After much consideration, I have decided that it is time for me to retire this blog.

The primary reason for such is: as some of you may already know, I also maintain another blog on my Asian-Nation site. I have maintained that site and blog longer than this one and it focuses more specifically on current events and issues related to Asian Americans.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is just too much overlap between these two blogs, so to save me the time necessary to maintain both of them, I will concentrate on just maintaining my Asian-Nation one. At the same time, I will expand the Asian-Nation blog somewhat to include much of this blog’s focus on race relations in general and its connections to higher education.

You can still browse through the Archives of this blog or use the search function in the right hand column to review any and all of my previous posts from the past four years, but this will be the last post on this blog.

Below is a list of the most recent posts on my Asian-Nation blog and I encourage you to continue your participation by switching over to read my Asian-Nation blog. Thanks and hope to hear from you again soon.

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Latest Posts at Asian-Nation

A year ago, 19-year-old Korean-American Choi Joo-eun chose Korea¡¯s Yonsei University over the prestigious University of California system in her home state. Having gotten into both UC San Diego and UC Irvine, she had earned a place in two schools even many California teenagers dream of entering.

So far she has no regrets. On campus, she takes classes taught entirely in English while spending her spare time learning Korean culture and language. Off campus, Choi, who had never visited Korea before deciding to study here, keeps busy building a new network of friends and pursuing her dream of working for the United Nations one day. . . .

While it is well known that many Koreans opt out of the highly competitive race to get into a top local university like Yonsei for an American university, an increasing number of Korean-Americans and overseas-educated Koreans are heading in the opposite direction. . . .

Still, regardless of Korea being the land of their parents, it is far from home, and the students have to overcome their share of hardship and difficulties in adjusting to a new country and culture.

The article highlights the many advantages associated with such a process -- reconnecting with one’s ancestral ethnic roots, exposure to an international climate, becoming fluently bilingual in English and Korean, etc. But as the last line of the quote I cited above alludes to, there can also be loneliness and cultural adjustment issues.

Nonetheless, this particular trend of Korean Americans “going back” to Korean schools is likely to accelerate in the coming years, as the world in general but American society in particular become increasingly globalized and transnational. As such, such transnational Korean American students are likely to have a competitive advantage.

However, it is worth noting that as the article points out, being Korean American does not automatically mean that you will have an easy time in Korea -- being Asian and Asian American are two difference things.

Nonetheless, seen another way, being Korean American does provide another avenue of personal and academic enrichment when it comes to having the cultural international connection to Korea -- one that can be seen as an asset rather than a liability as we move forward into the 21st century.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled “The Year in Hate,” said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in 2006 and 602 in 2000. . . .

[The SPLC] said hate groups were proliferating because a growing number of Americans were agitated by the immigration debate. He said many new groups had appeared in the border states of California, Texas and Arizona where illegal immigration has been a particularly volatile issue.

The article goes on to report that the SPLC has officially designated the largest and most vocal anti-illegal immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, as a hate organization, based on the published beliefs and actions of many of its members, supporters, and/or contributors.

If you’d like more information on specific incidents of anti-Latino hate crimes committed recently, the SPLC lists many examples on their website.

All in all, I am very saddened but not surprised to hear about this upward trend in anti-Latino hate crimes. History has consistently shown that whenever the American economy is struggling and there’s more competition for economic survival, racial/ethnic groups are almost sure to become targets of racial violence.

With the issue of illegal immigration still a prominent hot-button topic for conservatives and because illegal immigration critics frequently are not able or willing to distinguish between those who are legal immigrants or not, Latinos are inevitably the most convenient targets.

Unfortunately things do not look encouraging as we move forward this year, as more signs point to a coming recession (if we’re not there already), which means even more hostility is likely to be directed at Latinos.

153.6 million: The number of females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2007. The number of males is 149.4 million.

$32,649: The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2006. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.

98 cents: The amount women ($48,586) in the District of Columbia, who worked year-round, full time, earned for every $1 their male counterparts earned ($49,544) in 2006. Among all states or state equivalents, the district was where women were closest to earnings parity with men. Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey were the only states where median earnings for women were greater than $40,000.

32%: Percent of women 25 to 29 who had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2006, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent). Eighty-eight percent of women and 84 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school.

