My Mom Is a Fob.com

      There is a blog called My Mom Is a Fob (www.mymomisafob.com). The name of the website probably will give most people the first impression of what a stereotypical fob (or clearly Asian immigrant) mom would normally do as an Asian parent. But, once you look at the website, you will find that this will result in disappointment to those holding such expectations. This website features lovely short stories, quotes and pictures between Asian mothers and their children. .
      I love the idea on how the website is designed, especially how the website was named. Sometimes, people use the stereotypical words on purpose to actually go  against those typical stereotypes, or at least, highlight the good points about them. For example, she uses the term 'fob,' on the one hand, to gain the public’s attention, but on the other hand actually resists the stereotypical Asian mother, or the title Tiger Mom, given to them by the dominant society. She also puts some pictures with stereotypical Asian signs and symbols on the top of the website, like the peace sign (often used when Asian takes pictures), sun visors which are made popular by older Asian women trying to protect their skin from the sun, and, of course, chopsticks. Moreover, after gaining much popularity, the website now connects to Facebook and Twitter and other Asian American’s blog websites, in order to continue fueling its ever-growing popularity and make it simpler to access.

      One person added to the blog a post about how her mom made her a cake to celebrate graduating Law School. Rather than the typical, "Congrats" or other popular congratulating phrase. The person writes, “my mom got me a cake to celebrate my law school graduation,” with the picture of the cake her mom made for her. Her mom wrote “I’m proud” on the top of the cake. There are 95 votes about this picture and 142 people like it through Facebook. Among one of the comments, one people said, “damn, an immigrant parent saying they are proud to their child to their faces? LOL.” It is a good example that shows how some people think about immigrant parents. They believe most immigrants are too shy to, or simply don't believe in expressing their approval of their child's success. Although Asian parents may not say “I love you” to their kids all the time, there is something that non-Asian people don’t understand is that to Asian parents, actions are more powerful than words. If someone always says big words like “I love you” but never shows it, would you still think he or she really means what they say? Like her mom, she makes the cake for her daughter trying to express how she really feels. It is probably a simple thing to most people, but it is hard work for a parent who works hard and makes spare the time to make the cake for her also hard-working daughter. Immigrant parents are human beings too, and just like any other parent or person, they have the emotions when something happen in their lives and expectations on their children. Her daughter’s graduation is a big day not only to her daughter but also to her. “I’m proud”, in some people’s opinions, the mom was compared to the Tiger Mom because her daughter graduates from the law school under her cultivation.
So with that point of view, can it be considered non-Asian moms as Tiger Moms when they celebrate or make cakes for their children’s graduation of law school? Why would Tiger Mom be only associated with an Asian woman’s title? Interestingly enough, there are several movies or TV shows about Americans parents who are also tough parents and successful women. The difference between Asian and non-Asian women, or primarily Caucasian in most cases, is that people are ignorant to how tough Caucasian women can be or they will simply attempt to categorize them as some kind of heroin or being simply independent.

Heroines: Movies vs. Reality

         Most of the Hollywood movies about “masculine females” feature strong, proactive women warriors who fight evil and become the champion to the delight of fans. They are all independent and intelligent. Most of time in their lives they have no choice other than to be be tough. Selene in Underworld is a latex and leather clad, death-dealing vampire goddess with luminescent ice blue eyes and has perfectly pale skin. She is proficient with many weapons, both medieval and modern. As a vampire, Selene frequently demonstrates superior physical abilities to defeat males effortlessly. She uses superhuman strength to pin Michael against a wall with one hand to his throat several feet off the ground, performs spectacular leaps, manhandle four police officers and strike her enemies with tremendous force. Resident Evil is another movie portraying a masculine heroine born from a video game. This character, Alice, is portrayed as tough and rugged as she is a genetically enhanced victim of the Umbrella Corporation. Alice wakes up to find Raccoon City populated by flesh-eating zombies and flashbacks of what has come to pass. Alice has to kill zombies to get out of the company basement in order to find freedom. Her superhuman abilities, as well as the use of various styles of martial arts and gun play have made her equal to the female heroine type of character. Lastly, Mulan, is the only daughter of aged warrior Zhou. Facing to the conscription notice which requires one man from each family to join the army, Mulan pretends to be a man and takes her father’s place during a general recruitment to counter the Hun invasion. Mulan tricked everyone at the camp in believing she is a man and successfully trained to become a skilled warrior at the training camp. Mulan then fought for many years and became a successful warrior.

