#his ethnicity was just changed so he is East Asian in the comic and South Asian in the movie

[1eatboys]

I keep seeing the odd post here and there mentioning that Ballister Blackheart is white in the Nimona comic and it hurts my heart a little each time I see somebody say that bc he’s actually not! Ballister Blackheart is canonically Asian in the comic, he is East Asian and simply has light skin.

I just find it saddening and wrong (granted I’m white myself so maybe it’s not my place to have an opinion on) to erase a character who is canonically a poc just because they have light skin :/

This is not a diss to people who didn’t know or people that were mistaken, that’s sort of the reason I’m making this post, so more people can know the truth rather than be misinformed or assume incorrectly.

(Context of the photo attached is that it is from a QnA Nate did on the Nimona comic years ago)

Edit: added alt text of everything written in the photo

[writingwithcolor]

Am I fetishizing my Japanese character?

noedandelion asked:

Hello ! I’m currently writing a comic where my main character is a mixed Asian/white man, to be more specific, he is half Portuguese half Japanese. And it’s there that i’m asking myself a question.

I’m consuming a little of pop culture from japan (I say little bc it’s not the same as when i was younger) and because of this i’m kinda worried that this could be seen as fetishism of Japanese people, he’s not the only Japanese character in the comic bc i have a lot of characters and i try to include several characters who share the same ethnicity. As my mains, he is the only one, not the only Asian character but they are not Japanese (he is not not the only main protag but he is more central, i hope i’m clear sorry).

I’ve never have any people told me it was not okay but bc i’m white, i’d like to have feedback. I don’t remember why i make him Japanese because i have him for a while, but i know it has nothing to do with worshiping of Japanese people. I’m writing him as fully developed character, he as flaws, qualities, things he likes and his development is not related to the fact he is miked or anything, i’m learning Japanese culture, tropes etc for writing him respectfully (and i ofc don’t use anime as reference of representation).

I’ve always seen people tell “as long as the character is written respectfully it’s okay” but maybe there’s things I don’t know that are fetishization, like well writing a Japanese character when you’re white and consume a little of Japanese pop culture/like to learn about Japanese history culture etc. (i’m actually learning about a lot of different culture not just the Japanese one but still).

I was thinking also that if it could be seen as such, i could change the fact that is half Japanese and make him from an another Asian country as ethnicity (east or south-east Asian), i don’t want to whitewash him (i will rework my character of course to be accurate bc it will not be the same culture), but i don’t know if it’s okay.

So should i keep my character the way he is ? (and be careful of how i’m writing him as I do with every character i have) or should i change it ? Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day. (I’m sorry for my english, I’m italian so my first language is not english)

When people say “Write a character respectfully”, they often mean “Write the character as if you were treating that character with the level of respect you would want accorded to a character from your background.” 

In my experience, many individuals from European countries, like their American counterparts, do not have the requisite knowledge of cultures outside of their own background to create characters from many other cultures in this fashion. This is rarely bad intent. Rather you can’t know what you don’t know. Fetishization, particularly, is often the result of lazy/ ignorant writing, and ignorance is often linked to poor research or limited education. Japanese pop culture, for instance, does not remotely qualify as education in Japanese history or culture.  It’s hard to write a well-developed character if you have difficulty understanding the way their culture and background might (or might not) affect who they are. 

If you are new to this blog, you likely haven’t yet heard that:

We are not a great source of information for people in the early stages of research (These are called Google Scholar and Wikipedia)

You will often only be able to ask good questions after you have done considerable research

Are you planning on distributing or sharing this comic to others at this stage? My advice is that if you have all these doubts about what is or isn’t fetishization that you keep this character to yourself and play around with his development on your own while you do more research:

Read notable literature by Japanese writers in Japan

Read literature by members of the Japanese diaspora (ex. Kazuo Ishiguro, Shusaku Endo, Ruth Ozeki)

Consume nonfiction content on or by mixed Japanese people (Eg. Hafu: film, 2013, Naomi Osaka: 2021, docuseries, When Half is Whole: book, Stephen Murphy-Shigemitsu) 

Becoming familiar with a wide range of Japanese experiences is the easiest remedy for fetishization. I’m also going to make the unusual suggestion that you read up on Japanese food culture (Knowing the number of Italians I do, food is something that weirdly helps us understand each other very quickly). 

A common in-joke between me and the other moderators is my suggestion that if an asker is unsure whether or not they should write something that they should: 

Create a secret room with a door only they can open

Wear a disguise that hides their identity (I often suggest a plague doctor’s mask)

Write their story in invisible ink from the comfort of this environment. 

This is obviously an absurd idea, but who will judge you for something they don’t know about? Similarly, who is harmed if no one knows what you are doing and it doesn’t affect anyone else? The purpose of this blog is not to tell you what is right or wrong, but rather to help you create content that a wide variety of individuals can appreciate, regardless of their background. Whether you think that is important is purely your choice. 

In summary: If you worry about whether or not you are fetishizing your character, do more research. This applies to all of your non-Italian characters, including the Asian ones. Learn as much as you can about their backgrounds as you develop them, and then consult us again when you better understand what else you want to ask us. 

- Marika. 

[rappaccini]

if you could racebend klaus and vanya (and five, if you want), what ethnicities would you make them?

hmmm... well:

with five, i honestly wouldn’t. five being luther’s biological twin is a huge part of his character, and i love that so much that i would never change it. and since luther has to be white lest you open the seventh seal of bad implications and usher in the apocalypse, five does too, because they’re twins.

with vanya, you've got lots of options (she could be afro-russian, a tatar, a caucasus native, etc) but i’m pretty set in thinking she’d be best-suited as an asian/half-asian character. 75% of russia is in asia, so just take vanya’s mom and move her from one of moscow’s okrugs to somewhere further east, and you’re done. it’s simple, your audience will have no trouble believing it, and it takes away the Unfortunate Implication of ben, the only asian principle cast member, being The Dead One, if he isn’t the only asian principle cast member anymore. plus, shadow and bone proved that this kind of racebending works fantastically-- so it isn’t even untested water. we know casting biracial and asian actresses to play characters of russian descent works. 

with klaus... it’s complicated.

