These pages were recently updated:
Agenda for America: 4/12/08
Presidential Election: 5/3//08
Clinton on Asian American Issues:
4/19/08
McCain on Asian American Issues
12/20/07
Obama on Asian American Issues: 4/19/08
APA Vote in Presidential
Elections: 11/9/04
Asian-American Candidates: 4/19/08
Key Contests: 4/25/08
Hot Topics: 1/12/08
Affirmative Action Backfires: 10/16/07
Asian-Americans in California:
1/19/08
Colleges: 4/13/08
Colleges: 2007: 2/4/07
Colleges: 2008: 4/6/08
Colleges: 2009: 4/20/08
The Cost of Feminism: 7/5/07
The Cost of Feminism: No Children:
1/11/08
The Cost of Feminism: Black Women's
Plight: 7/4/07
The Cost of Feminism: Child Support
But Not Your Children: 2/24/08
The Cost of Feminism: False
Witness: 5/3/08
The Cost of Feminism: Othello:
2/28/08
Free The North Koreans: 2/24/08
Hall of Shame: Asian American
Associations Which Support
Reverse Discrimination Against Asian Americans: 6/3/07
Hall of Shame: College Admission
Officers: 4/11/08
Hall of Shame: Dime a Dozen: 7/4/07
Hall of Shame: Lafayette High School:
1/20/08
Hall of Shame: Roy Pearson Jr.: 10/31/07
Hall of Shame: TV
Medical Shows (Bigots for the Left:
Asian American men do not exist): 3/25/08
Hate Crimes: 3/23/08
Law Schools 2007: 10/2/07
Links: 3/13/08
Medical School: 7/14/07
News: 5/3/08
Statistics: 5/3/08
Statistics: Asian Americans in
California: 2/13/08
Statistics on Reverse Discrimination: 4/30/08
Virgina Tech: Asian American perspectives
on the tragedy: 9/12/07
Veterans: 5/3/08
Voting Records: 5/3/08
To receive the latest headlines about Asian-American
issues, email
wkw@sunfiregroup.com to be added to the SUNFIRE update list.
Since July 2005,
27 Asian Americans
and 62 Asians have appeared on the front page of the conservative Wall Street Journal.
Bigots for the Left at The New York Times: Asians don't exist. We
crucified Wen Ho Lee and we favor reverse discrimination against Asian American
applicants to colleges and professional schools. Meanwhile, islamic
fascists murdered 3000+ unarmed civilians on September 11, 2001.
Evil corporations which feature Asian Americans in commercials:
Asian American men: Cisco, Dodge, Domino's, FedEx, GlaxoSmithKline, Intel, Schick, Shell, Verizon
Wireless
Asian American women: Bank of
America, Best Buy, Brittoni, Cisco, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Intel, Kellogg,
Michelin, Target, U.S. Trust
Both: Boeing, Disney, Lowes, Samsung
Bigots for the Left who cast Asian American men as doctors in
TV medical shows: none. Hall
of Shame: TV Medical Shows
5/1/08 press release: “Pelosi Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage
Month,”
Washinton, PRNewswire-USNewswire
-- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in celebration of
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which begins today:
California
, home to a diverse AAPI constituency that knows
what it takes to build a better tomorrow.
4/28/08 press release:
“Asian American Groups Dismayed by U.S. Supreme Court Decision Upholding Voter
ID Law,”
By Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Today, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF),
a 34-year old national civil rights organization, expressed its dismay with the
U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in two consolidated cases, Crawford v.
Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, which
rejected a constitutional challenge to the Indiana law requiring voters to show
government-issued photo identification before they can vote.
AALDEF, with pro bono co-counsel Orrick, Herrington &
Sutcliffe LLP, had filed an amicus ("friend of the court") brief in
the Supreme Court on behalf of twenty-five Asian American groups, detailing the
problems of restrictive voter ID laws, especially for racial and language
minority voters.
Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director, said, “We are
disappointed that the Supreme Court failed to recognize the real-life impacts of
voter ID laws in deterring Asian American and other minority citizens from
exercising their right to vote."
AALDEF and the Asian American groups have monitored elections
across the country over the last decade and found that voter ID requirements
have discriminatory impacts on Asian American voters.
AALDEF's exit poll of almost
11,000 Asian American voters in 23 cities in eight states in the 2004 elections
revealed how voter ID laws place additional burdens on the right to vote:
• In
New York
, identification is not required to vote, but 23% of all Asian American voters
surveyed were asked to show ID. Of
those, 69% were not required to do so under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA),
which requires only a limited group of first-time voters to present ID.
In
Chinatown
, a police officer turned away all Asian American voters who did not have a
photo ID with them.
• In
New Jersey
, where identification is not required to vote, 25% of all voters surveyed had
to provide identification; of those voters, 51% were not required to show ID
under HAVA. One elderly first-time
Korean American voter was asked to provide several forms of identification.
After he presented his voter registration card and other documents from
the Board of Elections, he was still required to show a driver’s license,
utility bills, and other forms of ID before he could vote.
• In
Massachusetts
, 24% of Asian American voters were asked to show identification; of those, 57%
were not required to show ID under HAVA. One
voter presented his
United States
passport but was told that it was insufficient.
The voter was turned away.
• In
Virginia
, where some form of identification is required from all voters, a South Asian
voter complained that he was asked to show identification, but his white
companion was not required to show any identification whatsoever.
Glenn D. Magpantay, AALDEF staff attorney, said, “AALDEF
will continue to monitor poll sites to ensure that such requirements are not
misapplied and not applied only to Asian American voters.”
The following organizations joined AALDEF on the brief:
Asian American Bar Association of
New York
Asian American Bar Association of the
Delaware
Valley
Asian American Lawyers Association of
Massachusetts
Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater
Washington
,
DC
Area
Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of
New Jersey
Asian Pacific Islander American Vote
Cambodian Association of Greater
Philadelphia
Chinatown Voter Education
Alliance
Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of
Virginia
Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership
Korean American Bar Association of
New Jersey
Korean American League for Civic Action
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center
Korean American Voters’ Council of NY & NJ
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
Organization of Chinese Americans
ONE
Lowell
Pennsylvania
Immigration and Citizenship Coalition
Providence
Youth Student Movement
The Sikh Coalition
South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow
South Asian Youth Action!
Vietnamese American Initiative for Development
YKASEC – Empowering the Korean American Community
4/23/08 diverseeducation.com: “Asian Americans Largely Ignored by Presidential
Candidates, Political Scientists Say,”
by
Lydia
Lum
Despite feverish efforts by presidential candidates to grab
voters’ attention, they, along with public opinion polls and mainstream news
coverage, have largely ignored Asian Americans so far, several political
scientists say.
“It’s kind of annoying,” says Dr. Andrew Aoki,
associate professor of political science at
Augsburg
College
. “It gives Asian Americans a feeling of being overlooked.”
It’s possible the candidates will improve their outreach as
the November’s election nears, but Aoki and other scholars aren’t sure
whether it would be noticed much.
“You rarely see an acknowledgement of Asians in national
campaigns,” says Dr. Natalie Masuoka, an assistant professor of political
science at
Tufts
University
.
Multiple, complex reasons have resulted in the
near-invisibility of Asian Americans in the campaign, these scholars say.
Nationally, Asian Americans compose about 4 percent of the
population. While they are most numerous in states such as
Hawaii
and
California
, their ranks are rapidly growing in
Nevada
,
Oregon
,
Minnesota
,
New Jersey
and elsewhere. Yet this growth across many states, rather than just one or two,
leads to perceptions that they don’t form enough of a voting bloc in each
state to justify a candidate’s time.
After all, a presidential election is based on winning the
majority of votes in each state, not necessarily the popular vote nationally.
Furthermore, it’s tough to convince candidates that Asians
will even bother to cast ballots when considering their turnout during the 2004
election, says Dr. Karthick Ramakrishnan, assistant professor of political
science at the
University
of
California
,
Riverside
. He cites the Current Population Survey, which shows that only 55 percent of
Asian Americans voted in that election, versus 72 percent of Blacks and 74
percent of Whites. Among Hispanics, only 55 percent voted in 2004, but Hispanics
outnumber Asians in the general population by more than 3-to-1, so politicians
have a bigger pool of potential supporters in them. Ironically, surveys indicate
that Asians generally earn higher incomes and reach higher levels of educational
attainment than other racial demographics, Ramakrishnan says. These
characteristics would typically make them high-propensity voters.
Voter turnout among Asians is low partly because so little
campaign outreach targets them, Ramakrishnan says, describing it as an example
of the proverbial chicken-egg syndrome.
Language diversity remains a challenge too. Unlike U.S.
Hispanics who overwhelmingly share Spanish as a commonality, Asian Americans
have languages and dialects as different and distinct as Vietnamese, Korean,
Tagalog, Mandarin, Gujarati and Urdu — to name only a few.
“Add it together and candidates don’t believe it’s
cost-effective to target Asians,” Ramakrishnan says.
“Asians don’t have extensive voting histories, so a
candidate has no information to start with. And candidates don’t want to risk
mobilizing voters who will vote for their opponents.”
