Sept. 21 - 27, 2001 AsianWeek.com: "South Asians Face Violent Backlash After 
WTC Attacks"
    As Sikhs, other South Asian Americans and Arab Americans expressed their 
collective grief and patriotism nationwide last week, they also had to deal with 
backlash from the terrorist attacks, which erupted into an unprecedented amount 
of hate violence. In one week, the New York-based civil rights organization Asian 
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) documented over 100 
bias-related incidents, half of which were of a violent nature.
    In Mesa, Ariz., a gunman pulled into a gas station and killed Indian American 
owner Balbir Singh Sodhi, then went to a second gas station and fired repeatedly 
through a window, but missed his target: the clerk who is of Lebanese descent. 
The shooter then went to an Afghani American home, where he fired several 
shots. No one was injured at the last two locations.
    Mesa police Detective Tim Gaffney said Frank Roque, 42, was booked on one 
count of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and three counts 
of drive-by shooting. Roque made his initial court appearance Sunday and bail 
was set at $1 million.
    Sodhi, 49, a former Bay Area taxi driver, was a Sikh. Police are investigating 
the possibility that the crimes were motivated by last week's terror attacks and 
are still trying to determine whether to add hate crimes charges.
    Sodhi's relatives pointed to the fact that the gas station wasn't robbed as 
evidence that Sodhi was targeted because of how he looked. Male Sikhs 
traditionally wear turbans and have long facial hair.
    Another reported murder, this one in Dallas, is under investigation for possible 
hate crimes. According to the Dallas Morning News, 46-year old Waqar Hasan, 
a Pakistani American, was found dead in Mom's Grocery Store where he worked 
late on the night of Sept. 15.
    Since nothing was stolen from the store, Hasan's family fears that the killing 
may have been in retaliation to the terrorist attacks. While the police have notified 
the FBI, they said, "there is nothing to prove that it was a hate crime, but nothing 
to disprove it."
    Hasan left behind a wife and four daughters, ranging from 10 to 17.
    Sin Yen Ling of AALDEF said that these cases fit the profile for most hate-
related crimes because there is no other tangible motive. "I have only read the 
newspaper reports about these crimes, but with no criminal motive, they really 
seem to be motivated by bias."
    Ling said that since last week's attacks, AALDEF had been receiving reports 
of hate crimes and bias-related incidences every hour. Many of the incidents 
target South Asian Americans, especially those of Sikh descent, because of 
their visibility. The Sikh religion originates from 16th century Punjab in northern 
India. Today, Sikhism is the world's fifth largest religion with 20 million followers. 
According to sikhs.org, the Sikh religion is based on devotion and remembrance 
of God and denounces superstitions and blind rituals.
    Often the attackers in these bias-related incidents will yell out anti-Arab and 
anti-Islamic sentiment, while Sikhs have nothing to do with either culture.
    "We look identical to Arabs in the East who have turbans and beards," 
Gurmeet Singh, of Hayward, Calif., said. "But here, Arabs don't dress like that. 
So here, people watch the reports on the news, see us and think, 'Oh, there are 
those guys.'"
    Singh is an active member of the International Sikh Youth Federation that 
works with the community to further the teachings of Sikhism among youth.
    "Right now, we are trying to educate the community about ourselves, invite 
them into our prayer services and show them that our religion is based on 
equality and peace," Singh said. "As well as that, we are raising aid for those in 
New York and Washington."
    Singh, whose three children were born in the United States, said that he had 
never seen real discrimination in America until now, and he fears for the safety of 
his family and friends.
    As investigators look for clues and suspects in the terrorist attacks, cases of 
police racial profiling have also been affecting the South Asian American 
community. On Sept. 12, as the nation fought to recover from the attacks, Sher 
JB Singh was returning home to Virginia from a business trip to Massachusetts 
by train. Singh, who is Sikh, said that he was following the guidelines of the 
government, which were urging everyone to keep moving ahead, as he was 
returning home to be with his family in this time of crisis.
    When the train stopped in Providence, R.I., the police and other law 
enforcement agencies began an extensive search in the train. In a statement 
issued at a press conference in Washington D.C., on Monday, Singh said: "Two 
police officers came into my coach with their handguns pointing towards me, and 
using extreme profanity, took me outside the train. Once outside the train, I was 
handcuffed and stripped of my wallet and began to be treated as if I were the 
fleeing terrorist whom they were looking for."
    Singh was very upset, saying that the Providence police department assaulted 
him with derogatory remarks against his religion and appearance, despite his 
repeated explanations. After bringing a lawyer in on his behalf, Singh was 
released.
    Legal experts have already been expressing concern over incidents just like this.
    "I'm very worried about what's going to be done in the name of security," said 
Kevin Johnson, a racial profiling and immigration expert at the University of 
California at Davis Law School. About a dozen travelers of Middle Eastern 
descent were detained at two New York airports on Sept. 13, only later to be 
cleared of any connection with this week's terrorist attacks. It is illegal for law 
officers to target someone based on ethnic appearance. Historically, courts have 
also ensured that foreign nationals are guaranteed the same civil rights as U.S. 
citizens.
    Ling said that one of the main reasons that AALDEF is so carefully 
documenting these incidents is so they can follow up with legal assistance.
    "We are trying to monitor the New York Police Department," Ling said. "There 
are many cases where Sikhs are being profiled."
    In both New York and Washington D.C., civil rights groups are working hard to 
outreach to the communities and provide a place for people to come together. 
On Sept. 15, AALDEF helped organize a meeting for the larger community to 
strategize. In Washington D.C., on Sept. 19, a large coalition of people in the 
South Asian, Asian Pacific Islander American, and Arab American communities 
came together at the Japanese American World War II memorial to rally together.

