Archive for category race
California nurses call for investigation of alleged discriminatory hiring practices against Filipinos at SF’s St.Luke’s hospital
If you don’t think racism and discrimination still exists in our era of diversity, consider this: A de facto ban against hiring Filipino nurses at the St.Luke’s Campus of Sutter Health’s Calif. Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) appears to be policy in San Francisco.
No Filipinos, as blatant as that.
Just like the old sign that the Filipino National Historical Society displays, the one from the 1920s that reads, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed.”
You can take that sign and stick it on the door at St.Luke’s, right now, says the California Nurses Association, the nurses union.
And now it wants to do something about it.
At a press conference on Thursday, the union will call for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to investigate the hospital. The union will also announce its intention to file a class action grievance against Sutter and CPMC.
The union provided compelling evidence which included signed statements by former managers and current job stats, that suggests Filipinos are being unfairly discriminated at the St. Luke’s campus.
From numbers provided by CPMC, the numbers are revealing. Before the take-over of the hospital in 2007 the Filipino RNs at St.Luke’s were 66 percent of the nursing population.
Between 2007 and 2008, just 48 percent of new hires were Filipino.
From Feb. 2008, when the nurses union and the community organized to stop the closure of St.Luke’s, to the present, the percentage of new RN hires who were Filipino dropped dramatically to just 10 percent.
They didn’t all just give up their RN credentials and take jobs as Wal-Mart greeters.
Nato Green, the labor representative who works at St.Luke’s said it’s no coincidence. “I believe this reflects Sutter’s decision to use race to divide workers and stop collective bargaining activity,” Green told me. “ Going from 66 percent to 10 percent (of new hires) is a fairly remarkable coincidence.”
It all comes after the union forced Sutter to keep St.Luke’s open. The nurses union expected some push back, but not this.
“CPMC and Sutter have chosen to retaliate by carrying out a punitive, illegal and immoral campaign of discrimination,” said Zenei Cortz, the California Nurses Association president. “There is no excuse for racial or ethnic discrimination. A hospital should be a center of therapeutic healing for patients, not a model for bigotry.”
The union also produced affidavits signed under penalty of perjury. Ronald Rivera, a former nurse manager, who worked there from April 2006 to April 2010 when he resigned on good terms, provided his testimony.
“One day I spoke with Diana Karner (VP of nursing) on the phone about hiring new RNs,” he attested. “Diana said to me that we probably should not hire any more foreign graduate nurses. She explained that patients complain because “it is hard to understand them and be understood by them.”
Another signed affidavit came from Ronald Villanueva, who actually was sitting in and overheard the conversation between Karner and Rivera. “I was shocked and I wondered if she knew I was a foreign graduate nurse,” he wrote.
A third declaration came from from Chris Hanks, who was the Director of Critical Care from 2008 to 2009 and reported directly to Karner. Hanks was alarmed when told point blank “you are not to hire any Filipino nurses.” Hanks challenged Karner at their weekly meetings, until he was Karner told him, “The Filipinos are always related , or know each other, and that’s not good. You’re not to hire them.”
Karner the VP of nursing didn’t return my telephone call.
Kevin McCormack, of CPMC’s media relations said she was out of the office and unavailable. What did he think of a ban on hiring Filipino nurses? “That would be illegal,” he said. “You can’t ban hiring specific groups.”
He called it “ridiculous” and implied it was a stunt by C N A to fan the ongoing labor dispute with CPMC.
“We have a long history of hiring Filipino nurses on all our campuses, including St.Luke’s, and we are still hiring them,” McCormack read from CPMC’s official statement. “We have many RNs at our St. Luke’s campus who are Filipino and know how extraordinary they are. To say we are imposing quotas on them is outrageous.”
It is outrageous, but the numbers don’t lie.
The Filipino nursing staff at St.Luke’s is shrinking and it is such a precipitous drop that it can’t just be by accident or happenstance.
Note from Emil Guillermo: Help,I’m a pioneer!
AAJA, the Asian American Journalists Association has figured out the best way to get back at me after all my years of being a bickering member.
It’s honoring me.
On Wed., Aug. 4, I’m being honored among 150 others as an Asian American pioneer in U.S. journalism. (Yes, Tritia Toyota and Connie Chung are on the list too. But so ae lots of others who were founders and original members of AAJA).
How’d that happen?
It’s just a citation for being old and one of the first Asian Americans to consider journalism instead of medicine, the law, restaurant ownership, or investment banking for a career.
At this point in time, I’d have to say, choosing journalism may not have been the best choice.
But it was my choice. And I’m gratified that someone noticed that I was the first Asian American male and first Filipino American to host a national news program when I was senior host of “All Things Considered” in 1989.
