Why is it the most important thing for some people is that the candidate has the same religion as you, or talks the same way, or has the same skin color?  Would most of America be happy with a moron they identified with and felt was most similar to them, even if it meant the country was being run into the ground? Do their similarities trump anything, even performance and ability?  And in today’s world where so many people are influenced by mass media and group-think, doesn’t the lack of independent thought result in the breakdown of true democracy? You can’t have real democracy if among the public too many people are bigots, xenophobes, or idiots; at some point the system breaks down that way.  Check out the article below about the problems his campaign is facing in talking to voters who simply can’t bring themselves to vote for a non-White Christian male.  Also, check out this article about The Bradley Effect. Finally, here is a somewhat related Rolling Stone article about what this election is showing about America, not only in people’s hesitancy towards Obama, but also towards Sarah Palin.  Excerpts below.
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Tags: election, mccain, obama, racism

Here is a recent ad out of Minnesota.   A democratic candidate there, an American rising star named Ashwin Madia, is running for Congress in that state.  The GOP recently came out with an ad paintin Aswhin as ‘One of Them’, ‘Not One of Us’.  In that video, they try to explain/defend that “from a demographic standpoint… he’s not one of us”.   By the way, his opponent is White American Erik Paulsen.

Yeah, I’m not buying any of this.  It’s obvious they are trying to get the Xenophobia Vote and stir up some more passion from the closet racists.  It reminds me a lot of what former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently said to major media outlets:

“The Bubba vote is there, and it’s very real, and it is everywhere,” Armey told USA TODAY and Gannett News Service. “There’s an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man.

I recently wrote a piece over at Hyphen.  Check it out.

Here is an excerpt:

Peter Hitchens’ article reflects a more general Anglo and American whining over the fact that African and Middle Eastern nations are increasingly choosing to trade their natural resources with China rather than with them.  There are several reasons why this article peeves me to no end.  Anyone with knowledge of economic history knows that the Western IMF and World Bank have kept nations around the world, especially those on the African and South American continents, in economic servitude by providing high-interest loans to poor nations, which were deliberately designed to be impossible for these countries to ever pay back.

Tags: Africa, china, IMF, Peter Hitchens, World Bank

There is a video quickly circulating the web this week about an Asian American named Hubert Chang, who claims he was the 3rd founder of Google, and who was there and helped think up the search algorithm, system architecture, name, business model, and corporate culture.  He even cites the name of the Stanford professor who paired up Chang with Sergey Brin and Larry Page.  After collaborating on Google, Chang says he went to finish his Ph.D at NYU.

The story article is here.  This is a pretty wild story, but who knows when it comes to the tech industry?  There have also been rumors about how Facebook was created after Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea from people who hired him at CollegeU.com.  It would be cool if an Asian American were behind Google, to have another positive face out there to join Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Steve Chen (Youtube), and others going back to when An Wang invented magnetic core memory and founded juggernaut Wang Laboratories.

Tags: google, hubert chang, larry page, sergey brin, yahoo, youtube

Here is an extremely disturbing article, about a recent study out of Stanford, that examined the views of Caucasian Americans towards Blacks on a wide range of negative behaviors.  Here are some excerpts. While the quote seems to rail on White liberals, if you look at the graph I include below, Whites of other political ideologies harbor even more negative views of  Blacks:

Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them “lazy,” “violent,” responsible for their own troubles. The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

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Tags: dick armey, mccain, obama, racism, stanford, white

Several weeks ago I had a short post on Ningin about Anthony Kim and also Michael Chang, on the day when Chang was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame. Today on ESPN, there is a video feature on Kim, who has already won 2 PGA tournaments before the age of 23, a feat accomplished by only one other man ever: Tiger Woods (who is half Asian by the way).  The Ryder Cup just started recently and Kim is paired up with Phil Mickelson, as the US hopes to start out strong against the Europeans.

The video is about growing up in California, the sacrifices his family made for him, as well as his turbulent relationship with his father. It also had a touch of the pressures and expectations he faced while growing up, which I am sure many Asian American youth can relate to.

Here is the link to the video.

Tags: anthony kim, asian american, golf, ryder cup, tiger woods

Wong Fu is the production group of Asian Americans who have put out videos that have been watched by millions of people from around the world.  Along the way they have worked with major icons within the Asian American industry, as well as come out with some entertaining music videos and short movies.

Here is a clip of them talking about Hollywood.  They mention what many of us already know, which is that many Americans still see an Asian face as being foreign and un-American (even though Asians have lived in North America for 400 years).  They also give advice on other Asian Americans about the entertainment industry.
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Tags: hollywood, wong fu

I have seen this movie about half a dozen times by now, and it is HILARIOUS and infinitely better than the garbage ping-pong movie ‘Balls of Fury’ that came out not too long ago.    The film is about Chris ‘C-Dub’ Wang, who is the black sheep of his family, a wannabe b-baller and militant Asian American, who inadvertently finds himself representing his family’s ping-pong business in an annual neighborhood ping-pong tournament.  Along the way he does some hustling, battles some arrogant Brits, and also has his eyes on a beautiful Asian American Studies graduate student.  It is one of the funniest and most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a long time.
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Tags: asian international film festival, comedy, indie film, jessica yu, jimmy tsai, justin lin, movie, ping pong playa, roger fan

“Dear Faithful Fallout Central Fans,

The last Fallout Central Podcast (for the foreseeable future) was held on Sunday, 7/20/08 at 2:00pm ET. The Fallout Central Podcast, formerly composed of announcers William Lee, Albert Lim, and John Kwak, will no longer be recorded until an Asian American person steps forward to lead Fallout Central. The historical podcast episodes and news archive will remain intact until I am no longer willing to pay for the retention of the Fallout Central web server which currently houses the podcasts that have been recorded, or until an Asian American person steps forward to pay for the maintenance of it.

If you would like to step up to the plate and take control of Fallout Central, please contact me, William Lee, at . I would be happy to assist you in either purchasing your own podcasting equipment (I have very detailed knowledge on every aspect of podcast broadcasting, and I can easily teach you how to do it) or give you FREE studio time at the Fallout Central studio in NYC. All of us (William, Albert, and John) would be happy to serve as announcers on the Fallout Central Podcast, but none of us want to invest the time to lead and produce it.

William Lee

Producer

Fallout Central”

Tags: albert lim, asian american, fallout central, john kwak, new york city, podcast, radio, studio, william lee

This is ridiculous.  Imagine if someone made a similar demand of baseball, basketball, or tennis players around the globe.  This is clearly in response to insecurity/resentment over growing numbers of talented minorities in the sport, most notably South Koreans.  This reminds me of the same kind of superiority complex/arrogance from certain Anglo travelers who expect people to speak English in whatever country they travel in.

Article Link

Excerpt:

The LPGA will require its member golfers to learn and speak English and will suspend their membership if they don’t comply, Golfweek reported on its Web site.

According to the report, the new requirement was communicated to the tour’s growing South Korean membership in a mandatory meeting at the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 20.

…Players were told by LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens that by the end of 2009, all players who have been on the tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills or face a membership suspension. A written explanation of the policy was not given to players, according to the report.

…”The LPGA could come out and say they only want 10 Koreans, but they’re not,” Park said, according to Golfweek. “A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it’s just because there are so many of them.”

Tags: english, golf, lpga, minorities, racist, south korea, suspend, women, xenophobia