Similarly, public opinion polls in election politics rarely
include Asian Americans because organizers don’t believe it’s worth the cost
of providing so many different language interpreters for so few people being
polled, says Aoki. He adds that the methodology of polling also has inherent
drawbacks that work against Asian inclusion.
For instance, if a national poll calls for 600 respondents,
that would call for 10 to 25 Asians to reflect their share of the general
population.
However, a sample of less than 30 in such a poll is too
little from which to draw reliable conclusions, Aoki says. So Asians would be
excluded.
“I understand the methodology problem, but this just adds
to the invisibility problem for Asians,” Aoki says.
Ramakrishnan adds: “While there are defensible reasons for
these decisions, there’s a larger cost to American democracy. Considering the
growth of Asian American communities, it’s problematic for political parties
and organizations not to invest in them.
Hope
fully, community organizations and foundations can play a role in changing
that.’
Neither he, Aoki nor Masuoka were aware Norman Mineta, a
cabinet secretary under President Bill Clinton, is endorsing Barack Obama rather
than Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination until a reporter recently
broached the subject. A Japanese American, Mineta also was a
U.S.
representative for 20 years. The airport in
San Jose
,
Calif.
, has been re-named for him.
The three scholars criticized the mainstream news media for
their relatively scant publicity of Mineta’s endorsement, especially when
compared to the widespread coverage of Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Obama
over
Clinton
. A Mexican American, Richardson was a cabinet secretary under Bill Clinton and
currently is governor of
New Mexico
.
The trickle of coverage involving Asian Americans this
election season so far, Ramakrishnan says, has been reporters doing occasional
man-on-the-street interviews in local
Chinatowns
about voter choices.
“It reinforces false stereotypes that all Chinese, all
Asians, live in
Chinatown
,” he says.
Masuoka has noticed more mentions of and references to Asian
Americans in speeches by Obama as well as Clinton since the February “Super
Tuesday” primaries in which Clinton not only defeated Obama in California, but
also claimed Asian American votes in that state by a 3-to-1 margin.
“That was a positive turn that did a lot for Asian American
politics,” says Masuoka, who’s currently a visiting assistant professor at
Duke
University
’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Social Sciences.
“Based on how both candidates reacted, they clearly saw how Asians can make a
difference.”
Aoki finds impressive the microtargeting and other strategies
of Asian American political activists to try boosting voter turnout this fall.
“They’re sophisticated strategies that political campaigns and parties
understand,” he says. “Now, the parties need to do their part to bring out
Asians.”
4/19/08 Austin American Statesman:
“Bigots for the Left Discriminate Against Asian American with
Perfect
College
Entrance Exam Scores,”
by Laura Heinauer
Things were going, well, perfectly for Navonil Ghosh up until
several weeks ago.
The college-bound LBJ High School Liberal Arts and
Science
Academy
senior racked up more than 400 hours volunteering in local hospitals and
libraries. He plays the piano, is a first-degree black belt in Kung Fu and got a
perfect score on both the SAT and ACT college entrance exams. Ghosh had mailed
out all of his college applications and was just waiting for the acceptance
letters to come pouring in.
But the letters that began filling his mailbox were of a
different kind.
The first rejection came from
Stanford
University
in
California
, but the hits kept coming. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From
Ivy League institutions:
University
of
Pennsylvania
,
Princeton
and Yale, where he was wait-listed. But the biggest disappointment came from
Harvard
University
, which Ghosh had chosen as his "dream school" based on the course
offerings. Even the Plan II honors program at the
University
of
Texas
turned him down.
"I know this news must be quite difficult," the
letter from UT's Plan II director said. "This year, however, with our
number of applicants higher than any year of the last decade, we have been
compelled to make an extremely difficult decision." Ghosh did get accepted
to the California Institute of Technology, UT, Duke and Rice.
Rejection letters are arriving in record numbers across the
country this year, due to the large number of high school graduates and an
increase of those applying to college.
Overall, the acceptance rate for applicants at all colleges
in the United States is still about 70 percent — about the same as it was in
the 1980s — but acceptance rates at the top 200 schools in the country have
dropped, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the
National Association for College Admission Counseling.
He said three factors have contributed to this year's
historically low acceptance rates at the more selective schools. First, there
are about 3.3 million students graduating from high school this spring,
according to the Department of Education, which is the largest number of
graduates seen in recent years.
Second, though there have been graduating classes nearly this
big in the 1970s, for example, the number of students applying to college —
now estimated to be 60 percent to 65 percent — is higher than ever.
Finally, he said, students are sending more applications than
they ever have, particularly to the most highly selective schools, due largely
to the ease of submitting applications over the Internet.
The surge likely won't get any better, he said.
"Actually, we're projected to have even more students
graduating," he said. "Because we don't see the tendency to submit
more applications tapering off any, it's probably going to be even more chaotic.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the overall acceptance rate isn't
dropping, and there is space out there."
Caitlin Cash, an 18-year-old
Bowie
High School
senior, said she thought of UT as a backup school and didn't apply to any
honors programs there. UT ended up being the only school of six she applied to
that accepted her.
"I'm in the top 1˝ (percent) to 2 percent of my class.
I'm a varsity soccer player. I mentor eighth-grade girls. I'm the Student
Council vice president and French Club president," Cash said. "I was
extremely surprised. I was like, somehow, somewhere, they've messed up."
Cory Liu, a 17-year-old senior at the LBJ academy, said he
also had a tough time getting into some of the elite colleges this year, despite
scoring 2240 on the SAT and getting a 4.2 grade point average on a 4.8 scale.
Of the 11 colleges he applied to, only two accepted him: the
University
of
Chicago
and UT, which admitted him into a summer program for students who didn't make
it into the fall class.
Liu, who was president of his high school's Youth and
Government Club, said he'll likely go to
Chicago
, which also reported a drop in its acceptance rate this year, from 35 percent
to 27 percent.
"I knew it was increasingly competitive, so I tried not
to get my hopes unreasonably high. But it was still disappointing," Liu
said. "I am very happy that I got into the
University
of
Chicago
."
Harvard officials said they rejected a record 93 out of every
100 students who applied. Officials at Yale,
Dartmouth
and Brown universities said they also turned away a record number of
applicants.
"We had an increase that was close to 20 percent in the
number of applicants this year," said Marilyn McGrath, Harvard's director
of admissions. She said it was because Harvard, which expects a fall freshman
class of 1,660, increased scholarship opportunities and cut its early admissions
process for the first time this year. "It was a very difficult year,
because we had not only a large number of applicants, but they were also
exceptional."
It is not clear how many students were able to score both a
perfect 2400 on the SAT and 36 on the ACT, because the tests are scored by
different companies.
But McGrath said fewer than 1 percent of Harvard applicants,
254 of 27,462, got a perfect 2,400 on the SAT. She said 3,368 applicants were
ranked first in their class.
Shannon Duffy, a college counselor at
Bowie
, said she has noticed more college aspirants this year and had quite a few
surprises over who did not get into their top picks. She said the trend has
affected schools such as St. Edward's and
Texas
State
universities.
"They've been bombarded with late applications,"
Duffy said, after recently speaking with a college admissions counselors at both
schools. "Next, I would say students need to broaden their safety schools
and really make sure they do a good job applying to them."
"It was disappointing to know I did my best on those two
tests, got the best possible score and it still wasn't good enough," said
Ghosh, who is fourth in his graduating class. Ghosh, who is interested in
biomedical engineering and medical school, said he is seriously considering
CalTech and Rice.
Ghosh's father, Nirmalendu Ghosh, said he is also upset about
the slew of rejections. He quit his job three years ago so he could help shuttle
his son to extracurricular activities, including to work at a UT research lab
that he knew would impress college admissions officers.
"My son was devastated, and I was really sad," he
said, recalling the day they got the letter from Harvard. "My son told me
he could not study any more and went to bed. I could not sleep that whole
night."
Ghosh's high school teachers were surprised as well.
They said it has been a tough year for all of the students at the school.
Most students in the academy, one of the
Austin
district's most highly regarded magnet programs, apply to college.
This year, however, the white board where students
traditionally hang their rejection letters is more full than usual. The words,
"April is the cruelest month," scrawled in red between all the
letters, sum up many students' feelings.
"Navonil is a really great, hardworking, serious
student," said Jason Flowers, who was Ghosh's history teacher last year.
"He does kind of stand out. I think we were all surprised he didn't get
into any of the Ivys ... But one thing we've learned is that the admissions game
can be very unpredictable."
4/14/2008 press release: "UCLA Violates
Proposition 209; Holistic Review Reduces Percentage of Asian American Students
Admitted,"
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-admissions-data-show-high-48543.aspx
By Claudia Luther
UCLA, the most popular campus in the nation, with 55,397
freshman applicants, announced today that it had admitted 12,579 prospective
freshmen for fall 2008. Of these students, 18.1 percent, or 2,164, were
underrepresented minorities - a 1.5 percentage-point increase over last year.
The number of African American freshmen admitted rose to 440
(3.7 percent), up from 407 (3.5 percent) last year, while the number of
Latino/Chicano admitted freshmen increased to 1,682 (14.1 percent), from 1,474
(12.7 percent) in 2007. Native American freshmen numbered 42 (0.4 percent),
compared with 45 (0.4 percent) last year.
