WEBVTT - Model Minorities 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:08.680 Chat. Uh huh, you ain't no reparations. You're listening. You're 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.600 waiting on reparations for production. If I heart radio, if 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.280 you told me that tomorrow, why'd be trapping a camp. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.680 I ain't even gonna front with you. I'll be crapping 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.240 my pants. This isn't an imprecedented doesn't happen, but chance 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.720 all that takes a couple of fashioned plans that are 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.680 happening again. It's like it's happening now with the fashion 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.680 some power. I'd love to see us lock the cave 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.080 is fucking shock up for hours away. If you fast 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.680 asleep on what happened to the Japan, if you'd be 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.000 laughing at least wind at the target and then the 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.840 cast look at the ship that they left us within 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.879 this lifetime when our parents is sucking they wasn't then 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.800 they ripe. Mine is selling a future and profit off 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.000 of the pipeline. They trying lines and we hiding behind 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.600 rhymes some product of pop For me, I was born 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.640 in the cold black shed until you would have sworn 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.040 with snow when this way, since I was forming, this 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.240 whole boat was raised to hold it and then to 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.480 the point of start to torturous. Yo, y'all take an 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.520 advantage of it. Y'all look kind of quiet, long black 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.000 hoody like I'm trying to start a riot. Let's take 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.320 it to the city Hall and stop till they retire 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.680 and take all this corporate bread and just put that 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.319 on the diet of the fingers in the year. The 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:21.400 silent majority is waiting on reparation. This is mama, my no, hey, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:26.320 dope knife com lingo franca. We are waiting on reparations. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.160 Have the cat jumping up and down, Yeah, it would be. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.200 Let live his life. He's joyful. We're just having a 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.760 good time. Shout out to the Factor chandelier for the 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.280 beats for today's episode. So how did your weekend at 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.640 a van? Didn't you didn't you have another protests? Weren't 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.039 you hitting the streets? Obviously gotta be Yeah, I hosted 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.960 another car caravans hoturday night, shut down the streets around 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.120 City Hall, bumped our radios, listening to some Kendrick as 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.320 well as some speakers from the State House. Um Spencer 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.440 Fries with with a c l of Georgia's political director 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.200 Chris Bruce called in to talk about the fun the 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.360 police as well as like state level reforms that have 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.000 been proposed. Um. It's really funny actually, because I got 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.840 a call from the city manager today that was like, 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.880 we've heard you've been having these protests in the streets 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.480 and like you didn't get a permit, and you need 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.400 to get a permit because people are complaining. And I 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.320 was like, I'll pass it on to the organizers because 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.080 it's not like I'm the end. I'll be all of 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.120 these things that are happening. I'm just like one of 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.960 many moving parts in this work. So they give you 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.800 a hard time. They gave me a a little bit of 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:29.880 hard time, Like what's the hard time? Like, I mean, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.080 do they just like they actually stop you from doing stuff? 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:34.840 They were like, So the police showed up, and we 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.040 had like our own security people like on the ground 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.679 kind of monitoring the police presence at the protests, and 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.280 they at one point we're like directing traffic away from 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.239 like the blockage we had created. And eventually, when this 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.760 like beautiful young trans woman was like chancing no justice, 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.000 no peace, fun these racist as police, they started retreating. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.560 So I guess they got complaints from surrounding like business 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.800 owners or something like when we tried to vent in 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.600 this streets. We gotta get a permit. So why is 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:04.760 it that, like these protesters are out here like shutting 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.880 down traffic and y'all aren't like locking them up, And 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.200 it's like these are our streets. Who streets? Our streets? Man? 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.080 But I mean they didn't get to it though, Like 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:13.400 at the end of it, would you say, at the 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.760 end of the yeah, it was successful. We disbanded around 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.720 ten um, got people to like call and write their 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.680 legislators while they were sitting in their cars listen to music. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.080 We had like catering from this like dope Jamaican Lady 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:27.920 in town. It was like it was a beautiful thing. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:29.640 It was a beautiful thing. Yeah, I would have I 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.519 would have gone with you for sure, because I told 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.120 you last week that I was gonna goring. I wasn't 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.920 feeling good and all the COVID stuff going on. I 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.120 didn't know if that was the showing symptoms or not. 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:40.520 So I was like, yeah, let me keep my hand 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.040 at my ass home. So what did you end up 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.880 doing this weekend? I was just trying my hardest not 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.320 to like fall too deep into the Tulsa rally and 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.720 stuff like that. I decided to just chill and try 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.920 to clear my mind, but I ended up scrolling the 0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:00.160 net and Twitter getting dragged into the rabbit hole that 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:05.680 was the J Cole versus No Name little little disagreement? 