My Other AAS Paper

The following is a paper that I wrote this semester for another Asian American Studies class called Asian Americans and Mass Media. The subject matter of this class inspired much of the content in this blog as well as the topic of the blog itself.

"Usually when you see Asian faces on screen, they're there for an Asian American reason. Either they're tourists or kung fu masters or whatever. As an Asian American watching film, that's something I'd like to move away from."

--Justin Lin, The Sundance Kid

AKA Don bonus// Better luck tomorrow

Second Paper Assignment

Before directing The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Fast & Furious (2009) and Fast Five (2011), Justin Lin directed a smaller budget independent film called Better Luck Tomorrow (2002). In it he challenged familiar stereotypes about Asians being quiet, obedient students who get good grades and over achieve. In “The Sundance Kid,” (2002) an interview with motherjones.com—an independent news organization—Lin explained that “usually when you see Asian faces on screen, they’re for an Asian American reason. Either they’re tourists or kung fu masters or whatever. As an Asian American watching film, that’s something I’d like to move away from.” Some of the “Asian American reasons,” that Lin was talking about were listed by Richard Fung in “Center the Margins” (1991) when he said that “Asians can invoke mystery, humour or danger.”


I think that Lin is saying that film makers need to move away from placing Asians on screen primarily because they can represent an Asian stereotype and start putting Asians on screen for reasons other than them being Asian. The idea behind Lin’s quote is exemplified in Lin’s own film Better Luck Tomorrow by having characters that counter the model minority stereotype and in Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny’s personal documentary AKA Don Bonus (1995) by countering the negative gangster myth stereotype. Although these two films are related to Lin’s quote they also differ greatly in terms of genre, subject matter, and historical stage of Asian American films.

My AAS Paper

The following is a paper that I submitted last semester for an Asian American Studies class called Pilipinos in America.

Why do we Proudly Claim Successful and Famous Filipino-American Celebrities as Our Own?

I would bet that any second generation Filipino-Americans with Philippine born parents and grandparents have had experiences while watching American television where the family enjoys a little game of “is he/she a pinoy/pinay?” It involves looking for the elusive, but revealing clues of brown skin, brown eyes, black hair or a flat nose. It usually arrives at some conclusion like “Yeah, she has got to be at least part Filipino. Look at her nose.” It is as if it is our duty to pick out any trace of Filipino ancestry that can be found among the various ethnicities that can be found in American popular culture. And this difficult detective work goes beyond this household “game.” I’ve experienced time and time again those instances of my friends and family informing me of the fact that some famous movie or TV star, or famous athlete, or famous musician is in fact full or at least partly Filipino. This is not to say that I, in the same fashion, haven’t taken this knowledge and passed it on to my friends and family who might not have known this valuable information. Just to name a few examples of Filipino/a’s that may get claimed as their own there is comedian Rob Schneider, actor Lou Diamond Philips, actress Tia Carrere, WWE superstar “Batista,” Giant’s pitcher Tim Lincecum, singer Lea Solanga, professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars Cheryl Burke and many of the dancers from various groups on America’s Best Dance Crew including the Season 1 champions the JabbaWockeeZ. These are just a very small group of many names of famous celebrities that often get thrown around and claimed by Filipino-Americans to be one of their own.


And who is to say that there is anything wrong with having pride in an exceptional individual who comes from the same background as you? To proudly claim this individual whom the whole world is watching and then turn around and tell that world: “Hey, did you know that he/she is a Filipino/a?”

Gender Stereotypes and iCarly

I know this is a blog about racism in the mass media, but as much as I enjoy critically thinking about racism, I also spend time thinking about how an extremely heavy bias is placed on gender stereotyped behaviors in mass media. If one were to take the time to view some of the things that kids watch on networks such as the Disney channel and Nickelodeon-- and they watched these shows under the assumption that kids will emulate the models that they see on television-- they would find that kids are practically being taught how to be heterosexual and how to follow certain male and female stereotypes (and avoid non-conforming ones).

This is something that is hard to spot since many of us would assume that certain stereotypically male and female behaviors would be considered "normal" while any non-conforming behaviors would be considered deviant from that norm. But try watching the first 50 seconds of this video from Nickelodeon's popular kids show iCarly while keeping traditional male and female stereotypes in mind.

