As we enter August 2001, we have seen the opening of many films featuring Asian Americans, the success of Asian ballplayers promoting goodwill, Bush's APA appointments, etc. These situations are just starting to correct the conclusions found in ADL's recent report on "Racisim towards Asian/Chinese Americans."
Review the latests events and people to observe the APA communities' progress.
FEATURED ARTISTS & LEADERS
SABEER BHATIA
Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith founded Hotmail in 1996, one of the Internet's first Web-based e-mail service providers on $300,000. In December of 1997, Bhatia sold the company to Microsoft for an estimated $400 million.
According to Wired Magazine, Hotmail's user base has grown faster than any media company in history -- faster than CNN, AOL or even the audience of the 90's hit show Seinfeld.
Bhatia, 30, was born in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley. He graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering at CalTech and later earned his master's degree and Ph.D. at Stanford, where he met Smith. Before HotMail, he worked at Apple Computers and Firepower Systems.
HotMail's concept was to give users free e-mail with the only prerequisite being a Web-browser. Users can log on from home, work or even remote parts of Europe and Africa. Advertisers then pay for space to reach their specific demographic which Hotmail delivers through one of the most diverse user bases on the Internet.
Bhatia is regarded as an Indian success story in his homeland and led President Clinton to remark to the Indian Prime Minister in 1998 of the impact that Indians are having in Silicon Valley.
Ho, at 71 in 2001, with his distinctive whiskey-baritone voice, remains the leading exponent of "Love Hawaiian Style" that's been undiminished by four decades of nonstop performing.
Most people know only three things about Hawaii: Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor and Don Ho.
Don was born in the little Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako of Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, German parentage. His career started at a Oahu cocktail lounge Honey's.
In 1962, Ho began playing at Duke's, with the "Allis" as his backup band, in Waikiki and became a huge success and phenemon.. His success brought him a two-week engagement at Hollywood's ultra-posh Cocoanut Grove in 1966 that broke all previous attendance records that led to additional SRO crowds.
In addition, he's performed at the Sands in Las Vegas, Harrah's at Lake Tahoe, the Palmer House in Chicago, the Americana Hotel's Royal Box in New York, TV guest appearances with Johnny Carson, Joey Bishop and Art Linkletter, and his own hour-long color TV special--not to mention a clutch of best-selling LP record albums for Reprise.
His television appearances include episodes of The Brady Bunch, Charlie's Angels, and The Fall Guy. From October 1976 to March 1977, he hosted a half-hour daytime variety series, The Don Ho Show, broadcast over ABC-TV. By the 1990s, he had launched his own label, Honey Records, to release his recordings and others by island favorites. He continued to make occasional TV appearances and in 1996 had a small part in the film Joe's Apartment.
Ho was named by trendy-libidinous Maxim magazine as one of its "50 Coolest Guys Ever."
It has been said that Don is is "the Hawaiian equivalent to Frank, Sammy and Dean in Vegas."
This Hong Kong immigrant has been described as a Chinese Martin Luther King, visionary, a warrior who runs at full gallop without losing his balance and a Renaissance man with a heart of Buddha.
For the past three decades, this respected professor, director of Berkeley's Asian American studies department and an uncompromising community activist has been addressing important issues.
He fought for bilingual education in public schools, fought the tougher admissions standards imposed to curb a disproportionately high Asian American enrollment at the nation's elite schools, chaired a UC Asian language task force that persuaded the College Board to offer the SAT II achievement test in Chinese, Japanese and Korean and played a strategist role in the Wen Ho Lee case,
"Being perpetual aliens is the first defining characteristic of Asian Americans," he said. Americans of Asian ancestry are "presumed foreigners," even if they are fifth-generation California natives. This prejudice, he says, is rooted in the master narrative of American history that tells us the nation was founded, settled and built by whites.
It has been said that "He framed and built the foundation of the Asian American civil rights movement as we know it today."
IN 1869 -
Memphis TN conference of plantation owners proposed substituting Chinese labor for black slaves.
