Perpetual Foreigners- Filipino Americans depicted as international students

ASAM NEWS

A RECENT promotional flyer intended to portray international Virginia Tech students instead featured a photo of members of the Filipino American Student Association. All the students pictured are American, most of them from Virginia, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Virginia Tech junior Rajni Kapania, who posted the Twitter photo of the flyer, said she wanted to raise awareness of the issue, finding it offensive that her American friends would be touted as international for promotional materials.

“These are just my friends,” said Kapania. “I’m standing up for them.”

Backlash to the flyer followed quickly. The Asian American Student Union, which umbrellas 13 other Virginia Tech student organizations, called the flyer a microaggression that reinforces the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype in an open letter to the Virginia Tech community.

The umbrella organization is calling for “solutions as we move forward,” which include “public acknowledgement from senior administration to the Virginia Tech community,” “convening a task force to look at how to prevent marginalized student photos from being used,” and “a review of current practices of how photographs are used within the university for promotion of diversity.”

The image was also used on the Cranwell International Center’s website. School officials have since apologized and removed the image from promotional materials online and tried to make sure any flyers that went up were taken down.

Executive Director of Communications and Information Technology for Student Affairs Hunter Gresham issued an apology statement to the Asian Pacific Islander community, reports Collegiate Times.

“I am now aware of the impact, hurt and discomfort that I’ve caused to members of the [Asian/Pacific Islander] community,” Gresham wrote in an email. “As such, it is with heartfelt sincerity that I say I am truly sorry. I clearly operated from a place of insensitivity, privilege, and haste … despite training, awareness and a personal commitment to be different and do better.”

University spokeswoman Tracy Vosburgh said that school officials have reached out to the Asian American student group in hopes of having a conversation on the matter.

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Muslim iashion blogger told, 'You don't sound American'

SCREEN CAPTURE / WGN

Honda Katebi, right, was taken by surprise by the political turn of an interview on fashion.

ASAM NEWS

A FEATURE INTERVIEW with a fashion blogger took a sudden turn to a more controversial topic on WGN in Chicago Feb. 14.

News anchors Robin Baumgarten and Larry Potash were interviewing fashion blogger Hoda Katebi, who is an Iranian/American, about the intersection of fashion and politics.

Potosh then made the transition from Katebi’s upbringing in Oklahoma to her views on the Middle East political situation.

“Let’s talk about nuclear weapons,” Potash said. “Some of our viewers might say we cannot trust Iran. What are your thoughts?”

Katebi chuckled nervously and appeared stunned by the question.

At first Hoda Katebi appeared surprised by the question,
but she recovered nicely and turned the interview into
a learning moment.

Nonetheless she answered it, moving seamlessly into issues saying many might questions whether the U.S. can be trusted, making references to American imperialism and colonization in the Middle East.

To that, Baumgarten responded “A lot of Americans might take offense to that. You’re an American, you don’t sound like an American.”

“That’s because I've read,” Katebi responded, not missing a beat. She brought up the slavery of Blacks to the United States to the genocide of the indigenous people of the U.S.-Native Americans.

Katebi expanded on her thoughts about the interview in her blog, JooJoo Azad.

“The double standards is mind-blowing,” she said. “Not to mention that what, then, must an American 'sound like'? Are they saying that Americans must not question their government, must see the world in black & white, and chose simplicity over nuanced understandings? But furthermore, what an incredibly loaded statement to say to a visibly Muslim woman on live TV, pushing every stereotype of 'other,' 'foreign,' and 'incompatible with America' that Muslims are so systematically characterized as–and therefore used as justification to commit violence against, both here and abroad. If a white person said the same things as I did I guarantee you their 'American-ness' would not have been questioned.”

Baumgarten has since apologized for her question after callers and tweeters brought the faux pas to the station's attention.

Watch the entire interview, which has gone viral:

In an interview in Glamour magazine, Katebi says she shouldn't have been surprised by the questions, because in hindsight, the interview exposed assumptions about Muslim women she's faced for years. "It was a very powerful moment because you’re telling someone who’s visibly Muslim on live TV, for a large audience, [that she] doesn’t sound American? That of course perpetuates all sorts of biases: Always being foreign, always being other, always being incompatible with the West."

Katebi added that the TV interview should be a learning opportunity, in more ways than one. "Something I learned first and foremost is that we really should not let ourselves normalize micro-aggressions in any form or sense," she says. ... I really just want people to understand that this happens all the time. I want people to think about the larger issue."

(Views From the Edge contributed to this article.)

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