Harry Connick Jr. on Australian Gong Show

I saw this video on the Slog. Harry Connick Jr. is a judge on the Australian Gong Show when the act that appears is in blackface. What does he do? If you can’t stand to watch the whole video, Harry’s commentary is first on 2:15 and then 5:25.

I remember watching a [...]

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On the brink of pandering

I don’t know a lot about Tim Kaine, but I find this speech a little on the sleazy side:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine suggested on Tuesday that opposition from Republican senators to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor — along with the Republican National Committee’s failure to attend a major Latino-issue forum — will seriously [...]

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Not living in a post-racial America

Balloon-Juice linked to this article from The New Republic regarding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and I think it’s a good one.
Gates is Right–and We’re Not Post-Racial Until He’s Wrong
There is nothing glib to say, in any responsible sense, about Henry Louis Gates’ arrest last week, which is this week’s big race story. Its [...]

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Picture of the day

I’m going to have a hard time articulating this, as I often do, but I think this CNN picture and accompanying story is saying a lot by reinforcing negative African American stereotypes. So a pop star who is  so unhealthy no insurer would touch his London concert series dies, and Jesse Jackson wants answers.
I think [...]

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Freaking brilliant

Via ThinkProgress.

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Picture of the day

Just what could the Duke of Edinburgh be thinking right now? I’d love to know.

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Rupert Murdoch apologizes for New York Post chimp cartoon

When I read the hype about the cartoon, I assumed it was overblown. Then I saw it, and I couldn’t think of any meaning except to incite violence. That’s how I read it and I couldn’t fathom reading it in the way the cartoonist “intended.” I’m very glad to see Rupert Murdoch has now issued [...]

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The Generational Divide, thoughts on the inauguration

Many of you have read about my conversations with my mother regarding Barack Obama and the state of our country here and here. In particular I have spoken about how it pains me to hear my mother, a Thai woman once married to a white American man, talk about her doubts about Barack Obama because [...]

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Picture of the living presidents

I’m sure I’m not the only one to have this thought. While race was certainly prevalent on people’s minds during the election, I never had as much of a sensation that Barack Obama was out of place than I had looking at this photograph. Even in a fairly white city like Seattle, there is enough [...]

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I was waiting for this

You can become a 4-star General in the U.S. Army, hold the office of National Security Advisor under Ronald Reagan, go on to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush and then finally Secretary of State under his son. But in the end to some people, you’re nothing more [...]

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Peter Norman: an amazing story

I just read an article about Peter Norman, the Australian 200m Silver Medalist at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics who stood on the podium with the Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the Americans who gave the Black Power salute. There is a new film about this moment in history. This is an absolutely touching story [...]

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Demonizing your opponant

I found these pictures of Obama’s family a reminder that in the end Obama is just a man. He’s a father of two little girls. He’s a husband. He lives a life strikingly similar to many Americans. To every Sarah Palin comment and to every GOP mailer or robocall that goes out trying to convince [...]

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

I present the great Sidney Poitier.

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The mob in To Kill a Mockingbird

I was thinking of the passage in To Kill a Mockingbird where an angry mob is diffused by the accidental wisdom of a child. I had this thought because of the mob-like mentality we’ve seen at the McCain/Palin rallies. Just as I was about to laboriously type the passage into wordpress, I found that someone [...]

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Gwen Ifill stays

Andrew Sullivan thinks that Gwen Ifill the moderator of the Vice Presidential debate should step down:
The worst is that Ifill does not get intimidated, asks tough questions, and then gets the post-debate spin by the GOP focused on her, not Palin. It helps too that Ifill is black: it shores up the racist vote McCain [...]

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What is humanity?

Two weeks ago, I talked about the Japanese film trilogy The Human Condition which depicts the Japanese in Manchuria during World War II. *Spoiler alert.* There is a scene in the first film which is particularly poignant. The hero Kaji manages a concentration camp of Chinese political prisoners at an ore mine. Seven Manchurians are [...]

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What is the race card?

I really don’t get McCain these days. To him the following statement is playing the race card.
“So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” he told voters in Springfield. “You know, he’s [...]

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Asian-American self-loathing and tennis

What is it about Asian Americans that makes some of them be ashamed of being Asian? I’ve noticed this phenomenon in the past on a NPR cartoon where Adrian Tomine talks about how the character Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles ruined his life. Now I read a very interestingly titled article “Dear Michael Chang. [...]

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Could Obama Victory Hurt African Americans?

More appropriately, could CNN have any less regard for the intelligence of African Americans?
Because we all know how bad it is to actually have role models.

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The advantages of being a minority

The Seattle Post Intelligencer has an opinion piece on how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had no advantage being black and female respectively during the Democratic nomination. The writer describes how she has heard many people express that Barack Obama wouldn’t be where he is if he wasn’t black and how upsetting that is for [...]

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Speaking of racial surveys

Why on earth does Seattle International Film Festival need to survey what race I am? Argghhhh!

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Mixing Sports and Hitler Not a Good Idea

According to Dave Barry the heavy artillary for winning an argument:
Compare your opponent to Adolf Hitler.
For when your opponent is obviously right and you are spectacularly wrong. Bring Hitler up subtly. Say: “That sounds suspiciously like something Adolf Hitler might say” or “You certainly do remind me of Adolf Hitler.”
This may be bad [...]

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What race are you?

I loathe checking the box that asks me to identify what race I am. There are two reasons. Number one is that usually none of the categories fit. I am not 100% white nor am I 100% Asian. Even if I were 100% Asian, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable checking a box that lumped [...]

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Othello

All of the great classical actors of Twentieth Century played Othello like Olivier and Gielgud, but there must have been some shift in the public psyche when it became more advantageous to play Iago. This version of the play focused on contemporary psychology of the characters, and perhaps it’s modern psychology that makes Iago so [...]

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Sharing the Wealth

I earlier wrote about my mother’s worry that Barack Obama would give all of his black friends jobs and only focus on black issues. I later heard that same thought expressed by a voter in West Virginia. It’s odd isn’t it that people think giving jobs to friends has never occurred before ever in American [...]

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