Escape From Plan A

"The Hate U Give" is the new movie starring Amandla Stenberg that's based on the bestselling YA novel about a Ferguson-like incident where a policeman kills an unarmed young black man. The movie has been universally acclaimed, but it is not without its faults, especially with regards to how much responsibility it places on the black community for police violence. Teen, Oxford, and Millie talk about the pros and cons of the movie and wonder if it will age as badly as another once-heralded race-conscious movie like "Crash." Intro/Outro Song: "God Bless The Dead" by 2Pac Intro Voice Track: Thug Life Tupac Shakur Speech HQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2v4rWyCEeE) TWITTER: Teen (@mont_jiang) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Millie (@onemillicentcho) REFERENCED RESOURCES: The National Review's disturbingly positive review of "The Hate U Give": https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/black-lives-matter-movie-stealth-conservatism/ Wesley Morris's article in NYT about art vs. wokeness: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/magazine/morality-social-justice-art-entertainment.html Edward Crawford, iconic Ferguson protestor, found dead: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ferguson-protester-edward-crawford-subject-iconic-photo-found-dead-n755401 The ending of "La Haine": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IHO1LzLgIg

The Immigrant Time Warp is the phenomenon in which immigrants are locked into the social norms of their native countries at the time they left. Thus, they remain cultural time capsules, often unable to evolve with either their new cultures or their old ones. T.K., creator of the popular website Ask A Korean, has written about this issue on his blog and joins Oxford and returning guest Quyen to talk more about this topic, especially how it affects the children of these immigrants. Intro/Outro Song: Theme from "Back To The Future" Intro Voice Track: Abe Simpson from The Simpsons episode "Much Apu About Nothing" TWITTER: T.K. (@askakorean) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Quyen (@_quyenngo) REFERENCED RESOURCES: T.K.'s article about the Immigrant Time Warp: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/09/mysteries-of-buffets-and-koreans.html Quyen's Vietnam podcast: https://www.loa.fm/ T.K.'s article in NY Mag about BTS, Blackpink, and Kpop: http://www.vulture.com/2018/08/bts-black-pink-and-the-continued-success-of-k-pop.html E. Alex Jung's article about being gay in Korea: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ealexjung/korean-american-asian-american

Oriana, Jess and Teen talk about Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's historic testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, and the disturbing connection it has with Amy Chua. Intro/Outro music: "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds Intro Voice Track: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford TWITTER: Jess (@cogitatotomato) Teen (@mont_jiang) REFERENCED RESOURCES David Chen's NYT article about Yale Law's obsession with power: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/nyregion/yale-touted-kavanaugh-now-comes-a-moment-of-reckoning.html Jess's referenced article about female bosses: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/the-queen-bee-in-the-corner-office/534213/

Twitter may be a mad circus, but there are still real people and real emotions powering that spectacle, which means important things can still be learned from it. What's the meaning behind Joshua Luna's Nerds of Color brouhaha involving (yet again) WMAF? Or the Celeste Ng and Louis Leung mess involving fake male allies and sock puppet accounts? And what does Black Twitter's drama over Briahna Joy Gray vs. Tariq Nasheed, as well as the recent outburst against DeRay McKesson in Ferguson, have to do with Asian Americans? Oxford, Teen, Mark, and Sammi try to make sense of all this (and Sammi wonders if she should indeed get a Twitter account). Intro/Outro Song: "Heart and Soul" by Hoagy Carmichael Intro Voice Track: Tarleton Gillespie on Custodians of the Internet (CivilServant Community Research Summit at MIT 2018) TWITTER: Teen (@mont_jiang) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Mark (@snbatman) REFERENCED RESOURCES: Joshua Luna's "Reconciliasian" comic: https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/983778232918036481 Luna's tweetstorms about Nerds of Color incident: https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1040650527879688192 Twitter jihad against Yowei Shaw: https://i.imgur.com/lhOkrMP.jpg Academia silencing Dr. Karen Pyke: https://i.imgur.com/agHy6Br.jpg https://i.imgur.com/nwquIya.jpg Celeste Ng's tweets about not being attracted to Asian men: https://i.imgur.com/XESIDpv.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JJsxoqY.jpg Bitch Magazine on why "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" doesn't over-glorify white men: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/double-standards-in-to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before Bitch Magazine on why "Master of None" does over-glorify white women: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/aziz-ansari-white-feminism-south-asian-women Briahna Joy Gray's tweet putting class above race: https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/1041864771702808577 Tariq Nasheed's tweet about Briahna Joy Gray and white and Asian zaddies: https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1042487646671405056 Briahna Joy Gray's tweet about attacks on her interracial relationship with an Asian man: https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/1042132437847957507 Lana Condor's interview where she compares WMAF with LGBTQ rights: https://www.thecut.com/2018/08/interview-lana-condor-on-to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before.html Pride Magazine slamming Lana Condor for comparing WMAF with LGBTQ rights: https://www.pride.com/movies/2018/8/28/lana-condor-dont-compare-lgbt-discrimination-interracial-dating Activist protests DeRay McKesson at Ferguson book signing event: https://bossip.com/1668127/yikes-watch-angry-ferguson-activist-crash-deray-mckessons-book-tour-sit-yo-lyin-self-down-you-stole-money-video/ DeRay McKesson's ties to Teach For America: https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/why-deray-mckessons-plan-baltimores-schools-looks-it-comes-right-out-teach Vanity Fair's profile on DeRay McKesson: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/09/deray-mckessons-vest-is-forever

