We’ve been called the “model minority blog,” not to be confused with the Forum at ModelMinority.com, a different beast. As a result of our “news reel”-esque format and emphasis on current events and pop culture over critical race theory (though we’ve tackled that, too), we’re seen as passive, even disloyal to the so-called APA socio-political cause.
Our bloggers keep getting head-bumped by affiliates of other APA sites, such as the Fighting 44s and the aforementioned MM. The head bumping come in the form of dissenting, arguably truculent comments to postings on our site, igniting flame wars we’d rather not feed. Then when we stamp out the little fireballs of “You whoriental white-loving submissive [insert your favorite profanities here],” we get accused of censoring opinions we disagree with. No, we don’t do that. Trust me if we did that, there wouldn’t be 50-some-odd comments to a thread containing the keyword “bi-racial.” We just censor opinions that if posted, would put our website in the NC-17 ratings.
The accusation of “model minority blog” implies that people think we as a whole group turn a blind eye to racial marginalization, to its unsettling, enduring legacy, its passive-aggressive manifestations in modern society, and its application to Gen-X and Gen-Y APAs. Wrong. We cried foul to the Mister Wong controversy when a German social bookmarking website tried to export their slanty-eyed Chinaman logo into the U.S. along with the ever catchy slogan “ping pong, King Kong, Mister Wong.” Our objections resonated loud enough to catch the attention of Germany’s Newsweek, which cited one individual APA blogger’s opinion as the voice of Asian America. Talk about feeling “uh…no, that wasn’t what I meant…” In any regard, the efforts prompted by our site caused Mister Wong to change its logo. 8A, the model minority? Between “INCREDIBLY FUCKING ANGRY” Asian and “model minority” Asian, I would NOT have picked “model minority” Asian to describe our dear Ernie there.
We handled flack from incensed white people for some of the content on our blog with a nod and tacit understanding, but what we don’t make heads or tails of at all is the flack we get from other APAs. I’d like to see open dialogue between our bloggers and those at MM, Fighting 44s, and any other APA-interest websites out there.
Heck, I call for a cyber-conference involving representative members from all interested APA-interest blogsites and discussion forums to address head-on an agenda listing of issues we’d all like to once and for all hash out in real-time and make public the transcript to that cyber-conference. It’d be a phenomenal resource to offer on the world wide web and might better help us understand each other and work toward a semblance of Asian unity. So, MM, Fighting 44s, any others: what say you?
