Just a quick post to link to an interesting and thought provoking article I ran across:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0646,chang,74988,2.html
The article over a year old, but it's highly relevant. It's about the Yellow Fever phenomenon, only from the perspective of the Asian female. It addresses many of the points I've ranted/blogged about before - the objectification, the myth of the Asian female as submissive and perfect, etc. Vickie also mentions some music references about stuff that's been on my mind but I haven't written about - stuff like Gwen Stefani's ridiculous "Harajuku Girls" (like she says, if it had been four black women called I dunno, the "Compton Girls", you can be damn sure that Jesse Jackson would've been on her ass in no time flat) or Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo's Yellow Fever anthem "El Scorcho" - Cuomo, incidentally, ended up marrying a Japanese girl last I heard.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0646,chang,74988,2.html
The article over a year old, but it's highly relevant. It's about the Yellow Fever phenomenon, only from the perspective of the Asian female. It addresses many of the points I've ranted/blogged about before - the objectification, the myth of the Asian female as submissive and perfect, etc. Vickie also mentions some music references about stuff that's been on my mind but I haven't written about - stuff like Gwen Stefani's ridiculous "Harajuku Girls" (like she says, if it had been four black women called I dunno, the "Compton Girls", you can be damn sure that Jesse Jackson would've been on her ass in no time flat) or Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo's Yellow Fever anthem "El Scorcho" - Cuomo, incidentally, ended up marrying a Japanese girl last I heard.
First a quick apology to all those who have left comments on the blog; I didn't realize that they were being 'screened' and so weren't showing up on the actual website. I've passed all of them through and they should now be showing up.
Anyway, today's post brings us to another Hollywood abomination, this time Dreamworks' upcoming Kung Fu Panda. It's an animated feature starring Jack Black as a panda who wants to learn Kung Fu. It does have actual Asians like Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, and James Hong, but really, it's just another movie equating Asia = martial arts in the public consciousness.
Chan, Liu, and Hong are all actually Chinese, so that's kind of an accomplishment when you consider Hollywood's track record of sticking Chinese actress in Japanese roles etc. etc. But then I heard that the theme song for the movie would be sung by Korean pop star (and mortal enemy of Stephen Colbert), Rain. Really? Rain? I guess it makes no difference for a movie set in China to have a Korean singer doing the main theme, right? I mean we all look alike anyway, right?
It could be especially damaging considering as an animated feature it's likely going to be marketed mostly to kids, who don't know any better. I mean, if I had my way, and if it weren't for all the penis-and-marijuana jokes, I'd make kids watch Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo instead of this. The first Harold and Kumar was still one of the more authentic depictions of American-born Asians growing up and living in the US. Penis-and-marijuana jokes aside.
Other than that... I didn't make any posts about Valentine's Day this year. Ah well.
Anyway, today's post brings us to another Hollywood abomination, this time Dreamworks' upcoming Kung Fu Panda. It's an animated feature starring Jack Black as a panda who wants to learn Kung Fu. It does have actual Asians like Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, and James Hong, but really, it's just another movie equating Asia = martial arts in the public consciousness.
Chan, Liu, and Hong are all actually Chinese, so that's kind of an accomplishment when you consider Hollywood's track record of sticking Chinese actress in Japanese roles etc. etc. But then I heard that the theme song for the movie would be sung by Korean pop star (and mortal enemy of Stephen Colbert), Rain. Really? Rain? I guess it makes no difference for a movie set in China to have a Korean singer doing the main theme, right? I mean we all look alike anyway, right?
It could be especially damaging considering as an animated feature it's likely going to be marketed mostly to kids, who don't know any better. I mean, if I had my way, and if it weren't for all the penis-and-marijuana jokes, I'd make kids watch Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo instead of this. The first Harold and Kumar was still one of the more authentic depictions of American-born Asians growing up and living in the US. Penis-and-marijuana jokes aside.
Other than that... I didn't make any posts about Valentine's Day this year. Ah well.
First I would be remiss not to say: Happy Lunar New Year (AKA Chinese
New Year, since evidently some people don't know that countries other
than China celebrate it). I hope you all have a prosperous Year of the
Rat.
