Blasian, Michael Yo, presents his uniquely personal comedy on his debut stand up special, “Blasian.” In this special, he discusses growing up half Black and Asian in Houston, TX. Check it out for free on Amazon Prime!
A post about Kamala Devi Harris is long overdue. Harris was elected US Senator for California in 2016, becoming only the second female African American to serve in the Senate and the first ever South Asian to serve. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2019 (January 21), she announced her campaign to run for the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States in the 2020 election!
Kamala Harris was born to a Tamil Indian mother (Shyamala Gopalan) and a Jamaican father (Donald Harris) in Oakland, California. Both of her parents were immigrants. Her mother immigrated to the US from Chennai in 1960, and her father immigrated from Jamaica in 1961. She grew up going to a black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. The family lived in Berkeley, California. After her parents divorced, she and her sister, Maya, moved to Montreal, Québec, Canada with their mother. Harris returned to the United States to attend Howard University, where she became an Alpha Kappa Alpha. She moved back to California to earn her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Side note: Maya Lakshmi Harris is also an accomplished lawyer and is a political analyst for MSNBC. She was one of Hillary Clinton’s senior policy advisors during her 2016 presidential campaign. She is currently campaign chairwoman for her sister’s campaign for president.
She was the first African American and first woman yo serve as Attorney General of the state of California, and she is now vying to be the first Indian and first African American woman to serve as President of the United States!
Find out ore about Senator Harris at https://www.harris.senate.gov. Support her campaign at https://kamalaharris.org.
Michael Yo is the first and only blasian comic, and he’s currently on tour!
Michael was raised in Texas, where he got started on radio. He then got recruited by Miami’s #1 station, Y100. He did that for years before getting an offer from E!. He moved to Los Angeles and was a correspondent on Extra and E! News. He has appeared on The Insider and The Talk on CBS, as well as The Wendy Williams Show. Then Chelsea Handler (of Chelsea Lately) dared him to do stand-up. Fellow half Asian, Jo Koy (Filipino/European American), has been his comic mentor. The even did a podcast (The Michael Yo and Jo Koy Show) together for a few years.
“Jo told me that I had great stories about my parents and that is where comedy comes from, real life. Not about people writing jokes but what really happened in your life. Growing up in the situation I am from, that is automatic comedy. Having a mom, we all know Asian moms and how they say the craziest things no matter who is around and it can sound racist at times. But they don’t think it is racist and they are just honest people, you know what I mean? So, I talk about the the crazy things my mom says about other people. “
Michael doesn’t like kimchi (김치) and doesn’t speak Korean, and he didn’t really connect with his Asian side until he started doing stand-up.
“I can honestly say that stand-up has really made me connect more than I ever have because telling the stories about my mom. My stand-up is all about my dad, my mom, how I grew up, dealing with racism and finding my identity. So, the whole show is about that. Me and my mom have always been super close and I feel that telling these stories, Asian people are starting to come out and relate to it. I find it weird because I didn’t connect to it while I was going through it but it is more that I’m connecting to it now.”
“Blasian“, his new comedy tour about growing up biracial, started in San Francisco on December 31, 2018. It was released on digital and on-demand platforms on November 27th and is available on iTunes and GooglePlay. His tour continues in Sacramento on January 11, 2019.
Michael is an actor, stand-up comedian, and television host. Currently, he is a co-host on the Bravo series, Play by Play, and hosts The Michael Yo Show on Sirius XM’s Entertainment Weekly. The Michael Yo Show premiered on September 4th via satellite on channel 105 through the SiriusXM app.
Selected Sources:
* Houston Chronicle, “Houston-born comic Michael Yo releases special about growing up biracial“, November 1, 2018.
* HalfKorean.com: An online community for mixed-race Koreans, “Interview with Michael Yo“, August 16, 2013.
Photos courtesy of Michael Yo/Metro Public Relations.
Rui Hachimura, the son of a Beninese father and Japanese mother, has exploded on the college basketball scene. Gonzaga University – known for seeking international talent for its athletic teams – first discovered Hachimura during the 2014 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Under-17 Basketball World Cup in Dubai. He also led his high school, Meisei High School, to the All-Japan High School Tournament title. Now he is the best player on the No. 3 NCAA basketball team.
Hachimura grew up in Toyoma, a coastal town about a five-hour drive west of Tokyo. He was often questioned about his Japaneseness. Now he is easily mistaken for African American but experienced confusion due to his inability to speak English. Prior to attending Gonzaga, he had been to the US only once for a family trip to New York when he was 12 years old, and he didn’t speak any English. Now, in his Junior year, he is a fluent English speaker. This is no small feat, as English is extremely difficult for Japanese native speakers to learn.
