Tag: racism

This makes me think twice about Airbnb in the US

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I like Airbnb; I’ve stayed at several before now, ironically more outside of the United States than in it.  I think it’s a great way to save a little bit of money versus pricey hotels and all their random fees, and it’s also a great way to stay in places unique and different than in bustling lodging districts.  And when it comes to extended stays anywhere, it’s often times the de facto option to not get charged up the nose for multiple nights.

That said, this story I came across about an Asian girl who was basically duped and screwed by a racist Airbnb host kind of makes me think twice about utilizing the service, especially in the United States, my own home country.  Long story short, the girl made a reservation at a cabin, and had numerous correspondences with the host.  But then while minutes away from their destination, in the midst of a snow storm, the host rips her mask off, revealing a mutant racist, spouts all sorts of hateful and bigoted rhetoric and cancels the booking, not before saying it was because she was Asian and saying “this is why we have trump.”

Now I’d be fine if a Hilton or a Marriott pulled this shit on me, because I’d sue the ever-living shit out of them and become Oprah-rich.  But Airbnb is mostly hosted by fairly every-men and every-women who want to make some side scratch renting out their properties; despite the fact that the racist host in question was actually somehow punished to the tune of a $5,000 fine and requirement to take an Asian-studies course, there’s no making good the potential damage they’re doing when they decide to screw over a potential renter.

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Why is Ahri x D.Va a thing?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

If I can sound like a bitter old man for a minute (again) here, naturally it was through social media in which I first saw fan art, then obnoxious cosplayers of this bastardization/hybridization between League of Legends’ Ahri and Overwatch’s D.Va.  Taking Ahri’s tails and slapping them onto D.Va’s body, taking the D.Va facial makeup markings and putting them onto Ahri, and all sorts of other combinations that blended the two characters together, and I’m sitting here thinking: whyyyy????

My knee-jerk cynical reaction is that it’s a bunch of nerds who want to really hammer home the notion that they are versed in both League and Overwatch, and they need to let people know that they’re so hip to both that they can acknowledge such strange abominable mash-ups.  And then cosplayers who are so attention-starved see something that’s trending and immediately start a rat race of who can do the first make-up test, who can finish the costume and wear it to a convention nobody knows of, and then who can do the first sexy-boudoir-lingerie photoshoot of it before jaded curmudgeons like me get wind of the whole thing.

My curiosity wishes to know why such a combination exists at all?  Both are undoubtedly popular and relevant characters in their respective properties, but why are they being shoe-horned together?  Naturally, my assumptions go towards one of the worst possible reasons: MICROAGGRESSIVE RACISMMMMM

Ahri is a character borne from Korean fairytale.  D.Va is a Korean.  THEY’RE KOREANS SO LETS MASH THEM TOGETHER ARR ROOK SAME PLS LIKE

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Good riddance, Fulton County Courthouse

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When it comes to moving, there’s no shortage of niggling little loose ends that seem to permeate from the furthest and most obscure sources.  My own move was no exception to the rule, and no matter how comprehensive and thorough I thought I was being, for weeks and months after departure, there were always letters, notifications, and things showing up to my apartment that were unexpected, that needed to be addressed.

To be fair, there was a surprising amount of money owed back to me from various sources, which was always welcome and pleasing, but there were the usual share of expenditures, final payments, and other nuisances that showed up and had to be dealt with, like good citizens do.

However, one thing that showed up, way later than everything else, was like one final fuck you from Fulton County; everyone’s favorite civil obligation in the world, jury duty.  Naturally, this was met with the enthusiasm of having your dick placed on an anvil and beaten down with a hammer, and absolutely minus-fifty parts of me wanted to deal with it.

I lived in Fulton County for 13 years, and was summoned for jury duty six times.  Once every eligible two years.  Anyone who tells you the selection process is random and unbiased is completely full of shit, because it’s entirely based on demographics, and Asian male property owners in my neck of the woods is an extremely shallow pool that saw my name get drawn at a guaranteed rate every two years, even if I had just managed to unload said property and no longer lived in the county.

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Thoughts on Get Out

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Recently, I just watched the film Get Out, which came highly recommended by just about everyone.  Needless to say, when everyone is saying it’s a great movie, and then you start seeing/reading things about how it’s getting rave reviews, most notably the 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, then the bar is being set onto some skeptically high heights.