9/20/01 Chinese Daily
http://www.chineseworld.com/publish/010920/11_0900.4w/a/4was(010921)01_sg.ht
    Summary: Right after the first AA Airline plane hit the World Trade Center,
Zhe Zeng, who works at Bank of New York on Wall Street, called his mother and 
said "I'm OK. It's chaotic outside. I'm going to help other people" and he hanged 
up the phone.  Zhe has never been heard from since. Few days later, one of his 
friends saw Zhe in the Fox News' TV coverage of the rescue efforts around WTC just
before the buildings collapsed.
    Zhe is 29 year old and got his MBA from the University of Rochester. Zhe
came from Quanzhou to New York with his parents when he was 15 years old. He
was a trained and certified rescue worker. While  at Styvesant High in lower
Manhattan, he was a honor student and was always willing to help the other
students specially in math.   He is so well liked such that the landlord
where his family lived even lowered the rent in order to lighten his
family's burden.
    Zhe's mother, a former school teacher in China, said "Since we have
immigrated to America, we have to think this land as our country. I always
taught young people to serve their society and its people. I may have lost
Zhe, but I'm very proud of what he did. I hope  mainstream America will
understand that there are Chinese Americans who are willing to sacrifice
themselves in order to help  others. Now I only want to find out what
happened to Zhe. I pray that there would not be war, because  more innocent
people will be killed"


Sept. 14-20, 2001 AsianWeek.com: "APIA Leaders Fight to Keep San Gabriel 
Whole"
    West San Gabriel Valley is developing into the new battleground for Asian 
Pacific Islander American political representation. Last week, APIA community 
leaders blasted the state Legislatures' redistricting plans - which would divide 
the area into three congressional districts and reroute voters to four different 
Senate districts - all but silencing the APIA voice.
    Working with members of the Mexican American Legal Defense and 
Education Fund, Kathay Feng, an attorney with the Asian Pacific American 
Legal Center and a representative of the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans 
for Fair Redistricting, helped draft an alternative plan that, she said, reflects 
the true makeup of the District 49 - Monterey Park, Rosemead, Alhambra and 
San Gabriel.
    "No community should gain at the expense of another," testified Feng before 
the Assembly Committee on Sept. 4.
    While APIAs make up about 41% of the 49th District, Latinos comprise the 
largest minority group, representing 42% of the population. After 10 years of 
Latino leadership, in May Judy Chu won the district's Assembly seat - 
becoming one of four APIAs elected to the 120-member state legislature. 
Following tradition, Chu captured the seat by working with the Latino and APIA 
communities, and forming alliances with members of both communities.
    While her victory was reason to celebrate, others point out that with APIAs 
representing 13% of California's population, Asian Pacific Islander Americans 
are still inadequately represented in government. Currently, there are no APIAs 
in the State Senate.
    Feng said the proposal she worked on keeps Chu's district mostly intact, 
with Latino and APIA populations at 42% and 41% respectively.
    The plan aims to "build a foundation for [the future] because ... we ought to 
have 10 Assembly members and five more senators, and clearly, [the APIA 
community is] so far off from that," she said. "It's just laughable."
    Redistricting - the redrawing of California's voting lines - comes with the 
recent release of the 2000 National Census Data. Last week, public hearings 
were held on the Legislature's proposal, which must be passed before the week's 
end to take effect in the March primary elections.
    Though Voting Rights Laws were created to prevent legislators from "diluting 
minority voting strength," drawing new district boundaries always threatens to 
silence the voices of people of color.
    As proposals to move voting district lines are being considered, some 
legislators are concerned that changes may end the Latino community's political 
muscle in District 49, and have taken their grievances to the redistricting board.
    The history of the district is rooted in multiculturalism; Monterey Park was the 
first city to strike down "restrictive covenants" in the 1970s. These clauses, 
written into property sales contracts, effectively prevented homes from being sold 
to certain minority groups. As the first city to do away with these stipulations, 
Monterey Park became a haven for minority groups and immigrants, developing 
two strong communities, APIA and Latino, which have lived side-by-side and 
grown together.
    When asked about concern over the Legislature's plan, Speaker of the 
Assembly Bob Hertzberg's spokesman remained diplomatic and noncommittal, 
stating "we still view this as a project in flux" and a "work-in-progress."
    Feng remains positive, not only optimistic about the future, but also proud of 
past accomplishments.
    "We, as an Asian American community, have to reach a certain level of 
participation and maturity to be taken seriously. Now we have four elected 
officials and that's a huge step forward," she said. "In 1998, we had nobody."

9/13/01 San Jose Mercury News: "Assembly members back plan to split 
neighborhood,"
    As California legislators work to redraw the state's political boundaries 
this week, several Assembly members are embracing plans to split up San 
Jose's growing Asian-American community to shore up their holds on their 
seats.
    Manny Diaz and Rebecca Cohn, both elected last year, have endorsed a 
redistricting plan that divides northeast San Jose's Berryessa neighborhood 
into four different Assembly districts, potentially hobbling the political influence 
of the area's Asian-American population.
    The maneuvering has infuriated many state and local leaders in the Asian-
American community as well as other elected leaders in Silicon Valley, who say 
that the gerrymandering of Berryessa is the most egregious disenfranchisement 
of Asian-American voters in the state. Concentrated in one district, Berryessa's 
Asian-Americans could assert considerable influence over who is elected in their 
district.
    The dispute has also thrown an unflattering light on the tension between the 
political ambitions of some of the region's politicians and the political aspirations 
of the state's growing minority communities.
