#sinophobia
It started when I was in kindergarten, and I was so proud I did not have to go to Bingo class, unlike my friends, because I could speak good English -
although I had no idea what a yellow dog that could spell had anything to do with Chinese.
(I figure out now that it was probably called Bilingual class)
I am lucky. I speak the fluent, accentless English of newscasters, the dialect spoken by the children of immigrants, that we learned not from our parents but rather from watching Sesame Street and other things on tv.
Last year, a white facebook friend of mine posted, “In order to celebrate Chinese New Year, me talk rike chinese man arr day.”
And then told me that she was “sorry I was offended” and “she didn’t mean anything by it” when I (nicely, sweetly) told her that that shit was not okay. She said that she saw it the same as doing an accent, like Irish. Or British. Or Italian. (for bonus points, she even said that she has lots of Asian co-workers and friends, and LOVES Asian people, and so is not a racist.)
And when one of my white friends gets drunk, he thinks his “Asian accent” is hilarious.
And I was told by a coworker about the time my Asian coworker mispronounced “Barroway” as “Bwawwoway” and how hilarious it was.
Here’s the thing - can you guess how many Asian people I know who actually say
me rikey
me from _____
me so solly
(or, if you like, the fetishized versions: me so horny, me love you long time)
if you said ZERO, then ding ding ding! Congratulations, you have working brain cells.
No, my misguided fb friend, the “Asian accent” is not an actual imitation of an accent, comparable to your bad British/Irish/Italian - but rather a mockery of Asian people and their supposed inability to speak English. It is the perpetuation of the image of Asian people as perpetual foreigners in America.
Like that time when my family was at an Italian restaurant, and we were speaking to my father in Cantonese, and a drunken white lady said very loudly, “GOD when you come to this country at least learn the language!”
Or when my father was pulled over for speeding, and although he said “what’s the problem, officer?” the first thing the state trooper said was, “Do you speak English?”
Your fake “Asian accents” are not harmless and silly, because at the root of the joke, it says - you, you are stupid. You cannot speak English. You are Other. You do not belong.my parents have been in this country for 30 years. They have been American citizens for 30 years.
And they are very self-conscious of their imperfect English, afraid that it makes them look ignorant, knowing that it marks them as immigrants. That, after 30 years, you can still be told (in not so many words) that you do not belong.
The Cultural Revolution started in China when my father was 13. He was pulled out of school and, later, sent to work in the fields. (He escaped to Hong Kong when he was 18, but that is another story for another time.)
When my father came to this country, he had a middle school education and did not speak a lick of English. He worked as a busboy at a Chinese restaurant, the evening shift that ran until 3 or 4 in the morning, and went to school during the day.
It took my father ten years to earn his bachelor’s degree. He is now an engineer.
Is this not your “American Dream?”
When my mother came to this country, she spoke very little English. She got a job as an entry level clerk. Over the years she earned one promotion after another. She is now management at a large federal agency, and manages funds for the whole state.
Is this not your “American Dream?”
And my father didn’t understand why his coworkers said, “flied lice, flied lice!” to him over and over and laughed.
And my father is still afraid to speak in a professional setting, even when he has ideas.
And my mother still checks and double checks her professional e-mails with me, for fear of mockery from the same people she manages.
And people don’t understand why I can’t take a harmless joke. Why I don’t think that shit is funny.
No, I don’t “rikey.”
No, I won’t “love you long time.”
And no, I’m not sorry.
So, please, kindly - FUCK OFF.
Reblogging this for, like, the fiftieth time because it has never stopped being relevant to my life and it always, always breaks my heart.
It’s not funny. It’s not okay. It’s not harmless. It’s alienating and hurtful.
stop buying noodler’s products.
this just happened this morning: noodler’s released a new ink called volcker green.
it is a commentary on banks in the US. the art on the bottle portrays two jewish federal reserve (banking) chairmen with devil horns and the one christian chairman in the center with a halo. this is an extremely common antisemitic dogwhistle. especially coming from a self-proclaimed libertarian in the context of praising the banking regulations issued by a holy christian compared to two evil manipulative devil horned jews. there is also commentary on the bottle saying that this message is approved by both red and blue, and that the two jewish chairmen are “monetary addiction enablers”.
it is extremely common for antisemites to claim that jews literally have horns, and it is also extremely common to blame banking problems on jews.
luxury goods has issued an apology and pulled all noodler’s products. goulet pens has also issued an apology and pulled this ink. as of right now, retailers are horrified enough that nobody will be selling this ink.
this is not the first time noodler’s has used their brand to be horrible. here are some of noodler’s other inks about their political views in the US
- house divided, an ink released in DC during the trump administration. the red is permanent while the blue washes out easily, expressing that democrats are destroying the country by trying to fight the trump administration, the true core of the country
- anti-fascist blue, with art of churchill. the intended message is that there are no real anti-fascists since the days of ww2, fascism does not exist anymore, and everyone who claims to be anti-fascist is just a whiny liberal. anti-fascism = another word for liberal, therefore the ink is blue. this ink is also called x-feather blue
- berning red, a quick drying red ink. the bottle art is bernie sanders photoshopped to have buck teeth, a prominent nose, overlayed on top of communist imagery
noodler’s ink is almost as volatile chemically as it is politically. their inks are garbage, with shit quality control, they permanently damage pens and floors, they have chemical reactions with even a tiny drop of any other kind of ink, and they never dry on quality fountain pen paper. it takes weeks to months to dry on quality paper, if it ever will. noodler’s ink is chemically different from nearly every other type of fountain pen. if you want to enjoy a variety high quality paper, pens, and ink: do not choose noodler’s. it is so infamous for permanently damaging pens, converters, and staining everything it touches. including the pens.
I have long said noodler’s products suck and the people in charge of noodler’s fucking suck. this has been going on for too fucking long. stop fucking buying noodler’s. stop giving them a bigger platform to spread hate
Ugh. I knew Nathan Tardif was garbage, but this is a new low.
this has gone on for far too long. of course this alleged proponent of the free market then went on youtube to complain about how he allegedly never meant to be hateful this time and how cancel culture is the problem. as if any conversation can be had about meeting him in person without mentioning how much hate he constantly spews
below the cut because this may be disturbing. a lot of racism and profiting off of tragedy.
I became symptomatic just reading about much of this shit. I have not included images or links to the things I mention because I do not want to look at them again and will not sacrifice any more of my health to talk about this.
but long story short
noodler’s is largely a political platform that is used by the owner to spread hate. purchasing products from noodler’s just supports those vile efforts.
I will never purchase a noodler’s product again. I do not support them and most importantly I do not support their shithead owner. I despise how my money has been used to fuel this garbage.
and if you feel the same, stop buying their products, and let retailers who stock noodler’s products know exactly why.
r/fountainpens - I would never buy Noodler ink… (tw: antisemitic picture)
another antisemitic one. this one apparently came out way before volcker green. nathan does this shit on purpose, cries when anyone calls him out, and then does it again. he does this so often it gets hard to keep track.
update on this: this thread got linked on /r/subredditdrama which led to an influx of people showing up to deny the holocaust, so the thread on /r/fountainpens has been locked. there are some other active threads on /r/fountainpens discussing alternatives to noodler’s inks.