Category Archives: diversity

blog, diversity, news, politics

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is half over; Have you hugged an Asian Pacific American yet? How about an LGBT APA?

Specifically, have you shown a little love for Dan Choi or Sandy Tsao?

Both are doing what few Asian Americans ever do: Stand up to the institutional hypocrisy in America.

Lt. Dan Choi and 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao could make history, if they are the first to break the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” charade.

The policy makes sexual orientation irrelevant in the military, until it’s spoken. A mere verbal admission of one’s homosexuality is considered a sexual act and grounds for dismissal.

Choi, 28, is a West Point grad, trained in Arabic and until recently a valued member of the New York National Guard. But when he admitted being gay on a national cable show, the Army has now moved for his discharge.

His service was never in question. But his homosexuality is. In fact, in reports  Choi admits to being a bad homosexual claiming zero  sexual relations with men or women, for that matter, while in the Army. It was only when he recently fell in love with another man that he decided that coming out was the morally right thing to do.

Because President Obama has strongly opposed DADT in public, Choi is hoping the president will take up his cause. It takes both bodies of Congress and the president to change the policy, which seems unlikely. But Choi is hoping people see through the hypocrisy and join his petition drive:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/dontfiredan

Choi actually is the second Asian American in recent weeks to come forward.

2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, an army officer in St. Louis, disclosed  her homosexuality and actually wrote to President Obama.  The president wrote her back.

“It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy,” Obama’ wrote. “Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment!”

It could be an empty promise for Tsao, discharged officially May 19.

blog, diversity, journalism, news, politics

Roxana Saberi’s free, but mistreatment of journalists continues world-wide

It’s a good week that begins with the release  of Roxana Saberi, an Asian American freelance journalist held in an Iranian prison since March for espionage.

Reports source her lawyer who said the Court of Appeal in Teheran has ruled to reduce her sentence from eight to two years, creating the possibility for a suspended sentence for Saberi, born in the U.S. to an Iranian father and Japanese mother.

Saberi’s arrest and her subsequent espionage conviction has been a baffler.  Saberi was there to do a book on Iranian pop culture and was unlikely a “spy” in the George Bush-CIA-traditional sense, but as our envoy providing  real information about a country where the truth is intentionally layered, shrouded and buried.

She was doing the work of a journalist– the most dangerous and threatening job imaginable to individuals, institutions, and governments that would rather control the truth to their liking.

I’m happy for Saberi’s release. It’s not easy being a journalist without a big news organization backing your search for the truth. But the treatment toward Saberi is not isolated. There are at least five other Iranian journalists imprisoned in Iran, according to the most recent census by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Unlike Saberi, there is little hue and cry over their imprisonment.

Indeed, journalists worldwide have met fates far worse than prison. The CPJ puts the number of journalists who have been killed in the last 17 years at 734.

One of them was my buddy Chauncey Bailey who was killed in 2007 in  Oakland.

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=01cc32ef3213e4b5ef8834f9fb10eb3b

Normally, they don’t kill journalists in America.

But in many countries, journalists , including bloggers,  have been killed.  In Burma and China, bloggers disappear after writing their on-line stories. In the Philippines more than 24 journalists have been murdered mysteriously in the last decade, their cases go unsolved. The record makes the Philippines’ the deadliest peacetime democracy where one can practice journalism.

That’s what happens when journalism is about life and death.

Here in America, they don’t bother killing the journalists. Just their newspapers.

blog, diversity, humor, news, politics

Who gets the blame when a bi-racial Obama screws up?

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Thanks to Wanda Sykes, we know.

At Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner (now simply called the WHCD), comedienne Sykes pointed out that the “first black president,” was in fact  bi-racial.

So when Obama’s wonderful, he’s  TFBP (the first black president).  But when he screws up—then he’s the white guy.

Obama is positioned by birth to be at both ends of the joke.  He can be the pin-pricker and the pin-pricked.  It’s the new ethnic humor.   As mixed marriages and their offspring grow in number,  expect to see more of this  new ethnic joke form come up.

I said the same thing recently about Giants’ Tim Lincecum, last year’s Cy Young winner for best pitcher in the NL. When he’s pitching well, we Filipinos love to point out he’s  at least a quarter Filipino (which explains his greatness, of course).  But when he’s getting shelled and pitching poorly,  that must be the white part  giving up all those hits.

I point this out because ethnic humor may be one way to break the ice and begin having those awkward race conversations Attorney General Eric Holder said we should be having.

If we start talking wonkily about race by exploring Brown and Plessy, or their latter day counterparts that could impact us all,  no one will be having a conversation soon.

But if we talk about our president like Sykes did at the WHCD, we may be able to sneak up on the tough conversations we are too  cowardly to have.

blog, diversity, news

Remembering Al Robles, Filipino American poet and activist

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Even as the global Filipino community cheers the triumph of boxing’s  Manny Pacquiao, those in the Bay Area have tempered their glee as more learn the news of Al Robles’ death on Saturday.

Manong Al was the quintessential amok, whose life was the perfect balance between wildly creative  self-expression and dedicated and continuous community service. An activist and a poet, I first met Al 28 years ago in 1981 when I returned to San Francisco as a television reporter and did a follow up story on the legendary International Hotel.  I found him running a senior center on the edge of Chinatown by day, reading and writing poetry by night. Through the years, he was one of my best sources, a grassroots barometer of the community, always zeroed in on what was going  on.

Earlier this month, I learned that Al had come down with Guillian-Barre’ Syndrome, a debilitating disease that compromises the immune system. His illness was not thought to be life threatening when activists  let Robles’ network of friends know of his illness.  But few updates on his condition arrived. Only this weekend did his close friends begin  spreading the word that Robles had indeed passed away May 2.

Manong Al was always warm and friendly, greeting me as “Mr. Amok” whenever I saw him. He was always encouraging me to keep on doing my work in the ethnic media.  How he treated me was indicative of how he treated others. His unique role was to be both inspiration and motivation to all.

In these rough times, Al’s fighting spirit will be sorely missed.