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.040 Did you do you heard about that? A little bit 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.800 about that? Would you end up thinking about that? So? 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.240 I mean I listened to J Cole song, I listened 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.160 to No Names response. I mean mad Live Kid will 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.200 be I think everyone can agree upon that. Well, okay, 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.160 let me let me recap the situation as far as 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:27.440 I know, right, so, as far as I know, the 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.880 the protests started after George Floyd's death and No Name 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:37.000 who is a rapper from Chicago. Um, I guess she 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.719 put out a series of tweets where she One of 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.039 the tweets she was critical of like, um, the top 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.800 selling rappers are silent right now and they should be 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.200 doing something something of that effect. But what I noticed 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.839 in like J Cole's response to like the initial beef 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.760 is that it really like centers its feelings, like in 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.040 a way that I think is like important to do 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.720 is least important have to work through on a personal level, 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.560 but like not necessarily helpful to broadcast. But I don't 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.520 know it, feel kind of conflicted about it, like damn, 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.440 like write your the fucking little poetry and keep yourself 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.479 and like work through your problems on your own, and 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.240 then use this opportunity to like link to bail funds 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.480 or go fund meats, petitions or actions happening in the area. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.000 But instead he just made it all about his feelings 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.320 about getting called out, and like I felt, to a 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.520 certain degree that was some week ship. But at the 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:28.960 same time, I think it's being to a real struggle 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.400 that like a lot of folks right now are waking 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.320 up to the evils of capitalism and corporatism of our 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.160 fun boppily learning more about freedom movements that have come 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.279 before us, and you know, just like taking to the 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.760 streets for so maybe some of their first ever protests. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.840 And just because you're black doesn't mean you won't necessarily 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.120 like as if we talked about an upcoming episode, there's 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.480 a lot of folks who want to like progressive as 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.120 hip hop just because some of us choose to convey 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.040 our experience to poverty and survival and brutality of our 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.560 current systems. But the fact, the fact is that a 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:01.760 lot of people in hip hop aren't overtly political, and 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:03.600 they gotta wake up as much as white people who 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.080 have been standing on the sidelines need to as well. 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.279 And I think Jacole does a good job of modeling 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.920 what that growth and that vulnerability looks like, which is 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.000 helpful for people who might feel similarly inadequate during these 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:18.839 times that are trying to figure out what to do. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.720 But you know, and so that's helpful even if it 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.520 falls short of modeling what's taking action looks like, which 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.159 I think is the important part that was missing of 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.680 this dialogue. And like the little piece and Teco wanted 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.560 to throw up and in the conversation with like it 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.400 could have gone a lot farther than that, and like 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.160 it's as No Name says in her response, you really 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.159 about the right about me when the world isn't smokes 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:44.120 like it's distracting from the conversation around abolishing the police, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.919 around like the women that are going missing, around the 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.599 trans black black trans women that are getting murdered. So 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.680 I feel like she hits on some really important points. 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.960 And also, you know, is hammering home the fact that 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.599 like you could be using your platform for anything right now. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.880 I don't know, you know this this whole thing is 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:01.800 is has been very weird to me. At first, I 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.560 was really into it, and now it just seems kind 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.200 of off putting. Two rappers that are dope, pretty intelligent 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.360 people having a disagreement talking about it in rhymes. The 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.120 way I look at its beautiful most beautiful beefs and 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.440 hip hop up all times as a battle As a 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.640 former battle rapper, to me, that's like the biggest breasts 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:25.960 of fresh air to battles that I've heard in a 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.480 long time. I mean, everybody was engauged. It had people 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.800 talking about the issues. I just all around. I thought 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.760 the ship could have been really dope. I mean, I'm 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.640 personally not really into telling people when they can and 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.440 can't or should or shouldn't make the music they want 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.360 to make. I'll say whether I like the ship or not, 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.040 but I mean, go ahead, and do you think I 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.960 don't think it's distracting. I think it's adding to the conversation. