race

Her ‘crime’ was different, having a relationship with and then marrying a Chinese man, but the result the same. Thrown in jail, stripped of citizenship and child, and forced abroad, Demerson offers a historical perspective on sexist laws that still deny Canadians their right to nationality. Another segment in the Vancouver Observer's Lost Canadian series shines light on a tragedy that has yet to be apologized for by the government.

***

In 1939, Velma Demerson was 18 years old when she was arrested, convicted of being incorrigible, and locked up for ten months.

The dreadful “crime” for which Velma Demerson was imprisoned was to fall in love with a Chinese-Canadian, Harry Yip. The Chinese Exclusion Act was still in force, effectively keeping nearly all people from China from entering Canada, and stating quite boldly that it was government policy to put up a barrier to the intermingling of races.

Velma was a Caucasian and her relationship with an Asian was deeply frowned upon.

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.

The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population in California grew significantly during the past decade, according to a preliminary analysis of newly released Census 2010 data conducted by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice.

Remaining among the state’s fastest-growing communities, AAPIs grew from 4,321,585 in 2000 to 5,556,592 in 2010, representing 33.6% growth in the last decade.  In comparison, the state’s overall population grew from 33,871,648 in 2000 to 37,253,956 in 2010, representing 10.0% growth.

AAPIs now constitute 15.5% of the state’s population, compared to 12.8% in 2000.  “Policymakers, the new Citizens Redistricting Commission, and local redistricting bodies must be accountable to the needs of the state’s substantial Asian American and Pacific Islander population,” stated Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of APALC.

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.

Wikipedia describes the Russian word “pogrom” as a form of “violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other”. Education Week reports “The courage of Asian students to describe the harassment and violence they experienced at South Philadelphia High School led members of the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission to act on their behalf, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.”

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.

From our work at WTC, we have come to see racism and the internalization of racism as the primary assaults on our love for ourselves and each other. I understand love here as our ability to care for ourselves and each other spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually and to do it in a way that does not split us off from ourselves - body from mind, spirit from emotion, individual from community and so forth.

Like most progressive anti-racism trainers, we define racism as having to do with power. Separating it from the human flaws we all share such as prejudice and scapegoating, we see racism as a system of oppression based on race that in this country is perpetrated by white people against people of color.

It involves an unequal distribution of systemic power for people with white-skin privilege in four main areas:

1. the power to make and enforce decisions;
2. access to resources, broadly defined;
3. the ability to set and determine standards for what is considered appropriate behavior; and
4. the ability to define reality.

Privy.net Highlights 360 Must-Visit Places to Eat, Drink, Stay, Play, Shop, and Relax in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – (U.S. ASIAN WIRE) -- November 17, 2010 -- Private travelers’ network Privy.net has launched the “Privy 5 Los Angeles Guide” to help visitors and locals discover the best LA has to offer, particularly in the realm of authentic Asian cuisines such as the very top restaurants that serve Korean Barbeque, Shanghainese, Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, Dim Sum, Japanese Sushi, Hotpot and Vietnamese Pho.

Introducing the ultimate world wide Asian food guide with reviews by Asian and Asian American celebrities.
Private travelers' network Privy.net has launched the "Privy 5 Los Angeles Guide" to help visitors and locals discover the best LA has to offer, particularly in the realm of authentic Asian cuisines such as the very top restaurants that serve Korean Barbeque,Shanghainese, Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, Dim Sum, Japanese Sushi,Hotpot and Vietnamese Pho.

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.

 
Last month was exciting in terms of entertainment news. Musicians made Asian American history, San Diego hosted its annual Asian Film Festival, Jon M. Chu’s career took off, Yao Ming returned to the basketball court, and Brenda Song received an award. Let’s get started!
Making beautiful music — for the mainstream!

For the week of Oct. 30, members of Far East Movement became the first Asian Americans to hit the top of the Billboard charts. Even more exciting was the fact that the number two spot was held by singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, who is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent.
Far East Movement is made up of Kevin Nishimura “Kev Nish,” James Roh “Prohgress,” Jae Choung “J-Splif,” and Virman Coquia “DJ Virman.”
In a New York Daily News story, Oliver Wang, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University-Long Beach, said, “Far East Movement and Bruno Mars didn’t come just out of nowhere. There’s been a slow push to make it happen through social media. It’s finally hit that tipping point.”

San Diego’s Asian Film Festival: action-packed!

 
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.

On Sunday, Asian-American actors Daniel Dae Kim (”Hawaii Five-O”), C. S. Lee (”Dexter”), Harry Shum Jr. (”Glee”), Ellen Wong (”Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), and Aaron Yoo (”Friday the 13th”) talked casting, graduate school and stereotypes at the Asian Americans in Hollywood panel at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

In particular, each of the actors stressed that their current status as recognizable faces didn’t happen overnight. Lee and Kim both studied acting at graduate school (Lee at Yale and Kim at NYU; the former even asked latter for advice about where he should go), and Shum Jr explained that he first moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to act. After realizing he could “kinda dance,” he built up his skills and his dancing ultimately took over. (For “Glee” fans, he added: No, he doesn’t really sing as badly as Mike Chang does, and yes, there will a continuing storyline for his character this season).

Over the weekend, the San Diego Asian Film Festival invited actors like Lost alumnus Daniel Dae Kim, Glee's Harry Shum Jr., Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and Aaron Yoo (Friday the 13th) to a panel entitled "Asian Americans in Hollywood" (we checked to see if the panel was also subtitled "Best-Looking Actors You Can Think Of," but results were inconclusive). While Kim had plenty of success to share with the audience, he said that even now, his race is still an issue on his current show, Hawaii Five-0; in fact, it's affecting who he gets to knock onscreen boots with.

Speakeasy columnist Michelle Kung was on the scene:

The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami.

