After Floyd Mayweather’s epithet-laden anti-racist tirade on UStream last week, Mayweather once again took to his webcam this week. This time, it was to record an apology. Sort of.

Minutes before apologizing, Mayweather (in a “top secret Las Vegas location”) surrounds himself with two Asian women (dressed either as flight attendents or hotel staff). One is Thai and the other Chinese. Mayweather proceeds to act like a fool, even loudly demanding that the Thai woman “speak some Thai”. Then, inexplicably, Mayweather tells the camera that his boxing gym is in Chinatown.

All this, it seems, is to demonstrate to the viewer that Mayweather isn’t anti-Asian. In fact, he loves him some Asian people — so much so as to point out all the Asian people and things around him. Welcome to Mayweather’s version of “I can’t be racist, I have minority friends!”

Then, Mayweather launches into his apology, which starts with more ethnic show-and-tell — this time with his Jewish and Dominican posse members. Given that these guys, in addition to the Asian women, were apparently just standing around waiting to be paraded in front of the webcam, one has to wonder how Mayweather found all these different minority people and got them to congregate for his video stream. What was this: ethnic scavenger hunt day?

Mayweather proceeds to say:

“I do want to apologize for what happened the other night,” Mayweather said. “I want to apologize to everybody. They felt it was a racist comment that came from me. I don’t have a racist bone in my body, you know. I love everybody. Some of my guys are Muslims. Some of my guys are Jews. Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, whites, it doesn’t matter. There is nothing but love in my heart, you know what I’m saying?

“I heard this from a few people. The only thing I want to say is, anybody who was offended by what I said the other day, I apologize as a man. I apologize. Forgive me for saying what I said. I was just having fun. I didn’t really mean it, nothing in a bad way. So let’s stay on this roller coaster ride and keep riding, baby. It’s all love.”

Mayweather also promised the two women front-row tickets to his “Poochie-ao” fight. Which goes to show both that Mayweather’s apology is insincere (since he continues to use that ridiculous nickname) and that it appears like Mayweather needs and wants the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight more than Pacquiao does. Pacquiao keeps moving on and doing fights when talks between the two fall apart; it’s Mayweather who keeps trash-talking without a fight scheduled.

(And speaking of which, why does Mayweather even have time to constantly be video-streaming his life? If he wants to be a reality TV star that badly, he needs to enter into talks with VH1 or something. Or does he not have enough starpower to headline the new unscripted reality TV show “Racist Merriment with Mayweather”?)

I said it last week and I say it again — all this drama is ridiculous. Mayweather needs to put up or shut up: get in the ring with Pacquiao and prove you’re better than him. Otherwise, all this trash-talking hype is pointless, petty and stupid — making it look like you have nothing better to do than throw rocks at a guy online because you’re too afraid to confront him face-to-face.

Morrissey of "The Smiths" calls Chinese people "a subspecies".

Morrissey, the singer/songwriter who fronted the 80’s band The Smiths, took an interview with the Guardian last week in which he is quoted to have said:

Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies. (emphasis added)

Morrissey was speaking in the context of an article that ran in the paper about treatment of animals in Chinese zoos and circuses.

Morrissey is known for causing controversy over inflammatory, and often racialized, denouncements. In 2007, he made anti-immigrant remarks that sounded very much like the xenophobia and hate spouted by America’s White Nationalists:

The war of words with NME continued in 2007 after Morrissey, who lived in Rome at the time, was quoted in an interview with the magazine apparently criticising levels of immigration after being asked if he would ever consider moving back to England. “With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears,” he said. “If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

At another point in the interview he stated: “England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”

Morrissey has also been quoted as saying he “didn’t really think, for instance, that Black people and White people could ever really get along“, and the lyrics of some of his songs — including Bengali in Platforms, Asian Rut and The National Front Disco — tout seemingly racist, xenophobic and White nationalist messages.

Now, this latest quote from Morrissey seems to have re-fueled the fires over his racism.

