I¡¦m all of a sudden busy person!

I got all these readings to do and I am sort of behind and got lots to do! I could get them done if I didn¡¦t get so involved. But I want to, and need to, and there are some important things I want to put out there, too.

KP Board meeting on Monday was really good by the way. People had so much passion when they gave speeches that like, wow, they had a lot of stuff worthwhile to say and next year is looking very good in terms of the officers. I¡¦m really excited, too! Oh yeah, elections for KP has been going on all week. LOL Candidates aren¡¦t even allowed in the office!

I wrote a five page DOC paper on Tuesday for an 8:00 AM section like an hour and a half prior! Some people said that was impressive, and I got really good comments on the insights I had. I need to work on writing skills ¡¥cause I¡¦ll get marked up so much!

APSA GBM was very good. I was there like at sixish, and left at nine thirtyish, so the actual meeting was probably about two hours. There was food, too, and that¡¦s a good thing ;-). I brought cookies and brownies, hehe, the only things I could bake up¡K

Have you heard of the Albercrombie and Finch and their derogatory Chinese T-shirts? They totally perpetuated negative stereotypes, but the problem is that not everybody saw the student activism in getting those shirts out of the stores necessary. Some people wondered why something bothers us like this when other groups get made fun of. We have to understand the history and the perceptions of Asians.

From the "Wong Brothers" T-shirt that with "Two Wongs Can Make it White" is flat out racist and disrespectful. In the US with the beginnings of last century, the Chinese worked with laundry because that¡¦s what they were forced to do mostly because of their race. They were socially, economically, and politically immobile in terms of obtaining other types of jobs and was typified in that industry. To have Chinese laundry men in T-shirts like that lacks understanding in history. How would white Americans feel with the image of white men with whips and black slaves? Happy slaves like the Chinese happy to do work they had no other choice but doing and experienced racism among society and even the laws institutionalized discrimination. While that is an extreme case, you parallel the white oppression over blacks and Chinese and find that seriously aren¡¦t something to joke about.

These A&F T-shirts suggest the lack of representation of Asians higher up to be able to call these out. If an Asian made T-shirts like this, I know that I would, and so many other people, would frown upon that person. The fact that there are other images that make fun of other white people (in example) is no excuse, and shows the lack of understanding of the situation. It's to forget that Asians aren't higher up in the social order as white people here in America, and to portray an image that symbolizes the times when Asians were not even considered citizens or fit to be here in America is totally wrong.

Even if you didn¡¦t think of the history of why that particular shirt is wrong, then explore its connotation. "Two Wongs Can Make it White." One might subconsciously think of the expression "two wrongs don¦t make a right" which the shirt¡¦s lingo derives from. Because of that relation, "Wongs" equates to "wrong" and give the impression that Wongs are wrong and Chinese is wrong, while "White" gives the impression of white is right. In addition, the phrase implies it takes "Two Wongs" to make a "White" which says something about the value of Chinese being lesser than white since it takes two of them to make white.

Those are basically the opinions I had, but there was a lot of good discussion. As much as I¡¦d like to incorporate my studies and so many ideas other people had, that¡¦s an equivalent to writing an essay, which I could be working on instead of this!

Wednesday section for history was good. After class, I talked to my TA, Ivy, about the short stories we¡¦re reading relevant to the times we're studying on in China. I¡¦m almost caught up, but I had an understanding to talk to her, and she¡¦s really cool. In class today, she was sitting at the far side of the lecture room and I waved and she waved back. She¡¦s totally cool. Eh, I better catch up on readin¡¦ cause I seem to be doing them before section, hehe, and the assignment, too!

DOC is a struggle to stay awake, I¡¦m sorry. DOC3 and the idea behind reading into culture is fun and the readings are pretty good, but it¡¦s really hard to stay awake in there. It¡¦s actually my second favourite of the DOC series, but I need to work on that. Some other people had some critiques, too, even those that weren¡¦t in the class and they totally see where I'm coming from!

Oh, in ethnic studies, Teresa gave me the coolest postcard that read ¡§Outside Looking In¡K¡¨ I like it a whole lot!!! Really made my day, too :-D

I met up with a friend, Tom, to talk about KP's GBM next Wednesday. It went really well, and Noel joined up and helped out with the planning. Everything looks really good and I'm excited, and nervous! err, I'm always nervous, but it¡¦ll be really cool. We're working on LGBTQ awareness, and as much as I'd go detailed about it now, I do enough explaining in e-mails since I write a whole bunch! I'm working really hard on it and I gotta make it come out good and strong. It's great there¡¦s so much support from the board and people I know. I gave them all homework to read up and have discussions and sorts.

Oh yeah, Albert killed me!! We're playing assassins, and as he was leaving, I got up and hten he called me, and then oh no, I knew what that was, and just took it and died. Err, sheesh! LOL I know how Lorelei felt when I killed her! But Tiff killed Al the following day, hehe. LOL I saw!

Thursday wasn¡¦t too bad. Actually, it was pretty good. I took the Psych60 quiz, and I think I did well. I did all the problems and worked them out, but I hope I did them correctly. Eh, I hope I did okay. LOL sure I did, but you know how it is!!

Had some really interesting conversations with people today. The ones worthwhile were the ones I had about the GBM for next week and I¡¦m really glad about the support and the thinking that¡¦s going on with the people I've spoken to. I felt really good about those, and I don't feel as afraid anymore for the meeting. For other things, I really appreciated some stuff that was said, too, on a personal note.
Sonnier and Tina are just soo funny!! LOL They make me laugh, hehe.

Went to my first Kamalayan meeting, and looks like something I want to join up and get started with soon.

I¡¦m home, but I¡¦m tired and should rest. Overall, I had a pretty good day.