>In a time when the literary world is attempting to shift away from privileged white voices, saboteurs undermine the process by appropriating PoC names.
Michael Derrick Hudson, a white man from Fort Wayne, Indiana, published several poems under the female, Chinese pen name Yi-Fen Chou. One of those poems, The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve, was selected by guest editor Sherman Alexie for the prestigious Best American Poetry anthology, which holds only seventy-five of the year’s poems.
When Hudson’s poems were originally published by Prairie Schooner in Fall 2014 (Vol 88.3) his bio only listed his pen name, allowing readers and the journal’s editors to believe that Yi-Fen Chou was the author’s real name:
However, the acknowledgement entry in BAP 2015 notes both names:
In his BAP bio, Hudson said that he considered making the nom de plume into a persona, “but nothing ever came of it.” The one thing he did notice was that poems sent out under Yi-Fen’s name seemed more likely to be accepted:
In all literary magazines, space is limited and competition is high. It’s under these circumstances when cheating — if one can “cheat” at poetry other than outright committing plagiarism — becomes incentivized because the “game” of getting one’s work published is difficult to say the least.
Is a white writer using an ethnic name cultural appropriation?
Using the name “Yi-Fen Chou” in an attempt to be published at first glance may not look like cultural appropriation. Hudson’s is a different case than transracial Rachel Dolezal, former head of the NAACP in Spokane, who is of Caucasian descent but decided to transition to Black.
But Hudson hasn’t transitioned into a Chinese person. In fact, his poems have nothing to do with Eastern history, culture, or politics. For instance, The Bees, the Flowers, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve looks nothing like the following exotic Updike poem (Americana and Other Poems):
Hudson’s case looks more like the appropriation of our expectation of ethnicity than a textbook scenario of cultural appropriation. In Sherman Alexie’s announcement about the poem, he says he was expecting a poem by a Chinese author to talk more about Chinese identity, which was a conceptual contradiction and therefore interesting and enticing:
Samuel Jones
>I only learned that Yi-Fen Chou was a pseudonym used by a white man after I’d already picked the poem and Hudson promptly wrote to reveal himself.
>Of course, I was angry at the subterfuge and at myself for being fooled by this guy. I silently cursed him and wondered how I would deal with this colonial theft.
Ian Howard
God, do mutts have nothing better to do with their time? Truly a decadent age.
So now you're appropriating even slavedom from the PoCs.
Daniel Gomez
So these people get caught out doing exactly what /pol/ says they do, white-discrimination, and it’s still just a conspiracy theory?
Josiah Morgan
based. I don't think we'll be seeing art being lauded for art's sake anytime soon. Might as well take advantage of the favoritism like this. Isn't Alexie retarded anyways?
Thomas Jones
They're not 'caught', that's just what the system is doing and they are supporting. Everyone knows this is what's happening, the only question is if you're for or against it, and if you're against it if you're brave enough to say it.
Isaiah Gomez
Go back to /pol/, you dumb retarded piece of shit. No one wants you here, undesirable fuck.
Angel Cooper
Good. Accelerate it. Just highlights the jewish mafia’s strangulation over the literary world. Truman Capote called this out.
Jace Ramirez
How can these people justify white privilege being real when they admit you have better chances to succeed if you're a minority?
Austin Anderson
People have specifically denied this sort of behaviour in all facets of society - I have been called racist and a conspiracy theorist, and now I am supposed to just swallow the “everyone knew about this” line? It’s funny how people acknowledge that Conservatives are just yesteryear’s progressives. But most people are just yesteryear’s conspiracy-theorists. Things that we have noticed for a decade are now just shrugged off like this. It is so enraging.
Hudson Butler
You are retarded if you don't understand that the point of favoring minorities is to counter white privilege
Juan Jackson
Post chin and wrist
Chase Anderson
post wife and backyard
Evan Allen
When does it stop though? When do minorities have enough representation that it's enough?
Isaiah Rivera
This. Black people are 16% of the population. Should they really make up almost 50% of published poets?
Jacob Sanchez
there isn't really a good answer for this, I see it as a temporary solution until we reach a more equitable society. The same issue exists with gender. Look at women vs men in higher education in the last few years.
Cooper Perry
So that means their the privileged one since they have race based programs?