    ``They are thinking so much about creating a political machine that they have 
forgotten about representing the whole community,'' said Kathay Feng, an 
attorney for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which has been leading the 
fight to ensure that California's Asian-American population is represented in 
Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
    ``They have played the race card, and there will be long-term consequences,'' 
Feng warned.
    Diaz, a San Jose Democrat, has denied trying to exclude any voters from his 
district, though several sources say that he has worked hard in recent weeks to 
increase the number of Latino voters in his East San Jose district.
    And Cohn, a Campbell Democrat, said Wednesday that she believes the 
current plan is a fair one. ``I think the Asian community should be happy that 
Cupertino is being joined with Sunnyvale and Mountain View,'' she said.
    Under the current plans, which could be voted on as soon as today: Diaz's 
district would expand slightly to the west to take in more areas of central San 
Jose; Cohn's West Valley district would expand east in a long arm that would 
stretch through a portion of Santa Clara and into northeast San Jose; and Elaine 
Alquist's district would move north to take in more of the Peninsula and east to 
also take in a part of northeast San Jose.
    Unlike earlier plans, which divided the city of Santa Clara in half and drew 
intense criticism, the latest plans appear to do a better job of joining communities 
together.
    San Jose's prosperous and suburban Evergreen neighborhoods, for example, 
which earlier were to join a largely rural district that included parts of San Benito 
and Monterey counties, have been reunited with the rest of San Jose.
    Most of Santa Clara is now back in Alquist's district, but Mayor Judy Nadler 
said she is still concerned that her city is being split between Cohn's and Alquist's 
districts.
    Several Asian-American leaders said the division of the Berryessa 
neighborhood, which is home to San Jose's greatest concentration of Asian-
Americans, is so extreme that they are considering legal action if it is approved 
by the Legislature this week.
    ``At first glance, this proposed redistricting scheme looks like a deliberate 
attempt to sabotage any attempt at developing the political power of Asian-
Americans,'' said Anna Wang, executive director of the Vision 2000 Foundation, 
a non-profit organization working to boost civic participation of Asian-Americans.
    Joining Wang are the local chapter of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People and several local politicians, including Chuck 
Reed, a San Jose City Council member who represents the Berryessa 
neighborhood.
    Much of the group's anger has been directed at Diaz, who told many people 
in the Capitol and the valley that he had been concerned that his district went 
from being 48 percent Latino to being 43 percent Latino under the original 
redistricting plans that did not fragment Berryessa as dramatically.
    That plan also boosted Asian-American residents in his district to 34 percent.
    Diaz has denied trying to boost the number of Latino voters in his district, 
which he narrowly won last year.
    The latest plans make Diaz's district 47 percent Latino and 27 percent Asian-
American.
    Feng said she does not take issue with efforts to bolster the region's Latino 
representation.
    ``If this was about balancing communities, I could understand that,'' Feng said, 
explaining that she and others are not simply trying to create a district that could 
elect an Asian-American Assembly member.
    ``But I think this is about a legislator taking a very narrow view of what is a 
winnable district rather than trying to unify a community.''

9/12/01 Los Angeles Times: "Asian Americans Flex Growing Political Muscle: 
Once a negligible force, the group's clout has grown with election wins in the 
state and nation"
    Enough shovels of earth--a mountain.
    Enough pails of water--a river.
    That Chinese proverb as much as anything explains the growing political 
empowerment of Asian Americans across California and particularly in the San 
Gabriel Valley. Election by election, and without fanfare, the ranks of Asian 
American elected officials statewide have swelled from 106 in 1980 to 503 in 
1998. That figure, compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California and the 
most recent available, does not include some recent gains. Two longtime San 
Gabriel Valley city councilwomen have joined the Assembly: Carol Liu of La 
Canada Flintridge, elected in November, and Judy Chu of Monterey Park, who 
took office this summer.
    With two other Asian American Democrats in the Assembly--Wilma Chan of 
Oakland and George Nakano of Torrance--they form the Legislature's largest 
Asian American caucus ever. It may be only four members strong, but the 
Capitol's black caucus has only seven. In fact, the institute found that Asian 
American officeholders outnumber African American officials in California by 
2 to 1.
    It's been a gradual progression, driven by demographics, multiethnic coalition 
politics and the changing attitudes of Asian Americans and others toward 
electing people of Asian descent.
    "Ten or 15 years ago, a meeting of Asian American elected officials could 
have been held around the kitchen table. Now we're talking a small banquet hall," 
said Joaquin Lim, a city councilman in Walnut. Lim heads the 33-member 
organization of Chinese American Elected Officials, which includes current and 
former officeholders and trains potential candidates.
    The San Gabriel Valley--a 300-square-mile "ethnoburbia" east of Los Angeles 
with 29 cities and about 1.7 million people--has proved to be fertile ground for 
ethnic politics before. Inside its city halls and on its school boards, Latinos 
showed they could flex their political muscle a decade ago.
    The number of city council and school board members and other elected 
officials of Asian descent in the valley has climbed in a decade from six to 17. 
There have been as many as 20, but three stepped down to seek even higher 
office.
    "What we're seeing in the San Gabriel Valley reflects a larger trend of Asian 
Americans becoming more involved in politics," said Don T. Nakanishi, head of 
the Asian-American Studies Center at UCLA. And even if they aren't winning, 
more Asian Americans are getting their names on the ballot.
    "The number of Asian American candidates is exploding," said David Lang, a 
political consultant. "Chinese Americans running for office used to be news in the 
San Gabriel Valley. Now we're talking 10 to 15 candidates every election cycle."
    At a candidates forum in Monterey Park on Aug. 31, five of seven council 
contenders were Asian American.
