Ed: January 2008 Archives
I've been watching NBC's revival of the old American Gladiators show recently. I have to say it's both hugely entertaining and hugely nostalgic, and I do enjoy the cheesy sort-of-like-pro-wrestling schtick they give to the Gladiators. (Especially Wolf. That guy is awesome.)
But I'm writing about it here as I noticed something last night. Last night's show, like all of the episodes, had two male and two female competitors going head-to-head. Last night there was an Asian guy (Vietnamese I think) and an Asian girl (probably Korean descent) on the show. Thinking back to the previous weeks, there've been a lot of Asians on the show already. I haven't kept any count, but I would guess there have been more Asian competitors on the show than any other minority.
I don't know if they went and auditioned in a particularly-Asian-heavy area of California or something, but it's refreshing to see a reality show with so many Asians. This isn't your Survivor or your Apprentice with the one token Asian on the show (or your American Idol which tends to have zero). Add to that the fact the winner of this season's American Gladiators not only gets a cash prize but the chance to come back next year as one of the Gladiators, and there's actually a chance that we could even have an Asian Gladiator. (The current Gladiators are all white or black + someone of partial Samoan descent who also happens to be The Rock's cousin.)
Of course, if an Asian guy or gal wins, there's always a possibility that to go on with the stage names like "Crush" and "Titan" they'd call them "Mt. Fuji" or something, but I'm going to give the show's producers the benefit of the doubt. They've done a good job at being Asian-inclusive so far.
But I'm writing about it here as I noticed something last night. Last night's show, like all of the episodes, had two male and two female competitors going head-to-head. Last night there was an Asian guy (Vietnamese I think) and an Asian girl (probably Korean descent) on the show. Thinking back to the previous weeks, there've been a lot of Asians on the show already. I haven't kept any count, but I would guess there have been more Asian competitors on the show than any other minority.
I don't know if they went and auditioned in a particularly-Asian-heavy area of California or something, but it's refreshing to see a reality show with so many Asians. This isn't your Survivor or your Apprentice with the one token Asian on the show (or your American Idol which tends to have zero). Add to that the fact the winner of this season's American Gladiators not only gets a cash prize but the chance to come back next year as one of the Gladiators, and there's actually a chance that we could even have an Asian Gladiator. (The current Gladiators are all white or black + someone of partial Samoan descent who also happens to be The Rock's cousin.)
Of course, if an Asian guy or gal wins, there's always a possibility that to go on with the stage names like "Crush" and "Titan" they'd call them "Mt. Fuji" or something, but I'm going to give the show's producers the benefit of the doubt. They've done a good job at being Asian-inclusive so far.
Apologies for the long hiatus, folks. Maybe I should make my New Years' resolution to post more often, but we'll see if that actually happens.
A recent article from BBC News alleges discrimination against Asians (mostly people from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, so not the East Asians I talk about most on this site, but that's another article for another time) in the 2006 elections. Take a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7182758.stm
Of course, I think this is just scraping the surface. Asians in general are pretty invisible to the political process. You hear about candidates scrambling for "The Black Vote" pretty much every election cycle, and recently you hear about candidates scrambling for "The Hispanic Vote"; this election cycle even featured televised debates on Univision, the Spanish-language channel (although the debate itself was in English). So where is the scrambling for the Asian vote?
There is none. Why not? Part of the reason is that Asians are not as well-definable a political bloc as other minorities. Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats usually win the black vote, whereas Republicans have an advantage in Florida with the Hispanic vote, thanks to a hardline stance on Cuba. (This has changed recently though as illegal immigration has become a hot button issue.) But what about Asians? I haven't done any demographic analysis of the topic, but based on just the Asians I know for every born-again Christian social conservative who votes Republican there's an intellectual doctor/scientist who votes Democratic. There's no hot button issue like immigration that seems to move Asians as much, either. And you certainly won't see any Asians marching on D.C. for causes like the Jena 6.
I've mentioned in a previous post that there are no Asian equivalents to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. A side effect is that Asians don't have much of a coherent political presence, and therefore politicians generally pay little attention to issues that may be important to Asian-Americans. On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing as well; I wouldn't want a politician coming out to town meetings and talking about his favorite General Tso's Chicken recipe to try and show some 'street cred' with the local Asian population.
A recent article from BBC News alleges discrimination against Asians (mostly people from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, so not the East Asians I talk about most on this site, but that's another article for another time) in the 2006 elections. Take a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7182758.stm
Of course, I think this is just scraping the surface. Asians in general are pretty invisible to the political process. You hear about candidates scrambling for "The Black Vote" pretty much every election cycle, and recently you hear about candidates scrambling for "The Hispanic Vote"; this election cycle even featured televised debates on Univision, the Spanish-language channel (although the debate itself was in English). So where is the scrambling for the Asian vote?
There is none. Why not? Part of the reason is that Asians are not as well-definable a political bloc as other minorities. Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats usually win the black vote, whereas Republicans have an advantage in Florida with the Hispanic vote, thanks to a hardline stance on Cuba. (This has changed recently though as illegal immigration has become a hot button issue.) But what about Asians? I haven't done any demographic analysis of the topic, but based on just the Asians I know for every born-again Christian social conservative who votes Republican there's an intellectual doctor/scientist who votes Democratic. There's no hot button issue like immigration that seems to move Asians as much, either. And you certainly won't see any Asians marching on D.C. for causes like the Jena 6.
I've mentioned in a previous post that there are no Asian equivalents to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. A side effect is that Asians don't have much of a coherent political presence, and therefore politicians generally pay little attention to issues that may be important to Asian-Americans. On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing as well; I wouldn't want a politician coming out to town meetings and talking about his favorite General Tso's Chicken recipe to try and show some 'street cred' with the local Asian population.
