You're a disgrace... in your face.

Rarely do I ever feel compelled enough to blog about something I've read for one of my courses, but this one was pretty damn good:

An excerpt Flexible Citizenship (for my Race and Racism seminar.)
"In 1989, a Hong Kong multimillionaire, Mrs. Chan bought a house in the upscale Marina District. Chan lived in Hong Kong and rented out her Marina property. A few years later, she obtained the approval of the city to add a third story to her house, but she failed to notify her neighbors. When they learned of her plans, they complained that the third story would block views of the Palace of Fine Arts and cut off sunlight in an adjoining garden. The neighbors linked up with a citywide group to pressure City Hall. The mayor stepped in and called for a city zoning study, thus delaying the proposed renovation. At a neighborhood meeting, someone declared, "We don't want to see a second Chinatown here." Indeed, there is already a new "Chinatown" outside the old Chinatown, in the middle-class Richmond District. This charge thus raised the specter of a spreading Chinese urbanscape encroaching on the heterogeneous European flavor of the city. The remark, and its implied racism compelled the mayor to apologize to Chan, and the planning commission subsequently approved a smaller addition to her house.

However, stung by the racism and the loss on her investment, and bewildered because the neighbors could infringe on her property rights, Chan, a transnational developer, used her wealth to mock the city's self-image as a bastion of liberalism. SHE PULLED all of her investments out of the United States and decided to donate her million dollar house to the homeless. The add insult to injury, she stipulated that her house was not to be used by any homeless of Chinese descent. (Here's the kicker) Her architect, an American-Chinese, told the press, "You can hardly find a homeless Chinese anyway." Secure in her overseas location, Chan fought the Chinese stereotype by stereotyping American homeless people as non-Chinese and challenging her civic-minded neighbors to demonstrate the moral liberalism the professed."

Wow. What a smart ass woman. I wish you could read the notes I wrote down for this passage. For the last couple sentences (the best part of this passage) you would see in clear red ink: "HAHAHAHAHAHA" from me. I think she's a fucking genius.