Clothing store receipt calls Asian customer "Yoko Ono"?

Maybe not, but something shady is going on at bebe.



Got this passed along to me from a friend of a friend, who gives us our latest edition of Racial Receipts.

A recent shopper at the clothing chain bebe was handed this receipt after buying an item. As you can see, the customer, who is Asian American, is identified on the receipt as "Yoko Ono." This is not the customer's name.

The transaction took place last week at the bebe location at South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach, California. As you can see, the customer purchased a sleeveless tie-front top for $69.00 plus tax. She paid in cash. She apparently didn't even notice the name on the receipt until she got home.

Read These Blogs

"The word is you are a cool cat." In observance of actor James Garner's passing, here's a clip from the 1969 movie Marlowe with Garner as the titular sleuth, getting paid a visit by Bruce Lee, who died 41 years ago today.

Opinion: Yellowface staging of 'Mikado' has to end: Jeff Yang on why sticking to tradition is not a valid excuse for yellowface in productions of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.

How 'Ching Chong' Became The Go-To Slur For Mocking East Asians: If you're of East Asian descent, you've probably heard it before: "ching chong." Where did it come from, anyway? NPR's Code Switch digs up the origins, which trace as far back as the late 1880s.

Model Minority Rage: Why the Hulk Should Be an Asian Guy: Captain America is black. Thor is a woman. The ideal Bruce Banner is a cuddly teddy bear, an adorkable loser, likable in a wussy kind of way. He's totally harmless -- until he isn't. Arthur Chu on why he thinks the Hulk should be an Asian guy

A Handy Template for Online Trolls: Anyone who has ever read the comments of an internet article is familiar with the ubiquitous troll. Jeff Yang, who is received his fair share of trolling, has written up a handy template for "a simple template that they can use to instantly post the perfect incoherent blurt of hate-filled rage."



CLIPPERS' NAKASE BREAKING BARRIERS : Natalie Nakase was the first head coach in Japanese men's professional basketball and the first Asian American to play in the National Women's professional basketball league in the United States. She's now an assistant coach for the Clippers at NBA Summer League, and just might one day be the first woman to coach an NBA team.

The Struggle to Love to Struggle WITH Love: Working through a rough year, two twentysomething activists have begun a transformative journey to better understand how to root their movements in love.

Will HBO Give Platform to Racist Australian Brownface 'Mockumentary'? Jonah from Tonga is an Australian 6-part "mockumentary" about a 14-year-old misfit "from Tonga" living in Australia. He's played by a white dude in brownface. Do we even need to explain why this is f*cked up?

"Mohammed Raghead" and Fighting the Anti-Turban Bias that Plagues Our Land of Liberty : A 2005 training document for the NSA used the name "Mohammed Raghead," further proof that mainstream representation of turbaned individuals cultivates fear and hatred. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund seeks to demystify this fear of the turban with a PSA.

Take this Ring -- But Keep Your Name: Much to the disapproval of the lady working at the county clerk-recorder's office, Sylvie Kim does not plan on taking her partner's last name when she gets married. Here's why.


Lakers' Jeremy Lin offered a room at Redondo Beach woman's home through Craigslist: Meet the Redondo Beach mom (and huge Lakers fan) who offered the team's newest point guard a place to stay in her home when he arrives in Los Angeles. Just being hospitable.

Sriracha Factory Saga Blamed on Faulty Science: It looks like the City Council of Irwindale, California used bad science to create its case against Huy Fong Foods, the manufacturer of Sriracha.

LA schools: California 'English learner' tests incorrectly label bilingual kids: Every day for the past five years, Arianna Anderson has been put into ESL courses. The problem? She speaks English fluently. How she and many other bilingual children are mislabeled in school.

Parents Come Out To Support LGBT Kids In Multilingual Ads: The Asian Pride Project and the National Queer Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance have created a series of multilingual PSAs featuring Asian American parents expressing support for their LGBTQ children.

Proof that UCLA's race-blind holistic review admissions is inadequate for campus diversity: A UCLA professor recently said that UCLA's post-Proposition 209 holistic review was actually race-based, thus accusing the university of breaking state law. Jenn Fang of Reappropriate downloaded the dataset of findings and sees that this conclusion just doesn't hold up.



Star Trek's John Cho breaks barriers as romantic lead: 'I would call this revolutionary': "Asians narratively in shows are insignificant," says John Cho, who plays the romantic lead in the upcoming ABC comedy series Selfie. "So to be in this position... is a bit of a landmark."

Rogue Sport Lacks Sand but Has Style and Speed: Since the 1930s, Chinatown inhabitants have been laying nine-man, an intense street version of volleyball. It is now a cult sport played by Americans and Canadians of Chinese descent, featuring in the documentary 9-Man.

