on This was a song focuses on the positive side of the change I felt while reading Du Bois’s vision in “To the Nations of the World”. I felt it was uplifting when talking about how the “people are changing” for the better and “thousands of people joining hands”.
– Chau Nguyen (cvn9), 2020
on I drew parallels between this verse from the song:
All you Black folks, you must go
All you Mexicans, you must go
And all you poor folks, you must go
Muslims and gays, boy, we hate your ways
So all you bad folks, you must go
and du Bois’ narrative for progress, which distinguishes between a more advanced humanity and “denying to over half the world the right of sharing to utmost ability the opportunities . . . of modern civilization,” which would destroy European civil society. In the same way, A Tribe Called Quest questions the implications of asking marginalized people in the United States to “go.”
~Darren Chang, ASRC 3310, Fall 2019
on I found Sam Soon’s February 15, 2017 post titled “A Lost Tongue: Lowe and Elizabeth” interesting because of the passage’s comment on linguistic assimilation. Soon quotes page 76 of The Pagoda to discuss the immigrant parent-child relationship. For me, this post is a useful backdrop to consider Afro-Asia as both a literal space and an imaginative utopia.
Lowe, Elizabeth’s father, disavows the “‘bad English that crowded her mouth.'” The post’s author points out a metaphor that compares this “bad English” to an “invasive species that needs to be eradicated for Elizabeth’s chance at survival.” As a Chinese immigrant living in Jamaica, Lowe feels pressured to teach Elizabeth only the language and customs of their new country. In the same way, Afro-Asian diasporas have often exhorted black and Asian folks to “act white” in spite of phenotypic differences that mean black and Asian people are constantly perceived as “not white.” Imperfect assimilation, of course, is a deeply personal topic for people of color who come to hate themselves as a result of appearing too “foreign.”
In this blog post, Soon concludes that “in wanting to give her the best opportunities for a fruitful life, Lowe’s loss of communication with Elizabeth only leaves him ‘desperate.'” But in the context of futurism, I question the implications of desiring assimilation. If we are to build a utopia, what are the contours of this space in terms of “fitting in?” Are there ways to figure this space as a healthier place to explore the multiplicity of cultures and ethnicities or is the racism that characterizes the drive towards homogeneity inevitable?
~Darren Chang, ASRC 3310, Fall 2019
on -Kennedy Graves, 2020
on It’s so interesting to think of what cultural appropriation looks like for other people of color. Being African American myself, it is so easy to be wrapped up in black face jokes, the n word, code switching, being considered “ghetto” and so much more, but I never really thought about how other people of color who have settled in America feel about their culture being spread. I think I have a little bit of a different story considering I do not actually know my roots much more than knowing my family came from West Africa, but this article really opened my eyes about how other minority groups, from America or not, actually feel. After traveling to China 2 times now, having several interactions with Chinese Americans and after reading this article I can say native Chinese and Chinese American perspectives do seem a little different. In China people seem so much more open to non-Chinese people embracing their culture; however, in America it seems like Chinese Americans are open but are a little more hesitant. I have no solid viewpoint on the white woman who wore the qipao to prom, but I do feel that all the viewpoints are understandable and should be accepted. The main thing that I had lingering questions on after reading this is do other cultural groups feel differently (like it seems so for Chinese vs. Chinese Americans) about “cultural appropriation” or “learning more about their culture”. It would be interesting to talk to African Americans vs. African students about African culture or Indian Americans vs. Indian students or even other native Asian students and their American Asian counterparts. The conversation should really be brought up for discussion in some shape or form; It might really help battle cultural appropriation, stereotypes, and even just the conversations around different people of color.
-Kennedy Graves, 2020