Asian American Cultural Studies 2

Nam Le’s short story deals with the burden of representation that Asian Americans in creative arts. In this story, Nam the character, faces the issue of telling ethic stories of his father’s trauma. Despite knowing how hard he worked on it, support of people around him telling him write on something from his ethnicity, I think he shouldn’t have written on his father. I know the creative process is a strainful one, but even with strained relations you shouldn’t share the stories from those that don’t want it. If he had written on his relationship with his father and his own struggles, that would have been fine without controversy. The reading is a more ideal story than which he was originally planning to publish, which is probably done on purpose. I think Nam the author’s story works in very well as Asian American literature in the sense it’s embodies one of the main issues of Asian Americans, generational conflict. Thinking back to today I think WongFu Productions are really help pave ...

Andrew Boyd’s “Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)”, talks about using viral nature of memes to spread truth and start discussion about an issue. He alter talks about drawbacks from using memes to share a message as the meme’s meaning can be lost due to constant changes. Personally, I disagree with Boyd on the idea of using memes as an effective way to spread a message. I believe most memes start due to as form of dark humor more than a political story. The entire article reminded me of a podcast with George “Filthy Frank” Miller (starter of the Harlem Shake craze) on the NeedleDrop that had talked about the “Meme Machine”, the concept that memes spawn at nearly the same rate they die. Memes reach “death” status after they appear on mainstream media (Ellen) or begin to be policed by netizens. I feel as though many people don’t care enough to find the origins of a meme, but original creators, not those who repost, show their care because the effort...

In the article “truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)” Andrew Boyd discusses the “meme warfare”, which refers to media viruses that spread out information to the population online. Andrew also talks about how does meme is dealing with politics and culture resistance. I agree with that meme is an effective way of culture resistance because many people still not realize it. This relates to the article “electronic disturbance: an interview” written by Ricardo Dominguez. Ricardo believes that electronic methods of protest become more important because more and more people start to do more things online. In the beginning of the article, he talks about the political consciousness and popular culture context by explaining his own experience in Las Vegas. I agree with his opinion about creating protest electronic method such as meme because it can reach out to the huge population and make more people to get acknowledge about that. Electroni...

In the article, it mentions meme war which is heavily used for political and activist purposes.  However, memes are heavily used to minimize the level of intensity of most situations.  I find memes to be very problematic because it shadows the whole information of a movement.  In addition, it addresses information in a really short way which influence audience to look at situation in a small matter.  For instance, when people make serious issue into a laughing matter, it is really a disrespect to that matter.  I come across a lot of Asian memes that heavily plays on Asian American stereotypes.  These Asian memes are used to redefine what it means to be Asian American.  However, I feel like it continues to perpetuate the stereotypes that are placed upon Asians.

Boyd’s and Dominguez’s articles discuss the use affects of internet memes. Most people use memes for laughter and entertainment but turns out memes can be used as a form of activism and protest. Memes spread like a virus and information within the memes spread exponentially. My Facebook newsfeed has more memes than pictures of my friends and families. I get tagged in memes more than I get tagged in statuses and photos. In fact, I don’t read news articles or watch the news on TV but I am still relatively up to date with current events. Memes bring a lot of information to the table. For example, whatever Donald Trump does will obviously be written about in a news article. To read the news article you would have to click on the link and do some reading but some meme lord out there will turn it into a meme and suddenly everyone will know about it. I feel like when I was in high school I didn’t care much about political issues because I just didn’t really understand what was going on but ...

            Both Ricardo Dominguez and Andrew Boyd’s readings discuss methods in which the Internet can serve as a site for cultural resistance. Acknowledging the world’s recent technological advance, Dominguez co-founded an electronic activism company, called Electronic Disturbance Theater, that tries to get their message across by organizing nonviolent “electronic disturbances.” I’ve never been familiar with this term, but Dominguez’ idea makes sense considering how much of an influence the Internet and its growing traffic will only continue to grow in our world. The cyberspace is a great and strategic tool to deliver messages that can be easily be reached by billions of people across the globe. In relation to this, Boyd’s article focuses on the this recent “meme warfare” that also serves as a culture of resistance. Boyd notes that these online memes tell a certain truth about a specific and popular topic. Because the younger generation comprise of a lar...

Technology can be harmful and helpful; it all depends on who is using it. A young person can use it as a distraction like being on Instagram but there are other young people who use it in order to reach out to others for a positive cause. Dominguez’s and Boyd’s speak about the forms of protest through electronics. The mainly focus on memes, which gives any person a laugh. They compare technology to a virus because it spreads so quickly. This can be good in order to give information to those who need it but it can also be harmful because people don’t weigh articles to look if there is just a bias, they would just read the first article or post they see and believe it. But this article isn’t focusing so much on articles but memes. Everywhere we log in to, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter we see memes. These are for laughter but can be switched around to bring awareness. Some of my favorite memes are the ones that say something about inequity and it makes you giggle, but then you say “oh sh*...

Andrew Boyd discusses in “Truth Is A Virus: Meme Warfare And The Billionaires for Bush (Or Gore)” about his protest and how it raises awareness by utilizing the use of meme in the campaign. Memes are used widely today and it is almost a form of entertainment for young people. Instead of sharing pictures and videos it is a very common scene to see people shares memes on the Internet and social media. I think this idea goes well with what Omar talks in class. It might be a way to bring some laugh to the audience but it also makes people think critically about the issues at hand. As for the effect that it has with the younger audience, I think it is very effective since in the age of technology where everything can be accomplishes in a snap of a button something that is short and can deliver a point quickly is always much more effective. Also, it raises an interesting issue about politic and how most of the candidates are being mostly by money and reelection now instead of having a...