first off, his name being germanic + the ‘their names were from the countries from which they hail’ thing limits us to central europe/scandinavia, though if you want to stretch it, he could be from namibia, south africa, greenland, brazil, argentina, paraguay, chile (etc etc etc), given the germanic-speaking populations there because of immigration and/or colonization. so there are lots of options.

he could be black, latino, indigenous, biracial--- as long as he’s linked to the german/danish/norwegian/finnish-speaking population of that particular nation, so the name makes sense (i could see him being biracial in particular for this reason). though given that specification, plus the colonization implications of how those populations got there... maybe you wouldn’t wanna go there.

or maybe you do. maybe given that reginald’s literally a hunter of rare animals from the global south, a plunderer of artifacts and a collector of children from around the world who bought them, stripped them of their backgrounds, commodified them and abused them, the colonization undertones can be the point. but you have to be smart enough to pull it off. if not, maybe just stick to europe proper.

and speaking of europe, given that immigration is a thing and europe has never been homogenous and every country has always had ethnic minorities (ex: sami, roma) you’ve got options there too. though you’d want to narrow down when you want klaus to have been born (in the show, 1989, in the comics, ~the mid 1950s, so the dob isn’t definite), because that would affect things. different people immigrated to different places at different times and you'll write a stronger story if you work with the history.

klaus never had to be white... but.

i feel like he straddles the line between the luther-category of ‘the unfortunate implications of racebending him are insurmountable so just don’t go there’ and the ben-and-allison category of ‘yes there are unfortunate implications, but depending on which way you racebend and how skilled you are with executing it, you can make it work.' (not that the show ever did, but you get it)

and this is because there are a lot of charged balls in the air with klaus-- even when he’s white, you have to handle writing a queer mentally ill gender-non-conforming drug addict in a way that doesn’t offend, intentionally or otherwise. and that’s already a big challenge (god knows how the show already fucked it up), so i don’t know if throwing ‘and now he’s a nonwhite ethnic minority too’ into the mix and hoping that it won’t bounce off all the other balls in ways you didn’t anticipate is feasible. the more balls in the air, the easier to drop them, and klaus already has a lot to handle. and even if you don't fuck up, you still have to consider that too many balls in the air can muddle a narrative.

i’m very aware that it’s possible to juggle all those balls, and that there are people who can certainly pull it off. i'm not sure if i’m one of them, so i simply wouldn’t.

[firehawk12]

Crazy Rich Asians (2018): The Flawed But Necessary Asian-American Cultural Milestone

(Apologies!  I keep forgetting to update my Tumblr... repost from my Medium account)

There is so much to unpack before you can even talk about Crazy Rich Asiansin any meaningful manner and understand why so much of the Asian-American community has gotten behind the film via the so-called #goldopenmovement.

I think the easiest way to begin is to imagine what life would be like if you had no sense of belonging within the culture you inhabit. Books, music, television, film, theater, fashion — none of it reflected who you are and how you were necessarily different from everyone else. For the last half-century, this is essentially how Asian-Americans (and by extension, Asians-Canadians) lived their lives.

I can only write on my behalf, but I knew at an early age that I would never really be considered a “Canadian”, because as much as we like to pretend we’re in some kind of post-race multicultural utopia, I still feel foreign despite having lived in Canada for essentially my entire life.

But obviously that’s not necessarily unique to my experience — certainly a lot of people feel alienated within their own homelands because they don’t look like, act like, or otherwise inhabit the space of normativity that defines “Canadian-ness” (or “American-ness”).

But I can’t really claim to be “Chinese” either. Certainly I am racially and ethnically Han Chinese, but culturally I am as far removed from being Chinese as one possibly can be as a “Canadian Born Chinese”. I can functionally communicate in Cantonese, read Hanzi at a grade school level, and I’ve never actually been to China or Hong Kong, and my Chinese cultural references are old John Woo and Stephen Chow movies. There is a cultural void that I’ve felt for most of my life, and it comes from — as Crazy Rich Asians explains — being a “banana”, where my race and my cultural context have created the extreme feeling of alienation that is familiar to most, if not all, minorities living in North America.

So this is where we land on the North American notion of the hybrid identity that has developed over the last century. I’m not Chinese, I’m not Canadian, but I exist in some undefined border — the liminal space between the two — as a “Chinese-Canadian”. But what does that even mean when there is no culture that defines Chinese-Canadian identity? I don’t want to deny the great cultural contributions of artists such as Mina Shum or Wayson Choy and many others (Double Happiness is still a foundational text for me in terms of being able to articulate the fact that I don’t have an identity whatsoever), and I mean no offence when I suggest that these artists aren’t household names (and I’d much rather re-read Choy than yet another Atwood novel…).

I came to Double Happiness when I was in my teens, already feeling the anxiety of not having an identity and being unable to articulate it because there was simply no outlet for me to express my inability to connect with the greater culture around me. I saw myself in Sandra Oh’s Jade, a woman who would never be Chinese enough for her parents or other Chinese people, but who isn’t Canadian enough to be accepted by Canadian society as an actress (I’m sure this was something that Sandra Oh had to fight against during the early parts of her career). I think it was at that moment that I understand that I would always feel like an outsider in my own homeland, not necessarily because I was marked with a visible difference, but because it took so long for me to see myself reflected in the culture that I consumed.

This isn’t necessarily a unique Chinese or even Asian-North American experience. As I wrote several years ago when I began to unpack the importance of yet another seminal Asian American cultural moment — the debut of Fresh Off The Boat — both the “real” and fictional Eddie Huang embraced hip hop because he was able to relate to a culture defined by alienation. Meanwhile, Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese ends by having the main character admit that he can never be white and escape “Chin-Kee”, the specter of Chinese-ness that haunts his every waking moment, and accept that being Chinese is a part of what defines him even if he doesn’t necessarily explain how that acceptance manifests itself.

But the fact that I can make references to a hit ABC sitcom and an Eisner award-winning graphic novel in order to try to articulate some notion of Chinese-American identity is precisely why it is so crucial to have a culture that represents the unique situation of being neither Chinese and neither American (or Canadian).

