May Update

Allison W
Allison W
Sep 4, 2018 · 11 min read
The Asian American Movement: protesters protest police brutality and racial profiling during the 1970’s (photo credit: Corky Lee)

HAPPY APAHM!

I’ve decided to used the part of this post to collect some of my favorite topics of discussion in Asian American history, politics, and identity — and attempted to scavenge various articles, opinion posts, and podcasts to summarize some of the discourse around them. There are a lot of links so if you feel like falling down a rabbit hole, enjoy!

👀 = Read
👂 = Listen

👀 Why is this still real???: The “Model Minority”
Alright, let’s start with one of my favorite quotes of all time:

A model is a 👀 simplification or approximation of reality and hence will not reflect all of reality. … Box noted that “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” While a model can never be “truth,” a model might be ranked from very useful, to useful, to somewhat useful to, finally, essentially useless.

Oakland, CA — 1969.

The “Model Minority”, on net, is not useful. Let’s all try to stay away from positive stereotypes (which are still stereotypes) and not act like these stereotypes exist in a perfectly isolated context that boosts our racial confidence (“yay, our people!”), when it, in fact, exists very much in a public psychological space that naturally conjures up culturally negative stereotypical counterparts (if we’re quiet, can we still be leaders?). And not to leave out the damaging emotional impact to our Asian American friends and family that do not conform to these stereotypes where the high cost of academic achievement may have caused them to suffer a host of long-term psychological issues, including but not limited to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety, only compounded by living in a reality where part of their complex identity is severred from them — “You aren’t Asian enough”. And not to leave out the impact of fracturing underprivileged minorities among socially constructed-racial identities, as if it is at all a data-driven conclusion that there are some minorities out there that are not ideal. Whites love us because we’re not black. #WriteBackFightBack:

Asian-Americans were afforded better jobs not simply because of educational attainment, but in part because they were treated better. “More education will help close racial wage gaps somewhat, but it will not resolve problems of denied opportunity,” reporter Jeff Guo wrote last fall in the Washington Post. “Asian Americans — some of them at least — have made tremendous progress in the United States. But the greatest thing that ever happened to them wasn’t that they studied hard, or that they benefited from tiger moms or Confucian values. It’s that other Americans started treating them with a little more respect.”

👀 The Slants: Supreme Court Case Matal vs. Tam
Asian American rock band The Slants filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for denying the registration of their band name, which the US PTO considers a disparaging slur.

👀 Affirmative Action: Student for Fair Admissions
Also including another article.
Students for Fair Admissions filed a lawsuit against Harvard University for a long history of discrimination against Asian Americans in its admissions policies and for what they argue amounts to a de facto racial quota. Interestingly, the case is being financed by 👂 Edward Blum.

Indian immigrants work on the construction of the Pacific and Eastern Railroad in Oregon.

👀 Colorism
Let’s talk about colorism and Asians being racist against other asians. Let’s also give some love to Asia Jackson.

👀 Pinch Your Nose and 👂 Open Your Eyes
So much shaming from all sides…

👀 Is Blasian Dating the Answer?
The Asian American Study posted their 2016 results of their survey of Asian American men of East, Southeast, and South Asian origin — and the results are not nice ☹️. We all know that Asian men and black women seem to be less chosen in the 👂 dating game — whereas Asian women and black seem to be the opposite.

👀 The Alt-Right Asian Fetish
HELP!!!

👀 Of Course — Asian Representation in American Media
But also let’s not forget Asians means more than East Asians…

If you would like to expose yourself to the diversity of beauty that is out there, check out some of my favorite twitter accounts 😊:

Hawaiian Provisional Battalion.

The Erasure of Pacific Islander Heritage
Stop it.

Receptive Biligualism
Yes, that is me.

Identity Politics and Food
Food and race is an incredibly complex subject — and one close to my heart, growing up in a Hunan Express takeout restaurant snacking on wonton crisps and stealing grape sodas from the fridge. From the search for “authentic” ethnic food, as if each “authentic” family didn’t pass down their own food traditions, to ideas of whether expensive Asian food is whitewashed (does Asian food deserve a Michelin status?) to a war on Chinese food.