    "When I was A little girl, my mother told me those who are fortunate should 
contribute to the community," candidate Lisa Yang told the crowd.
    Packing the council chambers for the event was a virtual who's who of Asian 
American politics, including West Covina Mayor Benjamin Wong, Monterey Park 
Councilman David T. Lau and state Board of Equalization member John Chiang.
    Hosting the event was a growing collection of Asian American political 
organizations, including the Chinese-American Elected Officials, the Indo-
Chinese American Political Action Committee and CAUSE/Vision 21.
    CAUSE/Vision 21, created by the merger last year of two Asian American 
political groups, was formed to register voters and help train Asian American 
candidates. The Chinese Americans United for Self-Empowerment, founded 
in 1993 and known as CAUSE, teamed with Vision 21, founded in 1998. With 
an eye toward the future, they arrange internships in Sacramento for young Asian 
Americans.
    In July, more than 250 people attended a CAUSE/Vision 21 political meeting 
in Alhambra, including Secretary of State Bill Jones and Matt Fong, a former 
state treasurer.
    The number of Asian American officeholders remains small: 6% statewide. 
The number of Asian Americans among registered voters in California has 
climbed to 6%--up from 3% a decade ago--but is still the lowest rate of any 
ethnic group. But once registered, they are frequent voters and they have logged 
successes at the polls.
    San Francisco's Chinese community, which dates to the Gold Rush, has held 
as many as three county supervisorial seats there. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, 
Oakland has two Chinese American City Council members, as well as 
Assemblywoman Chan. And San Jose is home to Rep. Mike Honda. Pockets of 
Asian American electoral power can be found in Cerritos, where those of Asian 
descent are the majority, and Gardena, where four of five City Council members 
are of Asian decent.
    Nationwide, the number of elected and appointed officials in the Asian Pacific 
American political roster is 2,200, up from 700 two decades ago.
    Population growth is helping to fuel some of these gains. Asian Americans 
account for 13% of California's population and are the state's fastest-growing 
minority group. It is a population that has doubled every decade since 
immigration restrictions were eased in 1965.
    Nowhere is this growth more evident than in the San Gabriel Valley, where 
Asians outnumber all others in Monterey Park, Rowland Heights and Walnut.
    But political growth has taken more than bodies, it has required Asian 
Americans and others to change their minds about electing those of Asian 
descent.
    Some Say Asians Don't Vote
    The cost of noninvolvement has been high, said Paul Zee, 50, a former South 
Pasadena mayor and a recent Republican state Senate candidate.
    "I overheard two politicians talking. One said, 'But what about the Asian 
response?' The other guy just looked at him and said, 'I don't have to worry about 
the Asian response, do I? They don't vote,' " Zee said.
    The treatment of Taiwan-born scientist Wen Ho Lee, who became entangled 
in allegations of passing nuclear secrets to China, underscored the need for 
activism, said Marian Tse, a former member of the State Board of Education.
    Much as Proposition 187 galvanized the Latino community in 1994, Lee's legal 
battle drew slices of America's diverse Chinese American population into politics 
that had long ignored it, she said.
    Lee's experience resonated so deeply, said Tse, because he was portrayed 
as a foreigner--a familiar stereotype. The Lee case echoed the controversy over 
political contributions by Asian Americans during the Clinton administration. The 
Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights became a symbol of the controversy after 
Vice President Al Gore attended a fund-raiser there in 1996.
    "Now is time for politics," said Tse, a Taiwan-born Monterey Park resident. 
"New immigrants initially had to take care of the family, their business. Now they 
are looking to contribute to the community."
    In Zee's view, the rise of Latino politicians serves as a model for Asian 
Americans.
    "We need a machine like the one Richard Polanco built for Latinos in Southern 
California," he said. Assemblyman Polanco (D-Los Angeles) spent years 
cultivating candidates and positioning Latinos to run outside traditional Latino 
strongholds. Thanks partly to openings created by term limits, Latinos now hold 
20 seats in the Assembly, contrasting with just four in 1991.
    Latinos also made gains through redistricting and, for the first time, Asians are 
playing a serious role in California's redistricting debate. Last week, Asian 
leaders testifying in Sacramento demanded that the Legislature abandon a 
redistricting plan that they said would undermine growing Asian American 
political strength.
    And the new Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting is 
lobbying for Assembly districts that could help elect Asian Americans in as many 
as 10 seats.
    "Asian Pacific Islanders wouldn't be in the majority but a plurality that, together 
with other groups, could form coalitions," said Kathay Feng, an attorney for the 
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. "Judy Chu in the 
49th District and George Nakano in Torrance were elected this way."
    "You have to be a candidate for all the people," said Chu, a 13-year Monterey 
Park councilwoman whose Assembly district is a cultural mix, with nearly half the 
population Latino and more than a quarter Asian. For Chu and others, one key is 
to campaign on quality-of-life issues, such as promoting parks or opposing 
billboards.
    In April, Annie Yuen became the first minority person elected to the school 
board in Arcadia, ousting a four-term incumbent. Yuen built a reputation as a 
parent activist, helping create Mandarin-language parenting classes but also 
leading that most American of institutions--the PTA.
    Some Resented the Asian Influx
    "People now look beyond skin color," said Arcadia Councilman Sheng Chang, 
the city's first elected Asian American. "A few years ago they didn't."
    Still, the influx of people of Asian descent into the San Gabriel Valley has 
tested the attitudes of some non-Asians.
    A decade ago, Walnut had a fledgling Anglo-American Assn., created in 
response to the growing Asian presence. Today, two council members are Asian 
Americans.
