Remember 2011′s Groupon ad that portrayed Tibetans as a tragic, dying culture, but — huzzah! — out of which savvy customers could still score a cheap fish curry?

Well, this year did not disappoint on the racism and sexism fronts. The worst offender being Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoesktra’s political ad, which showed an Asian woman biking through a rice paddy (cue gongs) and saying in broken English: “...Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs….”

(And if you think you’re angry now, check out Hoekstra’s even more ludicrous ching chongy website).

The ad was quickly condemned by a Michigan coalition of Black ministers, APIA Vote, other Republicans, and basically anyone who’s not a dipshit. Hoekstra lamely defended himself by saying the ad is “satirical” and not about race.

Moving on! Apparently advertisers are still clinging onto that time-honored marketing adage: “sex sells…especially if it’s like, absurdly, offensively, Mad Men-level sexist”. Jezebel and Mother Jones did great pieces on the plethora of creepy Super Bowl ads that trotted out the tired female = sex object formula to sell cars, web domains (GoDaddy.com, of course), and even uh, M&Ms.

The ad that made me shudder and want to kick an ad exec in the balls the most was from Teleflora:

This is just a big dripping ball of lechery — from the cheap porno soundtrack to Adriana Lima’s lascivious close ups to the blatant “give…and you shall receive…Happy Valentines night.” Do people really still think that throwing 50 bucks towards flowers or dinner or some crap is what it takes to get a woman to fuck you? Insulting to both sexes, and viewers probably don’t appreciate how uncomfortable and unfortunate it is to watch this with your kids or (in my case) parents and grandparents.

Fortunately the organization Miss Representation launched the brilliant Twitter hashtag #NotBuyingIt, which allows viewers to talk back and let companies know how they feel about the use of women in only highly sexualized contexts — or left out altogether (as in the case of this men-only Best Buy ad on tech innovators):

Ain’t no truth in advertising here.

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See Jezebel’s list of 10 female tech innovators that should have been included here.

Now if only they could star in their own pencil-sketch/live action music video:

Yesterday, Don Cornelius, creator of Soul Train, passed away at the age of 75. R.I.P. Don, and thank you for giving my generation some of the best childhood memories and music programming of the ’70s and ’80s.

Some of you may also remember the lady with the majestic mane who was the first Asian American dancer on Soul Train (and was on the show for 14 consecutive years). Her name is Cheryl Song, and in addition to bringing the funk and the unbelievably dazzling outfits to Soul Train, she was a dancer in Rick James’ “Superfreak” video and apparently helped Michael Jackson work out The Moonwalk.

Just try to watch the following montage without repeatedly shouting “YES GIRL!” at your screen.

Cheryl now works for the Federal Air Marshall Service at LAX. Get down with your bad self Cheryl Song, and to Don Cornelius: in parting, we wish you love, peace, and soul.

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Thanks Louie!

It was happening for a while and this weekend was when the transition was 100%. The Occupy Oakland Movement was dwarfed by a handful of anarchists this weekend. Most of whom, as you can see in this photo-collage I made from the weekend’s protests photos, are WHITE. This is probably the biggest gathering of white people I’ve seen in Oakland ever. Why isn’t the media calling this out? If it was a similarly ratio’d number of Asian or Black folks, you can be sure they’d call it the BLACKS OCCUPY OAKLAND RIOT or the ASIANS TAKE OVER OAKLAND RIOT. Where are these white people coming from? Are they born and raised in Oakland? Did they go to Oakland High or Tech? Were they born at Kaiser or Highland? I don’t know, I’m not from Oakland, so I can’t say. But what I can say is that Oakland’s demographics are 26% White, 17% Asian, 27% Black and 25% Latino. And these photos make it look like the Occupy protestors rioters are 95% White to me.

This right here is when the Occupy Oakland protests stopped being anything about the Occupy movement and turned into the continuing F Oakland/FOPD movement. Why deface a Frank H. Ogawa bust or anything civic for that matter when there’s a goddamn Wells Fargo and Bank of America and Citibank right down the street to focus on? Do these people even remember why this movement was started? Why are these white anarchists appropriating the Occupy Movement and why can’t the media stop calling this splinter group OCCUPY?!

And this sh!t right here breaks my heart. why why why why??? Are you MFers coming in from your white bread/latte sipping single family tract homes from Walnut Creek and spreading your suburban teen angst in Oakland? Do you really live in Oakland? Are you even from the Bay Area? Why would you destroy a 100 year old model of the most historic building in Oakland? Why don’t you go to Fairyland and tear out all the rides while you’re at it? Or better yet, throw a ton of bleach into Lake Merritt. Cause Wells Fargo and Bank America will go nuts if you do that. They will. They might even stop the foreclosure process on your next door neighbors (you’ll be fine though cause your trust fund’s got you covered for the next 1000 years).

Can I PLEASE see some headshots of the people getting arrested? Oh wait, that’s a great idea. I’m gonna do that in my next post… call all you white anarchists out….

Hilarious, foxy, AND lending his talents to a progressive political organization? This is why I keep hoping that “Long” is really an Asian name.

Thanks Sherilyn!

Just how accurate is this? and is the dad Vietnamese or Chinese? Yes, yes, and yes is all I can say.

Happy New Year! According to the Year of the Dragon, 2012 is a time to be bold, start a new business, and pop out babies (and if you’re still single, to once again gloat over the fact that you get to hoard red pockets instead of give them out. The mun-mun-muny, the yen and the pesos!).

BCB wishes all our readers a 2012 filled with happiness, success, and just a tad less to bitch about. And Mr. President himself wishes you a very happy New Year too:

恭喜發財! Gong Hay Faht Choy! Chúc mừng năm mới!

As part of the release of their fabulous Yellow Peril Dildo, ChimCo is teaming up with THE #1 Adult Boutique Shop in Oakland, FeelMore510, to giveaway a handful (pun intended) of dildos during their celebration of Lunar New Year! That’s right folks, no joke: FREE DILDOS, all week long! For more information on how to get your hands on a Yellow Peril at FeelMore510 (pun intended once again), check out their website or Facebook or Twitter.

FeelMore510 in Oakland (1703 Telegraph Ave), the best place to find luxury sex toys, literature, artwork and all you need for a feelgood night:

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