So, yeah. The subject's been raging ad nauseam for three or four days now. Some half-baked thoughts, to wit:

- The poll was taken in March, months before the spy plane debacle ever hit the shore, so to speak. The public's view now is, at worst, more fervent, and, at best, solidified. Not a good time to be Chinese in the sticks. (Bay Area suburbs do not quite qualify as "the sticks," though this is not to say racism in those schools isn't a valid problem. It is.)

- Outside the Bay Area, Chinese Americans are routinely confused with overseas Chinese. You wouldn't go up to a black person and say, "Damn, dude, whassup with all those diamond mine killings?" would you? Or say to someone you knew was Irish, "Them bombings is crazy, yo!" Why do people assume I have some personal stake in China's sociopolitical decisions? Must be all that Channel 26 I watch.

- Not to sound like a civics professor, but we all know "Asian American" is a useless term -- a political construct like "Hispanic" and "Caucasian." It's scope is too broad to be of any practical use. In this, Matt fudged up again, but at the same time made things easier for his non-Asian audience. Them's the downfalls of the professional writer.

- Whoever was surprised at the article shouldn't be. SF residents, I'm talking to you. This is not to say we shouldn't hold our heads up high, just keep watch on our necks, knowwhutimean? Not shoving so much on the 30 Stockton would probably help, too. The spitting thing I've given up on.

- Both the WTO and World Bank summits show today's protesters are ineffective, theatrically-driven upper-middle class kids whose antics no one really cares about. The banner? Puh-LEASE. That is so 1965. In a world where protest methodology is shifting so radically, where can a relatively small Asian American faction hit The Man for maximum effect and recognition? Beats me, but let me know when you hear something, 'kay?
posted by Fender Bender at 3:31 PM

rewind, yo.