This is an episode we recorded a couple months back but didn't release. Jess and Teen were discussing the qipao prom photos -- something we're sure nobody wants to revisit. But instead of just the photos, we focused more on the huge media backlash against Asian Americans in the mainstream media, triggered by that most trivial of events: the viral tweet. Some lever must be turning these small things into big things. What can we meaningfully learn from this lever? Intro Song: Intro to "Aggretsuko" TWITTER Teen (@mont_jiang) Jess (@cogitato_tomato)

At last, the day has come! Long-time chum of Plan A, Trevor Beaulieu of the podcast Champagne Sharks, comes aboard as a guest to discuss the fascinating parallels in the black and Asian media/activist class, especially in how much they're governed by the laws of mainstream white liberalism. Trevor has also been a guest on leftist shows like Chapo Trap House and The Michael Brooks Show. He has also written for publications such as The Intercept. Jess, Teen, Mark, and Oxford join him on this episode. Intro/Outro Song: "Here" by Ruby Ibarra Intro Voice Track: Malcolm X on freedom, justice, and equality (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i3v8MPzz-c) TWITTER: Trevor: @rickyrawls Jess: @cogitatotomato Teen: @mont_jiang Mark: @snbatman Oxford: @oxford_kondo REFERENCED RESOURCES: Trevor's article on The Intercept about Kaepernick: https://theintercept.com/2017/10/05/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protest-trump-nfl/ Trevor on Ep. 224 of Chapo Trap House: https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-224-cortez-the-killer-feat-trevor-beaulieu-and-katherine-krueger-7218 Trevor on Ep. 52 of The Michael Brooks Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9rpbVQCoqM Champagne Sharks episode on Brookings Institute's study on black wealth: https://soundcloud.com/champagnesharks/cs-079-black-men-and-weath-study-feat-tommy-curry-drtjc-04012018 Champagne Sharks episode on Luvvie Ajayi: https://soundcloud.com/champagnesharks/cs-112-luvvie-ajayi-and-black-blackface-double-length-08262018 Slate's "The Waves" podcast on "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" (Plan A part at 17:00 mark): http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/doublex_gabfest/2018/08/the_waves_on_to_all_the_boys_i_ve_loved_before_slow_burn_and_peak_desirability.html "Past, Present" podcast about alt-right's Asian fetish (Plan A part at 15:00 min mark): http://www.pastpresentpodcast.com/episodes/2018/1/15/episode-114-alt-right-asian-fetish-temporary-protected-status-and-raw-water "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang: https://www.amazon.com/American-Born-Chinese-Gene-Luen/dp/0312384483 Oxford's article on "To All The Boys I've Loved Before": https://planamag.com/to-all-the-boys-i-ve-loved-before-has-creepy-racial-things-going-on-ad513e4dd470 "Dominate", a short story from The Root: https://www.theroot.com/dominate-1825451881 Jenny Han's NYT op-ed about Asian representation: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/opinion/sunday/crazy-rich-asians-movie-idol.html Inkoo Kang's review on Slate of "To All The Boys I've Loved Before": https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-movie-review-netflixs-new-rom-com-pales-next-to-crazy-rich-asians.html Vox's review of "Sierra Burgess Is A Loser": https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/9/7/17830300/netflix-sierra-burgess-is-a-loser-review The Toxic Drama on YA Twitter: http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html DeRay McKesson's essay on Storm: http://www.vulture.com/2018/09/i-was-raised-by-storm.html

