Federal Way UFC Fighter Henderson Wins Title
The half Korean and African American Benson Henderson beat Frankie Edgar by unanimous decision on Feb. 25 in Saitama, Japan to become the new UFC lightweight champion. After his win Henderson ran into the audience to hug his Korean mother Kim Sung-hwa. Henderson’s mother raised her two sons alone by working 16-hour days in Federal Way, Washington. After graduating from Decatur High School in 2001, Henderson earned degrees in criminal justice and sociology from Dana College in Nebraska, where we also competed in wrestling. The 5-9 and 154 pound Henderson turned pro in 2006 and compiled an impressive 16-2 record in professional fights. His aggressive fighting style combines taekwondo, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing.
The title fight on Feb. 25 made Henderson the first African American as well as the first Korean American to hold a UFC title.
Stereotype(face): The Origins Of The ‘Chop Suey’ Font
The 8Asians blog featured an article, first published by GOOD on-line magazine, titled “Stereotype(face): Origins of the Chop Suey Font.”
The piece highlighted where the stereotypical font came from, and why they’re used and at times, useful. An excerpt from the 8Asians blog writes: “I know and you know that we see them everywhere, in Chinatown, on board games, menus, random things. Apparently the type, which tries to mimic(ish) Asian calligraphy styles, became popular when used in a poster aimed at attracting tourists to San Francisco’s Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake. Chinese American restaurants actually used the font strategically as it was an easily recognizable way to basically say “we serve Chinese food.” You could actually say that the font became popular in much the same way as the dish it was named after – something that catered to preconceived American notions about what was Chinese. And Chinatowns today certainly perpetuate the font’s usage. After all, it is a really easy identifier. Hrm. And all these years, I’ve wavered between hating this font for being kind of racist and being okay with it for being so over-the-top kitsch (I think I might even own a t-shirt that uses the font). But of course a strategic and sometimes even ironic use of the font (like Jennifer 8. Lee’s website for her book “Fortune Cookie Chronicles”) and the derogatory way in which it is more often utilized by people and groups like Hoekstra and Abercrombie & Fitch are radically different. So what are we supposed to make of this? GOOD’s summary of the whole phenomenon is quite tidy: ‘ethnic’ fonts survive (on weird free font websites) because ‘they are good at what they do: distill an entire culture into a typographical aesthetic that becomes a signifier to the uninitiated.’ Are these fonts problematic? Yea. But it also doesn’t seem like they’re about to go away anytime soon … and sometimes, might they be okay? I know you can (at least try to) re-appropriate words, can you do the same for fonts?”
News Anchor Makes Racist Statement About Jeremy Lin
The 8Asians blog highlighted another Jeremy Lin-related “blooper.” An excerpt from the 8Asians blog writes: “Once again, the Jeremy Lin phenomenon has unearthed a massive trove of anti-Asian American racism. Unlike the unfortunate ESPN headline ”A Chink in the Armor,” this racist remark is far more blatant. One anchor is talking about the physical attributes that help Jeremy Lin become such a great basketball player, when Fox 5 anchor Greg Kelly interjects by asking, “What about his eyes?” The other anchor laughs, although it’s not clear whether it’s because she thinks Kelly is funny or if she is uncomfortable with how offensive the question is. You can imagine how Kelly would defend his remarks. ‘I didn’t mean for it to be hurtful/I was just trying to be funny/It was a serious question!!’ It’s probably a good time to explain why many of us don’t care about intent when it comes to racism. Just because you didn’t mean to be racist doesn’t mean you didn’t say something racist. Why? Well first, because racist statements reflect racist attitudes that emerge even in the absence of intent … Second, intent doesn’t matter because despite how the speaker explains himself, it’s nearly impossible to figure out what he really meant to say. We could take his word that he was just using a term ESPN always uses. But we have circumstantial evidence that racist attitudes are at play.”