👂 Chinatown Is Born
How the white-washed, red pagodas we now associate with America’s Chinatowns came to be — and how it’s a symbol for Chinese-American survival.

👀 Immigrant Job Concentration
Either a doctor/engineer or a laundromat/restaurant owner.

👂 The Heartbreaking Tale of Fred Korematsu
The story of the ever relevant Korematsu vs. United States.

Japanese American children reciting the pledge of allegiance.

But Casey didn’t say anything, unable to express the pain she felt. Her lips whitened at the pressure of her jaw clenching. How could he possibly understand what it would mean for her mother to find her here? She suddenly hated him for being an American and for herself for feeling so (unintelligible) when she was with him.

She hated his ideals of rugged individualism, self-determination; this vain idea that life was what you’re made of it as if it were some sort of paint-by-numbers kit. Only the most selfish person on Earth could live that way. Casey was selfish. She knew that. But she had no wish to hurt anyone. If her rotten choices hurt her, well then, she’d be willing to take that wager.

But it was hard to think of letting her parents down again and again. But her choices were always hurting her parents, or so they said. Yet Casey was an American, too. She had a strong desire to be happy and to have love, and she’d never considered such wishes to be Korean ones.

- Min Jin Lee, Free Food for Millionaires

Museums and Exhibits

SamaSama (5/5)
Shopkeepers, H Street Corridor, Washington, D.C
This pop-up installation was held in the basement of a Brooklyn-inspired coffee shop also selling two short racks of clean cut clothing and shelves of minimalist and designer magazines. To be honest, I probably would not have made the trek out to see this show if my friend’s art wasn’t in it — that being said, I’m very glad I went. The opening reception was small, an atmosphere full of 1980s nostalgic Japanese anime music played, lines of bodies waiting to grab a printed t-shirt from the famed Soul & Ink crew, and Maketto served their overpriced but very delicious baos (which I bought AGAIN during the closing reception). Here’s a video of the event (I would like to thank to Joseph for deciding not to include my face in this video.):

“Illuminations”, Carlos Enrique Polanco (5/5)
Embassy of Peru, DuPont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Honestly, I did not get a long time or a very good look at the works during this exhibit since the crowd was enormous and we were being ushered from room to room like a pack of llamas. But, I did admire Polanco’s use of color in his works.

“Los migrantes”, Carlos Enrique Polanco

International Floral Display (5/5)
National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
The National Cathedral held its annual Flower Mart on its fields. Here’s a quick look at the floral arrangements inside of the cathedral, each donated by a different country:

“Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s” (5/5)
Hirshhorn, Washington, D.C.
This exhibit showed one of my favorite pieces of all time. Seeing this in person, I nearly cried:

“Untitled (Perfect Lovers)”, Felix Gonzalez-Torres

The viewer’s response to the clocks shifts dramatically knowing that the artist created the installation while his partner Ross Laycock was dying from AIDS. Gonzalez-Torres acknowledged that clocks would fall out of synch, one eventually stopping first. “Time is something that scares me . . . or used to. This piece I made with the two clocks was the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to face it. I wanted those two clocks right in front of me, ticking.”

“What Absence Is Made Of” (Again) (5/5)
Hirshhorn, Washington, D.C.
Definitely one of my favorite exhibitions I’ve seen in the recent years from the Hirshhorn:

“What does absence look like? How can loss — of objects, of memory, of yourself — become a tool for artistic expression? […]Spanning more than seven decades and seventy works, the exhibition explores the many ways artists express absence. Some use frame of reference, or mirroring effects, that trigger the imagination of the viewer; others create work on a massive scale, yet with the barest materials. Despite their variance, all of the works reward viewers with unexpected and mind-bending glimpses into the spaces left behind when something disappears, or when something has even yet to be.”

