Angry Asian Man on video and audio

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Filmmaker Steve Nguyen of FlipHD posted a cool interview with Phil Yu, the man behind AngryAsianMan.com, one of the truly essential Asian American blogs, earlier yhis week.

Coincidentally, Erin and I interviewed Phil tonight for , and although you missed the very lively live call, you can still register and listen to or download the archived MP3 file at your convenience, for the next 30 days.

BTW, next up on visualizAsian.com is an interview with Lac Su, the author of the kickass memoir, “I Love Yous Are for White People,” on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 6 pm PT (9 pm ET).

Toward the end of our hour with Phil, we mentioned Lac (who’s also the mastermind behind the upcoming BANANA conference of AAPI bloggers in LA that Erin and I are attending) and we all agreed it’s a fabulous book, and if you start reading it you better call in sick the next day because you won’t want to stop until you’re done. We also agreed that all Asian Americans probably understand the books title; Phil thinks it’s the greatest title in the history of Western literature.

OK, so maybe he exaggerated a little bit. Still, it’s a terrific title, for a terrific book.

Many thanks to Phil “I’m not such an Angry guy” Yu for a great conversation tonight!

DON’T FORGET: SIGN UP FOR PHIL YU’S FREE ARCHIVED INTERVIEW ONLINE FOR A LIMITED TIME!

In praise of San Jose’s Japantown — the JA Mayberry

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These banners are on display throughout San Jose

Unlike the many Chinatowns that serve as ethnic cultural enclaves in many American cities from coast to coast, and the increasing numbers of districts variously called “Koreatowns” and “Little Saigons,” you won’t find many Nihonmachi, or Japantowns. There are lots of reasons for this, but the main one is probably the Japanese American community’s need to assimilate into mainstream America after the shame and humiliation of being imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. In the 1950s and ’60s, most JAs moved into suburban America and avoided clustering in ethnic Japanese areas.

Denver has Sakura Square, a one-block development built in the 1970s I like to call “Tiny Tokyo” because it’s ridiculously small compared to Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. And New York City has a couple-blocks of Japanese businesses that have sprouted in recent years in the East Village that might be called a “mini-Japantown” in Manhattan. Seattle’s Japantown evolved after the war into the International District, though I think it’s still anchored by the awesome, generations-old Uwajimaya supermarket.

But not surprisingly, the three Japantowns that are officially recognized as national historic districts are all in California, where the vast majority of Japanese immigrants settled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Along with the well-known and tourist-filled Little Tokyo in LA and San Francisco’s Japantown is the Japantown area of San Jose that’s more a neighborhood than a business district.

Erin and I have traveled to and stayed at both Little Tokyo and San Francisco’s Japantown, but only visited San Jose’s J-town a couple of times. We spent a few hours there last week and we love it. Here’s why: Continue reading →

Update: Margaret Chin wins NY City Council seat representing Chinatown

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It’s been a hectic week and I’ve been traveling, so I didn’t get to post any updates on Tuesday’s elections. Asian Americans are making strides and gaining visibility in politics, which makes me very happy. You can keep up with Asian American politics at one of the best sources for information, APAs for Progress.

In particular, New York City has a new Asian American Comptroller, John Liu. But the race I thought was really important symbolically was Margaret Chin’s run for New York City Council, representing among other parts of southern Manhattan, Chinatown… amazingly, the first time that a Chinese American would serve in that position.

Well, she won, which is great news. Her victory speech is at top.

Richard Aoki: The Asian American Black Panther

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The poster for the documentary "Aoki" about Richard Aoki, the Japanese American who was a founding member of the Black Panthers.Here’s another reason why we wish we lived on the West Coast: “Aoki,” a new documentary about Richard Aoki, the third-generation Japanese American who was one of the founding members of the revolutionary African American Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, is premiering in Oakland (where the Black Panthers were formed) on Nov. 12.

At “Here and Now,” an event for Asian American non-profit organizations in San Francisco yesterday that Erin and I participated in, someone handed out cards promoting the premiere. And this morning, Angry Asian Man had more information about it.

Like most Americans, and probably many Asian Americans, I wasn’t aware of the role Aoki played in such a turbulent period of our history. It turns out (the documentary reveals for the fist time) that Aoki, a veteran by the mid-’60s, was the man who gave the Panthers their first guns, from his personal collection, and taught them how to use firearms. Although there were AAPI members of the Panthers, Aoki was the only one in a leadership poition, given the rank of Field Marshall.

He went on to be one of the leaders of the emerging Asian American consciousness of the 1970s. He died just this year.

It humbles me to learn how little I still know about the history of Asian America.

I’m glad people like filmmakers Ben Wang and Mike Cheng are making documentaries like “Aoki.” On the “Aoki” website you can read about see clips from the film. Continue reading →

Announcer describes NBA player Jianlian Yi as “the Chinaman”

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Really? Unfortunately, yeah. Sure, maybe the guy was just describing Yi’s nationality, like calling a player “the Russian,” But you would never call the Russian player “the Russkie” (I’m pretty sure Russkie is still a pejorative in the post-Cold war era).

If he wanted to describe the nationality of Yi Jianlian of the New Jersey Nets, a veteran of the Chinese Basketball Association and the Chinese Olympic Team, was to say that he’s …. “Chinese.” Duh.

So I’ll chalk this one to ignorance, not racism. You’d think national sportscasters would be educated enough — and yes, sensitive enough — to know better than to use an outdated racist epithet to describe a player.

What was he thinking? He wasn’t.

(From Hyphen Blog and other AAPI bloggers)

UPDATE Nov. 4: FanHouse.com called out the racist word, the Turner Sports Network, which ran the original broadcast and manages the NBA.com website, yanked the video from the website and said the sportscaster, Rick Kamla, “was not aware of the connotations of the word, and meant nothing malicious or offensive by it.”

A no-apology apology. I translate it as, “If you took offense, that’s your problem because I didn’t mean any offense. But I’m sorry you were offended.”

The FanHouse story also points out past instances of “Chinaman” being used, and has a slideshow of other sportscaster flubs.