"A white guy named Michael couldn’t get his poem published. Then he became Yi-Fen Chou."

[Spaldeen]

Morning Mix

A white guy named Michael couldn’t get his poem published. Then he became Yi-Fen Chou.


By Sarah Kaplan September 8  Follow @sarahkaplan48


Sherman Alexie read hundreds, maybe thousands, of poems last year while editing the 2015 edition of Best American Poetry, an annual anthology that comes out Tuesday. Just over six dozen of them made the final cut, including “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” by Yi-Fen Chou, 20 brief, cynical lines on the absurdity of desire.

But after Alexie had chosen the poem for the collection, he promptly got a note from the author, who turned out not to be the rueful, witty Chinese American poet he’d imagined while reading the piece.

It was written by Michael Derrick Hudson of Fort Wayne, Ind., a genealogist at the Allen County Public Library who, given his field of expertise, could probably easily explain that he is not of Asian descent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/08/a-white-guy-named-michael-couldnt-get-his-poem-published-then-he-became-yi-fen-chou/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_mix

I'm still trying to figure out what to think about this.

[Nye Bevan]

1. The judge admitted that he gave the poem extra consideration because he believed the author

to be Asian.

Seems to me like this whole thing reflects worse on the judging than on the guy who was ingenious enough to take advantage of the judges' bias.

[Javaman]

2. it's apparent that the judges don't determine what gets published via the quality of work.

bravo to the author for working the system in his favor.

[Spaldeen]

4. I'm not a poetry expert

But it looks pretty bad to me. I can't believe it ever got published!

[Javaman]

5. Like I said it appears as if they don't judge via quality of work. that is a good bad thing. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. Good point.

I just read it and agree. Doesn't cater to my tastes in poetry.

[hack89]

3. Either the poem stands on its own or it doesn't

the race of the author should be irrelevant.

[GusBob]

6. That's the point.

It was rejected 40 times until only the authors name was changed. the poem stayed the same

Very clever

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. It's a mix, alright.

“When you’re doing this from a position of entitlement, you’re appropriating an ethnic identity that’s one, imaginary, and two, doesn’t have access to the literary world,” poet and Chapman University professor Victoria Chang told The Washington Post. “And it diminishes categorically all of our accomplishments. He sort of implies that minorities are published because we’re minorities, not because of our work. That’s just insulting because it strips everything we’ve worked so hard for.”

And what if this had been done a dozen times, and not just once? With a specific idea to test scientifically the notion that identity might affect acceptance rates? Would it still have been 'insulting' as part of a scientific study, if indeed it did prove that proclaimed identity changed acceptance rates for poetry?

He did indeed perform an ethnic appropriation, but did he, in so doing actually benefit from a bias that proclaimed 'diversity' made a poem better? That the importance or quality of the poem changes based on who wrote it?

[Spaldeen]

9. Good question.

It also makes me wonder another question. Is racial identity as fluid as gender? If he chooses to write as he believes an Asian person would write what makes that different than someone who chooses to dress the way a woman dresses, and claim to be a woman? Are they different? I'm asking, not making the statement that it's true.

Maybe this is too complicated for me.

[marmar]

10. +1000

[DefenseLawyer]

11. If I take a bucket of paint and throw it at a canvas, it's a mess

If an artist with some good buzz in the New York galleries does it, it's a masterpiece. These arbiters of what is "art" will always been subjective. This is a good example of that reality. The lesson is, don't let an editor or gallery owner tell you what to like.

[snort]

12. Right.

[dembotoz]

13. if you are a small fish in a big pond find a smaller pond

sort of reminds me of the naacp person a few months back who turn out to be white....

this isn't some pol trying to boast of a war record when he never served.

this isn't some professor with fake credentials

this isn't even a job seeker putting a overly positive spin on a resume


interesting

[snooper2]

14. reverse- Yi-Fen Chou couldn't get published so he changed his name to Michael

Thread goes over 220 replies

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

15. My housemate actually deals with memberships in an international organization.

The majority of the asian members use english first names as part of their business, and on correspondence.

[snooper2]

16. I'm in telecom I see that as an outlier not the norm, most will use an abbreviated version

or just their name- I see it just looking at the random business cards laying around on my desk I really should clean up LOL

[progressoid]

17. what to think about this?

People have biases and prejudices. Names, skin color, gender, hair, physique, location, religion, etc. affect even those of us who think we are open minded.

[Dr. Strange]

18. Same thing happened with the Wu-Tang Clan.

#NotReally

[MisterP]

19. it might fall under "fetishization"--a sort of exoticism that plays on past and present guilts

since people have fairness in them, there's a value in others knowing you've been oppressed; your asshole uncle might call it "reverse racism" or "the soft bigotry of low expectations" but he's not even half right

and of course for some, it's a great way to rebuff criticism (online, many more White white knights defended Dolezal and Andrea Smith than did AAs/Cherokee) or even to claim an identity (valued by the NAACP or UCSC) without having to undergo the (racist but also economic) experiences that built up such value and the group identity they're attracted to/exploiting

in academese, it fetishizes because it puts value in "what" you are rather than what someone's experienced, but also because it reifies, by turning everything into "A Chinese-American experience"

to show how far white knighting can go, when Coakley's UVA fabrication was ripped in half by the police Jessica Valenti basically said it didn't matter what the facts, data, or theories are, the dismissal showed that victims can't get a fair hearing! David Stoll accused Menchu's advocates of doing this and he was thoroughly wrong--but there are fact-proofed people running around who don't care if they're actually right and openly mock people for actually doing something, as long as they can get a high off it, and they applaud and egg people on online; so racial issues aren't just positions but claims on power, hence the resistance to establishing men's shelters

it's almost like race and gender are complicated issues or summat!