A few posts ago I talked about Heavenly Kingdom, which is a long-awaited collaboration featuring Jet Li and Jackie Chan... and randomly has a white dude as the main character. Of course, I'm not at all surprised that there's now this upcoming movie, 21.
The basic premise of the movie is simple - it's based on the true story of a handful of MIT computer/math students who analyzed the casino odds, came up with ways to predict when face cards would be coming up, and basically took a bunch of casinos for millions of dollars. They even wrote a book about it called "Bringing Down the House", and now it's being made into the movie.
So what's the big deal? Well, the majority of these students were Asians. Blah blah blah insert stereotyping about how well duh, math and computer students at MIT are almost by definition Asian. But now take a look at the movie poster. Or the movie trailer. Huh, that's funny... the main characters are now white. There's still some Asians left, but they're just window dressing. It's not like they wanted to make a role for a blockbuster actor like Brad Pitt or anything, either - I've never heard of this Jim Strugess dude. No, it's pretty much clear that the only reason this whitewash was done is that Hollywood still thinks it's unpalatable to have a movie where the leading men are Asian. Asian Week noted that there would be much more outcry if it were the true story of a black guy that was changed to a white guy in the film adaptation; I guess just like I noted previously about politics, Asians don't complain enough and thus just get run over by the Hollywood machine.
There's also the upcoming Speed Racer adaptation from the Wachowski brothers which of course changes the entire Racer family to whites, but that's more forgiveable considering that when the anime was brought over to the US in the first place they changed all the names. Few people know that Speed Racer's original name was the very Japanese Mifune Gou. I still don't understand why there are random ninjas throwing around shuriken in the new Speed Racer trailer, though. I hope it's not just because the Wachowski brothers think "hey, kids love ninjas as much as they love kung fu, let's just toss some in there!"
A few posts ago I talked about Heavenly Kingdom, which is a long-awaited collaboration featuring Jet Li and Jackie Chan... and randomly has a white dude as the main character. Of course, I'm not at all surprised that there's now this upcoming movie, 21.
The basic premise of the movie is simple - it's based on the true story of a handful of MIT computer/math students who analyzed the casino odds, came up with ways to predict when face cards would be coming up, and basically took a bunch of casinos for millions of dollars. They even wrote a book about it called "Bringing Down the House", and now it's being made into the movie.
So what's the big deal? Well, the majority of these students were Asians. Blah blah blah insert stereotyping about how well duh, math and computer students at MIT are almost by definition Asian. But now take a look at the movie poster. Or the movie trailer. Huh, that's funny... the main characters are now white. There's still some Asians left, but they're just window dressing. It's not like they wanted to make a role for a blockbuster actor like Brad Pitt or anything, either - I've never heard of this Jim Strugess dude. No, it's pretty much clear that the only reason this whitewash was done is that Hollywood still thinks it's unpalatable to have a movie where the leading men are Asian. Asian Week noted that there would be much more outcry if it were the true story of a black guy that was changed to a white guy in the film adaptation; I guess just like I noted previously about politics, Asians don't complain enough and thus just get run over by the Hollywood machine.
There's also the upcoming Speed Racer adaptation from the Wachowski brothers which of course changes the entire Racer family to whites, but that's more forgiveable considering that when the anime was brought over to the US in the first place they changed all the names. Few people know that Speed Racer's original name was the very Japanese Mifune Gou. I still don't understand why there are random ninjas throwing around shuriken in the new Speed Racer trailer, though. I hope it's not just because the Wachowski brothers think "hey, kids love ninjas as much as they love kung fu, let's just toss some in there!"
I'm sitting here watching the Super Bowl, mostly for the commercials as
I do every year. Well, I just saw one from some website I've never
heard of called SalesGenie.com that literally left me speechless. You
can check it out yourself by going to their website and clicking on the commercial with the panda in the sidebar.
Suffice to say, it's one of the most offensive things I've yet seen. If you didn't bother to watch it, it features two pandas talking in stereotypical, heavy Asian accents, talking about trying to raise their sales with the website. Part of what makes it so offensive is that the website itself has absolutely nothing to do with pandas, Asia, or anything else; it's apparently just a gimmick to make the commercial memorable. I guess a larger company would have some sort of internal check to make sure this kind of crap doesn't happen, but what this company was thinking totally eludes me as it is.