On Illustrating Asian Characters: Sonny Liew, illustrator of The Shadow Hero, the new graphic novel about the first Asian American superhero, writes about representing Asians in comics.

Advice to Aspiring Comic Book Creators: For anyone considering a career in comics, award-winning graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang of The Shadow Hero and Boxers & Saints, has a list of handy tips for you.

'The Walking Dead' Star Steven Yeun Talks 'I, Origins' And Grounding Sci-Fi In Reality: Actor Steven Yeun dishes on his first indie film role, his preparation process and the surprising similarities between the sets of I, Origins and The Walking Dead.

A Picture of Us: Asian American Writers' Workshop's Mia Kang interviews writer/director J.P Chan about his first feature film A Picture of You and casting Asian American actors in lead roles.

This Week's Angriest Posts

Not necessarily the angriest, just the most viewed.



1. Real-life yellowface! Now playing in Seattle.

2. Hey, Jeremy. Need a place to stay in LA? Try Craigslist.

3. Yuki Togashi is a fan favorite at NBA Summer League

4. Couple arrested for having sex on roof of Chipotle

5. Canadian sitcom producer apologizes for offensive tweets

6. Beware the "Chinamen" learning "how to do computers"

7. Disney announces voice cast and characters for 'Big Hero 6'

8. Jose Antonio Vargas detained at Texas airport

9. Bruce Lee never thought about the guy with the Groupon

10. Big bouncy robot fun in the first full trailer for 'Big Hero 6'

Also, be sure to watch our latest episode of Angry Asian America. Stay Angry.

'Just Know That I Love You' by Priscilla Ahn

New album inspired by the Studio Ghibli film 'When Marnie Was There'



Very cool! One of my favorite singer/songwriters, Priscilla Ahn, just released a new album Just Know That I Love You. It's a sister album written for and inspired by the new Studio Ghibli film When Marnie Was There, which was just released in Japan. The album includes the movie's theme song "Fine On The Outside."

Here's the movie's trailer (sorry -- no English translation), which includes Priscilla's tune:

Angry Reader of the Week: Eric Liu

"We've all inherited a great experiment in mass, multiracial democracy."



Hey, folks! You know what time it is. Please allow me to introduce you to the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Eric Liu.

The Electronic Sriracha Festival is happening.

A Sriracha-themed eletronic dance music festival. This is a real thing.



For those who love electronic dance music, but think it could use just a little more hot sauce, I give you the Electronic Sriracha Festival. I'm not kidding. A Sriracha-themed dance music festival. This is a real thing.

A Sriracha-Themed EDM Festival Is Coming

Presented by Moveable Feast, it's going down Labor Day Weekend, August 30 at St. James Park in San Jose. It's the combination you didn't know you were missing. But somebody thought it would be a good idea to mix sound and spice, so there you go. Sensory overload. Your ears will be ringing and your tongues will be burning.

Mai Duong needs your help.

Leukemia patient urgently needs a bone marrow or umbilical cord stem cell transplant



Mai Duong is a 34-year-old woman from Montreal who is fighting for her life. Last year, she was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and beat it. But 10 months after being given a clean bill of health, she relapsed. Leukemia. "For the second time, because life's a bitch." But she is not going down without a fight.

Leukemia patient calls on visible minorities to donate stem cells

Mai, the mother of a 4-year-old, is currently in the hospital receiving chemotherapy treatment, but her chances of survival will be greatly increased by a stem cell donation, either through cord blood or a bone marrow transplant -- most likely, from a compatible donor of Vietnamese descent, like herself.

Unfortunately, only 19 percent of bone marrow donors in Quebec are non-white. And just one percent of the bone marrow registry is composed of Vietnamese people. Mai's brother, who had a 30 percent chance of matching, was not a match. So she's turning to you, good people of the internet, to get the word out.

Ai Wei Wei: The Seed, July 24

New multimedia spoken word performance mash-up at the Brooklyn Museum



If you're in New York City, you're invited to a new multimedia performance next week in Brooklyn... Ai Wei Wei: The Seed is a live music, video, dance and spoken word performance mash-up about the early roots of political artist Ai Wei Wei and his emergence as one of the world's foremost artists and thinkers.

The show goes up Thursday, July 24 at the Brooklyn Museum. The creative team behind the performance includes some of our friends, like Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai (Creative Direction, Spoken Word, Video), Jessica Chen (Choreography), Jason Kao Hwang (Music), Adriel Luis (Spoken Word, Video, Music), and Kit Yan (Spoken Word).

