Many of you probably remember the many media stories about the dubious donations made by Asian Americans during the 1990s to the Clinton presidential campaigns. 

Through intentional race-baiting, the media and some conservative elements played up a deadly hypothetical combination – communist Chinese supposedly donating moneys to the Clintons in exchange for favorable terms for the mainland Chinese government and a loosening of nuclear restrictions.  A generation of Asian Americans were scarred by the allegations of impropriety and the media witchhunt for Asian American contributions continued well into the late 1990s, thereby reducing the level of political participation among Asian Americans. 

Just recently, the conservative blogsite www.drudgereport.com has linked several articles about a Mr. Norman Hsu, Mr. Abdul Rehman Jinnah,  and a Mr. William Paw and their political contributions to the Democratic party.  According to campaign-finance records, Mr. Hsu, via a relationship with Mr. Paw, has donated $225,000 to Democratic candidates since July 21, 2004. Supposedly with Mr. Paw and his family living in a modest home in San Francisco, they question how this family could give so much.  The journalists leave it to the reader to surmise and speculate why.  Here is a post by Dave Johnson and James Boyce on the Huffington Post critiquing the ethnic smearing present in the new media frenzy.

Without ever mentioning a word about race, the tone of most of the recent articles paints a racialized portrait of Asian Americans as corrupt, behind-the-scenes, foreign-serving donors who make illegal campaign contributions.  While there are Asian Americans who do break campaign-finance laws, we don’t hear very much about other groups and individuals who do the same thing.  Nor do we hear of the many Asian Americans who through the voting process and their political contributions hope to have a very significant and legitimate voice in the political process of the United States.

I recently ran across information about Asian pirates of the great Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. 

Apparently, during the 12th through 16th century, Pirates from Japan and China called the Wokou ravaged the entire breadth of Asia.  Although mostly Japanese during the 12th through the 14th century, they were later mainly Chinese in origin by the end of the era.  Many raided the coastlines of China and Korea and pillaged as far south as Vietnam.  Here is a Wikipedia entry on them.

Today, I read a very interesting article written by Maggie Koerth in CNN.  It discusses the exploits of a beautiful Chinese female pirate who commanded a fleet of 1500 ships and 80,000 sailors in the early 1800s!  Named Cheng I Sao, she raided the coastlines of Asia from 1801 to 1810.  Wave after wave of Chinese naval fleets and British and Portuguese bounty hunters tried to capture her.  All to no avail.  Read here for more details.  Was this the actual basis of some of the story line of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End?  For example, Chow Yun Fat acts the role of the notorious South China Sea pirate Feng Sao, who historically was the first husband of Cheng I Sao.  Hmm…..

New American Media, August 22, 2007.

Asian Fortune, News Feature, Winyan Soo Hoo , Posted: Aug 22, 2007

Ediotr’s note: Montgomery County continues to press for innovation in biotechnology and life sciences in a number of arenas locally and overseas. Dr. Pardeep Ganguly has been vital in backing new business initiatives that capitalize on diversity, as well as the push for community colleges in India.

ROCKVILLE, MD.  “Today Montgomery County, Tomorrow the World” could well be the economic slogan of Dr. Pradeep Ganguly, the brains behind County Executive Isaiah Leggett?s initiative for a “Smart Montgomery.”

As Montgomery County’s Director of Department of Economic Development, Ganguly said partnerships with the local business community, Asian countries and the county are the key to future economic profitability. In April, Ganguly led a trade mission to India. Locally, he has also started and sustained “microenterprise” programs to enhance business partnerships with small, minority and female-owned businesses.

Ganguly said he hopes Montgomery County can expand partnerships with life sciences and advanced technology businesses overseas. He has made the first steps by opening talks with several start-up groups and entrepreneurs in India. Leaders in these cities have taken notice. The governor of one of the wealthiest states in India, Haryana, invited Montgomery College and Ganguly in April to introduce the concept of community colleges to his city. Ganguly said he used the opportunity to scope out potential business partners for the county.

When a typhoon hit Quezon City in the Philippines during July of 2000, 2000 people were buried alive when literally a mountain of garbage fell upon 500 shacks nestled at the edge of the Payatas dump site. 

Today, 30,000 residents of the Payatas slum located on the dump site still scavenge the refuse that is daily shipped from Manila and Quezon City. 