And frankly, I’m outraged by the statement. Whether you are a fervent animal rights activist or not (and Morrissey is), there’s no excuse for labelling an entire racial group of people as less than human. We’ve seen that kind of speech before; it’s not cool.

I understand why Morrissey feels passionate over stories of animal abuse, but here, we also see a mindset that’s too common amongst animal rights activists: there’s an elevation of animals over certain groups of people that can easily breed contempt, and even racism. We can and should call out countries or political groups for their mistreatment of animals, but a line is crossed when the status of an entire race of people are lowered to that of a “subspecies”, even if it is just by an aging 80’s has-been who’s only causing a stir because he’s desperately trying to keep his name in headlines.

Yesterday, CNN featured a TED talk by Sheryl WuDunn, on the worldwide plight of women and girls. WuDunn is a former reporter for the New York Times (and the first Asian-American to win a Pullitzer Prize), who, along with Nicholas Kristoff, penned the book Half the Sky, which explores how empowering women can help solve global problems of class, education, violence and oppression.

With compelling anecdoes, WuDunn describes the stories of women who live in rural and impoverished towns, treated as disposable by their families. WuDunn recounts how in the so-called First World, women slightly out-number men (because women have a longer life expectancy); but how in the so-called Third World, demographers have shown that because of a combination of sex-based abortion, preferential resources being given to young boys over young girls, and cultural oppression, 60 to 100 million women are missing world-wide.

WuDunn talks about how small donations — if they make it to their intended destinations — can cause a ripple effect simply by elevating opportunities for women. She ends her talk with a powerful anecdote, urging those of us who have most our needs met to consider what moral responsibility we have to help others:

WuDunn told the story of an American aid worker in Darfur who had seen great suffering but never broke down.

On a vacation back in the United States, she visited her grandmother and noticed a bird feeder in the backyard.

“She was in her grandmother’s backyard and she basically broke down. And she realized that not only was she able to feed and clothe and house herself but also see that people in her country were able to feed wild birds so that they don’t go hungry in the winter. She knew that with that luck and fortune also comes great responsibility.”

I love this message of activism and hope — not victimization and defeat — and how it is particularly focused on the plight of Asian and African women. And I love how it is being championed by a confident, empowered, unapologetic Asian-American woman.

WuDunn’s talk — despite its unintentional Spiderman overtones — empowers women, and dosn’t merely tell just another tale of “poverty porn” (stories of abject poverty around the world told for the mere gratification of wealthy Westerners). Women, in “Half the Sky“, aren’t just victims — women can have the power to be “economic catalysts” for worldwide change, if only we in the First World provide the initial help to spark that revolution. It’s not about sheltering women like porcelain dolls, but about truly recognizing the worth and value of every daughter, sister, wife and mother around the world.

CNN’s article includes the following excerpt from the book:

“So let us be clear about this up front: We hope to recruit you to join an incipient movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women’s power as economic catalysts. That is the process under way — not a drama of victimization but of empowerment, the kind that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful businesswomen. This is a story of transformation. It is change that is already taking place, and change that can accelerate if you’ll just open your heart and join in. …

“The tide of history is turning women from beasts of burden and sexual playthings into full-fledged human beings. The economic advantages of empowering women are so vast as to persuade nations to move in that direction.

“Before long, we will consider sex slavery, honor killings and acid attacks as unfathomable as foot-binding. The question is how long that transformation will take and how many girls will be kidnapped into brothels before it is complete — and whether each of us will be part of that historical movement, or a bystander.”

Act Now! Here’s the book’s website – Half the Sky – which contains information about the upcoming book, as well as links if you want to start getting involved.

Being Non-White is “Playing the Race Card”?

Manan Trivedi is a doctor and an Iraq War veteran who is currently running as a Democrat for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6th District. He also happens to be South Asian American, the American-born son of immigrant parents from India.

Trivedi is one of six South Asians squaring off this year in congressional races against the GOP (which is even more riled up than usual over racialized issues like illegal immigration, the NYC mosque construction, and “Obamacare”). Earlier this year, Raj Goyle (a Democratic Indian American running in Kansas against Republican Mike Pompeo) made headlines when the Pompeo Twitter feed re-tweeted an article that referred to Goyle by the ethnic slur, “turban topper.”

