DZIBING

Police officers in riot gear clashed with rock-throwing youths on Monday in Baltimore, hours after a funeral for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who has become the nation’s latest symbol of police brutality. The violence broke out in the Mondawmin neighborhood, near the New Shiloh Baptist Church, where friends, neighbors, activists and government officials had gathered to eulogize Mr. Gray.

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“there is only so far that you can push people into a corner. We’re frustrated and that’s why we’re out there in the streets.”

On April 28th, the Bloods, Crips, and the Black Guerilla Family united to protect black-owned restaurants from looting and vandalism in Baltimore. Furthermore, these young men teamed up to protect the black youth and reporters from the rioters. The men we always label as “thugs” or “gangsters” are helping to protect their community. Why isn’t this in the headlines of news articles. I quickly searched online and on Twitter to see how the situation in Baltimore is being publicized and the common words that appear are: violent, fire, looting, riots, rage, “officers hurt”. These words accompany photos of civilians destroying property, fires, and civilians throwing rocks at policemen. There are no reports about those individuals who are peacefully protesting. All the attention on violence and property damage is helping in straying away from the underlying issues. #Blacklivesmatter. How many more lives need to be taken, how many more protests and riots in how many different cities need to take place for change to occur. 

El periodista de Univision brindó por 'un grupo de periodistas mexicanos que denunciaron corrupción en los más altos niveles del gobierno mexicano', en la gala que la revista TIME organizó por las 100 personas más influyentes.

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Jorge Ramos is a rebel. At the TIME Gala during his short toast, he managed to use his air time to acknowledge three different groups of “rebels” that one one ever talks about. He toasted for the journalists who denounced Mexico’s governments corruption, to the political prisoners in Venezuela specifically Leopoldo Lopez and to the Dreamers, undocumented youth in the U.S. Jorge Ramos did what I have never seen someone do. He directed his speech at the Mexican President, the Venezuelan President and the U.S. government to take responsibility and take action. 

I had wanted to go to Puerto Rico for so long and this Spring Break I finally went! I had already researched Puerto Rico and in my mind I tried to imagine what it would be like, but once arriving at the airport it was nothing like I had imagined. I was in awe. All the signs were in Spanish, everyone spoke Spanish first and then English. The red stop signs said “pare”. My goal for the week was to learn more about Puerto Rico’s history and its relationship with the U.S. Puerto Rico was very different from anything I’ve seen in the states. In fact, it got me nostalgic because it reminded me a lot of Brazil. The people were extremely friendly and the architecture of the buildings were similar to the buildings in Brazil yet it was a completely different setting.

One morning as we walked over to the beach, I saw the mailman walk by. The mailman was wearing the same outfit that the mailman who delivers my mail wears. I thought it was fascinating how this land was under U.S. control but still had its own vibrant culture. When I talked to my mom over the phone, I told her it was the U.S. in Español. Then I thought no not really.

While in Puerto Rico, I was really conscious of my identity because all of the locals made it their job to make it known I was an outsider. It was easy to spot out 3 girls with long black hair everywhere we went. I also gave it away when I spoke my “perfectly pronounced” Spanish, as one local said. I could not keep up with their slang and use different words, but I tried. By the end of the week, I learned a lot of new phrases. I made sure to learn how to say bus to not sound ridiculous—wa wa—and I learned that frijoles isn’t a thing. It’s havichuelas. Tacos? Not the street tacos we eat in LA. They could tell we were not locals, but this wasn’t necessarily a negative thing.  People would ask where we were from and we’d say California. Then they’d ask where we were really from or where our parents were from. We would let them know from Mexico and they were immediately excited. The Mexican culture is valued and celebrated all over Puerto Rico. I felt so loved and I appreciated that my culture was recognized. Coming from the West Coast, I feel as though Mexicans are always looked down upon. In Puerto Rico I felt like a celebrity. They also really love Mexican food. Although they don’t have the recipes quite right, I appreciate their effort. Throughout the trip I snapped shots of  Mexican restaurants. There were a lot. So much happened in just one week and that wasn’t enough time! Definitely need to go back!

http://mic.com/articles/112274/the-side-of-the-oklahoma-frat-story-that-nobody-is-talking-about

If there's one thing that I hope the audience got from Sean Penn is that not all Mexicans are here illegally. 

