Melissa Chen Profile picture
Apr 3, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Asian American Twitter (which I just discovered is a thing) is very angry about @AndrewYang's latest op-ed saying the best way for AAs to tackle discrimination is to dig in to "American-ness" and fight for a cure.

Unsurprisingly, he got "Cathy Newmanned."
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Andrew here acknowledges the reality of racism, that it is a deeply-embedded (sometimes barely-disguised) neural program often made worse under specific circumstances.

He's clearly making an appeal for empathy and humanity in understanding the roots of this problem.
He underscores that racism is immoral, but highlights that simply yelling "don't be racist" to someone who is actually being racist is not effective.

He's a solutions guy. He calls for a pragmatic approach to "improve the encounter" he described.
People are mad, I think, because he doesn't immediately take a victimhood posture, and rather, looks inward and asks, what can *I* or *we* do differently?

Perhaps he didn't show sufficient anger about the depravity of racism.

This is anathema to modern social justice activism.
Here's where he gets Cathy Newmanned. The reading is that Andrew thinks Asian Americans have to prove their loyalty to Americanness.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that it *helps* change the circumstances in which racism flourishes.
His essay is a call from within the community (not imposed from outside) to be aware that our identities are pawns in a larger geopolitical game.

After all, national solidarity matters most at times like this.

He's asking: is there anything we can do to reinforce it?

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More from @MsMelChen

Jan 30
Another instance of journos tainting @elonmusk with the worst possible associations - this time Stalin - based on unnamed sources and baseless claims about filling top positions at OPM (Office of Personnel Management) with his “lackeys”

Let me show you what a pathetic excuse for an article this is 🧵Image
It opens with a source listing some names of incoming appointees and how they are linked to Elon’s companies.

Then they quote a professor from Harvard Kennedy School of Government who says “in the past, there have been one or maybe two political appointees in ALL of OPM” Image
The idea is that THIS year is an exception.

But a cursory look into the plumbook shows that in 2024, there were at least 17 political appointees in Biden’s OPM, excluding the open director slot.

govinfo.gov/collection/plu…Image
Read 7 tweets
Nov 14, 2023
Update: I’m on ✈️ from London to Boston

Meanwhile thank you to all who shared and offered advice. No leads yet though some annoying scammers

Here’s what’s been done so far:

Called & reported Harvard, Boston & Cambridge Police

Animal Control Boston/Cambridge & vet clinics
- Posted about 43 flyers around the park where he was last seen (will post more)

- Posted online & called MSPCA, Animal Rescue League

- Posted , Nextdoor, Pawboost, PetRadar, LostMyDoggie

Still in problem-solving mode. If you have tips, please share! 🙏 missingdogsmass.com
Image
After landing in Boston I went straight to the park. It was already nightfall, around 7pm. Walked and retraced their steps.

Around 9pm I saw one coyote standing on a hill nearby and then crossed Soldiers Field Road and saw two more (recorded them).

I don’t have much hope tbh Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 3, 2023
I wonder how different our world would be like if our leaders and intelligentsia weren't so completely divorced from violence - both simulated or real.

Ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato - meaning "broad shoulders," so named because of a physique honed by wrestling - were not
merely men who lived their lives in their heads, pontificating in abstraction away from any understanding of savagery and the zero sum nature of conflict. Both Hemingway and Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Today, the stereotype that characterizes our erudite class is the
bespectacled tweed-wearing waif who turns down his nose at the idea of physicality. UFC, wrestling, heay weight lifting - these are signifiers of low social status or of a lesser intellect.

We need an elite who is in constant contact with reality, who
Read 6 tweets
Sep 16, 2023
Pay attention to what’s happening in Ireland.

@shellenberger says that Irish hate speech bill (soon to be passed) is one of the worst he has seen in decades of policy work.

He commends @FreeSpeechIre and @Ben_Scallan for their work on this issue.
Never would I expect that one by one, Western nations would increasingly adopt the draconian censorship laws of the country of my birth (🇸🇬).

The Irish legislation will criminalize any speech - in person or offline -
deemed hateful or offensive by anyone of a protected category (so, basically anyone).

No actual definition of what actually constitutes ‘hate’ is articulated, and when questioned,
Read 5 tweets
Jun 30, 2023
My latest for @TheSpectator:

Affirmative Action backfires in many ways, failing to help the minority students it purports to help. Blacks feel like they don’t belong; Asians feel resentful.

Singapore rejects AA but has a solution that has seen success

https://t.co/FSVVpsikDNthespectator.com/topic/singapor…
“Like many of the other ideas pushed during the racial reckoning (see: defund the police), affirmative action appears to be yet another manifestation of what @robkhenderson has so astutely called “luxury beliefs.” Does the actual fate of these students not matter as much as their… https://t.co/2UEJXrfuEgtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…


“Asians have to score 450 points higher than black students & 150 points higher than whites to have the same chance of admission to Harvard.”

“Majority of Americans oppose affirmative action at public universities by a margin of 74% to 26%, including a solid majority of Dems”

Read 7 tweets
Apr 25, 2023
In the early 2000s when I left Singapore for America, most Singaporeans admired the US.

My sense being back here these days is that not only is it no longer true, there's a considerable amount of contempt for America due to its cultural export of woke garbage.

Relatives and
high school friends who I never once ever talked politics with my whole life suddenly are eager to engage me on how American politics and how "crazy America has become."

Sometimes it's about crime, sometimes it's about lawlessness or the homeless/drug epidemic, but increasingly
it's about "the gender stuff."

They ask me why this is going on, and how it came to pass that reality is actively being denied en masse. They name-drop Professor @jordanbpeterson and @benshapiro, and tell me they've all seen my clips on Joe Rogan and other pods.

No longer do
Read 5 tweets

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