In this grab bag of a Labor Day podcast, the trio of Oxford, Mark, and Sammi (a returning guest from Ep. 36: Difficulties in Asian Women-to-Women Dialogues About WMAF) go from lauding the new John Cho movie "Searching" to eventually getting fed up at how neglected poor Asian Americans are in our current social and political climate. Along the way, we diss the Racist OC Barbie Lawyer and #walkaway Youtube nano-celebrity, Zach Hing. Intro/Outro Song: "Think (ft. Jay Park)" by Reddy Intro Voice Track: John Cho on His Parents & New Movie "Searching" (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) TWITTER: Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Mark (@snbatman) REFERENCED RESOURCES: Amy Yu abduction in Allentown, Pennsylvania: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/18/a-mom-suspected-her-teen-daughter-was-dating-a-45-year-old-police-found-them-together-in-mexico/?utm_term=.81cfa90fbac2 Abduction and murder of Yingying Zhang at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-chinese-scholar-ui-kidnapping-20180116-story.html California Lawyer Makes Racially-Charged Comments Over ‘Crazy Rich Asians’: https://deadline.com/2018/09/crazy-rich-asians-searching-christina-ignatius-racist-orange-county-diversity-inclusion-asian-amerians-1202455928/ The Asian American Age (by Ross Douthat): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/opinion/asian-american-harvard-lawsuit.html The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/ Zach Hing's #walkaway story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTq-hkR-yAc "Not My White Savior" by Julayne Lee: https://www.amazon.com/Not-My-White-Savior-Memoir/dp/1945572434 "The Hundred-Year Flood" by Matthew Salesses: https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Year-Flood-Matthew-Salesses/dp/1477829547 "A Cruelty Special To Our Species: Poems" by Emily Yoon: https://www.amazon.com/Cruelty-Special-Our-Species-Poems/dp/0062843680 "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" by Ottessa Moshfegh: https://www.amazon.com/Year-Rest-Relaxation-Ottessa-Moshfegh/dp/0525522115

Well this is timely! In the year that has come and gone since the start of Plan A, we’ve broached topics that have either been ignored or suppressed by the mainstream Asian American community. But it’s one thing to discuss them; it’s another to take positive actions to fix problems. So the question for discontent Asian American guys is: what steps are necessary to finally find a way out of the bog of anger that exists online and start improving our future? Oxford, Mark, Q, and Filip take a shot at answering this all-important question. Intro Song: "Work (Instrumental)" by The Quiett Intro Voice Track: Jeremy Lin's press conference, answering question by Kevin Kreider (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paSH0Ip9pcU) TWITTER: Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Mark (@snbatman) Q (@allyouneedis_q) Filip (@filipgwriting) REFERENCED RESOURCES: Ivan Krastev on European Meritocracy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/the-rise-and-fall-of-european-meritocracy.html Hanh Nguyen's article on lack of Asian male characters in "To All The Boys I've Loved Before": https://www.indiewire.com/2018/08/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-netflix-jenny-han-no-asian-male-love-interest-1201995975/ Vulture calls out "Master of None" for lack of non-white female love interests: http://www.vulture.com/2015/11/master-of-none-and-interracial-dating-on-tv.html Why Are Brown Men So Infatuated With White Women Onscreen?: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/imransiddiquee/why-are-brown-men-so-infatuated-with-white-women-onscreen Brown Men Have Reduced Brown Women To A Punchline: https://qz.com/india/1016554/aziz-ansari-hasan-minhaj-kumail-nanjiani-brown-actors-have-reduced-brown-women-to-a-punchline/ "Private Citizens" by Tony Tulathimutte: https://www.amazon.com/Private-Citizens-Novel-Tony-Tulathimutte/dp/0062399101 "The Dead Do Not Improve" by Jay Caspian Kang: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Do-Not-Improve-Novel/dp/0307953890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535338166&sr=1-1&keywords=dead+do+not+improve "The Hundred-Year Flood" by Matthew Salesses: https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Year-Flood-Matthew-Salesses/dp/1477829547

Almost all of Asian America has waited with bated breath for Crazy Rich Asians. Plan A has had its skepticism and doubt, but did the movie win them over and reveal that under the surface of every cynic is a romantic who yearns to believe again? Millicent (an NYC-based indie filmmaker) and Quyen (an LA-based activist and actress) join Oxford and Mark as special guests to discuss everything about Crazy Rich Asians, including expectations, emotional reactions, the portrayal of Asian men, the Awkwafina mini-controversy, and the issue of Henry Golding being cast as the male lead. Intro/Outro Song: "Yellow" performed by Katherine Ho (originally by Coldplay) TWITTER: Millicent (@onemillicentcho) Quyen (@_quyenngo) Mark (@snbatman) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) REFERENCED RESOURCES: Calling Bullshit on Henry Golding Casting Controversy: https://www.glamour.com/story/crazy-rich-asians-controversy Dumbfoundead dunking on Hermit Hwarang: https://i.imgur.com/6HdcOcW.jpg 2019 HBO APA Visionaries Short Film Competition: https://www.hbovisionaries.com/ Quyen's Vietnam podcast: www.loa.fm

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