tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post9079018785035324671..comments2023-07-01T00:33:55.165-07:00Comments on Ben Efsaneyim: "My Mom's A Fucking Bitch Too.....!"Ben Efsaneyimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001682865274251483noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-67387803650219958442011-06-02T00:55:20.225-07:002011-06-02T00:55:20.225-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ben Efsaneyimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001682865274251483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-25610796581401000822011-05-31T10:51:59.313-07:002011-05-31T10:51:59.313-07:00The Korean's criticism of Yang seems solely ba...The Korean's criticism of Yang seems solely based on his "Writerly" lifestyle choices, an ad hominem. <br /><br />I don't think it's "ingrained auto-racism" to point out that despite best efforts, AA men are disadvantaged in every aspect of society. Self-defeating, maybe. <br /><br />I think his article speaks out to <i>marginal Asian American males</i>, the ones who lose out in winner-take-all games, who are not comedians and fashion designers, nor or are they competent lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc. The point is there are far more marginal AA men than there are successful ones. And the marginal ones are pissed for not having an acceptable place in society.Dalihttp://dzheng.freeshell.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-83109821098081518652011-05-30T10:15:04.933-07:002011-05-30T10:15:04.933-07:00@Dali: while I agree it's true that the main...@Dali: while I agree it's true that the mainstream media outlets would want to censor anti-establishment views, you have to read Yang's other comments that's been out there:<br /><br />http://utsun.org/the-asian-value-that-wesley-yang-doesn%E2%80%99t-reject/#comments%3C/p%3E<br /><br /><br />if the poster is indeed Yang, then he's a complete asshat and prick. saying the reader is too stupid to not understand his BS ego tripping reveals more about this ingrained auto-racism than anything else.<br /><br />even the askakorean folks caught on to his machinations to sell articles:<br /><br />http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-you-should-never-listen-to-asian.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-90252781975879940692011-05-30T01:32:38.190-07:002011-05-30T01:32:38.190-07:00Dali
That's the crux of the issue. The messag...Dali<br /><br />That's the crux of the issue. The message is so diluted that it has become nonsensical, which in turn makes its publication in mainstream mag somewhat pointless.Ben Efsaneyimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001682865274251483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-64342166695661213702011-05-29T21:20:37.239-07:002011-05-29T21:20:37.239-07:00Considering that this is an article that was publi...Considering that this is an article that was published in a mainstream media outlet, perhaps he was pressured into removing parts of his writing that would reflect on the racial aspect of marginalisation that AMs face in Western society, as it is a touchy political subject. I don't want to censure Yang right away, I give him the benefit of the doubt that he's onto something. This article might have been much better without the editors, but it was a tradeoff to get it into the mainstream.Dalihttp://dzheng.freeshell.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-47324224712739032172011-05-29T13:44:46.758-07:002011-05-29T13:44:46.758-07:00Hi Dali
I sincerely hope that more Asian men spea...Hi Dali<br /><br />I sincerely hope that more Asian men speak out about our experiences - but I pray that they don't do it like Wesley Yang!<br /><br />Directionless despair is a feature of modern life and is probably experienced by more people than we might think. Much of modern thinking explores this idea of despair as notions of meaning and intrinsic value have become challenged. <br /><br />My post asks what is unique about Yang's description of this sense of alienation that he feels the need to racialize it. <br /><br />In my opinion he does a poor job of placing our experiences in their racial context. If I were a neutral observer and I read Yang's piece I wouldn't come away from it with the feeling that race has anything to do with what Yang is describing, and I certainly wouldn't be any the wiser on the role that invisibility, xenophobia, stereotyping, discrimination, and experiences of personal prejudice, plays on shaping our lives and outlook.<br /><br />In fact, in discussing the bamboo ceiling, Yang dismisses it off-handedly as unconscious bias. So, I see little in Yang's article that connects negative mainstream attitudes with any sense of marginalization - Yang avoided that altogether.<br /><br />That's why I would put this piece in the same category as a Tan or Kingston - it has downplayed prejudice, and relies heavily on dramatic emotionalism, presumably to make it acceptable to the mainstream.<br /><br />I don't see how that good for me in particular and Asian men in general.Ben Efsaneyimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001682865274251483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-1971501829673770392011-05-29T12:15:43.073-07:002011-05-29T12:15:43.073-07:00@Dali: did we read the same article through its ...@Dali: did we read the same article through its entirety?<br /><br />seems to me that Yang was more blaming AM ourselves rather than the racist institutions.<br /><br />he blamed Asian tiger parenting and our own supposed inability of not being sociable and lack of charisma as the cause of the "bamboo ceiling"<br /><br />hardly what you're espousing as the problems facing AM (which I wholeheartedly agree) is racism against Asians.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8566317761793185393.post-2916194763218465332011-05-28T13:36:45.045-07:002011-05-28T13:36:45.045-07:00"Because Yang's article doesn't reall..."Because Yang's article doesn't really shed light on any dynamic that might be specific to the experience of Asian men, I couldn't help but wonder, why on earth did he racialize his essay to such a great degree."<br /><br />Because Asian American men face the greatest marginalization in American society. Unlike Asians, Hispanics and blacks are widely accepted in mainstream media, Democrats pander to them, and colleges want to accept NAMs (non-Asian minorities) to promote an image of diversity. <br /><br />I think the point of Yang's article was to highlight the directionless despair of the AA non-community. When one rejects traditional Asian values and is rejected by the adopted Western society (unlike other minorities), there's only a vague sense of disconnectedness left. In other words, when society as a whole takes a dump on you in every way, in dating or the workplace or academia, you don't know where to begin to improve your lot in life. Some resort to pickup-artistry which I think is a scam, some just work harder despite not being able to break the "Bamboo ceiling" as the author puts it, and some simply resign from it all. We have no heroes, no visible AA men to look up to. The women in our non-communities reject us for the most part, and the most we can realistically aspire to is to be doctors, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, etc. <br /><br />I don't know where your accusation of Yang being a sellout comes from. He's not towing the same line as Kingston or Tan. Although all of them point out that Asian men are of low social status in American society, and all of them identify the issue and offer no solutions, Yang does not act to perpetuate it. Perhaps the first step is to get angry at the problem, which most AA men are not doing. AA men are lost in Western society, but it seems that the internal conflict in most AA males remains repressed. We need more AA men like Wesley Yang to speak out. At this point, any publicity for Asian men is good publicity, as the mainstream discourse has ignored us for so long.Dalihttp://dzheng.freeshell.org/noreply@blogger.com