894,000: The projected number of bachelor’s degrees that will be awarded to women in the 2007-08 school year, who are also projected to earn 380,000 master’s degrees during this period. Women would, therefore, earn 59 percent of the bachelor’s and 61 percent of the master’s degrees awarded during this school year. In addition, women would earn a majority (52 percent) of first-professional degrees, such as law and medical.

More than $939 billion: Revenue for women-owned businesses in 2002. There were 116,985 women-owned firms with receipts of $1 million or more.

Nearly 6.5 million: The number of women-owned businesses in 2002. Women owned 28 percent of all nonfarm businesses. Nearly one in three women-owned firms operated in health care and social assistance, and other services, such as personal services, and repair and maintenance. Women owned 72 percent of social assistance businesses and just over half of nursing and residential care facilities.

37%: Percent of females 16 or older who work in management, professional and related occupations, compared with 31 percent of males.

22 million: Number of female workers in educational services, health care and social assistance industries. More women work in this industry group than in any other. Within this industry group, 11 million work in the health care industry and 8.4 million in educational services.

62.4 million: Number of married women (including those who are separated or have an absent spouse) in 2006. There were 59.8 million unmarried (widowed, divorced or never married) women.

5.6 million: Number of stay-at-home mothers nationwide in 2006, up from 4.6 million a decade earlier.

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As I Am: Asians In America Radio Pilot

As I Am is an hour-long program, hosted by author-activist Helen Zia, that examines the American experience – present, past, and future - with an Asian American lens. Through politics, arts, popular culture, history, and everyday encounters with the famous and not so famous, As I Am offers listeners a unique opportunity to learn from and about the nation’s dynamic Asian American community. In the process, those who tune in from all backgrounds will gain fresh perspectives on their own lives and experiences.

The program is produced by the Institute for Asian American Studies and WUMB Public Radio at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

About the Pilot
The As I Am pilot features reports, analyses, and commentary on social, political, cultural and artistic topics seldom heard on traditional public radio broadcasts. Hosted by the award-winning journalist, author and scholar Helen Zia, public radio audiences will hear unique voices and perspectives on a variety of issues from across the country.

The Pilot features up and coming author Min Jin Lee as she discusses her new book Free Food for Millionaires with Boston College’s Professor Min Hyoung Song. As I Am’s Paul Niwa reveals the effects of gentrification on Boston’s Chinatown through one man’s battle against his landlord’s rent increase.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Angela Kim’s journey from California to the Midwest reminds us that no matter where we may move we are often searching for something, anything, to remind us of where we came from. Nationally recognized slam poet Regie Cabico performs a piece that challenges the notion that we can be easily defined by a census box. Known for his cookbooks and popular television show Yan Can Cook, Chef

Martin Yan steps out of the kitchen to talk with the award-winning broadcast journalist Sydnie Kohara. A group of UMass Boston students’ trip to the Gulf Coast is chronicled as they discuss rebuilding the Vietnamese American communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. And International Studies Professor at Trinity College Vijay Prashad comments on why his ideal home isn’t in the present, it is in the future. You can hear these stories and more, on As I Am: Asians In America.

The program will be distributed on the Public Radio Exchange and is expected to have national carriage on non-commercial radio stations across the country. The program will be available for listening and downloading on our website soon. For now, listeners may go to the Institute for Asian American Studies’ website to download or stream the program.

Musical consideration for the pilot has been provided by Boston Progress Radio a community-based online radio station and blog focusing on independent Asian American music and art.

For more information on As I Am, please visit our website: www.asiam.us

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Kudos to Nate and his crew for putting this project together. As I’ve said many times in the past, we Asian Americans need to create more outlets like this where we can express ourselves however we want, instead of relying on others to do so however they want.

Here’s how to enter: send me an email at CN_Le@yahoo.com and in 20 words or less, tell me what you would do if the Democrats lost the 2008 Presidential election.

The deadline to email me your entry is Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:59pm. I will pick the best, most creative answer as the winner. FYI, I am cross-promoting this contest on my other site, Asian-Nation.org, and therefore, you are allowed only one entry on either site.

Good luck!

