Response to Sex Dialogue

There is an article written by Marc Balderama, a UCD student, called “Sex, Not for Everyone: Vent Magazine struggles to show diversity in their sophomore effort.” Balderama outlines some reactions of Asian American student leaders at UC Davis towards the Sex Issue and the Bridge dialogue regarding sexual representation. Although it wasn't perfect, Balderama did a pretty good job describing people's views on the Sex Issue. In his article he states how there was controversy regarding the diversity of the Asian American community represented in the issue. According to Balderama's interviewees, the LGBT community and dark-skinned Asian Americans were not represented. Their sexual experiences were silenced.

This weekend, I was talking to my friend Mekka, who happens to be Black, about Asian American representation. He told me, “The reason [Asians] don’t get in the media is because, [Asians] don’t speak up. Where were you when [Blacks] were getting hosed down? Where is Chad Hugo when Pharrell is getting airtime?” In my head, I’m thinking there were Asian Americans who helped in the civil rights movement. In fact, that’s how Asian American studies developed. But in terms of the mainstream media—Mekka was right—Asian Americans are silent. I don’t see Asian Americans speaking up about what is owed to them. We complain amongst ourselves, but to the world we are mute. To put it in perspective, we don’t go on hunger strikes demanding we get on TV. There is no Malcolm X or Caesar Chavez in the Asian American community. If there were, [insert Asian American ethnicity here] would complain if s/he was [insert a different Asian American ethnicity here] and vice versa.

This got me thinking about Vent and its mission. Is it even worth trying? No matter what we do, there’s going to be someone not included—someone who feels we did a poor job representing Asian Americans because their particular segment of the community wasn’t in a photo or article. Someone is going to feel alienated no matter what. Then a thought came to me. Maybe this is exactly why we need Vent—to figure out where Asian America stands. Do we even have a tangible concept of Asian America anymore? Political identities are always changing, and has our identity become so diverse that the term “Asian America” is irrelevant? What does Asian America even mean these days?

I barely know. I can give you a textbook definition, and I am sure someone in ASA 1 can too. The problem is, this definition doesn’t cater to everyone in the community. Asian American Studies is a leftist academic discipline, and it will probably stay that way. So if university professors are arguing that Asian American means to be a supporter of the 1960s civil rights movements and the advancement of people of color, then why are so many Asians I’ve met say they’re going to vote McCain now since Hilary lost the primary? Should we just label those people in our community sellouts, and silence their voices from the discussion? Are they not Asian American anymore because they don’t have a certain political view?

My view is, no. I believe that it’s okay to voice your political opinion. In fact, I believe it’s important to do so. But don’t say you are speaking for everyone, because you can’t. All you can do is convince people to see things the way you see them. Vent shares this perspective. Vent doesn’t say that it’s a publication that speaks foe Asian Americans. Instead, Vent claims it is an avenue for Asian Americans to get heard. I think this is real important to understand.

No one is going to hear you, if you don’t speak louder than the next person. The Vent staff was discontent with how the mainstream media portrays Asian Americans so Vent decided to let individuals in the Asian American community portray themselves. Calvin Iwan wanted to talk about his best orgasm, so Vent published his story. We opened up the magazine to everyone. It so happened that only heterosexuals wanted to talk about their sexuality openly. I understand that sexuality in the LGBT community isn’t easy to discuss. In fact, many people don’t want to touch the subject. So as a magazine that says we are an avenue for people to get heard, this means the people who don’t want to get heard won’t. This is troubling to some, including myself.

To the people who are troubled and want to know what you can do—you need to get heard. So write and get published. If you don’t trust the editorial direction of Vent, create your own publication. You want to see guy on guy or girl on girl photos of dark people? Who is stopping you from conducting a photo-shoot? Make your own magazines or newspapers the way you want them made. It sounds like hard work. It is; politicians and movie stars worked hard to get where they are. So if you’re serious about wanting to get represented, you need to work harder than the people who are already there.

Read a book!

Crooks and Castles inspired by Rockefeller. Who's that?

Political participation is retarded in part by the lack of ideas, of conflicting paradigms on how to best organize state and society (No one reads anymore)- Forest Colburn (A pretentious scholar on Latin American politics)

Its hella funny how people line up for shirts with politically inspired messages (after copping a pair of jordans) but don't understand the meanings behind them. It's cool that designers are trying hard to make politics a staple of street friendly t-shirts... but in all honesty all its doing is reinforcing divisions along class lines. Do you really think a kid who can benefit most from an inspirational graphic/quote pasted in front of a t-shirt can afford to pay Bobby Hundreds 32 dollars plus tax on top of transportation to fairfax or post st? Hegemony is wonderful. But a lot of people wont know what the fuck I'm talking about, or understand the irony unless they go to the library and pick up some Gramsci or Foucault. The sad part is that once a kid actually tries to read one of these works on power, s/he wont understand it because our education system is set up to make us all illiterate consumers.

Glow in the Dark

All I have to say is wow! From what I saw, Kanye deserves to be as cocky as he wants. Since security wouldn't let me take a camera inside, you'll just have to look on youtube for videos from people who were stealthy enough to get one in.