Ep. 40: Sarah Jeong Is A White Liberal Shield

2018/8/13

Escape From Plan A

Frequently requested episodes will be transcribed first

Condemnation and defense of Sarah Jeong has fallen along the familiar fault lines of online culture. She has been portrayed as either a Pol Pot against white people or a Joan of Arc against racist and sexist trolls. But what if she is neither? Jess, Teen, and Oxford discuss how an old instance of performative wokeness (almost certainly intended in jest for a small media-class clique) has now been forcibly repackaged as a greater expression of minority, especially Asian American, anger. And who benefits the most from all this? The white liberal establishment, which not only gets to be seen promoting a woman of color, but also gets to extract a humble apology from her. Also, some football-bashing at the end.

Intro/Outro Song: "Over" by Epik High

Intro Voice Track: Malcolm X on white liberals (UC Berkeley 1963)

TWITTER:

Jess (@cogitatotomato) Teen (@mont_jiang) Oxford (@oxford_kondo)

REFERENCED RESOURCES:

Model Majority Podcast with Oxford Kondo: http://modelmajoritypodcast.com/oxford-kondo-plan-a-magazine-wmaf-aapi-gender/

NYT Fires Quinn Norton: https://www.wired.com/story/the-ny-times-fires-tech-writer-quinn-norton-and-its-complicated/

Teen's article on Sarah Jeong: https://planamag.com/the-problem-with-sarah-jeong-cd211de8838e

Mitch McConnell enlists wife Elaine Chao in 2014 re-election campaign on women's issues: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/us/politics/girding-for-a-fight-mcconnell-enlists-his-wife.html

Naomi Wu's account of incident with Vice and Sarah Jeong: https://medium.com/@therealsexycyborg/shenzhen-tech-girl-naomi-wu-my-experience-with-sarah-jeong-jason-koebler-and-vice-magazine-3f4a32fda9b5

Inkoo Kang defends Sarah Jeong: https://slate.com/culture/2018/08/the-ny-times-response-to-sarah-jeongs-controversial-tweets-blames-bigotry-on-many-sides.html

Inkoo Kang's podcast on Isle of Dogs: https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/wes-andersons-isle-of-dogs-reviewed-in-spoiler-filled-detail.html