May 2009

Repost of an article released last year adressing the white male privilege and the fall of corporate America.

The Color Line - Make no mistake, all the available evidence suggests that the American political economy is headed for a major crash.  Some are even speculating that this is the end of American economic dominance in the world’s financial market.  But don’t be deceived by the blame-the-victim rationalizing that’s being floated now.

Let’s be clear about what policies and which people are behind the current financial crisis: neoliberal policies and the overwhelmingly majority of economically privileged white men who created, implemented and benefited from those policies.

Neoliberalism refers to a set of policies that encourage “less government” and unfettered (and unregulated) capitalism.   The key elements of neoliberalism include:
1) the rule of the market,
2) reducing government expenditures on social services,
3) deregulation,
4) privatization, and
5) gutting the notion of “the public good.”

An article from Color line  looks in the past incidents involving asian males losing it and going on the rampage.

Looking back at the incident in Binghamton, a NY Vietnamese immigrant, Jiverly Linh Phat Wong or Voong shot 13 people to death before killing himself. Richard Poplawski shot and killed three Pittsburgh, PA police officers and injured two others during a standoff that lasted nearly four hours. Understanding race and gender is crucial given that one of these are anti-Asian discrimination, the other is antisemitism and white supremacy, and both in co-relation to masculinity.

Rampage & Race: Reacting to Anti-Asian Discrimination

People are unaware of the anti-Asian discrimination in the U.S, a recent example such as the tRep. Betty Brown (R-Texas) who said that Asian Americans should consider changing their name to make it “easier for Americans to deal with.” This sort of comment might be offensive enough from an ordinary citizen, but coming from an elected official with legislative power to implement her racist ideas is alarming and indicative of the kind of discrimination that Asian Americans routinely face especially in institutions.