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What It Means to Be Asian American
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Lieu Leads California Fight for Asian American Judges
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Obama Apologizes to Indian Americans for Memo
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Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, June 19 @ 07:16:04 EDT (5720 reads) |
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By Lynn Sweet
©2007 Chicago Sun-Times
June 19, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Seeking to limit damage within the Indian-American Democratic community, White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Monday it was a "screw-up" and "stupid" and a "mistake" for his campaign to issue a memo slamming ties rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and her husband, Bill, have to India and Indian-Americans.
"In sum, our campaign made a mistake," Obama said in a statement released through a group of Indian-American supporters called South Asians for Obama '08.
"Although I was not aware of the contents of the memo prior to its distribution, I consider the entire campaign -- and in particular myself -- responsible for the mistake."
In Iowa campaigning, Obama told the Des Moines Register on Monday, "It was a screw-up on the part of our research team." He added, "I thought it was stupid and caustic." |
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Decolonize Our Minds, Cross Our Borders
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Posted by Andrew on Saturday, May 19 @ 00:00:00 EDT (6062 reads) |
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Editor's Note: Yuri Kochiyama turns 85 today
Yuri Kochiyama with her late husband Bill. Mr. Kochiyama
dedicated his life to supporting his family and his wife's activist efforts. |
By Yuri Kochiyama
Speech given at Duke, Princeton and Boston Universities
April 1996
First, I wish to thank Steve Kim of the Asian Caucus and Don Brown of AHANA for inviting me to your school, and encouraging students to come out today. I am really heartwarmed that Asian Pacific American students are interested in learning about their history, their culture, their language, and that of other people's history, culture, language. I have chosen the topic - "Expanding Our Horizons, Decolonizing Our Minds and Crossing over borders." I feel this is the task for Asian American students today. Those in power and society itself, want us to have a limited outlook, cocoon ourselves from others, withdraw within ourselves, not interact with nor trust others, and narrow our perspective. A polarization has been taking place, dividing us from one another. How do we challenge this? Why must we challenge this?
Actually, American history has been one continuous narrative of events that have divided us - by race, color, class, gender, religion, politics, culture, region, and even accents. Americans are a divided people because America wants us divided. Americans do not look at one another as equals, or consider one another as brothers, sisters, neighbors. And I feel the basis for this is because of racism and slavery that began with America's birth. Racism has contaminated life in these United States, has tainted its institutions, deprived and denied its people who have been targeted and marginalized, stigmatized and looked down upon, most often because of color/race/national origin. History has shown this over and over again. Sadly, we Asian/PacificIslanders, while having been victims, have also been influenced by negative aspects of Euro-American ideas and thoughts. At the same time, we cannot blame everything with an American tag on the ills of society. Oftimes it could be our own frailties. But we must change the course of American history. And we are changing it, little by little. All of you are changing it, thankfully, because you are aware and concerned. You would not be organizing these wonderful events called Asian Pacific American Heritage Months, except for the fact that you want to bring APA people together and discuss the issues that pertain to you. APAs back in the 60's were the pioneers in this movement. I am glad that your generation is continuing the legacy. |
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Clinton Staff's Gaffe With Chinese American Newspapers
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Posted by Andrew on Sunday, March 04 @ 03:30:48 EST (5845 reads) |
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By Vanessa Hua
©2007 San Francisco Chronicle
February 27, 2007
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign excluded reporters for
the Bay Area's two largest ethnic newspapers from a fundraiser Friday at the
Sheraton Palace Hotel -- a perceived snub that led to days of harsh coverage.
"Our main concern is open access for Chinese media and other ethnic media
in this presidential campaign," said Joyce Chen, news editor for Sing Tao, a
daily published in Chinese. "We stand by our commitment to serve our readers
and our community, which often lack access from government and exposure from
mainstream English (language) media."
Readers in the Chinese community have an intense loyalty to Sing Tao and
the World Journal, said Sandy Close, head of New America Media, a national
ethnic media coalition based in San Francisco.
"If they're disrespected by a candidate, no matter what the security
conditions, space requirements and pressures they were under, (campaign
officials) should move to remedy it immediately," said Close, who counseled the
Clinton campaign when it sought her advice this weekend. "If they move quickly,
they can use it to build a bridge, not burn a bridge."
Reporters from Sing Tao and Chinese-language daily World Journal, as well
as the smaller China Press were denied entry to the noon fundraiser. |
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George Allen's Political Blind Spot
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Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, August 30 @ 14:34:55 EDT (6358 reads) |
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By Andrew Chin
Special to ModelMinority.com
August 30, 2006
Some communities are effectively in a political blind spot, where not only their speech, but the very existence of their voice, is obscured and marginalized. They have difficulty finding an audience, not only because audience preferences are dominated by mainstream perspectives, but also because any potentially receptive listeners won't know of the communities' perspectives or even think to look for them. Such communities cannot benefit from the Web's low entry barriers and search costs. If no one knows you're speaking, no one will look you up on Google, and certainly no one is going to link to your site, even if many people might actually be inclined to do so.
