I’m kind of tired of people describing some racists, misogynists and homophobes as “ignorance”. ’Ignorance’ means that they just don’t know better, they are missing information and they just need […]
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Melissa Fong: Coke advert unleashes the bigots, racists and xenophobics because the world sings, “America is beautiful”?
There are a million and one reasons why you should dislike coke – most of which involve taking advantage of sugar addiction and capitalist monopoly on beverages that are made […]
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Adam Faulkner’s, “The Whitest Thing”
I’m so in love with this poem that I want to marry it. You can read a bunch of stuff on Whiteness and even some really simple consumable stuff by […]
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Black boys deserve our tears: On White privilege & police brutality
Sometimes I cry when reading the news. I cry because so many horrendous things happen to people and I can’t possibly understand why this world is SUCH a horrible place. There are countless stories about the negative stereotypes and police brutality that Black men must endure… but this really broke
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Makeup for Women of colour and Essentializing skintone
Makeup for Women of colour People of Colour and Essentializing skintone We all know the problem of makeup and shade selection for women of colour (or women of very little […]
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Zombies are… Black? Family Feud’s Steve Harvey tells White Lady contestant to ‘Shut up’
Zombies are… Black? Family Feud’s Steve Harvey tells contestant to ‘Shut up, Lady’ (you can tell he is REALLY holding it in…). Help me out here… WHAT IS THIS??? Sometimes […]
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Oh Lily Allen…no… just no
1) I’m sure you didn’t specify “Black bootylicious Twerkers” but I’m POSITIVE you casted for a “look” that your itsy bitsy -can’t-see-beyond-stereotypes- brain can’t comprehend at the moment. 2) Of course you aren’t going to send them away when you found exactly what you were attempting to portray. The intent
Continue readingMelissa Fong: SNL and Black female comedians
Kerry Washington hosted SNL tonight and she was good. They poked fun about this scandal- that SNL didn’t hire any black women. That was a funny enough sketch. But what I found MOST refreshing was that we got to see a black woman just act and not have to be
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Are UBC Sauder Business/Commerce students just jerks?
UBC Sauder School of Business is one of few business schools in Canada that produce some serious leaders in our capitalist economy (both here and internationally). These are the same people that will take top positions at big companies; the same people that will develop multi-million/billion(?) entrepreneurial companies; and the
Continue readingMelissa Fong: “Micro-brothels” in BC: Are we still criminalizing prostitution?
“Micro-brothels” in BC: Are we still criminalizing prostitution? The short answer: YES. Now the long answer: I’ve seen a couple articles in Vancouver’s 24hr News about how micro-brothels are a booming and we should be really scared because micro-brothels are dangerous. See here and here. First article: Sex-worker activist Sue
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Reading between sexist, racist and classist lines: Sinead O’Connor gives some “motherly” advice to Miley Cyrus
Sinead O’Connor wrote an open letter to Miley Cyrus shaming her recent image and her “handlers” for letting her do videos full of nudity. It is a response to Miley’s statement in the Rolling Stones Interview: It’s the opposite of the VMAs. It’s like the Sinead O’Connor video [for “Nothing Compares
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Why am I not allowed to have a personality?
Why am I not allowed to have a personality? He smiles at me, “Hey girl, where are you from?” I reply, “Vancouver… Canada.” I’m partly hopeful this will be the end of the interaction… but it has happened so many times that I can see his demise. Why do I
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Where are you from? No, like, where are you REALLY from?
I have written a little bit about this before here, but now that this video is circulating I want to write a little more about it. Ien Ang (2001) also writes a really good book on it called, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West (I love
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Anti-Gentrification Pidgin Protesting: Bad Urban Planning but Potential for Good Social Movement Building
This is a fifth instalment to the gentrification series- discussing the Protests and pickets in Vancouver’s DTES Thus far I haven’t been too clear about where my commitments lie. I understand both sides. Team Anti-gentrification/ CCAP/ Homeless Dave/ Poor people’s movement/ DTES advocate: They are locally organizing against some larger scale problems,
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Boston & People of colour’s pain
Perspectives like mine and others’ that alluded to the fact that killing elsewhere gets less attention than the Boston bombing got a lot of backlash. (I should say that it got more support than criticism, but we always focus on the negative things, don’t we?). One of the main criticisms
Continue readingMelissa Fong: On bombings and who gets our compassion
“Do I advise you to love thy neighbor? I suggest rather to escape from thy neighbor and to love those who are the farthest away from you. Higher than the love for thy neighbor is the love for the man who is distant and has still to come.” -Nietzsche (This
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Will new businesses help the DTES?: A much needed lesson on the definition of gentrification
Apparently it looks like this has become a series on Gentrification in the DTES: 1) Are the Anti-Gentrification Front protesters wrong to “vandalize” Save-on-Meats? 2) Anarchy, the Anti-Gentrification Front and Violence I am still quite shocked that there seems to be a general lack of understanding that DISPLACEMENT of poor people is a central
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Asian eyes
So something entertaining happened yesterday. A friend of mine sent me a link to this Cabbage Patch Doll site. [3] Go ahead and click on the link and then look at the list of “eye colour” available. Yeah… How is “ASIAN” and eye colour? [Note, I’m not going to cover
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Are the Anti-Gentrification Front protesters wrong to “vandalize” Save-on-Meats?
My facebook feed went crazy last night with my Vancouver friends posting about a stolen sandwich board. Why is this important? Context: Save-on-Meats is kind of an iconic butcher in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A long time retailer that had mixed reviews has now invested some capital into their business and,
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Racist humour, Racial humour and Anti-Racist humour: #KondaboluKnows
Racist humour, Racial humour and Anti-Racist humour: #KondaboluKnows I have struggled a long time with stand-up comics and their use of race in jokes. I have had some downright sexist and racist remarks used against me in comedy clubs very much similar to this incident. (Yes, I DO understand the
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