Suffice to say, it's one of the most offensive things I've yet seen. If you didn't bother to watch it, it features two pandas talking in stereotypical, heavy Asian accents, talking about trying to raise their sales with the website. Part of what makes it so offensive is that the website itself has absolutely nothing to do with pandas, Asia, or anything else; it's apparently just a gimmick to make the commercial memorable. I guess a larger company would have some sort of internal check to make sure this kind of crap doesn't happen, but what this company was thinking totally eludes me as it is.
I've been watching NBC's revival of the old American Gladiators show recently. I have to say it's both hugely entertaining and hugely nostalgic, and I do enjoy the cheesy sort-of-like-pro-wrestling schtick they give to the Gladiators. (Especially Wolf. That guy is awesome.)
But I'm writing about it here as I noticed something last night. Last night's show, like all of the episodes, had two male and two female competitors going head-to-head. Last night there was an Asian guy (Vietnamese I think) and an Asian girl (probably Korean descent) on the show. Thinking back to the previous weeks, there've been a lot of Asians on the show already. I haven't kept any count, but I would guess there have been more Asian competitors on the show than any other minority.
I don't know if they went and auditioned in a particularly-Asian-heavy area of California or something, but it's refreshing to see a reality show with so many Asians. This isn't your Survivor or your Apprentice with the one token Asian on the show (or your American Idol which tends to have zero). Add to that the fact the winner of this season's American Gladiators not only gets a cash prize but the chance to come back next year as one of the Gladiators, and there's actually a chance that we could even have an Asian Gladiator. (The current Gladiators are all white or black + someone of partial Samoan descent who also happens to be The Rock's cousin.)
Of course, if an Asian guy or gal wins, there's always a possibility that to go on with the stage names like "Crush" and "Titan" they'd call them "Mt. Fuji" or something, but I'm going to give the show's producers the benefit of the doubt. They've done a good job at being Asian-inclusive so far.
But I'm writing about it here as I noticed something last night. Last night's show, like all of the episodes, had two male and two female competitors going head-to-head. Last night there was an Asian guy (Vietnamese I think) and an Asian girl (probably Korean descent) on the show. Thinking back to the previous weeks, there've been a lot of Asians on the show already. I haven't kept any count, but I would guess there have been more Asian competitors on the show than any other minority.
I don't know if they went and auditioned in a particularly-Asian-heavy area of California or something, but it's refreshing to see a reality show with so many Asians. This isn't your Survivor or your Apprentice with the one token Asian on the show (or your American Idol which tends to have zero). Add to that the fact the winner of this season's American Gladiators not only gets a cash prize but the chance to come back next year as one of the Gladiators, and there's actually a chance that we could even have an Asian Gladiator. (The current Gladiators are all white or black + someone of partial Samoan descent who also happens to be The Rock's cousin.)
Of course, if an Asian guy or gal wins, there's always a possibility that to go on with the stage names like "Crush" and "Titan" they'd call them "Mt. Fuji" or something, but I'm going to give the show's producers the benefit of the doubt. They've done a good job at being Asian-inclusive so far.
Apologies for the long hiatus, folks. Maybe I should make my New Years' resolution to post more often, but we'll see if that actually happens.
A recent article from BBC News alleges discrimination against Asians (mostly people from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, so not the East Asians I talk about most on this site, but that's another article for another time) in the 2006 elections. Take a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7182758.stm
Of course, I think this is just scraping the surface. Asians in general are pretty invisible to the political process. You hear about candidates scrambling for "The Black Vote" pretty much every election cycle, and recently you hear about candidates scrambling for "The Hispanic Vote"; this election cycle even featured televised debates on Univision, the Spanish-language channel (although the debate itself was in English). So where is the scrambling for the Asian vote?