Which tells you just how low some politicians will go to win an election.

Trivedi, who has already raised more than $390,00 dollars as a traditional candidate, in part by tapping a wealthy network of politically-minded Indian Americans in Pennsylvania, is now facing off against Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach (pictured above). Recently, Gerlach launched attacks against Trivedi, saying that he “doesn’t share our values.”

And whose values are those? One guess.

When concerns were raised that the Gerlach campaign’s statement could be perceived as playing on Trivedi’s ethnic differences compared to the average Pennsylvanian voter’s (85% of Pennsylvania’s residents are White), Gerlach dismissively said, “The only one who has played the race card here is him, by going to Indian-American groups to raise money.”

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Here are this month's Asian American-geared Pepsi Refresh Project ideas.

I really love Pepsi’s Refresh Project — every month, Pepsi pledges $1 million dollars to non-profit causes. Non-profits submit an idea, users vote on them, and the top few in each category receive funding. What a great way to spread good karma around!

Strangely, although the Refresh Project has been around for awhile, it only just now occurred to me that I haven’t seen anyone tracking and blogging about all of the Refresh Project ideas that are geared towards the Asian American community. Earlier this year, the Hep B Project received $25,000 in one of the Pepsi Refresh Project grants to raise awareness about Hepatitis B throughout Alameda County, which disproportionately affects the Asian American community. The goals of the project were to educate, screen and vaccinate 375,000 at-risk Asian Americans through funding from Pepsi.

What a great way for Pepsi to help support our community, a special victory for Asian American non-profits, and an awesome opportunity for Asian Americans to get more involved!

Now, we’re here in September, and another cycle of Refresh Projects are up for vote. You get ten votes a day, and there are conveniently less than ten ideas that I’ve found that are specifically geared towards the Asian American community (presented in the order of funding request size).

Click on the name of each idea to vote for them! Again, you can vote once per day for each of these ideas, and the top ideas in each category gets funding every month!

Transform lives of thousands of low-income Asian Pacific Americans ($250,000)
by Asian Pacific Community Fund

Goals:

• Build healthier communities
• Develop Asian Pacific American leaders
• Create a stronger Asian Pacific American voice
• Provide the foundation for a brighter tomorrow

Unite Artists and Arts Leaders at the APA Theatre Conference and Festival ($250,000)
by East West Players

Goals:

• Host a dynamic conference & theatre festival in Los Angeles(June 2011)
• Engage 180+ artists, arts leaders & educators from across the US
• Expand “Asian Pacific American” to include often underserved cultures
• Present new works to show the many faces of APA’s across the nation
• Embrace all people in celebration of culture, history & performing art 

Fight Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer in Santa Clara County ($50,000)
by Santa Clara Hep B Free

Goals:

• Build public and healthcare provider awareness about Hep B.
• Promote routine hepatitis B testing and vaccination.
• To ensure access to treatment for chronically infected individuals.

Mavericks of Asian Pacific Islander Descent ($50,000)
by MAPID

Goals:

• To develop underrepresented artists as artists and leaders

Help Support Asian Youth Services Committee Based in Oakland, CA ($5,000)
by Asian Youth Services Committee

Goals:

• To preserve the existence of Asian Youth Services Committee
• To increase general membership by 25%
• To continue teaching youth leadership and organizational skills
• To continue giving back to our community by volunteering
• To provide a fun and safe enviornment for youth ages 12 to 21

Act Now! Obviously, vote (and vote regularly) for each of the above ideas. Oh — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — but buy and drink Pepsi to keep the Refresh Project alive. Apparently, a (very tiny, but nonetheless present) fraction of your money does end up going to a good cause.

Update (9/6/10): Added Santa Clara Hep B idea.

