By Blogger Orvillelloyddouglas

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea earned her gold medal. Her free skate was excellent, flawless, and wonderful. Kim is the Olympic champion, and the judges got that result right. However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment. Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.

Halfpipe gold medallist Xuetong Cai of China is flanked by compatriots Zhifeng Sun (left), silver, and Xu Cheng, bronze as they stand on the podium at the FIS snowboard world cup Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 in Stoneham Que. (CP) Source: CIV

We knew during the Beijing Olympics the media took every opportunity to mock the Chinese Athletes just about anything they could find.

When it comes to talking about Chinese athletes, it seems like every article must reemphasize the words  'government-funded', 'state owned', and rather acknowledging the concept of dedication, hard work and discipline as athletic qualities in the Chinese they prefer to call it 'cultural oppression' or even 'inhuman torture'. 

The same rhetorical defamation recycles itself again and in the 2010 Vancouver Winter games the media has taken another stab at it.

Harvard University is known for its top notch academics, but not exactly as the hotbed of hoops excellence. It has been more than 60 years since the nation's top-ranked academic institution has been invited to compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament. But that could change this year, thanks, in part, to star basketball player Jeremy Lin, who some say has a shot to going to the NBA. Host Michel Martin talks with Lin about his skills on the court and some of the racism he's faced as an Asian-American player.

Vote for Jeremy Lin for the Bob Cousy Award by clicking here. 
Let's give him the recognition he deserves.

You can also catch the the Jeremy Lin interview NPR.org

Our summarized transcript:

As explained in section IV of Remember, the Asian-American Man and Woman are a couple under siege from mainstream America.

Those that choose to remain with each other are stamped as 'Asian and foreign', while on an unspoken but quite apparent level - only Asian women are afforded the opportunity to mingle and integrate into white social circles and white families.

The psychological pressure on the Asian woman to conform becomes immensely powerful, given the life-long indoctrination she is given by a mainstream American media that is completely devoid of images of Asian faces and depictions of viable Asian-American couples/families. This will gradually and inevitably destroy the kindred bond the Asian female shares with the Asian male from a young age, and the damage is thorough and complete.

In other words, the internalized racism that Asian-American children learn from the American Media destroys their ethnic self-esteem - and this in turn erodes the ability of the Asian-American boy and girl to love each other as adults.

The Moustache Brothers Burmese comedy troop, a tribute to Asian American activist Chris Ijima, Taiwan’s ”foreign brides,” America’s Next Top Immigrant, a mock game show and a fresh look at eyelid surgery, a rite of passage for Korean American women are among the subjects realized by filmmakers at the 32nd Asian American International Film Festival 2009 (AAIFF09).
Asian CineVision proudly presents the 2009/10 National Festival Tour featuring the year’s best independent cinema - narrative and documentary features and shorts - from AAIFF09. The National Festival Tour offers institutions and organizations the rare opportunity to bring many Asian and Asian American films to local communities across the country.

Since the Asian American film burst onto the scene thirty something years ago, many of those filmmakers, such as, Christine Choy, Wayne Wang, Mira Nair, Ang Lee, Justin Lin and among others are now comfortably part of the American cinematic mainstream.

Each year, hundreds of filmmakers from around the Asian Diaspora submit their short films to Asian American film festivals. They have given us stories of immigration and assimilation, adversity and triumph, motivation and inspiration of all genres: narrative, documentary, experimental, animation, music video.

Common reoccurring themes include identity politics, alienated youth, hypersexualization, math nerds, over-achievers, stereotypes, suburban alienation, and kung-fu waiters. 
Been there? Done that?

Tell us YOUR Asian American story.

VANCOUVER — A 44-year-old man whose face was left swollen and battered after being arrested in a case of mistaken identity did not resist arrest, Vancouver police said Friday — contradicting an earlier version of events offered by police.

Yaowei Wu is recovering after two plainclothes officers knocked on the wrong door during a domestic-assault call early Thursday.

Officers were called to the southeast Vancouver house at 2 a.m. after a woman called 911 to report that her drunken husband had struck her in the back of the head and she was concerned for her baby's safety.

The officers apparently didn't realize there were two suites in the home and the complainant was actually Wu's tenant, who lives in a ground-floor suite.

"The cops didn't ask clearly — not even ID me or anything — before they started beating me," Wu said through a translator to the Ming Pao newspaper.

"I think they have an attitude problem."