Donna Kate Ruskin
I've had enough
I'm sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody
Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me
Right?
I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folks
To the ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists the
Black separatists to the artists the artists to the my friends' parents. .
Then I've got to explain myself
To everybody
I do more translating
Than the Gawdamn U.N.
Forget it
I'm sick of it
I'm sick of filling in your gaps
Sick of being your insurance against
The isolation of your self-imposed limitations
Sick of being the crazy at your holiday dinners
Sick of being the odd one at your Sunday Brunches
Sick of being the sole Black friend to 34 individual white people
Find another connection to the rest of the world
Find something else to make you legitimate
Find some other way to be political and hip
I will not be the bridge to your womanhood
Your manhood
Your human-ness
I'm sick of reminding you not to
Close off too tight for too long
I'm sick of mediating with your worst self
On behalf of your better selves
I am sick
Of having to remind you to breath
Before you suffocate
Your own fool self.
Forget it
Stretch or drown
Evolve or die
The bridge I must be
Is the Bridge to my own power
I must translate
My own fears
Mediate
My own weaknesses I must be the bridge to nowhere
But my true self
And then
I will be useful.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
big business
I think our month should include accounts of Asian economic success. Takaki goes into some detail about Japanese business entreprenuer Masajiro Furuya and the following are excerpts from Chapter 5 the section on ethnic solidarity, the Japanese settling of America. It's hard to display this sort of historical information in an exciting way. Maybe a skit in a performance we put on during the month that describes the kind of communities immigrant Japanese would find in the states and how Furuya and his company facilitated the settling of America for his kind, and paved the way for future ethnic enterprises.
From Takaki:
Japanese ethnic enterprise in America also included large-scale businesses. Masajiro Furya was considered a top businessman among Japanese on the Pacific Coast. Borin in 1863, Furuya received a teacher's credential and served in the military for three years. In 1890 he arrived in Seattle, where he worked as a tailor; two years later, he opened a tailor shop and grocery store. His business expanded rapidy as more and more Japanese immigrants came to the Northwest. His grocery store became a department store where Japeanese customers could find ethnic foods such as sake and tofu as well as Japanese art. Furuya established branch stores in Portland and Tacoma, a post office, a labor supply agency, and the Japanese Commercial Bank...
Furuya was able to pay his Japanese workers ow wages, for they were unable to find employment in white owned companies...The Furuya Company was part of a grwoing service economy that paralleled increasing Japanese participation in agriculture.
From Takaki:
Japanese ethnic enterprise in America also included large-scale businesses. Masajiro Furya was considered a top businessman among Japanese on the Pacific Coast. Borin in 1863, Furuya received a teacher's credential and served in the military for three years. In 1890 he arrived in Seattle, where he worked as a tailor; two years later, he opened a tailor shop and grocery store. His business expanded rapidy as more and more Japanese immigrants came to the Northwest. His grocery store became a department store where Japeanese customers could find ethnic foods such as sake and tofu as well as Japanese art. Furuya established branch stores in Portland and Tacoma, a post office, a labor supply agency, and the Japanese Commercial Bank...
Furuya was able to pay his Japanese workers ow wages, for they were unable to find employment in white owned companies...The Furuya Company was part of a grwoing service economy that paralleled increasing Japanese participation in agriculture.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
fuck shit asshole
we should just watch films instead of reading takaki. i mean it's been really beneficial to have the numbers and the theory to take us down the path to building a better understanding of asian american history, but watching picture bride was exactly chap 4 and more. the film brilliantly depicted true to life histories- well almost word for word what takaki was writing about-and gave them a life that was missing in the almost 40 pages of description, statistics and personal voice that takaki outlines in his history. which makes me think that film component is tres necessary for our asian american history month project, bring to light and to life the stories of the people written out of the american history.
i really cant focus on anything too profound that i noticed in the readings at the moment, mostly because they all follow the same line that i've been talking for a while now. money sucks, exploitation sucks, capitalism sucks, white people suck. why does everything i read need to constantly remind me that the things/people/truths that make the world go round are depressing as fuck. shit, asshole.
i really cant focus on anything too profound that i noticed in the readings at the moment, mostly because they all follow the same line that i've been talking for a while now. money sucks, exploitation sucks, capitalism sucks, white people suck. why does everything i read need to constantly remind me that the things/people/truths that make the world go round are depressing as fuck. shit, asshole.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
down with the man
This time around Takaki went into a lot of depth and detail about the arrival of the Chinese and their personal experiences as strangers from a different shore. Not only was I distrubed by the length of the chapter (it was a lot of detail) but why does it seem like capitalism is the route of all our problems?
On the topic race and economy, Takaki concludes that "in America the Chinese were forced to become "strangers" by economic interests-the demands of white capitalist for a colonized labor force and the "ethnic antagonism" of white workers- as well as by an ideology defining America as a homogenous white society." Exploitation is the basis on which capitalism thrives. This greed-based economic system breeds racism and furthers that very ideology that America was founded on: if white people are virtuous, what they do is virtuous therefore enslaving and degrading other races is acceptable, and cannot be unethical or immoral. It's a very circular, disgusting ideology, yet it is so ingrained that people cannot see it and it is necessary for the success of capitalism. The few prosper on the backs of many, only the many are told that they have a fighting chance in a system the institutionalizes discrimination and depends on their second class status. Is economic equality the only way out?
