Tag: race

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The Rise of the Right Isn’t All Just About Class

You know how everybody and her sister are saying that Trumpism (not to mention Palinism and Buchananism, etc.), white nationalism, and the rise of authoritarian movements on the right is all about class? They want us to believe that the racism of the right is just a ruse, that their real agenda is a class agenda, and responding to it as racism is just hollow liberalism.

Don’t listen. They don’t have their eyes on the long game.

Right wing movements have powerful class implications. We should be concerned about those class implications. In fact, politics should be understood as the … Read more “The Rise of the Right Isn’t All Just About Class”

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The Bamboo Ceiling in the Tech Sector Is a Story About Race

Recent reports indicating a lack of racial and gender diversity at major tech companies like Google, Apple, and Yahoo, among others, have rekindled discussion among Asian Americans about a phenomenon known as the bamboo ceiling. The bamboo ceiling is the Asian equivalent of the glass ceiling, that invisible yet all too consequential barrier that prevents women from rising to executive positions in public and private sector employment.

The reason for all the talk is that, while African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are underrepresented in tech sector employment, Asian Americans aren’t. In fact, we’re over-represented.

Asian Americans … Read more “The Bamboo Ceiling in the Tech Sector Is a Story About Race”

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The Problem With Asian American Racial Privilege

If you do a google search of “Asian privilege” you’ll see that the subject is generating a lot of chatter, both on the right and the left. But, much of the online discussion concerning Asian privilege ignores a couple of really important things.

First, “race” is a political category, invented to serve the interests of white supremacy. Second,  the Oriental “race” (what we were called before we became Asian) was conceived of in this context. When you consider these facts, it becomes clear that Asian privilege may be more complicated than we imagine.

On the first … Read more “The Problem With Asian American Racial Privilege”

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Guest Bloggers

My Big, Fat White Xmas

 

The holidays are a trying time for my family. As an inter-racial, inter-faith, bi-national, same-sex couple, we have to choose between having a quiet holiday with Chinese food and a Netflix movie, or visiting my in-laws in Michigan for 12 unending days of a truly white Christmas.

My partner and in-laws are your typical well-intentioned white people. I actually love them dearly as my adopted family. It is when I come face to face with their friends or extended family members that the trouble starts. Should I tolerate and keep the peace, or should I speak up for myself?… Read more “My Big, Fat White Xmas”

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Guest Bloggers

Jason Richwine & the Asian American dilemma

Jason Richwine

We’ve been hearing a lot about Jason Richwine’s racist views about Hispanics and immigration.  Richwine is the co-author of the widely discredited–even by other conservative think tanks—Heritage Foundation report and the author of the infamous dissertation in which he calls Hispanics stupid.  I’m not going to go into the  particulars of that argument because lots of other people have already done so and done it well.  It’s also well established that there is a sordid history of trying to link IQ and race in the service of racism.

What we haven’t been hearing so much about is … Read more “Jason Richwine & the Asian American dilemma”

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Columns Reviews

Book Review: To Barbara Kingsolver and Julie Otsuka After Reading You

As a nerdy gay boy growing up in a rural, working class town in the 60’s, novels were my escape route. Consider the wonder of a kid destined for a life as a laborer upon first encountering Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown children’s stories. Encyclopedia Brown is the hero because he’s a thinker! It opened a window on the world in a wall I didn’t even know existed.

Today, I still read, and Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite literary figures. Not only is she a very good writer, she’s also the founder of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for … Read more “Book Review: To Barbara Kingsolver and Julie Otsuka After Reading You”