For the first time ever, the winners of the American Fashion Awards' Top New Designers awards are all Asian Americans. From left to right: Jason Wu (women's wear), Richard Chai (men's wear), and Alexander Wang (accessories)

The New York Times reports today that the most prestigious awards given to new designers at last night’s American Fashion Awards (the fashion industry’s version of the Oscars) honoured — for the first time ever — three young Asian American designers. Jason Wu, who skyrocketed to prominence after Michelle Obama elected to wear his white gown at the president’s inauguration, won for women’s wear.

The dress that Michelle Obama wore to the inaugural ball was designed by Jason Wu.

Richard Chai has owned his own label since 2004. His recent Spring/Summer menswear collection is described as “combin[ing] those classic elements with a more contemporary flair, pairing nicely tailored garments with looser-fitting trousers in a nice juxtaposition of styles.”

Models for Richard Chai's 2010 Spring/Summer collection.

Alexander Wang, who is known for his preference for dark colours and masculine lines in his women’s wear, has the fashion world all astir after his “Coco bag” from last year was carried by Mary Kate Olsen and consequently sold out within hours of being available online.

I'm not one to own a bazillion bags, but even *I* want one.

Chai, Wang, and Wu are part of a trend of hot new Asian American fashion designers. I’ve noticed for awhile that Asian Americans are increasingly appearing on shows like Project Runway, and are often amongst the most creative and meticulous of the designers. The New York Times identifies this as part of a growing population of Asian American designers bucking the traditional model minority stereotype and pursuing careers in fashion.

Major design schools around the world have seen an influx of Asian-American and Asian-born students since the 1990s, partly through their own recruitment efforts in countries with rapidly developing fashion industries, like South Korea and Japan, and partly because of changing attitudes in those countries about fashion careers. At Parsons the New School for Design, roughly 70 percent of its international students enrolled in the school of fashion now come from Asia, according to school officials. At the Fashion Institute of Technology, 23 percent of the nearly 1,200 students now enrolled are either Asian or Asian-American.

“F.I.T. is a pretty diverse place, but this is the most obvious change we have seen,” said Joanne Arbuckle, the dean of its school of art and design. “It is remarkable when you compare it to many years ago. I don’t think we ever had these numbers of students from Asian countries or Asian-American students. And it is a growing population.”

…

The cultural changes that have enabled would-be designers to pursue their chosen careers have happened slowly. Ms. Sui told The International Herald Tribune in 2008 that designers of her generation were often asked by their families, “Why do you want to be a dressmaker when you could be a doctor?”

Mr. Wu said those pressures were still there as recently as a decade ago. “When I was applying to Parsons, my mother had never heard of it,” he said. “Now, everyone in the generation after me wants to go to Parsons. Fashion has become a more prominent career in the eyes of Asian parents.”

In part, says these Asian American designers, it’s because they grew up around clothing because their parents worked in or owned clothing manufacturing companies.

Many of today’s Asian-American designers say they experienced a similar evolution from the factory to the catwalk, since some of their parents and grandparents were once involved in the production of clothes.Mr. Lam, whose luxury ready-to-wear collections evoke a classically uptown ideal, is a designer of Chinese descent who came to New York by way of San Francisco. His grandparents owned a factory there producing bridal gowns. His father imported clothing from Hong Kong, but Mr. Lam said he wanted to pursue a more creative course and enrolled in Parsons, graduating in 1990. Before starting his label in 2002, he worked for Mr. Kors in New York.

“I grew up around clothes,” Mr. Lam said. “It was like a default. Fashion became one of the few outlets for Asian-Americans who wanted to put their name out there.”

In addition, Asia’s rising prominence as a fashion focal point has helped boost the careers of these Asian American designers. Not only is the industry more open-minded about supporting or promoting fresh Asian/Asian American faces, but these designers can also find success across the ocean in the Asian market.

To me, this is a wonderful example of affirmative action working to diversify an industry that has been historically dominated by Caucasian (and often male) designers. Design schools are actively recruiting minority students, and they have been rewarded with innovative talent — and not just tokenism. Notably, while all three Asian American designers have risen to the top of the industry, none of them would describe themselves as having a specifically ”Asian American” point-of-view when it comes to their designs.  