I love James Hong and respect him for his long career and the work he has done in order to help insert a Chinese face into American culture, but my entire identity in the early 90s was essentially tied to this clip:

The fact that I can’t remember any other “role models” from my childhood except James Hong putting on that accent and annoying Jerry, Elaine, and George is perhaps a sad reflection of my limited worldview as a child of the 90s, but also a condemnation of what happens when there is no one for you to look up to.

We are so hungry for representation because we live in a cultural vacuum, where the only other cultural reference you can make is to The Joy Luck Club or how fucked up it was that people thought this was okay:

It’s interesting because Hari Kondabolu’s attempts to address the problematic nature of Apu from The Simpsons touches on this exact same anxiety, where being South Asian is defined entirely by a single cultural touch point that can influence your life forever (that’s even before addressing the indignity of being represented by a white man putting on an accent in a bout of modern brown-face). Thankfully between The Mindy Project, The Big Sick and Master of None, South Asian-American representation has certainly improved in the last few years.

That’s not to say that East Asian-American representation, both on screen and off screen, hasn’t improved either. In film alone, Justin Lin basically built up one of the most improbably popular blockbuster franchises in recent history out of nothing — made more miraculous when you think about how the Fast and Furious films were culturally diverse before Disney decided that maybe their superheroes didn’t all have to be white men.

But even so, it’s been contingent on the Asian community to just accept things the way they are and not raise too much of a commotion about cultural representation. So when Tina Fey decides to double down on her racism with an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt about how Asian-Americans humourless internet trolls who don’t understand comedy, we’re just to accept the fact that she above criticism. When Ghost in the Shell ends by explaining a Japanese girl had her brain carved out and placed into Scarlet Johansson’s body, we should be grateful that they mentioned the character’s Japanese origins at all. When Scott Buck refuses to address Iron Fist’s Orientalism, we just have to accept that no one is allowed to change the origins of a character because comic books are sacrosanct.

All of that explains why Crazy Rich Asians is such an important film for the community. With all of this cultural baggage on their backs, I respect the sacrifice Kevin Kwan and Jon Chu made when they eschewed an easy Netflix deal in order to bring the film to theaters even more than I did when I had initially read the interview.

It’s not that there haven’t been countless great Asian-American films made between The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians. Justin Lin’s own Better Luck Tomorrow, or Only the Brave, or Saving Face, or Eat With Me, or the recently released Gook to just name a handful are great films in their own right for telling stories about Asian Americans that simply aren’t reflected in the culture otherwise

(Edit: I’ve been told that I’ve been remiss in not including the Harold and Kumar trilogy in the above list. Apologies to John Cho and Kal Penn!)

But the only way to get the culture to pay attention — not just the people consuming it, but also the people producing it — is to make the biggest impact possible and even in 2018 with streaming services and video on demand, the path to cultural relevance is still through a major movie studio that can both promote your film and widely distribute it across the world. It’s unfortunate, but that’s why people still point to The Joy Luck Club and don’t mention any of the smaller independent films that have come out since then. The fact that the last film before The Joy Luck Club to feature an all Asian cast to be distributed by a major movie studio was Flower Drum Song in 1961 (which is a film/musical that probably has as much, if not more, cultural baggage associated with it than even The Joy Luck Club) points to the significance of Crazy Rich Asians and why it has become a moment for Asian-Americans.

Kevin Kwan made another important production decision that drives home how much is riding on this film’s success. During pitch meetings, Kwan recounts meetings where producers suggested that having a white actress in the Rachel Chu role would make for a more successful film — to pull a quote from the interview, apparently he was told that “it’s a pity you don’t have a white character” — makes his decision to option the rights to his book for a dollar in order to maintain creative control a moral stance against Hollywood producers who don’t see any value in Asian actors.

Certainly the film’s fish out of water story could have easily been adapted so that Rachel Chu became Rachael Churchill (starring Scarlett Johansson or Emma Stone, of course) and many of the beats would have been the same. But his film is so powerful precisely because Rachel (Constance Wu) is Chinese-American. She isn’t Chinese, as Nick’s mother Eleanor (performed with perfect stoicism by Michelle Yeoh) constantly points out throughout the film, and that’s actually not a problem for her. In fact, the film goes out of its way to show how her Chinese-American identity helps her navigate the precariousness of Singapore’s socialite lifestyle, allowing Rachel to be proud of being a “banana”.

Are there problems with the film? Undoubtedly. The fact that the one time South Asians are shown in the film involves using them as comedy propspoints to narrow focus of the film and how much it ignores of the realSingapore. Or how Oliver (Nico Santos) is queer, but is never actually shown with another man, perhaps because gay sex is technically still a criminal offence in Singapore. Of course, the title itself points out that the only poor people shown in the film are the servants who presumably slink back to their cramped government subsidized high-rises after they are done serving the crazy rich Asians who employ them.

Even if you ignore the social issues, the film itself isn’t perfect either. It has the feel of an adaptation where they didn’t want to cut any of the cast, but had to cut all of their supporting stories in order to get the film to hit the 120 minute running time. And I mean this with utmost respect to Jon Chu’s career, but I still haven’t forgiven him for what he did to Jem and the Holograms a few years ago and there are times when the film feels just as workmanlike and banal as that failed outing. You’d think the climatic moment where Nick chases down Rachel in order to propose to her (again) would be wonderfully cinematic, but it’s perhaps the least exciting visual moment of the film. Similarly, the much written about Mahjong battle at the end was a great moment in spite of the direction, not because of it.

There is a lot wrong with the film. That’s unavoidable. Do I wish a studio picked up George Takei’s Allegiance and I was writing about about a big budget film about a Japanese-American family torn apart by the forced internment policies of a racist United States? That would have been great.

But in a way, this is very much like Fresh Off The Boat (and not just because of Constance Wu). When the real Eddie Huang quit narrating the show because it deviated so far from the harsh reality of his childhood experiences as a Chinese-American growing up in Florida, I totally sympathized with his decision and understood his rationale. Fresh Off The Boat isn’t an unvarnished look at the Chinese-American experience, nor is it ever going to touch on issues of race in a meaningful way. For better or for worse, it’s just not that kind of show nor is it trying to be. But the producers of the show were able to include an episode where the entire B-story was in Mandarin, a first for a family sitcom in America.

