Hyphen Lynks: Model Minority Crap, American Idol's Anoop Dog
Melissa Hung - March 2, 2009
- Speaking of the model minority myth, here's an opinion piece [1] by Alex Kuo, an English professor at Washington State University about the myth and how racism is alive and well in academia.
- The San Jose Mercury News has a story on the founder of Song That, the country's first Vietnamese gay and
lesbian radio program, which started 10 years ago: For a decade, Song That Radio has waged war against homophobia.
[2] - That's a lot of heavy stuff I just threw at you. So here's a more uplifting item. Here's a nice profile [3] in the L.A. Times about Tad Nakamura, a filmmaker who just finished a triology of documentaries about Asian Americans. I screened his first film, Yellow Brotherhood, about Asian American activists fighting drugs in their community, at my shorts festival, Slant: Bold Asian American Images, a few years ago. His second film, Pilgrimage, is about a 1969 trek to Manzanar to draw attention to Japanese American internment. And the newest film, A Song for Ourselves, is about musician and political activist Chris Iijima [4]. It just premiered this weekend in L.A. to a sold-out crowd.
- Lastly, I know this is a few weeks old, but I just want to say that Anoop Desai aka Anoop Dog was robbed -- robbed! -- on American Idol when he was voted off [5]. Dude shocked the hell out of Simon and company with his soulful voice at the auditions. They didn't expect such a voice out of a shabbily-dressed grad student. (He's studying folklore at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.) Granted, one probably shouldn't go to auditions in flip-flops and shorts, but Simon just had to make a remark that Anoop looked like he just came from a meeting with
Bill Gates. (Newsflash to Simon: Not all South Asians work in Silicon Valley.) Anoop was funny and charming and hey, any man whose college honors thesis is on barbecue as religion [6] has got my vote. There are rumors [7] he might re-appear in the wildcard round. Let's hope he does.
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