You can see that the male character named Spencer is the target of ridicule for engaging in activities that are  traditionally and stereotypically associated with females (i.e. being a member of a book club, sharing recipes for fruit tarts, and even his overall feminine demeanor at the beginning and end of the first 50 seconds of the video). When the three younger characters enter, you can clearly see that Spencer appears to be ashamed of what he has been doing and it seems as if he has done something terribly wrong. After explaining to the three that he was exchanging recipes for fruit tarts with his book club the three characters immediately start laughing at him-- accompanied of course by some canned laughter to signal to the young audience members that this is something that should be laughed at.

This is of course something that should not be laughed at. As a male I would like to be able to engage in such activities if I wanted to without having to face such ridicule. But the problem here is that these shows intended for children use these stereotypes as a formula for what should be considered normal, then use deviation from those stereotypes as a way to introduce humor to the show. What kid is going to emulate the character that gets made fun of in the show? Of course they would feel ashamed to copy the male character who gets mocked for liking to paint pretty pictures or the female character who is made fun of for not being "girly" enough.

These shows get approved by our rating systems, but I think that they present a problem that is extremely hard to fight. I encourage you to analyze the media that is consumed by the children in your lives. Open your eyes to what is being exposed to theirs. One could easily watch the first 50 seconds of this video in passing and chuckle at it without much thought, but after laughing at it I would like to encourage you to think about why you laughed at that and ask yourself: "is it okay that I find this funny?"

Racism and Petra

I recently came across this hilarious tutorial video of youtube user ashleyslips teaching the internet how to dance in a club. She does this as one of her comedic characters named Petra Mahalimuyak who speaks English with an extremely exaggerated Filipino accent (or what we Filipino Americans would call in a rather derogatory way: a "FOB" accent). This is one of her most recent videos and is the only one to pass one million views (although it is not the only one featuring Petra). I would guess that this could probably be due to her decent dance moves, her general attractiveness, the hilarious things that come out of her mouth or some combination of the three.

Her video is absolutely silly and over-the-top. She replaces her F's with P's and her D's with J's and the whole time she speaks with an intentionally thick Filipino accent. As a Filipino American, I know that alot of us Fil Am's find this to be very humorous-- probably in a similar way to the Latino community laughing at mainstream comedians like George Lopez, Gabriel Iglesias and Carlos Mencia. And while she is indeed receiving lot's of positive feedback from most of her viewers, she also gets some negative feedback from (I am guessing) Filipinos who feel that by ashlyslips doing this character she is mocking the Filipino accent and some say even the Filipino race. Personally, I feel like I could go both for and against this argument. 

In any case, I think that one important factor to consider here is the fact that she is herself a Filipina and that entitles her to make fun of the Filipino race more so than a non-Filipino (in which case I would be more likely to say that they are mocking our race). I think that this is similar to the Latino comedians mentioned earlier who use exaggerated Mexican accents, black comedians who make fun of black culture, and even how homosexuals are allowed to call each other "faggot" in a lighthearted fashion (even though it is traditionally used as a very offensive and even hateful term). 

Also, there are other aspects of the video that are funny that are unrelated to her accent, such as her dance moves and their silly names-- like cleaning the window, folding the clothes and even putting them away. Also the fact that she is an attractive woman and a good dancer makes the video entertaining to watch. Although I have mentioned before that we should think critically about signs of racism in our media, I think that we should just be able to watch and enjoy this video without condemning it.

Racism and Wrestling

As a kid--and admittedly not too long ago as well-- I was always a big fan of professional wrestling. I've always been excited by the high-flying special moves, the overly dramatic personalities, and the nail biting last minute kick outs (yes, I know it's all fake. And yes, I do still get excited). Also, the writers create different storylines for the characters so it ends up becoming a hyper-masculine soap opera for manly men (such as myself). But only recently have I really started paying attention and I all of a sudden noticed that a lot of the story lines are extremely racist (and often homophobic as well).

If you don't think so or if you aren't too familiar with pro wrestling you can check out some of those extremely offensive moments here.


The article above is a compilation of what MTV blogger Andreas Hale believes to be the ten most offensive moments in wrestling. It includes that moment at Wrestlemania 91' when The Million Dollar Man explained why his African American "bodyguard" does whatever he wants because he gets paid to do so to the night when African American wrestler Shelton Benjamin mocked Japanese American wrestler Yoshi Tatsu by bringing up old and tired Japanese stereotypes. One gimmick that I must have missed between my time as a younger fan to more recent times was the group known as the "Mexicools" who rode in to the arena on a lawn mower (which is done because as Hale notes; "Mexicans are always gardeners").

