More racist baloney.

Well, I guess I was slow on the train over the racist Cubs shirt. The Cubs pulled it, even though it was still a huge seller and probably floating around as a commemorative item. In more racist BS news, my friend pointed me to this article from the Washington Post about some guy who owns a restaurant named Chink's Steaks in the Philadelphia area. 

The restaurant was opened by Samuel Sherman, who was nicknamed "Chink" as a child because of his supposedly slanted, Asian-looking eyes. "Nobody ever called him Sam," said Groh, who started working at the eatery at age 15 and later bought it after Sherman died. "That was his name from the age of 6."

Surprise that White dude doesn't see anything wrong with a restaurant that is basically the equivalent of naming it "N--ger's." YES, it is that bad. The racial slur carries the weight of a history of oppression, so much so that I actually have a friend trying to take the word back. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

For those who want more to be angry about, this is a great blog: http://www.angryasianman.com

Okay, I can't deal with any more stupidity this morning. My blood pressure can't take any more of this (Did you know that research shows a link between perceptions of racism/discrimination and hypertension???). I gotta get back to work. Writing about discrimination. Sigh.

(Some) Cubs fans are racist. Big effing surprise.

Some racist moron is selling unlicensed shirts that bear the image on the right (photo credit: Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times), with a slant-eyed bear, big Harry Carey/nerdy glasses, and some stereotypical Chinese font with the words "Horry Kow" (that's supposed to be "holy cow" in a horrible Chinese accent). The shirt is meant to celebrate (/sarcasm) the addition of Japanese player, Kosuke Fukodome, to the Chicago Cubs. This article from the Sun-Times is full of hilarious reporting, revealing just how unbelievably ignorant and racist some people are in Chicago. The best is when the vendor points out that he sold the shirt to an Asian woman., to which the Asian woman replies, ''I bought it for my mom, who has a collection of racist images of Asian Americans.''

I thought Fukudome's response was very interesting:

''I knew I was coming to a different country, so I expected something like this,'' he said. ''Maybe not necessarily racial, but that anybody could take any context of my words and degrade me if they wanted to. But if I make a big deal out of it, it's not going to benefit me, so I'm not going to make a big deal of it.''

My friend from Japan remarked that this is a very typical response for Japanese culture. The cultural values prescribe not making a fuss, for that only dignifies the transgression. Unfortunately, I do not have that strength of will. I can't keep it to myself when I'm annoyed.

THAT SHIT IS SO BLATANTLY RACIST, AND IT IS NOT FUNNY.

When I asked a friend if this would happen with the Chicago White Sox, he astutely pointed out, "The Sox already had a few Japanese players, and I don't remember any stupid ass shit like that. Also you don't see that stupid shit with the Red Sox (who have Daisuke Matsuzaka) or the Yankees (who have Hideki Matsui). I.e., Cubs fans are the most racist in the U.S."

WORD.

Some Belated Thanks

Well, it's never really too late to give thanks, and we certainly should not wait until an arbitrary national holiday to appreciate the good things in our lives. It's been a few weeks, I know. But it's especially important for me right now to keep the positive vibes going, because I've had a really crappy December. Let me get the pity party out of the way. In the last two weeks, I:

1) was rear-ended during traffic on 35W, one of the busiest freeways in the Twin Cities (the same road where the bridge collapsed).
2) had my car towed due to complicated Mpls Snow Emergency rules.
3) lost my wallet and keys.

Surprisingly, I have not been soured by these recent events. Maybe it was that year in California that mellowed me out. I've recently tried to cope by reframing the situation and thinking about what I am meant to learn from these misfortunes. I also realized that these are all just things, and I have much to still be thankful for. You know, a roof over my head, my health and the health of all my loved ones, harmony within my family, being in a great graduate program, having wonderful classmates and friends, and so on and so on.

