Prop 8 and the people who say yes.

I've been trying really hard to understand the "other side." I've been trying really hard to think of reasons why anyone would say yes to prop 8. And most of all, I've been really racking my brains as to why some of MY PEERS & MY FRIENDS would say yes to prop 8. I know I've told people that I respect their opinions because I feel that my opinion should be respected as well. But to be quite honest, I'm finding it completely and utterly impossible to respect people who feel that discriminating against homosexuals (who, btw, are HUMAN BEINGS AS WELL) is okay.

Today I saw a facebook event group labelled "Wear blue if you voted yes on prop 8-- sponsored by Arcadia High School" and I was disgusted. I do not understand why a certain group of people's religious beliefs should be forced on to everyone else. I do not understand why it's ok to take away a person's fundamental right as a citizen just because it's against some people's religion. In fact, I do not find ANY justification for making certain individuals second class citizens. But most of all, I am disgusted at the fact that it's students from my city's local high school that's promoting this event. Here I am, thinking the win of prop 8 was simply a generational win-- only to find out that I have PEERS who think prop 8 should be passed. I am so disappointed.

Election Day

Today is the big E-Day... and I just spent 30 minutes of my morning writing a hate msg to a random guy on Facebook. My friend had posted a status earlier that said "yes on prop 4 & 8." I looked at that status for a long time-- no joke, a long time,-- contemplating whether or not I should say something about it. I knew I wouldn't convince him otherwise with simply a status comment, but I also couldn't just sit there and accept. I don't know. I knew he had a right to his opinion, but I also thought that I had a right to mine, a pregnant woman has a right to hers, and gays have a right to theirs as well! So what do you know, I commented.

____________________________________________________________

(MY FRIEND'S NAME HERE) is go vote yes on prop 4 and 8. 7:38pm

- 3 Comments

Denise Chan at 9:28pm November 3

i don't mean to tell you how to vote & I respect your political decisions, but i do think that prop 4 is about a young girl's decision and prop 8 is about two individual's decision. Just as you have the ability to go against my personal opinions, I think that a woman should have the ability to do what SHE believes is right and that two individuals should have the ability to marry whom they love DESPITE WHAT OTHERS PERSONAL OPINIONS ARE. prop 4&8 take away people's right to choose. It's their business, not ours.

but anyway, hope you're doing well, (friend)! lol, we're still friends despite our political differences!

(BOY THAT I ARGUE WITH) at 10:35pm November 3

if prop 8 passes, it doesnt just give them a right, it takes a churchs right who they want to marry or not. if a gay couple comes to any church, they can demand to be married by the pastor, if the pastor refuses due to his own personal beliefs, prop 8 will allow the couple to sue the pastor and the church for discrimination. it basically infringes on someones elses right.

just as prop 4 infringes on the rights of the baby, a baby has a dna and a heartbeat independent of the mother, and scientifically that is how humans are defined as a living organism (not to mention every other aspect). doesnt that give the baby, no matter how premature, be given human rights? prop 4 will allow an adolescent who doesnt even have the legal right to buy cigarettes, to have the legal right to kill a baby? It becomes our business when you see a silent genocide take place. legalized abortion has killed millions of more lives than the holocaust by the nazis. reconsider your logic. http://durarealidad.com/

________________________________________________________

Does that make you angry? it makes me angry. (and also, click the link and hear what Eduardo has to say.) And so I spent this morning typing out a fatty msg to him... as follows.

(Boy),

your argument that prop 8 eliminates a priest's right to choose whom they marry in their church seems strikingly familiar to a priest's right to choose whether they want to marry a white couple, or a black couple, or an asian couple, etc. This is not about what the a priest or the church believes is morally right, it's about an individual's EQUAL RIGHT TO MARRY WHOM THEY WANT. you would not say that if a priest refused to marry a black couple that if the black couple sued the priest, it would be infringing on the priest's right. we're not arguing about what you or I think is MORALLY CORRECT, we're arguing about giving american citizens equal rights... which is basically what our country has been founded on.

As for prop 4, I did click on your link and I did hear what eduardo has to say. however, despite what the church or the people may WANT, this world is not the morally fantastic world in which most people dream about. No matter how much people preach, KIDS HAVE SEX. To just add classes about abstinence is not going to prevent kids from having sex. And in the event of a pregnancy, prop 4 forces a young girl to seek permission for an abortion. I agree that a girl's mother does have the right to know if their child is having an abortion, but i do realize that NOT EVERY FAMILY is a happy family. The young girl may have grown up in a poor and abusive family in which news of a pregnancy may actually cause the family to harm the young girl. In addition, if the girl is set on having an abortion, she is going to have one --- despite whether or not the church thinks that's correct. And if the girl is scared of telling her mom about the abortion and therefore does not get the permission to get an abortion that prop4 demands, then the girl will probably go and get an unclean and unsafe abortion that may further threaten the young girl's health.

As of now, I know I cannot argue with you about whether abortion is right or wrong bc you will not be convinced and nor will i. But prop 4 is about the young girl's SAFETY. not every girl has a warm family they can turn to when they're pregnant. That's the truth... despite what people may WANT.

