FOBs

Sorry Vic, Whats a FOB ?

you've all seen one before:

a "fresh off the boat"- semi-derogatory term invented in the 80s and used to this day to described asian and east indian foreign students, since they (apparently) refuse to assimilate. frequently spotted at any university areas in a large city. they remain "fresh off the boat" in their cultural insularity...for some reason indian FOBs are much louder than Chinese ones

another unanswered question: why are they always dressed in staple 1988 JC Penny attire with the exception of a few mismatched gap vests here and there?

Not faecal occult bloods then. Shame as that would have been a more interesting question.

i thought it was a friend of bill or something to hold your watch on

In Michigan FOB's were always "Fuckin Ohio Bastards".... Guess what FIB's are?

its either illinois or indiania

Hi Vic, Always be proud of who you are. God made you perfect. I try to get along with everyone. We are as good or as bad as everyone else and should remember that and not be dragged down, or made feel bad because you are from a different background or culture. I know there are wars going on, but in the whole of these countries there are may who hate war & violence. I have chatted with many people all over different parts of the world, and they are all very nice. Gale.

I wasn't born perfect, they didn't let me out of hospital for yonks cos I was broken!! Just thought I'd comment. And right now I am not perfect as I haf a coff, dammit. Where is Nietzche when you need him eh? OH I KNOW, DEAD ha ha take that then, SUPERMANG.

I am nice, though. Vic, I've seen the same type of thing that you mean. But I realised that if I was in a different country with students from the same country as me that I'd often feel more secure sticking with them and would tend (at least in the start) to hang about with them more. And also there's that whole other language thing, which was noticable in the big Greek community that there was at my old uni. And hey, there's ANOTHER nationality I've been mistaken for, GREEK! Dammit I have only evah been out of the UK four times!!!

Hi Sarah You are you and you are perfect.! Gale

ask yrself what the fobs would think of you, and perhaps understanding will be made apparent.

They're just people, Vic. Do people work in computer labs these days? Blimey. Things have changed somewhat since my day.

Wither the term "Computer Laboratory " anyway? Is real science going on there?

WHITHER Pete, WITHER is like Jo Whiley's WITHERED hand. Do you see?

(idle curiousity) does Jo Whiley *really* have a WITHERED hand?

She has no shoes.

Whileys Law-By showing lots of leg, one can distract people from the fact that legs are not nice, by virtue of the quantity on display.

I'm sorry about the italics thing.

Let me nip this in the bud: the Jo Whiley Withered Hand is a Pete Baran Lie (TM) which arose from the fact that she often spends her whole show with her hand hidden from view, usually stuffed down her trousers but often she sits on it too. The only logical assumption is that like Jezza Beadle she has a withered hand which she is trying to conceal from view.

Does this clear up the confusion?

Bleedin italics!

She probably touched John Peel.

They're just people, Vic.

But PROVE it to me! (Sarah you have a good theory though)

Actually forget it. Withered hands are as fockin' interesting as FOBs, and I am unabashedly proud now that a thread I created has mutated so inexplicably. It's the very first time! i should create more threads solely to see this happen

I have a professor who has purple hands. We do not know why this is, but none of us dare to ask since he is a rampantoverintellectual-sort- of-inaccessible type (even though he can be funny). They are a deep purple, but the rest of his looks normal. He also has long blonde hair, and spells his name "Jon" instead of John. I KNOW all of this is somehow connected.

I used to use a fob, but now my keys are just on a ring.

I know that you say that you're ashamed of yourself for your feelings of revulsion toward immigrants, you're second-generation yourself, blah blah blah, but descriptions like "collective grunts" and "subspecies of humans" seem really nasty and stupid. Do you really think this way?