          In most Hollywood movies, although those females somehow are forced to fight for their lives, they all become successful at the end of the story in one way or another, however, this happy ending doesn’t always happen in the real life.
          Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was a village girl born in eastern France who had visions of religious figures and of Saint Margaret who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Rheims for his coronation. Joan of Arc asked for permission to travel with the army and wear the equipment of a knight.  She wore male clothing and kept her hair cut short. Joan of Arc rejected the strategy that characterized French leadership during previous campaigns and guided the French army by her own way to lead army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War, paving the way for the coronation of Charles VII. Even thought she contributed so much to her country, she was accused of being a witch. She was then captured and transferred to the English for money and burned at the stake when she was only 19 years old.

Media often misleads the audience in thinking that the struggles many heroines go through will lead them to success. We must consider the real-life heroines and their struggles that may have brought success to others, but forced these women to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Go for Broke

      “Go For Broke” (1951) was filmed as a tribute to the United State’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion who fought during World War II were formed exclusively of Japanese-American volunteers with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s exclusive permission. The film narrates the story of the Japanese-American Combat Team and their battle against not only the enemies of the United States, but also the racism within American society. The film draws attention to the racism and prejudice that Japanese-Americans faced even among their peers in the United States’ army.

        President Roosevelt wrote in the letter of approval, “The proposal of the War Department to organize a combat team consisting of loyal American citizens of Japanese decent has my full approval. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”

        The term “Go for Broke,” also the movie’s title, is Pidgin English for “shoot the works,” meaning to risk it all for the chance to win big. This became the slogan for the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as these Japanese American soldiers adopted this “all or nothing” attitude due to being assigned to the front lines and taking on seemingly suicidal missions. Many of the men had families still in internment camps, and some even lost family members overseas and in Hawaii over the war.  Despite all of that, they were still willing to volunteer to fight for the country that was also acting out against them.

          “Go for Broke” highlighted the struggles they went through and how these Japanese-American men still faced great racism and their loyalty to the United States was even questioned among their officers. Moreover, this film highlights the changes some the officers went through from being racist to accepting the soldiers. Despite this treatment of their families and the hardships they faced, the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team ended up, and still is today, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history. They participated in 7 major campaigns in Europe, received 7 Presidential Unit Citations, 9,486 Purple Hearts and 18,143 individual decorations for bravery to name but a few.

         Movies like this bring forth the argument as to why racism still exists in the military today (let alone in the entire nation).  After over 70 years it appears that many do not recognize that Asian-Americans are just as worthy as any American soldier and have every right to freely fight for their country without discrimination – even if it is among their peers. As a concrete and very recent example, soldiers like the late Danny Chen shouldn’t be forced to experience racism. After all of the struggles and changes the United States has gone through as a nation founded on immigrants and defended by immigrants and children of immigrant families.  For more than 200 years Asians have been in the United States and since the day they have stepped on American soil have been facing discrimination. One can only hope that the loss of Danny Chen and remembering those great soldiers in the United State’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion will make a change for a better, all-inclusive, American future.

Indian Boarding School - Forced Cultural Assimilation

The term “Indian boarding school”, is probably something many people have already forgotten or never even knew about. In the late 1800s, Native Americans lost American Indian wars, particularly after the Civil War. With consideration that the Native Americans were sill seen as savages living in the midst of civilized farmers, Indian reform groups became increasingly more powerful. The two choices when considering beginning the reform movement was either execute all of the Indians or assimilate them into white dominant culture through means of education. After the first contact between Native Americans and Europeans, reformers pushed the federal government to begin a strict assimilation policy to educate all of the Native Americans.

A Native American Man, Before and After "Assimilation" into the dominant culture.

At the beginning of the reform, the federal government set day schools near some of the reservations. Indian students were forced to go there, attend school and return home. The reformers hoped that this initial system would help students to educate their parents by sharing what they were learning in the school with them. However, the day school didn’t seem to work as well as initially planned. Once students came home, parents were still teaching their children their native tribal languages, cultures and belief systems, despite the strenuous efforts of the schools. Because of this, the reformers tried a new experiment by setting the boarding school where students were forced outside of their native lands, and separated from their families for great lengths of time.

The students were thrown into a military type setting of classes and activities. They were up at the call of a trumpet at 5:45 a.m. Breakfast was at 6:45. Industrial work began at 8:00 and formal school at 9:00. After lunch there was more industrial work and schooling with lectures lasting well into the evening. There was less than an hour of free time during each day, and the students had to be in bed at 9:00 p.m. Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages and even from showing signs of homesickness. Instead, they were supposed to converse and even expected to think in English. If they were caught "speaking Indian" they were severely beaten with a leather belt. Additionally, they were convinced to believe Christianity is better than their native religion.