This is the second consecutive year that UCLA has used a
"holistic" process for evaluating applications, in which each
application is read and considered in its entirety by two trained readers; in
previous years, two readers reviewed student academic records while a third
reviewed life challenges and other personal achievements. The UCLA Academic
Senate made the change because the faculty believed a more individualized and
qualitative assessment of each applicant's entire application would better
achieve the
University
of
California Regents
' goal of comprehensive review. The holistic approach emphasizes
students' achievements in the context of opportunities available to them and how
students have taken advantage of those opportunities.
Reflecting an increase in the overall number of applications,
the university was able to admit 22.7 percent of all those who applied, compared
with 23.6 percent last year. The university expects a class of approximately
4,700 to begin their studies in September.
Academically, UCLA's admitted freshmen were again very
strong. The overall grade-point average was 4.34, compared with 4.29 last year.
The average composite score for the SAT reasoning test remained steady at 2,000,
out of a possible 2,400. The average math score was 683, the average reading
score was 653 and the average writing score was 664 - all approximately what
they were last year. Admitted freshmen took an average of 19.9 honors courses
and completed nearly 50.9 college preparatory semester courses - far above the
minimum of 30 that is required.
Of the admitted students, 4,804, or 40.2 percent, were Asian
American, a drop of 2.6 percent from last year.
Asian Americans made up 42.8 percent (4,975) of the admitted freshman
class in 2007, 45.6 percent (5,390) in 2006, 42.5 percent (4,710) in 2005 and 42
percent (4,049) in 2004.
The percentage of whites/Caucasians was approximately the
same as last year: 33.1 percent (3,953), compared with 33.2 percent (3,860) in
2007. That compares with 32.1 percent (3,791) for 2006, 33.6 percent (3,723) for
2005 and 33.5 percent (3,230) for 2004.
In other categories, admissions data show that 7.4 percent
(885) of admitted applicants declined to state their race or ethnicity and that
1.2 percent (138) identified themselves as "other."
Information about admitted
California
freshmen at
University
of
California campuses is available at www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/fall2008adm.html.
More than 60,000 high school seniors were offered admission at UC campuses.
UCLA is
California
's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 37,000 undergraduate and
graduate students. The
UCLA
College
of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature
renowned faculty and offer more than 300 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a
national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic,
research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs.
Four alumni and five faculty members have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
NOTE: Fall 2008 figures are extracted from March 31 files and
do not reflect final figures. The data used reflect information about domestic
students, except for the total numbers of applicants and admits, which include
international students. This year's figures are compared with official data from
2007. Admissions numbers will change slightly, with final official data
available in October 2008. Data provided by the
University
of
California Office
of the President are for
California
residents only.
4/9/08 Malden (MA) Observer: “The ‘race’ for president,”
By Rich Tenorio
Malden
- Race has become an oft-discussed topic of the
2008 presidential campaign. Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama has discussed
the issue on many occasions, including a March 18 speech in
Philadelphia
. Obama has mentioned his diverse ethnic makeup — his father was Kenyan; his
mother is a white American from
Kansas
— in campaign speeches.
Yet, the national discussion on race this campaign season
might not be wide-ranging enough, according to leaders of the Malden
Asian-American community.
In phone and e-mail interviews, several prominent voices of
this community express a desire for more inclusion of Asian-Americans in the
political process that will shape this nation for the next four years, and
beyond.
“I don't think any of the presidential candidates have done
nearly enough in addressing the community,” Alice Leung, whose parents are
from Guangzhou, China, and who has lived in Malden since she was five years old,
wrote in an e-mail interview. “I’m not even sure if the candidates
understand, or have made an effort to understand the issues that Asian American
communities are concerned with.”
Interviews with Leung and other voices within the Malden
Asian-American community reveal a significant Asian-American presence within the
city and this community’s concerns, which include issues that have drawn
attention from both Democratic and Republican candidates.
A
community within a community
Walking through
Malden Square
offers a glimpse into the city’s Asian-American population.
Maldonians can buy Asian food at Super 88, and read the Asian
newspaper Sampan at the Malden Public Library, where they can also check out
Asian-language films. On the first and third Tuesdays of each month, viewers can
watch Asian Spectrum, a program aired on Malden Access Television.
“According to the census the last few years, I’d probably
say that 18 to 20 percent of the
Malden
population is Asian-American,” said Mei Hung, the Taiwanese executive
director of the Chinese Culture Connection on
Highland Avenue
, in a recent telephone interview. “Eighty percent of Asian-Americans in the
city are Chinese.”
However, Leung said that many other nations are represented
within the city Asian-American population.
“We have individuals and families from
China
,
Vietnam
,
Cambodia
,
Laos
,
Thailand
,
India
,
Philippines
, etc.,” she said.
Hung and Leung each indicated that Asian-Americans in
Malden
can come from both working-class and professional backgrounds.
“There is a growing population of Asian American
professionals in
Malden
, but the majority is still working-class families,” Leung wrote.
One of Hung's hopes is that “higher-educated people can
look out to help and connect with less-educated people, who need help the
most,” she said. “It’s good to have a diverse educational and economic and
social background.”
Addressing the issues — and candidates
Whether working-class or professional, Asian-Americans in
Malden
seem to share candidate’' concerns over the economy and immigration.
Leung, who worked as a community organizer in Boston’s
Chinatown before entering an MBA program at Babson College, wrote that the
majority of working-class Asian-American families in Malden “are struggling
with issues such as affordable housing and healthcare, access to language and
job skills training resources, and quality public education.”
She added, “Most notably, the recent resurgence of
conservatism in debates on immigrant rights in the national arena has brought
about a lot of anti-immigrant sentiments that are negatively impacting many
local communities.”
“The economy stretches across all people,” said Diana
Jeong, president of Asian Spectrum, in a phone interview. “It’s unfortunate
right now — utility bills, mortgages, energies being so high. There’s also
some concern about immigration, and how that might be used (in the campaign).”
However, Jeong —a lifelong
Malden
resident whose mother is from
China
— suggested that the immigration debate might be trending toward a more
flexible direction.
“Even (Republican candidate Sen. John McCain) has a more
open stance about that,” she said. “It’s always an issue for people from
different countries who have families at home.”
As for which candidates they would support, Jeong and Leung
both mentioned Obama; Leung said she voted for him in the state primary in
February.
“Personally, I like Sen. Obama,” Jeong said. “That’s
just me. I think, you know, there’s a lot of cynicism about politicians and
government. I think he brings a lot of interest and excitement to the
campaign.’
However,
Jeong added, “I’d be happy also if (Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton) got in.”
What lies ahead?
Those interviewed offered short-term and long-term
suggestions for what could be done to increase Asian-Americans’ inclusion in
the political process.
In April or May, the Chinese Culture Connection seeks to
create a forum on the acculturation process. Hung envisions many sessions, one
of which will address the presidential campaign and how to get involved.
“(The) growing number of Asian-American voters is much more
noticeable in local and state elections,” Leung said, adding that the
increasing voter numbers have received much more attention on these levels.
“For example, the recent re-election of City Councilor Sam
Yoon in
Boston
and the candidacy of two Chinese-Americans in the
Quincy
city council race have both energized Asian American voters and generated more
news coverage on the city level.”
Interviews indicated that one way to increase attention to
the subject is by discussing it.
“I don’t know if there’s really a consensus, if
anyone’s favoring one person over another,” Jeong said about the city
Asian-American community’s choice for president. However, she added, “Quite
frankly, nobody’s ever asked.”
4/8/08 New
America
Media: “Study Reveals Health Care Woes of Asian Americans,”
By Ketaki Gokhale
High numbers of the working poor in this community don't
qualify for public assistance, yet can't afford private insurance.
National health care studies often treat Asian Americans as a
homogenous, and largely healthy group, but a new study analyzing three years of
government-compiled data has revealed substantial pockets of poor health and low
insurance levels within the population. Korean Americans, Native Hawaiians and
Pacific Islanders clock in with lower levels of insurance than African Americans
and whites.
The analysis, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and
the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, found that the
proportion of non-elderly Asians who are uninsured varies widely, ranging from
12 percent of Japanese and Asian Indians, 14 percent of Filipinos, to 21 percent
of Vietnamese and 24 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Koreans have the highest rates of uninsured -- 31 percent. In
comparison, 21 percent of African Americans, and 12 percent of non-elderly
non-Hispanic whites are uninsured. Hispanics and American Indians and
Alaska
natives are two groups that have higher levels of uninsured than Koreans, with
34 and 32 percent uninsured respectively.
"If you look at these groups in the aggregate, Asian
Americans tend to do well," says Dr. Cara James, a senior policy analyst
with the Race, Ethnicity and Health Care Team at the Kaiser Family
Foundation. "They are in good health and don't have as many problems
with health coverage."
Over 16 percent of the nation's 13 million Asian Americans
and half-million Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are uninsured, giving
the group a higher overall rate of insurance than African Americans, Hispanics
and American Indians and
Alaska
natives. But look a little closer, James says, and "you have Koreans doing
worse than African Americans, and equal to American Indians and
Alaska
natives."
