.  He will be running the panel with Curtis Choy, filmmaker and director of “What’s Wrong with Frank Chin.”

I had the fortune of seeing Lawson speak last year at one of the governor’s events, and I can attest to the fact that he is an absolutely dynamic speaker.  Having gone through the Japanese American internment camps during WWII, his poems, essays, and speeches contain a lifetime of experiences.

Posted in Activism, Blog, Newsworthy | | Permalink

I saw this article by Jeff Yang from Efren at the 8Asians website.  (Don’t click on Efren’s article if you’re at work–it may not be work safe.)  As you all know, Jeff was the founder of A Magazine a while back, and he still writes often about Asian American issues.  I posted one of his articles on this blog before (and coincidentally, I got the article from Efren at 8Asians again).

Jeff’s article is about heterosexual interracial relationships among Asian Americans, while Efren’s is about homosexual interracial relationships.  While I would agree with Efren’s opinion that gay Asians have it worse, I still don’t think he fully understands the heterosexual position.  It’s not about who has it worse; it’s about recognizing inequality and doing what we can to understand that inequality.

Anyway…our own site is mentioned in Jeff’s article, and our own Dialectic the Stealth M.C. is quoted:

As blogger Dialectic wrote on the popular Asian American online forum TheFighting44s (where four out of the top five most popular posts relate to interracial relationships): “If heterosexual white male patriarchy and what it did in the world were not so powerful, I think it would be fair to say that Asian American women and men would be ‘out-dating’ or ‘out-marrying’ at similar rates, and that we wouldn’t elevate whites, denigrate ourselves, or worry about whether we’re sexually and personally worthy of others to nearly the same extent that we do now.”

Posted in Blog, Newsworthy | | Permalink

I’m blogging a lot about Obama these days. The truth is that whether you like him or not, his candidacy and his status as the first black nominee of the Democratic Party are having repercussions around the world, and he will continue to change the national dialogue not just for African Americans but for all minorities all over the world.

Today, the New York Times printed an article about Obama’s influence in France. Evidently black people in France are inspired by his candidacy and are beginning to assert themselves culturally.

It was funny because I read this paragraph:

A new black consciousness is emerging in France, lately hastened by, of all things, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States. An article in Le Monde a few days ago described how Mr. Obama is “stirring up high hopes” among blacks here. Even seeing the word “noir” (“black”) in a French newspaper was an occasion for surprise until recently.

and was thinking that it was purely intellectual and questioning, kind of like the way we privileged, middle class Asian Americans are emerging. Then I read

Posted in Blog, Politics | | Permalink

Thanks to Jun from 8Asians who posted this.

At around 3:00 into this interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Kimmel asks if he can dunk, and Obama says:

There’s pretty good basketball in Hawaii but the only thing is, since obviously there are a lot of folks from Asian ancestry in Hawaii, generally the teams aren’t as tall.  So I was going down and posting up quite a bit.

Not too long ago, the 44’s had a similar discussion on the “short Asian” stereotypes here.

I am disappointed that Obama would say something like this, much as I was disappointed when he responded to 80/20.  On the 8A website, I mentioned that maybe it’s a Hawaii thing; I’ve noticed that people from Hawaii have a different way of talking about race as people on the Mainland.  One would still think that Obama would’ve been more sensitive to the mainland issues here.  From the video, it looks like he wasn’t trying to make a joke, but it’s a bit strange that a major party nominee would say this, especially given the people of different colors within his family tree.

Posted in Blog, Politics | | Permalink

Saw this today.

Obama is taking a super risky strategy, and I’m loving it! This is awesome! Yes, I’m a liberal, but I also have some conservative leanings, and I hate the victim mentality. Of course Obama is not the first African American person to empower his people by creating a message primarily of responsibility: Bill Cosby did it, and Malcolm X did it before him. But Obama, to my knowledge, is the first outward proponent of this “responsibility” philosophy to simultaneously:

a) Have a strong standing with black people
b) Have a strong standing with white people
b) Have the charisma to say what he says while connecting with people

I was surprised that Cosby wasn’t able to connect with people, especially after he put his money behind his words by paying for kids’ college tuition (which I thought was awesome). Malcolm connected with people, but he got pushed out of the mainstream because of his more incendiary public statements. Obama has a special gift of oratory and connection that allows him to truly connect with people, AND he has a good standing in both communities. He’s getting some great opportunities, and he’s really using them well. I hope it’ll help him win the presidency.

Posted in Blog, Politics | | Permalink

Don’t be an idiot and watch the latest Nas video at work because some PC overlord will likely have you fired for being a racist oppressor. Save it for the privacy of your own home.

Anyhow, I had a mini-debate with myself over whether or not to post the name of the song…and then how to post it? Should I blank out a single letter? Or an entire word? Should I write that this song is called “Be a N______ Too”?

And what do we all gain by being unable to write down the name of a song by an African American artist because of PC rules made to protect those in power, rather than the powerless, when the message of the song is that all of us are in it together with Nas and the African American community?

In any case, the song is pure Nas genius and the video is moving.

Posted in Blog | | Permalink

I had read a while back that Japanese had surpassed English as the most common blogging language in the world, and that the typical Japanese style of blogging was different. I was casually aware of most of the facts presented in this web video (click on “featured video, Blogging Japanese Style”), but the interviews with the Technorati board member and the food blogger made the differences more human. Blogging in Japan, as with blogging in the U.S., reflects the culture of the people creating the blogs and articles, and the blog culture represents the way many people in the culture think.

Joichi Ito from Technorati sums it up well:

I think alot of the American image of blog posts is posting to the public. How can I get more traffic to my blog? What do I have to say to the world? Whereas in Japan it’s usually to your five or ten friends. A lot of it is writing stuff that you talk about when you meet, and then a lot of it is writing about what you did when you met.

Posted in Activism, Writer's World | | Permalink