http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-08-05/news/ragin-asians/1
above is a link to an article entitled, "seattle's raging asians," found in the seattle weekly, one of seattle's alternative newspapers. the writer, erika hobart, pens a heartless, unsympathetic and even down-right mean-spirited depiction of asian night life here in the pacific northwest. to her credit, she doesn't miss a beat in describing the manic pointlessness of it all, but i'm guessing that her "subjects" had no idea that she'd depict them in such a fashion. i heard that she is half-asian and half-white and so you'd expect she'd have more insight into the circumstances of these 20-somethings; but i doubt she is southeast asian and maybe that's part of the problem. hobart only gives a cursory explanation (and replete with stereotypes about strict parental expectations) to this phenomenon that is found in seattle, and she also ignores the fact that this behavior can be found in all ethnic minority groups and in the majority white population as well.
her quotation from a viet promoter that asians travel around in schools "like neon tetra fish" only exposes the ignorance of the whole article: for the most part, what ethnic group doesn't travel around in packs??? whites hang with whites, asians with asians, blacks with blacks. thus when examined from a broader perspective, the article is as pointlessness as these kids' drinking. hobart uses some smart, clever metaphors - but the article ends up too full-of-itself; rather than saying anything important or revealing about asians and their nightlife, the author just drones on with her condemnatory recitation of these kids' night out. the whole thing seems like one big ego-stroke for the writer: "look at these pathetic people pissing in parking lots and getting blindingly drunk; i am SO glad i am not one of them." yeah, i must say, ms. hobart is pretty durn mean.
but who am i to comment on this? (haha!) i am just a white guy. but read the comment section - some people probably have smarter things to say about this subject than i do.
but considering how many people are undoubtedly upset by her article, ms. hobart should probably park her car in the garage to avoid getting her tires slashed... at least for the time being - until most of the seattle weeklys containing her forgettable article are either recycled or end up in the landfill.
7 comments:
Wow. Very interesting. What was her motive for writing this other than racism? Has there been any backlash?
Oh, I see there has been a backlash. Do you think the writer will be fired?
probably not. it's an alternative newspaper, so controversy like this probably makes them happy. they've been around long enough that they've gotten good at this stuff. there was an article a while back about viet kids skipping school that was similarly written, and i think its just what they do.
Well..there are various countries in Asia, and she only wrote about one particular ethnic. I think she is not only morally low but is also lack of knowledge. That means her writings are likely unreliable. She should not call herself a writer.
Erika Hobart is Japanese American. She showed her typical Japanese behavior that many foreigners really hate about Japanese. They think foreigners are all weird just because foreigners do not do things the way Japanese do, which is actually very normal to be different. If she has an American parent, I would expect her to be smarter a little bit. Her writing just shows how little and shallow Erika Hobart is.
What was Erika Hobart's intention when she wrote this? In one of the comments it was written that Erika Hobart actually hang out together with the "Asians" in her story. The "Asian" wrote that even they helped Erika Hobart by sending her home because she was too drunk. Did Erika Hobart actually write about herself?
I knew Erika in college at WSU. She had many many nights drunk off her ass, peeing in parking lots, and banging random guys. Her best friend was a gay middle eastern student and she thought that made her a rockstar.
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