I hope that doesn’t become the headline in my obituary someday. It’s not over yet. (I can’t even withdraw from my IRA without a 10 percent penalty).
I’m still a pioneer who hasn’t quite reached the promised land.
A Sunday Fourth: Freedom as religion to all good patriots
I love it when the Fourth of July is on a Sunday. On a day that is considered by many a holy day, a Sunday Fourth makes it pretty clear to me what this day is about. It is a religious day, for what is America’s religion but freedom itself?
In America, of course, you can be part of some organized religion, whatever you choose, or not. You can believe in God, gods, or just in yourself.
“USA, USA, USA.”
But mostly we believe in your right to say, “No, thank you.”
You can even drop the “thank you,” and be as vigorous in your dissent, alone or all together, however you wish.
When you’re an American that’s what we understand to be true and what we fight to protect.
We have faith in this freedom. It’s called patriotism.
Patriotism isn’t a blind allegiance to folks in Washington, and the policies of the elected.
To be a patriot is to be one who knows that freedom is beyond debate. The Founding Fathers may be dead, but the founding principles are still alive.
A patriot is there to make sure it stays that way. Who are these “patriots”? They aren’t all from a particular gender, ethnicity, or income group. Nor are they the rabid folk who call conservative talk shows and waste good tea. Indeed, immigrants tend to be the best patriots, fighters and rebels to the core. Many are here because they believed and fought for the same things we believed in, only in their own homelands. Ask the Southeast Asian who fought with the U.S. in the Vietnam War. Ask a Filipino veteran of WWII. They are no less American than the descendents of the Mayflower.
And here we are all together this Sunday, celebrating our freedoms without question.
That’s what we Americans believe in, religiously.
Two Radicals: Times Square suspect Faisal Shahzad and Tea Party victor Rand Paul from Kentucky
While Rand Paul was marching to victory in Kentucky on Tuesday, Faisal Shahzad was arraigned in New York.
Much has been made about the story of Shahzad, mostly about his ineptitude as a terrorist.
His other story line is more common.
In these diverse times, Shahzad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, was no different from many Americans and considered a normal suburbanite . But when the American dream slipped away due to foreclosure and money pressures, the radicalization of the “boy next door” began.
Darn it. If he were white, he could have joined the Tea Party.
But that group is so radical in a different way that a Shahzad wouldn’t have been welcome to pass out tea bags.
If there was a doubt about that, Rand Paul dispelled it this week.
Paul –a Tea Party devotee and as of this week, the newly minted Republican nominee from Kentucky to the Senate–showed his true colors when he made his victory speech for public office in a private country club.
Being elitist is one thing, but when you add his public denouncement of the Civil Rights Act, you have a true radical in public life in America.
It’s as radical a perspective from a different direction as the radical fundamentalism of Shahzad.
I won’t condemn Paul for having his views. That would be undemocratic. And our democracy allows for the freedom to have stupid opinions.
But I will condemn his vile beliefs as having no place in modern society.
To be a poltically-fundamentalist American is no less radical a belief to fear in a new diverse America.
Emil Guillermo’s quick take: The Aquino victory in the Philippines and what it says about the Filipino people
I’m hearing it said, and it’s true: Noynoy Aquino would not have won this time around had his mother not died last year.
It’s that guilt vote. Catholicism,guilt, family ties mean something in the RP. If voting machine and counting snafus could be averted, then it was in the bag. But who had the crystal balls to predict that?
One thing is sure, an Aquino candidacy was unlikely had Cory lived on. Noynoy was too happy as the idealistic gadfly oligarch.
The political wags in Manila are already saying that in a “Non-Noy, No Aquino race,” the convicted and pardoned former ex-President Joseph Estrada would have won easily over the scandal-tainted Manny Villar, the Meg Whitman-Ross Perot like politician who had lots of money to burn.
Add to that the tremendous victories from the surviving Marcos family, all of them, allowed to run and win in their Ilocos region. What do you get? A recycling of corruption seems imminent.
Says a lot for the Filipino voters and the future of democracy there, where crooked politicians are cherished and revered.
But why shouldn’t some scalawags and scalawagas be given a fifth or sixth chance?
It’s the Filipino way.
In America, you get dumped for lying about your Vietnam status. Or you get dinged for having an affair (which is strange. Don’t politicos get into the business to get chicks?)
But that’s politics in America. All that is just a starting point for political success in the Philippines.
Move over Rima Fakih: Miss USA doesn’t hold a candle to Mona Pasquil, American Filipino, and former acting Lieutenant Governor of California
Why is no one clamoring about Mona Pasquil, the highest ranking American Filipino ever in the most Filipino state in the U.S.?
Mona is making news as she steps down from her interim appointment as California’s Lieutenant Governor and helps with the transition.