Emblematic of the extreme poverty of the Third World, the Payatas Slum is a reminder of the realities and possibilities of ecological disaster, unchecked urbanization, and the growing and unequal resource distribution that is plaguing our world today. 

Click here to see five short films by news reporter
Ivar Berglin of VBS TV on the Payatas slum
and its inhabitants.

There is a wonderful non-profit organization that is trying to improve the lives of residents in and nearby the Payatas slums.  Gawad Kalinga (GK) is a NGO aimed at eradicating poverty by building villages and communities for squatters all across the Philippines.  To the right is a picture of one of their new communities.  Students of the Filipino Cultural Association at the University of Maryland are checking on the possibility of participating in GK’s community-building projects.  If this happens, it will be a demonstration of the transnational participation of Filipino Americans/Asian Americans in projects in Asia.

 Historically, the offspring of Asian immigrants to the United States have fared much better socioeconomically than their parents.  Interestingly, the 1.5 and 2nd generation children of immigrants have done so well that in many instances, as in the case in general of Asian Americans, they earn more than Americans who have been here for three or more generations. 

However, in the past 10 years, there has been a closing of the gap between the earnings of second generation immigrants and those of longstanding Americans. 

Typically, many attribute the socioeconomic achievements to a strong work ethic, a focus on education for their children among the immigrant parents, and sometimes, cultural reasons.  Nonetheless, the gap between immigrants and nonimmigrants is closing fast, according to research done by the Pew Center — so fast that that by 2030 the sons and daughters of immigrants will be making less than their nonimmigrant peers. 

What does that portend for the American Dream?  What does that imply about assimilation and acculturation.   There isn’t enough space in this blog to go into all of the details, but certainly the immigrants who are arriving today are less well off and less educated than those of the recent past.  Moreover, the ethnic niches that once existed that provided a stable base of employment, albeit underemployment, are not as present today as they were before.  Witness the wholesale rise of corporate firms in inner-city neighborhoods and their impact on small ethnic businesses in the past ten years (post LA-riots).  Also, immigrant firms are no longer employing solely or predominantly members of their same ethnicity as they once did.  These all have an impact, especially in a competitive and globalized economy, and lead toward greater insecurity among immigrant households.

This article by Peter Grier and Bina Vekaturaman of Christian Science Monitor discusses these new findings.

Although this post is not only about Asian Americans, I think it touches upon unequal and discriminatory media coverage as they affect all of us here in the United States. 

Perhaps the old elementary school adage “slings and arrows may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me” has to be amended to “slings and arrows may hurt my bones, but words and images can also hurt.”   

Many times, it is not the stereotypical image that negatively affects someone, but at times it is the lack of images that does.  For example, Asian American men have been many times portrayed as “invisible.”  About eight years ago, I remember interviewing an Asian American male in his twenties who was standing in line at a restaurant.  He related how he had been ignored and bypassed for another customer by the head waiter.  When he complained, the waiter said, without any really sincere apologies, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

This article by Michelle Chan Santos for MSN covers the mainstream media’s tendency to differentiate media coverage by race, age, social class, and gender when it comes to reporting missing people.  I hope you find it interesting.

Usual yardsticks don’t predict Asian American survival
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Monday, August 13, 2007

 

 

 

ATLANTA – Aug. 13, 2007 – Standard factors used by clinicians to diagnose and evaluate men with prostate cancer do not predict survival outcomes in Asian-Americans as well as they do in other ethnic groups, according to the first comprehensive study of such men.

Imvist, a Korean American film director, posted this interesting retrospective of the LA Riots from a Korean American perspective.

He added this to the public domain on September 14, 2006.

This video was produced by the U.S. Government to explain their decision to forcibly intern thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent.

Asian American men still continue to be beset by stereotypes about themselves. Here, in an Asia Society forum on May 30, 2007, Yul Kwon, Asif Mandvi, and Jeff Yang discuss the stereotypes about Asian American men in the media and their struggles to break free from the stereotypes.

Recently on May 29th, 2007, author Jean Pfaelzer published Driven Out, which portrays a disgraceful and for the most part forgotten portion of American history. The book illustrates the purging of Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest between 1850 through 1906, described by the Chinese of the time as “Pai Hua” — the great purging.

