To Please or Tease?

Through out my life I realized that I could find relaxation and fun through participating in sports. But after the beginning of my project against racism and stereotypes, sports has become more of a source of anger and shame. Several of my past coaches would always tell me that I shouldn’t be afraid of the other team, because of the different skin color. They would always bring up the stereotype that “Asians suck at sports, and can never beat white or black people.”

I never believed in any of these athletic based stereotypes as long as I knew that every athlete came from the same species. Past references to sports records and competition might show that Asians haven’t won that many or did well. But it isn’t their fault for having a late start in actually competing in competitions, as most Asian countries still suffer from economic hardships and poverty. Have you ever tried running or kick a ball on an empty stomach? If not, then why don’t you give it a try. I don’t mean to be pessimistic and all but its reality, compared to developed countries, least developed countries have lacked the economical support.

I know what it feels to represent a majority and I’m quite sure that those who represent this majority suffer from a lot of pressure. But that doesn’t lead to the crowd to have the choice of making this single man, woman, or group represent the whole athletic capability of a certain nation. Representation has definitely become an initiating factor for stereotypes and racist insults on certain ethnicities. It has been able to set light on a string of dynamite and as time passes we face a crisis that can no longer be reversed.

Sometimes you really want to know how the crowd feels about your performance while playing, but for me I just know what they see in me. Another typical “Asian boy” running around trying to act like he’s doing something. Yes I might be biased in some way, but lets face it. The only compliments I’ve heard from the crowd were actually based from the same stereotype that Asian people aren’t good at sports. Compliments such as “you jump pretty high for an Asian”, “Your faster than what I thought you’d be”, and even “Run boy, run like an Asian who’s never ran before.” I’m totally fine with the taunting around me, but when it goes over a certain line then why do I even try to play this sport.

The crowd that supposedly sitting up high above somewhere out of the athlete’s reach might have some fun enjoying the taunting and the condescending feeling that they get as they have fun with the words that come out of their mouths. Words are like bullets, and I know that it is up to the listener to either let it go or keep it in. But sometimes people just tend to go over the limit. You pay for the game, just let us play. Lets us do our job and you do yours. Just watch and enjoy and please for the love of you know who lets us play with smiles on our faces.

Photo credit to psoup216

What Comes Around Goes Around: A Trip To China

Recently I had the chance to take a trip to China, the country of marvelous wonders and cultures. It wasn’t for a vacation or fun, but for an annual international Model United Nations (MUN) conference. The conference was held in Beijing, inviting students from all over the world.

I had the chance to talk with them, become friends with students from London, Vietnam, Mexico, Barcelona and many other place. I also had the chance to actually have short conversations from time to time about how their school life was. Although making new friends plays a major part in our lives, it wasn’t the reason in being there. The conference content was really what caught my interest. It was just amazing how to see students all over the world represent a country that they’ve never lived or even went to, and talk about politics and the environment. We had Asian people representing U.S.A, France, and many other non-Asian nations, then we had the Caucasians representing Japan, Republic of Korea, and many other Asian nations.

The conference overall was successful, but sometimes we seemed to face the problem of certain delegates being insulted by racist and stereotyping comments. A certain stereotype that we faced was from what difference races like to eat, and how “unique” it was. It seemed as if the delegates (students) in the conference were more focused on what a certain country’s eating habits and skin color were rather than the debate itself. But it seemed quite funny though, I mean imagine a Japanese student representing United Kingdom, accusing Japan for eating whales and not protecting them. Then a certain thought struck my head, the thought of hypocrisy, and asked myself “are you a hypocrite?”. Would all anti-racism and anti-stereotype people have the same thought that I do right now? This is probably why I find myself so interested in seeking for a chance to have a conversation with an anti-racist. Not in order to make myself a better man, but to show to the world that some people really mean it when they say that their against racism and stereotypes. Unlike the Korean racist I had a chance to interview, and proved himself wrong as he said that he wasn’t. I want to have a chance where I can find a companion or friend that would join along with me.

This world is definitely filled with hypocrisy. Jonah Goldberg knew how to put the world in the right way by describing it as “Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony. “. But I know that in some parts of the world there are many people who really value what they are doing.