That's the only positive thing that I can take from his joke. There have been explanations going around about how that's their friendship relationship. That's great that Sean is buddies with Alejandro, but that was not the right setting to say such a joke. This isn't at the dinner table Sean, this is the Oscars where you are in a suit, on national TV. That's how I've always seen the Oscars. I personally don't take offense to the joke. I've heard different versions of it plenty of times. In fact, it can even be interpreted as a compliment. Alejandro is so good, everyone needs to watch out. He is killing it in this country, a country that is not his own. I'm much more concerned though, unfortunately, with how the public interprets and understands this joke. This joke in a way correlates back to the claim that many anti-immigrant people say where Mexicans are taking all of the jobs. Mexicans are creating competition and benefiting from the country even though it's not theirs. This idea fits well with Alejandro. Alejandro is an immigrant and he is producing movies in the US and he's done such a good job that he won an Oscar. 

For his acceptance speech, I thought he did speak to the joke. Although he was speaking broadly about immigration in the U.S. I thought it could have very well been directed at Sean. It served as a good non-confrontational response. I hope Sean was listening closely when he said "I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation". Definitely think this line was directed towards Sean. 

"I want to dedicate this award for my fellow Mexicans, the ones who live in Mexico. I pray that we can find and build the government that we deserve. And the ones that live in this country, who are part of the latest generation of immigrants in this country, I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation.

Just a though, but maybe Fresh off the Boat was a play on words in regards to the music played throughout the show?? Music is FRESH. Maybe? Don't think so, but that I can see little Eddie saying Fresh off the Boat with style. 

So I finally watched the first episode and I was laughing all throughout the show. It's hilarious. The writing is very clever and there were so many instances where I thought back to my childhood. 

I found the episode very interesting because there were parts that were extremely dramatic. For example, the female neighbors reminded me of Mean Girls. They were acting very artificial. However, there were parts of the episode that were very genuine and very blunt. In the cafeteria room, a black boy commented on the fact that an asian guy and a white guy bonded over a black guy (Notorious B.I.G.). Here we have two very different scenes. In the scene with the rollerblading moms in running suits, I felt as though their identity as white women was over dramatized purposefully. It's poking fun on how ridiculous white people can sound when ignorant. In the scene in the cafeteria with the kids though, no one's character is dramatic. The kid's character are more genuine and the comments are more blunt. The show is exploring the notions of race and identity through conversations and comments like that of the young black boy. We visually saw Eddie and the white boy bond, the other boy explicitly explained what just happened, and it's something we needed to hear. I think instances like this is what is going to make the show successful and will even begin to create discourse about race, ethnicity and identity. How can you ignore these topics when the show itself is spelling it out for you. 

#Freshofftheboat is trending on twitter. A new sitcom on ABC just premiered tonight. Although I couldn’t watch it, I followed the show through twitter. As I read through twitter there are multiple reactions from the audience.

“This is actually funny.”

“Great to see so many Asian faces on screen.”

“Well done @ABCNetwork for putting an Asian American front & center”

“Tried watchin #Freshoffthebot but had 2 turn it off ½ way through the pilot much like #Blackish, found it racist, offensive as an American”

“There are a lot of racists stereotypes which makes me wonder if this is a positive portrayal of Asian Americans…but…”

“Can’t tell if #freshofftheboat will be a commentary on how infiltrative American culture is or insanely racist”

From Twitter we can see that people are indeed reacting to this new show. Many are approving the show and are content that finally, Asian Americans are being represented on TV. The question now is, are they being represented accurately or misrepresented. On twitter, viewers loved the first episodes and the protagonist because they could relate. Some claim that it contains a lot of racist stereotypes, however, others claimed that those stereotypes were their reality. What happens when you can’t relate to the characters? Does it lose it’s value? Asian American viewers are loving it because they are finally seeing someone on TV that understand them.