Crazy Rich Asians is very much in the same position as Fresh Off The Boat. It’s telling the world that Asians and Asian-Americans are just people like everyone else, facing similar problems as we try to carve out an existence in the world and live our lives. We fight with our in-laws, we get cheated on by our husbands, we have rivals who try to sabotage us, we deal with friends that we only talk to because we grew up with them and not because we have anything in common with them, we even deal with racism from time to time (although most of us don’t have the money to humiliate a racist by buying their place of employment).

It’s not the Asian-American of Do The Right Thing, let alone BlacKkKlansman, but I have to hope that if this movie is a success, then those types of stories will come in time. Maybe they’ll make a spin-off featuring Nico Santos’ Oliver called Crazy Rich Gaysians and have his character confront Singapore’s endemic social and structural homophobia. Or maybe they’ll make a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead-like movie about the two guards where they discuss the existential crisis of life defined only by serving as a backdrop to the stories of the rich. I believe that we can get there eventually, we just need to use Crazy Rich Asians as the push to get us there.

Anecdotally, the movie feels like it is appealing to more than just Asian-Americans desperate to be represented on screen. When the credits started rolling at my screening, a couple of Jewish women (who went out of their way to build a connection with me by telling me that Jewish culture and Chinese culture are connected by Mahjong and Chinese food at Christmas) told me that they had a great time watching the film. And in the moment of hesitation I felt when they unknowingly asked me to represent my entire race and culture by asking me if I liked the film, I told them that I did.

Maybe I don’t like the film for all the same reasons that they did, but that’s the point. Crazy Rich Asians is a film that is miraculously both culturally specific and broadly appealing. Even if you don’t care about any of what I wrote and just want to watch a good romantic comedy, you would be hard pressed to find one as good as this one in recent years. But if you are that Asian-American who has been waiting for over two decades to feel like you belong to a culture that has largely ignored you and taken you for granted, you will be witnessing a moment of cinematic history. That alone is worth the price of admission.

I didn’t have any place to put this, and it’s such a minor point that really isn’t worth including, but as a former teaching assistant I felt compelled to at least mention it.

So the film is supposed to take place during Rachel’s spring break. We see early in the film that she has a TA (that she tortures), so it’s possible that she dumps all her papers on him and tells him to grade everything while she’s having an adventure in Singapore. That’s perfectly fine, but it seems clear that she ends up staying in Singapore for much longer than a week (there is at least 3 days of flying time depicted in the film).

This means that there is no way she gets back in time to teach her class, assuming she even goes back after getting engaged, which means the poor TA is stuck holding the bag with a bunch of undergrads who will probably blame him for their grades not being in or for class being delayed.

Won’t anyone think of the poor teaching assistants who don’t have billionaire partners to sweep them off their feet?

[airoasis]

I got 99 problems... palsy is just one | Maysoon Zayid

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I got 99 problems... palsy is just one | Maysoon Zayid