Photo Credit to blisspix

Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better

Recently I stumbled upon the mysterious and amazing mind of Samuel Beckett, and I began to realize that his quotes seemed to resemble a lot of what I was doing for the PLN class. Indeed I’ve tried on new ideas and many failures followed, but after every failure I feel as if I’m learning something.

My previous attempts in making myself open and my project open has been a success, but I haven’t been able to move further. As the days go by I feel as if I’ve just stopped in my steps and currently I’m just facing a huge wall in front of me. But I don’t know what this wall is, and sometimes I really don’t want to know.

I always thought that I faced the challenge of time. Sometimes I couldn’t really find the time to overcome either the time difference I had with the other people around the world or I was more focused on passing my classes rather than doing well in them. But then after my recent attempt on grabbing the Asian world as a focus, I realized that it wasn’t really the lack of time I had, it was just from the lack of confidence. I’ve said that I’ve tried and I’ve failed, but in a better way and learned that things would turn out to be better. But it just feels as if I’m being told not to do things another way, since I have this gut splitting feeling that I would fail again.

Yes indeed Samuel Beckett used to say “Try Again, Fail Again, and Fail Better”, but then Homer Simpson would always say that “Failure always comes from trying”. To tell you the truth I respect both of these people, and it may sound like a joke. But I am serious about the fact that we have a lot to learn from Homer Simpson. He would also be a great man to talk with when it comes to racist and stereotypes, but unfortunately he only exists in an electronic box.

So I guess I can say that I’m stuck with the fact that I haven’t moved on (from just writing), but I guess I just need more time to think to myself, “Is this what you really want?”.

Photo Credit to hometownzero and duncan

A Look At Myself And Where I Stand

The more emphasis we put on the idea of “races” it seems like there is a proportional increase in racism and stereotypes. This idea brings back my previous post on the relationship between education and racism/stereotypes, Education and Stereotypes?.

Is knowledge and learning actually the real criminals to blame? or were we just born with the idea of discriminating people. To me it just seems like a matter of time. Yes I’m talking about the same time, which is a fourth dimensional object, and is probably the most powerful object that ever existed. We all know that humans are the most intellectual species on this planet, and that we develop more and more as time goes by. But this cannot happen with just education and some experiences with reality. So how does this relate to stereotypes and racism? Well if your asking me, I believe that we just don’t have the ability to become a racist or stereotypical person. I mean that no one is “born to be a racist”. We learn that there are different people in this world, we learn that people don’t share the same history, and we learn in many ways that our ethnicity is the best. I might be wrong and please correct me if I am, but this it what I’ve learned from the society and I know that it will go on.

From all this learning I’ve come to one decision for my grade for the work I’ve done in February. I think I deserve a B- at least. I haven’t been able to produce a hard product of what I’m doing so far, but I’ve been able to make more connections with people around the world. I’ve gotten a contact in China now, but all I know about him is that he is a government official who works at a Chinese educational facility in Macao. A great relief is that he speaks English (British English, since he says he learned his English from Hong Kong), which is a great relief to me since I don’t have the capability of speaking Chinese fluently yet. But one of the major problems I faced was from the fact that he doesn’t know Skype or any other web 2.0 skills. So I’m still in the conflict of either moving on to another person who knows how to work with Tech, or actually try teaching him some basic communication skills. I hope to have it soon and I know that I won’t need to worry about the time difference, since there is only a one hour difference. Good Luck to myself and everyone else in the Fight Against Stereotypes and Racism.

Photo Credit to Philgarlic

An Idea

Every idea starts with a question. By answering to every question we go into the step in which we learn a solution. A solution then leads to another question. We live in a cycle of questions, answers, and solutions.

But I’m not here to ask you a list of question like a typical survey, asking for your age, gender, and education level. I’m just here to ask what you think and why you chose to take a certain path in thought. It would just be a matter of time until you realize and learn things, but I’m just here to give you a hint or an extra step for you to take and move on.

What do you think about racism? what about stereotypes? (I’m not asking you to give me dictionary definition of racism or on stereotypes I want your pure thought).

Have you ever had the feeling that you were either being the victim of racism and stereotypes or more like the source of it?

Now this is just a first step that I hope to take along with you side by side and move on as I learn things that I’ve never learned before.

Photo Credit to Leo Reynolds