For the most part, Asian Americans exist in a political blind spot. Widely misperceived as perpetual foreigners, Asian Americans are rarely recognized as active and legitimate participants in the American political process and contributors to American political discourse. As a result, politicians courting the Asian American community don't seem to engage in any kind of research or reflection on Asian American perspectives, as they invariably would when speaking to other interest groups. |
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Sen. Allen's Remarks Spark Ire
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Posted by Andrew on Monday, August 14 @ 15:39:32 EDT (5860 reads) |
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By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
©2006 The Washington Post
August 14, 2006
Democrat James Webb's Senate campaign accused Sen. George Allen (R) of making demeaning comments Friday to a 20-year-old Webb volunteer of Indian descent. S.R. Sidarth, a senior at the University of Virginia, had been trailing Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for the Webb campaign. During a campaign speech Friday in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, Allen singled out Sidarth and called him a word that sounded like "Macaca." "This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and its great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come." After telling the crowd that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen again referenced Sidarth, who was born and raised in Fairfax County.
"Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," said Allen, who then began talking about the "war on terror." |
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Kim Claims Austin City Council Seat
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Cambodian-American Voters on Rise
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Upheavals Rock Asians' Clout in Halls of Power
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Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, May 25 @ 10:00:00 EDT (4257 reads) |
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Resignations, scandal, defeat threaten to cut political fortunes
By Vanessa Hua and Rachel Gordon
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
April 24, 2005
When City Assessor-Recorder Mabel Teng announced earlier this month that she
was resigning, a stark reality emerged for Asian Americans: Their elected
representation at City Hall will be cut in half.
In a city where nearly a third of the residents are Asian American, with
Chinese Americans accounting for the largest bloc at about 20 percent, the
community is still fighting to make its political clout match its numbers.
Other than Teng, the only other Asian American holding elected office at City
Hall is Supervisor Fiona Ma, who represents the Sunset and Parkside districts.
In the late 1990s, there were three supervisors on the 11-member board, an
all-time high. |
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Asian American Influence Growing at Polls
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965
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Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, March 29 @ 10:00:00 EST (4217 reads) |
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40 Years After "Bloody Sunday," A Promise Still Unfulfilled
By Wade Henderson
©2005 CivilRights.org
March 10, 2005
In 1964, there were only approximately 300 African Americans in public office
nationwide, including just three in Congress. There are now more than 9,100
black elected officials, including 43 members of Congress, the largest number
ever. The VRA also has opened the political process for many of the more than
6,000 Latino public officials that have been elected and appointed nationwide,
including approximately 260 elected at the state or federal level, 27 of whom
serve in Congress. And Native Americans, Asians and others who have historically
encountered harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited
greatly. |
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Mayor Bloomberg Chips Away at Minority Trust
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Do Asian Americans Count in L.A.?
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The Election, the Baby, and the Bathwater
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Norman Kwong sworn in as Alberta Lieutenant-Governor
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Posted by Andrew on Friday, January 21 @ 10:00:00 EST (5259 reads) |
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OmegaSupreme writes "©2005 The Canadian Press
January 20, 2005
EDMONTON (CP) - Alberta's new lieutenant-governor assumed his role Thursday with humility and a gentle humour that may well become hallmarks of his term.
Norman Kwong, a former football star and businessman, was sworn in as the province's 16th representative of the Queen in a modest ceremony at Government House. "They talk a lot about the American dream - well, my story has to be the Canadian dream," Kwong told about 25 invited guests.
"My father was an immigrant grocer who couldn't even vote in Canada until his 40th year - in Canada! And he has a son who becomes the lieutenant-governor of his province. There aren't many places where you can achieve that kind of success or are even allowed to achieve that kind of success." " |
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Asian Americans Slow to Embrace Politics
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Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, January 18 @ 10:00:00 EST (2193 reads) |
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By Yvonne Abraham
©2005 The Boston Globe
January 7, 2005
Sam Yoon, the first Asian-American to run for Boston City Council, can tick
off Asian-Americans who have ventured onto the political stage in Massachusetts
on just one hand: a Newton alderman, a Lowell city councilor, a Randolph
selectman, a couple of others who took a stab at office and didn't succeed.
Though Asian-American communities across the state are growing, they are not
making themselves heard in the political arena. Voter registration levels among
Asian-Americans lag, and relatively few Asian-Americans run for office, which
further depresses political participation, Yoon and others said. |
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Matsui Worked to Build Bridges to All Groups
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Congress Loses Key Legislator
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Posted by Andrew on Monday, December 20 @ 10:00:00 EST (2021 reads) |
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The claims of western values are mocked by Iraq and the rise of Asia
Martin Jacques
©2004 The Guardian (Manchester, UK)
May 15, 2004
Underpinning the argument in support of the invasion of Iraq has been the
idea of the moral virtue of the west. In contrast to Saddam Hussein's brutal
dictatorship, the "coalition" espouses the values of democracy and
human rights. The invasion of Iraq represented the high watermark of western
moral virtue. In retrospect, it is clear that the idea had been gaining momentum
since two coincidental events in the 1970s: the end of the Vietnam war, which
profoundly scarred the reputation of the United States, and the beginning of the
modern era of globalisation. With Vietnam out of the way, and globalisation the
new bearer of western and, above all, American values, the latter found an
ever-expanding global audience, a process enormously boosted by the collapse of
communism. Democracy and the market became the new western mantra, applicable to
every society, wherever they might be and whatever their stage of development.