Europeans probably never considered how those kids’ and families might be feeling. Students were taught to hate who they were born to be because what they once knew was being ripped from them and told it was wrong. Those students were taught to deny their personal identities and native culture in the boarding school. How did they feel when they were told their status was lower than those who were born in the White people’s families? The dominant white group thought boarding school was the way to civilize the minority Native American group, but actually it was the way to kill their culture and history by killing the unity and diversity of the individual tribes.

The United States was founded based on democracy, which means everyone has the right and everyone should be treated as equal. Native American rarely enjoyed those privileges because they were considered as not part of the dominant society. If we see reviewed the society structure by a hierarchy system, Native Americans probably are at the bottom of the class.

Mascots and Racism

What is a Mascot? A “mascot” means any person, animal, or object colloquially thought to bring luck. Mascots include anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society or brand name. Once the mascot or nickname associated with a sports team, it stands for the team identity as well as fills its fans with feelings of pride and joy. As a result, most mascots chosen by teams are selected for their positive image to represent the spirit of the teams. 

In Major League Baseball, 8 of the 30 teams are named after some sort of fearsome or flying creature. In the National Football League, 14 of the 32 mascots are named for animals all with strong characteristics, including the Bengals, Eagles, Lions, Tigers, Bears and Rams. Also, nearly every Division One college basketball team has been named after either an animal or a mythical creature. You can tell all most each animal chosen for mascots have specific traits showing positive strength of power. Eagles have swiftness, keenness and courage. Bears have great strength and can easily put up a fight. Lions have bravery and speed. But for decades, Native American Indian mascots, symbols, and names used by high school, college, and professional teams are also seen widespread throughout America, bringing forth controversy as to why Native Americans as mascots, symbols, and names in American sports is still being used today. 

Supporters of Native American Indian mascots believe that the use of these symbols and nicknames honors Indians because those symbols and names are said to represent bravery, agility, tenacity and strength. Indians, on the other hand, consider it an insult and that they are being stereotyped by non-Native Americans. Although those supporters emphasize that they use these Native American symbols to identify sports teams because the stereotypical image of Native American is warrior, brave, stoic and so on, they still reveal the negative opinions and inequality through racism to the Native American people. For example, some non-Native Americans (primarily Caucasian) believe Native Americans should take other things seriously rather than complain about mascots and nicknames. What these supporters imply is that Native Americans should stop complaining about simple things like mascots, and because they are [stereotypically] alcoholics and are not sober enough to complain about something more important like how the United States was “stolen” from them. Sports teams, additionally, always insist the name chosen is representing a positive side of Native American culture, but most of what we see is that they take part of Native American culture or features are stereotyping or racializing and excluding them.

Let’s take into consideration the Minnesota Vikings. The football team was officially named after the Vikings in the 1960’s because the name highlighted Minnesota’s prominent Scandinavian American culture. Since the football team was established, their team name was never changed or considered controversial, and the team still continues to embrace the Scandinavian American culture today. They would obviously not use names like the Horned Helmets, Blond Beards or Girly Men (because Vikings have long hair and blond beards or horned helmets) to identify their teams. But the way sports teams treat or use the name of Native Americans is just as if we were calling the Vikings, the Minnesota Girly Men. They highlighted the stereotypes and ethnicity of Native Americans: Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves (are all Native Americans brave?) and Cleveland Indians. As for the Washington Redskins, is a Native American man presented wearing a headdress, however, in reality, only certain tribes wear this type of headdress despite him being a representative for all Native Americans. Redskins also named their mascot “Chief Wahoo,” a name that “sounds” like a Native American language. It is very insulting and does not highlight the essence of Native American culture like bravery, warriors and strength properly, it only equates them with the other animals used as mascots. 

Opponents of Indian mascots believe that the use of Native American symbols and nicknames is focusing on racial stereotypes and is blatant racism. 

Let’s put ourselves into Native Americans’ shoes to see how they feel. What about one day, you see sports team mascot is the image created about stereotyping your culture or ethnic community, like as the picture shows above, the stereotypical Indians, Asians, Africans and Hispanics images from Caucasian American prospective. Another interesting point to note is that you can hardly find pictures or images of stereotypical white people. Is it  because they do not like being stereotyped and made fun by other people? If so, why should minorities like it? If we are all human beings, why does the minority have to be the one always being made fun of? 

When the use of Native American symbols and nicknames started to become an openly recognized issue, it has never gained enough attention to be changed. Interestingly, because most people believe it should be an honor and respect to Native Americans by using Native American symbols and nicknames and disregard the complaints. Very few people have proposed to stop using those symbols or take some action to get this problem changed. If they do claim to respect the Native Americans, how are they also supposed to prove they respect them when they claim the use of Native American symbols is right and refuse to change the situation for them?