The book cites sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, legal pleadings and photographs to tell the story. It recounts how Chinese businessmen recall being driven out from their stores as well as the experiences of Chinese women being forced into prostitution due to the conditions of discrimination and segregation they faced. 

The Chinese were driven from the gold mines, orchards and small towns during a period where simultaneously there was the development of the American West and the rise of racial solidarity and chauvinism among whites.

The story continues as it describes how the Chinese defended themselves through boycotting and lawsuits seeking for reparation from police lynchings, murder, night raids, expulsion and deportation.   In a time period where we think that “ethnic cleansing” only occurs overseas, the book is a timely reminder that our histories of racism and segregation are not much different than what is happening today in places like Bosnia, Darfur, and in Iraq.

Information about the book:

Driven Out: The Forgotten Story War against Chinese Americans, by Jean Pfaelzer (Publisher: Random House, available May 29, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4000-6134-1).

To hear from the author of the book:

http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/07/20070718_2.asp

Here is an excerpt:

On May 30, 2007, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) released findings from its nationwide exit poll of over 4,700 Asian Americans in 23 cities and in nine states on Election Day.  AALDEF Staff Attorney Glenn Magpantay presented the exit poll findings for Maryland and Virginia on May 31st at a gathering co-sponsored by APIAVote, Asian American LEAD, Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy ? Metro D.C./Baltimore Chapter, Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater D.C. Area, Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, Boat People SOS, Chinese Cultural and Community Service Center, Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, Indian American Leadership Council, Korean American Association of the State of Maryland, Korean American Automobile Association, Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington, League of Korean Americans of Maryland, Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association, Organization of Chinese Americans ? Greater Washington D.C. Chapter, and South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow.

Maryland Results

• On Election Day, November 7, 2006, AALDEF surveyed 264 Maryland Asian American voters from Rockville, Silver Spring, and Kensington.  The four largest groups of respondents were Chinese (40%), South Asian (22%), Filipino (13%), and Vietnamese (12%). Eighty percent were foreign-born and six percent were first-time voter.

• Economy/Jobs (26%) was the most important issue identified by Asian American voters for 2008 Presidential candidates to address.
• Most Asian Americans were either registered Democrats (51%) or not enrolled in any particular party. 
• Asian Americans supported the legalization of undocumented immigrants (75%) and reducing immigration backlogs (92%), while they opposed criminalization of the undocumented (70%).

Recently Asian Week reported that Asian Pacific American communities receive proportionately far less philanthropy support from the foundation community. Here’s an excerpt from the article published in Asian Week written by Sharon Her, dated June 29, 2007:

Despite being one of the fastest-growing populations in the country with a national population of 4.5 percent, AAPI-led organizations receive less than 0.5 percent of foundation funding, according to a news report by Asian American Islanders in Philanthropy (sic).

The report, entitled “Growing Opportunities,” was unveiled at the Ford Foundation in New York City last week and covered a 13-year period. It found that, in 1983, funding to APA groups represented 0.2 percent of the philanthropic giving by the nation’s 20 biggest foundations. The number grew to only 0.4 percent by 2004.

Here is the link to the original report by Asian Americams and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

Asian Americans have been serving honorably in the U.S. military since the beginning of our republic.  In honor of July 4th, we are listing here some links on both the contributions and experiences of Asian Americans in the military:

