fo shizzle the amdrag is in the hizzooooouse
I have a dirty dirty secret. :p Some time ago, I watched a few episodes of Jake Long: American Dragon and I... I liked it! If only more shows could realize how crappy they were and take steps to improve instead of settling for mediocrity! The show goes from season 1 too hideous to watch to season 2 actually being rather cute! I still hate the design of Jake's dragon form (though season 2 improved it, it's such an ugly design there's no saving that), which is lame since his grandpa's dragon form is awesome. Anyways Jake is only a dragon for about 30 seconds of each episode so it's okay.
I think what's most funny though, is I read about the controversy surrounding Jake being a bit, well, ghetto LOL XD Ghetto AZNs are sort of the asian equivalent of the wigger. I thought it was adorable :P and since I went to middle and high school with a ton of kids just like him I didn't find it weird. And the show does emphasize Jake's Americanized-ness and his struggle to balance it with his Chinese heritage. I think it's pretty awesome that they have a biracial main character and address this issue at all. It would be very easy for it to backfire (and in the eyes of the people who didn't get it- it just looks like a poor attempt to make Jake "cool") and even easier to ignore it completely.
But I definitely think that's one of those American things that are so strange people think we're making it up.
But actually the more *I* think about it, it's not weird at all. You definitely get a lot of second generation asian americans who want to assimilate without becoming whitewashed, and what is the clear choice of americanized culture that isn't white? (this is something I talked a lot about with a good highschool friend, apparently oeros and twinkies go well together :P) It definitely goes overboard sometimes- I remember having to lecture a vietnamese-american classmate about not using the n-word. If black people trying to reclaim the word backfired horribly, then it won't work if asians are calling each other that either. If words didn't have the power to oppress people, propaganda wouldn't exist.
I like how that turned from me critiquing a disney channel cartoon to SERIOUS BUSINESS racial discussion. Neeeeeeeerd
I think what's most funny though, is I read about the controversy surrounding Jake being a bit, well, ghetto LOL XD Ghetto AZNs are sort of the asian equivalent of the wigger. I thought it was adorable :P and since I went to middle and high school with a ton of kids just like him I didn't find it weird. And the show does emphasize Jake's Americanized-ness and his struggle to balance it with his Chinese heritage. I think it's pretty awesome that they have a biracial main character and address this issue at all. It would be very easy for it to backfire (and in the eyes of the people who didn't get it- it just looks like a poor attempt to make Jake "cool") and even easier to ignore it completely.
But I definitely think that's one of those American things that are so strange people think we're making it up.
But actually the more *I* think about it, it's not weird at all. You definitely get a lot of second generation asian americans who want to assimilate without becoming whitewashed, and what is the clear choice of americanized culture that isn't white? (this is something I talked a lot about with a good highschool friend, apparently oeros and twinkies go well together :P) It definitely goes overboard sometimes- I remember having to lecture a vietnamese-american classmate about not using the n-word. If black people trying to reclaim the word backfired horribly, then it won't work if asians are calling each other that either. If words didn't have the power to oppress people, propaganda wouldn't exist.
I like how that turned from me critiquing a disney channel cartoon to SERIOUS BUSINESS racial discussion. Neeeeeeeerd