Charles Williams
Not only do you have to swallow it but you being upset about it is pathological. Of course everyone knows it happens just as everyone knows they're supposed to say it doesn't happen while knowing that it does. It's not some genius insight, normies just get pissed off because you're interrupting their virtue signalling and therefore derailing their career ambitions. Do you think whatever editor gives legit a flying fuck about whatever Shaniqa or Chi Poo Poo wrote? Of course not, they do it to keep a lock on their comfy gig.
Ryan Peterson
>mfw not american and not a poet so don't have to deal with this
Ryan White
So when will white privilege dismantled, no need to favor minorities, and perfect equilibrium between all races achieved?
Brayden Foster
yes, it's meant to "level the playing field". It doesn't eliminate the privileges of whites though.
Ethan Ortiz
How is Yi-Fen Chou a black name?
Joshua Edwards
I'm no fortune teller. It's about gradual change, social and political
Jacob Bennett
That’s right. I’m the sick one. The one who wants literature to be judged on its own merit. Lock me up with the feces-munchers!
Landon Richardson
No. They don't want equity but to become a new ruling class. It's just an alliance of minorities against the majority led by an elite who find homogenous normative societies an obstacle to their goals. Once that majority is definitively out of power, the alliance will break up.
Evan Kelly
He's right though. This is discrimination against whites.
Michael Morgan
Based, I have submitted manuscripts with a slightly altered poc name. I mainly go for Indians, as I find there is more plausible deniability.
Joseph Myers
It will never stop because white supremacy will never stop. I know some leftists like to think one day we will beat the white heteronormative patriarchy and we'll live in a truly post-racial world where minorities will be able to feel proud of their heritage without being discriminated because of it. But the truth is that it will never happen, because white people won't let it happen. This doesn't mean they are evil nor anything like that though, just that white supremacy is inherent to them, even when they want to be allies, so we push be always pushing and reminding them that they need to make space for everyone else.
Aiden Torres
>literature to be judged on its own merit. No such thing. By the way, I was being facetious, so you should probably read more if you didn't pick up on that.
Hunter Adams
People might not consciously understand it, they don't really understand their beliefs, they just speak and act on behalf of them. It's like when if you talk to a liberal on immigration, they'll talk about how it's actually good for our culture and economy but when pressed retreat to "well yeah but white people invaded the land first so can they complain? they deserve it". He might not even understand it himself but the whole belief structure rests on an anti-white premise. Conservatives understand it too, obviously, but they're just too scared and misled to make the right arguments, like how they always make tactical universalist arguments to be indirectly pro-white (but then it always gets misapplied). An easy example is how they'll support anti-welfare policies: everyone knows it's about not taking your money and giving it to shitty blacks and puerto ricans and whatever else but it gets turned into this universal anti-socialist position. Gun control too of course another easy example. Point is that everyone fucking gets it because if you actually inspect the political conversation in the united states it's completely centered around race either directly or indirectly. You're right to be angry. Quite simply the left is malicious towards whites and the right is too cowardly, paid off, and controlled to defend them.
Asher Robinson
>the point of favoring minorities is to counter white privilege no, the point of favoring minorities (and, let's say it plainly, condemning whites -- white privilege does not exist and therefore cannot be condemned) is to gain recognition and advancement in the literary commissar career field. simple as.
Juan Martin
Or you are simply retarded and incapable of communicating effectively
John Smith
>"well yeah but white people invaded the land first so can they complain? they deserve it" But we did invade the land first, moron. Hypocrite much?
Jeremiah Martinez
If you assimilated the best white cultural practices, you could out-white the whites, especially with your unique perspectives white privileged people have no access to for the most part. Instead you are being led like cattle to be butchered by fake left wing privileged whites who are using you not to help you but to establish themselves in power.
Julian Allen
No, he's kind of right. You need to learn how to control your anger, if jokes that obvious fly over your head. Look at where you are. Even playing alone just as a way to vent your frustrations is worrying enough. Look inside and face maybe some of your own mediocrity. Realize not all of it is the fault of the evil Jews and the dumb niggers. Realize, too, that most people don't quite understand or appreciate talent or even art at a glance, let alone many.
Kayden Stewart
>fake left wing So much fucking this. The real left would never do this identity bullshit. We're all about dismantling power structures, not creating new ones that benefit us.
John Perez
This shit wouldn't happen if white publishers didn't actively exhibit bias against white people's submissions though?
Why don't they just remove the names from the submissions and read the poetry entirely based on merit?
