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"Model minority, my ass"
Eugene Volokh writes about Judge Sotomayor's nomination to the
Supreme Court:
That's obviously important for a wide range of issues on which the
liberal position would trouble not just conservatives, but also
libertarians and moderates: the individual right to keep and bear arms,
the right of Asians and whites to equal treatment under the
Constitution's racial equality provisions and federal equal rights
statutes,
I am so sick of people using Asians to drive wedges and otherwise
cover up their real agendas.
Sidebar: Volokh is obliquely referring to the claim, mostly made by
anti-affirmative-action types, that Asian-Americans are harmed by
affirmative action policies, mostly by focusing on university
admissions. See the Nation for a good rundown on why
Asian-Americans consistently reject an end to affirmative action
policies.
As A.R. Sakaeda wrote:
Members of the model minority often are used to shame other people of
color. They can do it, why can't you? If you would only have those same
close-knit families. If you only valued education more. If you only
worked harder. Racism is a thing of the past.
Holding up Asian Americans as a model divides communities of color,
making it difficult for us to see our commonalities.
"Model" too often means you don't have to ride in the back of the bus.
You can ride near the front of the bus, but you have to be very, very
careful never to say anything about the people forced to ride in back,
as writer David Mura notes.
Honestly, I remember the 80s, specifically for me growing up in
Vancouver as Chinese immigration surged. I think the reasons American
conservatives try to lump Asians with whites (essentially against other
minorities) is (1) because it sounds better than just saying "the right
of whites to equal treatment under the Constitution" and (2) because
there are relatively few Asian-Americans in the US. If the numbers of
AsAms in the US was a lot higher, I don't think that 'solidarity' of the
kind Volokh espouses would have a whole lot of staying power.
posted at: 23:57 Wed 27/May/2009 |
/politics |
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"Birth Month" on Facebook
As I turned 32 this year (or 0x20 in hexadecimal), I decided I wanted to
emphasize this occurrence on Facebook by updating my status daily, each
time with an absurdly grandiose (or sometimes just absurd) status
update. And now I'd like to post them here as an archive, and because
I need to put something on my blog.
It was surprisingly annoying having to come up with new and strange
updates every day. I missed a few - one for laziness, one or two for
sickness - and ripped off the Simpsons and other favourite joke sources
here and there as well, though as far as I can tell a fair number of
these are original. As well, it's pretty clear I ran out of gas near
the end.
Some of the comments I got were encouraging. Some people just
appreciated the random jokes, but my favourite comment by far was "I get
a sense of how it must be to live in North Korea".
Mar 29: Andrew Chang says birth month celebrations commence next week.
Please clear your calendars.
Mar 30: Andrew Chang says birth month celebrations commence this
Wednesday. Counting down: 2 more days...
Mar 31: Andrew Chang says birth month celebrations commence this
Wednesday. Counting down: 1 more day. This is not a drill, repeat, this
is not a drill.
continue reading...
posted at: 07:27 Mon 04/May/2009 |
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Why the AIG bonuses matter
Quick question: why is Joseph Cassano not mentioned in the same breath
with Nick Leeson and Jerome Kerviel? All three took down their
respective financial institutions (AIG, Barings, Societe Generale) with
a series of bad bets. The latter two are convicted criminals. Cassano
took in millions from his basically fraudulent schemes, then went on to
leave the company, with a million dollar a year "consulting" contract.
(At least that bit of golden parachute was later rescinded...) (edit:
no, his golden parachute was one million dollars A MONTH.)
Anyways, all that is a prelude to my real point. Why do the AIG
bonuses matter? Aren't they absolutely dwarfed by the scale of the
overall bailout to the company? Yes, but. The bailouts of the company
have been frantic efforts to keep the entire world's financial system
from collapsing in a chain reaction. The bonuses, however, are
completely indefensible. $450 million is going to AIGFP!
There's only 370 people in that division, and more importantly, it is
the division that sank the company.
continue reading...
posted at: 13:57 Wed 18/Mar/2009 |
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Comments down
Comments are down until I can swap out the antiquated captcha system
with a new one and its blosxom plugin.
posted at: 13:51 Mon 02/Mar/2009 |
/blogging |
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Bivalve molluscs are funny
(This is pure silliness)
About a week ago, I was feeling happy for no particular reason and so I
put "Andrew is happy as a clam" on my Facebook status. Then, a couple
of days after that, I got sick, so I thought I would write "Andrew is
sick as a dog", but at the last moment I decided to write "Andrew is
sick as a clam" instead. Then, later in the week I felt a bit better,
and thus "Andrew is as happy as a somewhat sick clam". (Followed, for
the record, by "Andrew is as happy as a somewhat sick clam who's full of
barbeque", "Andrew is trying not to be shellfish", and then "Andrew
feels as healthy as a clam!".)
The point is that the phrase "sick as a clam" just amuses me no end, and
I can't even quite figure out why. I know this can't amuse anyone else
as much as it does me, but I still want to twist a few other common
animal phrases ("clever as a fox", "strong as an ox", "proud as a
peacock", and so on).
posted at: 06:29 Tue 10/Feb/2009 |
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