On Monday afternoon, Paramount Studios invited the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) and Racebending.com to a private screening for ‘The Last Airbender,’ which will be released domestically on Thursday, July 1st. I was one of the people at this screening.

So before I get into what I thought about the film, I need to make it clear to you that over a year ago I learned that the casting call for the principal roles read “Caucasian or any other ethnicity,” even though the original animated series had Asian and Inuit heroes. The final casting reflects this, with the exception of the villain who was recasted for a person of South Asian descent. Since then I’ve been working with Racebending.com to spread awareness about the systemic practice of yellowface and ‘whitewashing’ in Hollywood, focusing on discouraging people from seeing this film.

That said, just within the past couple of weeks I began watching the original animated series for the first time. I got so hooked that I marathoned the series and finished the first two seasons in less than a week. I’ve only got a few episodes of the final season left; I’m watching it as I type this. Going into the screening I was excited to finally see the cartoon come to life, but I dreaded seeing the ‘whitewashing’ in action.

So what did I think? (more…)

I rarely give my real name when ordering from Starbucks or Jamba Juice or any place that asks for your name with your order. When I step into any of these fine establishments, I become…

Samantha.

(more…)

This was originally published on my Xanga on Monday, August 4, 2008. I decided to repost it here given some talk around the blogosphere lately about Crayola’s line of ‘multicultural crayons’.

A rush of childhood memories overcame me as I was reading a blog (called Sociological Images) via Google Reader about “White Privilege.” The article shows images of “flesh-colored” bandages and crayons, and the complexion is a fair color.  I scrolled through this article when I saw the image of the long line of peach-colored Crayola crayons, and immediately I thought of my childhood.

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a Crayola set of 120 crayons.  It had this cool plastic container/stand thing, and it had more colors than I knew had ever existed, or had a name.  Prior to this, I’d only been familiar with the box of 16 crayons with your basic colors of “Carnation Pink” and “Red Violet.”  When I got a new set, all of a sudden there was “Cerulean,” and “Fushia.”  It boggled my mind.

I had plenty of coloring books as a kid.  There was one particular time I was coloring in a person and I couldn’t figure out which crayon to use for its skin.  “Peach” was what I first considered because, after all, virtually every human cartoon character was that color.  But as I used the crayon, something didn’t seem right. (more…)

Definition of a musical elitist:

A person who claims to be a fan of music that you’ve never heard of or just found out about. They also rub it in your face, and feel good about it.

My elitism began with a walrus

My earliest memory was when I was five-years-old. My dad is a huge fan of The Beatles, and so I grew up listening to them so much that he would quiz me on which Beatle was singing at any given moment of a song.

When I was in kindergarten, I attended a classmate’s birthday party where we got to make crafty things. The celebrant’s dad made some weird looking craft and in a funny voice said, “I am the Eggman! I am the Walrus!” I laughed and quietly responded, “Koo-koo-ka-choo!” He looked at me half-impressed and half-surprised. “How did you learn that,” he asked. My fellow classmates and party-goers looked confusingly at us.

Yes, even among five-year-olds I basked in the glory of my l337 music knowledge. (more…)

One day I decided to lament on Facebook how much I missed what Pandora used to be. A high school friend of mine told me to write a blog post about it. Here is the blog post, Chandra!

There once was a time that the only electronic encyclopedia that existed was the Microsoft Encarta program. Businesses used WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.

There was a time when the coolest things you’d find on the internet were animated .gifs and scrolling marquees.  This was a time when if someone told me that I would one day be able to watch high quality streaming video on my computer, I would have laughed so hard that floppy disks would come out of my nose.

So when I first discovered that you could listen to internet radio stations, I had to try it to believe it. (more…)

I was speaking with one of my supervisors the other day about my work schedule for the upcoming weeks. I told him that I needed to miss some weekends because of some other projects I’m working on.

“Are you getting paid to do those other things?” he asked me. “No,” I said. “Is what you’re doing going to help you in the future? Is it going to help you with your career path?” I told him I wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m older than you or what, but if I were you, I would only spend my time doing things that would make me money. There are exceptions like family obligations, but other than that I wouldn’t waste my time on something that doesn’t pay.”

Huh?!

How depressing. To live a life depriving yourself of the things you enjoy, the things that are most fulfilling in your life all for money.

I understand that there is a bare minimum of income a person should make to survive and that it takes money to do many enjoyable things. I just find the notion that a person can only find joy or satisfaction by being a slave to money so incredibly sad.

Am I blind to the realities living an adult life? Maybe. Am I an idealist? Probably. But I am not about to let my life be about the pursuit of monetary wealth. Just sayin’.

My absolute favorite thing about working in food service is interacting with the guests we serve in the store. I love talking with them. I love seeing them get excited about the product. I love how cheerful people are when they come into and leave the store. Putting customer service as a top priority at work, my psyche has been changed forever. Why?

Now whenever I go out I pay very close attention to the customer service. Maybe it’s because I want to learn from others’ effective practices and mistakes. Maybe it’s because I want to be better at my job. Or maybe it’s because I want to be able to treat others well. Whatever the reason, my observations have peaked so much that I’ve formed some opinions and I want to blog about it.

Yes, it has affected me that much.

Speed vs. Care

There are two primary ways in which I’ve observed employees interacting with customers: (more…)

Full disclosure: Just wanted to make clear that although this post suggests heteronormativity and even feeds a little bit into gender stereotypes, the core ideas here can be applied to a person of any gender and any sexual orientation.

“I don’t mean to brag but…” really means “I am here to brag, but I just want to preface what I’m about to say with being polite.”

So…

I don’t mean to brag but I’m pretty sure my boyfriend is damn near-perfect. This article is more or less a list of things that make my boyfriend “damn near-perfect,” and hopefully by sharing this you will be able to be (or find) a perfect boyfriend. And then your life will be complete. (more…)

i may not be perfect but you should embrace me for all that i am
- The title of the art project

The Art Project

The other day at work, one of my male coworkers put a blank white sheet of paper in front of me, handed me a permanent marker and told me to list the things that make me happy.  He asked for me to put down 10-15 things.

Music. Puppies. Eating a burger. Being with my boyfriend…

“No, no, no don’t put that, that’s something a girl would say. Write it as if you were me.” It felt a little weird to me because he told me that it was a homework assignment, so it seemed like he wanted me to do his homework for him.  I reluctantly listed the first 11 things that came to mind in less than five minutes. When I handed the sheet back to him, he crossed off “Puppies” and put “Dobermans” and crossed off “boyfriend” and replaced it with “ex-girlfriend.”

He came up to me later and asked me to help him with the same assignment. I refused. He tried to convince me by saying that it was an assignment for another female coworker. I didn’t believe him. (more…)

I mentioned in a previous post about some conversations I’ve been having with people about online and offline personas, specifically how much of what you do or who you are offline should you put online. Here are some of my findings: (more…)