I have not found one bar in Boston that has a decent blend of whites and minorities. The city would be 100% white if it was not for the colleges in the area. They might work together, but they certainly don’t live togehter. A magazine mis-launch like this did not surprise me. Try relaunching the mag from CA or NY next time. At least the people there have an understanding of minorities, especially asians.

YES! THANK YOU GENNY!

NOTICE HOW “Joe” DOESN’T ADDRESS THIS STATEMENT.

Ahn,
If you re-read Genny’s comment, I think you will find that you misunderstood what she was saying.

concerning the advertisers, we can’t blame them for advertising because most advertisers don’t know the content of the publication until it’s printed. that’s just my opinion.

and yes, my experience is only with the small grassroots publication. and i do know that there hasn’t been qualified asian american writers that want to step up to head the paper in the past 15 years, atleast. and i do realize that it may be our fault for making the editor’s position so difficult. it really is a thankless job but someone’s gotta do it.

Please understand this is no offense to Ahn. The (mostly) closed ranks in the magazines, newspapers, broadcast news is no secret to anyone in the biz. How could she not know this and wasn’t this discussed in the umass conference? Her statements are from media experience not books but is the Boston Chinatown paper her media experience?
Does she know for a fact that there have been no qualified Chinese Americans interested in stepping up to the plate at Sampan in the last 5, 10, 15, or how many years?

As for your conversation w/ Ballou… what could one gain from that?
The guy doesn’t believe he’s publishing a fetish rag. Sorry, but I just don’t see any personal growth in this guy’s future, aside from the boner when he’s going through model headshots.

“do you know that there isn’t a lack of interest from qualified minority writers?”
I’ve worked for a popular internationally published magazine, but check out
http://www.gawker.com/news/race/gawkers-special-correspondent-for-brownpeople-issues-nyo-on-lilywhite-magland-148076.php
or check out CVK’s opinion on the Gawker article.

“how do you suppose the community take action?”
Boston’s your town, bro.
The elder seniors probably wouldn’t take this issue seriously because they’ve delt w/ much harsher things in their time.
As for the Asian American businesses and models involved, what can ya do… call Michael Tow an ignorant FOB and scream morality lessons at the girls?
I guess the logical answer: organize & educate.
Sampan’s got your back, right?
Get a group of people together to educate businesses/potential advertisers… get local artists, musicians, actors & comedians to refuse Asian Boston interviews… get the models in Import Tuner where they belong (kidding)…
You’ve got a major story here, bro!

and actually, there is a lack of interest from qualified minority editors/writers to work at small, start-up ethnic newspapers. atleast from our experience. actually, this was discussion topic at the ethnic media conference at umass boston about two weeks ago. do you know that there isn’t a lack of interest from qualified minority writers? and, our payrates are similar to larger papers in the area.

anyway, how do you suppose the community take action?

What’s really distressing here are the Asian American businesses that are in bed w/ Asian Boston.

the editor of the newspaper that i work for (sampan) is white and he has enough sensitivity to understand asian american issues and is committed to reporting issues that affect the asian community. it’s hard to get an asian american to step up to the plate and take on the role as english editor of a small non-profit newspaper that pays less than 30k a year. the sampan newspaper has been around since 1972 and i can’t even tell you the last time an asian headed the newspaper. point being: if it weren’t for a lot of white guys, a paper that is committed to covering only asian american issues wouldn’t even be published.

i don’t believe that you have to be asian to know that when someone calls you “chink” it’s bullshit and racist. i think a lot of non-asians saw the asian boston magazine and knew that it was bad. the problem with ballou isn’t that he’s white – the problem is he’s ignorant. there are plenty of ignorant asians living in boston who’s screwing it up for the rest of us. ballou has no memory or knowledge of what it’s like to be an asian in boston and he basically galloped in like a cowboy and set boston asians back – undoing what our predecessors did. but a lot of boston asians do the same damn thing.

i’m glad ballou published this magazine because we now have dialogue. but talking gets old after awhile. hopefully we’ll have some action soon – especially from the asian community.

joe – i won’t be dismissive when you try to talk to me about race issues. i’m glad that you’re thinking about it. i won’t pull the race card either and act like you can’t talk about the subject (assuming you’re not a minority).