Hiya, TEDWomen, what’s up. (Cheering) no longer just right ample. Hello, TEDWomen, what’s up? (Loud cheering) My title is Maysoon Zayid, and i’m not drunk, but the health care provider who delivered me used to be. He reduce my mother six exceptional times in six distinct directions, suffocating bad little me in the method. For this reason, i’ve cerebral palsy, which means I shake at all times. Seem. It is laborious. I am like Shakira, Shakira meets Muhammad Ali. (Laughter) CP is just not genetic. It is no longer a start defect. You can’t trap it. No one put a curse on my mother’s uterus, and that i didn’t get it considering the fact that my mum and dad are first cousins, which they are. (Laughter) It only occurs from accidents, like what occurred to me on my delivery day. Now, I need to warn you, i am no longer inspirational. (Laughter) and that i don’t want someone on this room to believe bad for me, considering the fact that at some point for your life, you may have dreamt of being disabled. Come on a experience with me. It’s Christmas Eve, you are at the mall, you’re using round in circles looking for parking, and what do you see? Sixteen empty handicapped areas. (Laughter) And you’re like, "God, are not able to I just be a bit disabled?" (Laughter) additionally, I’ve acquired to tell you, I’ve bought ninety nine issues, and palsy is only one.(Laughter) If there was an Oppression Olympics, i might win the gold medal. I’m Palestinian, Muslim, i’m feminine, i’m disabled, and that i reside in New Jersey. (Laughter) (Applause) in the event you don’t consider better about your self, probably you will have to. (Laughter) Cliffside Park, New Jersey is my place of birth. I’ve always loved the fact that my hood and my agony share the same initials. I also love the truth that if I desired to walk from my apartment to NY city, I would. Plenty of folks with CP don’t walk, however my father and mother failed to consider in "cannot." My father’s mantra was once, "you can do it, yes which you can can." (Laughter) So, if my three older sisters have been mopping, I used to be mopping.If my three older sisters went to public university, my mum and dad would sue the college process and assurance that I went too, and if we didn’t all get A’s, all of us received my mom’s slipper. (Laughter) My father taught me walk once I used to be five years old through placing my heels on his toes and just running. Yet another tactic that he used is he would dangle a dollar invoice in front of me and have me chase it.(Laughter) My interior stripper used to be very robust. (Laughter) Yeah. No, via the first day of kindergarten, I used to be strolling like a champ who had been punched one too oftentimes. (Laughter) developing up, there have been most effective six Arabs in my city, they usually have been all my loved ones. (Laughter) Now there are 20 Arabs in town, and they’re still all my loved ones.(Laughter) i do not think anybody even seen we weren’t Italian. (Laughter) (Applause) This was earlier than 9-11 and before politicians thought it was once appropriate to make use of "I hate Muslims" as a crusade slogan. The people that I grew up with had no challenge with my religion. They did, nevertheless, look very concerned that i’d starve to demise for the duration of Ramadan. I would give an explanation for to them that i have adequate fats to live off of for three entire months, so fasting from dawn to sunset is a section of cake. (Laughter) i’ve tap-danced on Broadway. Yeah, on Broadway. It can be loopy. (Applause) My mother and father couldn’t afford bodily healing, so that they sent me to dancing tuition. I learned tips on how to dance in heels, which means that i can walk in heels.And i am from Jersey, and we’re really worried with being elegant, so if my associates wore heels, so did I. And when my associates went and spent their summer season vacations on the Jersey Shore, i didn’t. I spent my summers in a conflict zone, when you consider that my mothers and fathers were afraid that if we failed to go back to Palestine each single summer time, we’d develop as much as be Madonna. (Laughter) summer holidays customarily consisted of my father trying to heal me, so I drank deer’s milk, I had scorching cups on my again, I was once dunked in the dead Sea, and i bear in mind the water burning my eyes and thinking, "it’s working! It is working!" (Laughter) however one miracle treatment we did find was once yoga. I ought to inform you, it’s very boring, but before I did yoga, I was a stand-up comedian who can’t rise up. And now i will stand on my head. My mum and dad reinforced this notion that I would do some thing, that no dream used to be unimaginable, and my dream was to be on the sunlight hours soap opera "normal sanatorium." (Laughter) I went to institution during affirmative action and got a sweet scholarship to ASU, Arizona State school, since I match each single quota.(Laughter) I was like the pet lemur of the theater department. Every body adored me. I did all of the much less-than-clever kids’ homework, I obtained A’s in all of my courses, A’s in all of their lessons. (Laughter) at any time when I did a scene from "The Glass Menagerie," my professors would weep. However I on no account got forged. Eventually, my senior 12 months, ASU decided to do a exhibit known as "They Dance real gradual in Jackson." it can be a play about a girl with CP. I was once a girl with CP. So I shouting from the rooftops, "i am sooner or later going to get a component! I have cerebral palsy! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, i’m free at last!" I did not get the section. (Laughter) Sherry Brown obtained the section. I went racing to the top of the theater division crying hysterically, like someone shot my cat, to ask her why, and she stated it was on the grounds that they didn’t believe I might do the stunts. I said, "Excuse me, if I cannot do the stunts, neither can the personality." (Laughter) (Applause) This was once a part that I used to be actually born to play they gave it to a non-palsy actress.College was once imitating life. Hollywood has a sordid historical past of casting ready-bodied actors to play disabled onscreen. Upon graduating, I moved again home, and my first acting gig was once as yet another on a daylight soap opera. My dream was once coming genuine. And that i knew that i might be promoted from "Diner Diner" to "Wacky satisfactory friend" in no time. (Laughter) however as a substitute, I remained a glorified piece of furnishings that you simply would only recognize from the again of my head, and it grew to become clear to me that casting administrators did not hire fluffy, ethnic, disabled actors. They simply hired excellent persons. However there have been exceptions to the rule of thumb. I grew up looking at Whoopi Goldberg, Roseanne Barr, Ellen, and all of these women had one thing in original: they were comedians.So I grew to be a comedian. (Laughter) (Applause) My first gig was once using noted comics from NY city to indicates in New Jersey, and i’ll in no way disregard the face of the first comic I ever drove when he realized that he used to be speeding down the brand new Jersey Turnpike with a chick with CP using him. (Laughter) I’ve performed in clubs in all places the united states, and i have also carried out in Arabic in the center East, uncensored and uncovered. (Laughter) Some humans say i am the first stand-up comic within the Arab world. I under no circumstances like to assert first, but I do recognize that they under no circumstances heard that nasty little rumor that ladies don’t seem to be humorous, and so they find us hysterical.(Laughter) In 2003, my brother from a different mothers and fathers Dean Obeidallah and that i began the brand new York Arab-American Comedy festival, now in its tenth year. Our purpose used to be to change the bad photo of Arab-american citizens in media, at the same time additionally reminding casting directors that South Asian and Arab will not be synonymous. (Laughter) Mainstreaming Arabs used to be much, so much less complicated than conquering the venture towards the stigma against disability. My gigantic wreck got here in 2010. I was once invited to be a visitor on the cable information exhibit "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." I walked in looking like I was going to the promenade, and so they shuffle me into a studio and seat me on a spinning, rolling chair. (Laughter) So I appeared on the stage manager and i am like, "Excuse me, can i have another chair?" and she checked out me and he or she went, "five, four, three, two …" And we were reside, correct? So I needed to grip onto the anchor’s desk so that i wouldn’t roll off the display during the segment, and when the interview was over, I used to be livid.I had finally gotten my threat and that i blew it, and that i knew i would by no means get invited again. But no longer only did Mr. Olbermann invite me again, he made me a full-time contributor, and he taped down my chair. (Laughter) (Applause) One enjoyable truth I discovered even as on the air with Keith Olbermann was once that humans on the web are scumbags. (Laughter) people say youngsters are merciless, however I was never made fun of as a youngster or an adult. Abruptly, my disability on the world extensive net is fair game. I might seem at clips online and notice comments like, "Yo, why’s she tweakin’?" "Yo, is she retarded?" And my favorite, "poor Gumby-mouth terrorist. What does she suffer from? We must fairly pray for her." One commenter even recommended that I add my incapacity to my credits: screenwriter, comedian, palsy.Incapacity is as visual as race. If a wheelchair consumer are not able to play Beyonc, then Beyonc cannot play a wheelchair user. The disabled are the biggest Yeah, clap for that, man. Come on. (Applause) individuals with disabilities are the most important minority on this planet, and we’re probably the most underrepresented in amusement. The doctors said that i wouldn’t walk, however i’m here in entrance of you. Nevertheless, if I grew up with social media, i don’t feel i would be. I am hoping that together, we are able to create extra optimistic snap shots of incapacity within the media and in day-to-day life. Might be if there have been more constructive pics, it would foster much less hate on the net. Or possibly not. Maybe it still takes a village to instruct our kids good. My crooked ride has taken me to some very striking places. I got to walk the crimson carpet flanked through cleaning soap diva Susan Lucci and the long-lasting Loreen Arbus. I received to behave in a movie with Adam Sandler and work with my idol, the mighty Dave Matthews. I toured the world as a headliner on Arabs long gone Wild.I was once a delegate representing the satisfactory state of new Jersey on the 2008 DNC. And i established Maysoon’s youngsters, a charity that hopes to give Palestinian refugee kids a sliver of the hazard my mother and father gave me. However the one second that stands out essentially the most was once after I received — earlier than this moment — (Laughter) (Applause) but the one second that stands out the most was once I acquired to participate in for the man who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, has Parkinson’s and shakes just like me, Muhammad Ali. (Applause) (Applause ends) It was once the one time that my father ever noticed me participate in live, and that i devote this speak to his memory.(Arabic) Allah yerhamak yaba. (English) My identify is Maysoon Zayid, and if i will can, you could can. (Cheering) (Applause) .

