Journal 6/6

Andrew Boyd “Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and the Billionaires for Bush”

Initially when I hear the phrase “truth is a virus”, I interpret this as how the truth

can be altered to benefit one and harm another and the continuous implication of

the altered truth can lead to the lost of the actual truth. This article explains how

the “memes”/media viruses can be a tool for cultural resistance. Media viruses

are used to express important issues in an indirect manner. I believe “memes”

are still popular in our present day and continued to be used as a tool for

resistance. In my experience, political memes can actually stress an important

issue in a short phrase. I believe the reason why memes are so effective is

because they are able to display many issues and topics through different

memes/short phrases and they are normally eye catching to the public. Memes

also can educate the public. An issue I find with memes though is that anyone

can create a meme and the information the meme displays can be untrue.

Ricardo Dominguez “Electronic Disturbance: An Interview”

This article discusses the growing importance of using electronics as tools for protests.

Ricardo Dominguez talks about his journey towards to the creation of Electronic

Disturbance. Electronic Disturbance is a community that promotes nonviolent cyber

activism. Cyber activism is a very popular tool for resistance and activism in our present

day. We see this all over social media and the news. Cyber activism is able to connect

people from all around the world to combat pressing issues that affect many. I think that

cyber activism is able to educate the public more due to the increased everyday usage of

the Internet. I believe people also feel safer being a part of cyber activism because they

don’t necessarily have to be in public expressing their opinion to make an impact. Public

protests can easily lead to violence.

Andrew’s Presentation:

I really enjoyed Andrew’s presentation. I enjoyed the reading. The assigned reading was

very impactful and meaningful. I also liked how interactive the discussions were as he

would walk up and down the main aisle of the classroom.

Nam Le Love

Karen Nguyen

ASA 4

Prof. Maira

1 June 2017

Nam Le Love and Sacrifice

            Between reading “ethnic literature” and imploring my Vietnamese grandparents to again recount stories about fleeing communist Vietnam, I’ve realized that people are truly fascinated by story telling involving personal conflict and family. I cannot fully criticize “white people” for their partiality for ethnic novels that talk about personal ethnic stories because I feel that it is natural to be interested in another’s life/culture. However, it becomes tiring when stories such as Le’s are read in the form of a textbook rather than a well-written story, as something to extract knowledge about an “other” culture. This behavior catalyzes the notions of how Asian authors only sell novels about their ethnic sufferings and their heritage. In this way, Asian authors fall into a literary stereotype, one that Le acknowledges in the reading. Through his short story, Le adheres to the stereotype since his story is of course about his family. Yet Le also includes a sort of fun poke at the stereotype of Asian authors, because his story is about a clearly "white-washed" Asian author who attempts to write a book about his heritage (like Inception.)  

Journal 6/1

"Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" by Nam Le

      This article discusses the reflection of a young man who was raised by a strict Vietnamese

immigrant father. This story presents the common theme of the different understandings and

perspectives between immigrant parents and their children. This difference in their views is due to

different environments, upbringings, and norms of their different lifetimes. These differences are

considered in a sense cultural differences as the sons and daughters of immigrants create their

own hybrid culture with a mix of the American culture and their ethnic culture. I can relate to

this concept because my father is a strict and extremely traditional man especially when it

comes to relationships. Growing up, I saw my fellow classmates and friends start dating in

middle school and high school. This was considered a norm in my youth community. In my

middle school and early high school years, I never mentioned anything about boys to my dad

because I knew he would disapprove of any dating. My father doesn't believe in dating in

high school because he doesn't see those relationships as anything serious. He thinks you

should date people you know you will have a long relationship with and can potentially

marry in the future. In my sophomore year of high school, I started dating my current

boyfriend. I told my dad about him and he instantly was uncomfortable with the idea

especially because my boyfriend is 2 years older than I am. But one thing that I have learned

being raised by my parents is that though our views can be different, personally my parents

can be understanding and willing to be open minded if you explain your point of view to them.

So I had long talk with my father about this relationship. At first he was still doubtful and

reluctant but over time my boyfriend and my dad actually became very close. Still to this day

my dad still has some concerns but is more comfortable with me dating than before. 