IN 1871 -
Nineteen Chinese were massacred in Los Angeles. October 24 marked the worst incident of Anti-Chinese violence in America up to that time.
IN 1879 -
the Arizona Weekly Star ran an editorial in 1879 portraying Chinese Americans as "an ignorant, filthy, leprous horde" and "the most pernicious and degraded race on the globe." Chinese workers were attacked in railroad camps and mining towns and driven out of Arizona's mines and railroads.
IN 1898 -
Hawaii is the United States' 50th state.
IN 1908 -
Filipinos were greatly recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association as cheap contract labor when the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 cut off the Japanese supply.
IN 1909 -
Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii go on strike
IN 1912 -
Duke Kahanamoku won his first Olympic gold medal and set a world record in the 100-meter free-style and won a silver medal as a participant in the 200-meter relay in Stockholm. He represented the United States in the Olympics for the next 20 years.
IN 1920 -
Asian Indians owned about 123,000 acres in California's Imperial and Sacramento Valleys.
IN 1923 -
Justice Sutherland, speaking for the Supreme Court in 1923, said that Bhagat Singh Thind and other Asian Indians were aliens ineligible to citizenship because they were not white, as only whites and blacks could become citizens.
IN 1924 -
In the Hanapepe Massacre, police attack union headquarters in Hanapepe, HI where 16 sugar plantation workers and 4 policemen are killed.
IN 1947 -
Truman grants full pardon to the Japanese Americans who had been convicted for resisting the draft while they and their families were held in concentration camps.
IN 1944 -
These 85 interned Japanese Americans were prosecuted and incarcerated because they refused to be drafted into the U.S. military unless their rights as citizens were restored.
IN 1949
- FBI arrests the Hawaii Seven for communist activity. Their fines and jail terms are overturned in January 1958.
IN 1973 -
Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc. was founded. (OCA) is a national non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization of concerned Chinese Americans. dedicated to securing the rights of Chinese American and Asian American citizens and permanent residents.
IN 1978 -
National convention of the Japanese American Citizens League adopts resolution calling for redress and reparations for the internment of Japanese Americans.
IN 1980 -
First Philippine Festival of the Arts begins in New York City.
IN 1991 -
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization was formed to advance the legal and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans.
IN 2000 -
Ellery J. Chun, creator of the "Aloha Shirt" dies.
IN 2001 -
Maya Lin is honored by the NAACP as someone who has excelled in the face of overwhelming odds.
IN 2001 -
Patrick Oliphant's racist cartoon was an offshoot of the recent stand off between the U.S. and China over the U.S. spy plane incident.
OUR GOALS
The purpose of this section is the following: OPPORTUNITY to discover more about our dreams UNDERSTANDING our fears and our hopes and UNCOVERING invaluable and missing information
APA & MEDIA NEWS
LITTLE PHNOM PENH
Long Beach's "Little Phnom Penh" define the heart of the Cambodian community, the largest in the world outside the Kingdom of Cambodia. No freeway signs, no official designation, etc. - just a string of buildings.
CONAN APOLOGIZES FOR SILVERMAN
NBC late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has apologized for not
bleeping a racial slur (a derogatory term for Chinese people in a joke about trying to avoid jury duty by pretending that she was a bigot) uttered by female comic, Sarah Silverman, on his program on July 11, 2001.
Richard Roeper remarked that "Silverman found herself in a small tempest over the joke--but what would have happened if she had substituted the word ''nigger'' for ''chink''? Would NBC's censors have thought for even a second about allowing the joke to go on the air unbleeped? - Doubtful."
LAOTIAN HATE CRIME
Thung Phetakoune, a Laotian American man was killed in a hate crime in Newmarket, New Hampshire on July 16, 2001 by Richard Labbe - a 35 years old white male. He stated "those Asians killed Americans, and you won't do anything about it, so I will . . . call it payback." Ironically, Phetakoune had served in the Vietnam War for Laos, fighting side-by-side with Americans.
