The Lin-sanity Of It All

With any luck, this will be my only post regarding race. Yet the recent Jeremy Lin phenomenon and the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots made me feel that this is an appropriate time to post this. I don’t remember the riots too fondly, but I do like Lin’s backstory – a Harvard-educated Asian American who is also a star on a professional sports level.

Historically, the majority has perceived minority males as threats (African American’s physicality and Asian American’s intelligence for example), while minority women are considered assets, commodities or possessions. In this vein Still Life’s highest prized female body molds are a Hispanic American (Gabriela “Gigi” Gutierrez) and an Asian American (Mindy Soong).

As an Asian American myself, I’m usually thought of as being analytical and detailed, not creative and athletic. Can I be all four at the same time? Of course I can. So is the character of Barnaby Wong. The heroic accountant is normally the numbers cruncher in the Pretty Vacant stories, but when Gigi is in peril he can spring into action at a moment’s notice!

Few people talk to me about race, so I try not to bring up the subject myself. In Pretty Vacant race is only mentioned once (see the above picture that accompanies this post), and the only way you may realize that Gigi isn’t Caucasian is from the rare Spanish word that escapes her lips and her surname.

Gigi, Mindy and Barnaby are all capable and fun characters whatever their backgrounds or ethnicities. I want to believe that Pretty Vacant is color-blind in more ways than the interior artwork!