To cut to the chase, I did think Get Out was a really good movie.  It’s well acted, thought-provoking, with great timing on comedic moments to break the tension and levity of the constantly escalating conflict of the story, with some pretty good twists because everyone loves twists in the plot.

Worthy of a certifiable fresh rating on snarky websites like Rotten Tomatoes?  Definitely.  But to be given the sheer volume of critical response it received?  I think it’s a little overblown.  Frankly, after the film ended, I couldn’t help but feel like, especially given the sheer nature of the entire film, that there’s a prevalent aftertaste of white guilt involved in how the film was so universally acclaimed.  I feel like I could see clear as day the irony of a film that touches on white guilt on almost an anthropological way is applauded by the vastly white majority of popular media, who watched it undoubtedly in an anthropological manner.

It’s a very good movie, don’t get me wrong, and I would love to see what Jordan Peele does next in the future.  But maybe it’s because I’m in a minority group substantially more minor than blacks in American society that I just don’t see anything about how white people treat black people for me to be apologetically lenient with my judgment of a film over.

How to invalidate Ohio State’s educational credibility

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The moment I saw that Cardale Jones graduated from Ohio State, I didn’t even have to look it up to assume that his degree was in African-American studies.  And then because I like to be proven correct, I looked it up, and sure enough, Cardale Jones’ major was African-American studies.

For those who do not really follow sports, Cardale Jones was a former athletic ringer at Ohio State who was brought in solely to play football, and made an imbecile of himself on social media when he said:

Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS

Basically admitting that he was no scholar and was an athletic ringer that only served to feed the NCAA machine and make money for others for the opportunity to audition for the chance to make millions for himself.

The point is, Cardale Jones was surprisingly no genius, and it was even less of a surprise when he dipped out of school early to go into the NFL, where he’s basically a third-string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. 

Let me repeat, third string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

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MARTA STRIKES AGAIN

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This one was to send a message: “Suspicious package” near the Howell Mill Road exit leads to shutdown of I-75 southbound during the heart of the morning rush hour.  There is no MARTA alternative route coming from this direction.

This one’s for you, Cobb County.  For those of you who aren’t necessarily savvy to Atlanta county-isms, despite the fact that it would make more sense than peanut butter and jelly, Cobb County absolutely refuses to allow MARTA into its hallowed county lines.  To the point where MARTA rail almost patronizingly skates on the county line as it goes all the way up into the northern part of Fulton County.

Don’t believe anything else you may or may not care to inquire about why Cobb refuses MARTA, and just know that it has entirely everything to do with the simple fact that Cobb County does not want black people to have rail access into their sacred communities.  Because nothing is more synonymous with scary, scary colored people and their definitive crime that they will in fact bring, than rail access.

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So long, southside

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Despite the fact that I’m feeling a little blue about having just sold my house, when the day was over, it was still a massive achievement in unloading, and opening up the doors to the various paths that the future has in store for me.  For every melancholy memory that makes me a little depressed that I’ve said goodbye to my old house, there are at two things I did not like about the area in which my house resided, which contributed to the general notion that I really wanted to get out of the obligation of the house.

For a long while, I’ve always thought of the reasons why the area in which my home resided was not a good place, but I often neglected to notate any of them, and eventually I’d forget some of them, inconvenient, for when I wanted to channel my frustrations with long commutes, or the feeling of despair of living in an area that did not have a whole lot of hope for the future.

I started a Google note file on May 28, 2016, simply entitled “reasons south of Atlanta is not a good place,” and told myself to add to it whenever I had something new to add.  The thought was that eventually one day when I successfully succeed in unloading the house and moving forward, I would have some notes to look back onto for my eventual post about saying farewell to my old area.  It’s a little surreal that that time has finally come, and despite the fact that I’m still feeling bummed about unloading my house, I am in a way relieved that it’s an area that I won’t really see myself going back to any time soon if I can help it.

Because of my general paranoia of the world, I never was very specific to where I lived.  Even now, I won’t get too specific, but I will admit that my old house was on the south side of Atlanta.  The half of the metropolitan Atlanta area south of I-20 that doesn’t get much acknowledgment or credit for anything, and the half of the metropolitan Atlanta area that pretty much has no hope for the future.

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