ASIAN INTERNET PROGRAMMING
"The Korean Channel" and "ThaiTV Network" can be seen at JumpTV.Com - the internet's premiere destination for the Live delivery of TV channels from broadcasters around the world.
LUCY FADING FROM ALLY? Lucy Liu is likely to appear in only four episodes of Ally McBeal next season, the New York Daily News reported today (Monday), citing a source close to the show. Liu, who the newspaper says has a reputation for being difficult, reportedly wants to concentrate on trying to advance her career in motion pictures. "David [Kelly, producer of McBeal] can't wait to get rid of her," the Daily News' source said.
FIL-AM HATE CRIME
In what police called a hate crime, four members (James Smiley/24, Michael Keaser/23 and Christopher Wallace/18) of a Ventura white supremacist gang were arrested on suspicion of beating a Filipino man in Port Hueneme.
INDO-AMERICANS HOPE FOR PEACE
Indian Americans are keeping their fingers crossed that something will emerge from an Indian-Pakistan summit that will put an end to the hostilities between the two nations, and particularly bring peace in Kashmir.
Since the 1989 revolt broke out in Kashmir, some 250,000 Kashmiri Hindus have fled Kashmir. Many of them live as refugees in Delhi and Jammu. There are currently around 1,400 Kashmiri Hindu families living in the U.S. and a smaller number of Kashmiri Muslim families who call the U.S. home.
RUSH HOUR 3
Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker have signed to do Rush Hour 3. Jackie will start the
third sequel after he has completed his two upcoming films - Sidewinder (shot in Ireland) and Shanghai Noon - Shanghai Knight (shot in China, Hong Kong, US and London).
TRANSLATORS NEEDED IN SCHOOLS
The lack of school-based translators in Tagalog, Khmer, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin and other Asian languages is a hindrance for both students and parents, according to the report prepared by the Asian Pacific American Education Summit, a group of education and community leaders who for the past year have been looking into the needs of Asian-American and Pacific Islander students in San Francisco.
HAWAIIAN LAND TAKEN
The Hokulia land development project, a partnership of Arizona developer Lyle Anderson and Japan Airlines with roughly $300 million already invested, of desecrating ancient burial sites and letting soil wash into the pristine waters of Kealakekua Bay, a marine conservation district.
SAT II HELPS ASIANS
Spikes in Latino and Asian-American enrollment at the University of California (UC) have coincided with the school's recent emphasis on the SAT II, which tests a student's proficiency in specific subjects.
BUSH'S "AA" APPOINTEES
Among the top 300 Bush appointees, the National Journal analysis found that 26 percent were women and 3 percent were Asian American.
AOL/TIME WARNER'S & MINORITIES
AOL Time Warner has earmarked $100 million for investment in companies owned or operated by women
and people of color in a three-year initiative, known as the AOL Time Warner Opportunity Investment Fund. The small businesses will be offered between $2 million and $10 million with three criteria (2 of the top 5 managers are a mnority, targets "underserved markets" and a strategic fit.
Rachel S. Lam, a former principal of the Quetzal/Chase Capital Partners fund in New York, will head the team that manages the Opportunity Investment Fund.
SATELLITE STATIONS TARGET APA'S
XM and Sirius Satellite Radio will carry news programming from CNN, Bloomberg Radio, the Weather Channel and British Broadcasting Corp. Both will have a wide variety of music, talk, C-SPAN, sports, comedy, evangelists, kid shows and programming aimed at African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans.
KOREAN ON KOREAN CRIME
Extortion Case Explores Rifts in Korean Enclave in Queens. Korea Tribune publisher, Bryan Kim, was arrested and accused of extorting money from Mrs. Park and four other Korean merchants, as prosecutors charged that he had tried to force the merchants into paying for advertising, threatening to smear them with false articles about infidelity or fabricated scandals about their businesses.
Mr. Kim, a Korean immigrant who moved to Queens from Los Angeles, was well known in Flushing for his successful real estate business before he started publishing The Korea Tribune in 1997.
