(no subject)
Excerpt from Boy Culture's review of "Born This Way":
"(Not sure what to make of the "chola/orient" controversy; she threw in "beige" along with "black" and "white," so while "chola" may not be representative of all Latinos or Hispanics, it seems to be an extra. She says "orient" and not "Orientals," so I'll leave that to Asians to articulate if they think she accidentally offended; the word "Oriental" is still quite proper to use in other contexts, unlike the N-word for example, but is of course considered outdated, like "colored" for example, if used as a reference to a people. I don't begrudge anyone who isn't thrilled with the wording, but I'm leery because so many of the people who've bitched about it to me truly don't care about "PC" and would normally roll their eyes at this save for the fact that they loathe Lady GaGa. A little opportunistic offense!)"
My response:
If you're really so unsure of what to make of an offensive term that you really need to just "leave it to the Asians to articulate" then let me, a bona fide Asian, provide you with an easy litmus test that any white person can use:
Step 1) If you're unsure if a term, such as "Chola" and "Oriental", is offensive to Hispanics or Asians, ask yourself if you would feel comfortable from this day forward referring to people of those ethnicities by those terms to their faces and in public. If you don't feel comfortable doing that for SOME unfathomable reason, then it might just be offensive.
Step 2) And if you feel that suspicion, go to your local computer, type in 'www.google.com' in the browser and do some simple research (you could also just skip Step 1 and save yourself some time). Search for something like "Oriental+offensive" and see what you get. If the explanations there don't convince you, then have at it. And if they do, BINGO!!! You found out if a term was offensive and why and guess what? You didn't even need to consult one of those Orientals to do it.
Honestly, we're so able to condemn off-color terms for blacks or lambaste a Conservative bigot for saying that a school full of Latinos "look like Asians" (and rightfully so), but when one of our own makes a racial misstep (and hopefully just a "misstep" AND while trying to promote diversity, ironically enough), suddenly we "just can't come to those conclusions ourselves." Lord.
That's what Conservative bigots can't bring themselves to do (Re: O'Reilly's inability to say anything bad about Sarah Palin no matter what she says or what she does that he clearly disagreed with in the past). I think the classic Fitzgerald quote was recently used in reference to this Conservative political mind-block: "Intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
When I hear a Chinese activist I admire use homophobic or off-color language, I'll call them out on that shit. Plain and simple. And I do the same to someone like Stephanie Germanotta, no matter how pro-gay she is. If I really believe in their advocacy, then I'd want them to know why what they said is wrong and I'd want them to evolve in their thinking, not excuse it or pass it off with sudden ignorance or apologeticism.
Are my fellow Liberal gays having SUCH a difficult time reconciling that the much anticipated pro-gay anthem of the Shining Golden Goddess of the gay rights movement might have some questionable racial terminology such that they suddenly lose all mental faculty in discerning what "is" and "isn't" progressively acceptable? Did we forget that even people who aren't intending to be racist can say racially offensive things? Did we forget that "reclaiming the pejorative" only works if it's people from those affected groups that do the reclaiming? Can't we demonstrate that we're better than that? And if we can't do better, then let's stop calling Conservatives out for doing the same fucking thing.
- An Oriental Fag
"(Not sure what to make of the "chola/orient" controversy; she threw in "beige" along with "black" and "white," so while "chola" may not be representative of all Latinos or Hispanics, it seems to be an extra. She says "orient" and not "Orientals," so I'll leave that to Asians to articulate if they think she accidentally offended; the word "Oriental" is still quite proper to use in other contexts, unlike the N-word for example, but is of course considered outdated, like "colored" for example, if used as a reference to a people. I don't begrudge anyone who isn't thrilled with the wording, but I'm leery because so many of the people who've bitched about it to me truly don't care about "PC" and would normally roll their eyes at this save for the fact that they loathe Lady GaGa. A little opportunistic offense!)"
My response:
If you're really so unsure of what to make of an offensive term that you really need to just "leave it to the Asians to articulate" then let me, a bona fide Asian, provide you with an easy litmus test that any white person can use:
Step 1) If you're unsure if a term, such as "Chola" and "Oriental", is offensive to Hispanics or Asians, ask yourself if you would feel comfortable from this day forward referring to people of those ethnicities by those terms to their faces and in public. If you don't feel comfortable doing that for SOME unfathomable reason, then it might just be offensive.
Step 2) And if you feel that suspicion, go to your local computer, type in 'www.google.com' in the browser and do some simple research (you could also just skip Step 1 and save yourself some time). Search for something like "Oriental+offensive" and see what you get. If the explanations there don't convince you, then have at it. And if they do, BINGO!!! You found out if a term was offensive and why and guess what? You didn't even need to consult one of those Orientals to do it.
Honestly, we're so able to condemn off-color terms for blacks or lambaste a Conservative bigot for saying that a school full of Latinos "look like Asians" (and rightfully so), but when one of our own makes a racial misstep (and hopefully just a "misstep" AND while trying to promote diversity, ironically enough), suddenly we "just can't come to those conclusions ourselves." Lord.
That's what Conservative bigots can't bring themselves to do (Re: O'Reilly's inability to say anything bad about Sarah Palin no matter what she says or what she does that he clearly disagreed with in the past). I think the classic Fitzgerald quote was recently used in reference to this Conservative political mind-block: "Intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
When I hear a Chinese activist I admire use homophobic or off-color language, I'll call them out on that shit. Plain and simple. And I do the same to someone like Stephanie Germanotta, no matter how pro-gay she is. If I really believe in their advocacy, then I'd want them to know why what they said is wrong and I'd want them to evolve in their thinking, not excuse it or pass it off with sudden ignorance or apologeticism.
Are my fellow Liberal gays having SUCH a difficult time reconciling that the much anticipated pro-gay anthem of the Shining Golden Goddess of the gay rights movement might have some questionable racial terminology such that they suddenly lose all mental faculty in discerning what "is" and "isn't" progressively acceptable? Did we forget that even people who aren't intending to be racist can say racially offensive things? Did we forget that "reclaiming the pejorative" only works if it's people from those affected groups that do the reclaiming? Can't we demonstrate that we're better than that? And if we can't do better, then let's stop calling Conservatives out for doing the same fucking thing.
- An Oriental Fag