last week, jer’s video card seemed like it went out on him, and, thinking it was a hardware conflict of some sort, he swapped out his Hercules card for my ATI, and swapped his sony flat panel for my hitachi, since the hitachi has dv out and his sony one doesn’t. anyway, the monitor-card switch seemed to work for a couple of days. then the hercules/sony combo went out on my machine, and we thought we were S.O.L.
we tried it again tonight, and thankfully, it looks like it might be a cable issue rather than a card issue. the hercules-sony combo is working all right for now; we’ll look for a new cable tomorrow to replace this possibly faulty one.
so anyway, i had some stuff i wanted to record from this weekend:
– bumper sticker spotted on a ford explorer: “AMERICAN: NON-HYPHENATED!” complete with an American flag in one corner and a bald eagle in the other. now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the statement, because you could also use it to mean “We’re all American, regardless of what color we are.” But in this instance, paired with Harley Davidson and NRA stickers, it’s clearly intended to reserve non-hyphenated Americanism for the rednecks of this country. I mean.. what’s that supposed to mean? as if you’re not white, then you’ll never be American? There are some fourth generation Japanese people living in this state, longer than some European immigrants who consider themselves “white” and “American.” Will these 4th generation immigrants ever not be looked at by skin color and be considered “American” because they look Asian? And who says these European immigrants should lose their ethnic identities and be automatically assumed to be American? It’s just not that simple.
– spotted while driving along the 110 freeway: bulletholes in a ford windstar minivan. we’re pretty sure they were real. they didn’t look like the applique ones you can buy in a store.
… and that’s all i can think of for now.
Well, it depends on whether those 4th generation Japanese immigrants call themselves “Americans” or “Japanese-Americans”. As long as they still consider themselves Japanese, then how can I consider them completely American? I am American of mainly English descent, but I am not English-American. Similarly a true american would say American of Japanese descent, not Japanese-American. I believe the bumper sticker does not judge on the color of one’s skin, but on the way that person see’s himself. If he identifies himself as a hyphenated American, then he’s not a true American. See my point?
well, i’m saying that these 4th generation Japanese immigrants probably consider themselves just as you said — American of Japanese descent, or even just “American,” but they will mostly likely always be considered “Japanese American” to the untrained outsider. I’m saying that even though the self-presentation of these people is “American,” outside people will still base their consideration of them on skin color. This is changing slowly in some of the more metropolitan parts of the country, but there’s a great midwest out there that has no idea that there are non-white immigrants who have been here longer than they have….
keep in mind, i agree with the statement, but when situated in the bumper sticker the way it was (super bold aggro-font, American flag, and bald eagle), it was unmistakable that the message wasn’t “I consider you American if you don’t hypenate yourself” but rather “I’m a non-hyphenated American, and hence am more American than you.”
It also helps the message when you’ve got NRA and Harley Davidson stickers plastered to the car too. I probably should have noted that earlier. heheh.
Hm, I had learned about that non hypenated statement in history 148A. It was about African Americans wanting to distinguish themselves as Americans instead of being clumped together with all the immigrants who were coming in.
Yes, I agree about the fact that there is a stereotype that if you’re not white you really can’t be an American. I haven’t encountered it in college thank goodness, but when I was confronted in high school about it, people would look at me funny when I’d tell them I was an American. After a while, they’d finally ask, “Where are your ancestors from?” I’m yonsei, but I don’t look at myself as Japanese American. I look at myself as an American since after all, I was born in this country in SoCal.
Even then, some people won’t believe I was born in SoCal. And when I was younger, my mom would get many comments saying how well her children spoke English. One time, a man actually argued with my dad, saying that he couldn’t have possibly been born in the US because of the way he looked. So it’s all really a matter of perspective.