Dark Blue Suit
“Seattle was their assembly point, the headquarters of their Union” – I really enjoy learning about API’s in a context so close to home.
“Dad was wearing a suit. This one, though was especially sharp – a somber, dark blue suit, pressed and perfect, fit for a mayor, a movie star, or an Alaskero. Like Bogart” – I thought this was a great connection to popular culture.
“Your mom’s white, I thought. So what? She makes me sneeze. Besides, most of my Pinoy friends are half-breeds of some sort” – I thought this was an interesting choice of words. The use of breeds feels derogatory, as that is what we associate with animals. These sentence reiterate the theme of mixed races being lesser than.
Rico
“White girls were a lot easier. He made them his specialty, particularly the long-legged blondes with ratted hair and heavy makeup”
(boxing) “Fighting was something well-adjusted white folks didn’t understand, but it was what the kids in my neighborhood did” – thought this was interesting after watching the Filipino”s boxing documentary.
(Cookie) “He didn’t care whether the girls were black, white, yellow, whatever” – I find it interesting how Cookie is black and doesn’t have a racial preference and Rico is filipino and does.
The Second Room
“And the style they taught – Jeet Kune Do – wasn’t pretty or mysterious, just simple and effective” – connection to APOP – Bruce Lee’s style of Kung Fu.
“Does it work? It was a hell of a question, an antidote to orthodoxy or smugness. Although Bruce Lee’s physical skills dazzled the public, his skepticism moved me more”
“The sixties hit the neighborhood hard; people started to draw lines and call each other down, just on race. Mostly the conflict was black and white, but where did that leave me?”
August 1968
“I’ma put you on the spot: Beach Boys or Beatles?” – I loved this section due to being a huge Beatles and Beach Boys fan! I love how this book uses popular culture to capture the decade of the book.
“Like I was sayin’, some ignorant blood, like that fool Marcus, your friend, he’s gonna take me out and its cool ‘cause the fuckin’ revolutions on and I ain’ black, and its payback for the oppression I had nothin’ to do with!”
Home
“It was easy to get lost at the UW, with its spacious and beautiful evergreen campus – prettier than the picture on its brochure – its crowded classes and arrogant, impressional professors” – I thought this would be an interesting conversation to compare Evergreen.
“Stockton? Our immigrant fathers were there in the thirties and forties, bent low over asparagus rows, some dropping from the heat. Slave wages, slave lives. They got smart and left, but Rico returned.” – was this intentional? Rico is very metaphorical. (whats in box)
A Life Well Lived
“It was, after all, the dissent of a handful of poor, aging Filipino’s against the power of King County. It was hardly a fair fight.”
“It’s a Filipino custom to take pictures of the dead” – I feel like this would of been a cool topic to discuss further in class.
The Wedding
“Marriage, as she saw it, meant stable (not migratory) work, double paychecks, a down payment on a small house, escape from Chinatown, and a family.” – before this class, I didn’t realize that all asian cultures, not just Chinese, lived in Chinatown. Also, how they viewed getting out of Chinatown as a success.
“First your hair goes, then your eyes ‘n teeth’s next. Whatcha gonna do then? Gum the girlies?” – I find it interesting how important Marriage is across asian cultures.
A Manong’s Heart
“His one-room Chinatown apartment was a shrine to the ring, it’s walls plastered with the posed photos of boxers” – connection to filipino boxing documentary.
“The old pines, however, are different. They remember poverty, having survived it, and the grime, having worn it. And worse, they still relive the humiliation of being a filipino in America”
Stephie
(Stephie) “She was half-white and played the accordion” – I find it interesting how Stephie is portrayed as being better, but the asian community can view people of mixed race as lesser than.
(after Stephie moved) “There, the neighbors were white, and for Mildred, who lived through her daughter, that meant better”
A Matter of Faith
“When I aim, they see their ancestors”
“The Japanese, they shoot at me, but they miss cause I believe. its a matter of faith.” – I feel an elaboration of the conflict of Filipinos and Japanese would be a good conversation.
Dancer
“A hookers winter gear?” – connection to Asian stereotype.
“Buddy, Im his flesh and blood” – theme of family
A Family Gathering
“At least not like those of us lucky enough to have been born here, and not like the new generation of educated immigrants who came thirty years Larter from the Philippines and landed on a much softer place.” – generational conflicts. Educated in school, but not educated on where they came from.
“When he first came to Seattle, he stayed in Chinatown – a place for the poor and the colored”
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