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I keep thinking of how often colonial histories, legacies and identities are erased by Whiteness. About how ‘success’ often requires such erasure. And how often that erasure is gendered.
And yes that is Eddie Van Halen’s family.
And yes that is Eddie Van Halen’s family.
And I think a lot about the quiet strength, courage, resilience of women like Eugenia van Halen where the intersection of gender and race almost always ensures their erasure
And I’ve been thinking how Van Halen, Freddie Mercury made rock seem not quite so white to a little kid growing up in the Global South (like me). I don’t think I could grow up loving rock the same way without them
As per my mentions, noting that Eddie Van Halen endured racism & his Asian heritage is often erased/downplayed is being ‘disrespectful’ to his talent/ability/legacy. Same sort of people would have abused him & his family the way Roth describes https://metalheadzone.com/roth-reveals-untold-story-about-horrifying-racist-environment-of-eddie-van-halen/
“It’s too soon to talk about racism; you are distracting from his talent; Indonesians are assimilated in Holland....”
Keep going. It’s not as if y’all didn’t make him endure your racism all his life https://www.asian-dawn.com/2020/04/30/immigrating-to-america-half-asian-eddie-van-halen/
Keep going. It’s not as if y’all didn’t make him endure your racism all his life https://www.asian-dawn.com/2020/04/30/immigrating-to-america-half-asian-eddie-van-halen/
Whiteness is SO brittle that mere mention of racism, specially when endured by someone it has rewarded with assimilationist success, is enough to incite it to aggression.
So is it now ok to NOW talk about Van Halen’s experience of racism and xenophobia? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/eddie-van-halen-endured-horrifying-racist-environment-becoming-rock-legend-n1242663