But the earlier years of wrestling were admittedly a time when censorship wasn't that big of an issue, where as today anything that is "live" is actually delayed a certain amount of time just in case anything gets a little out of hand (viewer discretion is advised for those who click). So one might argue that the WWE has gotten better about their blatant racism, but I would argue that today's racism is a bit more subtle and requires a bit more attention.

One of the more recent duos in the WWE is called "Cryme Tyme" and they are essentially based on every single "ghetto black person" stereotype you can think of (and then some). In the video below they can be seen in a short sketch (meant to be funny) where they visit retirement community where they are supposed to entertain the elderly audience, but they end up arriving with baggy pants, a bullet proof vest, and all kinds of "bling." They sing "Christmas carols" about crackheads, robbing white people, and pimping. If you visit the youtube page of the video you will find that well over 1000 people "liked" the video (versus a measly 35 "dislikes").

And the worst part about all this is that these extremely over-exaggerated stereotypes are portrayed as good guys in the WWE. They are the people that the audience is supposed to cheer for. They are the people who the audience is supposed to laugh with whenever they tell their jokes or insult the heels (bad guys). What kind of message does this to the younger non-black audience about black people? What kind of message does this send to young black kids? And what kind of message does this send to the WWE audience in general?

Before, I might have just laughed at this sketch and not given it much thought, but at this point in my life I feel like I need to stop, think and ask myself these types of questions. Afterwards, the next (and hardest) step is to raise these questions publicly. If you just look at the youtube comments on some of these very offensive videos you can see that raising these kinds of questions to some people would introduce a lot of resistance and unwillingness to even begin thinking about such things. Many will just shrug people like myself off as someone who is overly-sensitive about racism and someone who "doesn't know how to take a joke," but we should still continue to try and increase dialogue and raise these important questions until everyone starts thinking.

Racism and costumes pt. 2

My previous post was about a student organization that wanted to increase dialogue about racist Halloween costumes (CNN reported on their efforts soon after my post). This post will provide information about some racist Halloween costumes that you want to avoid.

I recently came across an about.com article by Nadra Kareem Nittle about racially offensive costumes that brought up some points that I never really gave much thought to in the past. It lists several examples of racially offensive Halloween costumes and explains why they are offensive.

The first was "ghetto person/black person." Nittle explains that "The problem with these ghetto fab costumes is that they invoke stereotypical images of African Americans as low-class, gauche, thuggish and sexually provocative, among others." She goes on to explain that this type of costume is both classist and racist. She mentions "ghetto fab" parties being thrown in the new millennium which I have to admit I am not very familiar with, but I can attest to the fact that I've had (Asian) friends who decided to sport a "gangster" look as their Halloween costume. Each year I might see a picture or two of a group of girls in my facebook newsfeed dressed in baggy pants with tilted baseball caps and bandannas on their heads which I never gave much thought to, but I realize now how they were displaying a representation of a very negative stereotype and by not having a problem with it I was feeding into that stereotype as well.

The next costume in the article is the "Redneck." She describes it as the "flipside of the ghetto fab costume" and explains that is also racist and classist. I would always see these type of attire in Halloween stores and party stores alike and I can vaguely remember owning a set of hillbilly teeth (similar to the vampire teeth that you can stick into your mouth) as a child. I thought nothing more of them than some funny looking teeth. What's wrong with funny? Well, Nittle explains that "Such costumes promote the stereotype that poor whites are ignorant and worthy of ridicule. They suggest that poor and working class whites are inherently inferior to their more affluent counterparts." This kind of classism would even allow more affluent whites to insensitively be representing members of their same race as an inferior group to themselves. This is particularly interesting to me because as an Asian American family, our racist stereotypes about whites are usually about them having an easy life and being rich. I would never give much thought to a less affluent group of whites who face a similar ridicule to racial minorities.