"Love and Honour and and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice"

In this short story, the main character, son of a Vietnamese immigrant, and his father, reflect on the upbringing of the son and how it affected and shaped the growth of the son later on in his life. The struggle in the story is based on the methods the father used to teach and discipline the son, though very harsh. The extremity of the discipline caused for the son to eventually distant himself from his father, causing a sort of rift between them as a result of the past. The son writes about the experience growing up with a strict Vietnamese father, which eventually drove the father to burn the writings as he did not approve of it. The son fought to deviate from the strict teachings of his father by having a girlfriend, having a passion for writing, and having a much more positive outlook on his life. I think that this story resonates with me because of the similar ways that my parents disciplined me when I was growing up, how they weren't traditional as they were strange but understandable now that I reflect upon them. In addition to that, I think that now that I'm out of the house, I am free to choose the lifestyle that I want without having restrictions placed on my choices because all of that was done prior in the process of shaping my mind growing up. This seems to be a similar progression for children of immigrants as they are taught the traditional ways growing up and become free to choose to do what they want after the teaching time is up.

Journal #16: "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" by Nam Le

I never had very strict parents so I cannot personally relate to Le, but I understand the premise of the story. These are just some of my thoughts on the story.

Obviously, Le had a pretty strict and abusive childhood, as is common place for many Asian households. Le claims that his father can "hit him with a  cane 20 times and make it look like 1". He was subject to lots of restriction and thus, once he had the chance, he established his own freedom elsewhere, away from the influence of his father. And what do ya know, this man gets into drugs and a fucked up life. Honestly, tiger parenting is not the way to do things. Sure, it is tough love or whatever, but not having access to any autonomy is a dehumanizing thing. This is why Le wanted to leave home. His job as a lawyer reminded him of everything he hated, specifically the way his father treated him. He did not want his past haunting him, so he had so leave.

That's a very important part of this story: the past. Le wants to use his father's past to his own advantage to create a story for his class, claiming that addressing and reliving the past helps people remember it. However, his father claims that the people who remember the past are those who have lived it, which may bring up bad memories. Thus, he claims it is better to just forget about it and move on. This is alluding to Le's father's past during the Vietnam war. He hates to talk about to past and remember the "10 hours of laying in the mud" at My Lai. The father is only able to talk about the war when he is drunk, further proving he wishes to move on and forget about the past. Burning Le's story is symbolic for his father's attempt to forget about his gruesome past, something the Le's cannot understand.

In essence, the two are not very different. Le's moved away to escape the memories of his abusive childhood and the father seems to be very content about his life, trying to shelter himself from the war.

Journal 16 Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice

The article was about a writer trying to finish his last paper for school. His father ends up visiting him when he has three days left to turn his paper in. While his dad was over, the writer worried about what he was going to write about in his paper. His father used to be a mean father when he was younger so there was some conflict between them. They would still have different perspectives when they go out in America. This highlights the differences in generations between father and son from different countries. This is common in many second generation families where the parents are immigrants and the son or daughter is born in America. There are many cultural differences that arise. The son ends up writing an ethnic paper about his dad’s story and they talk about his father’s life as a soldier. The son learns about the perspective of his father in this case and I think it’s a powerful moment of understanding a different viewpoint.

6/1 Thurs

The biggest theme of this story is about cultural differences; is it always a bad thing or a good thing? Or can it can be both? Throughout history, we have seen or heard about extremely horrible events such as wars, genocides, slavery, etc., which at the heart of these issues are mainly rooted in differences between different people who can't seem to “get along.” In this context of cultural differences, people in different cultures might not be able to get along well and this might lead to racism (Others vs. Asians) or self-haltered (within the Asian communities). Based on this reading, I can resonate with the author’s attitude towards his father, where he is conflicted between loving and hating his father. 
When I was 9 years old, it was the worse year of my life because I had to immigrate to California. It was a huge life transition, mainly because the mini me was forced to change, to become someone completely different, different from my parents; this reason had made the teenage me viewed my parents as backward, ignorant, inferior, etc., just like how most white people viewed all Asian Americans. I would like to label this mentality as brainwash or as internalized racism here! In my head, I thought that if I become more Americanized and shame those who are not then I would get some sort of reward or acceptance from “Americans.” (I’m not just talking about whites here since I did not live in a middle-class white neighborhood, but Mexican Americans & Blacks, specifically those who are also brainwashed like me) 

Based on the discrimination I have faced as a kid and growing up as one of the very few Asians, I felt really pressured to assimilate, thinking that that was the only solution (the notion of hegemony had just popped up in my head). However, after I got involved with a student-run organization called Californians for Justice back in high school, I got to learn more about the issues within my community and grass-root organization. The knowledge I have obtained from this involvement had really changed my mentality about the solutions for racism, which is not for minorities to completely assimilate into the American culture but to resist it.