stopwhitewashing:

It’s been over twenty years since Asian Americans rallied on Broadway against yellowface and “racebending” inMiss Saigon–the same protest that inspired our work against The Last Airbender here at Racebending.com–but Asian Americans are still not getting roles on Broadway. Enter the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), a group that has organized to help actors of color overcome obstacles to bring more inclusive casting to New York City stages. AAPAC is focused on changing Asian perceptions and opportunities within the New York theatre industry only. It was created by a group of Asian American performers in 2011 in response to what was perceived as a lack of access to opportunities within mainstream New York theatre.

On February 13th, the New York City based AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition) hosted an industry roundtable at Fordham University to dialogue on the representation of minority actors on Broadway. The three hour panel at the RepresentAsian conference was moderated by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.

At the event, AAPAC unveiled statistics of a survey they conducted on New York stages, over a five year period. This report is the first report on minority casting in New York theatre ever to be released publicly. [Click here to download the report!]

“The statistics were culled because there was a need for it,” said Pun Bandhu, an Asian-American actor who is currently performing in “Wit” on Broadway, and a member of AAPAC’s steering committee. “There are no publicly available statistics that track minority casting in theatre, while SAG-AFTRA has already taken on that responsibility for Hollywood. Of course, as actors, we are involved in Hollywood too, especially TV shows and films that shoot in NY, and we often interact with casting directors who cast for both Film and Theatre. Our hope is that by focusing on the things we can reasonably change within one industry, we can have an impact on others as well.”

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fromonesurvivortoanother:

• Some Asian person gets famous and 1000000 white journalists who think they’re being clever decide to make a double entendre with the word “chink”. Like seriously…do you even check with your editor before doing that?
• I tell a person my name (Chungyen) and they hear it backwards. “Yeng Chun”. Like where does this come from, seriously. I literally just said it one way and you heard it in reverse. I would not say “Aras” for Sara, so why would you do this to my name?
• Teacher reads my already westernized, anglicized name on the roll and completely butchers it so that it sounds more “foreign” or whatever. Often, this includes dumping in vowels or consonants that weren’t even there in the first place. Changyun, Changyow, Chingyen, Shungyeen, etc. If it’s Spanish class and the teacher says “Choongyen” because that is how the Spanish vowel works, I totally understand. But where do people get these extra, nonexistent vowels and shit? It’s like suddenly my name bends the fabric of language so that U’s become I’s, and N’s become Q’s.
• People call me by the name of some other asian dude who doesn’t look a thing like me, like the time I was called the name of this Bolivian guy who is a foot taller, has a totally different face, has much shorter hair, and is stouter than me.
• Everyone assumes I am related to Jackie Chan. Okay did you not get the memo, there’s like, 2 billion Asian people in the world.

fascinasians:

Starbucks is famous for screwing up people’s names on drinks. But this? This is a beautiful example of racism barista-style in a suburb of Atlanta. Instead of putting the customer’s names, the employee drew “chinky eyes”. When confronted, the store manager apologized and gave the customers….a gift card.

Read more here

voguedissent:

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and in his honor, the Black students’ union sent out an email summing up MLK’s life, politics and legacy, along with a reminder of what we students can do. The email was sent to the Black students’ union email listserv and the Latino students’ union listserv.

But not to the Asian students’ union listserv.

Why the resistance to including Asians as people

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fromonesurvivortoanother:

anedumacation:

liquornspice:

fromonesurvivortoanother:

• Any standard that is unrealistic and homogenous is inherently damaging by creating inhuman expectations.
• This is especially true when Asian American socio-economic status, although higher on average than other non-white groups, can actually vary hugely between different populations. Hmong and Vietnamese communities are usually extremely poor, for example.
• The society around you has been socialized into thinking that you can automatically succeed— so when you inevitably fail at something, teachers, guidance counselors, and others are less likely to perceive that you need help.
• Obviously, if you’re broke, your parents have no time to help you out, and you have to face a language or cultural barrier, there will be problems. If no one thinks that people who look like you can even have said problems, then you’re basically stuck in the middle of an ocean without much help.
• Having classmates ask you for answers, and not knowing them.
• Or, if you do know the answer, but you refuse to tell them, they bring up the “model minority” thing and then you’re in a double bind— prove you’re intelligent and buy into the stereotype, or do what is honest and then be seen as not “authentic”, a liar, rude, etc.
• You are automatically seen as less likely for a sexual or romantic partner because you might a) intimidate people with your smarts, or b) be an antisocial “nerd”
• If you want to do something that is not math or science, like English, then people think it’s weird, because you aren’t supposed to be there.
• If you decide that math or science is right for you, then you have to deal with lots of jokes about being where you “belong”.
• Having to deal with the expectation that you are well-behaved, “well-adjusted” (whatever that means), and quiet. If you are loud, stand up for yourself, etc., it is more likely to be seen as offensive than if a person of another group acted that way.
• If you succeed in class, your successes are automatically discounted based on your race (“oh, he’s asian! that explains his good grades”), rather than being praised as evidence of your hard work.
• Rarely ever receiving praise, because it is expected of you and not seen as something exceptional.
• Feeling as if you cannot raise your hand to ask questions in class, because someone will immediately draw attention to how you do not fit the intelligent stereotype. This, of course, only contributes to feeling like you are not smart enough.

These are only a few examples.

Bolding mine. This is a super-important thing to remember.

ETA: Also like how this list points to something I’ve learned from Midwest Mountain Mama, that racism/white supremacy is a system set up to deny resources to people of color. And that hoarding all the resources within whiteness, making it so that only white children are seen as the ones with a “right” to them, is the important part.  The “model minority” myth is just another thing white supremacy uses to deny resources to kids of color.

ETA2: Here’s a link I found where MMM (formerly, RadicallyHottOff) discusses white supremacy and distribution of resources: http://sexgenderbody.tumblr.com/post/6302202031/full-disclosure

And let’s talk about the real effects that the model minority myth has on the mental health of Asian Americans — particularly Asian American women. We have the highest rates of depression, highest rates of suicide, because of this viciously internalized and externalized, push to succeed. 

Mental health professionals, schools, and (yes!) our own families fail to see us when we are in trouble, because we are expected to take on burdens that others might not be able to handle. We are tougher, we work harder, we don’t need the kind of pampering that whites get. So we slip through the cracks, simply because we don’t fit the pre-concieved notions of what a depressed patient looks like. And we can’t find mental health professionals who understand our cultural framework. 

Its a well-documented phenomenon, and I know too many people who are suffering from these kinds of pressures. 

reblogging for commentary!