Meanwhile the world is going gaga over Rima Fakih, the Arab American from Dearborn, Mich.,and newly crowned Miss USA, though who knows for how long.
Fakih’s propensity to strip in public may be too much for Donald Trump’s beauty contest. Once again photos have come up in post-mortem of a Trump contestants’ extra-curriculars. It’s a pattern to be expected among these types of gals, and now the Donald may strip Miss Fakih of her new tiara.
Instead, maybe he can put her on the next “Apprentice.” She’d be good for an episode on organizing a wet-T shirt contest.
I admit to being surprised at the reaction to Fakih’s victory. The Arab American community was filled with pride, as if to say “She’s a bimbo, but she’s our bimbo!”
My immediate reaction was, “Where are the Arab American feminists out there when we really need them?”
Fakih may seem like a liberated sort, shirking the burqa and showing off the goods. But is it progress shifting from one oppressor (the traditional Arab chauvinist) to the Western exploitation of Donald Trump?
False progress like fake boobs only go so far.
WE KNOW PAGEANTS
As you know, Filipinos are beauty pageant aficionados, and even taking Miss USA on its own terms, I was surprised by Fakih even being in the top 5.
Take the “Question” session. All the questions seemed to have a current events bent. Fakih was no great intellect here. No quoting from the Koran or anything like that. Her question was on whether birth control should be covered by health insurance.
Being the practical, western Arab American, what else could she say about birth control, the great enabler. She said, yes. It’s costly.
Winner, winner?
But there was Fakih (has a nice ring to it,no? ) standing next to the other finalists—4 blonde, toothy, leggy Amazons. It almost seemed like a set up for Trump.
Not to besmirch the integrity of the beauty contest, but my guess is that Trump saw the possibility of a media circus in having an Arab girl win. That’s like having a guy with a Turban win a NASCAR race. Woo-hoo, Allah! It’s just too surreal for a publicity-monger to pass up. At least for a while. As I said she may be stripped of her title by the time you read this for being too western for clothes.
REAL BEAUTY? MONA PASQUIL
As much as I was startled by Fakih, I was dazzled recently by Mona who was the key honoree at a special Asian American Heritage Month celebration in San Jose last week hosted by community leader Ben Menor.
I’ve known Mona and her parents for several years. As a political player, Mona’s no slouch, having served as political director for twice-elected Gov. Gray Davis, then as western political director for Bill Clinton. As chief of staff to former Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, the seas parted for Pasquil when Garamendi won a seat for Congress.
But would she run to keep her appointment? Mona told me she was asked, but she declined. “I would have had to raise the money in a short time,” she said, and with no campaign chest in the waiting, Mona did the prudent thing. She wouldn’t wage a one legged battle. She stepped aside, and let others, notably San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom step into the electoral picture.
But watch out for her. Mona assured me she will run when it’s right, and that time is coming soon.
Mona Pasquil. American Filipino. A political player. Now there’s a woman to celebrate during Asian American Heritage Month, or any other month.
Is Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan an Uncle Tomboy? Feeding frenzy on the sexual identity of the solicitor general: Let’s work it out before it turns into unabashed bigotry
Ever been to the Liberace Museum?
Do you TIVO the Ellen Show during the workday so you can watch late at night?
Got Melissa Etheridge on your CD rack?
People are beating around the bush, shall we say, when it comes to the sexuality of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Like it matters, right?
“None of our business “should be the official ‘“knee jerk response.”
What about her hiring of minorities at Harvard? Why did the late great Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall call her a “knucklehead” when the young clerk argued chimed in against a school busing case? Slightly more relevant questions.
But all the world seems stuck on the sexual red herring.
Then again, sex always makes for an exciting vetting process. It was no charade for Clarence Thomas, whose hearings were sexually charged with references to the conservative jurist’s favorite porn star, Long Dong Silver, and the image of a pubic hair on a soda can.
None of it derailed Thomas.
And neither should any of the sex talk about Kagan when all is said and done.
But, here we are as a country, working through a new low-point in our collective sexual maturity.
Hard to believe it really, considering anyone who can afford cable can turn on Logo and see same-sex anything 24-7. You can even see queer themes on the major networks in prime-time. Wasn’t always that way, so there’s some mark of progress.
But there are still some areas of society where your sexual proclivities are best left unsaid.
In D.C. policy wonks may talk a good game about gays and lesbians and when it comes to the public matters of civil rights, marriage and military service.
But every now and then, it’s just too tempting to gawk before taking the high road.
That’s where we are with the Kagan sex talk. Anytime you can combine sex with fear in politics and you have a volatile mix ready-made for a nominee’s detractors.
Even in these oversexed times, too many are still uncomfortable when it comes to non-heterosexual lifestyles.