The low level of insurance in the Korean American community
is not the result of poverty, as one might expect, but rather because most
Korean Americans -- around 60 percent -- either own or are employed by small
companies that can't afford to provide their workers with health insurance.
Among those Koreans with insurance, only 49 percent have
employer-sponsored health coverage. Asian Indians, on the other hand, had the
highest rate of employer-sponsored coverage among all the Asian sub-groups, with
77 percent.
The analysis was based on data from the 2004, 2005 and 2006
National Health Interview Survey and Current Population Survey (CPS).
Much of the variation in health coverage among Asians may be
due to how recently certain groups arrived in the
United States
, where they live geographically, income level, and the size of the firm where
they work.
"Because Asians are the 'model minority,' it's a
surprise to most when they look at the specific groups and see lower rates of
insurance and access to health care," says Deeana Jang, policy director of
the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. "Within Asian
American subgroups, there are groups with higher poverty rates, and lower
education levels."
Jang classes South East Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific
Islanders within that group, adding that there is a strong link between income
and levels of insurance. Those whose income puts them below the poverty line
often qualify for Medicaid, but it's the "working poor" -- people who
don't qualify for public assistance but can't afford to pay for private
insurance -- whose plight the study reveals.
Jang hopes the study will drive the direction of the current
presidential debate on health care. "The national debate is focused on
health care reform, and if your goal is to achieve health care reform that truly
reaches everybody, then you need to think of the Native Hawaiian, Pacific
Islander, Korean and Vietnamese American communities -- all of them
individually," she explains. "We are hoping that this will show the
diversity of our communities."
"If you're going to have employer or employee mandates
in your reform proposal, the affordability needs to be there. People in the
Korean community would purchase insurance if it was affordable. And, for the
Asian American populations that are just above the poverty level and don't
qualify, maybe those public programs need to be expanded so they can cover more
of the working class poor."
4/8/08 Austin American-Statesman:
“UT sued for considering race in admissions Rejected student, who is
white, contends university discriminated,”
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
The University of Texas is violating the Constitution and
civil rights laws by considering race and ethnicity in deciding whether to admit
undergraduates, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday by a white
student whose application was rejected.
The plaintiff, Abigail Noel Fisher, 18, lives in
Richmond
, southwest of
Houston
, and attends
Stephen
F.
Austin
High School
in nearby
Sugar
Land
. Despite ranking in the top 12 percent of her class, scoring 1180 out of a
possible 1600 on the SAT, and playing the cello, she was rejected last month by
UT, says the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in
Austin
.
UT and other public universities in
Texas
are required by state law to accept any student from
Texas
who ranks in the top 10 percent of his or her high school.
UT considers race and ethnicity, among other factors, in
deciding whether to admit other students as part of its effort to boost
enrollment of Hispanics and blacks.
"But for her race and ethnicity, it is our belief she
would have been admitted to the
University
of
Texas
," said Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, a
legal-defense group that fights the use of race and ethnicity in public policy.
The group, based in
Washington
, is underwriting part of the litigation costs, and Fisher's lawyer, Bert Rein,
is contributing some of his services for free, Blum said.
The lawsuit contends that UT has run afoul of a 2003 ruling
by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving the
University
of
Michigan
that said race and ethnicity could be considered under certain circumstances.
Fisher's suit argues that affirmative action is allowed only after race-neutral
approaches are found inadequate.
Patti Ohlendorf, UT's vice president for legal affairs, said
the school's admissions policies comply with Supreme Court precedent and
applicable laws.
"Each year, we are very fortunate to receive
applications from thousands of very able high school seniors. But as with many
universities around the country, we are limited in the number of applicants we
can admit," she said.
This isn't the first time UT's admissions policies have been
challenged in court. A 1996 federal court ruling involving UT effectively banned
affirmative action at public colleges and universities in
Texas
. That prompted state lawmakers to enact the top 10 percent law in 1997.
After the Supreme Court's
Michigan
ruling, UT resumed considering race and ethnicity in admissions. UT officials
contend that the top 10 percent law hasn't done enough to boost minority
enrollment and have asked lawmakers to scale it back, saying that would allow
them to enroll more minority students.
Fisher's lawsuit asks the court to end UT's consideration of
race and to order that she be admitted if she qualifies under race-neutral
factors.
Blum, a 1973 graduate of UT and a part-time
Austin
resident, said hundreds of other students have been unfairly rejected, and he
urged them to join the case.
4/1/08 diversityinc.com: “7 Things Never to Say to Asian-American
Executives,”
by Yoji Cole
Jae Requiro remembers her friend's story vividly:
Following a meeting in which her friend was the only
Asian-American woman, a male colleague said to her, "You're not at all like
my Asian wife … you speak up."
"It was a big slap in her face. She didn't even know
what to say to him," says Requiro, who is Filipino American and a manager
of diversity consulting and inclusion strategies at Toyota Motor North
America.
Stereotypes are like a slap to the face because they shock
and sting. They are usually uttered without much forethought and reveal the
speaker's ignorance. And in corporate settings, they can reveal why someone is
excluded from after-work networking events or passed over for promotion.
Asian-American executives too often find themselves fighting
to disprove the "model minority" stereotype, a group that works hard,
is rarely controversial, but ultimately is not "American" enough for
leadership opportunities.
Here are seven questions and comments Asian-American
executives have frequently fielded from coworkers and why you should not repeat
them:
"You must be the IT person."
Linda Akutegawa, who is Japanese American and vice president
of resource and business development for Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics
(LEAP), says that too often it is assumed that Asian-American executives are not
leaders but support staff.
"Implicit in that
statement is that you're good at numbers and technology so you're good behind
the scenes but not good at leadership," explains Allan Mark, who is Chinese
American and the
America
's director, diversity strategy and development for Ernst & Young, No. 43 on
The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.
3/31/08 New York Times: “Dith Pran, Photojournalist and Survivor of the
Killing Fields, Dies at 65,”
By Douglas Martin
Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose
gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of
Cambodia
was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to
press for his people’s rights, died on Sunday at a hospital in
New Brunswick
,
N.J.
He was 65 and lived in
Woodbridge
,
N.J.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, which had spread, said his
friend Sydney H. Schanberg.
Mr. Dith saw his country descend into a living hell as he
scraped and scrambled to survive the barbarous revolutionary regime of the Khmer
Rouge from 1975 to 1979, when as many as two million Cambodians — a third of
the population — were killed, experts estimate. Mr. Dith survived through
nimbleness, guile and sheer desperation. His credo: Make no move unless there
was a 50-50 chance of not being killed.
He had been a journalistic partner of Mr. Schanberg, a Times
correspondent assigned to
Southeast Asia
. He translated, took notes and pictures, and helped Mr. Schanberg maneuver in a
fast-changing milieu. With the fall of
Phnom Penh
in 1975, Mr. Schanberg was forced from the country, and Mr. Dith became a
prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communists.
Mr. Schanberg wrote about Mr. Dith in newspaper articles and
in The New York Times Magazine, in a 1980 cover article titled “The Death and
Life of Dith Pran.” (A book by the same title appeared in 1985.) The story
became the basis of the movie “The Killing Fields.” The film, directed
by Roland Joffé, showed Mr. Schanberg, played by Sam Waterston, arranging for
Mr. Dith’s wife and children to be evacuated from
Phnom Penh
as danger mounted. Mr. Dith, portrayed by Dr. Haing S. Ngor (who won an Academy
Award as best supporting actor), insisted on staying in
Cambodia
with Mr. Schanberg to keep reporting the news. He believed that his country
could be saved only if other countries grasped the gathering tragedy and
responded.
A dramatic moment, both in reality and cinematically, came
when Mr. Dith saved Mr. Schanberg and other Western journalists from certain
execution by talking fast and persuasively to the trigger-happy soldiers who had
captured them.
But despite his frantic effort, Mr. Schanberg could not keep
Mr. Dith from being sent to the countryside to join millions working as virtual
slaves.
Mr. Schanberg returned to the
United States
and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from
Cambodia
. He accepted it on behalf of Mr. Dith as well.
For years there was no news of Mr. Dith, except for a false
rumor that he had been fed to alligators. His brother had been. After more than
four years of beatings, backbreaking labor and a diet of a tablespoon of rice a
day, Mr. Dith escaped over the Thai border on Oct. 3, 1979. An overjoyed Mr.
Schanberg flew to greet him.
“To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in
frightening places,” Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said on
Sunday, “Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism — the
local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows
the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may
save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than
you do.”
Mr. Dith moved to
New York
and in 1980 became a photographer for The Times, where he was noted for his
imaginative pictures of city scenes and news events. In one, he turned the
camera on mourners rather than the coffin to snatch an evocative moment at the
funeral of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger, who was murdered in 1990.
In an e-mail message on Sunday, Mr. Schanberg recalled Mr.
Dith’s theory of photojournalism: “You have to be a pineapple. You have to
have a hundred eyes.”
“I’m a very lucky man to have had Pran as my reporting
partner and even luckier that we came to call each other brother,” Mr.