The next costume is also one that I never gave much thought to, but turns out to be one of the most appalling; the "Geisha Girl." Nittle also lists "the dragon lady," "china doll," and "lotus blossom," as additional offensive portrayals of Asian women and goes on to explain that they are racial and sexual stereotypes "thrust upon Asian women." She explains that "the geisha stereotype is one that paints Asian women as submissive, doll-like and existing only to sexually gratify others." I find this as one of the most appalling because this sexually driven stereotype is is often seen as a children's costume which just makes this even more wrong on a whole new level. Again, this is a costume that I had previously given little to no thought about in terms of being offensive in any way.

Nittle lists a few more costumes in her article including Muslim, American Indian, and Gypsy. She concludes by suggesting that people go as specific people or characters as opposed to a member of a race (her examples are Barack Obama and Bruce Lee) and adds that one should not change their physical features in historically offensive ways such as using blackface (for Obama) or taping your eyes so that they slant (for Lee). I would also like to add the suggestion of racially sensitive characters such as zombies. When the Apocalypse is upon us and the zombie virus spreads, it will know no race or favor any group. It will eventually consume us all so it is safe to assume that everyone will inevitably be a zombie.

So get creative and really think about your costume and about the costumes around you. If you put in that little bit of effort you might be able to enlighten yourself and those around you and help in spreading that knowledge that needs to get across to as many people as possible.

There are however other people who will be thinking that this is "not that big a deal" and "it's just one night in the year where people just want to have some fun," but the fact is that these costumes are based on offensive racial stereotypes and if you think these costumes should slide then on some level you probably think these stereotypes should slide too. Think about it.

Racism and costumes

Making a blog about racism around this time of year would mean that I am pretty much obligated to mention the issue of racist Halloween costumes (in addition to the sexist, classist, or even those costumes that manage to be an ambitious combination of offensive stereotypes).

A college senior from Ohio University has successfully launched a poster campaign to raise awareness about the offensiveness of some Halloween costumes-- she has done this as the president of a student organization from Ohio University called Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS). She posted some images of some of the posters (a couple are seen here) on her tumblr account and has become "tumblr famous." Her latest post of poster images posted only 3 days ago had 15,000 notes when I started writing this post and at this moment reached 16,000 notes and is still climbing.

(I have to confess that I actually bought and wore a similar poncho and sombrero to the one featured to the left as a Halloween costume while in high school)

She mentions that they intended to "educate and create dialogue" and also mentions that STARS will be posting the posters around their campus. They probably intended to create dialogue on campus, but they managed to attract attention all over. She even mentions in her tumblr that she is consulting a lawyer to protect their rights to the posters which are spreading across the internet and getting attention from places far from Ohio University. One of her latest posts is about her having just done an interview with CNN.

What this student organization is doing is very important and I think they have gone about it in a very clever way with their simple, attention-grabbing posters with a short and concise message. I encourage you to think about your potential Halloween costume and maybe even reconsider wearing it so that we may attempt to change this practice of annually wearing offensive costumes.

There will of course be those who will still go out to Halloween parties in insensitive costumes, but with outspoken opposition to such costumes and increased dialogue, perhaps we can spread knowledge in the same way this small student organization has spread their posters.

White Rappers on Black Entertainment Television

Lately, I haven't been able to get over the absolutely amazing awesomeness contained in this cypher. It's been a while since one of my favorite rappers of all time has rapped at the level that he is rapping at now. Eminem, has started rapping again over the past few years after battling a serious addiction (which like any other reformed addict he is still battling everyday). He's been missed by his fans and after his newest number one album Recovery, many would say that he is truly back.

The video also features another white rapper recently signed to Shady Records; Yelawolf. It's not that big of a deal that there are rappers in this world that are white, but what is amazing is that these rappers were featured on the 2011 BET Awards Show (in case you don't know, BET stands for "Black Entertinment Television) and they were even considered (by pretty much the internet) to have been part of the best cypher of the evening.

As I've been enjoying the verses on this video while simultaneously starting a blog about racism it occurred to me that Em faced a very rare case of black on white racism. The world of hip hop is predominantly black and-- as a white rapper-- Eminem has been constantly trying to prove himself as a top tier lyricist despite the color of his skin. I realized that his struggle is an example of how the racism = prejudice + power definition could work in a different situation. A situation where the tables are turned and a white man is actually the one who faces ridicule in a world dominated by blacks. Luckily for Yelawolf, Eminem has broken down a wall to allow him a chance to show the world of hip hop what he can do.

I struggled at first with finding a definition for racism, but this example showed me how this definition works and can be applied in different contexts.

