All right, friends. It's time to meet another 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 Howard University law student Raymond Chow.
Who are you?
Raymond Chow
What are you?
Chinese Virginian. Sub-par Buddhist. Occasionally, a law student. Year of the Rat and a Libra, if you're curious.
Where are you?
Right now I live in sunny Lorton, Virginia. The house I live in is nestled between an abandoned prison, a golf club, and like a billion state parks.
Where are you from?
My mother's side of the family is Toisanese and my father's side is Shanghainese though both of my parents grew up in Hong Kong. They arrived in America in the early 70s. I was born in the 80s in the Shenandoah Valley but grew up in Hampton Roads.
What do you do?
I am a second year in law school (pity me and my student loans) at Howard University School of Law. My current class schedule has me learning immigration law at the feet of Frank Wu, arguing the finer points and limitations of critical race theory, and reading lots and lots of cases about equal protection.
I'm also Vice President and a founding member of our school's Asian Pacific American Law Students Association chapter. We were founded last year to be a progressive APA organization rooted in the rich history and legacy of civil rights law at Howard Law. Currently we're looking for donations to continue coalition building and creating effective programming about the collective struggles of all peoples of color. As Angela Davis wrote, "Walls turned sideways are bridges." If you'd like to donate, please contact us at hu.apalsa@gmail.com
What are you all about?
At the moment I am ravenously consuming material for a paper I'm working on that seeks to harmonize Buddhist ontology (specifically the concept of anatta or 'no-self') with how we, meaning everybody individually and as a whole, construct and perceive the social phenomenon of race in language and action. Then I have to figure out how to somehow apply this to legal theory.
What makes you angry?
Harlan's dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. It's famous for the pronouncement that the constitution is color blind (which is in itself a whole different set of problems) but Harlan has no problem hatin' on Chinamen that sit next to him.
Getting whooped in chess.
The fact that it's years between new Stephen Chow movies.