He was Most Valuable Player of the Maui Jim Invitational All-Tournament. Gonzaga beat Duke 89-87 in the championship game. He averaged 22.7 points and 6 rebounds in 3 games.
He is the 5th Japanese-born player to play Division I Men’s Basketball, and he is the 1st Japanese native to play in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. He is projected to be a 1st Round NBA Draft Pick in 2019. Should that happen, he would be the 2nd Japanese-born player to ever play in the NBA. The 1st was Yuta Tabuse in 2004, but he only played for the Phoenix Suns for 3 months before he was cut from the team. There have been several Japanese-American basketball players, starting in 1947 with Wataru Misaka (who was first introduced on Blasians Defined in 2012 in the post “Asians & Basketball“). After Misaka, there wasn’t another Asian player for 40 years (although there was a Blasian player selected in 1978, Raymond Townsend).
Selected Sources:
* Gonzaga Bulletin, “Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura is Gonzaga’s X factor“, February 21, 2018.
* ESPN, “The Education of Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura“, November 16, 2018.
* Sports Illustrated, “Rui Hachimura Is Thriving as Japan and Gonzaga’s Best Hope for Basketball Glory“, November 27, 2018.
The untitled comedy centers on a young couple’s life that is made more complicated when the guy’s over-achieving African American, PhD scientist/ex-Military father and scheming Asian mother show up to help them take care of their newborn baby and adjust to their new surroundings. Yo married Claire Elise Schreiner on February 14, 2016 and recently became a father to Oliver Yo Simmons. He came up with the idea for the family comedy when his parents visited to help with their new grandchild. Yo will also be an executive producer for the show.
Selected Sources:
* Deadline, “Michael Yo To Star In Autobiographical Family Comedy In Works At Fox“, November 5, 2018.
* Coming Soon, “Michael Yo Developing Autobiographical Sitcom for FOX“, November 6, 2018.
The first ten episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was released on October 26th. The series is centered on Sabrina Spellman, a half-witch half-mortal. I’m a huge Netflix fan and was super intrigued by the trailer for this new show. In the trailer, I spotted a diverse group of witches in black dresses with lace collars. A brunette and redhead led by a brown-skinned beauty, they are the Weird Sisters, a trio of witches who have developed a sisterhood forged in their bond as orphans. In the trailer, the leader of the Weird Sisters, Prudence Night tells Sabrina, “You’re gonna die, half-breed.” This seems ironic when you realize that two of the actresses portraying the Weird Sisters are actually half-Korean. Adeline Rudolph (the brunette) is German-Korean, and Tati Gabrielle (the leader) is Korean-African American.
Tati Gabrielle (birth name: Tatiana Gabrielle Hobson) was raised by her Korean American mother. Her father, a former basketball player from Ohio, is involved in the entertainment industry as a director and producer. She modelled as a child and graduated high school with a 3.7 GPA. She majored in Drama and French at Spelman College. She moved to Los Angeles and earned roles in the CW’s The 100, Hulu’s Freakish, and TBS’s Tarantula. She was cast as Prudence in March 2018.
Tati’s mom was adopted from Korea and raised in Virginia by an African American family. She raised Tati to stay connected to her Asian roots, and the diverse Bay Area of California was a great environment for a mixed kid. Now Tati’s starring in a show that is being lauded for its ethnic, racial, and sexual diversity. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is arguably one of the most strongly feminist television shows today, with women fighting against dominating patriarchal leaders in both the mortal and witch worlds.
A Christmas special episode, A Midwinter’s Tale, will be released on December 14th, and the second part of the first season is scheduled for release on April 5, 2019. Experience Tati Gabrielle’s fierceness in this spellbinding show!
Selected Sources:
* Mochi Magazine, “Actress Tati Gabrielle on Girl Power and Finding Identity“, October 12, 2018.
* Status Magazine, “Tati Gabrielle Unveils the Magic of her Artistic Journey“, October 1, 2018.
In October of 2015, Blasians Defined featured Naomi Osaka as the WTA Rising Stars Invitational Champion. Since then, Naomi was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2016. She had a breakout year, making it to the 3rd round of all of the Grand Slam tournaments that she played in 2016 (Australian Open, French Open & US Open). The WTA Newcomer of the Year award is decided through votes submitted by members of the media and fans, with initial nominees chosen by the WTA based on players’ achievements throughout the year. Naomi was the 1st Japanese player to ever win the award.