[batterymonster2021]

I got 99 problems... palsy is just one | Maysoon Zayid

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/i-got-99-problems-palsy-is-just-one-maysoon-zayid-3/

I got 99 problems... palsy is just one | Maysoon Zayid

Hiya, TEDWomen, what’s up. (Cheering) no longer just right ample. Hello, TEDWomen, what’s up? (Loud cheering) My title is Maysoon Zayid, and i’m not drunk, but the health care provider who delivered me used to be. He reduce my mother six exceptional times in six distinct directions, suffocating bad little me in the method. For this reason, i’ve cerebral palsy, which means I shake at all times. Seem. It is laborious. I am like Shakira, Shakira meets Muhammad Ali. (Laughter) CP is just not genetic. It is no longer a start defect. You can’t trap it. No one put a curse on my mother’s uterus, and that i didn’t get it considering the fact that my mum and dad are first cousins, which they are. (Laughter) It only occurs from accidents, like what occurred to me on my delivery day. Now, I need to warn you, i am no longer inspirational. (Laughter) and that i don’t want someone on this room to believe bad for me, considering the fact that at some point for your life, you may have dreamt of being disabled. Come on a experience with me. It’s Christmas Eve, you are at the mall, you’re using round in circles looking for parking, and what do you see? Sixteen empty handicapped areas. (Laughter) And you’re like, "God, are not able to I just be a bit disabled?" (Laughter) additionally, I’ve acquired to tell you, I’ve bought ninety nine issues, and palsy is only one.(Laughter) If there was an Oppression Olympics, i might win the gold medal. I’m Palestinian, Muslim, i’m feminine, i’m disabled, and that i reside in New Jersey. (Laughter) (Applause) in the event you don’t consider better about your self, probably you will have to. (Laughter) Cliffside Park, New Jersey is my place of birth. I’ve always loved the fact that my hood and my agony share the same initials. I also love the truth that if I desired to walk from my apartment to NY city, I would. Plenty of folks with CP don’t walk, however my father and mother failed to consider in "cannot." My father’s mantra was once, "you can do it, yes which you can can." (Laughter) So, if my three older sisters have been mopping, I used to be mopping.If my three older sisters went to public university, my mum and dad would sue the college process and assurance that I went too, and if we didn’t all get A’s, all of us received my mom’s slipper. (Laughter) My father taught me walk once I used to be five years old through placing my heels on his toes and just running. Yet another tactic that he used is he would dangle a dollar invoice in front of me and have me chase it.(Laughter) My interior stripper used to be very robust. (Laughter) Yeah. No, via the first day of kindergarten, I used to be strolling like a champ who had been punched one too oftentimes. (Laughter) developing up, there have been most effective six Arabs in my city, they usually have been all my loved ones. (Laughter) Now there are 20 Arabs in town, and they’re still all my loved ones.(Laughter) i do not think anybody even seen we weren’t Italian. (Laughter) (Applause) This was earlier than 9-11 and before politicians thought it was once appropriate to make use of "I hate Muslims" as a crusade slogan. The people that I grew up with had no challenge with my religion. They did, nevertheless, look very concerned that i’d starve to demise for the duration of Ramadan. I would give an explanation for to them that i have adequate fats to live off of for three entire months, so fasting from dawn to sunset is a section of cake. (Laughter) i’ve tap-danced on Broadway. Yeah, on Broadway. It can be loopy. (Applause) My mother and father couldn’t afford bodily healing, so that they sent me to dancing tuition. I learned tips on how to dance in heels, which means that i can walk in heels.And i am from Jersey, and we’re really worried with being elegant, so if my associates wore heels, so did I. And when my associates went and spent their summer season vacations on the Jersey Shore, i didn’t. I spent my summers in a conflict zone, when you consider that my mothers and fathers were afraid that if we failed to go back to Palestine each single summer time, we’d develop as much as be Madonna. (Laughter) summer holidays customarily consisted of my father trying to heal me, so I drank deer’s milk, I had scorching cups on my again, I was once dunked in the dead Sea, and i bear in mind the water burning my eyes and thinking, "it’s working! It is working!" (Laughter) however one miracle treatment we did find was once yoga. I ought to inform you, it’s very boring, but before I did yoga, I was a stand-up comedian who can’t rise up. And now i will stand on my head. My mum and dad reinforced this notion that I would do some thing, that no dream used to be unimaginable, and my dream was to be on the sunlight hours soap opera "normal sanatorium." (Laughter) I went to institution during affirmative action and got a sweet scholarship to ASU, Arizona State school, since I match each single quota.(Laughter) I was like the pet lemur of the theater department. Every body adored me. I did all of the much less-than-clever kids’ homework, I obtained A’s in all of my courses, A’s in all of their lessons. (Laughter) at any time when I did a scene from "The Glass Menagerie," my professors would weep. However I on no account got forged. Eventually, my senior 12 months, ASU decided to do a exhibit known as "They Dance real gradual in Jackson." it can be a play about a girl with CP. I was once a girl with CP. So I shouting from the rooftops, "i am sooner or later going to get a component! I have cerebral palsy! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, i’m free at last!" I did not get the section. (Laughter) Sherry Brown obtained the section. I went racing to the top of the theater division crying hysterically, like someone shot my cat, to ask her why, and she stated it was on the grounds that they didn’t believe I might do the stunts. I said, "Excuse me, if I cannot do the stunts, neither can the personality." (Laughter) (Applause) This was once a part that I used to be actually born to play they gave it to a non-palsy actress.College was once imitating life. Hollywood has a sordid historical past of casting ready-bodied actors to play disabled onscreen. Upon graduating, I moved again home, and my first acting gig was once as yet another on a daylight soap opera. My dream was once coming genuine. And that i knew that i might be promoted from "Diner Diner" to "Wacky satisfactory friend" in no time. (Laughter) however as a substitute, I remained a glorified piece of furnishings that you simply would only recognize from the again of my head, and it grew to become clear to me that casting administrators did not hire fluffy, ethnic, disabled actors. They simply hired excellent persons. However there have been exceptions to the rule of thumb. I grew up looking at Whoopi Goldberg, Roseanne Barr, Ellen, and all of these women had one thing in original: they were comedians.So I grew to be a comedian. (Laughter) (Applause) My first gig was once using noted comics from NY city to indicates in New Jersey, and i’ll in no way disregard the face of the first comic I ever drove when he realized that he used to be speeding down the brand new Jersey Turnpike with a chick with CP using him. (Laughter) I’ve performed in clubs in all places the united states, and i have also carried out in Arabic in the center East, uncensored and uncovered. (Laughter) Some humans say i am the first stand-up comic within the Arab world. I under no circumstances like to assert first, but I do recognize that they under no circumstances heard that nasty little rumor that ladies don’t seem to be humorous, and so they find us hysterical.(Laughter) In 2003, my brother from a different mothers and fathers Dean Obeidallah and that i began the brand new York Arab-American Comedy festival, now in its tenth year. Our purpose used to be to change the bad photo of Arab-american citizens in media, at the same time additionally reminding casting directors that South Asian and Arab will not be synonymous. (Laughter) Mainstreaming Arabs used to be much, so much less complicated than conquering the venture towards the stigma against disability. My gigantic wreck got here in 2010. I was once invited to be a visitor on the cable information exhibit "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." I walked in looking like I was going to the promenade, and so they shuffle me into a studio and seat me on a spinning, rolling chair. (Laughter) So I appeared on the stage manager and i am like, "Excuse me, can i have another chair?" and she checked out me and he or she went, "five, four, three, two …" And we were reside, correct? So I needed to grip onto the anchor’s desk so that i wouldn’t roll off the display during the segment, and when the interview was over, I used to be livid.I had finally gotten my threat and that i blew it, and that i knew i would by no means get invited again. But no longer only did Mr. Olbermann invite me again, he made me a full-time contributor, and he taped down my chair. (Laughter) (Applause) One enjoyable truth I discovered even as on the air with Keith Olbermann was once that humans on the web are scumbags. (Laughter) people say youngsters are merciless, however I was never made fun of as a youngster or an adult. Abruptly, my disability on the world extensive net is fair game. I might seem at clips online and notice comments like, "Yo, why’s she tweakin’?" "Yo, is she retarded?" And my favorite, "poor Gumby-mouth terrorist. What does she suffer from? We must fairly pray for her." One commenter even recommended that I add my incapacity to my credits: screenwriter, comedian, palsy.Incapacity is as visual as race. If a wheelchair consumer are not able to play Beyonc, then Beyonc cannot play a wheelchair user. The disabled are the biggest Yeah, clap for that, man. Come on. (Applause) individuals with disabilities are the most important minority on this planet, and we’re probably the most underrepresented in amusement. The doctors said that i wouldn’t walk, however i’m here in entrance of you. Nevertheless, if I grew up with social media, i don’t feel i would be. I am hoping that together, we are able to create extra optimistic snap shots of incapacity within the media and in day-to-day life. Might be if there have been more constructive pics, it would foster much less hate on the net. Or possibly not. Maybe it still takes a village to instruct our kids good. My crooked ride has taken me to some very striking places. I got to walk the crimson carpet flanked through cleaning soap diva Susan Lucci and the long-lasting Loreen Arbus. I received to behave in a movie with Adam Sandler and work with my idol, the mighty Dave Matthews. I toured the world as a headliner on Arabs long gone Wild.I was once a delegate representing the satisfactory state of new Jersey on the 2008 DNC. And i established Maysoon’s youngsters, a charity that hopes to give Palestinian refugee kids a sliver of the hazard my mother and father gave me. However the one second that stands out essentially the most was once after I received — earlier than this moment — (Laughter) (Applause) but the one second that stands out the most was once I acquired to participate in for the man who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, has Parkinson’s and shakes just like me, Muhammad Ali. (Applause) (Applause ends) It was once the one time that my father ever noticed me participate in live, and that i devote this speak to his memory.(Arabic) Allah yerhamak yaba. (English) My identify is Maysoon Zayid, and if i will can, you could can. (Cheering) (Applause) .

