politics

Asian American and Latino Voters Constituted a Powerful Immigrant Vote on Election Day

LOS ANGELES, CA – The most accurate California poll for the top statewide races, the USC College/Los Angeles Times Poll undertook a rare bilingual survey of Latino and Asian American voters, supported by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) and the California Community Foundation. More than 800 interviews were conducted by bilingual interviewers with the option of Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean or Tagalog. This large and more representative sample of Latinos and Asian Americans provides an important look at the political leanings of these fast-growing voter demographics – and offers a glimpse at the future of politics in California.

There has been some recent discussion surrounding a racist piece of media that had recently surfaced on the Maclean's website about the increasing number of Asian students in their academic institutions (racist...ahem).

Not only has this article unnecessarily making an issue of race but also implying that Universities and colleges are "too Asian" for their liking, a very racist emitting but also at the same time hideous at a glance.

Although the original article has been edited the original version can be found here "Too Asian" (Thanks to Angry Asian Man's post).

So you might ask should Chinese Canadians be concerned? of course not, because we are not the ones complaining. Obviously all those who are enrolled in higher education is obviously there to study and nothing else.

 
According to a preliminary exit poll released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) on Nov. 4, the party preferences of Asian Americans typically reflect the sensibilities of their geographical location. In the traditionally Democratic northeastern states, Asian Americans voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates.
Likewise, in states like Georgia and Texas, Asian Americans favored Republicans.
However, on the whole, Asian Americans favored Democratic candidates. The AALDEF polled 3,500 Asian American voters in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Georgia. Sixty percent were registered Democrats, 19 were not enrolled in any political party, and 14 were registered Republicans.
These findings were echoed in the outcomes of political races involving Asian American candidates. Nearly all Democratic incumbents retained their seats. Nearly all Asian American Republican challengers in primarily Democratic districts (and Democratic challengers in Republican districts) lost their races. On the whole, there are far more Asian American Democrats in political office than Asian American Republicans.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — On Nov. 7, 125 years ago, the residents of what would one day be Bellingham gathered in celebration.
They marched in a torchlight parade, listened to speakers that included the mayor, heard songs by the glee club, and watched a fireworks display.
The reason for their merriment was noted in the Nov. 6, 1885, edition of the Whatcom Reveille, which had invited residents to the Nov. 7 gathering.
“The Chinese are gone. We rejoice. Every person who rejoices in the exit of the Mongolian serfs and coolies is cordially invited,” read that edition of the weekly newspaper.
The Reveille’s publishers, with the help of civic leaders, had successfully launched in its pages a campaign to push all Chinese out of Whatcom County through a combination of threats, boycotts, vitriol, and insistence that the immigrants were taking jobs away from white residents in the midst of an economic downturn.

The Chinese were given until Nov. 1, 1885, to leave.

KoreAm -  "In the decade that I’ve been involved with the Asian American community, I’ve learned that there are many reasons people do this type of work. Usually, it’s inspired by an incredible urge to stimulate some sort of change. It supplies a sense of purpose, along with community and friends. Others accidentally fall into it, or do it very well. And some days, even for the most dedicated, it’s simply just a job."

"In this month’s cover story “Mad Man,” Phil and Jeff, arguably two of our community’s most influential cultural critics, have a conversation about the steady rise of what is now a crucial, frequently updated site on everything Asian American. In the interview, which details Phil’s path as a blogger and activist, I am reminded of all the marquee events that have helped define our wired pan-Asian generation: the budding of ethnic studies, the 90s apex for Asian American print, the spoken word and indie film spike, and of course, soon after, the return of the written word with the birth of the blog."

- Kai Ma, Editor-in-Chief KoreaAm

Schema Magazine presents a monthly series of web writing workshops and speakers, featuring some of the most pioneering, innovative and ethnic cool voices on the Internet. In the world of social networking and Web 2.0, having an online presence on the web is becoming more and more important. Social media gives us the tools to be a part of this growing conversation, but how do we define our voice on the web as a writer, a producer and as a blogger?

iWriteAboutMe.com showcases dynamic web personalities, social media gurus, bloggers and writers who will talk about how they transformed their personal stories and diverse identities into an online brand.