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.

Halfpipe gold medallist Xuetong Cai of China is flanked by compatriots Zhifeng Sun (left), silver, and Xu Cheng, bronze as they stand on the podium at the FIS snowboard world cup Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 in Stoneham Que. (CP) Source: CIV

We knew during the Beijing Olympics the media took every opportunity to mock the Chinese Athletes just about anything they could find.

When it comes to talking about Chinese athletes, it seems like every article must reemphasize the words  'government-funded', 'state owned', and rather acknowledging the concept of dedication, hard work and discipline as athletic qualities in the Chinese they prefer to call it 'cultural oppression' or even 'inhuman torture'. 

The same rhetorical defamation recycles itself again and in the 2010 Vancouver Winter games the media has taken another stab at it.

 Software sales executive Joe Wang and his wife Heidi have been married for 11 years. Heidi thinks the race "exemplifies empowerment" and she wants her kids to see that she is "not just a mum". 

Joe Wang

Age: 42

Hometown: El Segundo, Calif.

Connection to your Teammate: Married

Current Occupation: Software Sales Executive

Favorite Hobbies: Coaching youth sports, poker and golf

Achievements: My biggest achievement is my family.

Lifelong to do List: Travel around the world.

If I could switch places with someone: My son Jameson who has unlimited potential.

Role Model/Hero: My parents. They immigrated here to USA to provide a better life for me. 

What are you passionate about? Raising my kids to be the best they can be.

What would you do if you won the million dollars? Pay for my kids' college education.

People would be surprised to learn:  I was born in Taiwan and speak fluent Mandarin Chinese 

Favorite place you have ever visited: Fiji

In this new year of 2010 I hope everyone can continue to be optimistic as this ever struggling economy still has a heart beat, although we have been told our economies have recovered our wages are still just as terrible ( I think not ). There is still no excuse for not making the best of what we have and we should continue to strive for new heights.

In the past, this website had primarily worked on with publishing Asian related content, intelligent opinions, informative articles and any positive Asian media.

This year there will be a slight adjustment to the style of posting, usually we would publish news without actual commentary but as of today we will be adding in our 2 cents worth to everything post. Ideally would like to throw topics in the air and have people take it upon themselves to think about issues. 

We'll try to remain objective about each issue.

The first fear mongering article I've come across since the beginning of this new year sums up all the forecasts of "experts" panic stricken and fear mongering media who can only see this world burning in hell.

Here is another sad story from Australia and again so if you are wondering where this country is currently at in terms of racism and a multiculturalism then I assure you then it still rather backwards.

'White Australia' still has problems with Asian people socializing and gathering, apparently they feel threatened by it they have managed to use a bit of their imagination to link Asians gatherings with crime in such a way that would give them the right to ban Asians from social events would stop Gang violence.

Hello, someone sound the Asian civil rights violation alarms, wait a minute... what civil rights? this doesn't exist in Australia since racism is still wide spread where ethnic people are still treated like second class citizens socially and politically. It's just taking far too long for someone to recognize this problem.

Some thing's are better as never said and when words are spoken people should be accountable for what they say. Given that as responsibility, it could also be seen at another angle that there is also the responsibility for not saying what needs to be said.

Much could be said about the media little racist scheme during the U.S president's visit to China to improve economic ties and collaboration between the U.S and China.

Obama was on business trying to look for ways to fix up his bankrupt economy that was left to him in the worst state.

Firstly the white media tried painting China as anti-black racists and claims China disliked "chocolate coloured skin". Though this was not something that came from the Chinese mouths it was indeed straight out the mouth of white media who thought that they could make racists statements without taking responsibility by using China as a scapegoat.

Asian Canadian activists called on Wednesday for a tough sentencing against a Georgina, Ont., man convicted in a racially motivated incident against Asian fishermen.

Trevor Middleton, 23, was found guilty of four counts of aggravated assault and two charges of criminal negligence after an attack on Asian fishermen escalated to a high-speed chase that ended with two people seriously injured.

“What Mr. Middleton and his friends consider as a prank was in fact an outright racist act with an equally racist label, namely, nippertipping,” said Avvy Go, director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. The term is racist slang for pushing Asian Canadian anglers into the water.

“It is a practice that has been going on for a number of years, affecting countless number of Asian Canadian fishermen who are subject to similar attacks for no reason other than their race.”

To the people who thought racism was a thing of the past and no longer exists in the 21st century.... you are dead wrong. Some of us probably live in the nicer places in the country with some good multicultural friends but the people in the next town/city may not be so friendly.

To all my other dearest Asian Brothers, Sisters, Families, Civil Rights Advocacy groups, Asian Activists in western countries. We know racism is very much alive and it comes in all shapes and forms in mainstream society.

While we continue to experience it's reoccurring unpleasantness and Deja Vu's, I am all convinced we are still living as second class citizens and are still sunjected to different forms of  racial oppression.

Ancient Taoist once believed the driving universal life principles are found in Yin and Yang, nature will seek neutrality and find balance between interchangeable opposing forces. Though my analogy might sound a little ancient in the philosophical works but you would eventually understand my point in our society at present.

 A judge today dismissed a discrimination lawsuit against Miley Cyrus that argued that Asians were harmed by a photo that showed the teen idol and her friends pulling back their eyelids.

The novel legal claim was filed by Lucie J. Kim in a class action suit against the singer earlier this year that sought $4,000 in damages for each Asian and Pacific Islander living in Los Angeles County. The suit argued that Cyrus, 16, violated a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating against people based on race, gender, ethnicity and other traits.

The picture appeared on websites like gossipteen.com in February, and Cyrus repeatedly apologized. Cyrus’ attorney, Bryan M. Sullivan, referred all inquiries to Miley's spokesperson, who declined comment.