I don't think about race much. I guess it just doesn't come up that often in a serious way. The siblings like to make fun of how I'm so "white" with my "white" music and my white (can't really use the " " without it being abuse there) friends, but I try not to take it to heart. It isn't that I want to ignore the fact that I'm from Taiwan. I don't have a problem with that at all. I'm actually looking forward to going back after summer school is over. I just don't see why they feel it's necessary to gauge who I am with an Asian-o-meter.

It isn't even that though. I don't think they want me to be more or less of anything. If they do though, I now could care less because they've made it clear that they don't care much for Taiwan.

My brother does live in the country, but he's still perfectly willing to deride the entire country with his bitching. He declares many times a day that, "They just don't know any better." He says this over the most petty of things because it's the little things that count, you know? He says that no one holds doors open or says something when someone sneezes. Driving in Taiwan isn't much fun either if you like hanging onto your life. These things have seemingly justified his claims that Taiwan is "morally" inferior.

"Dude. You so didn't hold the door open for me! Have fun rotting in hell while I chill with the G-O-D and his posse."

I was, in short, disgusted. I may not live in Taiwan so gosh, I just don't know what I'd do without some stranger muttering "bless you" out of childhood conditioning, but it just isn't right to claim an entire country sucks.

I stand by this with Taiwan, but I'm not sure about America. I like the place. I like... some of the people. I have no real problem with the mocking of America, but it's been awhile since I've done any of that.

You know what that means?

I'm THE BEST ASIAN EVER.

Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” is one of the most baffling pieces of music of the modern age. It’s got something to do with cheerleaders—that much is clear, judging from the chanting and the marching band that’s honking and tooting in the background. Beyond that, good luck deciphering the song’s ambiguities. We were so vexed by the mystery that is “Hollaback Girl” that we have devoted countless hours to its study. Our conclusions are below. The first thing you should know, though, is that Gwen is not singing “I ain’t no Harlem fat girl”—at least, we don’t think she is.

Uh huh, this my shit
Gwen is introducing us to her shit.

All the girls stomp your feet like this
This talk of shit and stomping has nothing to do with actually stepping on feces. But what does it mean? From a reading of the later text, we can conclude that the song takes place in the world of high school athletics, and that Gwen is apparently leading the girls in a calisthenics exercise. The “shit,” we surmise, is what she calls the exercises she’s teaching the other girls.

A few times I’ve been around that track
So it’s not just gonna happen like that
Here, Gwen exhorts the girls to try harder as they jog around the track, reminding them that physical fitness is “not just gonna happen,” but must be worked at.

Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
These lines are the most confusing, but their meaning will become clearer later.

Oooh, this my shit, this my shit
Gwen repeats this four more times. She wants to make sure that we are well acquainted with her shit.

I heard that you were talking shit
And you didn’t think that I would hear it
Gwen has been the victim of some slanderous high school gossip, and she doesn’t appreciate it. Gwen is 35 years old sliding into MILF status at this point, but we’ll grant her some poetic license.

People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up
So I’m ready to attack, gonna lead the pack
Gwen is going to round up a “posse” of her girlfriends and retaliate against the person who’s been talking “smack” about her.

Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out
Gwen is going to beat up the person who wronged her, after she completes the cheerleading routine that will inspire the football team to score a touchdown. Gwen has interesting priorities.

That’s right, put your pom-poms down, getting everybody fired up
It seems the entire cheerleading squad is going to beat up the person who spoke ill of Gwen; they have put down their pom-poms, and they are now “fired up” to exact swift and terrible vengeance on Gwen’s behalf.

A few times I’ve been around that track
So it’s not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
Gwen is apparently the captain of the cheerleader squad; she is the girl who “hollas” the chants, not one of the girls who simply “hollas” them back. Given that the squad is preparing to beat somebody up on Gwen’s behalf, she’s picked a strange time to remind them that she is their leader and they are her sheep-like followers. Gwen obviously rules her squad with an iron fist.

Oooh, this my shit, this my shit [repeated four times]
Again with the shit.

So that’s right dude, meet me at the bleachers
No principals, no student-teachers
Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one
So I’m gonna fight, gonna give it my all
We learn that it was a “dude” who gossiped about Gwen. She challenges him to a fight at the bleachers. If he imagines it will be a fair, one-on-one fight, he is sadly mistaken. Gwen and her aforementioned “pack” will pounce on him like rabid wolves.

Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you
That’s right, I’m the last one standing, another one bites the dust
Gwen’s pack of furious cheerleaders leaves the boy a quivering, bloody heap behind the bleachers for the groundskeeper to discover the next day.

A few times I’ve been around that track
So it’s not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
Having completed their ghastly work, Gwen’s squad members return to the field and resume their cheerleading activities, as Gwen reminds them once more that she is the boss and they are all her bitches.

Oooh, this my shit, this my shit [repeated four times]
By calling her exercise routines “shit,” Gwen is showing us that for all her bravado, the character in this song secretly suffers from profound self-esteem issues. She is a complex antiheroine for an age of changing gender attitudes and expectations.

Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Here, Gwen steps away from this bloody spectacle for a moment to comment on the madness and ugliness of what we’ve just witnessed, and, by extension, the petty rivalries of high school in general. This shit is bananas, Gwen tells us, and we can only agree. And lest we miss the point, she spells it out. And repeats it another three times.

A few times I’ve been around that track
So it’s not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl
I ain’t no hollaback girl
Back on the field, Gwen is still bullying the squad to carry out her routines. But now we see her in a new light, as the sad, lost creature she truly is.

Oooh, this my shit, this my shit [repeated four times]
As the song fades out, Gwen is left only with her “shit,” the mindless exercises that bring her no comfort from the raging emptiness within. As much as she “hollas,” no one hears her cries for help.

Source: OC Weekly

"You guys have to learn how to empathize." This would be one of my history teacher's many trademark lines. He throws it out as bait whenever the class' attention wanes, with the hope that the stigma of his words will keep us in line. He most recently used it during a performance of a Nazi pride song during the movie Cabaret.

I still don't think it was justified.

It's a shame he wasn't during Closer. The man would have surely carried a sign threatening me to feel for the four proantagonists. Maybe that would have helped my effort to understand the people.

Do realize that there was an effort to care for the people. I just couldn't. When I told Scarlet this, she strangely enough asked if it was because I couldn't understand that the people didn't end up happy. Considering that this movie was almost advertised as a tragedy of sorts, I quickly and almost defensively said no.

Not being able to accept the ending was almost insulting to me because that is something I do understand. The understanding may be primitive; after all, I merely build that concept from the media I am in contact with everyday. The love that is almost a prequisite to this tragic denouement is also something I get. It would be a vague understanding, sure, but an understanding nonetheless.

I can't say the same for Closer. As of now, three of the characters to me are just silhouettes. I think that may be the desired effect, that Anna, Dan, and Larry are just puppets of love with their bland names, clever expressions of charm, and gratutious "I love you"s. I can process all of this, but I can't identify with it like I do with other songs and movies.

I don't think this is a fault with the movie. I've come to the conclusion that this is just a movie I won't fully appreciate until I experience it empirically.

It's kind of like Nazism that way.