long live giles li

12-08-09

My First Protest

My brother from another Bao Phi has a super popular blog on the website for the Star-Tribune, and he’s been doing an interesting thing where he asks various API activists from around the country to talk about the first time they participated in a public protest. So I participated in this joint, and it’s been up for a little while.

Follow this link to check out the homie’s blog, and go ahead and leave comments and isht too. My First Protest, Part 2

BTW, I wrote a piece about this experience that I talk about a while back. It’s included in my chapbook, and an earlier draft is here on my website: “Beautiful Ones”.

09-11-09

Olbermann on Wilson

There’s been a lot of talking about how inappropriate Wilson was the other night, but I haven’t heard that much talking about how inaccurate he was. Olbermann went in on him on both counts.

Your comments were inappropriate and regrettable and wrong! You got up in front of the world, embarrassed your district, embarrassed your state, embarrassed your party, embarrassed your nation, shouted at the President like he was a referee at a ballgame and you were a drunk in the stands, and you were wrong.

08-10-09

Remembering Joseph Ileto

Ten years ago today, Joseph Ileto was murdered by a white supremacist while delivering mail in Southern California.

Sometimes, it’s hard to trace the impact of any monumental event on one person’s life. But it may be easier for me in this case, for reasons I’ll explain here.

Ten years ago today I was in my final week as an intern at the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) in Washington, DC. In general, that experience was life-changing for many reasons, but to put it very succinctly, I learned we are never alone. (If you want to talk more about this, holla via email.)

So on Tuesday of my final week in the office, we were kind of just goofing off all day. (I honestly remember it was a Tuesday, without having to look it up.) And I remember hearing the news that a Filipino American postal worker had been shot and killed as part of a racist shooting rampage. It definitely shattered the loose vibe we were cultivating there, and as we learned more details, I prepared myself to draft the agency’s public response. (Of the six interns in the office that summer, I had established my niche as the one who wanted to write press releases and such.)

And as I sat at the computer, facing something so much more serious than I wanted to be facing at that time, a sense of purpose overcame me. Over the previous 9 weeks, I had felt so supported and loved by people I met from across the country, from different campuses that I had never been to; I was new to this world, I had no plans beyond that summer, whereas a lot of other interns were mapping out law school or their careers. I was – for lack of a better phrase – a scrub compared to all of them. And during this time, I had learned that no matter how unsupported or beaten down I felt, there was always going to be hundreds of others feeling that same way, fighting the same fights. And that even if I never met them, they were my support. I would never have to meet them, I’d just have to believe they existed.

And so typing out the date on that blank Microsoft Word document, I felt that I could return some of that love and support to Joseph and his family. This was bound to be my final real work of the summer, I should put everything I had into it. And I truly did, I can relive that moment like it happened yesterday. I remember typing the gunman’s name (which I still remember but won’t type here) and thinking his name sounded like a white supremacist’s name, all awkward consonant sounds and long vowels jumping on each other. The day is still one of the most vivid days in my memory. Read more…

08-07-09

Inhofe and Racism

Got this from the Andrew Sullivan blog, after seeing it on the Ta-Nehisi Coates one:

“In an effort to honor the life and service of Strom Thurmond, Senator Lott made some comments that he probably wishes he had phrased differently. I do not believe Senator Lott meant to be malicious or racist with the comments he made. I believe he was merely honoring a great American on his 100th birthday [...] I do not believe he harbors racist sentiments in his heart,” – Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), December 13, 2002.

“There is no other way you can interpret [Sotomayor's "wise Latina" speech]. She thinks that a woman with her experience can make a better conclusion than a white male – and to me, I consider that racist,” – Inhofe, August 4, 2009.

Bonus:

I had the pleasure of seeing Roger Bonair-Agard perform this piece at Amherst College several years ago. I like to use its written form in workshops to start a discussion about word choice. Absolutely phenomenal poem:

05-03-09

Surprise Surprise: White Kids Murder Mexican – Acquitted

I was going to post tonight about the Celtics-Bulls series that concluded a few hours ago, but then I saw the headline on CNN that the kids who beat Luis Ramirez, a Mexican immigrant, to death got off.