Schanberg said. “His mission with me in
Cambodia
was to tell the world what suffering his people were going through in a war
that was never necessary. It became my mission too. My reporting could not have
been done without him.”
Outside The Times, Mr. Dith spoke out about the Cambodian
genocide, appearing before student groups and other organizations. “I’m a
one-person crusade,” he said.
Dith Pran was born on Sept. 23, 1942, in
Siem Reap
,
Cambodia
, a provincial town near the ancient temples at Angkor Wat. His father was a
public-works official.
Having learned French at school and taught himself English,
Mr. Dith was hired as a translator for the United States Military Assistance
Command. When
Cambodia
severed ties with the
United States
in 1965, he worked with a British film crew, then as a hotel receptionist.
In the early 1970s, as unrest in neighboring
Vietnam
spread and
Cambodia
slipped into civil war, the Khmer Rouge grew more formidable. Tourism ended.
Mr. Dith interpreted for foreign journalists. When working for Mr. Schanberg, he
taught himself to take pictures.
When the Khmer Rouge won control in 1975, Mr. Dith became
part of a monstrous social experiment: the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of
people from the cities and the suppression of the educated classes with the goal
of re-creating
Cambodia
as an agricultural nation.
To avoid summary execution, Mr. Dith hid that he was educated
or that he knew Americans. He passed himself off as a taxi driver. He even threw
away his money and dressed as a peasant.
Over the next 4 ˝ years, he worked in the fields and at
menial jobs. For sustenance, people ate insects and rats and even the exhumed
corpses of the recently executed, he said.
In November 1978,
Vietnam
, by then a unified Communist nation after the end of the Vietnam War, invaded
Cambodia
and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Mr. Dith went home to Siem Reap, where he
learned that 50 members of his family had been killed; wells were filled with
skulls and bones.
The Vietnamese made him village chief. But he fled when he
feared that they had learned of his American ties. His 60-mile trek to the Thai
border was fraught with danger. Two companions were killed by a land mine.
He had an emotional reunion with his wife, Ser Moeun Dith,
and four children in
San Francisco
. Though he and his wife later divorced, she was by his bedside in his last
weeks, bringing him rice noodles.
Mr. Dith was divorced from his second wife, Kim DePaul.
Mr. Dith is survived by his companion, Bette Parslow; his
daughter, Hemkarey; his sons, Titony, Titonath and Titonel; a sister, Samproeuth;
six grandchildren; and two stepgrandchildren.
Ms. DePaul now runs the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness
Project, which spreads word about the Cambodian genocide. At his death, Mr. Dith
was working to establish another, still-unnamed organization to help
Cambodia
. In 1997, he published a book of essays by Cambodians who had witnessed the
years of terror as children.
Dr. Ngor, the physician turned actor who had himself survived
the killing fields, had joined with Mr. Dith in their fight for justice. He was
shot to death in 1996 in
Los Angeles
by a teenage gang member. “It seems like I lost one hand,” Mr. Dith
said of Dr. Ngor’s death. Mr. Dith nonetheless pushed ahead in his
campaign against genocide everywhere.
“One time is too many,” he said in an interview in his
last weeks, expressing hope that others would continue his work. “If they can
do that for me,” he said, “my spirit will be happy.”
3/25/08 www.angryasianman.com:
“racist casting and 21,”
There's been a lot of chatter and gripes lately about the
movie 21, which opens in theaters nationwide this Friday. Longtime readers
know that this movie has been on our radar for several years, ever since
it was announced that Sony had the film in development, with Kevin Spacey
attached to the project. Based on the bestselling book Bringing Down the
House by Ben Mezrich, it tells the story of how a team of gifted blackjack
players from MIT developed a highly successful card-counting system and took Las
Vegas casinos for millions. Based on a true story, it's a great premise, and the
perfect idea for a big budget
Hollywood
movie. Right? Not exactly.
You see, in real life, the blackjack team was a group mostly
made up of Asian American students. This was actually advantageous to their
strategy, as it happens, because Asian dudes winning big money at the casinos
apparently aren't quite as conspicuous as white dudes who win big at the
casinos. That's just the way it is. Anyway. As we all know,
Hollywood
studios seem to have a great of resistance to
creating interesting, fully-fleshed, three-dimensional roles for Asian American
actors. They seem to think we can't carry a movie, and more often than not, will
instead create roles and stories for pretty white people instead. I know this,
you know this, we all know this. Hell, they know this. I'm going to put it
out there-I'm not necessarily in favor of a boycott, nor am I against one
either. I'm not sure where I stand on that. But I'm certainly in favor of
anything that draws attention and educates people on the issues at hand. This is
a good one, because it brings scrutiny to the nature of
Hollywood
's racist casting processes, with a very obvious, high-profile example. People
are interested in this movie, without a lot of background knowledge, but this is
an opportunity to create dialogue on a general practice that has systematically
shut out Asians in
Hollywood
for years. I hope it prompts folks understand what's going on here, learn the
details for themselves, talk about it, and perhaps approach 21 (and future
Hollywood
product) with a more discerning eye.
3/20/08 Capitol Weekly: “Philanthropists’ donations come under scrutiny for
diversity,”
by John Howard
Advocates for the poor are targeting
California
's largest charitable foundations that donate billions of dollars annually to an
array of nonprofits. Next week, the top executives at several foundations are
meeting with a San Jose Assemblyman over his bill to require the foundations to
disclose the racial, ethnic and gender breakdowns of their staffs and governing
boards, as well as a similar breakdown of those who get the money.
The unusual proposal has received limited attention in
California
but is high on the radar of the national philanthropic community.
"Minorities make up more than 50 percent of
California
's population, but we believe we are missing from some of the important
dialogues on education, the environment, water, transportation," said John
Gamboa, president of the Berkeley-based Greenlining Institute. "We've never
had the investment that many other, white organizations have had. It's really an
innocuous bill. It doesn't require anything but a little transparency."
The Greenlining Institute advocates on behalf of the poor for
education improvements and against discriminatory business practices such as
redlining by banks.
The legislation was written by Gamboa's group and authored by
Joe Coto, the chairman of the Latino caucus. The bill, AB624, would require some
30 private foundations in
California
, those with more than $250 million in assets, to disclose their own ethnic
makeup. It seeks similar information from those who get the grants, although
that information already is supplied by some 90 percent of those who get the
money, the grantees. The idea is to track the demographic components of the flow
of philanthropic money.
A study cited by Greenlining says that less than 4 cents of
every grant dollar goes to minority nonprofits - a figure that the foundations
contend is flawed.
The stakes are huge, although just how huge is unclear.
Nationally, some $40 billion to $80 billion is given away annually, according to
an estimate by former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
California
accounts for about 12.7 percent of the nation's philanthropic foundations,
which, if
California
's donations are proportional to the national level, means that the foundations
here dispense perhaps $5 billion to $10 billion annually.
The foundations, viewed as the traditional benefactors of
worthy causes, were surprised by the legislation. They believe the Coto bill may
be the harbinger of a regulatory scheme for the philanthropic community.
"The broadest level of concern is that this is a camel's
nose-under-the-tent issue," said Robert Ross, president of the California
Endowment, which donates about $150 million to $160 million annually. "Is
this the opening salvo for legislators to dictate the philanthropic work of
private foundations? The legislation may seem to be just about reporting data,
but what about the next (legislative) session? Where do they go if they don't
like the numbers?"
Ross also questioned whether the foundations' donations could
ultimately be directed to holes in the $154 billion state budget, which faces a
$16 billion shortage over two years and which has had a nagging, $5 billion
deficit for the past few years. "Taken to its extreme, this bill goes
through and then in two years there's another budget deficit at the state level
and the Legislature says, ‘Let's regulate the foundations.'" He noted
that
California
foundations have received numerous inquiries from their national counterparts
about the legislation.
Coto's bill, over the opposition of Republicans, was approved
Jan. 29 in the 80-member Assembly by a 45-29 vote and sent to the Senate. But it
has been made into a two-year bill, which means its first Senate vote is not
expected until June. In part, the delay was due to wrangling over whether the
reporting requirements should be voluntary as opposed to mandatory. Language
sought by the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Caucus to include sexual
orientation among the reporting rules was hastily dropped amid complaints that
it forced workers to disclose personal sexual matters.
Converting bills to two-year status is a tactic frequently
used in the Legislature to kill unwanted legislation, but that doesn't appear to
be the case here. The bill emerged easily from the Assembly, and Coto and his
allies appear confident that there will be support in the Senate for the bill.
The governor has not discussed his position.
Others, however, have weighed in against Coto's bill.
"Many charities help individuals and groups who have low incomes or are
temporarily in unfortunate situations with a way to lift them up. How is a state
mandate on diversity reporting going to further these philanthropic efforts? In
my opinion, not one bit. Perhaps, some legislators just want to make sure
charities are supporting the ‘correct' people and organizations. How silly is
this?" wrote Sen. Tom Harman,
R-Huntington
Beach
, in a newsletter to his constituents.
