A Response to Roaming Millennial's "People of Color: You Are Not Oppressed"

Two possible attack points I see for responses: 1) seeming to imply she's crypto-racist by pointing to poverty for a short answer seems a bit rich and 2) get ready for lots of links to test scores of IQ etc, I think

No Good

Ah, I remember when that video came out and it felt like "now she's crossed the moral event horizon". It was crass to see how Roaming Millenial had to twist herself into a pretzel to justify the title of her video. Good research as always, Shaun. What I feel you could have spent more time on would have been the "culture" aspect of "poverty+culture". At least I have often made the experience that, confronted with the question of whether crime rates are caused by genetics or societal factors, people would answer "Well, I don't think it's genetics. It's in the culture, you know. Look at all the violence in the Koran, and look at how they treat their women... black people, too. They lived once in these tribal societies, and some remnants of that are probably the cause."

Benedict Marko

I personally really liked the Cuphead video, partly because I was unaware of the controversy surrounding it (and the backlash, and the backlash to the backlash, etc). I like meta-discussion around media like that, where it's not just about a particular thing, but also about the surrounding discussion. Maybe more of that?

The legal equality argument is pretty infuriating.

How about a response to TJ Kirk? He made a video on you not too long ago

I really liked this video 😊 One nitpick--the initial clip of RM talking about AsAms may see some blowback, if only bc i don't think she immediately and directly named them in that clip. Just look out for that criticism of people claiming she wasn't talking about them based on that clip. One highlight--I hadn't heard others refer to the immigration exclusions influencing minority wealth on this platform before, great point to think about. Another highlight--it pleased me that you reached out for a response from RM at the end. I've felt kinda bad about more disparaging comments of yours towards right wing YTers in the past, but i understood it was appropriate for response to their conduct. This reminded me of that nuance, and I appreciate that. Thanks again, keep up good work 😊

Public perception of Asian Americans took a dramatic shift in large part due to PR campaigns and public propaganda. This interview with Ellen Wu covers all the major plot points. I'll just share a few relevant quotes. "The model minority narrative may have started with Asian Americans, but it was quickly co-opted by white politicians who saw it as a tool to win allies in the Cold War." “Across the political spectrum, people looked to Asian Americans — in this case, Japanese and Chinese Americans — as an example of a solution, as a template for other minority groups to follow: ‘Look how they ended up! They’re doing just fine. And they did it all without political protests.’” "These stereotypes about Asian Americans being patriotic, having an orderly family, not having delinquency or crime — they became seen as the opposite of what ‘blackness’ represented to many Americans at the time." To reinforce your point about the creme of the crop coming over from Asia, “At the time that the United States did this major immigration law overhaul in 1965, policymakers decided that the nation should select its immigrants based on how they could contribute to the economy (and also to reunify families). So what we start to see is people coming to the United States with these credentials and backgrounds and training, and they seem to confirm some of the ideas that are already there — that Asian Americans are model minorities.” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/the-real-reason-americans-stopped-spitting-on-asian-americans-and-started-praising-them/?utm_term=.3b441d81f9ae" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/the-real-reason-americans-stopped-spitting-on-asian-americans-and-started-praising-them/?utm_term=.3b441d81f9ae</a>

I'm getting close to being caught up on Mike Duncan's History of Rome and am planning on immediately jumping into his new book on the fall of Republic. Just from the broad overview he gave of the topic in the podcast I feel like there are some parallels between that era and the current rise of fascism. Since Roman history and neo-nazis are both things you seem to like talking about, I'd definitely watch a video about that.

Holy shit was not expecting a new vid this fast! What a happy week. Thanks Shaun

Sebastian Shumway