Unlike the avant-garde work of Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake — Japanese designers who took Paris by storm in the 1980s — there is no discernible aesthetic connection among the designs of Asian-Americans. Alexander Wang’s street style looks nothing like Mr. Lam’s polished dresses, nor the colorful mash-up prints of Peter Som, who also consults on sportswear for Tommy Hilfiger. None would care to identify their styles as “Asian-American.”

This is an important point — minority artists (whether designers, writers, or filmmakers) need not be typecast based on their race or ethnicity. Each of these designers are Asian American, but even despite their shared demographics, they are a diverse group of talent. Just like designers of any other ethnicity, Asian Americans (and other minorities) are capable of pushing boundaries and developing a distinctive voice.

In short — in direct contrast to stereotypes that would claim otherwise — Asian Americans aren’t just a faceless, nameless mob of indistinct sameness. We are capable of being vibrant, creative, stylish, and unique — if only folks would get over their own prejudices of us as the drab, geeky model minority.

“There is this understanding that there is a group of Asian-American designers who are coming up in the world, and there is a sense of pride,” Mr. Lam said.

My dad would totally not be enough of a good sport to make a video like this with me.

A day after I posted that an Asian family was targeted by anti-Asian hate crime after moving to a suburban community in Oregon, it was revealed that the whole episode was a hoax conjured up by the family’s 16-year-old son, who was angry about having to switch schools and make new friends.

The family’s 16-year-old son (whose name isn’t mentioned in most of the news articles I’ve read about the story — in and of itself suspicious since reporters published pictures and names of the other three kids when the story initially broke yesterday) apparently was the one to spray-paint racial slurs on the family’s new house, and to leave a threatening note next to a box of matches and a bottle suspected to contain gasoline. The note read “LEAVE” and “Last Warning. We will burn down your house if we have to.”

Slurs spray-painted on the house included "gook", "homo" and "chink".

That could be gasoline. Or vegetable oil. I'm not entirely sure.

I guess the son didn’t realize that a hate crime is a serious offense; and that this story would actually make news locally and around the blogosphere.

The son appears to have apologized to the family and no charges will be pressed. But I’m also guessing that the teenager is going to be punished badly enough that juvie jail might almost look like the better consequence. He thought it was bad moving to a new school before? Think how tough it’s going to be to make new friends when all the students know you’re the new kid who graffitied his own house with racial slurs because he missed his old school, and is now grounded for the remainder of his natural life.

Moving to a new high school sucks pretty bad, but yikes — I think it would’ve just been easier to try with the making of the new friends, rather than with the empty threats of arson.

Now, I really want this fight to happen. And I also now definitely know who I'm rooting for.

So, those of you who read this blog regularly know that I’m a fan of boxing, and that I was pretty excited about a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight that was set to take place earlier this year. Mayweather, who is undoubtedly one of the best boxers of our generation was slated to fight Pacquiao, last year’s pound-for-pound best according to Ring Magazine, in March of this year. 

That fight, which was predicted to break all current records on boxing match earnings, was anticipated around the world. But, it fell through after Mayweather’s camp decided that, because Manny Pacquiao is Filipino, and because the Phillipines are a good source of illegal performance enhancing drugs, that Pacquiao must prove he’s not on PEDs. As I said back in December, the basis of that accusation is racism, pure and simple; so much so, in fact, that Pacquiao filed a defamation lawsuit against Mayweather, his father, and Golden Boy Promotions.

Nonetheless, Mayweather insisted that both he and Pacquiao submit themselves to random blood and urine testing for the entire 30-day period prior to the fight back in March. Pacquiao refused — saying that he would submit to drug-testing until a week prior to the scheduled match, but that he didn’t want to allow himself to be interrupted with tests in the few days before the fight. And so, since Mayweather and Pacquiao could not come to an agreement on this point, Mayweather pulled out and the March date was given to Joshua Clottey, a fighter from Ghana who previously held the IFC welterweight championship. Pacquiao made mincemeat out of Clottey.