And now Naomi has just won the 2018 US Open! She is the 1st Japanese woman to contest a Grand Slam singles final and the 1st Japanese Grand Slam singles champion. (It is believed she is also the 1st Haitian Grand Slam champion.) Now ranked in the top 10, she is the highest ranked Japanese player in history.
Naomi’s parents, Tamaki Osaka (from Hokkaido, Japan) and Leonard Maxime Francois (born in Haiti, raised in New York), met when her father was visiting Hokkaido while he was attending college in New York. Naomi and her sister, Mari (also a professional tennis player) were both born in Osaka, Japan. The girls were given their mother’s maiden name for practical reasons when the family lived in Japan.
Naomi with her parents and sister
Naomi has dual American and Japanese citizenship. Although the girls were largely raised in the United States, their parents decided that their daughters would represent Japan. Osaka’s parents have said that, “We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age. She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture. Quite simply, Naomi and her sister, Mari, have always felt Japanese so that was our only rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor were we ever swayed either way by any national federation.”
Her Haitian grandparents only spoke to her in Haitian Creole because they did not know English, while her mother spoke to her in Japanese. Her sister, Mari, speaks almost fluent Japanese. While Naomi can understand Japanese, she is not very confident to speak the language. At press conferences, she can take questions in Japanese but usually answers in English.
Some fans feel like her black identity is being erased. However, Naomi has repeatedly reminded reporters that she is Japanese and Haitian.
Selected Sources:
Han Hyun-Min is the 1st black model in South Korea. Hyun-Min, 16, is half Nigerian in an ethnically homogeneous country where mixed race people often experience blatant racism with difficulty getting jobs and finding spouses. Mixed race children are commonly bullied and called “tuigi”, a derogatory term meaning cross-bred animals. However, he is now appearing in top magazines.
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Paula Williams Madison |
Paula Williams Madison grew up in New York with a half Chinese, half Jamaican mother, Nell Vera Lowe. Her mother’s Chinese father, Samuel Lowe, went to China in 1933 when Nell was 15 and never returned to Jamaica. Nell left Jamaica for New York to start a new life, but her Asian features set her apart, which contributed to her feeling of loss and loneliness.
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Nell Vera Lowe, Paula Williams Madison’s mother |
When Paula retired, she decided to fulfil her childhood promise to her mother and find her grandfather. Her search into her family history took her from New York to Jamaica to China. Following a lead from a paternal cousin, who noted the significant Chinese-Jamaican community in Toronto, Paula attended a conference about the Hakka, a Chinese minority who is known for migrating overseas. There she found the first clues regarding what happened to her maternal grandfather. In just a few months, she found herself on a plane to China to meet her Chinese relatives. Once there, she found genealogical records for more than 150 generations. Her documentary and memoir, Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem are based on her journey to discover her roots.
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Samuel Lowe, Paula Williams Madison’s grandfather |
Ariana Mamiko Miyamoto (宮本・エリアナ・磨美子) was born in Nagasaki to a Japanese mother and an African American father (Bryant Stanfield). Her father met her mother while stationed in Sasebo with the United States Navy. Her parents married but divorced when Ariana was an infant.
Ariana as a child with her mom
Ariana as a teen with her dad and half-sibling
n 2015, Ariana won Miss Nagasaki and went on to represent her prefecture in the Miss Universe Japan pageant. She was crowned Miss Universe Japan 2015 in March. She is the 1st hāfu to win the pageant. Upon her selection, she faced criticism for not appearing to be Japanese. There were comments that her face was too “gaijin”, literally “outside person”. Ariana is a Japanese citizen, born and raised in Japan and fluent in the Japanese language. She identified as Japanese and even holds a 5th degree mastery of Japanese calligraphy. Ariana wants to represent the new face of Japan. “International marriages are happening. There will be [more] biracial children. I want them to be as accepted in Japan as they would be in the U.S. I want society to get used to that idea.”
Miss Nagasaki 2015
Miss Japan 2015
When Ariana was 13, she moved to Arkansas with her father to attend two years of high school in the United States. As a child in Japan, she was often called “kurombo”, the Japanese equivalent to the N-word. She says she felt normal for the first time in Arkansas, although she was still treated as a foreigner. In the US, she came to speak of , while in Japan, she still calls herself hāfu (biracial in Japanese). As Miss Japan, she presents herself as an ethnically mixed Japanese person.
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