Nothing feels better than writing a good protest letter once in a while whether it's to free Tibet, free the latest political prisoner or to get racist shirts pulled off the shelves at Abercrombie. People really don't take advantage of the fact that we live in a democratic society where we can take action to induce social change without getting caned or executed. North Americans really need to get more active. Complaining to your friends gets you nowhere, but organized action can actually produce results.

Lately I've turned my attention back to media portrayals of Asians since it's my area of study. Just recently, efforts to get Banzai off the air (from Fox) were successful. Banzai is a UK-made parody of Japanese game shows complete with fake accents, horrible Asian stereotypes and even Caucasians in yellow face. It would pretty much be the equivalent of showing Blacks wearing bones pierced through their noses and cooking people in cast iron pots, plus a good number of Caucasian characters in black face for good measure. It's just not right and anyone who thinks Banzai is harmlessly funny is WAY off base and needs a good history lesson. Letters to Fox's advertisers got the show pulled but now it's being picked up by Comedy Central. If you want to help get this bullshit off the air go to the Asian Media Watch site and send off a few letters to the network and their advertisers. Asian Americans are typically stereotyped as passive and politically inactive, let's show 'em otherwise.