On the topic race and economy, Takaki concludes that "in America the Chinese were forced to become "strangers" by economic interests-the demands of white capitalist for a colonized labor force and the "ethnic antagonism" of white workers- as well as by an ideology defining America as a homogenous white society." Exploitation is the basis on which capitalism thrives. This greed-based economic system breeds racism and furthers that very ideology that America was founded on: if white people are virtuous, what they do is virtuous therefore enslaving and degrading other races is acceptable, and cannot be unethical or immoral. It's a very circular, disgusting ideology, yet it is so ingrained that people cannot see it and it is necessary for the success of capitalism. The few prosper on the backs of many, only the many are told that they have a fighting chance in a system the institutionalizes discrimination and depends on their second class status. Is economic equality the only way out?
money on my mind, among other things
Takaki pissed me off a little in the beginnging of this second chapter, but I'm not sure if that was just me after hours of reading black women feminist voices on a quest for inclusion. But he makes a couple comments about American history and our society being built on the backs of others, yet he makes no mention of slavery, or the use of black labor, and although I know this is the histoy of Asian-American, it bothered me.
It was interesting to note the role of women in building the Chinese communiities in both California and Hawaii. What was troubling though was that even things like family life are directly linked to the economy. Hawaii needed the Chinese as a stable labor force, to live on plantations and maintain a life that required a wife and kids. On the other hand, in California, Chinese men were wanted for only a short time supply of mobile migrant workers, and women that did come over provided the same type of short term services, quite the opposite of the family needed for the plantation lifestyle. Money decides everything.
It was interesting to note the role of women in building the Chinese communiities in both California and Hawaii. What was troubling though was that even things like family life are directly linked to the economy. Hawaii needed the Chinese as a stable labor force, to live on plantations and maintain a life that required a wife and kids. On the other hand, in California, Chinese men were wanted for only a short time supply of mobile migrant workers, and women that did come over provided the same type of short term services, quite the opposite of the family needed for the plantation lifestyle. Money decides everything.
Monday, September 3, 2007
title controversy, takaki reading
Let me start off by saying that this is the first time I've ever posted any of my thoughts/opinions/words in an online journal/blog-like forum. I can't help but associate this with our incredibly voyeuristic self-obsessed generation, and I feel completely vulnerable sharing with annoymous peoples. That said, I can't wait to read everything everyone else posts, haha
I wasn't completely shocked when Francis told us that "history" was omitted from the title of the course. It was definitely a leading question though since it was prefaced by talk of how we were pioneers. Since Asian American history has not been taught before, calling this course as such would not only be calling attention to the lack of courses being offered on the subject but would also bring with it the need to continue expansion of this neglected topic. Also, people are afraid of new and different things, it's best to avoid controversy.
Reading Takaki, I felt overwhelmed with information that I desperately wished I had had access to during my educational career. My college career, has therefore appropriately consisted of unlearning everything else, and this is still, as I'm in my senior year, yet another history of which I was completely unaware. It seems almost absurd though because not only did I grow up around many Asian Americans, I just had never questioned the societal norms that had brought about the suppression of Asian history as I had for other minority groups.
What I found particularly striking was the sheer numbers in which Asian Americans immigrated to the United States, and how such a large number of people could go without historical recognition and mass appreciation for so long. Takaki writes that "eurocentric history serves no one. It only shrouds the pluralism that is America and that makes our nation so unique, and thus the possibilty of appreciating our rich racial and cultural diversity remains a dream deferred." He then goes on to list numbers and dates and anecdotes, all displaying racism, evincing hatred and exemplifying the institutionalized discrimination that kept Asian Americans as outsiders, as "strangers from a different shore." This Eurocentric spin has kept Americans from getting to know each other, has kept us in our own neighborhoods, in our own boxes and away from the "outsiders" that we are made to view as strange and not at all like us. Not only do I think it's xenophobia, but very much a capitalist tool to isolate and alienate us from one and other. That just might be the socialist in me, whatever.
It was also particularly uncomfortable to think of our "founding fathers" in such racist terms.
Takaki of course is telling his story, all the left out bits and important stuff for him. This is all new to me so I'll take it and decipher it as I can, but it seems like even in Takaki's history of Asian Americans some are bound to be forgotten.
I wasn't completely shocked when Francis told us that "history" was omitted from the title of the course. It was definitely a leading question though since it was prefaced by talk of how we were pioneers. Since Asian American history has not been taught before, calling this course as such would not only be calling attention to the lack of courses being offered on the subject but would also bring with it the need to continue expansion of this neglected topic. Also, people are afraid of new and different things, it's best to avoid controversy.
Reading Takaki, I felt overwhelmed with information that I desperately wished I had had access to during my educational career. My college career, has therefore appropriately consisted of unlearning everything else, and this is still, as I'm in my senior year, yet another history of which I was completely unaware. It seems almost absurd though because not only did I grow up around many Asian Americans, I just had never questioned the societal norms that had brought about the suppression of Asian history as I had for other minority groups.
What I found particularly striking was the sheer numbers in which Asian Americans immigrated to the United States, and how such a large number of people could go without historical recognition and mass appreciation for so long. Takaki writes that "eurocentric history serves no one. It only shrouds the pluralism that is America and that makes our nation so unique, and thus the possibilty of appreciating our rich racial and cultural diversity remains a dream deferred." He then goes on to list numbers and dates and anecdotes, all displaying racism, evincing hatred and exemplifying the institutionalized discrimination that kept Asian Americans as outsiders, as "strangers from a different shore." This Eurocentric spin has kept Americans from getting to know each other, has kept us in our own neighborhoods, in our own boxes and away from the "outsiders" that we are made to view as strange and not at all like us. Not only do I think it's xenophobia, but very much a capitalist tool to isolate and alienate us from one and other. That just might be the socialist in me, whatever.
It was also particularly uncomfortable to think of our "founding fathers" in such racist terms.
Takaki of course is telling his story, all the left out bits and important stuff for him. This is all new to me so I'll take it and decipher it as I can, but it seems like even in Takaki's history of Asian Americans some are bound to be forgotten.
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