Following its implosion, the former communist world, at least in Europe,
gratefully embraced the new philosophy, even though in Russia it was to prove a
disaster, as Roman Abramovich's monstrous, ill-gotten wealth only serves to
illustrate. The process of globalisation came to be seen, during the 90s, as
virtually synonymous with westernisation. There was one model of modernity - the
western model - and globalisation was its natural vehicle. As East Asia has
modernised at breakneck speed over the past three decades, its progress has
almost invariably been interpreted as a simple process of westernisation. |
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The White Elephant in the Room
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Bush Nominates Deadbeat Dad to Second Term Cabinet
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Posted by Andrew on Monday, December 06 @ 10:00:00 EST (2866 reads) |
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New Homeland Chief Fathered Daughter in Korea
By Reuben Staines
©2004 The Korea Times
December 5, 2004
Bernard Kerik, the man tasked with protecting the United States from the
threat of terrorist attacks, fathered a daughter with a South Korean woman while
serving on the peninsula in the mid-1970s, U.S. media reported over the weekend.
Kerik, who was selected to replace Tom Ridge as secretary of the Homeland
Security Department on Thursday, had the baby with a woman identified as Sun-ja
after arriving in South Korea as a 19-year-old military policeman in December
1974, according to several reports.
The baby, named Lisa, was born in 1975. But Kerik deserted her and her mother
when he left the country in February 1976. |
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'Foreigners' Flier at Issue in Disputed Election
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Posted by Andrew on Tuesday, November 30 @ 10:00:00 EST (2693 reads) |
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By Wayne Parry
©2004 Associated Press
November 26, 2004
BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- Having lived in the United States for nearly 30 years, Zaheer Jan thought his credentials as an American were beyond question.
He helped design a massive pipeline project to bring Alaskan natural gas to the Midwest. He rallied neighborhood residents against a disruptive highway project, and serves as president of his condominium association.
A Democrat making his first run for elected office in this solidly Republican suburb that counts publishing magnate and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, and former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean among its residents, Jan nonetheless stood a good chance of winning a seat on the township committee in the Nov. 2 election.
But the night before, virtually every home in Bedminster received a campaign flier from the two Republican candidates claiming Jan and his running mate, Allen Mass, were being funded by "foreign nationals, not local residents." The implication could not be clearer to Jan, who was born in India but grew up in Pakistan. |
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Police Official Sorry for E-Mail Flap
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Asian Americans Report Discrimination at Polls
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New Congress to Look More Like Real America
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Posted by Andrew on Friday, November 05 @ 10:00:00 EST (2364 reads) |
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By Jim Abrams
©2004 Associated Press
November 5, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The next Congress will look slightly more like the real America, with more women, Hispanics and blacks, including the first black man to enter the Senate in a quarter century.
In addition to senator-elect Barack Obama, D-Ill., only the third black ever to be elected by popular vote to the Senate, newly elected senators Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., will become the only Hispanic-Americans in the Senate.
The House will see the arrival of Bobby Jindal, R-La., the son of immigrants from India and only the second Indian-American to serve in Congress. |
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Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, November 03 @ 15:09:35 EST (2065 reads) |
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By Margaret Cho
MargaretCho.net
November 3, 2004
I know that we would like to question the whole of democracy. I can't believe Bush won either, but there isn't time to despair. What is needed now is action, not hopelessness. What is important is that there has been tremendous progress in mobilizing people to create change. Remember, more voters turned out this year than in the last three decades. Although it might be said that we can't expect change overnight, there really was a very rapid shift in the way we view politics. We have become unafraid of voicing our opinions, using our power, pooling our resources, and allowing our differences to aid us instead of keeping us apart.
These new ways of looking at ourselves politically redefine what it means to be an American. It takes what used to be a very passive identity and turned us all into revolutionaries. In a short time, we activated activism, something that lay dormant in many of us and had not been awakened until now.
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Stars Target Asian American Youth Vote
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sir_humpslot: Racial Preferences in the Dating World (09:16) quinn: The Yellow Fever Pages (01:28) quinn: Racial Preferences in the Dating World (17/9) quinn: New Trial Sought After Jurors' Racial Remarks (17/9) quinn: In Our Own Language (17/9) quinn: Satire as Racial Backlash Against Asian Americans (17/9) bwfish: Racial Preferences in the Dating World (17/9) quinn: Racial Preferences in the Dating World (17/9) quinn: Rejecting the Model in ''Model Minority'' (17/9) sowelu: Racial Preferences in the Dating World (14/9) |
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