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.480 But even regardless, I don't think that anybody who's out there, 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.520 who's really doing the work is going to be distracted 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.560 by the new j could drop. Yeah, yeah, totally. I 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:02.200 feel like people who are really in the struggle are 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.120 not going to get sidetracked by this. But folks who 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:05.880 might be like new to this work not I hear you. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:07.920 I hear you, And we talk about this another episode. 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.280 But maybe you know, people should be more picky about 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.960 the rappers that they follow and look up to. It 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.520 was like a productive I don't even know if you 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.400 can call it about. I think it's because like no 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.200 name still like name drap women that are have been 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.120 murdered exactly important to centering black trands women, like the 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.160 discussions around abolish and the police and like anti capitalism 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:29.880 and so like this whole beef has brought a lot 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:31.960 of attention to It's very hard for me to look 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.480 at these things like outside of like the rapper perspective. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.960 So like, I think she won, and in winning, she 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.480 kind of like proved a point that's like, oh, yeah, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.480 there are more important things. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.880 So it's just I don't know, she she apologized for 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.160 her not necessarily apologized. I mean, she just she's she 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:50.719 was like it was a waste of my time or 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.760 I shouldn't have done Yeah, she like I got caught 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.480 up an ego and whatnot. But I don't know, it's 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.000 like it's it's stuff like that. To me, it is like, 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.520 I'm I'm one of those true believers when it comes 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.839 to the power of hip hop and ship like that. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.200 So I believe that you can change the world through 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:09.679 rap if if you, if you funk with it right. 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.200 So you know, it's kind of a bummer that, like 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.440 the whole thing ends in a splitter of like, yeah, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.720 this rap stuff is meaningless. I was hoping that they 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.160 would have just kept it going and kept the conversation 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.920 growing and expanding, but it's like everybody's too cool for 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.120 school to wrap. I just I just I'm one of 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.160 those people that thinks that I got more insight out 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.440 of hearing them rap about this ship than I would 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.199 have gotten from an interview of them doing it. So 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.240 I always encourage people to wrap. But the verdict is 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.560 that no name one. Her beat was Doper, her rhymes 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.480 are Dover, and her song was Doper, And I feel 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.920 like I need to be a better man after listening 0:09:51.920 --> 0:10:01.400 to it and catch up on my W E B DWO. Boy. Well, um, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.400 let's let's go into what we were going to be 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.160 talking about. Yeah, the topic of this day is um 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.200 model minorities, model minority. So what made you think about 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.040 having that be the topic slash name of what we're 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.920 talking about today? Um so into Thus eighteen, I put 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.960 out an album called Model Minority, aware of it's like 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.720 racist history within the Asian community, but also reflecting on 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.840 my own experience with like, you know, growing up in 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.960 a predominantly white community where I was like kind of 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.160 nerdy and like in band and shipped like that, and 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:34.960 like having a lot of people tell me that I 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.480 wasn't like other black people, like oh, well, you talk right, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.280 and like you're not like the rest of them. Literally 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.040 had this one friend who's like confided to me in 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.560 secret that her parents called black people Canadians and public 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.719 look at those Canadians over there and the corross the 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.560 room at Applebee's, like they're so loud, I bet they 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.319 don't even tip, And like thinking that they could get 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.360 away with saying that kind of shipped to me. And 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.680 so like being positioned in my own as a different 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.680 kind of model minority among black people of like of 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.960 only everybody could be like you, and so it kind 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.360 of in an attempt to like push back at that 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.880 and laugh at that positioning through my my music and 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.800 so I adopted that moniker for the title of my LP. Well, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.600 you know, I didn't grow up in the States like that, 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.600 so it wasn't until I was a little bit older 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.280 that I like heard of the term model minority and 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.520 what it was used for generally. Now, according to Wikipedia, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:37.480 model minority is a minority demographic weather based on ethnicity, race, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.000 or religion, whose members are perceived to achieve higher degree 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.040 of socio economic success than the population average, thus serving 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.200 as a reference to groups in out groups. This success 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.240 is typically measured relatively by educational attainment, representation and managerial 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.560 and professional occupations, and household income, along with other socio 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:02.040 economic indicators such as low criminality, high family and marital stability. 