There is none. Why not? Part of the reason is that Asians are not as well-definable a political bloc as other minorities. Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats usually win the black vote, whereas Republicans have an advantage in Florida with the Hispanic vote, thanks to a hardline stance on Cuba. (This has changed recently though as illegal immigration has become a hot button issue.) But what about Asians? I haven't done any demographic analysis of the topic, but based on just the Asians I know for every born-again Christian social conservative who votes Republican there's an intellectual doctor/scientist who votes Democratic. There's no hot button issue like immigration that seems to move Asians as much, either. And you certainly won't see any Asians marching on D.C. for causes like the Jena 6.
I've mentioned in a previous post that there are no Asian equivalents to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. A side effect is that Asians don't have much of a coherent political presence, and therefore politicians generally pay little attention to issues that may be important to Asian-Americans. On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing as well; I wouldn't want a politician coming out to town meetings and talking about his favorite General Tso's Chicken recipe to try and show some 'street cred' with the local Asian population.
A recent article from BBC News alleges discrimination against Asians (mostly people from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, so not the East Asians I talk about most on this site, but that's another article for another time) in the 2006 elections. Take a look:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7182758.stm
Of course, I think this is just scraping the surface. Asians in general are pretty invisible to the political process. You hear about candidates scrambling for "The Black Vote" pretty much every election cycle, and recently you hear about candidates scrambling for "The Hispanic Vote"; this election cycle even featured televised debates on Univision, the Spanish-language channel (although the debate itself was in English). So where is the scrambling for the Asian vote?
There is none. Why not? Part of the reason is that Asians are not as well-definable a political bloc as other minorities. Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats usually win the black vote, whereas Republicans have an advantage in Florida with the Hispanic vote, thanks to a hardline stance on Cuba. (This has changed recently though as illegal immigration has become a hot button issue.) But what about Asians? I haven't done any demographic analysis of the topic, but based on just the Asians I know for every born-again Christian social conservative who votes Republican there's an intellectual doctor/scientist who votes Democratic. There's no hot button issue like immigration that seems to move Asians as much, either. And you certainly won't see any Asians marching on D.C. for causes like the Jena 6.
I've mentioned in a previous post that there are no Asian equivalents to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. A side effect is that Asians don't have much of a coherent political presence, and therefore politicians generally pay little attention to issues that may be important to Asian-Americans. On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing as well; I wouldn't want a politician coming out to town meetings and talking about his favorite General Tso's Chicken recipe to try and show some 'street cred' with the local Asian population.
Some of you may know about the upcoming movie, The Forbidden Kingdom. Here's a promo trailer for it:
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/15/the-forbidden-kingdom-promo-trailer/
Before all I knew about this movie was that it was a collaboration between Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Now that I've seen the trailer I'm hella excited for the movie given the epic setting and the period costumes and of course the blinding fast martial arts extravaganza of Jackie and Jet AND WHAT THE HELL IS A RANDOM WHITE GUY DOING THERE?!
Yes, until I read this article I didn't know anything about the PLOT about the movie. But now I see that it's about a white guy "who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and classic Kung Fu movies" (in other words, WARNING: FRIED EGG) who finds a mystical staff and gets transported back in time. This seems terribly unnecessary and just seems to be pandering to a US audience. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that it's an American distro/director/project and not a Hong Kong project, but that extra bit just seems terribly ridiculous.
All I can say is, if said white guy happens to get into some sort of romance with any of the Asian girls shown in the trailer, there will be a massive explosion of BAM. And not the good kind either. I've got my eyes on you, Forbidden Kingdom.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/15/the-forbidden-kingdom-promo-trailer/
Before all I knew about this movie was that it was a collaboration between Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Now that I've seen the trailer I'm hella excited for the movie given the epic setting and the period costumes and of course the blinding fast martial arts extravaganza of Jackie and Jet AND WHAT THE HELL IS A RANDOM WHITE GUY DOING THERE?!
Yes, until I read this article I didn't know anything about the PLOT about the movie. But now I see that it's about a white guy "who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and classic Kung Fu movies" (in other words, WARNING: FRIED EGG) who finds a mystical staff and gets transported back in time. This seems terribly unnecessary and just seems to be pandering to a US audience. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that it's an American distro/director/project and not a Hong Kong project, but that extra bit just seems terribly ridiculous.