If you're interested in the other cyphers

Racism and humor pt. 2

My previous post was about racist humor and it tried to support it, but I recently came across something that made me change my views. I feel like racist jokes could be divided in at least two categories: those jokes that sound ridiculous and offensive on purpose and those that come purely from a place of hate. The problem however, is that one could tell and enjoy the former out of hate as well.

What I came across in my research is a website literally dedicated to hateful jokes. They proudly display their slogan at the top of every page: "The face of Hate on the 'net!" I think I was unable to explore much of the site because it was recently hacked by the "hacktivist" group Anonymous who most recently organized protests against Bay Area Rapid Transit's shut down of cell phone service claiming that it was a violation of our freedom of speech.

The hateful website accepts joke submissions from other hateful people. It appears that only the "Niggers" section of jokes is available. Some of the jokes are indeed quite hateful, like "Why do niggers call white people "honkies"? Thats the last sound they hear before they get hit!" I don't see how jokes about harming or even killing members of a race are funny unless you are coming from a place of hatred. 


On the other hand, a joke on the site that I thought was funny was "Everyone should stop being racist... racism is a crime, and crime is for niggers!" First of all, the derogatory use of the slur "nigger" is definitely not okay and since it comes from this website it probably is used out of hate which is also not okay, but as one who enjoys irony I feel like the rest of the joke can be appreciated. It pokes fun at the idea of someone who says they are against racism, but still blurts out extremely racist statements. As mentioned in my previous post, my professor said that laughing at racist jokes means that I am condoning racism, but I still feel like I can appreciate a joke without being racist. 

Racism and humor

I'm currently in a Asian American studies class about Asian Americans in mass media. We recently watched a short film by David Knupp entitled Hey, Have you Heard the One About? (Sorry, I was not able to track it down and provide a link). It was a silent experimental film featuring offensive jokes based on Asian stereotypes shown in white text against a black screen, followed by an image of Knupp from behind. In the end Knupp is finally turned around and seen crying. As explained to us by our professor, David Knupp is himself part Asian, but appears to be white so offensive jokes of this nature would often be told around him or even to him because the person telling the joke would not realize that Knupp was in fact Asian.

The silence of the film allows for a sort of tension in the room because if one were to laugh at a joke then everyone in the silent room would easily detect it. One of the jokes that I believe was finally laughed at in class-- after several jokes that passed by in silence-- include one that goes "how do you know your house was robbed by a [racial slur for an Asian (chink, gook, Jap, etc.)]? If your dog is gone and your homework is complete." One of the jokes I can remember was insulting physical characteristics of Asians by saying that you could blindfold a [another racial slur for an Asian] by using a piece of dental floss. I unfortunately can't remember most of the jokes, but they ranged from very hateful jokes about killing Asians to jokes about Asians being smart.

Some of the jokes had our class laughing (or at least smiling) at some of the ridiculous jokes on the screen. We explained in class discussion how at first we were trying not to laugh because of what those around us might think, but eventually once one person laughed it became sort of okay to laugh at the less offensive jokes. Our instructor concluded by stating that if you do laugh at these jokes, you are saying that "racism is okay." This conclusion astounded me because I often find myself laughing at ridiculously racist jokes. Although I'm against racism I'm also in love with comedy (including stand-up, sitcoms, cartoons, sketch comedy, improv, movies etc.) which is often fueled by blatantly racist jokes.

Maybe this is because of a bias towards supporting comedy, but I feel like when I laugh at these kinds of jokes I know that these are outrageous statements and the ridiculousness of them becomes what is humorous-- not the acceptance of the joke as the truth.

What do you think? Is racist humor absolutely wrong and should it be avoided because it perpetuates racism? Or is it possible to laugh at racist jokes without being racist?

About the author

I'm an undergraduate at San Francisco State University majoring in psychology. I've grown up around the San Francisco Bay Area which is a pretty diverse area to grow up in as far as race goes. I'm a Filipino-American,  born in the U.S. to first generation Filipino immigrants, who grew up among many other Filipino-Americans.

I haven't really experienced any major racial prejudice that one might experience in other parts of the U.S., but I do believe that racial prejudice is an issue that is not talked about as much as it should be (at least among my social groups of fellow college students). The most experience that I have with issues of prejudice comes from various classes that I have taken over my years as a college student-- classes about critically thinking, Asian American Studies courses, cross cultural psychology courses, and even a survey and history of Jazz course.