Friends and relatives of two teens accused in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant struggled to contain their relief as not-guilty verdicts were announced on the most serious charges against the former high school football stars Friday.
Luis Ramirez died of blunt force injuries after a confrontation with a group of Pennsylania teens.

Gasps filled the courtroom and some had to be restrained by sheriff’s deputies as they tried to rush the defense table after Derrick Donchak, 19, and Brandon Piekarsky, 17, were acquitted of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and ethnic intimidation for the death of Luis Ramirez.

Piekarsky was also found not guilty of third-degree murder for the death of Ramirez, who died of blunt force injuries after an encounter with the teens last summer.

However, the all-white jury of six men and six women from Schuylkill County jury found Piekarsky and Donchak guilty of simple assault.

(from CNN.com)

I was planning to have a good night geeked out about the Celtics. But the depressing news of the real world beckons.

04-24-09

Picture of the Day

That’s hilarious to me.

03-11-09

Didn’t Want to Talk About Rihanna, but

Some of yall have made me sick these past few weeks fam.

I can’t judge, you know, one of my favorite pastimes is disparaging famous people and things – but there are certain things that are appropriate and certain things that are not.

I tried my best to avoid seeing pictures of a battered Rihanna, because I don’t need a reminder of the kind of hurt – physical, mental, emotional – partner abuse can cause. We all know what happens, and most of us would never dream of making fun of it if it was our own family who was involved. Alas, it was everywhere and I saw it tons of times, and I was both shocked and not shocked at all. We all know this happens every single day everywhere around us.

But because it’s two pop stars, people feel like their lives are public enough that they can crack a little joke here and there. And they think because they apparently are a couple again, that it must not have been that bad in the first place, and we can all chuckle about it now that it’s over. And they think she probably did something to provoke him, and that it’s her fault if she gets beat up again or worse, and she gave him an STD, and I even hear little kids saying “Chris Brown beat Rihanna with an umbrella-ella-ella” and yo, I’m just shocked fam, really?

Lost in all this is this simple fact: partner abuse is the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 15-34. Leading cause of death – not simply “more common than we’d like to imagine.”

There’s no joke in there. And regardless if you like Chris Brown’s music better than you like Rihanna’s, there’s no excuse either.

And some folks are like “man, she took him back, you’re overreacting, it couldn’t have been a big deal if she took him back.” But you don’t need me to tell you that it always seems like she takes him back, no matter who “she” and “him” is. Whether it’s celebrities or your neighbors, it’s easier to think of times when they get back together than it is to think of examples when they didn’t. Maybe that’s just me, but no I don’t think it is.

Our society loves to blame the victim. Especially when that victim is a woman, and more so when it is a woman of color. I know celebrities are easy targets for snark and disses, but honestly, I been disgusted by some of yall recently, and I hope we can get to a point in society where nobody feels alright about making light of this kind of situation.

Peace

01-16-09

The Real Reason to go to DC

I used to live right off U Street in DC, also known as Black Broadway – and hands down, my favorite place for late night eats was the famous Ben’s Chili Bowl. It was and still is a microcosm of real DC. Forget going to the museums and the monuments and the Senate buildings and the White House. Those are all fine for what they are, but if you wanna see the real DC, Ben’s is the quickest way to immerse yourself.

The local lore says Bill Cosby proposed to his wife there! And they got pictures of dude up in the spot, with the ill juke in the back. When I made the decision to move back to Boston – I started hitting up Ben’s for lunch and late nights because I knew I’d be missing it.

Check out the clip down there of Meet the Press with Obama and Fenty hitting up the joint. Good to see the next president actually wanted to see real DC.

01-15-09

VIDEO LINK: Humble the Poet

People have been talking about the world being crazy nowadays as though there was nothing we could do to change it.

The world is crazy because we’ve encouraged it and allowed it to become crazy.

I was put on to this video by my friend Sham. Please be warned that many of these images are extremely disturbing. For more about the artist Humble the Poet, visit him here.

01-14-09

Word to the Few

Big ups to:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D), Ohio
Rep. Gwen Moore (D), Wisconsin
Rep. Ronald Paul (R), Texas
Rep. Nick Rahall (D), West Virginia
Rep. Maxine Waters (D), California

Use your Google-fu skills if you aren’t knowing.