• DefenseLINK News: 22 Asian Americans Inducted Into Hall of Heroes
  Medal of Honor presented to 22 WWII Vets; 20 were members of the Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion or 442nd Regimental Combat Team; One served with the 7th Infantry Division and one with the 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
• World War II: New Roles for Minorities
  The 442nd Infantry Regiment; bravery of Second Lt. Daniel K. Inouye From NARA.
• 100th Infantry Battalion/442 Regimental Combat Team
  Traveling exhibit from Nikkei Heritage Org.
• U. S. Army. 442nd Regimental Combat Team
  Most decorated military unit in U. S. history. World War II.
• The Wounds of War-And Racism
  Groundbreaking study now examining Vietnam’s effect on Asian American troops.
• Susan Ahn Cuddy
  Navy’s first woman gunnery officer.
• Colonel Young Oak Kim
  First Asian American to command a battalion in combat.
• Congressional Medal of Honor. Sadao S. Munemori
  Read citation here.
• Ellison Onizuka
  Mission Specialist; Challenger Crew.
• A Most Unlikely Hero
  Captain Bruce Yamashita was originally kicked out of the Marine Corps Officer Training School because of racism.
• Tammy Duckworth
  Asian American disabled Iraq War veteran who ran for congress.
• General Eric Shinseki
  General; Chief of Staff, U. S. Army.
• General Eric Shinseki and the Iraq War
  Biography of General Shinseki and his position on the Iraq War
• Major General Edward Soriano
  Major General U. S. Army; Commanding General, 7th Infantry Division.
• “A Few Good Asian Americans”
   by Ji Hyun Lin, July 27-August 2, 2001, Asian Week.
• Asian/Pacific American Military Timeline
  by the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project.
• Lt. Ehren Watada
  Iraq War Dissenter or Deserter?
• Emil Amok: Tony Taguba and the Truth About Abu Ghraib
  Courageous 2 Star Asian American general who was let go for investigating the torture at Abu Ghraib.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have struck down Seattle’s and Louisville’s voluntary school integration and desegregation plans, upsetting many civil rights organizations and individuals who believe the decision is a major step away from Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Although the San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and the national civil rights organization Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) both were in support of those upholding the Seattle and Louisville integration plans, they have gone to great lengths in this op-ed article published in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 2, 2007 to argue that Asian Americans both benefit and seek integrated learning environments. Here’s an excerpt:

Some would argue that race-conscious school assignment plans harm Asian Pacific Americans, but this is false. Asian-American students, like all others, benefit from diverse learning environments. The court’s decisions leave room for school districts to address the very concerns described in our amicus brief in these cases, where we show that Asian-American parents greatly value racially integrated schools. They know integrated schools will prepare their children to succeed in a diverse society. Further, immigrant Asian Pacific American students feel racial integration decreases harassment in the long run by fostering cross-racial dialogue and friendship. Finally, racial segregation impedes the social and educational development of students, including in particular those who are linguistically isolated.

These decisions create both a challenge and an opportunity for school districts seeking diverse, integrated classrooms. Desegregation law — and many integration plans still in effect — were fashioned in an earlier era, when “race” meant black or white. This is no longer true, and school districts can still adjust their plans to reflect today’s reality. For example, in San Francisco, about half of all students are Asian Pacific American, while 22.4 percent are Latino, 13 percent are African American and 9.3 percent are white.

How will these court decisions impact such school districts? San Francisco’s experience may point to one viable solution. In many of San Francisco’s schools, racial isolation has dramatically increased without race considerations in student assignment plans. Its school assignment process has failed to provide children with a racially diverse learning environment and, as a result, access to a quality education.

Now, because the Supreme Court has continued to hold racial diversity as a compelling government interest, school districts such as San Francisco can hope to design a process that ensures racial integration. San Francisco already uses race-neutral factors such as extreme poverty, socioeconomic status, home language, academic rank of the school and student academic achievement. San Francisco should explore ways to add race to these factors within the confines of the court’s decision.

Khin Mai Aung and Christina Wong, the authors of the opinion article, demonstrate some of the new thinking among some Asian Pacific American community leaders who question the premises of civil rights programs shaped and situated in a world of black-white race relations. Their arguments formulate a new approach to civil rights that includes race, beyond black and white, among other factors for a racially diverse learning environment, reflecting some of the language post-Grutter v. Bollinger.

A report was released on May 10, 2007 entitled Living in the Margins: A National Survey of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Americans by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, providing key new information about the diversity and experiences of the LGBT APA community.

National Findings

Nationwide, 863 there were 863 APA respondents. The findings include:

• 98 percent of APA respondents had experienced at least one form of discrimination and/or harassment in their lives.
• 89 percent agreed that homophobia and/or transphobia are problems within the larger APA community
• 78 agreed that APA LGBT people experience racism within the predominantly white LGBT community
• Only 50 percent of APA respondents said that English was their native language.

DC Metro Findings

Eleven percent (96 respondents) of the Nationwide sample resided in the DC Metro Area. The findings include:

• 73 percent of APA respondents had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their sexual orientation.
• 78 percent had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their race/ethnicity.
• 87 percent agreed that homophobia and/or transphobia are problems within the larger APA community
• 83 percent agreed that APA LGBT people experience racism within the predominantly white LGBT community
• 57 percent of APA respondents in the DC Metro Area plan to vote in the 2006 mid-term election, indicating a high degree of political activism.
• Only 40 percent of APA respondents in the DC Metro Area said that English was their native language.

