Tag Archives: Asian Americans

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, boxing, diversity, Filipino, news, politics, race, sports

Emil Guillermo: (VIDEO) Jamie Foxx will sing “Star Spangled Banner” at tonight’s PacMay fight; Will he mock Manny and do it in a Filipino accent? He did on ESPN’s First Take. Was it a racial slur?

Accent is a big deal.

It’s one thing for a Filipino to make fun of it.

But it’s quite another for Jamie Foxx to do it on national television. Take a look at this video of ESPN’s “First Take.”

Funny or racial slur?

No different than the non-written rules for the use of “N” word by non-blacks.

If you’re not Filipino, it’s a slur.

Given how politically correct ESPN has been on making fun of accents and racial remarks (remember the “chink in the armour” references regarding Jeremy Lin?),I don’t know how they could allow this on their air.

 

And there’s the super self-righteous Stephen A. Smith yucking it up.
He’s been suspended for insensitive remarks. Bill Simmons has too.

And yet on the day before the big fight, there’s this on ESPN?

That’s an outrage, folks.

Shows no respect for Pacquiao, the 90 million people of the Philippines, or the 3.4 million Filipinos in America.

Let’s see if ESPN at least takes producers to task for their judgment. And let’s see if Foxx continues to mock Manny and all Filipinos by continuing to do his shtick.

An apology is in order.

 

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Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, news

Emil Guillermo: Sherpas in U.S. pray for Nepal after earthquake.(UPDATED)

Serap Jangbu Sherpa wrote on his Facebook page: “Everybody please let’s take a moment to pray for Nepal and all the Nepalese. It was a massive attack from Mother Nature but please stay strong. Those public monuments we lost, we will raise it again.”

Serap has climbed Mt. Everest three times.

Three.

He knows how to overcome difficulty.

But he still isn’t sure how the quake will affect the climbing season with a month to go.   See my column here.

Hard to imagine anything returning to normal.

The injury numbers  coming in are staggering.

As of Sunday morning, more than 2,200 now confirmed dead,  and the aftershocks continue.

 

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Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, diversity, news, race

Emil Guillermo: The new Asian American Identity– Just American, please?

 

chloenyu

Recently, I asked some young Asian Americans how they liked to identify.

I was surprised.

They didn’t say  “Asian American.”

Now I understand a Samoan saying , “Poly,” or “Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander.”

But these were two people in their ’20s, of Japanese and Chinese descent. Old school.

And they didn’t say,” Asian American.” Read my column here.

Names evolve. Now we have Asian Pacific American, Asian American Pacific Islander, Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander.  It’s always about inclusion, right. Not about bringing poetry to bureaucracy.

But there’s something to be said for how a phrase ages in time.

I don’t know the exact reason why the NAACP doesn’t say change the “cp” part of its name to make it  more “PC.”

Who says “colored people,,” except for racists, right?

But I imagine they kept the phrase because of the history of the term. It’s a phrase that proudly shows its age. And shows what’s been overcome.

Asian American is the seed, not just our root phrase.  From it, the community has expanded to include all different Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicities.

There’s still good reason to hoist it as a unifying banner. There’s history.

And it shows how far we’ve come.

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blog, diversity, Filipino, journalism, news, race

Emil Guillermo: Second thoughts on Starbucks’ #racetogether while I’m drinking my Peet’s coffee

peets

OK, OK.  I am joining the coffee grumps. Coffee, black, no race convo.

I read the Starbucks insert in USA TODAY this past weekend, and frankly, I’m astonished.

Race together?  It’s pretty much the same two lanes:  black and white.

In an eight-page insert, the first mention of Asian Americans is on page 5.

In one of 8 questions, there’s this question: “Asians recently surpassed Latinos as the fastest growing group of new immigrants to the United States.” TRUE or FALSE.

The answer is: TRUE.

“Asians recently surpassed Latinos as the fastest growing group of new immigrants to the United States.”

Asians are mentioned in the timeline titled, “Path to Progress.”

But as I point out in my column on the aaldef.org/blog, there are some glaring omissions.

Pass the Peet’s. And see my new column on the aaldef.org/blog.

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