On Wednesday, the leaders of several of
California
's charitable foundations are scheduled to confer with Coto and his staff about
the bill. The foundation presidents are expected to include Ross, James Canales
of the Irvine Foundation and Paul Brest of the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation.
March 2008 East West Magazine: "Empowering Asian American Women,"
The 4th Annual Asian American Women in Leadership (AAWIL) Conference
will take place on April 26, 2008 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a diverse line-up of speakers. Top names on the agenda include SuChin Pak, MTV News correspondent; Kyung Yoon, Vice Chairman of Heidrick & Struggles; Becky Lee, attorney, founder of Becky Lee Women's Support Fund and cast member of Survivor (Season 13); and Jennifer 8 Lee, New York Times reporter.
The conference, which aims to set forth strategic dialogue on the importance of leadership for Asian American girls and women, will explore various aspects of leadership, energize and equip attendees to seek out future leadership opportunities and create cross-generational networks among attendees.
This year's conference theme is "Balanced Leadership: Maintaining Perspective," and a confernece highlight will be the presentation of the 1st Annual ASPIRE Outstanding Woman of the Year Award, recognizing a female high school or college student of Asian American descent for leadership and determination.
For more information, visit http://www.girlsaspire.org/conference/
2008 API Policy
Summit
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/apilegcaucus/policysummit.htm
Register Today!
Registration Packet &
Summit Agenda Now Available. Download the Registration Packet and Summit
Agenda California Asian Pacific Islander Policy Summit Convened by the
California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus
In partnership with:
Asian Americans for Civil
Rights and Equality (AACRE) Asian and Pacific Islanders
California
Action Network
(APIsCAN)
California Asian Pacific
Islander Legislative Caucus Institute Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander
American Affairs
Tuesday, April 15th -
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Sacramento Convention
Center
-
Sacramento
,
CA
Play a part in the annual
California API Policy Summit!
• Demonstrate collective
power and increase visibility of APIs in the state.
• Advocate for laws that
advance fairness, justice, and access for our communities.
• Bolster our
community’s political influence, expand your knowledge, and put your advocacy
skills into action through Capitol legislative visits, legislative hearings,
coalition building, and workshops.
• Integrate policy
advocacy into your organization’s mission.
For more information,
please contact:
Pam Chueh or Linda Tran
Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus
916-319-3686 or pam.chueh "at" asm.ca.gov or
916-319-3594 or linda.tran "at" asm.ca.gov
Vivian Huang
Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE)
916-321-9001 or vhuang "at" aacre.org
A Partnership of Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA),
Asian
Pacific
American
Legal
Center
(APALC), and Asian Law Caucus (ALC)
Diane Ujiiye
Asian and Pacific Islanders
California
Action Network
(APIsCAN)
310-532-6111 or apiscandiane "at" sbcglobal.net
Capitol Office Consultant
State Capitol
P.O. Box
942849
Sacramento
,
CA
94249-0049
Pam Chueh
Phone: 916-319-3686
Fax: 916-319-3628
Email: Pam.Chueh "at" asm.ca.gov
3/10/08 Associated Press: “Study: Asians and black patients more likely to die
after injury,”
Honolulu (AP) _ A study finds Asian- and African-American
patients have a higher risk of dying than Caucasians after being admitted to
hospitals for major injuries.
According to the study co-authored by the new dean of the
John A. Burns School of Medicine, 2.1 percent of blacks and 2 percent of Asians
died while the death rate for whites was 1.5 percent.
Dr. Jerris Hedges, the dean of the school, says the poorer
survival outcome for the minority groups is concerning.
Hedges used data from
Hawaii
and 21 other states in his report called, ``Racial Disparities in Mortality
Among Adults Hospitalized After Injury.''
3/3/08 AAA-Fund News: Who Are the APA Superdelegates?
by Gautam Dutta
The race between Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama is tight — so
tight that it might not be decided by the voters.
If neither candidate garners a majority of delegates, the
so-called superdelegates — party leaders who control 39.3 percent of the 2025
votes needed to win — will decide the winner.
Over the past few weeks, a healthy debate has raged about how
the superdelegates should vote: Should they vote for the candidate who has
received greater popular support (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s view)?
Or, should they base their vote on a combination of factors
(Rep. James Clyburn’s view)? AAA-Fund will not take a position on this issue.
According to Associated Press, Sen. Obama has won 1116
delegates from the caucuses and primaries, and has also secured the support of
164 superdelegates (for a total of 1280 delegates). Sen. Clinton has won 977
delegates from the caucuses and primaries, and has also secured the support of
241 superdelegates (for a total of 1218 delegates). However, since
superdelegates are free to change their minds at any time, these numbers must be
taken with more than a few grains of salt.
For us, this raises two important questions. First, how many
superdelegates are Asian American? The answer: 20 superdelegates, which amounts
to 2.5 percent of the 796 superdelegates. To put that figure in perspective,
just over 5 percent of the nation’s population is Asian American.
Second, who are the Asian American superdelegates?
Based on public sources, here is a list of these influential
leaders (please let us know if anyone has been omitted):
1. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), AAA-Fund Honorary Board
2. Rep. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam), AAA-Fund Honorary
Board
3. Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (D-Samoa), AAA-Fund Honorary
Board
4. Rep. Maizie Hirono (D-HI), AAA-Fund Honorary Board
5. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), President, AAA-Fund Honorary
Board
6. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), AAA-Fund Honorary
Board
7. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), AAA-Fund Honorary Board
8. Minnesota Rep. Mee Moua, AAA-Fund Honorary Board
9. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), AAA-Fund Honorary Board
10. Rep. David Wu (D-OR), AAA-Fund Honorary Board
11. Kamil Hasan, DNC Asian Pacific Islander American
Caucus
12. Bel Leong-Hong, Chair, DNC Asian Pacific Islander
American Caucus; AAA-Fund Board
13. Mona Mohib, Vice-Chair, DNC Asian Pacific Islander
American Caucus
14. Mona Pasquil, DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee
15. Keith Umemoto, Co-Chair, DNC Credentials Committee &
Treasurer, Western DNC States Caucus
16. Alicia Wang, 2nd Vice-Chair,
California
Democratic Party
17. Former Rep. Robert Underwood (D-Guam), AAA-Fund Honorary
Board
18. Antonio Charfauros (Guam)
19. Cecilia Mafnas (Guam)
20. Taling Taitano (Guam)
2/28/08 New York Times: “
Louisiana
Governor Pierces Business as Usual,”
by Adam Nossiter
Baton Rouge
,
La.
- Downstairs, legislators gnashed their teeth,
while upstairs at the Capitol here this week, the new governor claimed victory
against the old customs down below.
2/22/08 The Electric New Paper (Singapore): "Contenders court the Asian vote;
Small in number, but they may swing a win in tight race,"
Asians make up about 5 per cent of the US population, but they are emerging as the swing voters who may make a difference for presidential hopefuls.
Every one of their votes may count when the race is tight - which well describes the one between Democratic White House contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, reported
AFP.
And the top five states where Asian-Americans live - California, New York, Texas, Hawaii and New Jersey - are, with the exception of Hawaii, 'very, very significant' in the presidential elections, according to Mr Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian-American studies centre at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Those four states each carries a high number of electoral votes.
'If this is a close election, then the ways in which the Asian-American vote swings could have a very decisive impact,'
he said.
The race is certainly close in the Democrat camp: Mr Obama, who won in Wisconsin and Hawaii yesterday, has
1,303 delegates, while Mrs Clinton has 1,233.
Despite their significance, the voting power of Asian-Americans has been much less scrutinised than that of African-Americans and Hispanics, reported The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
Agreed Democratic lawmaker Mike Honda, chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus: 'It is time that due attention is paid to this rapidly growing and politically relevant community.'
In Hawaii, nearly 60 per cent of the population is Asian-American.
In California, Asian-Americans make up 8 per cent of the electorate population, reported Time this week.
And their share of the population is set to grow, from 5per cent now to 9per cent in 2050.
WHO DO THEY VOTE FOR?
Asians tend to vote for the Democratic party. And so far, they have voted most consistently and overwhelmingly for Mrs Clinton
In California, about 75 percent of Asian voters voted for her, compared to 23 percent for Mr
Obama.
In New York, the Asian American Legal Defence Fund's exit poll concluded that 87 percent of Asian-American Democrats backed their state's Senator, reported Time.
In New Jersey, it was 73 per cent.
The difference could be due to the attention paid to the community by the contenders.
Some observers believe that Mr Obama is seen as neglecting the community, reported Time, pointing to some speeches on racial unity that mentioned only black and white.
Mrs Clinton, in contrast, held a special event for the Asian-American newspapers in San Francisco.
Pundits say, though, that Mr Obama is learning fast.
In a speech this month, he pointedly thanked more than just his black and white supporters.
And some of his campaign employees and supporters have taken out advertisements in Asian newspapers and contacted Asian TV stations to cover his activities.
Mr Obama is expected to continue courting the Asian vote as the race intensifies.
