The dismissal is fair: it’s grasping at straws to claim the photo was illegal. The Internet is rife with worse fodder and singling out a then-16-year-old, even if she is a public figure, seems a bit ludicrous.

The real problem at hand though, isn’t the dismissal but her reaction to the media outrage last February. Miley posted a half-hearted apology that she was sorry if people “looked at those pics and took them the wrong way.” Instead of apologizing for what she did, she apologized for the reactions of people she insinuated were overreacting.

The crux of the issue is that Miley doesn’t see what she did wrong. This issue doesn’t warrant legal action, but it does warrant a sincere apology. Miley has influence over young girls and she needs to impress upon them that what she did wasn’t okay. Even if she’s free in the eyes of the law, she still did something tasteless and needs to take responsibility.

This resurgence began with the Australian show “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” in which a cover group called the Jackson Jive performed in blackface, to mostly negative feedback. The trend is resurfacing in fashion as well: the Oct. 2009 French Vogue edition has Dutch model Lara Stone painted to look black (and dressed in requisite tribal garb). Even closer to home, an America’s Next Top Model episode required its contestants to be painted and dressed for a ‘biracial’ photo shoot. The ANTM girls wore heavy makeup to embody ethnicities such as Greek/Mexican or Thai/Egyptian and wore clothing Tyra believed these ‘mixes’ would wear.

All of this is derogatory, even in the name of fashion or entertainment. You can argue that it’s for art, but when you’re playing around with people’s cultural identities, it’s just wrong. First of all, when models are painted in blackface, they always end up wearing tribal-looking garb, which reinforces stereotypes of women of color being primitive, or worse, fetishizes them as exotic.

Diversity is sorely lacking in these industries to begin with: why not simply hire a black model to do the job? Why not have a Greek/Mexican model contestant instead of portraying what one “should” look like? Blackface isn’t a reaction to a lack of black models or an appreciation of black culture — it’s a temporary phase where being ‘black’ and ‘tribal’ is popular.

Not to mention the most important point: ethnicity and identity are such heavy, complex and sensitive issues. Pretending to be a different race is insulting, even under the excuse of aesthetics and guise of ‘this race is beautiful.’ Treating race as makeup — something that can be donned and then washed off, demeans the very real challenges and joys of any ethnic identity.

By using the colorface photoshoot concept, ANTM is blatantly making biracial people just characters the girls need to embody. Race isn’t necessarily about what you look like or what clothes you wear; it’s about culture and background and values, which can’t be achieved through heavy makeup and stereotyped attire.

Photo via Racialicious

East High School’s mascot is the “Orientals,” complete with a dragon named “Chang” and a website with the faux Asian font commonly found on Chinese take-out cartons. Nor is it the only school that uses racial characters as its representations: East High School in Rochester, NY also calls itself the “Orientals,” while the University of California, Santa Barbara is represented by the “Gauchos” (Mexican cowboys).

The issue of using ethnic references as mascot representations has long been a complicated problem. While the Washington Redskins football team has been continually under attack for its name, there hasn’t been nearly the same amount of controversy over Notre Dame University and their “Fighting Irish” mascot. This is mainly because the terms “Oriental,” “Gaucho” and “Redskin” are historically embedded with negative connotations, while “Fighting Irish” has more of a positive connotation.

It’s unlikely that any of these teams meant to be deliberately insulting — it could even be argued that these groups were adopted as mascots for their positive attributes. However, using an ethnic term or symbol to represent another group (oftentimes not consisting of the same ethnicity) is a strike to diversity. Asians, Native Americans and the Irish are complex people with complex cultures who shouldn’t be reduced to caricatures.

The “Orientals” as a mascot literally objectifies Asians and demeans them by placing them in the same category as the mustang or the bulldog. They’re seen as funny pictures or representations of a school instead of as a population and community. The seemingly innocuous representations can raise many issues such as: What type of apparel does this school support during games? What type of chants or slogans do they use during school events? Ragging on the opposing team is routine at sporting events, so what derogatory “Oriental” jokes will the opponents be making?

One of the high schools in my area in California, Fremont High School, originally had the mascot of the “Indians,” but under scrutiny from the district changed their mascot to the “Firebirds” instead. These other schools should follow suit as well and realize that ethnic groups should only represent themselves.

Photo via Angry Asian Man

She may have attended Princeton University and earned a PhD in English. She may be a featherweight Asian American ballerina. However, her debut book “The Long Shot” isn’t about pliés or the world of cutthroat academics. Instead, “The Long Shot” centers around a topic that one would think is distinctively out of her realm of knowledge: mixed martial arts (MMA).

