Ep. 40: Sarah Jeong Is A White Liberal Shield

Condemnation and defense of Sarah Jeong has fallen along the familiar fault lines of online culture. She has been portrayed as either a Pol Pot against white people or a Joan of Arc against racist and sexist trolls. But what if she is neither? Jess, Teen, and Oxford discuss how an old instance of performative wokeness (almost certainly intended in jest for a small media-class clique) has now been forcibly repackaged as a greater expression of minority, especially Asian American, anger. And who benefits the most from all this? The white liberal establishment, which not only gets to be seen promoting a woman of color, but also gets to extract a humble apology from her. Also, some football-bashing at the end. Intro/Outro Song: "Over" by Epik High Intro Voice Track: Malcolm X on white liberals (UC Berkeley 1963) TWITTER: Jess (@cogitatotomato) Teen (@mont_jiang) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) REFERENCED RESOURCES: Model Majority Podcast with Oxford Kondo: http://modelmajoritypodcast.com/oxford-kondo-plan-a-magazine-wmaf-aapi-gender/ NYT Fires Quinn Norton: https://www.wired.com/story/the-ny-times-fires-tech-writer-quinn-norton-and-its-complicated/ Teen's article on Sarah Jeong: https://planamag.com/the-problem-with-sarah-jeong-cd211de8838e Mitch McConnell enlists wife Elaine Chao in 2014 re-election campaign on women's issues: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/us/politics/girding-for-a-fight-mcconnell-enlists-his-wife.html Naomi Wu's account of incident with Vice and Sarah Jeong: https://medium.com/@therealsexycyborg/shenzhen-tech-girl-naomi-wu-my-experience-with-sarah-jeong-jason-koebler-and-vice-magazine-3f4a32fda9b5 Inkoo Kang defends Sarah Jeong: https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/the-ny-times-response-to-sarah-jeongs-controversial-tweets-blames-bigotry-on-many-sides.html Inkoo Kang's podcast on Isle of Dogs: https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/wes-andersons-isle-of-dogs-reviewed-in-spoiler-filled-detail.html Jessica Prois on Sarah Jeong and Asian American anger: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sarah-jeong-new-york-times_us_5b64c745e4b0de86f4a16ae2 Zach Beauchamp defends Sarah Jeong: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/3/17648566/sarah-jeong-new-york-times-twitter-andrew-sullivan Reihan Salam on the social perks of white-bashing: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-utility-of-white-bashing/566846/ Suey Park and #CancelColbert backlash: https://newrepublic.com/article/121861/suey-parkof-cancelcolbert-fame-has-stopped-fighting-twitter College football coach says decline of football means decline of America: https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/07/18/north-carolina-head-coach-larry-fedora-says-game-under-attack