2/19/08 AmericanThinker.com: “Media angst over low Asian-American support for
Obama (updated)”
By Thomas Lifson
Barack Obama receives 90% of the black vote versus Hillary
Clinton, but when another racial minority, Asian-Americans, shows signs of
disproportionately voting for Hillary Clinton in primary elections, the media
wrings its hands about possible racism. Lisa Takeuchi Cullen of TIME addresses
these concerns:
"Maybe it's just my cynicism speaking, but you look at
those numbers and on some level there has to be some element of race," says
Oliver Wang, a sociology professor at
California
State
University
at
Long Beach
. While not discounting the myriad cultural reasons that could explain the
support for
Clinton
, "on a gut level my reaction is that at least some Asian-Americans are
uncomfortable voting for a black candidate."
Cullen notes that until very recently Obama has spoken of
race almost exclusively in terms of blacks and whites.
... some Asians were sensitive to being left out of Obama's
rousing stump speeches on racial unity - speeches that mentioned only black and
white, according to Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian American Studies Center
at the
University
of
California Los Angeles
. But following his clean sweep of the
Potomac
primaries on February 12, Obama pointedly thanked a rainbow of ethnic groups,
including Asian-Americans. "He can turn it around," says Nakanishi.
"He has a story to tell, one that we would get."
Cullen addresses a number of possible explanations for
Asian-American support for
Clinton
over Obama, but strangely leaves out an obvious, if sensitive, issue:
affirmative action preferences for blacks.
Many Asian-American families value hard work, education and
upward mobility. Before
California
voters outlawed state-sponsored racial preferences, the ability of black
applicants to be admitted to the
University
of
California
system with combined grades and aptitude score tests that would get an
Asian-heritage candidate automatically rejected was a very sore point. One of
the very serious problems with affirmative action
programs is the resentment they sow against its ostensible beneficiaries.
For competitive schools like UC Berkeley which have ten applicants for every
slot, there are many, many rejected students (and their families) who resent the
relatively small numbers benefitting from preferences. "But for
preferences, I would occupy that slot..." goes the reasoning.
Arithmetically incorrect, but all too human.
Of course, affirmative action is a taboo subject when it
comes to Obama. Nobody is willing to even suggest that he (
Columbia
,
Harvard
Law
School
) or his wife (Princeton,
Harvard
Law
School
) benefitted from preferences. I have never seen anyone even ask if either of
them received scholarships.
Absent any evidence of race preferences enabling or financing
either of the Obamas' educations, that would be mean-spirited and unfair, of
course. But liberals are not so shy about claiming that Clarence Thomas was a
preferences beneficiary, and he is regularly excoriated for alleged
"hypocrisy" in opposing race preferences. Double standards applied to
black conservatives are nothing new, of course.
But just because a subject is taboo, it does not necessarily
vanish from people's minds. Arguably, a taboo only enhances the amount of
attention paid in the privacy of an individual's thoughts. Call it a sleeper
issue. Of course, it will be used as evidence of racism against anyone or any
group that fails to support the only man who can save
America
's soul.
2/18/08 AFP: “Asians emerge as swing voters in White House race,”
Washington (AFP) — Asians have become a critical swing
voter bloc in the
US
presidential election race, with rival parties courting them ahead of another
intense White House contest.
"If this is a close election, then the ways in which the
Asian-American vote swings could have a very decisive impact," said Don
Nakanishi, director of the Asian-American studies center at the
University
of
California
,
Los Angeles
.
The top five states where Asian-Americans reside are
California, New York, Texas, Hawaii and New Jersey, and all, with the exception
of Hawaii, are "very, very significant" in the presidential elections
because of the high number of electoral votes each carries, Nakanishi said.
Despite their significance, the voting power of
Asian-Americans has been much less scrutinized than that of African-Americans
and Hispanics, the country's other leading minority groups, said The Hill, a
newspaper that covers Congress.
Studies have shown that Asians tend to vote mostly for the
Democratic party, in which Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a
neck-and-neck battle to be party flagbearer for the presidential race.
A rapidly growing group, there are now 14 million
Asian-Americans in the
United States
, making up five percent of the total population. Their number is expected to
nearly triple in 2050 to 41 million, government figures show.
Some seven million Asian-Americans are eligible to vote, and
close to 3.5 million have registered to vote in the presidential election.
The power of the Asian-American vote is overlooked, said
Democratic lawmaker Mike Honda, chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus.
"It is time that due attention is paid to this rapidly
growing and politically relevant community," he said.
Honda led several lawmakers in lobbying for more
US
media coverage of the Asia-Pacific vote in the elections, saying they were
"deeply concerned" about what they saw as lack of press coverage.
This, they pointed out, "unfairly suppresses a growing
and significant political constituency."
In the
California
Democratic nomination battle earlier this month, about 75 percent of Asian
voters cast their ballots for
Clinton
compared to 23 percent for Obama, according to reports.
That's almost as high as the percentage of the black vote of
78 percent that went for Obama.
But in the run-up to the fight, Obama had narrowed
Clinton
's lead to such an extent that the Asian vote suddenly became pivotal, the
reports said.
With the solid backing from Asians,
Clinton
carried 54 percent of the Democratic electorate in
California
, leading Obama by 14 percent in the state and significantly increasing her
electoral votes.
The Asian-American community is also poised to play
significant roles in contests in Wisconsin, Hawaii, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania,
and North Carolina.
As the race intensifies, campaigners for Clinton and Obama as
well as those for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Senator John
McCain are casting their eyes on Asian-American voters.
McCain is quite popular among Asian-Americans attracted by
his immigration reforms and bipartisanship.
Clinton
has strong ties with Indian-Americans,
cultivated way back when her husband Bill Clinton was president. She had once
joked at a fundraising event that she was "delighted to be the senator from
Punjab
."
2/17/08 Huffinton Post blog: “Anderson Cooper Explains Little About Asian
Americans,”
by Scott Kurashige
(Summary: Ending the marginalization of Asian American voices
and stopping the monolithic portrayal of Asian American political attitudes
would be great strides toward eliminating the conditions that sustain the
"bloc vote" mentality.)
All this week, CNN has been hyping Anderson Cooper's special
report on "Race, Gender and Politics." As expected, Cooper and his
guests mostly rehashed the same arguments and opinions they've made four or five
times a day for the past month. What has stood out for me, however, is that
Cooper has been the national television news figure most interested in reporting
on Asian Americans. (Sadly, that's not saying much.) A couple commentators made
the obvious but still necessary point that we should not jump to quick
conclusions or reproduce stereotypes about how Asian Americans think and act. No
one pointed out that Asian Americans have switched dramatically from Republican
to solidly Democratic over the past three to four presidential election cycles.
Overall, Cooper's reporting has exposed how little the media understands the
political dynamics within Asian American communities.
Cooper's main goal has been to explain why exit polls from
the
California
Democratic primary showed Asian Americans voting nearly three-to-one for
Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. It began with his anchoring coverage on the
night of Super Tuesday. As pundit David Gergen was discussing the significance
of the Latino vote to Hillary's win in
California
, Cooper interjected that she also registered a sizable win among Asians.
Gergen's tangential response was "well, they're in play here, too."
Then, Gergen continued with his point about Latinos. This was, of course, a
misstatement. "In play" for the political pundits analyzing the horse
race means that the battle to win a state or a demographic segment of the
electorate is highly competitive, not lopsided. What Gergen really meant by the
Asians are "in play" comment was something more like, "We don't
normally view Asian voters as significant, but here's one isolated case where
they happened to make a difference."
Next, Cooper did a very short feature on Asian American
voters during his February 8 show. In its entirety, the segment consisted of
brief comments by four random Asian Americans plus 38 words from a political
science professor whose primary area of study is Latinos in politics.
The consensus: Hillary Clinton is better known because her husband was
president; also, recent Asian immigrants might be uncomfortable with the idea of
change and maybe a little wary of a black candidate. In response, an Asian
American political action committee called the 80-20 Initiative launched a
petition against CNN saying it was "outraged" by this "2 minute
segment."
CNN subsequently interviewed a representative of the 80-20
Initiative, S.B. Woo, for the "Race, Gender and Politics" special.
Woo delivered the night's big new thesis: the strong Asian American
backing of Clinton in California was the result of none other than the 80-20
Initiative's campaign to organize Asians into an ethnic bloc vote for Clinton.
The group has declared on its website, "Let the word go forth that we've
learned how to reward political leaders who share our rightful concerns, and
punish those who don't." While Woo is no doubt overstating his group's
influence, the actions of the 80-20 Initiative help us to appreciate in the
crudest manner how a particular type of ethnic identity politics functions.
Since Anderson Cooper fell well short of "explaining it all," I'll try
to demonstrate how this works.
First, a group of self-identified leaders get together and
declare themselves the representatives of their ethnic (or other form of
interest) group.
Second, the group identifies a narrow set of positions
purporting to represent the self-interests of the entire group. In the case of
the 80-20 Initiative, the group asked candidates to pledge to "break the
glass ceiling" for Asian Americans in employment and "nominate more
Asian American judges." All questions on these points singled out Asian
Americans. The 80-20 platform is not couched broadly as a civil rights
initiative; it's only a call for the government to give certain Asian Americans
treatment already afforded "other minorities."