LIVING IN THE MARGINS: A NATIONAL SURVEY OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL and TRANSGENDER ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS TELECONFERENCE LINK

For further information about the national and DC metro information about the APA LGBT survey, please visit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s directory of reports and press releases for Living in the Margins.

Japanese American Congressman Mike Honda issued a resolution that will go for a full vote in the House of Representatives within three weeks asking that Japan make an “unambiguous” apology for the wartime enslavement, sexual abuse, and harsh treatment of hundreds of thousands of “comfort women” in military brothels utilized by the Japanese military during World War II. Tokyo recently brushed off a resolution of acknowledgment and atonement issued by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. Congress. Here is some more information about the experiences of comfort women.

In the wake of these momentous events, we are now discovering that the U.S. was also complicit in utilizing the same brothels administered by the Japanese shortly before the end and shortly after World War II. It is a sad chapter of the horrors of war, racism, and the exploitation of women. Here is a reprint of the article below:

American GIs Frequented “Comfort Women”

By Eric Talmadge, Associated Press, April 25, 2007.

Japan’s abhorrent practice of enslaving women to provide sex for its troops in World War II has a little-known sequel: After its surrender — with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities — Japan set up a similar “comfort women” system for American GIs.

An Associated Press review of historical documents and records shows American authorities permitted the official brothel system to operate despite internal reports that women were being coerced into prostitution. The Americans also had full knowledge by then of Japan’s atrocious treatment of women in countries across Asia that it conquered during the war.

Tens of thousands of women were employed to provide cheap sex to U.S. troops until the spring of 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur shut the brothels down.

Racial discrimination in the admission of Asian Americans continues to be a vexing issue within the Asian Pacific American communities. It has garnered international attention, as examined in an article by the International Herald Tribune. Here is an another article that examines a new student organization addressing this topic:

Two students challenge Asian American admission discrimination

By: Irene Chen, Brown Daily Herald, February 9, 2007; Media credit: Tai Ho Shin.  Picture of Neil Vangela (left) and Jason Carr (right).

Many may pass over the question without a second thought, but identifying race or ethnicity on Brown’s undergraduate admission application has become a concern for Neil Vangala ‘09. Vangala has started a group on campus called Asian Equality in Admissions, which will address discrimination in admission against Asians and Asian Americans.

Vangala and Jason Carr ‘09 started the group last month after learning of a recent case of supposed discrimination against Jian Li, currently a freshman at Yale University. Li filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton University, alleging that the university had discriminated against him during the admission process.

If you have been following the story about the original $67 million dollar lawsuit by a U.S. administrative judge in Washington, DC. against a Korean American drycleaning family, you know about the international attention this story has been getting both here and overseas. I’ve found articles about the topic in Russia, Korea, Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil, and elsewhere. Here is the latest news:

Korean Drycleaner Forgives Pantless Judge

Chosun Ilbo, News Report, Staff, Posted: Jun 28, 2007

A Korean-American drycleaner has forgiven a U.S. administrative judge who sued him for losing his pants after a Washington court found in favor of the immigrant. Chung Jin-nam told reporters in front of his shop on Monday that he forgave judge Roy Pearson although it was hard, and did not want Pearson to be disqualified for reemployment as an administrative judge. The drycleaner said that he would accept Pearson as a customer again and will not seek damages from the plaintiff.

Chung was sued in May 2005 after he mistakenly delivered Pearson’s $800 pants to another customer. One week later, the drycleaner retrieved the trousers and returned them to Pearson. But the administrative judge demanded $1,800, claiming the returned pants were not his.

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay News, May 31, 2007

Routine, even subtle, racial discrimination places significant mental stress on minorities that may provoke the development of chronic illness, new research suggests.

The finding is based on perceptions of discrimination and health histories elicited from Asian-Americans across the United States.

“Post-civil rights, most people think of discrimination as the commitment of a hate crime. But I think it’s important to realize that discrimination occurs on a daily basis,” said study lead author Gilbert C. Gee, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “And what the research is showing is that everyday slights can turn into long-term health effects.”

Reporting in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Gee and his colleagues called their work the first national exploration of a link between discrimination and health problems among Asian-Americans.