Tuesday Morning Notes

Mississippi Masala

• instead of leaving home, being forced out of your home
• Indians considered white in Uganda, black in America – colorism.
• finding home in your culture but your culture might be rejecting you, leaving you feeling homeless
• having to choose between cultures instead of integrating (leave Uganda, choosing your partner over your family, subscribing to the regular tradition or running away, etc.)
• I appreciate the family genuinely loving each other and still upholding tradition as opposed to “tradition dictates that you…”
• The divisiveness of race is not always necessarily white/non-white.

Tuesday Afternoon Notes

• the borders of South Asia changed historically, creating different borders as immigration policies and attitudes changed
• the “inbetweenness” of white and black of South Asians led to a similar colorist view on what it is to be white and black, one South Asian creating a case similar to Ozawa vs US
• the stereotype of APIA being very skilled is the fact many immigrants were only allowed in if they learned very valuable skills such as medicine or engineering
• many south asian representation is from weird fetishization of culture though actual representation does exist
• after 9/11, many South Asians were mistaken for Muslims and increased discrimination/a lot of confusion in representation mixing Muslims and South Asians incorrectly

Wednesday

Writing Workshop

• remember: Writing is cyclical. There is no such thing as a perfect writer, editor, or story.
• Easybib and other citation generators aren’t as good as your high school teachers and previous professors claim.
• Get your Academic Statement together.

Tuesday

The Beautiful Country (film)

• First and foremost, Tam didn’t need to die to emphasize the treacherous journey of leaving your country if you don’t have money. The way they were treated like cattle and labor machines made it clear enough. If it was for shock effect, that’s even worse.
• The captain’s white saviorism made me feel very scared for Binh. I thought he’d be tasked with hard labor and inhumane working conditions but the captain was just had weird (disgusting) fetish eyes.
• Developing relationships based on English is very Eurocentric when I felt like people could have different things in common that they’d care about more like needing money for survival, familial love, etc. These things don’t have to be communicated verbally.
• To me, it seemed like the father left because he was just a GI creating war children and my heart sunk when he walked past Binh. But later finding out he was blind and didn’t want to burden his wife was probably the first sigh of relief I had throughout the movie.
• In a similar note, we see Binh lose family and hope often but I think his most telling outburst was when he was painting the fence with his father. Arguably, that was also his most expressive. I don’t recall what was said but I do recall leaving his mother, Tam, and Ling, Binh was very quiet but clearly upset. For him to throw things and walk away (aside from the time he fought the gambler on the ship or finding out about free airfare), it was more of an outburst than silent suffering.
• The theme of home was everywhere, especially leaving home as they were places, people, and livelihood.

Friday Morning

• Your theme and color palette affects accessibility and navigation – just as important as content.
• If you’re feeling confident or have some fail safes, toying with CSS would be nifty, especially if the themes don’t have the combination of features you want.

Friday Afternoon

Vietnamese Music Videos

• Both MV’s utilized English – as much of non-European pop media does anyway.
• All performers had very light skin.
• Interestingly enough, the first music video’s subtitles did not translate the Vietnamese into English but just had pronunciation.

Seminar

• Post-colonialism/imperialism doesn’t exist (yet) since the mechanics and mentalities remain the same.
• The major recurring themes throughout all texts is finding home, family secrets, war/war scars, and fathers (though this book wasn’t as father centered as the others).
• Vinh reminded me of one my sons and how I feel about him – it is because I love him I will not excuse any crimes against humanity. It really fucked me up, honestly.
• White saviors do not heal the scars of colonialism/imperialism but agitate them if not reopen.
• There was a dream like feeling sometimes and much like Donald Duk, sometimes it’s best if the reader isn’t entirely sure what is reality or if what is being described should be a literally taken.

Tuesday:

Popular Music: Three Things

1. pop music incorporates much of pop culture
2. Edward Liu, some aints
3. “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps” – Elizabeth Wheeler, Dialogics of Rap

Boxing in Pinoy Culture

• a sport Pinoy can claim as our own/something regarded as American that we’ve made ours
• historical use of financial support
• metaphor for resistance
• tbh every papa boxed in their life, either casually or professionally don’t lie

The Debut

Dante Basco is one of the most iconic Pinoy film stars, permeating music through his previous roles. In The Debut, he (in my opinion) perfectly demonstrates the seemingly mutual exclusiveness of American and Pinoy cultural expectations. As all coming of age stories, it seems he has to choose between two worlds before learning how to reconcile the two worlds he lives in.

The movie also depicts the toxic masculinity/dedication to patriarchy the Philippines still emboldens even to this day. Also, even characters acknowledge/demonstrate the anti-blackness nonblack light skin poc participate in for self defense, whether they know it or not.

Wednesday:

Peer Reviews

• includes honesty, kindness, and collaboration
• speeds up learning process
• historically successful
• argues everyone has innate talent
• teachers are writers who teach people to be writers – a self-sufficient machine
• What? Why? How?
• an opportunity to receive non-evaluative feedback
• a group of peers may help more than one teacher

Friday

Dark Blue Suit – Peter Bacho

• chasing the American Dream
• Fathers as the pivotal points, beginning and end which include some sort of death
• rise and fall of people, cultures, eras, and attitudes (that still live on)
• coming of age happens more than once and for many reasons
• where is the line between excusable and inexcusable evil acts for good?
• appropriation of black culture by nonblack poc for self defense and preservation but also the perpetuation of white supremacy
• for many second generation kids, “home” is a distant, unfamiliar land since their origins and their current dwellings may contradict. self-discovery, exploration, and research will probably take a life time and then some