Category Archives: race

Not enough people know about Day of Remembrance

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Site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Wyoming

Maria Hinojosa, a very respected journalist for NPR and PBS who’s currently working on a Frontline documentary about the detention camps holding Latin Americans suspected of being illegal immigrants, visited the University of Colorado this week. She gave a speech Tuesday night but that day she had a casual free lunch discussion with students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She described the film she’s working on, and some of the heartbreaking stories of families torn apart and the shame and embarrassment the detainees face.

Her description conjured up for me how Japanese American families must have felt in 1942 as they were being rounded up and sent to internment camps in desolate parts of the Western United States during World War II, including Heart Mountain in Wyoming, shown above with a still-standing tarpaper-covered barrack.

I asked her, since February 19 is the annual Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans, if she found it especially ironic that she’s working on this documentary and giving a speech this week.

Hinojosa looked at me, stunned. She clearly knew about Japanese American internment. But she had no idea there was such as thing as Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans.
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Rush Limbaugh mocks Hu Jintao with racist “ching-chong ching-chong” routine, stereotyped accent

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From Huffington Post: Rush Limbaugh took the opportunity of Hu Jintao’s state visit to the U.S. to show off his “ching-chong” impression of the Chinese language. How mature… it’s so juvenile to make fun of a foreign language and foreign people by mocking how you think they sound. That’s third-grade stuff. Many Asian Americans have heard “ching chong” aimed at them growing up, and it was always by schoolyard bullies — ignorant schoolyard bullies who pull the stunt to make themselves feel superior.

I’ve felt the sting of this taunt, followed by crap like “Ah-so! Harro! Go home, chink/Jap! Ching-chong ching-chong!” The bullies always pulled back their eyes into slits and bared their lips to show buck teeth while they spat out their hatred.

It’s one thing for ignorant children to use racist taunts to put down others. It’s another thing entirely for an adult to do it, and especially shameful for someone with the public reach and potential impact of Limbaugh. He’s showing his ignorance for all the world to hear.
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Charmaine Clamor, “Queen of Jazzipino,” coming to Colorado Jan. 29

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Charmaine Clamor, Queen of JazzipinoThe music is straight ahead jazz — the classic, swingy stuff with lots of space between instruments and a smoky, sultry voice caressing the lyrics. It’s jazz, the classic American artform. But the words… aren’t… English. The words to the lovely “Dahil Sa Yo (Because of You)” are sung in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines. It’s a jazz standard nonetheless, written for a Filipino movie in 1938 and better known for an English-Tagalog version recorded in 1964 that made the charts in the US.

The singer is Charmaine Clamor, the self-described “Queen of Jazzipino,” who sings with a lovely voice in both English and Tagalog, a range of songs from traditional jazz to a fine jazzy version of the U2 rock hit “With or Without You,” to traditional folksongs of the Philippines in her jazzipino style.

Clamor’s built a loyal following of Filipinos worldwide by bringing her jazz chops to songs in Tagalog, updating her cultural heritage with a modern sheen. She was born in the Philippines and started singing when she was just 3, entertaining bus riders. She later learned to play the piano and accompanied her mother, who sang Filipino torch songs called “kundiman.” Her family moved stateside when she was 16 and she retained her cultural ties to the Philippines.

She’s released four albums, including the wonderful, low-key “My Harana: A Filipino Serenade” that’s almost entirely in Tagalog, and mostly sparingly accompanied with just a guitar or percussion. For fans of Brazilian jazz and samba sung in Portuguese, sitting back with Clamor’s Tagalog songs has the same lilting, lulling effect.

Clamor kicks off her 2007 album “Flippin’ Out” with a wonderful take on “My Funny Valentine,” “My Funny Brown Pinay,” a powerful affirmation of her ethnic identity that starts out with a spoken poem backed by piano, bass and drums before she breaks into the melody:
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Author urges women to date diverse men (good), then stereotypes men of color (bad) and says stupid stuff on NPR

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JC DavieHoly cow — I just read about this on Jezebel.com, and it goes way beyond the pale.

J.C. Davies, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and blogger who’s published a book about inter-racial dating, “I Got The Fever: Love, What’s Race Got To Do With It?,” was a panelist on the NPR show “Tell Me More” for an episode about dating unemployed men. The other panelists on the program were Danielle Belton, author of the blog “The Black Snob“, GQ magazine Washington correspondent and TV pundit Ana Marie Cox, and the host is Michel Martin.

Davies began riffing off the topic at hand, and spouted off some incredible stereotypes as if they’re indisputable facts. Here are some passages from the NPR transcript:
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Justice Dept.: Philadelphia schools reaches agreement on harassment a year after Asian students were attacked

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Asian students may walk with a little less fear next semester, now that the US Justice Department reached an agreement with the Philadelphia School District over a series of assaults that occurred a year ago.

The agreement is similar to one that South Philadelphia High School reached with the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission, and requires Philadelphia schools to come up with a a plan to combat bullying, give multicultural training; and track incidents of harassment.

On Dec. 3, 2009, 26 Asian students were attacked and 13 were hospitalized after being attacked at school during the day. Some were pulled out of classes by African American students roaming the halls and assaukted, and others were attacked as they tried to leave the school cafeteria. Here’s one description from the complaint:

A group of Chinese students was escorted to the cafeteria by a school security guard. After entering the cafeteria, this same group of Chinese students saw that the cafeteria was chaotic and turned around to leave the room. However, as they were leaving, a group of students attacked them from behind and began punching and kicking the Chinese students. At least one student suffered a black eye, trauma to his head, and serious bruises on his hip, arms and hand.

These attacks led to a weeklong boycott of the school by Asian students, which made national headlines.

It’s sad that a major city’s school district had to be told by the Justice Department how to handle such horrible examples of racial hatred and discrimination. Last year, it felt like the school was close to collapsing in violent chaos to anyone following the story.
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