Prior to arriving in this city, I knew of 1 other person living here currently. Luckily, she's a gem (and a fellow so-cal Filipina), but other than that ZERO. That's 1 out of 7,601,061(one- seven million six thousand one sixty firsth, if you wanted to say that fraction out loud). I've been here for just over 2 months now, and have learned a lot in my isolation. You ready? Here goes:
Filipinos are so far underrepresented in the Cradle of Liberty. There is one Filipino store, that isn't in the immediate Boston-Metro area. No Filipino restaurants. Other than my long lost college friend, I have not run into any other Filipinos. I must have really taken So-Cal for granted in this respect because I miss it. I've probably cooked 10 cans of corned beef and spam, and am waiting for the fall and winter seasons to start cooking more Filipino comfort foods. The smell of sinigang, nilaga, adobo, etc will be a nice change from that moldy musk in the hallways. (wink)
Isolation has made me appreciate my own heritage but also made me realize how precious it is in this predominantly white city. (Debatably) luckily for me, I live in Allston, an area that is rich in ethnic restaurants, and people of color, which (you guessed it) isn't a favorable place to be, and is loaded with college kids. A 20 minute train ride east, the faces change and while I blend in fine as a model minority who could be "half-white" anyway, I am very aware that this a different predominantly white crowd that's unlike Santa Barbara.
Speaking of Santa Barbara, Jezebel posted an article about a yoga studio in the American Riviera:
And while I wasn't surprised, just as I wasn't at the George Zimmerman not-guilty verdict, I was not about to just move on with my day. After finding this article, I checked out the studio's Facebook page to find the original advertisement for this "Ghetto Fabulous" yoga class.
And when you click on "Need some ideas," what you'll get is a Wiki-how-to on being "Ghetto Fabulous." Dang.
When the Jezebel article came out, there were only 30 comments on the yoga studio's Facebook page under the above ad and I was the only sharer of the post. Today, 24-hours later, there are 168 comments and 16 shares. #backlash
Funny enough, before the backlash and 2 days after the ad for the "Ghetto Fabulous" event, this was posted by the studio and is also receiving some attention:
Dang. Real winners eh? I decided to Yelp about it, and today there are 3 more 1-star reviews on their page. I'm glad others are trying to spread the word.
I have had the conversation with some people that pop culture is a non-subject, but I disagree. Why? Because of the above at the very least. It's annoying, yes, but the implications of how these issues are a mirror of where people are, especially white people, is very important. Like Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," these incidents aren't blatant; these incidents aren't clearly fucked up (but oh they are). But also like "Blurred Lines," they aren't isolated. America serves up millions of insults and setbacks every day. It's so easy to write off pop culture, but why not challenge it head on?
I am a student of the humanities. I study human behaviors and patterns. Popular culture is exactly that: popular human culture. Right now, it's heavy on cultural appropriation, a false sense of racial and sexual confidence, and colorBLINDness (like, y'all must be straight-blind if you can't tell y'all are messing up).
Pop culture is a window into the real world that we all need to get to. The worlds of "Chiraqs" and Trayvon Martin murders and rape and destruction and violence. If it's a window, I will draw up the blinds and let that ugly light shine through.
So this is me reintroducing myself in a timezone that's three hours ahead of where I've always been and where I was 2 months ago, in a humid, unreliable climate. I'm still trying to keep the well clean, one blog post at a time.
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