    "People used to say an Asian couldn't get elected in Walnut," said Councilman 
Lim. "Well, I smashed that glass ceiling and the glass is cracking everywhere 
these days."
    In that respect, the San Gabriel Valley, with its multiracial quilt of residents, 
might be ahead of the country, analysts say. A nationwide survey this year found 
that although Americans admire many qualities of Chinese Americans, one in 
four held negative attitudes toward those of Chinese ancestry and a third 
questioned their loyalty to the country.
    Issues still exist. The Asian Pacific American Legal Center alleges that, during 
the presidential election in November, some poll workers in San Marino often 
asked Asian American voters for proof of citizenship--questions they did not ask 
non-Asian voters. The county registrar-recorder is investigating.
    Four months later, Matthew Lin, an orthopedic surgeon, was elected to the San 
Marino City Council, becoming the first minority to join that body.

9/11/01 Sacramento Bee: "Redistrict boundary criticized: Minority and womens 
groups say the new lines ignore their interests"
    As the Legislature moved closer to voting on new Assembly, Senate and 
congressional district boundaries, minority and women's groups Monday 
accused Democratic mapmakers of ignoring them and threatened to sue.
    A conference committee of Assembly and Senate leaders could meet as early 
as today to review weekend revisions to the redistricting plans, setting the stage 
for votes in both chambers before Friday's legal deadline.
    The revisions tweaked some boundaries, including the 9th Assembly District, 
represented by Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. But the changes were not 
enough to satisfy Latino, Asian American and women's groups that testified last 
week against the plans.
    The revisions largely rejected suggestions made by advocates for Asian 
Americans, who contend many of their communities were fragmented to dilute 
their influence.
    "If a community interest could be met without running against the (Democratic) 
party or an incumbent, they were," said Kathay Feng of the Coalition of Asian 
Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting. "But otherwise, we were ignored."
    Latino groups remain especially opposed to the congressional plan, which 
they contend dilutes the burgeoning Latino population in the San Fernando Valley 
and Latinos' ability to elect a candidate of their choice. Under the revised plan, 
Latinos there remain spread between districts held by Rep. Howard Berman, 
D-Valley Village, and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.
    "We will file a lawsuit if changes are not made," vowed Amadis Velez, 
redistricting coordinator for the Mexican American Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, who said the plans do not reflect Latino population growth.
    Lawmakers must redraw the districts every 10 years to reflect population 
changes revealed by the federal census. Democrats control the process this 
year because they hold 76 of the 120 seats in the Legislature. But Democratic 
dominance has not stopped intraparty squabbling from breaking out since the
initial proposals were released two weeks ago.
    Responding to complaints by African American groups, the revised plan calls 
for Meadowview to remain in Sacramento's 9th Assembly District. Critics had 
charged that moving about 36,000 minority voters out of south Sacramento into 
the more rural 17th Assembly District would reduce the chances of an African 
American candidate succeeding Steinberg, who faces term limits in 2004.
    "We consider this a victory not only for common sense but for the voting rights 
of all in Sacramento," said James Reede, co-chairman of the Sacramento-area 
2001 Redistricting Project, who worked to stop a similar shift a decade ago.
    The initial plan this year was intended to shore up the numbers of Democratic 
voters in the 17th Assembly District, represented by Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy. 
Under the revised plan, Matthews' district would pick up Democratic voters by 
extending farther south to include all of Merced County.
    The revised plan also appears to assure Republicans of maintaining the 30 
Assembly seats they have been insisting on in return for providing the two-thirds 
votes that would head off a threatened GOP referendum challenging the plans.
    Under the plan, the 26th District, represented by Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, 
would now have a Republican voting majority. Cardoza earlier had a favorable 
Senate seat carved out for him -- the 12th Senate District, currently held by Dick 
Monteith, R-Modesto. Monteith, who will be forced out by term limits next year, is 
expected to try to change seats with Cardoza next year by running for the 
reconfigured Assembly seat.
    Such incumbency-protection trade-offs have angered Latino, Asian American 
and women's groups, which charge they are being held back by the Legislature's 
"old boys' network."
    "We're extremely disappointed, but they have until Friday to save the plans," 
said Lillian Raffel, co-chairwoman of the Women's Political Committee, whose 
members include influential Hollywood political activists.
    A group of Democratic assemblywomen complained last week that they were 
drawn into Republican state Senate districts, blocking their path to higher office. 
Despite behind-the-scene negotiations, the revised plans did little to address 
most of their concerns. One relieved legislator was Assemblywoman Carol Liu, 
D-South Pasadena, who was drawn back into 21st Senate District, now 
represented by Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena.
    Conversely, the 19th Senate District that Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth 
Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, had been eyeing received more Republican voters 
in the revised plan. Jackson was one of the plan's most vocal critics.
    Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, has said the 
Senate plan enhances the futures of many Democratic assemblywomen, 
including Matthews, Patricia Wiggins of Santa Rosa and Wilma Chan of Oakland.

9/6/01 Los Angeles Times: "Revised Districts Hinder Minorities, Critics Say. Politics: 
They say the proposal carves up the San Gabriel Valley and prevents Asian 
Americans from gaining power."
    Minority community leaders demanded Wednesday that the Legislature 
abandon redistricting plans that would "slice and dice" the emerging political 
power of the expanding Asian American community in the west San Gabriel 
Valley.
    Representatives of Asian American, Pacific Islander and Latino organizations 
zeroed in on the proposed "carving up" of Monterey Park, Rosemead, Alhambra 
and San Gabriel.
    The comments came during the final day of public hearings on redistricting 
plans for the Assembly, Senate and Congress. The bipartisan plans, which would 
protect incumbents and preserve the Democratic-dominated status quo in the 
Legislature and House, must be passed by Sept. 14 to take effect for the primary 
election March 7.