“The Long Shot,” whose entire plot takes place in the span of only three days, revolves around former prizefighter Cal and his trainer Riley, who attempt to work their way past adversity to participate in an epic rematch against a legendary MMA fighter.

Released in August, the book generated mostly favorable reviews, with Publishers Weekly writing that Katie “brings a physicality to her story with descriptions of the action so vivid the reader feels the pain of every punch and kick”.

Although at first glance the topic seems arbitrary, Kitamura’s history makes it evident why she chose this narrative. She grew up with strict training in ballet, which affected her idea of the athlete-trainer relationship and the nature of sport. “The idea of physical strain and discipline, the question of how and when you leave that life behind — they’re things I’m familiar with on one level or another,” she said in an author interview with publishing house Simon & Schuster.

Besides ballet, Kitamura has been an avid fan of fighting, beginning with watching games with her brother (whose knuckles adorn the book’s cover art) and later reporting on them for the New York Times. “The experience of watching a fight live is extraordinary,” she said. “I end up having a completely irrational, emotional stake in the outcome of a fight — in that sense, I’m a shameless fan.”

It’s refreshing to see a book written by a woman geared toward a subject most think is strictly masculine. Kitamura shows that we don’t have to stay in the bubble of what we know or what others expect of us, but that we can take parts of our past and mold our experiences into something completely new.

Photo courtesy of Simon & Schuster

Not so fast.

Chinese American Davina Wan’s teenage life was anything but scholarly. From age 12 to 17, she was part of an all-girl gang in the Lower East Side in New York, entrenched in a lifestyle foreign to most of us: danger instead of academic stress, intense loyalty instead of high school bickering, and most notably, while we were attending proms, she went to 35 funerals before the age of 18.

Wan suffered hardship early — she was a child immigrant and her parents divorced when she was young — but both the beginning and end of her gang life were heralded by one incident: the death of a friend. When Wan lost a close friend at age 12 she abandoned her old life and turned to the strongest support network she could find: a gang. But five years later, when her best friend died and the gang fell apart, Wan decided that she wanted out of the life she had chosen.

This transition is documented in the new 15-minute short “Excuse My Gangsta Ways,” which explores her transformation and journey from the literal gangs of New York to where she is now: a woman who does community outreach in the hopes of helping other lost girls.

With the myth of the “model minority,” sometimes we fall into the trap of believing these generalizations even when we know they’re not true. Wan’s story reminds us of the vast diversity of experiences that exist beyond the boundaries of our own lives. Though her story is one of alienation and fear, it’s also one of reinvention, as she’s someone who found herself in a bad place but had the strength to become a better person.

A screening of “Excuse My Gangsta Ways” will be shown at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 15-29.

You can also find the trailer here and a Q&A with the director here.

Photo of Davina Wan via Jezebel

If anyone thinks we live in a post-racial world, she only needs to talk to 20-year-old Lou Jing to have that myth dispelled.

Lou was a recent finalist on “Let’s Go, Chinese Angels!” (“Jiayou, Dongfang Tianshi”), a Chinese reality television show similar to “American Idol.” Her presence skyrocketed the show’s interest and prompted national debate about identity due to a single factor: the color of her skin.

Lou, who is of Chinese and African American descent, was raised by her Shanghainese mother and had never met her African American father who returned to the U.S. before she was born. Many argue that Lou’s background is sordid: aside from ancestry, her parents were unwed when she was conceived; in fact, her mother was married to another man at the time, whom she divorced in order to raise Lou alone.

Though Lou consistently acted with poise and decorum in front of the camera, online commenters complained that it was immoral for a girl of her background to be exposed to the public consciousness. Regardless of the fact that her mother showed responsibility and strength in raising her daughter alone, and that Lou cannot help the circumstances of her birth – people still say that it is “shameful” for her to appear on television.

There’s prejudice both subtle and obvious in this story. The hosts of the show repeatedly focus on her race, calling her “chocolate girl” and “black pearl” and questioning why she’s fluent in Mandarin, even though Mandarin is her native language. More blatant are the protests that she is not a “true” Chinese and should not be allowed to win or represent China in any way.

Many of us Stateside are accustomed to diversity, so it’s important to realize that nearly 92 percent of China’s population is of the Han ethnicity. In this racially homogeneous society, people like Lou stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, fair skin is one of the most prized traits in Chinese society, as evident in the widespread use of whitening creams, so Lou’s brown skin color is frequently looked down upon by their standard of beauty.

These factors may make the surprise and shock more easily comprehended, but not more acceptable. As anyone who has ever struggled with labels knows, there is so much more to culture than just facial features, and Lou should simply be accepted as Chinese. There’s more to a nation than race.