By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, February 25, 2010

The notion that Asians and Jews are two shoots from the same cultural rootstock is an old but evergreen meme.

You see it in fringe theories about the Lost Tribes of Israel -- there's an entire body of cryptoarchaeological canon that uses similarities between customs, language and naming convention to "prove" that the ancient vanished Jewish clans ended up in China, India or Japan. (Japan's 50,000-member Makuya sect, which has as its central dogma that the Japanese are descendants of a lost Jewish tribe, keep kosher, speak Hebrew and use the seven-armed menorah as their symbol.)

By Blogger Orvillelloyddouglas

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea earned her gold medal. Her free skate was excellent, flawless, and wonderful. Kim is the Olympic champion, and the judges got that result right. However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment. Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.

Since the Asian American film burst onto the scene thirty something years ago, many of those filmmakers, such as, Christine Choy, Wayne Wang, Mira Nair, Ang Lee, Justin Lin and among others are now comfortably part of the American cinematic mainstream.

Each year, hundreds of filmmakers from around the Asian Diaspora submit their short films to Asian American film festivals. They have given us stories of immigration and assimilation, adversity and triumph, motivation and inspiration of all genres: narrative, documentary, experimental, animation, music video.

Common reoccurring themes include identity politics, alienated youth, hypersexualization, math nerds, over-achievers, stereotypes, suburban alienation, and kung-fu waiters. 
Been there? Done that?

Tell us YOUR Asian American story.

Goodbye Lou, we won't miss you at all! most of us are glad that you have taken the hint.

Many People do not like you polluting the airway with your blabbering racist rhetoric and fear mongering politics.

The world can only be a happier place.

After facing intense pressure for his anti-immigration rhetoric, Lou Dobbs announced his resignation last night to his viewers. He will be replaced by John King.

Wednesday’s program will be his last on CNN, even though his contract was not set to expire until the end of 2011.While his reasons were “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day”, the truth is that intense pressure from campaigns like Drop Dobbs and Basta Dobbs have had a tremendous impact, including the airing of a Drop the Hate ad on MSNBC.

The New York Times reports,

By Craig Takeuchi

It's been a while since there's been an Asian North American box-office hit. The Joy Luck Club, The Wedding Banquet, and Snow Falling on Cedars were all from the '90s. Indie successes like Better Luck Tomorrow and Eve and the Fire Horse (by Vancouver's Julia Kwan) have been few and far between over the past decade. Other filmmakers of Asian descent (Jessica Yu, In the Realms of the Unreal; Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre), have established themselves by tackling subjects unrelated to their heritage.

The most consistent local source for such works remains the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, which runs from November 5 to 8 at the Cinemark Tinseltown (88 West Pender Street). Unlike other local events that showcase films from Asia, VAFF emphasizes stories by and about Asian Canadians and Americans.

BOSTON - It's one of the great closing lines in movie history, "Come on, Jake. It's . . . Chinatown." Those words, spoken to Jack Nicholson in, of course, "Chinatown," suggest all too accurately the sheer otherness of the Chinese experience as seen by Hollywood.

That otherness has run the gamut. Patronizing, reductive depictions of China ("The Good Earth," say) have gone hand in hand with Chinese-American stereotypes (cooks and laundry operators mostly, with the occasional opium smoker, for variety's sake, and, more recently, kung fu masters). The most famous Chinese and Chinese-American characters have been shameless caricatures - Fu Manchu, for example, and Charlie Chan.

Xinhuanet - The Liberal Democrats, Japan's ruling party, conceded a crushing defeat on August 31 as voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots in favor of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). And Prime Minister Taro Aso, leader of the LDP, said he was to resign as Party leader after the election defeat.

This election outcome has given a full proof of Japan's prevailing mainstream public opinions. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan for more than half a century since it was formed in 1955, and so the Chinese government has been acquainted with its policies toward China. The Chinese side, nevertheless, is not so familiar with the China policies of the DPJ as well as their impact on Sino-Japanese relations.

Of course, the DPJ would surely treasure the political power it had longed for many years and eventually succeeded to win, implement its election promise in developing economy and improving the people's livelihood, so as to enhance and consolidate the basis of its power.

ChosunNews - It was a memorable day for a Korean New Zealander Melissa Lee. In the general election that day, Lee became the first Korean immigrant to get into parliament on the ruling National Party list.

"I had never been as happy as that day except when I gave birth to my baby," Lee, in Seoul to attend the 2009 Future Leaders Conference hosted by the Overseas Koreans Foundation, recalled Monday. "It was the day when my old dream came true. In elementary school in Korea, I always wrote down 'president' when we had to fill in surveys asking what our future dreams are."

She moved to Malaysia with her family when as a fifth grader, and to Australia when in her first year of high school for better prospects for university. After she graduated from university in 1988, she relocated to New Zealand with her family.

Audrey Magazine - The Award-winning filmmaker Ann Kaneko isn’t afraid to tackle the controversial in her documentaries, making statements that resonate long after the screen goes black. 

When Alberto Fujimori took over as president in 1990, Peru was in a state of peril. The economy was suffering from hyperinflation while a bloody civil war between the army and a guerrilla movement, el Sendero Luminoso or the Shining Path, ravaged the country. Fujimori fixed the economy, but when Congress objected to his strict anti-terrorism legislation, Fujimori disbanded Congress, declaring he would need complete control to fix Peru’s problems. 

Global Times - His eyes fixed again on the photos on the wall: colorful pictures of protests against CNN during last April's Olympic torch relay in the United States. They hang like trophies, souvenirs of a glorious past.

"I still feel passionate," smiled Rao Jin, 24-year-old founder of Anti-CNN. com, "but not as spirited as that time."

Rao's been busy. After a round of meetings with business partners and media-savvy advisors, he's re-branding the whole website: gone is the "combative title" of "Anti-CNN". In its place is "ACCN", short for "Access China Communication Network."

A new slogan "Just another voice" replaces "Don't be like CNN!"

Tsinghua graduate Rao, also the owner of IT company Cesky, said he wants "limited commercialization" and "modernization" of Anti-CNN into a "comprehensive community news website."

Repost of an article released last year adressing the white male privilege and the fall of corporate America.

The Color Line - Make no mistake, all the available evidence suggests that the American political economy is headed for a major crash.  Some are even speculating that this is the end of American economic dominance in the world’s financial market.  But don’t be deceived by the blame-the-victim rationalizing that’s being floated now.

Let’s be clear about what policies and which people are behind the current financial crisis: neoliberal policies and the overwhelmingly majority of economically privileged white men who created, implemented and benefited from those policies.

Neoliberalism refers to a set of policies that encourage “less government” and unfettered (and unregulated) capitalism.   The key elements of neoliberalism include:
1) the rule of the market,
2) reducing government expenditures on social services,
3) deregulation,
4) privatization, and
5) gutting the notion of “the public good.”

JALAN Journal - In the United States, racist views of Asian- Americans are promiscuous and self-contradictory. On the one hand, we are told that we are model minorities, hard working citizens living out the classic American story of immigration and upward mobility. On the other hand, we are painted as perpetual foreigners, never quite American even after multiple generations of citizenship. On the one hand, we are supposed to be passive, docile, and submissive, while on the other hand they fear we are the yellow peril, a rising, ruthless, and aggressive empire that will someday destroy the white race.

Film adaptations of comic books are a dime a dozen in Hollywood these days with a track record that suggests studios are pumping out more Batman Forevers than Dark Knights. But what happens when your task is to bring the words of history's most acclaimed graphic novel — and one of Time magazine's 100 greatest novels of all time — to the big screen?