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We are the Other - 38th Street & Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
I love wings (pun intended). The best for my money was Shorty & Wags Original Wings, which had been on this corner for over 30 years. The tired-looking owners (perpetually behind the counter and in the kitchen) were white, the clientele mostly black, and I was always the only Asian in the room. There are few things that transcend race, a really good chicken wing joint being one of them. They closed several months ago and I’ll really miss them.
A couple of weeks ago after returning from my China trip, I was startled to see this grinning signage. The former Shorty & Wags had been stripped of its façade to reveal an image from the previous original wing joint (Art Song’s, which I vaguely remember). The coolie hat wearing, cross-eyed buck-toothed Chinaman seems a holdover from the not-so-long ago, nostalgic pre-post racial era of my youth. 
We’ve come so far. In popular culture we’ve evolved from Mickey Rooney-esque caricatures to kung fu classics, nerds and geeks who never get the girl, and crazy, naked Asian guys who jump out of car trunks. Thank god for Jeremy Lin.
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We are the Other - 38th Street & Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis, MN

I love wings (pun intended). The best for my money was Shorty & Wags Original Wings, which had been on this corner for over 30 years. The tired-looking owners (perpetually behind the counter and in the kitchen) were white, the clientele mostly black, and I was always the only Asian in the room. There are few things that transcend race, a really good chicken wing joint being one of them. They closed several months ago and I’ll really miss them.

A couple of weeks ago after returning from my China trip, I was startled to see this grinning signage. The former Shorty & Wags had been stripped of its façade to reveal an image from the previous original wing joint (Art Song’s, which I vaguely remember). The coolie hat wearing, cross-eyed buck-toothed Chinaman seems a holdover from the not-so-long ago, nostalgic pre-post racial era of my youth.

We’ve come so far. In popular culture we’ve evolved from Mickey Rooney-esque caricatures to kung fu classics, nerds and geeks who never get the girl, and crazy, naked Asian guys who jump out of car trunks. Thank god for Jeremy Lin.

    • #Art Song's
    • #Crazy Asian
    • #Mickey Rooney
    • #Minneapolis
    • #Post-Racial
    • #Race
    • #Racist
    • #Racist Sign
    • #Shorty & Wags
    • #Social Documentary Photography
    • #We are the Other
    • #Wing Young Huie
    • #Wings
    • #Jeremy Lin
  • 1 year ago
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  1. clarewhite20 likes this
  2. chriseats reblogged this from heavytable
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  4. kittunzmittunz reblogged this from stuffaboutminneapolis and added:
    There’s still an Art Song’s in St. Paul. I ate there last week. Same recipe as Shorty and Wags I believe.
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  20. jnamakkal reblogged this from wingyounghuie and added:
    other day, as well -...thought about how many other racist images there
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About

(k)now is a blog by Wing Young Huie that blends three projects:

(1) “We are the Other” is new work presented as a serialized photographic novel that infuses several concepts to connect people who don’t know each other well or at all. (New scene every Sunday round midnight.)

(2) “From the Archive” features work from Wing’s vast film-based archive, much of which has never seen the light of day, often coupled with commentary. (New post every Wednesday round midnight.)

(3) “Changing Lenses” is an ongoing conversation with eminent sociologist Doug Hartmann that explores the intersection between photography and sociology.

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