In Dominguez’s and Boyd’s article talks about forms of protest through electronics. The authors talk about the spread of internet memes. In Boyd’s article mention the advances of technology which allows information to spread quickly throughout where internet is accessible. “Spread like a virus” can be used to describe how fast things can spread. Dominguez speaks about how memes are filling up social network. If we look at social media today, twitter, facebook, Instagram, and more there are covered in memes. The use of memes can be used in many forms, to bring awareness or just for plain fun. Any popular video, and picture can be used as a meme. Hambrae was a popular example, also at the same time protested the unnecessary killing of Hambrae. Other memes about politics also bring awareness to issues but also in a humorous manner. Spongebob and other cartoons are used as memes because it’s what our generation grew up with. Other The use of memes can relate to many lives that’s why they ...

In “Truth is a vi rus: M eme Wa rfar e and the Bill io naire for Bush (or Gore),” Boyd discusses the influence of memes. Memes can go as far as spread political ideas to provide people a small laughter. The ideas of memes today can be more than just a laugh, it is carried in a more meaningful and direct yet indirect manner. For the everyday teenager, memes are something funny one shares with another and it has become a sensational trend with millennials. Even though major memes are straightforward funny, it can also be p olitical an d has viewers take another vie w of the meme. An example of this would be mainly all of the political memes involving Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. All of the memes were relating to the recent presidential elections which included the cand idate s poli tical vi ew, scandals, and straight u p roasts. It wa s relevant, at time, because it is making fun of the candidates, but also providing a platform for millennials to underst...

In both Boyd and Dominguez’s articles, they talk about new forms of activism and protest that happens electronically. Both authors also speak of the spread of internet memes and how it is almost like a virus. Boyd speaks a lot about the truth being a virus that spread rapidly. Boyd also talks about how technology has advanced so far in which we get information so quickly, making it easy for information to go from person to person. Spreading like a virus can be used as an analogy for this description.  Dominguez speaks a lot about how memes are used to fill up networks and websites. If we look at society today, most of the internet itself is covered in memes. Anything you find on YouTube, can almost be turned into a meme because there would be something funny about it. An example is how something “regular” has turn into a meme was Harambe. It went from a news report into a meme, and the meme was a form of protest against the Cincinnati zoo for killing an animal. The spread of inte...

Anrew Boyd's article, Truth is a Virus, discusses a new wave of protest using memes as a method of critiquing and resisting politics. Historically, social movements have been a space where large groupings of people physically congregrate to fight for a certain cause using symbolic images to accompy them. This takes form in certain symbols that represent the whole movement, flags, and protest art and slogans. This article was interesting because memes have created a virtual space for people to gather and share their thoughts. Symbolic images take form in memes that ironically and satirically critique certain things in politics. The collective resistance against politics makes it seem like it can be a social movement. However, the author ultimately states, that it can only do much on the virtual level, and for it to make a true impact, there needs to be physical collective action. Reading this article reminded me of my social movements class I am taking right now. According to the cl...

This article reminded me of the cultural resistance article by Robin Kelly and Bindi Shah's common sense article because memes are acts of cultural resistance. There are plenty of political memes out there about Trump right now, since he doesn't want to listen to young adults, we make memes about him instead. Memes are a way to relate to one another and still get your voice heard even if it makes you laugh because it's based on a true event. There's even a meme page for UCD students which is where students create their own memes and other students relate. One of the most popular ones is why aren't there any spoons in the DC?! I've experienced this myself, it's really hard to find spoons when you want to have a meal in the DC. Memes are great because even though people don't take them seriously they do have a message. Although most memes are comical every meme came from someone going through the situation and it's been a great way to spread messages....

Both Boyd and Dominguez talk about new forms of protest and activism that takes place electronically. I agree that these are powerful forms of cultural resistance as the internet is a space dominated by millennials who are politically active through the rapid spread of messages without them even realizing. I think the power of electronic methods of protests such as memes comes from the ability for them to reach a wide audience and better connect with everyday people. Face-to-face protest is not something accessible to most people but the internet reaches out to even more. Memes especially catch the attention of young people by use of irony and relatable humor. Methods such as harnessing networks, clogging up websites, and generating hype that is talked about by Dominguez are especially significant in today’s digital age. Electronic communication is capable of creating a lot of traffic and becoming largely visible to the general public in ways that traditional news coverage cannot. I ca...

6/6 - In Andrew Boyd’s article, “Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and The Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)” discusses memes as an act of cultural resistance. I started being aware of how political memes can be during the election and even now so. This growing trend also makes politics more accessible for the younger generations because it is simple. It doesn’t have the inaccessible language and jargon that prevent people to be part of activism. I thought the author makes an interesting point that “social movements cannot live by memes alone. Yet memes are clearly powerful- both analytically and operationally (Boyd 378)”. Meme are a great entry way for people to gain interest in politics, but I do not think that online activism should and can be the source of movement building. As the movement building continues in dynamic ways, the methods to restructure and reform things should be dynamic as well. Additionally, I thought more about the conversations we had during lectur...