All I can say is, if said white guy happens to get into some sort of romance with any of the Asian girls shown in the trailer, there will be a massive explosion of BAM. And not the good kind either. I've got my eyes on you, Forbidden Kingdom.
So yesterday I turned on the TV to NBC a few minutes early before my weekly viewing of Heroes. I caught the last few minutes of some show called Chuck.
From what I've gathered this season, it's about some random guy who
gets caught up dealing with some secret agent girl and he falls in love
with her or some such.
Anyway the reason I talk about the show is because in the last ten minutes of the show yesterday, which is the only bit I've ever seen of the show, they had some goofy Asian guy run around. At the end of the episode his boss ships him off to Hawaii with the pretense of giving him a manager position but really they want him out since he finds out about the spying, plus he's really annoying. The boss (who is not Asian, and is in fact black) also gets wistful saying that that means he'll no longer be able to sleep with the guy's wife.
That's offensive on so many levels, but if you are a follower of the site you already know my main beefs with the situation. One thing I should add though - if the role of the Asian man in TV/movies in the previous decade or so was the martial arts superstar, recently there's been a paradigm shift to goofy comic relief. The roots of this go back to William Hung or even as far back as Short Round in Indiana Jones. The whole point of the bit on Chuck appeared to be 'hey look at this funny Asian guy, boy is he dumb' with a little bit of 'hell yeah I'm sleeping with that Asian woman' in it. Even Heroes itself is a little guilty of this with their contingent of Hiro and Ando, though Hiro makes up for it by being a very awesome character. Ando, on the other hand, started out as somewhat of a pervert (being a bigtime fan of Nikki's strippercam service, and later being all over Hiro's sister) but at least he has been relegated to a more loyal sidekick role recently.
Every now and then there's a decent Asian man around. From what bits and pieces I've seen of the new Bionic Woman, there's a pretty normal-looking Asian guy there who is gasp not a martial arts legend or a comic goofball. But when there's so few Asian men in the current media in general, the most impressionable minds are of course going to get filled with the images of that funny little Asian guy.
Anyway the reason I talk about the show is because in the last ten minutes of the show yesterday, which is the only bit I've ever seen of the show, they had some goofy Asian guy run around. At the end of the episode his boss ships him off to Hawaii with the pretense of giving him a manager position but really they want him out since he finds out about the spying, plus he's really annoying. The boss (who is not Asian, and is in fact black) also gets wistful saying that that means he'll no longer be able to sleep with the guy's wife.
That's offensive on so many levels, but if you are a follower of the site you already know my main beefs with the situation. One thing I should add though - if the role of the Asian man in TV/movies in the previous decade or so was the martial arts superstar, recently there's been a paradigm shift to goofy comic relief. The roots of this go back to William Hung or even as far back as Short Round in Indiana Jones. The whole point of the bit on Chuck appeared to be 'hey look at this funny Asian guy, boy is he dumb' with a little bit of 'hell yeah I'm sleeping with that Asian woman' in it. Even Heroes itself is a little guilty of this with their contingent of Hiro and Ando, though Hiro makes up for it by being a very awesome character. Ando, on the other hand, started out as somewhat of a pervert (being a bigtime fan of Nikki's strippercam service, and later being all over Hiro's sister) but at least he has been relegated to a more loyal sidekick role recently.
Every now and then there's a decent Asian man around. From what bits and pieces I've seen of the new Bionic Woman, there's a pretty normal-looking Asian guy there who is gasp not a martial arts legend or a comic goofball. But when there's so few Asian men in the current media in general, the most impressionable minds are of course going to get filled with the images of that funny little Asian guy.
Folks, we are in the midst of an international crisis. I was alarmed to see this article on the BBC News:
BBC News - Obesity 'epidemic' turns global
That's right folks, we Asians are in the midst of a terrible health crisis. For us Asian-Americans, it's easy to tell just by looking around that there is a looming health problem here, and that is this - Asians are falling behind in the obesity epidemic.
Not a problem, you say? Wrong! We Asians are having a harder time getting overweight than any other race. This is just another step towards world discrimination against Asians. Think about it - in 2050, when everybody is packing on the pounds, who will you be? Not just a yellow, squinty-eyed, black-haired freak, but a yellow, squinty-eyed, black-haired, skinny freak. If we Asians fall behind in global obesity, we are just giving the rest of the world one more area in which we Asians are "different".