Here are some more details about the performance:

Apply to the Muslim Youth Voices Project

Free summer filmmaking workshop presented by the Center for Asian American Media



The Muslim Youth Voices Project is a national initiative of the Center for Asian American Media. This three-year initiative is an effort to amplify the expressions and celebrations of Muslim youth ages 12-18 by providing the tools to tell their stories -- stories often invisible to the national public.

This round, CAAM is offering free filmmaking workshops for youth in the Bay Area and New York City. But heads up -- the application for the one in Fremont is due this Friday, July 18. (Sorry for the short notice.)

Here's some more info:

Fund This: Armed With a Camera 2015

Help Visual Communications raise up the next generation of Asian Pacific American filmmakers



Do you want to help the next generation of Asian American filmmakers tell their stories?

Visual Communications, the nation's premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, recently launched its first-ever crowdsourcing campaign through Indiegogo to raise funds for the 2014-15 Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists (AWC). And they could use your support!

Since 2002, the Armed With a Camera Fellowship has nurtured a new generation of Asian Pacific Americans to articulate their experiences and perspectives through the medium of film. Fellows are provided with funding, mentorship, training, resources and an elite presentation venue -- the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

Watch this video for more information about Armed With a Camera:

Peter Shinkoda joins the cast of 'Daredevil'

Marvel's upcoming superhero series will debut exclusively on Netflix



Some cool casting news... Actor Peter Shinkoda has been cast for a major recurring role in Netflix's upcoming drama series Daredevil, based on the popular Marvel Comics superhero.

Peter Shinkoda Joins Netflix's Marvel Drama Series 'Daredevil'

Marvel has been busy at work rapidly expanding its universe in movies, television and beyond. Daredevil is the first four 13-episode superhero series that the studio is producing exclusively for Netflix, in addition to Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. All four shows, set in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, will eventually culminate in a miniseries uniting all these characters as The Defenders.

According to Deadline, Shinkoda will play a man named Hachiro, an original character created for the series who is described as a "major recurring role." Screen Rant offers some speculation on the character's role:

Bruce Lee never thought about the guy with the Groupon

Comedian Ian Edwards asks the hard questions about 'Fists of Fury' and 'Enter the Dragon'



Fellow Bruce fans, have you ever watched a Bruce Lee fight scene and felt a little sorry for one of the many guys whose ass got kicked? I have. So has this guy. Check out this hilarious short, animated by Dilara Karabas, in which comedian Ian Edwards asks some of the hard questions about Fists of Fury and Enter the Dragon:

Yuki Togashi is a fan favorite at NBA Summer League

20-year-old guard attempting to be the second Japanese player to make an NBA roster



Basketball fans, keep your eye on this cat Yuki Togashi. The 20-year-old 5-foot-7 point guard from Japan has been turning heads and quickly becoming a fan favorite at NBA Summer League.

Togashi Turns Heads at Summer League

Togashi, a top player for the bj league's Akita Northern Happinets, was invited to the Dallas Mavericks' tryout camp earlier this month, and made his Summer League debut with the team last week in Las Vegas, where the crowd has apparently been going crazy for him.

Here's a short video of some Togashi highlights:

Beau Sia: A One of a Kind Poetry Experience

Friday, July 18 at Art Share LA



If you're in the Los Angeles area this Friday, acclaimed spoken word artist Beau Sia will be sharing new work and classic poems in his first solo play, described as a show filled with "dance, love, and the empowering potential of words." Well, that sounds awesome. Who wouldn't want to be a part of something like that? It's happening July 18 at Art Share LA.

Here are some more details about the show:

White House hosts AAPI Youth Forum

Tune in Thursday, July 17 at 9:00am EDT

This is pretty short notice, but if you see this in time, the White House Office of Public Engagement and White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are hosting an online AAPI Youth Forum tomorrow morning.

Tune in Thursday, July 17 at 9:00am EDT to see various members of the administration talking about issues affecting young AAPI leaders, including education, mental health, pathways to public service, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Here are some more details about the webcast:

Angry Asian America Ep. 7: Australian Woman's Racist Train Rant Caught on Video!

With co-host Jenny Yang and special guests Timothy Delaghetto and Rasika Mathur



Hello, video watchers! I am pleased to present the latest edition of my web talk show Angry Asian America on ISAtv. In episode seven, co-host Jenny Yang and I are joined by comedians Timothy Delaghetto and Rasika Mathur of Wild N Out. We sound off on a couple of recent posts from this blog, including that Australian woman's racist train rant, hipster retail racism, and big Punjabi basketball fire, among other things.

Check it out:

Emily C. Chang joins the cast of 'The Vampire Diaries'

Joins the CW drama as "the quintessential girl next door with an unexpected wild side"



Super-excited to pass along this casting news... My good friend Emily C. Chang has joined the cast of the CW supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries as "a new character who may not be who she seems."

