A redneck from Bronx
10.25.06 (8:30 pm) [edit]I paused to think for a while where to publish this post given that I have three different blogs to sort my writings out acording to their subjects and contents. Usually I do not write complaints in daily life, such as who wronged you and who you still have grudges against for unresolved matters, which I am not sure whether theycan be done without boring readers. But what about this musing that is dragged for a while? It might be worthwhile putting down here for a good amount of time was already invested in it to be rid of, in vain.
A little ago, I had a couple of assistants of my husband over to get some urgent job done overnight. All of them that I had known well did not make me think twice of their offering the workforce when in need, except this guy that I was skeptical about and never liked to get too close to, D; he is in his mid twenties, who talks a lot of his movie project and some other Asianphile interests including Kung Fu. This dude seems to be sufficiently educated (a graduate of SVA for film production) especially for a typical Random Family background in Bronx, you know what I mean; a mother from Africa with two boys, the older was D and the younger one grew up to be a drug dealer and got arrested. I am not saying this from prejudice, but from knowing the reality in the inner city life of youth (I have worked with them and got close to the point that I say no more). The movie project he talks the talk of is a gangster movie features some Asian man, who 'hiya!'s his way through the NY noir environment (sorry, but I cannot stop laughing at this point for his retarded and naive view on the industry and people) where is full of stereotypical portrayals of each and every race except Afro-American one. Yes, a typical brain smashing silly project for retards. He not only talks the talk of the embarrasing movie production but seemed to complete the process for Vol.1, so I do not know if I should sneer at his talk, or should try harder to shun the talk. I did not know what to say to explain how bad the script was unless it was for a school assignment; I unwillingly read it when I was asked to admire as opposed to feed him back as sober as possible, for the script was filled with clichest of cliches (sans accents, pardon) of gang movies, and I went to myself and to my husband as well as 'do we still have to see another silly movie like this without getting paid?' (I am a film critic/theorist as well as a hooker put the job on hold/housewife) And as in an independent film? Please spare me. Besides, I never wanted to pass the script as B- or less for that was filled with tons of sterotypes and prejudices, especially how much Asian people are objectified to capitalise the ultimate theme of the movie; kung fu. Tell me how stupid this sounds already.
I did not know if I should laugh it off for how silly the movie seemed to be, would be completely a wast of time and energy or suggest he could do any better than this when& nbsp;I discovered that it would take roughly estimated $13,000, and he counted partly on my husband for the financing.
So he is a young director who talks his way through to make a kung fu movie at the cost of suckers and Asians. This is a black dude, by the way; he seems quite guilty of trying so hard to become something, anything that is not black, and clinging onto Asian sterotypes as if those things are talismans to protect him from whatever cathes just as he is. He is a typical Asainphile black who never ceases to try to exploit whatever he could. But to be exploited by a moron like him is the last thing that I want to let happen. For example, he never gives me a break when he brags about how much he is attached to Asian people and cultures when he is completely ignorant about anything more than kung fu. He says he has got this friend and that friend in Tokyo, where 'the cost if living is the highest all over the world.' So what? He said he had got a role in TV program in Japan. So what? I had a hard time faking my interest in this sort of his incessant attempt to get attention from people including me, while, and more importantly, he never offers sufficient workforce when he is supposed to work as a crew for my husband. I wonder what can you do with this annoying and the racistic situation where I do not deserve to take just because I am an Asian, or because I am dealing with my spouse's employees?
The very first thing he said when we met for the first time was
"You look so much like this Japanese girl I know,"
and he seemed to expect me to take it as if he was saying something nice to me (!); but I wondered what if I commented the same kind of thing like I knew this Black guy named this and that who looked the same to him, to imply that I could not tell any difference between him and other dudes because they are clumped as one; black guys? I have got keen eyes to tell people regardless of their races, so this is the ultimate sarcasm, but I thought he woud be too dense to get it.
OK, so he is ignorant and insensitive in terms of political agendas that is not to be dismissed even amongs minorities. I know that I cannot expect everybody to be sufficiently educated to know what to say and what they mean by them when encountering other people regardless of their color. Or did I get hurt because I unconsciously expect more from people of color? Maybe, maybe not.
I owe Afro-American studies to sort experiences here as a woman of color out and theorize them to the point that I claim loudly that you have to know what it means to be marginalized and live somewhere edgy to understand the structure of the whole society. Is it too much to expect him to be more educated, if this guy claims to be interested in others and actually using the interest to exploit others and acting the same as how rednecks do; well, it actually is too much. I should just reckon him as a redneck who happened to be dark and stuck in Bronx.