One, two, three, all together now:

"People are people so why should it be, Vic and FOBs should get along so awfully?"

on collective grunts - um, yeah, because they were grunting. which makes them seem really nasty and stupid (even though i know they're not stupid).

i think i mistyped what i was thinking in my head, though, now re- reading the phrase "sub-species of humans" since i meant to imply a different species than humans altogether, but "sub-species" makes it sound like i'm descrbing them as a a "lower species" that's not what i meant to say

i should just point out here that before you think all this is just sympomatic of me, most other second-generation kids i've talked to here feel the same way, and don't like going to the library. in fact, i think it was the second, or the 1 and a half back in the 80s, generation, that invented the term "FOB" in the first place, to differentiate themselves from the immigrants (or it could have been a chinese-american term from the 60s). since our identity is still american, primarily. the parents/first generation in turn coined ABC (american born chinese) and ABCD (american born confused desi) to describe us

girls feel this way in particular, i think, since like i said above, FOBs try to pick them up. my friend got harassed by some guy who followed her outside of the library, on her way home...the funny thing is, they will never treat female-FOBs like this, and they will hardly ever approach white girls from here. maybe they think the american-born indian girls are more sexual, looser more likely to give in to them since they have western values...i don't know, thats probably another discussion in itself.

Purple Hands - a lower form of decorationg in the American Army to Purple Hearts.

Probably either birthmark sourced (like my friend Two Face has on one side of her face) or burn tissue. Or purple paint.

Jo Whiley is so scrupulous about hiding said hand that I am sure it is true. Eith that or it has extra long fingers, useful for msturbating when she has Tricky on her show with him noticing (like he would notice a pig flying through the room).

I thought you were talking about university exchange students, Vic... are you?

i was talking about forien students, they don't necessarily have to be exchange..

i do not mind differing interpretaions of my original, profound words, though. make your own meaning out of them...

speaking of tricky i knew a gay guy who would masturbate to maxinquaye, or maybe he just claimed to. "i jerk off that album"

even i fmost other 2nd gen ppl think that way, it's no excuse... sorry, but i think you need to apply some cultural tempreance here.

Well, what do you expect Geoff?

He is, after all, SGUM [Second Generation Unconscionable Moaner]

oh how witty, so i am scum now

vic dude - no on'es, well at least i'm not, calling you scum, or any other names...i'm trying to get you to see things from different perspecives, to accept that cultural groups stick together initially wwhen in different circumastances, adn that what's right for a 2ned gen like yrslef may not be necessarilly right for a 1st gen, or even for another 2nd geen...respect, for real!

the reason "FOB" people hang round together in computer labs in dunedin is because they are death matching from what I have seen. sometimes they challange other deathmatchers but the ones I know generally dont have the same games. sad because it would be such a nice way to bond

a 2ned gen

Man, one generation of me is bad enough, you want another one? ;-)

UCI has many students who are emigrants or exchange students from all over Asia. I've heard some of what Vic says in terms of 2nd gen folks making light of *ahem* FOBs and all. My own perspective has been, hey, they're just people, and they'll hang around with whom they choose, why not? As a library billing person, I look at everyone in an equal light -- they're all book-ruining tardy bastards and THEY WILL PAY. ;-)

"oh how witty, so i am scum now"

Now, now. Let's not get carried away here.

I was merely illustrating that employing racial epithets in the form of acronyms isn't a particularly nice thing to do, especially when you're the one on the receiving end. And judging by your reaction, I think I made my point.

Please think a little harder before using such language. This isn't a list used exclusively by white anglo-saxons and comments like that could cause someone personal offence.

The politics of Asian-directed slang is a goddamn mess. Linguistically, you could compare the whole "FOB" thing to the African American "nigga" phenomenon. Fresh-off-the-boat, being once derogatory, is more or less acceptable among Asian American communities (the kids anyways). What makes things complex are the multiple generations.... do disoriented immigrants only have the right to call each other FOB.. or is it open to any person of Asian heritage? First generation kids are usually too enwrapped in their own worlds to even care about the language being used to characterize them but I've seen just about everything... FOB being taken offensively, disregarded, or exploited as an ethnicity- exclusive word used for empowerment (like nigga).

I'm more concerned with the AZN thing.. which is all encompassing. Halfway assimilated 2nd generation kids, lost and confused within their minority universe, hi-jacking the most superficial aspects of their heritage and waving it all around as some sort of nationalism. There's an undercurrent of revolting bigotry (see: that Got Rice? mp3) and an eerie nazi-like following of one Azn-approved dress/look/style archetype... which is why in America so many Asian boys have the same haircut.