Here’s a video of Lou Jing on “Let’s Go! Chinese Angels:”

Photo of Lou Jing by Imaginechina via Time.com

The website features a list of 124 (and growing) things Asian people like, updated daily. There are the expected (academics, rice), but the true genius of the site is stumbling across an entry about a cultural quirk you never noticed before and finding yourself yelling “That’s so true!”

For me, the moment happened while reading the posts about ‘free calendars’ (the only type allowed in my home) and pointing with the middle finger (“Dad! Stop!”).

Unlike Stuff White People Like, SAPL is a public project with a variety of contributors. The posts are usually thoughtful, personal and give honest cultural insight without shying away good or bad. The post about ‘being skinny’ discusses the harsh Asian weight standards, while ‘comparing people’ hits home for everyone with the misfortune of routinely being compared to the relative in the same age range.

And of course, there are the posts that make you laugh. Asian people like Jay Chou — need I say more?

Of course, any site with a racial undertone is treading a fine line, and the founders of the site are careful not to cross the line into prejudice, by saying that “our articles are from the writer’s experience, background research, and also affirmed by results from our bimonthly reader’s surveys.”

The section for ‘Busting the Stereotypes’ shows that this site really is dedicated to being positive, and there is a refreshing amount of diversity shown in the posts: Asians of all ethnicities contribute and are represented, unlike so many websites where the Chinese dominate.

There’s also a ‘Just for Laughs’ section, a place to make a submission and even a quiz to test just how Asian you are.

The founders say “our goal is to simply point out cultural and social truths over light-hearted humor in order to build up the Asian community and not tear down.” Stuff Asian People Like does a good job of discussing all aspects of Asian culture and it gives us a laugh while doing it.

Photo courtesy of Stuff Asian People Like

Born in Shanghai, Tan discovered passion for dance early in life — an interest her mother supported and her father opposed. Her parents decided to leave the decision up to a coin toss, a fateful move that landed in favor of dance, putting Tan on the road to becoming the most acclaimed ballerina to ever hail from China.

She became a soloist with the San Francisco Ballet at age 18 and at 20, became the youngest principal dancer in the history of the company (and the first Asian American to achieve either position).

Now, with the San Francisco Ballet taking a three week tour to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Tan is returning to her roots as she tours Beijing, Shouzou and her home city of Shanghai. Tan will dance a full-length production of “Swan Lake” as well as other works from choreographers such as George Balanchine, Helgi Tomasson and Christopher Wheeldon.

Though Tan is still the world’s best-known Chinese ballerina, her meteoric rise to success is opening the doors for other Asian dancers who want to perform on the international stage. Her success is notable because she is revitalizing what has traditionally been seen as European art.

Tan’s repertoire includes lead roles in ballets such as “Giselle,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Nutcracker” — roles that were originally written for white females. By dancing these roles superbly, she shows that a ballet can be beautiful and unique even when deviating from the original artistic vision.

Tan is truly bridging the gap between east and west as she was named one of Time Magazine’s “Asian Heroes” in 2004 and has danced for both former President Bill Clinton and former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

The tour began in early September and will conclude with three performances in Beijing from Oct. 1 to 3. Learn more about her by visiting her official website and blog.

Here’s a video of Tan dancing in Othello Ballet:

Photo (top) of Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in Yuri Possohkov’s “Fusion”; (bottom) of Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimets in Tomasson’s “Nutcracker” © Erik Tomasson

Celebrating 20 years of “Vision, Vitality and Visibility,” AAWAA is hosting an art exhibition from Sept. 22 to Oct. 24 at SOMArts Cultural Center located in San Francisco.

The exhibition features striking works by artists coming from a variety of backgrounds and experiences — from the work of Priscilla Otani who creates mixed media paintings depicting Japanese culture such as Card Game, to the abstract creations of Keiko Nelson.

AAWAA is a non-profit program designed to empower the art of Asian American women and maintain visibility through a support network, diversity and exhibitions. “Since its inception, AAWAA has promoted the artistic and organizational growth of the Asian and Pacific Islander visual and literary arts community,” said AAWAA member Lenore Chinn, who is one of the artists featured in the SOMArts exhibit. Chinn uses acrylics to depict different areas of culture — not just ethnicity, but gender and same-sex couples as well.

In addition to the current showcase, AWAA had a January exhibition at the de Young museum in which artists’ mixed media installations answered the question “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?”

AWAA is also being featured in an upcoming book by scholar Laura Fantone, who says, “by connecting different generations of artists, AAWAA bridges the past and present.”

Photo of Cynthia Tom’s piece entitled, “Location, location, location,” by by J.W. Diehl, courtesy of blog.somarts.org