The 2012-2013 cohort of interns gather with coordinator Jere Takahashi at the end of semester banquet.

The Asian Pacific American Student Development office (APASD) is now accepting applications for those interested in interning for the 2013-2014 academic school year.

The Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD) serves the diverse and changing needs of the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community at the University of California, Berkeley. APASD provides accessible and relevant programming and resources, promotes cross-cultural community building, and advocates civil rights and social justice through education and empowerment.

In addition to organizing the regular programs such as Celebrating Asian Pacific American Womyn (CAPAW) and Asian Pacific Islander Issues Conference (APIICON), interns also plan book signings, film screenings, open mics, and more.

Applications must be submitted by 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 21, 2013.

If you are interested and want to learn more, please read:
http://tinyurl.com/2013APASDApplication

Please contact APASD if you have further questions about the process: apasdoffice@gmail.com

You can also stop by the office at 249 Cesar Chavez to talk to the interns!

Plan on staying in Berkeley over the summer? Apply to mentor Southeast Asian high school students as part of the Summer Institute program under the Southeast Asian Student Coalition (SASC)!

SASC Summer Institute’s objective is to build networks among high school students, college students, parents, and community members in order to promote greater access to college education for Southeast Asian American communities. Selected students will participate in college workshops, lectures, and other peer-bonding activities while staying in a UC Berkeley dormitory.

SASC Summer Institute is an all-expense paid summer program that provides a safe learning environment for Southeast Asian American youth. We seek motivated high school students with diverse experiences and backgrounds, not necessarily those with the highest academic marks.

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Important Dates to Consider:

1. ***extended deadline*** Sun, April 7 – applications for potential mentees or mentors must be submitted by 11:59 pm
2. June 15-16 – mandatory training retreat for mentors
3. June 19-23 – SI program

Mentor Requirements:

• Be at the Summer Institute for the entire five days.
• Attend a mandatory training retreat, from June 15-16, 2013. All mentors must be available from Wednesday, June 19 to Sunday, June 23, 2013 for the entire time (duration of the program).
• Have some knowledge of Southeast Asian history.
• Is currently attending or graduated from college.

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Apply to be a MENTOR >>>www.tinyurl.com/SI2013MentorApp<<<

Apply to be a MENTEE >>>download application<<<

Feel free to email if you have any questions! mentorvolunteer.sascsi@gmail.com

About a week ago, Gavin McInnes, purported “Godfather of Hipsterdom” and co-founder of VICE Magazine, released an article titled, “Tackling Asian Privilege,” where he builds a thoughtful, ironic, near-ridiculous, mostly-satirical-but-not-really argument that Asians are advantaged by American society. When I first got a hold of the article, oblivious to its author, my first reaction was a familiar one: “Who is this white man writing about my people?” As I started to read, I went from anger to confusion to eye-rolling to more confusion. Friends shared the article on Facebook, some clearly oblivious of the fact that it was a satire, defending their family’s academic and professional success. I’m still not sure if I’m more upset that they didn’t realize the article’s irony or that their hurt is real.

Let’s just put it out there: McInnes’ article is a satire. He is making a commentary on white privilege. While many of his readers may have taken his words at face value, I don’t doubt that McInnes is a smart guy, that he is actually challenging the white privilege of many of his readers.

But there is an irony behind the irony. The greater irony is that McInnes, in his hopes to highlight and challenge privilege, actually falls victim to the very thing he is standing against. McInnes can afford to write an ironic article that uses examples of “Asian privilege” as a rhetorical launching point, but not everyone has the luxury of seeing it thus. For my friends who read the article and immediately posted their 140-character rebuttal on Twitter, McInnes’ article is not mere satire; it stings.

The same holds true for other feeble attempts at racial satire. UC Berkeley students remember well the Affirmative Action Bakesale. Despite our value for free speech, there is a clear difference between good and thoughtful satire and a satire that is destructive and assholish. People who, even with the best intentions, do thoughtless things in the name of racial free speech must be willing to deal with the harm they cause, with the communities they insult. And “It’s just a joke, stop taking it so seriously.” does not count as an apology.

McInnes’ article hit too close to home and was not quite ridiculous enough. But why should I have expected him to anticipate how Asian Americans would feel about his article? He has no framework for our consciousness, no understanding of how his salty words fall into the open wounds of our community. Many of my friends went on the defensive after the first two paragraphs; of course I don’t blame them for pushing back on their Facebook statuses and blogs.

Gavin McInnes, you’ve clearly done your research, I don’t doubt your good intentions, but please do not use us as a chess piece in your exposition on privilege. We are more than what you have reduced us to, we are less than happy with the outcome. This is not a joke. Start taking us seriously.

new year celebration at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, CA

The Lunar New Year passed by on February 10, 2013, and hardboiled wishes you all a lucky and bold year ahead of us!

Thank you to President Obama for the nod. We know you’d be down for some bánh chưng or tāngyuán anytime.

• Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those who will be celebrating the Lunar New Year this Sunday, February 10th.  Here in America and around the world, people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent will welcome the Year of the Snake.  In Chinese tradition, the snake represents wisdom, and a thoughtful approach to tackling the challenges before us – principles that I hope will continue to guide us as we perfect our union and create a more just and equal future for every American.  Our challenges may be great, but our diversity and the traditions that thrive here give us the strength to meet them.  To everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year, I wish you peace, prosperity and good health and fortune.

With the last issue of hardboiled focused on Richard Aoki, I thought I would take the time to talk about him as well. Suffice it to say, Aoki was pretty iconic for the Asian American activist community. After all, not only was he an activist in the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), but also helped start the Black Panther Party.

For me, Aoki was a hero. He stood with other great activists like Martin Luther King Jr., or Cesar Chavez Jr. He was a badass. Not only did he join the military to serve his country, fought for equality for people of color via Third World Liberation Front but he was also involved with the Black Panther Party. In August, when Seth Rosenfeld was getting ready to release his book, Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power, he released information that Aoki was an informant for the FBI. The Asian American community was confused. I know I was. News sources at the time were only reporting the same information: Aoki was an FBI informant. Dismayed, I was hoping that his friends could give me insight whether or not this information was true.

So I sought out Harvey Dong, a friend of Aoki. He was interviewed by Seth Rosenfeld and started his own research when he found about Rosenfeld’s allegation. Harvey had only scratched the surface in finding out information about Aoki. I got to see a couple of pages of the papers that implied that Aoki was an informant. These pages were mostly redacted (thick lines that cover up information) and therefore a bit confusing to interpret. Without hard evidence that Aoki was an informant, I hoped that the allegations were false.

A couple of months have passed since the allegations. The Asian American community, especially those who knew Richard, demanded more information and more information is becoming available. There are many files that have not been released to the public and are going through a process so that they can be made available, particularly after November 1st. The information that is currently out there tends to confirm Aoki as an informant. When more information becomes available, who knows how the story will change.

Maybe he really was not an informant, or the information will reaffirm that he was. Let us assume he was one. What kind of informant was he? Was he one that truly believed that the movement that he was a part of truly malicious, or was something else going on? I will have a harder time believing the former, as he became, as described by a chapter in Diane Fujino’s Samurai Among Panther, an “advocate for the students.”  Regardless of his informant status, he taught critical social issues, provided academic counseling to marginalized students and leadership to his colleagues. (Fujino 257) He is still one of many heroes of the TWLF movement. Still, he is human. Even with the blemishes, he will still be a positive icon in my eyes and hopefully, in the Asian American and other communities as well.