Oh, and of course...I am thankful for always having good food to eat. This is obviously very important to me, and I sometimes forget what a privilege it is! My first Thanksgiving in Minneapolis was no exception. As I mentioned in my last blog so-long-ago, my classmates decided to have a little Thanksgiving potluck the week before Thanksgiving. It was a splendid spread with lots of gourmet goodies made with love! Everyone came through with some awesome dishes. We had the turkey and a roux-stock gravy (story of the brining endeavor below), butternut squash and hazelnut lasagna, stuffing, Parmesan mashed potatoes, roasted brussel spouts, pumpkin bread, salad w/ carrot-ginger dressing, cranberries, and cheesecake custard. Not bad for a bunch of starving graduate students. I was very thankful for all this delicious food, and the good cheer shared by the wonderful company. A rousing game of Taboo helped as well!

My few foodie fans out there have been asking me how the brined turkey turned out, and I am proud to say that it was a HIT! I did end up using the Good Eats Roasted Turkey recipe, which called for a 6 hour brine. The brining is quite simple; just boil the ingredients and pour the cooled brine in with the turkey. Some places sell special brining bags; I thought I would be clever and buy a Reynolds Oven bag. That didn't work b/c the bag got a hole in it. Oh well. What's really tricky is figuring out where to let the huge thing soak for that extended period of time. Luckily, my ex-roommate had abandoned a perfectly sized cooler!

After it soaked for 6 hours, you gotta dump out the brine and rinse the chicken well. Doesn't make sense? Read my last blog entry to understand what goes on w/ the brining process. Be sure to pat it dry all over before greasing it up so that your skin will crisp. After that, you "flash roast" the turkey in the oven: 500 degrees for 30 minutes. This will give the skin a golden crisp. Then you lower the temp to 350 and cook for another 2-2.5 hours (depending on the weight of the bird). Ideally, you will possess a meat thermometer that goes up to the requisite 161 degrees, instead of a totally useless thermometer that only goes up to 120. I was very paranoid about infecting everyone with salmonella, so I had it roast an extra 30 minutes or so. Turned out well-done (10 lb bird for about 3 hours total).

The verdict? Well, here are a few comments I received:

Wow, it is so juicy and flavorful.
Gravy is hard to do, and this is very good!
Yum, and I don't even like turkey!
This is the best turkey I have ever had.

*comments may have been slightly altered for effect. Except for the last one; that's a REAL quote!

While it was somewhat time consuming, I am definitely going to try another brined turkey. My parents saw the pictures and want me to try and convert them into being turkey-eaters (instead of turkey-haters) on Christmas. We'll see...greater miracles have been known to happen!

Stay tuned for more Thanksgiving 2007 Frugal Foodie action....Next up, turkey stock!

USPS = WORST

The USPS is the most unreliable mail service EVER. I thought that FedEx was bad, but I have been convinced otherwise. My future career is now jeopardized because of this wretched establishment.

surprise, a famous White guy is racist

You might have heard about the racist rant that former Seinfield actor-comedian Michael Richards (better known as "Kramer") made during a stand-up gig last week, captured on video and posted at TMX.com. Richards must have gotten an earful from his publicist b/c he made his rounds to various shows such as Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio show, full of apologies and claiming that he was "shattered" that he was capable of such atrocious behavior. Whatever. I'd like to believe that he is personally disturbed by his actions and attitudes, but come on...were they really that latent to himself? If you watch the tape, you will see how his hateful words come from some deep-seated attitudes, not just a random slip of the tongue.

When the nightly news was covering this story, my family and I got into a big debate over how it is being treated. Some people argued that the media shouldn't even give the story so much coverage because it is just drawing more attention and publicity to Richards (and any other person whose image and character would be on the line). Though I do see some truth to that, I had a strong reaction in opposition. I feel that it's important to bring these kinds of racial incidents to light, especially when it involves public figures (even if they're has-been celebrities)...if we just ignored it, it would be as if the media was complicit in making it seem like these racist attitudes are no big deal.

I must concede, however, that there tends to be too much sensationalism around these kinds of acts of indivdiual racism and discrimination. The media's treatment of racism as simply racial rants and pejoratives belies the much more pervasive and insidious forms of racism that go unnoticed in the public consciousness such as instituational and cultural racism (e.g., inequitable economics, employment practices, public policy, aesthetic Eurocentricism).

The bottom line is that I think that the media should hold people in the public eye accountable for their individual acts of bigotry, but there should be greater attention to the forms of oppression that penetrate the very mechanics of our society.