Mash-Up Round-Up: Appropriating Your Own Culture + Nazi-Free Fashion
The week of November 4, 2017 was learning how to pair weed with wine (officially, that is); pondering again why everyone on our Facebook feed is selling face cream; and getting a quick refresher on how to do fashion without making clothes that remind people of Nazis.
Mash-Ups In The News:
Think You’ve Never Been To A Burmese Sushi Counter? Think Again
Hissho Sushi is everywhere. But the people who make this country-wide sushi franchise possible aren’t Japanese. The franchises are almost entirely run and owned by Burmese immigrants! Reminds us of our favorite Cambodian donuts.
via New York Times
Bob Ross taught us the most important lesson of all: Everyone can make art. Celebrate his legacy by painting a few happy clouds and learning more about his Southern charms.
via Garden + Guns
What Happens When You’re Accused Of Appropriating Your Own Culture?
Do you have to look like your culture to be considered a part of it? Chinese-American Mash-Up Gina Mei learned how to write her Chinese name before her English one, but her hapa appearance leaves people scratching their heads (at best) and angrily accusing her of cultural appropriation (at worst).
via Latino USA
Half Of Latino Immigrant Characters On TV Are Portrayed As Criminals
The fictional narratives we shape around people have real-world consequences, and if Latino immigrants are hugely overrepresented as criminals on our TV shows, there’s little question to how that might warp perception. Check out Define American’s guide to telling stories that treat immigrants as humans, not false stereotypes. Representation matters.
via Hollywood Reporter
The Now-Criticized Visa Lottery Was Designed To Help The Irish
In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in New York City, Donald Trump couldn’t wait a second before condemning the U.S.’s green card lottery for being too lax on “terrorists” from Muslim countries — a lottery system that was actually created by Irish-American members of Congress, and was originally dominated by Irish immigrants. This “diversity” visa may have had the unanticipated effect of bringing, well, diversity, to the United States.
via Washington Post
Asian Test Prep Centers Give Parents What They Want: Results
In Asian immigrant communities, test-prep classes and cram schools are like a coming-of-age tradition. Poor and working class families are willing to shell out whatever money they can for their children’s education, and for many children of immigrants, there’s an unspoken contract that succeeding academically is their part of the bargain.
via New York Times
On Behalf Of The LGBT Community, Fuck You Kevin Spacey
Anthony Rapp bravely told the world that Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance toward him when he was only 14 years old, and Kevin Spacey treated the accusation as the perfect segue into his coming out. Yeah. He did that. In case there’s any confusion: Being gay has nothing to do with being a sexual predator. Being a sexual predator has everything to do with being a sexual predator.
via Tom + Lorenzo
Women-driven food trends are treated like the end of good taste, and while this double-standard of “women ruin things” is nothing new, it reminds us of the tendency to label things women like as frivolous and vain. Let us enjoy rosé, and don’t blame us if companies take the trend too far.
via Taste
After decades of food courts and take-out, the iconic Panda Express invention is celebrating its 30th year! Happy Birthday Orange Chicken!! American Chinese food has always been its own unique cuisine, and orange chicken represents the epitome of this mash-up food group.
via All Things Considered
What’s Killing America’s New Mothers
Death from childbirth is by no means a trouble of the past. Of all industrialized countries, America has the highest maternal mortality rate BY FAR, and while some people want to blame this on the mothers, it reveals a great deal about how women go unseen and untreated by the U.S. medical system.
via Quartz