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Hello. I am writing to ask for your help with a survey which is part of my dissertation project. I was wondering if you would be willing to post a link to the survey on your blog? Your help would be greatly appreciated, and I think you and your readers would be ideal candidates for the survey.

The survey is about people’s reactions to the presidential candidates in the upcoming election. If you are willing to help, please post the
following information:

***

The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how
individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Click here to take the survey: http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/stu/crweber/TAKESURVEY/election_2008.htm

Please feel free to contact Chris Weber (crweber@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) at Stony Brook University with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your help!

Thank you,

Chris Weber
PhD Candidate
Stony Brook University

Stanley Feldman
Professor
Department of Political Science

One form that I’ve recently started to follow more closely concerns anti-communist political activism among Vietnamese Americans. In fact, I’ve just completed a chapter entitled “‘Better Dead Than Red’: Anti-Communist Politics Among Vietnamese Americans” in an upcoming book that’s titled Anti-Communist Minorities in the US: The Political Activism of Ethnic Refugees, edited by Ieva Zake (Palgrave-MacMillan Publishing) that’s set to come out early next year.

In that chapter, I write that while the inevitable forces of assimilation are likely to result in a moderation of fervent anti-communist sentiment among younger Vietnamese Americans, there is still a strong level of ethnic solidarity within the Vietnamese American community. Combined with continuing incidents of human rights abuses in Viet Nam, I conclude that anti-communist activism among Vietnamese Americans may evolve into different forms but is unlikely to become eliminated or even notably lessened any time soon.

As the latest examples of the continuing salience of anti-communism among Vietnamese Americans, two recent incidents illustrate the power of symbols and visual images and how they reflect upon the legacy of the Viet Nam War.

The first incident, as reported by the Orange County Register, involves a community college in Irvine, California (located only a few miles from Little Saigon) recently deciding to remove the flag of Viet Nam from public display after local Vietnamese Americans threatened to demonstrate against it:

The 144 miniature flags have hung from the second-floor atrium for many years without controversy, in a gesture designed to symbolize the diversity of the college’s student body. On Thursday, college officials removed the display in the wake of threats that busloads of protesters could arrive to disrupt the campus if the Vietnamese flag were not removed. . . .

Westminster Councilman Andy Quash and Garden Grove Councilwoman Dina Nguyen said they met with college officials Wednesday after receiving calls from numerous constituents about the flag display.

“We reminded them that in 1999, in the city of Westminster, that flag hung in a video store led to a 49-day protest peaking at 50,000 people,” Quash said. “I’m sure the college hung the flag without realizing it is very provocative to certain students.” . . .

“It’s offensive because this flag represents a regime that is very dictatorial and does not respect human rights,” Nguyen said. “It is not democratic, and that is why a lot of Vietnamese Americans are here as refugees. To see that being honored, well, millions of people lost their lives over that flag.”

The second incident, as described by the San Mateo County Times, involves a work of art created by a young Vietnamese American that was intended to pay tribute to the refugee experience of Vietnamese Americans but instead has been interpreted by many as pro-communist.

The offending photo was of a piece of art by a University of California, Davis, graduate student and Vietnamese immigrant who saw the creation — a yellow-and-red foot-spa tub — as a salute to Vietnamese refugees like her mother-in-law who toiled in a nail salon after the family came to America.

But the protesters saw something far more menacing.

The tub was yellow with three red stripes, which the protesters said must be a reference to the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam. And the spa’s yellow power cord was plugged into a red outlet, which seemed to resemble the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, now under communist rule.

“Why is the South Vietnamese flag on a thing that people wash their dirty feet in?” asked Uc Van Nguyen, 70, who attended some of the rallies, which began in late January. . . .

Meanwhile, the artist said she had no intention of offending anyone when she bought a foot spa from a nail shop, painted it yellow and red. . . . She saw the art creation as a way to honor Vietnamese women who have “toiled and sacrificed enormously for the future of their children and family,” she wrote.

To try to put these two incidents in perspective, as I wrote in my chapter that I mentioned above, it would be easy for many Americans to criticize the Vietnamese American protesters and to say things like, “You may find the images offensive, but as Americans, you should respect the right of people to freely express themselves however they want. If you don’t, you’re just replicating the same kind of authoritarianism that you blast the communists for committing.”

