Waking the dragon

Some of the shots I took a couple weeks ago at the Long Beach dragon boat festival have been posted on the photo site here.

(Unburdened from paddling this year, I had time to take pictures.)

Drink it in

For the past seven years I have participated in a team sport that, despite being the "fastest growing water sport in the world," still draws blank stares from people I meet here in Los Angeles when I mention the name of it: dragon boating.

(Eh, what the heck: Go ahead and read the Wiki-planation of it. It's true that I don't write about it much here.)

I got in the habit of describing in this manner when it came up in conversation for the first time with someone: "It's a paddling sport called 'dragon boating'--you haven't heard of it." I didn't even wait for the puzzled look before offering the follow-up. (Every once in a while I would run into someone who had heard of it, which would be a tiny thrill, but that still proved too infrequent to cause me to change the habit.)

So you can imagine my surprise when I was getting lunch on Friday at the fine "Chinese" dining establishment Panda Express and saw what was on the medium drink cup:













The cup even had a reasonable explanation of the history of dragon boating on the back (considering the space available).






They also feature it on their website.




Now dragon boating is going to explode in popularity, and soon it will become a household word, and I'll never be met with another blank stare when I mention it.

Except for one little thing: Although it alludes to races being held around the world (which is true), no where on the cup does it mention how to celebrate the dragon boat festival--except, by implication, by eating Panda's latest menu item.

(Like the American public is going to do the legwork to find a festival near them. If you're in Southern California, the Long Beach festival is coming up on July 28-29.)

So really, Panda Express has co-opted a sport that is still virtually unknown in this country to seem culturally aware while promoting their food. It's like they're primarily interested in making a profit or something.

On behalf of dragon boaters everywhere, I feel kind of used. On the other hand, there is part of me that feels kind of validated by seeing my sport mentioned this way.

I wouldn't have this dilemma if I'd joined a bowling league.

Yes, it's dragon boating

For those of you who have wondered why I never include pictures of dragon boating (despite the fact that it has taken up most of my weekends for the past six and a half years), allow me to allay your curiosity with the shot above (the beginning of one of the heats), taken at last month's tournament in Long Beach.

For those of you who wonder why I never include pictures with me in them, allow me to tell you: I am actually in there somewhere. Really.

(Kind of an inadvertent Where's Waldo sort of thing now...)

Doing the right thing

As alluded to in previous posts, I was in Vancouver last month. I was there (for the fifth time in six years) with my dragon boat team, the Killer Guppies, for the largest tournament in western North America. (And if you want to read about how we fared, you can read this write-up--which I did not compose--from the team's website.)

Last week I sent out this link to my Vancouver pictures to the people in my department at work, as many of them had asked about the trip; I figured they might enjoy the overview album I put together. (Do go ahead and click on the link and give 'em a look-see, if you haven't already, as you'll need to have an idea of what's there before we move on here. You don't have to log in; just click View Slideshow. And when you're done come back here. We'll wait.)

[Muzak playing...]

Most of the replies I got were along the lines of “Looks like you had fun”--most likely due to the inclusion of just a couple shots at the end (from the sake bomb sushi dinner and a club some of us attended afterward)--but one was a bit different. It started with that same looks-like-fun sentiment, but then asked (in this exact phraseology): “Where are the Black people?”

Allow me to interrupt myself with this clarification: I am not making that up, nor exaggerating, nor twisting in any way the words of the respondent in question. Really. Allow me to further explain that the question was not meant in a humorous or ironic context; it was asked in full sincerity. The person is not someone with whom I have conversations with this sort of presumed familiarity, and we generally discuss only what is absolutely necessary for professional [sic] purposes. Just so we're clear.

Although this may disappoint some of my readers, I didn’t respond; I didn’t know how. I'm not suggesting that I was surprised this person thought such a thing (and the question should tell you everything you need to know about the person with no further elaboration), but I must admit I was taken aback just a bit by the act of actually composing it in an email (that I could share with the rest of the world but choose not to) and clicking Send.

I wasn’t sure whether this individual's insinuation was that our team was somehow racist for not making sure we had a full complement of all races on the roster for the trip, or whether it was that the sport was racist for not having African-Canadians (or whatever the appropriate term would be north of the border) at the tournament (at least not so prevalently that they would appear in my pictures), or whether it was that I was racist for not including any Blacks in the shots I chose but assuming there must have been some up there—and in sufficient numbers to be noticeable in what would prove to be the better shots, regardless of subject. Heck, maybe there was no insinuation at all.

Make no mistake: I had a number of comebacks come to mind, to be sure. “I’m afraid Affirmative Action doesn’t apply to our team/sport.” “We’ll get right on putting recruitment ads in Essense and Ebony magazines.” “Like we could get Black people to get up that early. Don’t you know we practice at 8 in the morning?” And my personal favorite: “Blacks don’t feel comfortable around this many Asians and whites with paddles.” However, I have enough difficulty in my life without some sardonic witticism being misinterpreted, especially in an email that could be shared with the human resources department. As funny as it would be, it's not quite worth losing my job for.

[As you may have surmised, I don't tell people at work about the blahg. Please don't mention this if you happen to know someone who works where I do. Unless you think they'd find this hilarious.]

Pointing out that we have had members who would be considered of that ethnicity on our team in the past (not necessarily a lot, but some) would have only brought about questions regarding why we can’t keep them on our team, and really only serve to prolong this interaction. Mentioning how our team is actually more diverse than a lot of teams in the sport (that I’ve seen) would be rather futile as well.

In the end, I figured: There’s no point in trying to overcome the ignorance of someone with being logical. And I shouldn't have to.

Besides, everyone on the Guppies (past and present) knows that I view them all as my niggas, no matter what they look like.


[Our next tournament is coming up on the 29th and 30rd of July, at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach. Everyone is welcome, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to.]

Waking the dragon

That sport in which I have participated for seven years now (and yet never write about here*), dragon boating, has been featured in an article in last week's Time magazine.

And on Wednesday's local ABC 5:00 pm newscast, they closed with a 30-second story about the dragon boat races over in Hong Kong. Of course, they referred to the participants as "rowers" rather than "paddlers", but we're used to that sort of mistake.

It's going big-time, people.


(* If you wish to see me blather on about that sport, see my team's site for many write-ups I've done there over the years. Just not this year. See events from 2005 and earlier.)