It’s as if being gay or lesbian were somehow unpatriotic.
But this is where the sex talk gets interesting. The most ardent comments have come from out-gays, notably blogger Andrew Sullivan.
When I didn’t see the president introduce Kagan with the standard political husband and kids, the thought occurred to me that perhaps Kagan was a LWOB (lesbian without beard) But what of it? I’ve stood side by side my entire career with blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and gay, lesbian, transgender groups for diversity in journalism.
Why wouldn’t I welcome the thought of a lesbian justice?
What surprises me is that I’ve heard more criticism from liberal and left-oriented groups who want to make sexual identity an issue, saying that to not hear someone acknowledge it is “cowardly.”
It’s no different when I as a “professional ethnicist” look at an issue and make it race relevant while others insist on a colorblind approach.
I know what I call those folks. In the context of sexual identity, would this make Kagan an Uncle Tomboy?
The Washington Post reports that the White House did come out pre-nomination and said Kagan’s not a lesbian. But the rumors have persisted and now we have a full blown, “is-she-or-isn’t-she “debate.
That would be fine if we were all playing fair.
But many are not. That’s why most people would rather not get into the discussion in the first place. So quickly can it turn into a living, breathing example of modern bigotry in action.
That, of course, would be so un-American.
But very human.
It’s Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month–Time for a protest! Anti-Asian violence rally, SF City Hall, 6pm today, May 4
It’s May. It’s Asian Islander Heritage Month. Do you care?
You should. In fact, there’s a protest today that is ready made for the month.
It’s at San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday, May 4 (today) @ 6pm to Stop Violence Against the Asian American community.
No one is saying the recent rash of incidents on Muni are hate crimes yet, but they do come close enough for concern, especially if you are an Asian American living in the Bay View and Visitation Valley.
But take the race out of some of these cases in San Francisco and what do you get? A woman in her 50s, a man in his 80s.
That doesn’t sound like race is as big a factor to me. I don’t think the perps would pick a fight with Bruce Lee III. Jet Li Jr. or Michelle Yeoh.
The Muni perps are cowards who prey on the weak. We’re not talking race war. We’re talking about the need for security on the streets and public transportation for all people.
So it’s not a race war, or a hate crime. So what?
Let’s call it a “tragic coincidence.” It’s still violence against Asians on Muni and throughout Northern California, that needs to be addressed aggressively by public officials. And it’s a reminder that no matter how many Asian faces are on the SF Board of Supes, we still haven’t outgrown AAPI Month.
Frankly, most of the time, I’m ready to give up on the month.
For example, before today, did any one greet you with a happy AAPI Month hug? Karate chop? Any Hallmark cards? If you follow me at www.twitter.com/emilamok, I did tweet an AAPI Month greeting.
Still, if it weren’t for the upcoming Asian Street fair, most AAPI celebrations would be some lame, boring, governmental affair at the Federal building or City Hall. AAPI Month is the law, after all. All federal agencies and government bodies have to celebrate it, or else. It’s a little like a shotgun wedding.
But because it’s the law, it literally would take an act of Congress to rid ourselves of it.
So when I think we no longer need an AAPI Month, I think of Huan Chen, the 83 year old Muni rider beaten and killed in the Bay View in January. It makes me think of the now legendary case of Vincent Chin, the Chinese American mistaken for Japanese and beaten to death in Detroit in 1982.
And then I’m reminded how AAPI Month isn’t just for us. It’s for all of us, especially the non-Asians who have no clue of the past.
AAPI Month is not a separatist movement. It was born out of protest over being excluded, and has always been a passionate call for inclusion. It’s about letting people know our issues and that we belong in our country—America.
Let people know at the SF City Hall protest today that the outrage continues.
Mainstream media finally notices: Olympic champion diver Victoria Manalo Draves is still dead after 19 days
I first heard of Victoria Manalo Draves’ death more than two weeks ago.
Draves was an important, iconic figure in the Filipino American community. Born to a Filipino father and a Caucasian mother during a time when mixed-marriages were against the law, young Vicky Manalo was shunned as a kid in San Francsico from swimming among whites. It didn’t stop Draves from becoming an Olympic champion in 1948.
Of course, that doesn’t mean she gets the respect she deserves on the day of her death.
Today’s obit in the New York Times shows just how far Filipinos, even half-white ones, can be in terms of real inclusion.
It took the Times 19 days to report the death of an Olympic champion, excusing its tardiness by saying Manalo’s death “had not been widely reported.” I heard about it through the ethnic media.
So the mainstream’s elite newspaper is just 19 days behind in reporting a significant death of a Filipino American. At least now we can measure how far behind the mainstream can be.
So much for diversity in journalism. At least it wasn’t 19 years.
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