A couple months ago I made a discovery. It all started when I noticed the lenses on my sunglasses were badly scratched and beyond repair. I have worn Oakley sunglasses for years. While browsing the Oakley website I stumbled upon Asian Fit Sunglasses. I was surprised and wary since I had never seen a product so specific in targeting an ethnic group. The product description was very brief. It looked like Oakley copywriters went for the “less is more” approach because they did not want to accidentally commit anything to print that might be construed as offensive. I decided to order a pair. The risk was minimal since I had never been dissatisfied with Oakley sunglasses before. Besides, I was curious to see if I was missing out on something.
Tag Archives: Asian/Asian American
Photo Thursday: An Empty Chair
Last week, Chinese writer and activist Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel peace prize. He is imprisoned, as is his wife; no relative or representative could attend the ceremony. In his honor, instead of a video this Thursday, we have a single moving photo:
This Week in Diversity: Bullies, Surfer-Girls, and Ancient Diversity
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and there are lots of great resources to use in supporting children and teens who are being bullied. We have several books, including First Day in Grapes, Willie Wins, and Chess Rumble. The Department of Health has a Stop Bullying Now site, and the National Center for Bullying has its Kids Against Bullying site; both feature games, videos, and information aimed at elementary-school kids. There’s a brand-new resource for gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender teens: the It Gets Better Project, a collection of videos—most recorded by ordinary people, but also including videos by Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Obama, and other celebrities—encouraging young people to hold on and live, because life gets better after high school. We hope you’ll share your favorite resources in comments.
Video Thursday: Chopsticks!
Via Angry Asian Man, a music video on the environmental impact of disposable chopsticks:
Two Books for Tu Books!
It’s official! Our new Tu Books imprint has acquired its first two books, which will be published in Fall 2011. Here’s the formal announcement:
Stacy Whitman at Lee & Low Books has acquired the first novels for the Tu Books imprint, which launches in fall 2011. The imprint will focus on multicultural MG/YA science fiction and fantasy. For the launch list, Whitman has acquired World rights to a YA paranormal thriller tentatively titled Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac, author of Codetalker and Skeleton Man. When Lucas King’s black-ops father is kidnapped and his best friend, Meena, put in danger, Lucas’s only chance to save them is hidden away in an abandoned, monster-guarded mansion. The deal was done by Barbara Kouts of the Barbara S. Kouts Agency.
This Week in Diversity: In Between
Greetings on this fine Friday! We have a couple links for you this week, dealing with interactions and being between cultures or peoples.
First, the Times has a look at Anglo-Indian culture: a relic of colonialist times, composed of people of (usually partly) European origins living in India, blending Indian and British cultures while being part of neither. Anglo-Indians occupied a middle position in the racial hierarchy of colonial India, seen as inferior to people of entirely English descent and upbringing, but superior to the native Indians.
This Week in Diversity: Appearance
Greetings on another Friday afternoon!
Steph Su Reads starts us out with Why I Want More Asians on YA Book Covers: My Experience with Racism, in which she shares a personal experience with racism and her dismay over the revised cover of Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix.
This Week in Diversity: Oil, Russia, and Avenue Q
The oil spill in the Gulf has been all over the news lately, and, frustrating though the lack of progress has been, there have been many efforts to stem the oil geyser. What about oil spills that don’t have a large impact on Americans? The Times looks at the Niger River Delta, which has seen the equivalent of the Exxon-Valdez spill a year every year for fifty years, with little attempt at cleanup or attention to the disastrous effect on the area’s ecosystem or economic future.
This Week in Diversity: American Geography
Oh, Arizona. Why are so many things happening in your beautiful state lately that give us reason to talk about you in these roundups? This time around, it’s a mural featuring the faces of local schoolchildren—but the schoolchildren are a diverse crowd, the mural was drawing racist slurs, and the school’s principal asked for a prominent Latino face to be lightened on the mural. He’s since reversed the decision, and the mural will stay. The Atlantic Wire has a good summary of the situation and the response to it.
The repercussions of Arizona’s anti-immigration law are still rippling outward. RaceWire elaborates with a look at the disappearing schoolchildren, as parents, particularly illegal immigrants, are keeping their kids—often natural-born citizens themselves—at home to protect the family.
Oprah!
Well, this is exciting! Oprah’s Book Club just released its 2010 Kids’ Reading List, full of books recommended by the American Library Association—and our very own Tofu Quilt makes an appearance!