[douglasford123]

White Anger, National Anger - Dec 3, 2017

Until Donald Trump assumed the Presidency, I had never given the “white anger” phenomenon serious thought.  As portrayed in the film Falling Down, white anger in America appeared stylized, almost comical.  It limited itself to certain individuals with outstanding personal problems, people who couldn’t relate.  I’ve had my own share of rage and frustration, but I’ve always considered myself an outlier with advantages.

So, after a very unconventional man won the highest office and we were bombarded with phrases like “opioid crisis,” “decimated rural and industrial areas,” and “white nationalism,” it gave me pause to think more seriously about these things.  I’ve known people addicted to narcotics obtained legally.  I’ve spent time in Northern Ohio, Central Kansas, South Georgia, and I’ve seen how people live there.  Fortunately, I do not need to associate with any hard right-wingers, although I’ve encountered a few.  My area of Atlanta is fairly progressive.

Racial conflict has never seemed to be the root problem in this country. The American Civil War was fought over black slavery but not really for blacks – it was a white man’s war.  As a result of that conflict, the Peculiar Institution, and Southern insurgency, were destroyed – as they should have been.  Most importantly, and this opinion may roil some folks, I believe that, in spite of lingering resentment, in spite of Jim Crow, in spite of the L.A. Riots and Ferguson, most people by 2017 have atoned and forgiven.  Granted, racial tensions remain, but American greatness has overcome so many problems which would have torn apart a lesser people.  And, rhetoric aside, once our local citizens come off that brutal racetrack around modern Atlanta known as Interstate 285 and interact in person, they are generally kind and respectful to each other, regardless of race.  At least, that is my perception.

Before racism I would select other problems to be most directly fueling our national distress – the agitation and aggression of the lower classes in the face of unprecedented wealth on the far end of the spectrum, the oddly impersonal and even dehumanizing effect of communications technology, the bloat and endless division in the seat of power of Washington.  Our nation is the victim of its own success, above all things.  9/11 and the Recession caused mass loss of life and property, concepts sacred to Americans, but those events also revealed an unaccustomed vulnerability, a reminder that, although we may be the greatest nation in history, we are still beholden to the forces of history – fanaticism, greed - human flaws.