I realize that I am no expert on issues related to racism, racial prejudice, racial stereotypes, etc., but just as I was in my classes, I am willing to learn and try and add to the much needed conversation about these issues.

What is 'racism'?

So I wanted to write a blog about racism, but I immediately ran into a problem: I could not find a simple working definition for the topic. dictionary.reference.com defines racism as "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races  determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others." the next two definitions mention "discrimination," "hatred" and "intolerance." This definition is important, but it is rather extreme and is not necessarily what I want to talk about in my blog.

Merriam-webster.com defines racism as "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." The next definition mentions "prejudice" and "discrimination." This is somewhat similar to the previous definition, but it's still not what I'm looking for. These two definitions talk about thinking ones race is superior to others, but it doesn't necessarily include the kinds of racial stereotypes that people might have about Asians being superior at math or being obedient students, or African Americans being superior at dancing or at sports. These types of stereotypes don't appear to consider the stereotyped race as "inferior," but I would argue that they are indeed racist (or perhaps some other term that I am not aware of).

There is also a definition for racism that I was recently introduced to in a Asian American studies class lecture which is that racism is equal to prejudice plus power. In other words, you can't be racist if you don't have both prejudicial thoughts and institutional power. So in the US, any persons of color can't be racist by this definition (if you agree that whites have the institutional power in this country).


Prejudice + Power = Racism. It's simple and it seems to make sense, but I still feel like it's a lacking definition if it's not going to allow me as a person of color or any other persons of color to be considered racist.


Then I ran into the term racialism. This term was completely unheard of to me before I started researching. merriam-webster.com defined it as "a theory that race determines human traits and capacities." This definition is along the lines of what I feel I want this blog to be about, but I would also like to include one little addition. So that it would be "a theory that race influences or determines human traits and capacities." This is simply because not everyone feels that race determines traits, but I'm willing to bet that there are many who sometimes (consciously or unconsciously) think that race might influence one's behavior or ability.


Perhaps the term I am looking for is 'racial prejudice.' Prejudice being defined in the second definition by dictionary.reference.com as "any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable." This might match what I am hoping to talk about in my blog and would indeed include both positive and negative stereotypes.


If you have any information that you could share--maybe on more commonly accepted definitions of racism or racialism--or maybe you know the term that I might be looking for please feel free to respond below and educate me.

My top links

Links about racism in the media

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

It’s not an academic favorite, but it’s chalked full of information and can lead you to other sources if you look at the cited sources at the bottom of a Wikipedia page. I plan to use this for finding other sources, in-depth definitions and maybe a bit of history.

News:

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.cnn.com/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Searching for racism in major news sites will allow me to stay up to date on what a major portion of my potential readers may also be tuned in to and thus allow me to speak to those readers and comment on what they might be hearing or reading. It will definitely not hurt to have multiple news sources to draw from while blogging. I would hope that the news sources that I use would have some contrast between them so as to have more perspectives to choose from on a similar story. There isn’t a “racism” section on these sites, but I could easily type it into their search bars to find some stories.

http://mediamatters.org/

This is a progressive website that takes the latest conservative misinformation and tries to expose it and correct it. They cover a lot more topics than those related to race, but one could easily search for keyword “race” and narrow down the latest stories. I think this is important and it could be very interesting to respond to a few of these stories. For instance they very recently posted a short clip from Fox News about Serena Williams throwing a “tantrum” and suggesting that it might have had a “racial undertone.” This is definitely not ok, but at the same time it could be argued that this website is slanting Fox News’ misinformation by giving this clip a title about race when only the last few seconds mentioned it (but this is for another post).

Blogs:

http://www.racialicious.com/

This is a blog by some published magazine writers who comment on all things pop culture—from video games to youtube videos to interracial dating (and that’s just pulled from the latest posts). But they don’t just talk about pop culture in general; as the name suggests, they talk about these things and also explore the elements of racism that they might be related to. I hope to create posts in a similar manner, but on topics of my choice and from my point of view.

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/

This was a great find for my blog. The “about me” section explains how the contributors of this blog come from academic backgrounds and further explains that their findings are backed by evidence. I would think it safe to say that citing from this site would be like citing some ‘experts’ on this matter from an academic perspective.