While there is some truth to this particular argument, I would point out that first, in the same way that the artist or school has the freedom to express themselves however they want, so too do others have the right to criticize such expressions. In other words, freedom of expression is a two-way street -- express yourself however you want, but be prepared to receive potentially critical expressions in return.

This is not to say that I always agree with the protesters and in fact, I do not share their interpretation that the “foot tub” artwork shown above (thanks to Kym Pham for the URL) is offensive and an insult to the Vietnamese refugee experience. There are other instances as well in which I disagree with many anti-communist opinions. At the same, I respect and defend their right to express their interpretations that may be counter to mine.

In fact, it is this particular right that allows historically marginalized groups such as Asian Americans to criticize recent media portrayals that many of us find offensive, including a college newspaper column meant as “satire” or the anti-Filipino Desperate Housewives episode.

Secondly, when people criticize such Vietnamese American protests (particularly non-Vietnamese), in many cases they have little or no connection whatsoever to the refugee experiences that form the basis of such strong anti-communist sentiments. In other words, it is easy for others to say, “Come on, that was 30 years ago -- just let it go already” without truly understanding the level of suffering that many Vietnamese endured and still endure in the form of family members killed or separated.

Therefore, in the same way we need to truly understand the historical impacts of past experiences of injustice and suffering experienced by other racial/ethnic minority groups, so too should Americans be careful not to minimize the impact of the Viet Nam War and their forced exit out of their ancestral land by hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees.

At the same time, Vietnamese Americans should hopefully understand that there is a limit to their protests. Verbal criticisms and mass demonstrations are perfectly legitimate expressions of dissent, but threats and acts of violence are not. In those cases, the laws of this country are clear and there are no exceptions, regardless of how angry one feels or one’s level of past suffering.

In short, these are the factors and boundaries involved in Vietnamese American political activism and freedom of expression -- we have broad opportunities to express our experiences, our grief, and our anger, but there are limits that we need to keep in mind. This is ultimately part of what it means to be Vietnamese American.

First off is the bad part: as many Asian American bloggers have already commented on, last week there was a racist “satire” column published in the student newspaper at the University of Colorado at Boulder that perpetuated numerous racial stereotypes against Asian Americans.

As you can read for yourself, here are some excerpts:

Asians are not just “a product of their environment,” and their rudeness is not a “cultural misunderstanding.” They hate us all.

And I say it’s time we started hating them back. That’s right-no more “tolerance.” No more “cultural sensitivity.” No more “Mr. Pretend-I’m-Not-Racist.” It’s time for war. . . . If you’re not sure if someone is an Asian, give them a calculus problem to do in their head. If they get it right, net ‘em. . . .

Before we let the Asians go, we will go to their homes and redecorate them in a traditional American style. We will replace their rice cookers with George Foreman Grills, their green tea mochi with fried Snickers bars, and their rice rockets with Hummers. And booster seats. . . .

The only other way to make peace would be to expel you.

At best, the column is a rather idiotic and incoherent diatribe against perceived cultural differences. But in reality, it reinforces racial biases and prejudices against Asian Americans and sets us further apart as “foreigners” who will never, ever be considered “Americans.”

Of course, there are defenders of the column who argue that freedom of speech allows the writer to say whatever he wants and that ultimately, it’s meant as a joke and that we Asian Americans should all just lighten up. To that argument, here is my standard response:

What we need to recognize is that there are fundamental institutional power differences inherent in situations in which White public figures denigrate minorities and that each time an incident like that happens, it reinforces the notion of White supremacy -- that Whites can say whatever they want against anybody at any time.

I’m also not surprised to hear a White person say that they don’t feel offended by anything because as a collective racial group, Whites already enjoy so many other privileges associated with their skin color. Isn’t it just typical for Whites and their lackeys to say “sticks and stones” and “get just it over it.” Unfortunately, that comment only serves to provide us with nothing else than a clear illustration of White privilege and supremacy.

As an update to this story, after meeting with university officials, staff at the student newspaper have agreed to undergo diversity training to ensure that such “editing lapses” in the future. I suppose that’s good news, but it would have been nice if someone, anyone involved could have come to their senses in the beginning and realized that perpetuating racial stereotypes, even when it’s meant as satire, is almost never a good idea.