BUSH APPOINTS 12 APA'S
Twelve Asian Pacific Americans are expected to be appointed to senior positions in the Bush administration, a move that shows President Bush's embrace of Asian American talent and ability.
This is while Hawai'i has been called a "laboratory of race relations" based on its carefully cultivated image as a place where people of different cultures have historically lived together and "fused." This image has a certain amount of validity when Hawaii's racial "fusion" is contrasted to that found in most of the continental United States.
For Native Hawaiians, the fusion has been forced at times and cultural domination is a reality etched in daily existence.
ASIAN MEDIA FLOURISH IN CA
In California, the Asian print media dominate the scene as evident by the following rankings.
#1 - Korea Times / Los Angeles (Circulation: 43,500)
#2 - Philippine News / San Francisco (Circulation: 39,657)
#3 - Weekend Balita (Filipino) / Glendale (Circulation: 32,000)
#5 - Nguoi Viet Daily News / (Vietnamese) / Westminster (Circulation: 25,000)
#6 - Rafu Shimpo (Japanese) / Los Angeles (Circulation: 20,000)
#8 - India-West / Emeryville (Circulation: 15,800)
#11 - Sereechai (Thai) / Los Angeles (Circulation: 12,000)
#12 - Free China Journal / Los Angeles (Circulation: 11,000)
IMMIGRANT STUDENT PROBLEMS
Five Chinese immigrant students who were told by Assistant Principal, Rosemary Assenso to leave Lafayette at the start of their senior year because they had completed the basic requirements for graduation. The recent beating of a Pakistani student in front of the school and charges of insubordination against an Asian-American guidance counselor have led some parents and teachers to accuse several Lafayette officials of discrimination.
All five students had earned extra credits in part by taking on more than the usual course load. The teachers and students said that they knew of other students who had met graduation requirements early, but those students were not asked to leave.
Board of Education's superintendent of student monitoring, Ronald Woo, and Rose DePinto, then the superintendent for high schools in Brooklyn and Staten Island were instrumental in reinstating the students back into school.
Several Chinese 11th grade students received transcripts indicating they had been promoted to 12th grade and would graduate by January 2002. Two of the 11th-graders have filed a complaint with the city's Human Rights Commission.
A veteran Lafayette teacher stated that "You start to think it's a premeditated persecution of Asian students."
RACIAL PROFILING
36 Asian-American students participating in a leadership conference was attempting to cross the street was questioned for 45 minutes by a police officer accussing the group of jaywalking. They were constantly asked - "Do you speak English - Are you foreigners? Only 1 ticket was given and several white people walking across the same street, but they were never stopped.
Seattle's Asian-American community are demanding an immediate apology from Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske for what they call "blatant racial profiling." (note: Visit HERE to read the apology that was requested.
JAPANESE BASEBALL PLAYERS
Japanese ballplayers' recent great success (i.e. Ichiro, Sasaki and others) have unleashed the Japanese American interest in baseball. 20 credentialed Japanese journalists following the Mariners and Suzuki received almost 800,000 more votes than any other player in either league, his support boosted by Internet balloting.
"This is an exciting time for all of us," said Japanese baseball historian Kerry Nakagawa, director of the Nisei Baseball Research Project - "We're reaching a new level of understanding through a diamond."
GM SEEKS DIVERSITY
General Motors Corp., which steadily has lost market share in the past decade, has set up a team to aggressively promote its products to women, black, Hispanic and Asian vehicle buyers in the United States.
In addition, GM has formed the Center of Expertise on Diversity to "increase GM's understanding of multicultural consumers."
Judy Hu will manage the center's advertising efforts, with Michael Jackson tapped to meld the team's goals with GM's current field sales and brand arketing efforts.
FANTASY FAR FROM FANTASTIC
The results for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within were particularly frustrating for Sony Films given the whopping $5-million opening for the movie on Wednesday. "That kind of raised expectations," Sony spokesman Blaise Noto told the Associated Press Sunday, referring to the mid-week take. Nevertheless, Noto acknowledged, "The game's got a very strong fan base, and it's fans that tend to go on the first day."