    Asian American and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing minority in 
California and constitute 13% of the state's population. There are now four Asian 
Americans in the Assembly--a record--but none in the Senate.
    Since the early 1990s, the four valley cities have been united in a "community 
of interest" fashioned by the state Supreme Court for Assembly, Senate and 
House districts.
    Kathay Feng, a Los Angeles attorney representing the Coalition of Asian 
Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting, characterized the west valley region as 
the cultural and political heart of the Asian American community in Southern 
California. Only this year did the area manage to send an Asian American to the Legislature--Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park).
    The area, Feng testified, constituted the "gateway for a new generation of 
Asian American communities outside the enclaves of Chinatowns, Koreatowns 
and Little Tokyos."
    She endorsed the mostly unchanged Assembly boundaries for Chu's 49th 
Assembly District, but attacked lines proposed for the area by Senate and 
House map makers.
    The Senate plan, Feng charged, would carve up the area's population and 
spin it off into four other Senate districts while the House map would divide it 
into three congressional territories.
    She said the Assembly plan, which she called "a true balance of interests," 
would maintain Latinos at 42% of the Assembly district's population, while Asian 
American and Pacific Islanders would remain about steady at 41%. Latinos 
would represent 32% of registered voters and Asian Americans would constitute 
28%.
    Other Groups Join in Criticism
    Representatives of other community groups agreed with Feng.
    "You have basically sliced and diced the Asian community," said Alan Clayton, 
a demographer for the California Latino Redistricting Coalition, and a resident of 
Chu's district. He warned that the Senate and House plans may violate the 
federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of the region's citizens.
    "If I was a racist and wanted a map that would deliberately dilute the voting 
impact of the Asian Pacific Islander community, this is the map I would propose," 
said another critic, Joel Szabat of the Chinese American CEOs of the Silicon 
Valley.
    John Longville (D-Rialto), chairman of the Assembly redistricting committee, 
said the complaints would be considered before a final vote on the plan. But he 
warned against the prospect of a wholesale overhaul.
    "You definitely are being listened to. I cannot guarantee the results," Longville 
told witnesses at one point.

9/5/01 e-mail from S.B. Woo, co-founder of the 80-20 Initiative:
    The 80-20 New Jersey chapter held an endorsement meeting to choose a 
gubernatorial candidate.  It had 33 endorsement-delegates, composed of equal 
numbers of Democrats, Republicans and Independents.  The gubernatorial 
candidates from both major parties attended the meeting.  According to Dr. 
Steven Ko, Chair of 80-20NJ, "Such a meeting with Asian Americans has 
never happened before in New Jersey."  Each candidate made a pitch to be 
endorsed, made promises and answered questions for one hour.  Mayor James
 McGreevey won the endorsement.   
    80-20's Los Angeles chapter endorsed a candidate for LA mayoral, after an 
endorsement meeting that both top candidates attended. The LA chapter 
endorsed James Hahn, who won.  After the election, Hahn appointed 9 deputy 
mayors, three of whom were Asian Americans.  
 

9/5/01 Sacramento Bee: Appeals court rejects four programs: The laws targeting 
racial and gender gaps are ruled illegal under Prop. 209.
    A California appeals court Tuesday struck down four state programs directed 
at minorities and women, declaring them illegal under a controversial ballot 
measure that passed in 1996.
    The decision marked the latest turn in the serpentine journey of Proposition 
209, the 5-year-old ballot initiative that aimed to remove race- and gender-
based preferences from the California landscape.
    The laws in question range from affirmative action programs within state 
agencies to minority hiring practices at community colleges. In most cases, the 
court ruled against diversity goals and timetables, saying they implicitly lead to 
use of illegal preferences.
    Civil rights groups and state agencies, which have defended the statutes, are 
expected to appeal to the California Supreme Court, delaying any effect the 
latest decision would have.
    Most lawyers were not surprised by the ruling.
    "Regardless of the burdens or benefits imposed by or granted under a 
particular law, the use of a racial classification presents significant dangers to 
individual groups, racial groups and society at large," the justices noted.
    The court ruled as invalid laws that:
        - Encourage the California State Lottery to maximize its contracts with 
           businesses whose owners are among "socially and economically 
           disadvantaged" groups.
        - Require affirmative action programs in state agencies and departments.
       - Set goals for the state treasurer to sell bonds to businesses owned by 
           minorities or women.
       - Require the state's community colleges to hire women and minorities.
    But supporters Tuesday defended the programs as constitutionally sound.
    The lawsuit dates back to 1996, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson first challenged 
five state statutes on grounds that they violated federal equal protection laws. 
After Proposition 209 passed later that year, it became the new basis for the 
case.
    While the appeals court reversed the lower court decision, it defended the 
collection of race and gender data in nearly every instance as an important tool 
for public policy decisions.

9/2/01 Sacramento Bee: "Japanese American population fading: The reasons
include intermarriage, a low birthrate and aging."
    Sacramento's Japanese American community is disappearing due to 
intermarriage, low birthrate, aging, and only a trickle of immigration.
    "About 80 percent of us marry 'out.' How more integrated can a group be? That 
means that the number of people with some Japanese DNA is not really 
decreasing, but the direct lineage to the old country is stretched pretty thin." said 
Dr. Richard Ikeda, president of Sacramento's Japanese American Citizens League.
    The 2000 census reports 7,175 people of Japanese descent in the city of 
Sacramento, including 533 who said they were part Japanese. In 1990, when 
people were allowed to check only one race, the city's Japanese American 
population was 8,103.