“Tony Lewis: Anthology 2014–2016” (5/5)
Hirshhorn, Washington, D.C.
This small exhibit replaced the very popular and very instagrammable piece by Ann Hamilton from the “What Absence Is Made of” exhibit. This artist Lewis put together a series of 34 collages, made from poetically erasing words and images from Calvin and Hobbes comics.

From Anthology 2014–2016, Tony Lewis

“Naked Eyes”, Nonotak (5/5)
L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, D.C.
If you’re thinking about dropping by this exhibit, prepare to have a seizure (seriously, don’t go if you’re prone to seizures). Using LEDs, projectors, and laser-illuminated fiber optics, Nonotak’s works were visually and auditorily intense — a blackhole of sound you fall into as the world disintegrates into a dark space lined by a series of fleeting parallel bulbs, an endlessly choreographed universe filled by lights with an infinite number of dimensions that, not until this very moment when you’ve begun floating aimlessly in this dark space, you are now aware existed.

COMA, Nonotak

Currently on at ARTECHOUSE:
COMA
ZERO POINT ONE
OCEAN
BASELINE

Good Eats and Drinks

Ambar (5/5)
Clarendon, Arlington
All-you-can-eat brunch with bottomless drinks for $35! Well worth it for those delicious Balkan small plates! Don’t be fooled by the Restaurant Week prices — they’re the same!

Ooey Gooey Crispy (3/5)
Union Market, NoMa, Washington, D.C.
Pretty good grilled cheese. But not really convinced it was worth paying $10 for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Wunder Garten (5/5)
NoMa, Washington, D.C.
Allison’s current summer aesthetic to the extreme — picnic tables on green (fake) grass with cornhole tournaments and exposed filament lightbulbs to light up your night, totally worth it. Super chill, would recommend bringing your own games and food!

Frostie Moose (5/5)
Woodbridge, VA
Solid ice cream. And, seemingly rare nowadays, not overpriced.

Super Chicken (5/5)
Vienna, VA
Wary to wander outside my comfort zone of the Manassas’ Guapos and Herndon’s Waku (which has the best yucca I’ve ever had in my life), solid place to get perfectly-cooked and seasoned chicken for dinner.

American Tandoor (4/5)
Tyson’s Corner, VA
My opinion of this restaurant is skewed because I came here for a Yelp event. But, DAMN, that crispy kale and that beef 🙃

Tay-Ho (4/5)
Richmond, VA
Solid vermicelli bowls. Highly recommend the egg rolls too.

Sate Truck (5/5)
(Various Locations), Washington, D.C.
Saved my hungry ass on a day of waiting in long lines (and giving up on the line to enter the Embassy of Indonesia).

Detour Coffee (4/5)
Clarendon, Arlington, VA
Rating not solid. Need to drop by again and spend some time here.

520 Ice Cream and Tea (4/5)
Mosaic District, Fairfax, VA
Yes.s.s.s.s. Thai ice cream.

True Food Kitchen (4/5)
Mosaic District, Fairfax, VA
AMAZING grain bowls…but super expensive.

Barcelona Wine Bar (3/5)
Reston Town Center, Reston, VA
Meh.

Other Things I Did

Flower Mart
National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Saw some plants.

Passport DC
Washington, D.C.
Visited:

  • The Embassy of the Phillippines
  • The Embassy of Peru
  • The Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago
  • The Embassy of Iraq
  • The Embassy of Uzbekistan

Sister’s Graduation
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Very proud of my sister with all her honors I can’t even remember!

Art + Code Collective
Holy in the Sky Collective, NoMa, Washington, D.C.
Went there.

Cereal + Milk Party?
Friend’s house, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
My friend hosted a “Cereal + Milk” party serving Trader Joe’s Lemon beer, delicious waffle banana nutella sandwiches, and an assortment of cereal options. Spent the afternoon basking in the early summer sun.

Escape Room
Went to the one in Herndon and did the 8-bit — highly recommend!

Axe Throwing
Come at us.

Homemade Pizza & Other Food-Related Moments with Friends

Meme of the Month

Living at home.
    Allison W

    Written by

    Allison W

    squeeze the day 🍋🍊

    Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
    Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
    Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade