I was asked recently why there isn’t an Asian Al Sharpton. I said “sure there is. Guy Aoki, John Liu, Asian Americans For Equality…” and on and on. But I understood what he was saying. There isn’t one iconic rabble-rouser whenever things go down chez nous. Then I got to thinking: is the problem actually that MSM doesn’t take our problems seriously?
Just thinking out loud.
And by the way, New York is about to have four Asian-American elected officials (once John Liu wins his runoff election for Comptroller… which we all know he will). He’ll be the first elected Asian in a city-wide role.
17 Chinese Uighurs are heading to Fairfax, VA after having spent years detained at Gitmo, Fairfax being one of the most Uighur populated cities in the U.S.
But wait! Not so fast. “Not in my back yard” Americans, and more importantly, all four Virginian senators are saying “no way Ho Tse.”
What’s ironic is that many of these Uighurs (Chinese Muslims) were actually detained because the Chinese government caught them planning dissent against their government. And of course…China is renown for religious tolerance. Not like they’ve ever jailed “outspoken” journalists, bloggers, feminists…
Not like they’ve permanently exiled the leader of the world’s most peaceful Buddhist autocracy.
Can you imagine sending these Uighurs back to China? I mean really.
Dude, what?
Congress passed a joint Congressional Resolution in 1978 to commemorate Asian American Heritage Week during the first week of May.
This date was chosen because two important anniversaries occurred during this time: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in America on May 7, 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (by many Chinese laborers) on May 10, 1869.
OK. Celebrating Asian-American heritage with the first arrivals of immigrants makes sense.
But celebrating a milestone in slave labor? This would be like celebrating Black Heritage Month the day the last bale of cotton was shipped from the very last plantation of the Confederacy.
A recent Pew Study showed 2008’s was the most diverse electorate. 68% of eligible black women voted, up 5% from 2004; second to them was white women voter turnout (65% of whom voted).
Yet… “Asian American men and women votes ranked at the bottom in terms of participation rates.” Specifically, even though there was an uptick in Asian-American voter turnout compared to 2004, only 47% of us voted last year.
It’s ironic really… since there are more non-elected Asian-Americans in White House positions than ever.
Does voting matter?
Texas wants to secede. Let them…?
I mean, they can’t tolerate:
+“Complicated” Asian names
+Journalistic Confidentiality
+The fact that the moon reflects the sun…
I think of this less as a potential secession and more like a sequestering.
Roxanna Saberi, the Iranian-(Japanese)-American journalist imprisoned in Tehran on charges of espionage has gone on a hunger strike.
Curious sidenote: Citizenship laws in Japan and Iran are both patrilineal, meaning you are only a citizen of either country if your father is by law/blood, a citizen. In Japan, it’s commonly assumed that this citizenship clause was created to “protect” the nation from G.I. orphans claiming benefits of citizenship. And according to this article, Iranian patrilineal citizenship was established by default of matrilineal citizenship never being addressed.
…and not that it matters, but I guess all this makes her an Iranian-American journalist; her Japanese half totally elided.