Jacob Bell
Um, sir I mean madame, I consider myself a trans-nigger and there's nothing you can do about it...
Zachary Long
By discriminating against people with otherwise merit and enthusiasm? gotcha.
Jace White
>entirely based on merit Because that's impossible, einstein. People are ALWAYS biased and they will unconsciously favor white males, even if they are trying to be objective.
Thomas Barnes
>whote guy exposes racist, unethical system >hoes mad
many such cases!
Ryder Lopez
yes. I don't agree with it but some people in this thread are too stupid to understand the motivation behind these things.
Christian Morris
Name one privilege exclusive to whites worldwide and provide evidence
Parker Powell
I do think this casual racism is only a misunderstanding of a much more important point: individuals from a society will actively select for expressions of art that fit their cultural sensibilities, and in turn reflect those of the majority. It just so happens that for two whole American centuries those metrics were always white. There's also the arguing for beauty in art and the commonly shared human experience, but who am I kidding, that's "reddit shit" even for the recliner/keyboard intelligentsia who also bitches about systematic racism and blames it for their 300 pounds of McChicken and their socially artistic inadequacies.
Justin Clark
It isn't worldwide, this is primarily an American issue.
Michael Gutierrez
>YOURE JUST RACIST, B-BECUASE YOU ARE OK?! YOU'RE THINKING IT RIGHT NOW Ah, so your an emotional conspiracy theorist, is never going to be enough unless we just separate then, right? this is the type of self defeating mindset thats plages Black people that this social group inevitably has, it’s all self inflating racial hangups which ruin the relationship. My family never said anything nasty about the black girls I dated because they were all polite and well emoyed. However, either the girl thought everything I did was subtly racist, or her friends and family gave her so much shit and/or filled her head with doubts that either they dumped me or I dumped them because the relationship was so stressful. Of course, if I did the dumping, it was proof for the family and friends that I was a racist or something.
Black people get in their own way, water is wet, news at 11.
James Carter
I really hope this post is a joke. I wouldn't even mind seeing such a response on literally any other board, but Yea Forums should know better than this. For as much as it pretends to hate postmodernism.
Brody Ortiz
Then that is MAJORITY privilege. White privilege would be a privilege exclusive to whites. If Juanita in Mexico City and Zhou in Shanghai have the same privilege, then it isn't white privilege as they are not white.
Hunter Morris
Stop associating the English language with globalism
Christian Peterson
Leftists in my country are obsessed with calling out white privilege, but we're not a white country to begin with.
Wyatt Reyes
Do all whites speak English? Do ONLY whites speak English?
Robert Barnes
"White supremacy" will never end because it's too effective of a control mechanism by the elites. Jews and Indian are already ahead of whites and soon Chinese will be as well. I grew up with a bunch of Asian kids. My Chinese neighbours and the Filipinos down the road. We were all of roughly equivalent SES, though the Filipinos clearly we're doing better than my family. As adults, from what I've gathered seeing bits of their lives on Facebook, we all wound up comfortably middle class. Never once has there been any indication that I have enjoyed some privilege that these people haven't. It's clear that I'm not in a superior position, if anything, the Filipinos are doing a bit better than me. It's also clear that I didn't enjoy any advantage that has been denied of these people on the basis of ethnicity. "White privilege/supremacy" is the noble lie of leftism.
Jace Smith
>if anything, the Filipinos are doing a bit better than me
>they work twice as hard and do slightly better >WHITE SUPREMACY ISN'T REAL!
Adam White
Where do you think you are, retard?
Jose Garcia
What's a "more equitable society"? One in which Whites are a minority in every way? You dodge the question every time it's asked because there is no definite, real end goal. Without a concrete end goal you will continue the crusade until White culture and history are not just gone but forgotten. You're already part of the way there.
Nicholas Reyes
>assuming the non-whites always work harder than white people >RACISM AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE CAN'T EXIST
Bentley Campbell
why do leftists are so sex addicted that they cram sex in any topic? also why are leftists with politics instead of a jewish god?
Tyler Adams
>White culture and history are not just gone but forgotten NTA, but what is so terrible about this? It would not be the first time that an ethnic group is replaced, and I'm white myself, but let's be real, we have been an evil force for thousands of years.
Angel Baker
>When Chuds do well it’s because of power structures and heckin Racism. >When non-whites do well it’s because of hard work and discipline. So non-Whites are just political unable to be privileged then?