    During the same period, Sacramento's overall Asian population -- fueled by 
immigration from China and Southeast Asia -- grew 28%.
    This pattern is repeated across California and the nation, says Hans Johnson, 
a demographer with the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California.
    "In 1970, Japanese were the largest Asian group in California," Johnson said. 
"By 1990, they were not even in the top three."
    One explanation for the decline is shrinking family size. In his recent study on 
fertility rates, Johnson found that California's American-born Asians have one 
of the world's lowest birth rates: only 1.2 children per woman.
    "Among those (American-born) Asians, Japanese women have the lowest 
birth rate of all," Johnson said.
    California's statewide birth rate is 2.25 children per woman; a rate of 2.1 is 
necessary to keep population levels steady.
    Death rate -- due to the graying of the Japanese American community -- is 
also a factor, said Larry Shinagawa, a professor of multicultural studies at 
Sonoma State University who studies the Japanese American community.
    "The Japanese Americans of the Nisei (second) generation are dying off," 
Shinagawa said. "You have to look at our history here to understand the situation. 
Immigrants are typically young, but most Japanese immigration occurred decades 
ago."
    Japanese immigration peaked between 1900 and 1920, when 213,000 came 
to the United States, far more than from any other Asian nation.
    Times have changed. In 1998, according to the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service, 41,000 immigrants arrived from China, 34,000 from India, and 33,000 
from the Philippines -- but just 5,600 people emigrated from Japan.
    At the same time Japanese American numbers dwindle, Shinagawa said 
intermarriage has played a role in diluting the group's distinctive identity.
    "About two-thirds of Japanese American females tend to marry whites," the 
professor said. "The question is how do you incorporate their children into the 
(Japanese) community and give them identity?
    "Ethnicity is keyed to community, to concentration in terms of numbers, and to 
physiognomy -- what you look like. If any one of those three are missing, you don't 
tend to identify with the ethnicity."
    The situation grieves Shinagawa.
    "These are tough, tough issues," he said. "Japanese Americans are 
disappearing -- literally. I feel sad about that. They're becoming white. I don't want 
to see our Japanese American heritage lost. There's a bond of attachment that 
gives meaning to one's life. But how do you preserve it?"
    Reverence for old traditions cannot be forced on children, said Terry Teruko 
Makisima, 74, who grew up in then-rural Florin's large Japanese American farm 
community. She was interned with her family in Colorado, but after the war she 
returned to the Sacramento area, where she raised four sons.
    "Some children are interested in the culture, some are not," she said. "There's 
not much you can do if they're not.
    "There are so many dynamics to this community," said Rev. Bob Oshita of the 
Sacramento Buddhist temple. "Consider World War II, the relocation, being a 
visible minority, dealing with resentment and negative sentiment. When people 
came out of the internment camps, they really pushed their children to 
Americanize. The third generation -- the Sansei -- were encouraged to assimilate, 
to speak English well, to succeed as Americans.

8/28/01 Associated Press: "JACL Faces Questions About Future Shrinking 
Membership,"
    Lillian Kimura speaks to New Jersey middle school children about the 
hardships she suffered as one of 120,000 Japanese-Americans forced into 
camps by the United States during World War II. Matthew Tatsuo Nakata works 
with Americans of Japanese, Chinese and Filipino descent on voter registration 
and education drives.
    Both Kimura, 72, and 24-year-old Nakata are members of the Japanese 
American Citizens League, the oldest Asian-American civil rights group. Yet 
Kimura's life has made her fiercely protective of her Japanese heritage, while 
Nakata -- the son of parents born in the United States -- thinks of himself more 
as Asian-American than Japanese-American.
    Their views reflect a philosophical split within the league, headquartered in 
San Francisco, as it also struggles with a cash crunch and shrinking membership.
    League leaders are trying to accommodate both those who want to preserve 
Japanese-American culture, and those who want to broaden the JACL's agenda 
and recruit members from other Asian-American groups.
    ``The struggle goes back to how much of our organization do we need to 
preserve with regard to Japanese-American culture, history and heritage,'' said 
Nakata, who lives in Seattle and sits on the JACL's national board of directors. 
``A lot of the younger generation would identify more with being Asian-Pacific-
American than they would with their respective ethnic groups.''
    Founded in 1929, the JACL had as many as 33,000 members in the 1980s, 
but is now down to 24,000. The drop is blamed on low immigration from Japan 
and Japanese-Americans marrying people from other ethnic groups, sometimes 
lessening the bond with one particular culture.
    Nisei, the Japanese word for the first generation born in America, account for 
many of the JACL's members. About half of its members are 60 or older.
    A committee is scrutinizing the JACL's direction and is expected to make 
recommendations to the national board in October.
    The group's most high-profile campaign culminated in 1988, after more than 
10 years, when Congress apologized and authorized monetary reparations to 
Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.
    Kimura points to this as proof there is still a need for advocacy groups with 
national ties. ``On the internment issue, I don't see other Asian-Americans 
working as hard as we would,'' said Kimura, who was the JACL's first female 
national president from 1992-94.
    But Nakata said the JACL has much in common with other groups. He has 
worked with other Asian-Americans to condemn racial profiling and advocate 
for redistricting so that Asian communities are not divided.
    National Executive Director John Tateishi, 62, said the JACL is already 
moving toward a pan-Asian focus. The shift started in 1982 when Vincent Chin, 
a Chinese-American, was beaten to death by two unemployed autoworkers. 
Witnesses said Chin's attackers mistook him for Japanese, and made remarks 
about Americans losing jobs to Japanese automakers.
    Chin's slaying made Asian-Americans realize ``we were all targets and we 
were all vulnerable,'' Tateishi said. ``Most white people don't see us as any 
different from each other.''