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.320 The concept was controversial as it was historically used to 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.520 suggest that the government didn't need to intervene in socio 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.800 economic disparities between racial groups. So that's what Wikipedia says, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:14.880 and you know, of course, I think it's always important 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.560 to listen to just check out what Wikipedia says, because 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.559 the average person, you know, when they don't know some ship, 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.600 they're gonna check in Wikipedia. So we've established a baseline 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.520 of what everybody knows about it. But generally it's something 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.839 that's like used as like a wedge issue between minority 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.920 groups to to get them to distrust each other or 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.360 to criticize each other, and to overlook the greater fight 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.199 that needs to be fought, holding one group up as 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.360 like a model for what the other groups should try 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.280 to invitate. Its generally just two so tension within the 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.840 within the minority groups. And usually when I hear heard 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.559 about this concept, it was in relation to African Americans 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.640 and Asian Americans. So these times it's also been exploited 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.560 to dismant all legal protections for people of color. In 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.520 two thousand and fourteen, a lawsuit against Firmative Action Asian 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.840 American plaintifts argued that Harvard Admissions discriminated against Asian American students. 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.960 The case, which was filed with assistance from right wing 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.839 activists Edward Bloom the Man Sarah Hanger, staff attorney, a 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.880 c l Use Rachel Industics program, describes it's on a 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:21.079 mission to kill Affirmative Action. During the LA riots following 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.520 the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King on camera, 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:29.960 many Korean owned businesses were damaged, partially because fifteen year 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.640 old black girl Natasha Harlans, as we referenced in our 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.400 first episode, was killed by a Korean liquor store owner, 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.320 um who only got community service, funeral institution, and a 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.520 five hundred dollar fine for shooting Natasha Harlans in the 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:45.920 back of the head while trying to escape or store 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.760 during an alleged robbery. You know that story didn't really 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.640 get covered as oh no, no, no, yeah, And like 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:54.920 that's what I was kind of bringing up with the 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.400 whole no name thing of like in the Black Lives 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.000 Matter movement, like the killings of black men are far 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:06.640 more um fuel for the fires of indignation than are 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.960 the murders and black women, Like, but what about Ayana Jones, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.080 who you know was younger than Trayvon Martin when she 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.400 was killed by police. Um, folks like Latasha Harlan's like 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.360 don't get credit for starting the LA riots. But you 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:25.240 remember Rodney King. Brianna Taylor is no longer trending, even 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:30.120 though her murderers haven't been arrested. Yeah, they fired one 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.200 of them, that's it. Unlike the killers of Ray Sharry 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.760 Brooks or the colors of George Floyd. Speaking of George Floyd, 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:38.920 you know, at this point everybody's seen the tape, so 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.040 it's kind of hard to not notice Officer thou R 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:48.200 Tao performing crowd control. He's the Asian American police officer 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.120 that was on the tape. Things like this. I don't 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.160 think they've started or ratcheted up tensions between the two 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.840 communities anymore or anything like that. It's definitely not what 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.480 it was during the l A riot. Times in Asian 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.080 American are definitely out there in the streets right now 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:06.480 protesting with Black Lives Matter, you know, all over the country, 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.760 fighting for justice. But I did come across an article 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.280 with the Sahan Journal, which is a news outlet that's 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.400 dedicated to the immigrant and refugee community in Minnesota, um 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.840 that even though of Asian American Minnesota's are in fact 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.240 fighting for justice out there alongside us, there are some 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.520 who are feeling like they're targeted within that community. People 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.880 who have the last same last name as the officer 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.400 have been getting social media threats and stuff like that. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.560 So the solidarity could always be stronger. This isn't the 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.680 first time an Asian American officer has been involved in 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.360 one of these killings of one I'm Black men and 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.760 two half of fourteen and yp D officer Peter Liang, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.960 a rookie, fired his gun. The bullet ricocheted off a 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:49.960 wall and killed the Kai Gurley while he and his 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.840 partner were patrolling a public housing development. There's no reason 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.000 for the tension to exist between these marginalized communities, but 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:00.840 there is some precedent set for like some pensions within 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.480 the communities themselves. At the end of the day, both 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.080 communities have been put through shipped from this country, so 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:16.720 there's no reason that the unity shouldn't be. So today 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.080 we're here with my friend Kodu Ishibashi also known as 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:24.960 Kishi Bashi, also known as k world renowned violinist and composer, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:30.240 or like he wants to be called a athens musician. Guy, Okay, 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:33.280 how are you today? Great? I'm I'm an Athenist musician, guy, 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.640 just like you, just like us, just like us, you know, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.360 in the on world tour, like you know any other 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.160 fancy ship. Just an Athemisian and Guy, I think there's 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.200 a bit more to it than that. I got your 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:51.480 Wikipedia page joke right now. It says um says you're 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:56.760 an American singer, multi instrumentalists and songwriter. He is a 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.440 founding member of Jupiter One, and for a few years 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.000 he was and a member of the band of Montreal. 