Asian Americans

An article that grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go: Paper Tigers

Upon first glance: Hmm, interested, contemporary Asian American sociology...
Second look: Oh sheesh, there's no way I'm going to read 11 pages!
Third page: Wow.....I'm hooked....got to see this to the end.

Some excerpts (edited, rephrased, and interpreted by me):

Asian men need to learn to cause trouble.  Not the trouble that gets you arrested or expelled, but the kind that gets you noticed.  There are rules to follow and rules to break, rules that protect you and rules that chain you.  The art is in learning the difference.

Leaders have a distinct kind of defiance; they are willing to push themselves into the spotlight and to create some noise, to make mistakes, to become entrepreneurs, and to dare to be interesting. Until we can embody those qualities and capture the attention of society, we will forever be relegated to mid level employees.

In college, editors at the Orlando Sentinel invited him to write about sports for the paper. But when he visited the offices, “the editor came in and goes, ‘Oh, no.’ And his exact words: ‘You can’t write with that face.’ ” Later, in film class at Columbia, he wrote a script about an Asian-American hot-dog vendor. “The screenwriting teacher was like, ‘I love this. You have a lot of Woody Allen in you. But do you think you could change it to Jewish characters?’ ” Still later, after graduating from Cardozo School of Law, he took a corporate job, where other associates would frequently say, “You have a lot of opinions for an Asian guy.”

Establishing the Fountainhead

You say you want my secrets.  You say you want to know how I really feel.  I don't think you do.

Are you ready to hear me cry out for help?  Are you prepared to battle alongside me?  Will you suffer my thoughts, my fears, my dreams?  I don't think so.

I am alone.  But I am not lonely.  I do not spread my struggles in search of pity or aid. Your help is welcome, but I cannot, will not, depend upon it.

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
-Ayn Rand