Yul (shown above with "Survivor" host, Jeff Probst) was one of the popular Asian guys. That is, he was on plenty of sports teams and was likely one of the in-crowd in high school and college. He was also a part of the national Asian-American interest fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon.
Now when I was in college, the Lambdas basically seemed like a group of guys who thought "We're Asian, so let's party!!" and they were definitely not my role models.
And in reality, I don't think Yul is my role model either (although I am still THRILLED that he won and remain pleased that he can be a role model to other young Asian American males out there).
When you're a young boy, it is probably easy to look to someone who seems similar to you (at least on a superficial level) and want to emulate them. However, now that I'm technically a grown up, I find that most of my close friends are my role models-- as they all possess at least several qualities that I either admire and/or wish I had more of. They may not be the same race, gender or age as me, but I feel that they are all amazing people that I wish I could be more like.
......
In another turn of events today, though, I emailed my old city councilman-- the Honorable John C. Liu of Flushing, New York.
He was one of the original protesters against the *racist* "Survivor" season and I was curious to see what his response would be-- in light of the fact that the show turned out to be a positive representation of all races and a reflection of the diversity within the United States of America.
Here was the email response I got from his office:
Now I question whether they are being facetious with me, since I doubt anyone would consider this to be an "important issue".
But moreover, I question that last sentence-- which is basically akin to saying something like "While some elephants like to splash water on their backs, some monkeys like to jump on trampolines."
What the heck are they talking about? And just because I happen to support CBS's show and believe that they owe the network an apology for their misguided protest does not make me a "corporate apologist".
Wonderful New York City Government rears its ugly head again..
Yay for diversity of opinions in the Asian American community. =P
3 comments:
Why would you want to promote the needs of a profit-driven corporation over the interests of the Asian American community? You sound like a corporate apologist to me.
Hey Jxc- Thanks for looking at my blog and happy holidays!
I was wondering what you mean by "the interests of the Asian American community", though.
As an Asian American, I'd like to promote causes that increase awareness of our community-- but protests like those against "Survivor" were unproductive and misguided (considering that the show they were protesting did not turn out to be what they thought).
And how does my defending CBS against unfounded attacks make me a corporate apologist? Whether CBS is a corporation of a small, family-owned business doesn't really have to do with the fact that the protesters were not fully aware of the source of their unfounded complaints.
And Marie- I'll always be accepting of seedlings and fertilizer for 6-packs. Yul is just someone whom I think can be a good role model to Asian Americans in general, but doesn't really work for me-- since we're too dissimilar.
By the way, my mom LOVED your cookies. Thanks again for everything!!
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