Things You Might Have Missed

Photo courtesy of Angry Asian Man

1. Do ya'll want to talk about #CancelColbert? It's been consuming my entire weekend basically but if you're looking for some more thought-provoking essays, this one by Jay Caspian Kang (who actually interviewed Suey Park) is a great one. This Time Magazine one (actually co-written by Suey and Eunsong Kim) is a good one, too. Don't agree with any of it? Jeff Yang over at Wall Street Journal talks about the "perils" of "hashtag activism."

2. Another thorn in my side is the Model Minority myth. ColorLines has this super informative piece on "The Economic Truth About the 'Model Minority'. This article on Race Files gets into it even more by calling the Model Minority a "lever of white supremacy." Scott Nakagawa says, "Anti-black racism may be the fulcrum, or pivot point, of white supremacy, but the model minority myth is one of white supremacy’s many levers."

Photo courtesy of Huffington Post

3. In light of the new Cesar Chavez biopic, poet/novelist and community organizer Bino A. Realuyo pens an open letter to the often-erased Filipino-Americans involved in the Movement. Says Realuyo, "I didn't know about you when I started organizing in the '90s. I had role models, but no Filipino-Americans. In the community organizing world, no one ever mentioned Filipinos next to the apotheosized Cesar Chavez. No Larry Itliong. No Philip Vera Cruz. None of these Filipino men and their Agricultural Worker Organizing Committee that spearheaded the very strike that catapulted Cesar Chavez into American memory and left you in the shadows."

4. Did you know more than half of Asian American teens are bullied in school? I shared a report on Sikh kids getting bullied last time, so although this fact is not new, it's still heartbreaking. Click here for full size infographic. According to a 2011 survey released by both the US Justice and Education Departments shows that Asian Americans teens are three times as likely to face bullying online. And compared to any other ethnic group, they endure more bullying in US schools.  

5. And to end on a light note: How often do you see a comedian on national television/late night say "race is a social construct"? I've been a huge fan of Hari Kondabolu for awhile: his take on race in America as well as growing up a child of immigrant parents resonates loudly with me. Here he is in support of his new album Waiting for 2042: