discrimination

As the 2012 presidential election approaches, it has been difficult for me to listen to the political scapegoating of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims. A decade ago, as an attorney at the Department of Justice, I worked with colleagues in the civil rights division to address the unprecedented backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. We investigated complaints of brutal hate crimes in neighborhoods, vandalism at places of worship, bullying at schools, and discrimination in the workplace aimed primarily at those who traced their origins to South Asia and the Middle East, or those who practiced Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jeff Adachi says he grew up hearing the stories of his Japanese-American family's internment during World War II.

"They lost everything. But they taught me not to be bitter, to get an education and to stand up for what's right," Adachi, San Francisco's public defender, writes on the website devoted to his campaign for the city's mayor.

He's one of six Asian-Americans candidates who are drawing on their life stories of immigration, discrimination and empowerment as they try to become the first Asian-American elected mayor in the city's history.

San Francisco already has an Asian-American mayor in Ed Lee, who was appointed in January. But the Nov. 8 election is being seen as an historic moment in a city that has the largest percentage of Asian-Americans in the continental United States and boasts the nation's oldest Chinatown.

While the candidates are from diverse Asian backgrounds and differ on policy, all agree that the community's time has come.

An article recently appeared in the news that struck a few cords with me that didn't quite represent the true Asian American perspective.

The article begins by introducing Asian-American as 18 percent of the Harvard University enrollment, 24 percent at Stanford University, and a whopping 46 percent at the University of California-Berkeley. Academic pedigrees like that typically vault graduates into the upper echelon of the U.S. workforce.

But a national study released Thursday by the Center for Work-Life Policy says that Asian-Americans — 5 percent of the U.S. population and the nation's fastest-growing minority by percentage — hold less than 2 percent of top corporate jobs.

According to "Researchers" supported by Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and Time Warner:

LOS ANGELES, CA --   The Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, welcomes long-time public interest attorney Doreena Wong as the project director for APALC's Health Access Project

Wong, a long-time civil rights lawyer and expert on health policy and language access issues, spent the prior 11 years as a senior staff attorney at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), which is a national public interest law firm focused on health care issues.  Wong is also a well-known social justice advocate who has helped to found several Asian/Pacific Islander lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group, including API Equality-LA. 

She has also worked at other notable civil rights and public interest organizations, including the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, the ACLU of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C. and a Los Angeles civil rights firm specializing in enforcement of consent decrees in race discrimination cases.

As white Americans move into the minority, some are claiming they're the ones now subject to racial oppression. Do they have a case?

For a small, nerdy cluster of folk -- social science and cultural studies wonks, market researchers, armchair political pundits -- this month is the Super Bowl, Oscars and Olympics rolled into one. That's because the next few weeks will see the gradual, yet grand unveiling of data from the 2010 U.S. Census, an event literally 10 years in the making.

LOS ANGELES, CA– On December 7, 2010, a group of former and current Filipino American hospital employees filed a lawsuit against their employer, a hospital located in the Central Valley, for discrimination and harassment on the basis of national origin. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of California. The action was filed against Central California Foundation for Health d/b/a/ Delano Regional Medical Center and Delano Health Associates, Inc. (collectively referred to as “DRMC” or “Defendants). The employees are represented by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (“APALC”), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice.

The complaint states that DRMC discriminated against its Filipino American employees because of their national origin and subjected the Filipino American workers to severe and pervasive workplace harassment. DRMC prohibited Filipino American employees from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages under a broad-reaching English-only policy. DRMC singled out only Filipino American employees in enforcing the policy.

Maclean's article sparked overdue rebellion against powerful voices claiming racial discrimination is not a problem

Maclean's magazine has struck a match. Now a firestorm of criticism is headed its way. Canada may never be the same.

On Nov. 25, Victoria city council unanimously adopted a motion, submitted by veteran councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, criticizing Maclean's for their article 'Too Asian' in their widely read special university rankings feature edition (Nov. 2010). The motion, unanimously adopted, described the title of the Maclean's article as "offensive and intolerant" and criticized its contents for "propagating a litany of racial stereotypes."

I agree and Thornton-George and the council deserve credit for speaking out against a media giant. Their action demonstrates how far we have come from the bad old days.