Asian American voters were treated this morning by a surprise visit by Barack Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, during the Asian American Pacific Islander caucus at the Democratic National Convention. She gave a rousing speech that fired up the people in the room.
Erin Yoshimura took these videos at an AAPI Caucus meeting during the Democratic National Convention. They include Tammy Duckworth, “Survivor” winner Yul Kwon and a young Obama volunteer, Brandon Simomura.
Tammy Duckworth:
Yul Kwon:
Brandon Shimomura:
Here are DNC-related “tweets” from my Twitter feed, which shows up in my Facebook updates and also in a widget on my blog pages. Some videos, too: Above, emcee Tamlyn Tomita (“Joy Luck Club,” “Come See the Paradise,” “Picture Bride,” Karate Kid II”) introduces Mee Moua, the historic first-ever Hmong American lawmaker, a state senator from Minnesota, during the APIAVote Gala at the Marriott City Center.
The week began before the convention itself, with a Saturday night Media Kickoff Party that was the city’s show of excess to 15,000 journalists from around the world. I bet there were over 5,000 jrounalists, maybe 10,000, who attended the evening at Elitch Gardens amusement park. The admission was free, the rides were free, there was free food and drink everywhere, and even the arcade games were free, and the staff handed out stuffed animal prizes to anyone who played anything.
The next day, Sunday, was an Asian American Summit organized by a Denver committee, which featured speakers including Congressman Mike Honda. The session was a first step towards organizing Colorado’s AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander, which I’ll try to use as my standard acronym when I’m not spelling out Asian American) community to participate in the political process. Monday night, the first night pof the convention, was the APIAVote Gala. Continue reading
Super Cr3w, the Las Vegas-based group of b-boys that includes Asian Americans, has won the top honors for the second season of producer Randy Jackson wildly popular show, “America’s Best Dance Crew,” on MTV. Congrats to the six-man group.
We took a break from incessant Olympics viewing to watch the live MTV season finale program last night, and were holding our breath. An astounding 39 million votes were cast for these two finalists, a reflection of how huge the hip-hop dance culture has become.
We wanted the other finalists, SoReal Cru from Houston, because they’re all Asian Americans, two of the members are women, and one of the members said poignantly during the season premiere that their parents expected them to be lawyers and doctors but they wanted to pursue their passion for dancing. Continue reading
Asian Americans (and Asians around the world) should be up in arms about this. Yet another “official” photo has been found, of an Olympic team posing with its members pulling back their eyes to make them slanted. This time it’s four members of the Argentine Women’s Soccer Team, mocking their Chinese hosts in a photo in a national sports magazine.
All these athletes claim the mockery is affectionate and that no offense was meant. So it calls in tho question a general cultural attitude — in Spanish-speaking countries? In Spain and Argentina? — that allows this kind of display as acceptable. Certainly, I don’t think any U.S. Olympic team would do this for a photo that’s going to be seen worldwide.
So maybe the U.S. is more evolved in racial attitudes than some other countries. I guess that’s good news….
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