To be fair, this shouldn't be surprising news. The seeds of this Asian weight crisis were planted long ago. Our food is naturally skinny-inducing with lean meats, whole grains, and plentiful vegetables. This is unacceptable. If we do not quickly convert to the whole-fried and sugar-coated goodness of Western foods we will be unable to compete in the future global fat marketplace. In fact, we are already losing. Americans have already succeeded at making stir-fry fattening, and inventing General Tso's Chicken.
So what can be done? If we Asians are to catch up with the rest of the world in global fattening, we need to change our habits today. Stop practicing martial arts - better to watch that football game and munch on some chips. Stop drinking tea - you know that real Americans drink pop. And actually order fried rice at a Chinese restaurant, as much as your Asian genes may rebel! For a better, fatter tomorrow, we must buckle up (or in fact, unbuckle our belts) and bring ourselves to the dinner table. Don't forget the second helpings, either.
BBC News - Obesity 'epidemic' turns global
That's right folks, we Asians are in the midst of a terrible health crisis. For us Asian-Americans, it's easy to tell just by looking around that there is a looming health problem here, and that is this - Asians are falling behind in the obesity epidemic.
Not a problem, you say? Wrong! We Asians are having a harder time getting overweight than any other race. This is just another step towards world discrimination against Asians. Think about it - in 2050, when everybody is packing on the pounds, who will you be? Not just a yellow, squinty-eyed, black-haired freak, but a yellow, squinty-eyed, black-haired, skinny freak. If we Asians fall behind in global obesity, we are just giving the rest of the world one more area in which we Asians are "different".
To be fair, this shouldn't be surprising news. The seeds of this Asian weight crisis were planted long ago. Our food is naturally skinny-inducing with lean meats, whole grains, and plentiful vegetables. This is unacceptable. If we do not quickly convert to the whole-fried and sugar-coated goodness of Western foods we will be unable to compete in the future global fat marketplace. In fact, we are already losing. Americans have already succeeded at making stir-fry fattening, and inventing General Tso's Chicken.
So what can be done? If we Asians are to catch up with the rest of the world in global fattening, we need to change our habits today. Stop practicing martial arts - better to watch that football game and munch on some chips. Stop drinking tea - you know that real Americans drink pop. And actually order fried rice at a Chinese restaurant, as much as your Asian genes may rebel! For a better, fatter tomorrow, we must buckle up (or in fact, unbuckle our belts) and bring ourselves to the dinner table. Don't forget the second helpings, either.
NEW YORK - J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling Harry Potter series, outed a beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", she took questions from audience members. She was asked by one young fan whether Cho Chang, a former love interest for Harry, "finds true love".
"Cho is Asian," the author responded to gasps and applause.
Potter fans on the internet have long speculated on the ethnicity of Cho, noting that her name "sounds vaguely Korean", although until now there has never been any confirmation that the student at Hogwarts, a British school of magic, was in fact Asian. Further speculation was fueled when the part for Cho in the latest movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", was given to openly-ethnic-Chinese actress Katie Leung.
Reaction to the news was mixed.
"Having Cho be Asian is a huge step for Asian rights," said ~dracoismyhusband01~, a self-proclaimed Asian poster at a popular online Harry Potter discussion forum. "(Rowling) is teaching children everywhere that it is okay to be Asian, that it's not something to be ashamed about."
"This is B.S.," offered Ed, webmaster of Asian advocacy site bitterasianmen.com. "Rowling is just playing on the old Asian stereotypes - white guy meets Asian girl, white guy kisses Asian girl, then white guy ditches Asian girl for no real reason and starts dating a girl who looks like his male best friend. I'm insulted that anybody would consider this a step forward for Asians."
Rowling conceded that not everyone may be supportive of the news, but added "I consider my books as a prolonged argument for tolerance, and I urge my readers to question authority." Not everyone likes her work, she said, likely referring to Christian groups who have alleged that the books promote witchcraft. Having an interracial couple, even for only one book, she added, will give them one more reason.