    Creating solid coalitions between groups may be tricky, however. The Asian-
American community has diverse languages, cultures and immigration patterns.
    Sonny Le, a Vietnamese-American public relations consultant, says more 
established Chinese- and Japanese-American groups should give more visibility 
to South Asians and Filipino-Americans. ``They've got to understand you have 
to make room for up-and-comers,'' he said.
    Tateishi acknowledged that while he is proud of his Japanese ancestry, the 
future may lie in finding a middle ground between ethnic pride and pan-Asian 
unity.
    ``Unless the JACL can accept both parts of who we are, our survival will 
come into question,'' he said.

    Regarding your August 21, 2001 story on the conflicting court rulings on 
affirmative action at the University of Michigans law school and undergraduate 
school, I was shocked your story omitted any mention of Asian-Americans.
    I publish "Asian-American Politics" at www.asianam.org. From 1992 to 2000, 
the number of Asian-Americans has increased from 4% to 9% of the students at 
the University of Michigan Law School. It is possible that Asian-Americans now 
outnumber the combined total of African-American, Hispanic and Native-American 
students at the University of Michigan Law School. Ignoring 9% of the students 
indicates your reporter and producer have lost their impartiality, if not their grasp 
on reality.
    When race based admission policies at universities were banned in California, 
Texas, Massachusetts, and Florida, the number of Asian-American students 
admitted to universities in those states increased by 20-40%, which indicates that 
bigots for the left were previously engaging in reverse discrimination against 
Asian-Americans.
    Ignoring Asian-Americans implies:
    1) Asian-Americans dont exist;
    2) Asian-Americans dont matter;
    3) Bigots for the left can engage in reverse discrimination against Asian-
Americans with impunity, and the liberal media wont report it;
    4) Bigots for the left condone discrimination in favor of African-Americans, 
Hispanics and Native-Americans at the expense of Asian-Americans;
    5) the liberal media is conspiring to hide reverse discrimination against Asian-
Americans in order to persuade Asian-Americans to support affirmative action.
    I challenge you to run a story on the effect of affirmative action on Asian-
Americans and how the elimination of race based admission policies has 
benefited Asian-Americans.

Don W. Joe
"Asian-American Politics"
www.asianam.org.

8/12/01 Associated Press: "APA Coalition Seeks Redistricting To Unify Ethnic 
Communities: Although Making up 13% of California in Census 2000, Asians 
Hold Only 3% - 4 of 120 of the States Legislative Seats"
    In an attempt to unify its different ethnic communities, Asian-American groups 
unveiled a statewide redistricting plan that they hope will give them more political 
clout.
    The plan released Thursday is an unprecedented move for California's many 
Asian ethnicities, which are increasingly joining forces to make their voices heard. 
They will have to compete for attention with Latino organizations that drew their 
own map, but both groups say their proposals are similar.
    At press conferences in Los Angeles and Oakland, members of the coalition of 
Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting said Asian-Americans have lost 
political power because Assembly boundaries drawn a decade ago split their 
communities into two and sometimes three pieces.
    ``Because we are divided, finding legislative support and building community 
unity is difficult,'' said Diane Poon, executive director of the Chinatown Service 
Center, representing a Los Angeles community that is split into two Assembly 
districts.
    The coalition's proposal would bring together divided ethnic communities 
including Chinatown, Koreatown and Filipinotown in Los Angeles and Orange 
County's Little Saigon and Koreatown. In other areas, including Sacramento, San 
Diego and San Francisco, the proposal would organize several Assembly districts 
around ethnic areas with common needs and concerns.
    Kwoh said the coalition prepared its map with months of cooperation with Latino, 
black, gay and lesbian and other groups, as well as legislative officials.
    The plan increases the number of districts with at least 30% Asian, Latino or 
black populations. It also would increase the number of ``safe'' Assembly districts 
-- ones in which one major party has at least a 10% advantage over the other -- 
from 42 to 46 for Democrats and from 13 to 14 for Republicans.
    The Asian population in California rose nearly 54% over the last decade, to 
nearly 4.4 million. But although they made up about 13% of the state in the 2000 
Census, Asians hold only 3% -- four of 120 -- of the state's legislative seats.
    Communities united by common interests ``should not be divided, should not 
be fractured, and their votes should not be diluted,'' said Stewart Kwoh, president 
and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern 
California.
    ``If we don't say anything, they will definitely divide our communities again, 
because they don't even know where are communities of interest are most of the 
time,'' Kwoh said.
    Two Hispanic advocacy groups -- the Mexican American Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund and the William C. Velasquez Institute -- released their own map 
last month, but Asian and Latino activists said the two plans have much in common.
    ``Logistically it's very difficult to do, because you have to work with so many 
different groups,'' said Zachary Gonzalez, redistricting coordinator for the Velasquez 
Institute. ``But as far as minority communities concerned, we're all working toward 
the goal of fair and equal representation.''
    Thursday's proposal reflects the growing power Asian-American groups are 
wielding in California politics, said Karin Mac Donald, director of the Statewide 
Database at the University of California, Berkeley, which collects and analyzes 
data used in redistricting.
    As rising numbers of Asian-Americans put more money and effort into political 
efforts, they could see ``a little bit of the squeaky wheel syndrome,'' Mac Donald 
said. ``They didn't have the funding or organization to do that before.''
    In working with the coalition, officials in Sacramento ``have said they're amazed 
by the level of participation in the Asian-American community,'' Kwoh said. ``Now 
the crucial question is whether they'll listen.''
    The coalition will submit its proposal to the Legislature by Wednesday.