This probably will not change any of your decisions just as your arguements will not change mine. I am merely sending you this message to point out that my logic is just fine. Have a good election day.

Anyway, that's that. I'm a fiesty bitchhhhhhhh. AND VOTE, if you haven't already.. because I really did not realize how many people are actually voting YES on prop 4&8... and that's fucking scary as hell. And if you are voting yes on prop 4&8, that's cool too... but please think of my arguments when you make your decision. It really is about people's rights, not about what you or I or the church believes is morally correct. it's unfair to strip people from equal rights, despite what your personal beliefs are.

Too Girly?

Umm... do my selection of colors on this blog look too girly? Whatever, I think it's rather cute.

So I'm currently writing a paper for Soc1 about "inequality" within everyday relationships. I am required to observe a social setting and then basically write about the power struggle/relationship between the two people. Because Eddie basically lives at Suitcase Clinic, I decided to go and observe the homeless shelter there and watch the interaction between the volunteers and the clients.

I guess what really surprised me was not only the fact that homeless people aren't always "dirty" or "rude" like people expect them to be-- but they're actually surprisingly (and sadly,) very educated. The man I was "shadowing" was Tommy. Tommy had graduated from Cal during the 70s. He had graduated with a degree in Political Science, Biology, and Sociology -- 3 EFFING DEGREES!!! He came out of college all pumped up and ready to work, got in a car accident, cracked his head open, and then was a little "oinky" after that. Because of the accident, he couldn't take much stress without feeling overwhelmed and getting extreme migraines. As a result, he had to quit work and then eventually lost everything. And now, he's at the homeless shelter.

... WHAT....THE....FUCK.................

I'm not gunna lie: that scares the shit out of me. Normally, you would think that having one degree, let alone THREE, would be enough to get you through life. You would think that if you graduated from a prestigious school like UC Berkeley, you'd have no problem finding a job. But what the frick. Life is just full of crazy things that's just waiting to throw you off your path to success.

I don't know, guys. Maybe school isn't the only key to success. Maybe it's not so easy. Maybe we need really really really good luck. And that's really scary, because that "control" that you think you have over you life? --just kidding!! You really don't have any!!!

Oh no they didn't...

Yesterday, as I was taking a study break, I mindlessly jumped to my celebrity gossip page to get my daily fix of what our precious celebs gloriously have done today. In doing so, I click on a recent entry in which one of the members decided to post an entry on a recent Japanese cover of the 30 hottest men in Japan.

Despite my personal opinion of many of these boys looking a little too girly (which of course, is only culturally defined by American society because obviously Japanese culture thinks this sort of look for men is very masculine.), I was thoroughly impressed by the fact that someone felt it necessary to blog about asian celebs. Although I knew there really wasn't anything wrong with an Asian celebrity blog, it felt odd for me to see it... which I guess means something seeing that I AM Asian.

Apparently, for many of the other readers of the site, having pictures of 30 asian celebrities splashed onto the usual white-dominant celebrity site was absolutely ludicrous, seeing that they posted comments like "Disney > any Asian person," or "Thats a hell of a lot of asians..." And so this had me pondering what exactly about having Asian celebrities on this celebrity site is so "off"? Is it because they're from another country? Maybe the fact that the entry was about a foreign population was what was so "weird" for people... but that wasn't it, the celebrity site has TONS of new entries about models and celebrities from England, France, Spain, whatever.

How come people don't complain when they see a bunch of white celebrities in a post? Where are the, "Gee, that's a whole lotta white people" comments? Why is the fact that having simply 30 asian faces in one blog suddenly "a lot" when the whole site is filled with white faces and in a sense, "never enough."

The thing is: wake up call! America is filled with Asians, Blacks, Latinos, etc. Our celebrities should reflect our demographics. Why is having more than just one token minority suddenly "too much"?

Well, that's not very cool, is it?

Sigh of relief...

So here I am at 7:19am, totally distracted from studying for my Ethnic Studies midterm (which, btw, I am completely unprepared for) because I have decided to create a race blog. I guess this stemmed from the many times throughout my experience in Berkeley -- and maybe just living-- in which I've felt there is something seriously wrong/racist about certain situations. And yet, no one seems to point them out, including myself. And as I go home, ponder and relive the seemingly offensive event in my head, I just get more and more frustrated because who am I supposed to complain or tell these things to?

Alas, I've decided a blog. I've been inspired by Kristine, who is an avid sex-blogger -- if one can blog about their everyday experience with sex, I'm going to blog about my everyday experience with race. Of course, I am an Asian American female, and this blog is going to be biased in that sense-- but hey, anyone who speaks about race has their own bias and that isn't a reason to not speak about it. Maybe if we all spoke up a little, we'd all realize that race isn't the problem, society making such a big deal about race is the problem.

I'm not trying to preach or convince others to stop doing what they're doing. Who am I to do so? I'm just attempting to make sense of what I see and hopefully get others to also see what I see.