So, if racial conflict is not the root problem, then why does it feature so prominently these days?  And why are white people even angry?  They above all have benefited from American greatness.

By analogy, I think back upon the turmoil of my own earlier life – does it provide useful guidance?  I grew up in privilege, a doctor’s son, on the southside of the city, in a quiet suburb on the edge of farmland.  My large urban private school was predominantly white in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, although my immediate friends there were not – we fretted together, white, black, Asian, over calculus and college admission.  I attended a well-known private university in Nashville on a full-tuition scholarship – at 18 years old, I could read French and play classical piano.  I had been to Europe and Asia.  None of these accomplishments seemed remarkable to me at that time, although I now perceive how extraordinary it all was, especially when compared with the early opportunities of my father or his father.

In retrospect, the vicissitudes of life and our reactions to them came to my group more as a result of personal circumstance than ethnicity – most of our parents came from humble backgrounds, mostly conservative ones.  We had grandparents in East Tennessee, South India, Seoul, but education was universally important, as it had been the key to progress for our forebears.  Problems typically developed when that path proved insufficient to address deeper human issues – I know my mother’s sudden death from cancer in my sophomore year disrupted the success narrative.  For better or for worse, I was never the same after that.  And, looking back, that is perfectly understandable, a perfectly human response to change.

Still, the idealistic narrative played on.  I am a commercial lawyer today, admittedly the result of more education, and a stabilizing result for me and my family.  However, I wandered lost for several years following the trauma of college, unable or unwilling to take root, without a good job but wary of further education, and filled with anxiety and shame.  I experienced first-hand the loss of bliss, of direction, of home, of rationality.  I even thought this discomfort was particular to me alone – of course, that is how anxiety and shame work.

As I recall my distress, I remark that no one else really caused it but myself – it was a reaction to changes, changed acquaintances, changed surroundings, when I left the quiet suburb.  Shallow anger is the most dangerous, because it attaches untempered to the closest stimulus.  I well recall the sensation of trying in vain, at 19 years of age, to fit into an impossible variety of situations at my university, a forward-thinking yet essentially conservative school.  In a world of wealth and opportunity, among future optimates, I was frustrated and without purpose.  Not that the school didn’t try to help – I count a former dean there, as well as several of the brightest people I ever met, as friends to this day.  I followed some of them to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and I gained a more rounded view of the country.  Still, there was a time when, lost in a world of philosophy, bourbon whiskey, and paralyzing doubt, it was all I could do to get to class – when I have stress dreams today, they usually involve that period of time.

So it may be with so many white people now.  Observe the changes of the last century – there has not been time to take a breath.  We Americans mass produced the car, the airplane, industry itself, and we used them to assist in destroying far-flung enemies in World War II.  We jumped from a backwater to the world’s foremost power in decades, with the resources of a new continent behind us.  We revolutionized how information spreads using mass communication – radio, television, computer.  We vaulted past the nations of the world – we, black, Jewish, Asian, all races, but mostly white in number, the descendants of ambitious Europeans seeking opportunity and refuge away from the limitations of Europe.

Now we live together in a country approaching capacity.  The population has roughly doubled since 1960.  Atlanta, a metro area without natural boundaries, appears unable to grow any further due to vehicle volume, crushed of its own weight – and yet it keeps adding people.  On a recent trip to L.A., a town that always amazes, I was amazed on a weekend afternoon to remark the sheer number of vehicles parked by the side of the Pacific Coast Highway – miles of them, it seemed, luxury models, beaters, all parked bumper to bumper.  Even middle-aged people remember when it was not this way.

Never have we felt so connected and alienated at once.  The seemingly immediate ability to reach out to anyone in the civilized world using technology, to see everything “as it happens,” also fosters the worst in us – rudeness, shallow judgment.  Sometimes subversion of the old order not only refreshes but electrifies – observe the period of Enlightenment before the French Revolution, when the ideals of discovery and progress also led to bloody turmoil.

As a civilization, perhaps America, child of the Enlightenment, has reached critical mass.  Its white population, the largest in percentage, the “default setting,” has finally come to realize the dilemma – we as a Nation cannot progress this way, and we cannot turn back.  No one is insulated.  White anger is, then, the entirety finally, inevitably shaking, warping in the intense heat of change.

When we cannot hold onto the past, when Sears or Macy’s might be sold to a hedge fund at any moment, when a stalwart company lays off 1,000 people just before Christmas, when half the people in a town are not working, when religious houses become clubs and even scenes of slaughter, when even upper-middle-class people cannot afford a home and the taxes on it, when people witness the unabashed arrogance of D.C. and Silicon Valley toward the plebiscite, i.e., the rest of us, then some people gravitate to “Make America Great Again.”  Fear is the natural companion of anger, after all.  It is Solomon’s conundrum – wealthier than all his predecessors in Jerusalem, he perceived that all his pleasure was without comfort.

Whether white people feel responsible for the current state of affairs is not a sensible question – of course, it depends on many things.  Like any group - black, Jewish, Asian - white people in America are divided against each other, and their anger and fear is only human.  Some may have voted for Trump out of base emotion, some Trump voters are fanatics whom I try to avoid, but I am still not that cynical about the American people as a whole – people have thought about things after all.  They are angry at the “ruling class” in this country, for the very reason that the country is not supposed to have one – no amount of technological benefit or central government protection can change that.  Whether Trump is a Catiline or a Caesar, there will be a turning point.

When I visit my Colombian-born wife’s country, greatly enjoying a tamal and a simpler way of living, with my daughter speaking fluent Spanish to her abuelos on a patio under open sky, and I hopelessly white but understanding most of it, I often reflect on the United States.  Colombians still think America is at the center of the world – and it is.  They, like so many foreign nationals I know, cannot grasp what is happening to us – it is disconcerting.  Why do Americans, in possession of so much, always want and need so much more?  Colombia may be flawed in other ways, but people there tend to accept their position in life more readily, for better or for worse.

If we are fragmenting, I am glad my daughter is a Southern girl who knows Spanish – she stands as good a chance as anyone.