Then, again, there were rumours that Mayweather and Pacquiao had entered back into talks for a fight tentatively scheduled for November. But, again, Mayweather and Pacquiao could not come to an agreement over blood testing, and again, Mayweather pulled out. Pacquiao is now scheduled to fight Antonio Margarito, a disgraced fighter who claimed the WBC International Light Middleweight belt in Mexico earlier this year. If Pacquiao wins the fight in November, he will have earned yet another championship title in his seventh weight class.

In a sport that is so incredibly and historically racialized, the Pacquiao/Mayweather talks are no exception. In fact, much of the normal shit-talk that occurs between fighters to hype a pending bout have been incredibly racist — and most of it stems from Mayweather’s camp.

Yesterday, Mayweather — who was recording a live video stream on UStream — launched into an online tirade against Manny Pacquiao that was captured by Pacquiao fans and posted onto YouTube.

In the 10 minute long video clip, which edits together many different moments in the live video stream, Mayweather references many anti-Asian stereotypes and attempts to use racialized humour to emasculate Pacquiao.

Throughout the video, Mayweather refers to Pacquiao as “Poochie-ao”, which sounds like the name one might give to a fluffy little puppy. Mayweather also calls Pacquiao a “midget” — which can only refer to the stereotype of Asians being diminuitive in height, since Pacquiao is actually only 1.5 inches shorter than Mayweather. Mayweather accuses Pacquiao of not being able to speak English and even says that Pacquiao’s using a fake name: Pacquiao’s first name is actually ”Emanual”, not “Manny” (‘cuz no one’s ever heard of nicknames in boxing, right – ”Pretty Boy” Floyd “Money” Mayweather?).

But most gallingly, Mayweather spends about a minute and a half joking that Pacquiao can take his order for sushi and rice (shitty, Westernized sushi, at that — I mean who even eats shrimp tempura rolls except Americans?) and says that, if he were ever to fight Pacquiao, he would “cook him up with some cats and dogs”.

Mayweather’s rant is incredibly racist, and hinges entirely upon mocking Pacquiao’s ethnicity. Mayweather’s words run the gamut of anti-Asian stereotypes, and he even going so far as to confuse all Asians cultures by correlating a Filipino man with Japanese food.

I realize that Mayweather cultivates a villain persona in the boxing world, and that he’s known for his pre-fight trash-talk, but in this case, Mayweather should be ashamed. These racist taunts are infantile and bigoted; while Pacquiao is actually doing his job and fighting opponents, Mayweather is sitting on the sidelines making dumbass racist jokes.

I said it back in December and I’ll say it again: prove you’re not chicken, Mayweather. If you really think you’re better than Pacquiao, than find some compromise on the blood-testing thing, and take your shit to the ring.

And hopefully, when he finally gets a chance to, that “midget” will kick your skinny, racist ass.

Here’s the full article:

Asian-American family receives threats after moving into suburban Portland home

HAPPY VALLEY (AP) – Clackamas County sheriff’s officers are investigating a racial harassment case involving an Asian-American family moving into a home in the southeast Portland suburb of Happy Valley.

Sheriff’s Detective Jim Strovink says the FBI is also investigating whether the harassment of Sang Huynh and his family constitutes a federal civil rights violation.

Racial slurs were spray-painted Monday afternoon on the outside of the home. The family also found a book of matches near a clear plastic bottle of what police think is gasoline. Warning notes included one that said, “We will burn your house down if we have to.”

Fourteen-year-old Lisa Huynh says her parents are upset by the threats and her little brother is now afraid to sleep in his own room.

Happy Valley Mayor Rob Wheeler called the harassment “totally unacceptable and disturbing.”

According to its Wikipedia article, Happy Valley is a small community that had about 4,500 residents in 2000. Nearly 90% of the residents are White, and Asian residents make up the next largest racial group at less than 9%.

To me, Happy Valley doesn’t sound like all that happy a place to be.