Fortunately, I have better news to try to offset this episode: the University of Washington recently announced that they will award honorary baccalaureate degrees to hundreds of former Japanese American students whose education were terminated when they were imprisoned after the Pearl Harbor attack at the start of World War II:

UW spokesman Bob Roseth said the decision to award the degrees was at least partly because of a two-part series of articles that ran two years ago in the university’s alumni magazine, Columns. The series detailed the stories of a handful of the students who were forced to leave the university more than 60 years ago. . . .

“It’s only taken … 66 years to address this injustice,” UW Regent Stanley Baer said. “It occurs to me to take some comfort in the fact that a president couldn’t do that today,” added Regent Bill Gates Sr. . . .

Tetsuden Kashima, UW professor of American ethnic studies, said limited information has been gathered about 390 of the students. Kashima, who petitioned the regents to approve the measure, isn’t sure how many of the students are still alive.

It is a little unfortunate that it took the University of Washington more than 60 years to take this step but nonetheless, it is a noteworthy and symbolic acknowledgment of a grave historical injustice.

I can only hope that as we move forward into the increasingly globalized and transnational 21st century that I will see more events like the University of Washington declaration, and less of incidents like that at the University of Colorado.

It always seems to be two steps forward, one step back.

The only familiar signs at the McDonald’s in this large Asian community are the golden arches, the drive-through and the menu. Gone are the plastic furniture, Ronald McDonald and the red and yellow palette that has defined the world’s largest hamburger chain. Leather seats, earth tones, bamboo plants and water trickling down glass panels have taken their place.

The makeover elements are meant to help diners achieve happiness and fortune — whether they realize it or not. That’s because the restaurant was redesigned using the principles of feng shui, the ancient Chinese practice of arranging objects and numbers to promote health, harmony and prosperity. . . .

The McDonald’s in this Los Angeles suburb boasts wood ceiling, silver-coated chairs, plus red accents throughout the dining area to symbolize fire and “good luck, laughter and prosperity,” said Brenda Clifford, who designed the dining area.

The textured walls patterned after ocean waves symbolize “life and relaxation — the balanced things that you want in your life,” she said. . . . Two workers at the nearby post office said they’ve been taking more lunch breaks at the remodeled McDonald’s, which opened in late December. . . .

Nevermind that this is the same McDonald’s that’s been vilified by critics over its artery-clogging Big Macs and fries.

Can capitalism and natural harmony coexist, or as the last line that I quoted above suggests, is it simply akin to putting lipstick on a pig? At this point, you can judge for yourself.

My main observation for now is that while it is nice that the “mainstreamization” of traditional Asian cultural elements such as feng shui are mostly positive and hopefully symbolize the larger acceptance of Asians and Asian Americans into the fundamental fabric of American society, it would also be nice if the cultural acceptance of things like feng shui were also accompanied by larger institutional changes such as more political power, fewer hate crimes, more opportunities for corporate advancement, etc.

“For too much of our history, federal-tribal relations have been marked by broken treaties, mistreatment and dishonorable dealings,” said Brownback, a Republican. “We can acknowledge our past failures, express sincere regrets and establish a brighter future for all Americans.”

The resolution says the federal government forced Indians off tribal lands, stole tribal assets and is responsible for “official depredations, ill-conceived policies and the breaking of covenants” with tribes. The Senate added the resolution as an amendment to the health care bill by voice vote Thursday night. . . .

It is unusual for Congress to apologize for official government acts, though there have been exceptions, including a 1988 apology for interning Japanese-Americans in detention camps during World War II and a 1993 apology to native Hawaiians for the unlawful overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. . . .

The Indian apology resolution in the Senate bill is careful to state that it is not meant to authorize or support any claim against the U.S. government or serve as a settlement of any claim.

Even though the proposed apology does not include any reparations, to be honest, I am rather shocked that a conservative Republican is leading this effort and that Congress is well on its way to approving such a measure. As I and other scholars have written about before, the U.S. government is usually not too keen on admitting that it has systematically mistreated its minority groups throughout history.

Maybe things have changed, who knows. At any rate, this would be a monumental symbolic achievement and I give huge props to Senator Brownback for having the conviction to lead this effort.