Erin and I are celebrating the second anniversary of our talk-show visualizAsian, and I've been writing my Nikkei View musings since 1998 (check out the Nikkei View archives). But it boggles my mind to think that Phil Yu has been writing his Angry Asian Man blog for 10 years. Why? Because he's so frickin' dedicated that he writes multiple times...
I’m disappointed that the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is pulling out of Unity, a partnership of journalists of color with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) and Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA — full disclosure: I’m the president of the Denver chapter of AAJA).
It’ll diminish the power of next year’s Unity convention, which is slated for Las Vegas. The four Unity orgs have gotten together every four years for a combined confab since 1994.
My introduction to both AAJA and Unity was an inspiring convention in 2004 in Washington DC, when both then-President Bush and presidential hopeful John Kerry spoke to the gathered attendees. Kerry got a noticeably more robust welcome from the assembled journalists of color, which was noted in the mainstream media.
I also attended the 2008 Unity convention in Chicago, where candidate Barack Obama spoke. Both conventions were great learning experiences, and emotionally powerful experiences as well, for just being part of a large group of people of color.
Via Angry Asian Man: Look at this nice-looking, monochromatic morning show team and tell me you're not surprised that they came up with a racist parody of an Eric Clapton song that stereotypes the Hmong, a population that's concentrated in the Twin Cities area.
I dare you to listen to the song and not be disgusted, saddened and appalled.
Here are the lyrics:
Here's a post worth reading and thinking about by Eric Muller at Faculty Lounge, "Representative King's Investigation and the Ghost of Hearings Past" that notes that NY Rep. Peter King's hearings on the radicalization of Muslims echoes the experience of history during World War II. Muller points out the race-based hysteria at the start of World War II, when false...
This video made me literally cry. It's of protesters (includig elected officials) in Yorba Linda, Calif. outside of a fundraising event for homelessness, by a relief organization that happens to be Muslim-based. As attendees arrived, they were subjected to what I can only call hate language. My stomach clenched when I heard "Go home!" and "Never forget 9/11!" because I'd...
Today is the third anniversary of the "War Against Asians" controversy, which was sparked by an ill-advised and poorly executed satire in the Campus Press, the student-run news website of the University of Colorado in Boulder. I remember the date because it ran on Feb. 18 -- one day before the annual Japanese American observance of Day of Remembrance, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of 110,000 people of Japanese Ancestry, half born in the US and therefore American citizens.
So here was this commentary by a young student journalist, who thought it would be appropriate to make fun of Asians on the CU campus in a piece titled "If it's war the Asians want... it's war they'll get." In my initial reaction to the article, I quoted this passage:
I'm such a fool for not realizing it sooner. I can't tell you how many times the Asians have treated me like a retarded weasel and I've forgiven them. But now I know that Asians are not just "a product of their environment," and their rudeness is not a "cultural misunderstanding." They hate us all. And I say it's time we started hating them back. That's right-no more "tolerance." No more "cultural sensitivity." No more "Mr. Pretend-I'm-Not-Racist." It's time for war. But we won't attack their bodies or minds. We will attack their souls."Some people might say that we're being too sensitive, but every Asian I know was outraged and offended. The article spread like wildfire, passed along via email and word-of-mouth. It didn't just make an impression with readers on the CU campus -- especially Asian and Asian American students, who felt unsafe. It provoked passionate angry reactions within the Asian community in Denver, and with Asian student groups in Denver. I wrote my response (and a bunch of follow-up blog posts), and others did too. There were community meetings to discuss what steps to take to protest the column. A group of the area's Asian and Asian American leaders met with CU administrators, including the dean of the journalism school and the university's chancellor. Meetings were held. A public protest on campus drew the attention of the local media. Nobody thought it was funny. The repercussions from this column have echoed ever since -- and in good ways.