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.439 He embarked on his career as a solo artist in 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:12.560 two thousand and eleven, released his debut album one a 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.720 at Joyful Noise recording in two thousand and twelve, to 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:21.040 immediate fan fair and critical claim immediant fanfare, that's like 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:26.000 your blood. How do how do you feel about that? Um? Immediately, 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.040 I don't know if it was immediate, this ship, says immedia. 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.480 So it's Wikipedia, it's the Internet. It's true, I mean 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.800 immediate NPR fanfare, that was for sure. You love meeting 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.760 a modest famous person. It's always really nice. Well, of 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.520 Montreal's what brought me to Athens, you know, it's okay, 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.760 So that's like, that's how that's why I'm here. Also, 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.600 were you from? I lived in um Well, good question, Okay, 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:51.080 So I was born in Seattle, but I grew up 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:52.560 on the East Coast and then I lived in But 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:54.720 before before Athens, I lived in New York City for 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:59.880 like ten years. What your parents did? My parents are professor, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.800 So I'm a very middle class Asian American upbringing. Played 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:09.200 play the violent, get it work work. We're really excited 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.040 to have you on today to discuss some of the 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.920 overlaps between the struggles that um Asian Americans have faced. 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.679 You know, are are struggles to also unite as folks 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.600 of color, particularly around this moment where Black Lives Matter 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.239 is taking the forefront of the national conversation. Um And 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.879 I wanted to start out by asking, like, kind of 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.879 a personal question from my own maybe funk up that 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:37.160 I made a couple of years ago. So in two 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:42.440 thousand eighteen, I dropped an album entitled Model Minority, And 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.120 I want to explain why. And I want to explain why. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.320 So when I was younger, I grew up around a 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:49.360 lot of white people, and I was told in subtle 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.159 and not so subtle ways, how great it was that 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.000 I wasn't like other black people. I was smart, I 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.920 talked right, all this kind of stuff. And so as 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.720 I've gotten older, I used hip hop to kind of 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.480 a my black identity. But I titled my album Model 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.879 Minority as a as a nod to the privileges that 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:07.520 I do have as a light skinned, middle class, highly 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.600 educated black woman. But in your opinion, was it funked 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.480 up that I made my album then, okay, so um 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.120 uh yeah, the model minority myth? So what does that mean? 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.600 And it wasn't that wrong of me to do that? Well, um, 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.440 I think sociologists call they developed this model minority myth. 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:26.119 We know it as a myth now because it was 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.359 this basically racist institution of encouraging like Asian people to 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.080 be like, this is how minorities should assimilate to society, 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.600 and so Asians kind of took that to heart, like 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.200 in the fifties, especially after Japanese incarceration, meaning like they 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.680 had they were like they were told by white people 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:43.119 to be like, you know, this is how you can 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.639 become American and assimilate into society. But what really happened 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:48.639 was they were kind of used as a wedge to 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.960 further put down black people, you know, basically showing black 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.040 people like hey, look at the minority, look at this 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.520 model minority, look at this is a model you know, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.320 and furthermore, you know, disenfranchising people. So it's just a 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.080 misuse of the word term, I guess totally. Yeah. I mean, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.359 like I think there are parallels to the way that 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.639 certain like people in the black community are held up 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.080 as examples of like, look, why can't you be a 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.200 good black person like this one? And like I definitely 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.879 want to ward off any of that people who want 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.119 to point to me as like a shining example because 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.439 like I speak mainstream of American English, because I have 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:29.840 a master's degree. Uh, because you know, like middle class 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.120 all these things like no, motherfucker, like don't try to 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.480 put down folks that are lower income or you know, 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.960 speak like a A B or you know, aren't's educated? 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.200 Is me because those voices are as important and sort 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.960 of like lashing out at that way that I'm sometimes 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.160 positioned by white people. I don't think anyone's gonna take 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.680 that away from your use of the title. I mean 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.639 it's I think in the context that you're using it, 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.160 it works. Yeah, the feeling is the same because it's 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.600 like basically the model minority. You're saying, like, you know, 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:04.640