Third, the group takes it platform to the candidates and
chooses a horse in the race. (A variation on this theme is petitioning a media
outlet to remedy its allegedly biased coverage by devoting airtime to your group
and its cause.)
Fourth, the group attempts to mobilize a bloc vote by arguing
that the chosen candidate best represents "our" interests. Finally, if
the candidate wins and the group is seen to have delivered the vote, the
symbolic representatives of the ethnic group get in line to cash in their
rewards (e.g. patronage, federal appointments, dinner at the White House).
What must be emphasized regarding the relative success of the
80-20 "bloc vote" campaign is that minority interest group politics of
this nature conform perfectly to the niche marketing and service-delivery model
of politics practiced by head Clinton strategist Mark Penn. Winning the 80-20
endorsement was but one part of a broader Clinton strategy to win endorsements
from minority politicians, court ethnic community leaders, and advertise in
ethnic media. This largely top-down approach seems to have worked in this
instance (though it might have fallen short if the Obama team had developed a
better ground game among Asians and Latinos in
California
).
Yet, the primary results are also proving that so many
Americans are tired of politics framed by narrow self-interests that ignore the
intersecting relationship between race, gender, class, sexuality, ecology,
education, health care, and a million other issues.
While there are some interests unique to ethnic groups, there
are also ways to address these concerns within the context of struggling for a
greater good and a higher purpose. Memo to Anderson Cooper: your next task, if
you choose to accept it, is to find the tens of thousands of Asian Americans who
see politics and activism in this light. Ending the marginalization of Asian
American voices and stopping the monolithic portrayal of Asian American
political attitudes would be great strides toward eliminating the conditions
that sustain the "bloc vote" mentality.
Scott Kurashige is an associate professor of American
Culture, History, and Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies at the
University
of
Michigan
and author of The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the
Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles (Princeton University Press, 2008).
2/15/08: Members of Congress Call Upon CNN and MSNBC to Cover Asian Vote
Washington, DC – Today, Several Members of Congress sent the following letters
to Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S. and Phil Griffin, executive-in-charge
of MSNBC to highlight the lack of coverage of the Asian American and Pacific
Islander vote during the 2008 presidential campaigns:
February 15, 2008
Jonathan Klein
President
CNN/U.S.
One
Time
Warner
Center
New York
,
NY
10019
Dear Mr. Klein,
We are writing as Members
of Congress who have strong interests in issues affecting the Asian American and
Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the
United States
. We are deeply concerned that the lack of coverage of Asian voters in the
2008 presidential race by CNN and other media outlets unfairly suppresses a
growing and significant political constituency. We request a meeting to
discuss these matters, and have also provided specific recommendations below.
sian Americans and Pacific
Islanders make up the fastest growing racial group in the
United States
. Nationwide, approximately 7 million Asian American and Pacific Islanders
are eligible to vote, and close to 3.5 million have registered to vote.
Nearly 3 million Asian American and Pacific Islander voters cast ballots in the
last presidential election. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
currently make up more than 5% of the
U.S.
population, and by 2050, the AAPI population is expected to grow 213% to 33.4
million. It is time that due attention is paid to this rapidly growing and
politically relevant community.
The 2008 Presidential
primary cycle has already seen contests in states with significant Asian
American and Pacific Islander populations, including:
California
,
Nevada
,
Virginia
,
New Jersey
, and
New York
. CNN's coverage and exit polling data of Asian voters has been
resoundingly lacking. In California, where Asian voters represented 8% of
the population polled by CNN, and exceeded the African American population by
1%, AAPI voters were nonetheless excluded in the exit polling analyses for the
categories of "Vote by Age and Race," "Vote by Party and
Race," and "Vote by Sex and Race." This detailed analysis
for the African American community, however, was provided when available.
In other key states with large pockets of Asian American voters, such as
New Jersey
,
New York
,
Virginia
, and
Nevada
, no data was provided at all.
Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders are poised to play significant roles in the upcoming contests in
Hawaii
,
Wisconsin
,
Ohio
,
Texas
,
Pennsylvania
, and
North Carolina
. Clearly, significant delegates remain at stake in this intensely close
contest, and AAPI voters will turn out to cast their ballots. Whether
their voices will be heard in the political process will depend in large part on
whether the media plays a part in recognizing or ignoring these voices.
We are requesting that CNN:
·
Meet with the undersigned to discuss ways to improve coverage of the AAPI
community;
·
Ensure that the upcoming CNN debate in
Texas
includes substantive questions and content related to the AAPI community, and
that pre- and post-debate coverage include commentary about the significant AAPI
populations in the state;
·
Ensure that polling data is collected on the AAPI community, particularly in the
Hawaii, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina primary
contests, and that the AAPI vote be discussed during the highly televised
primary night coverage;
·
Provide more coverage and stories on the AAPI vote. This should not simply
be a matter of producing additional stories, but should involve substantive,
in-depth coverage on our communities. For example, while we applaud
Anderson Cooper 360's decision to run a story on the AAPI community during the
Washington Caucus, the segment provided only a superficial analysis of voter
sentiments at best, and at worst, it was borderline offensive, particularly when
the correspondent appeared to find humor in the limited English proficiency of
one of the interviewees;
·
Make a committed effort to include more AAPI perspectives when covering larger
issues that impact the AAPI community, including immigration reform, education,
and healthcare;
·
Work with the undersigned to develop a roster of interviewees, experts and
guests who are able to speak intelligently on the AAPI community and these
policy areas; and
·
Designate a CNN representative from CNN's diversity council, as well as a
specific producer, to have responsibility and oversight for ensuring that the
AAPI community is represented in news coverage, particularly for this election
cycle. This representative and producer should engage in an ongoing
dialogue with the undersigned.
We thank you in advance for
your attention to this matter, and look forward to your timely response.
Sincerely,
Rep. Michael M. Honda
Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega
Rep. Madeleine Z. Bordallo
Rep. Neil Abercrombie
Rep. Xavier Becerra
Rep. Al Green
Rep. Mazie K. Hirono
Rep. Doris O. Matsui
Rep. Robert C. Scott
Rep. David Wu
2/14/08 New
America
Media: “Asian Americans Outraged by CNN Election Report,”
By Jun Wang
Editor's Note: A CNN report that blames Asians' support of
Clinton
on their hesitancy to vote for a black president is insulting and inaccurate,
argue Asian Americans.
Asian Americans are outraged over a recent CNN report that
attributes their support for Hillary Clinton to their hesitancy to vote for a
black president.
The three-minute video piece, “Asian Americans to Vote for
Hillary Clinton Across the Nation,” aired on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
Degrees on Feb. 8.
People with different Asian accents unanimously spoke out one
name -- “(Hillary)
Clinton
” -- when asked for whom they planned to vote. The report identified two major
causes for Asian Americans’ support of
Clinton
, according to viewers: that they were “fearful of a black presidential
candidate and/or fearful of change.”
Samson Fu, 27, a health care project manager with no former
political experience, started circulating a petition among the Asian community
on Feb. 10. The petition gained sponsorship from the “80-20 Initiative,” an
Asian American political action committee headquartered in
New York
.
The petition called CNN’s coverage “a misleading
portrayal behind why 75 percent of Asian Americans voted for Sen. Hillary
Clinton. Gary Tuchman (the reporter) seems to insinuate those Asian American
votes as racially motivated and/or fearful of change.”
On the contrary, the petition points out that Asian
Americans, especially first generation immigrants, “by their choice to come to
a new land, are by and large the least fearful of changes.”
It urges CNN to take the video off of their Web site and run
another segment with balanced reporting and include the rise of political
cohesiveness within the Asian American community.
The petition collected more than 2,000 signatures and about
900 comments in two days. A copy of the petition letter, with more than 800
pages of signatures and comments, has been sent to CNN.
Samson Fu and S.B. Woo, the former lieutenant governor of
Delaware
and founder of the “80-20 Initiative,” have been in conversation with
CNN’s top executives. John Liu,
New York City
councilman, plans to hold a press conference late this week if CNN doesn’t
respond to the petition.
The CNN video is “biased, more of an opinion piece than
investigative reporting,” Fu told New America Media. “CNN should be held
responsible for making Asians appear racist, which is not true. Fu added that
many of his friends were equally insulted by the report. “I initiated the
petition to capture their feelings.”
Asian American viewers were also critical of CNN’s choice
to interview only Asian Americans with heavy accents. One comment on the
petition asks, “What is up with white people choosing only the non-fluent
Asian population for the interviews… making Asian people look like dumb-asses,
who don’t know English? I’m thinking prejudice and racism… What do you
think?”
Another comment on the petition agrees, saying, “Many Asian
Americans are educated and speak English very well. Perhaps you should represent
our community more accurately.”
From Filipinos to Asian Indians, Asian Americans are a
diverse group, says Samson Fu. They come from dozens of countries and cultural
backgrounds. In cities like
Seattle
, Fu adds, it isn’t hard to interview a larger variety of Asians – instead
of just talking to people in a Japanese teahouse.
Born in Hong Kong, Fu came to the
United States
at the age of five and spent 19 years in
South Carolina
before moving to
Los Angeles
three years ago. He says he didn’t know any other Asians in
South Carol