'Vampire Diaries' Adds 'Unexpected' Character for Season 6

Emily will play the recurring character of Ivy, who is described as "sweet and sincere," and "the quintessential girl next door with an unexpected wild side." And that's about all the information we've got. Maybe she's a vampire! I don't know. I guess we'll find out, because I will definitely be tuning in to see homegirl Emily.

See you at the New York Premiere of Awesome Asian Bad Guys

July 25 & 26 at the Asian American International Film Festival



New York City! Make some plans, because the Awesome Asian Bad Guys are coming to get you.

Next week, National Film Society's action/comedy webseries makes its East Coast premiere as part of Asian CineVision's Asian American International Film Festival. It will screen on Friday, July 25, 6:00pm at City Cinema Village East and Saturday, July 26, 2:00pm at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP.

Want to win free tickets? Scroll down to the bottom for details.

Filmmaking duo Stephen Dypiangco and Patrick Epino direct and star as Stephen and Patrick, down-and-out filmmakers who must recruit an unlikely team of Asian American heroes -- a motley crew that includes Al Leong, Yuji Okumoto, Tamlyn Tomita, George Cheung and Randall Park -- to take down a ruthless crime lord. The series is an homage to your favorite nameless Asian movie character actors of the 1980s and 90s.

Community rallies for victims of deadly apartment fire

Seven people -- including three young children -- killed in fatal blaze in Lowell, MA



This is a terrible story out of the Boston area... Last week in Lowell, seven people -- including three young children -- were killed in a deadly apartment fire that has devastated the local Cambodian community.

Lowell fire hits heart of Cambodian community

33-year-old Ellen Vuong and her boyfriend Torn Sak, and three of the couple's children, Anthony, 12, Ryan, 9, and Sayuri, 7, perished in the fire early morning Thursday when they became trapped in their third floor apartment. Two of their young children were able to make it out alive. Two unrelated adults, 38-year-old Tina Christakos and an unidentified 70-year-old man, died in an apartment on the other side of the building.

According to the Lowell Fire Department, the three-alarm blaze was an accidental electrical fire.

Over the weekend, hundreds of community members gathered for a memorial service and collected donations for the families of the victims:

The Green Turtle (who?) returns in 'The Shadow Hero'

New graphic novel tells the story of the first Asian American superhero



At long last! Evildoers cower and flee! It's the triumphant return of the masked crimefighter known as the Green Turtle! Wait... who? What, you mean you've never heard of the first Asian American superhero? Then you must read The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew, on shelves this week from First Second.

Okay, if you've never heard of the Green Turtle, I can't really blame you. He's an obscure Golden Age character that briefly appeared in the pages of Blazing Comics during the 1940s. While the character's run was short-lived, what makes the Green Turtle interesting is his creator, Chinese American artist Chu F. Hing.

Big bouncy robot fun in the first full trailer for 'Big Hero 6'

Disney's animated feature based on the Marvel Comics superhero team



Hot off the recent character reveals and voice cast announcement for Walt Disney Animation Studios' first Marvel Comics feature adaptation Big Hero 6, here's the first full trailer for the animated superhero adventure:

Jose Antonio Vargas detained at Texas airport

Undocumented journalist and immigration activist taken into custody by Border Patrol



Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker and immigrant rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas -- arguably the most visible undocumented immigrant in the country -- was detained at a Texas airport this morning.

Reporter Jose Vargas, symbol of immigration debate, detained at airport

Vargas, who started the campaign Define American and has been outspoken about being undocumented, was detained in McAllen, Texas while trying to go through airport security. He was in McAllen to cover the children migrant crisis and show solidarity for the youth who have been recently crossing the border from Central America.

Only after arriving in McAllen, where the security procedures are much stricter, did he realize how challenging it might be to return home. As an undocumented immigrant, Vargas does not have a U.S. government-issued ID, and expressed uncertainty about getting through the numerous Customs and Border Protection checkpoints.

This morning, Vargas tweeted that he was about to go through airport security:

Canadian sitcom producer apologizes for offensive tweets

"In my hasty attempt to be funny I carelessly hurt many in the Asian community."

The cast of Spun Out
The latest in Twitter racism, coming out of Canada... In Toronto, a television producer has apologized for a series of racially insensitive tweets directed at fellow Chinese travelers during a recent flight.

Spun Out producer's tweets anger Asian community

Brent Piaskoski, executive producer of the Canadian sitcom Spun Out was traveling over the weekend when he became increasingly irritated by fellow plane passengers -- particularly those annoying Asian ones who were talking too loudly, lining up aggressively and eating too vigorously for his liking.

So, of course, he took to Twitter to express his frustrations. The July 12 tweets have since been deleted, but the Toronto Star reproduced some of Piakoski's best gems: