author: elainechen category: politicking tags: date: May 22nd, 2009
More Asian Americans in politics! The 32nd District is actually really close to where I live, so while I’m down here in Southern California for the summer, it’s hard not to miss the “CHU” signs. Although I know I promised more blog posts, summer seems also equally busy. In any case, I just wanted to put out there that if Judy Chu wins, she’d be the first Asian American in the House for Southern California. Sweet! The area which she represents does seem to have a sizeable Asian American population to represent, so it’d be great to have her perspectives in the House.
She’ll have to face a runoff, though, but it seems like she’s got a pretty strong base of supporters to push her towards victory. We’ll see how it turns out in July. If you guys are registered to vote in this area, don’t forget to vote in the general election!
author: ctran1023 category: calling 'em out tags: date: May 15th, 2009
Some would say that the title of this blog entry is sensational and untrue– I for one cannot see how what has happened is nothing short of murder.
This past Sunday, police officers were called to a Berryessa neighborhood in San Jose after Brian Pham called to say that his mentally ill brother was making unprovoked attacks on the family. The call was made after Daniel cut his brother with a knife from throat to ear. Thereafter, the police arrived at the home. The family members shouted “Don’t shoot him– he’s mentally ill!” In spite of this, the police tasered Daniel and shot him four to five times until he was dead.
Clearly, this was a fragile and highly dangerous situation. Yes, the police needed to use force to prevent Daniel from hurting others but it is a fucking outrage that they would shoot a man with a knife to death. Menace or not, there is no way that it is justifiable for an officer to shoot someone to death when they are not armed with a gun. Police officers claim that they did not know that he was mentally ill but also state that they would have acted in the same way even with this knowledge. Some remorse, huh? There’s plenty of talk about whether or not Daniel was on drugs– can I just say that this is completely beside the point? It makes no difference if he was mentally ill or on drugs because we know that he clearly had problems. This is a mere distraction from the overt injustice taking place. The fact of the matter is that the police shot to kill a man who did not have a gun and are now calling it acceptable procedure.
What absolutely tears me apart is the suffering and guilt that Daniel’s family must be feeling right now. Daniel’s father says that his brother, Brian, feels responsible for Daniel’s death because he was the one who called the police. The family reports that the police have made no effort to contact the family, update them on the case, or make any gesture to express their condolences.
For the Vietnamese community in San Jose, this incident has evoked memories of Bich Cau Thi Tran’s murder. In this 2004 incident, the police were called to check up on reports of unsupervised children. When the police arrived and saw this 4′ 9” woman gesturing with a Vietnamese fruit peeler knife, they shot her in the chest and killed her. The police were acquitted by the grand jury.
Protests and vigils are taking place in San Jose. Keep an eye out for the way in which the investigation of this shooting unfolds.
You can read the San Jose Mercury News article here.
– hardboiled. keeping an eye on the watchdogs as usual.
author: elainechen category: celebrating US! tags: date: May 2nd, 2009
That’s right guys, MAY is our month! I could totally go into great detail about the history of this month, how it originated, what fun things to do in the Bay Area are… but… you know… unfortunately for all of us at UC Berkeley, our hardboiled staff is winding down as finals approach! So apologies in advance for our upcoming SILENCE from the Internet world. It’s that time of the year where we finally begin to remember that… oh wait, we pay like, thousandas of dollars to attend this university which gives us like, grades and stuff.
Anyway, hopefully in like two weeks or so I can give more coherent and fun blog posts. In the meantime, I wanted to forward you guys to more professional bloggers over at Hyphen magazine. For the past month, they’ve been compiling immigrant stories to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Amy Tan’s Asian American novel The Joy Luck Club. Whereas that book totally speaks to only one time of immigrant experience specific to that time period, how much has immigrant stories changed? Lots of people contributed, so you should definitely CHECK IT.
Alright, back to research and immense paper writing. Woe.
author: JulieT category: Uncategorized tags: Cambodian, Khmai, New year date: April 25th, 2009
Last weekend was Cambodian New Year and one of the largest festivities are held at Wat Dharmararam Cambodian Buddhist Temple in Stockton, Ca. The event is a week long featuring traditional Cambodian food, crafts, entertainment and of course, prayer.
I’ve gone every year since high school and despite the fact that half of my friends are Khmai, I wouldn’t understand them nearly as well if I didn’t go to events like these. And if you don’t know anyone, it really is a true cultural experience for the eyes, ears and tummy!!
One of the largest Buddha Statues
I don't know that girl but she looks cute
author: ttsang category: calling 'em out tags: date: April 11th, 2009
Does it mean anything to you?
Ah, yes that ABBA song is stuck in my head.
And it became stuck shortly after I spoke with my sister. She asked me what’s the big deal about the Yale a cappella group singing “All the Single Asians”. She couldn’t see why it was so offensive and why people are making a fuss over it. So I told her that it was degrading and demoralizing. It perpetuates several stereotypes and objectifies women and Asian Americans as flat, 2D characters. and she just said, “so? it’s not supposed to be taken seriously anyways. It’s a joke.” She said that it’s only demoralizing if we interpret it like that. She questioned why hardboiled was so invested in these so-called “petty” issues when there were larger sociocultural positions and stories that we could cover. But I honestly feel like the larger issues stem from the smaller problems. If people cannot appreciate themselves and their ethnic backgrounds, how are they expected to value and respect others?
I don’t even know where to start with this.
In case you can’t access the link, here’s the recap of the article.
A rep from the Organization of Chinese Americans spoke at a House testimony on voter registration about the difficulty some Asian Americans have during voting “because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.”
Republican Betty Brown from Texas responded, “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”
People called her out making racist, ignorant statements, and of course, her spokesman says this is just being blown out of proportion.
Okay. Let’s forget how messed up (and freaking racist) her statements are for a second and just enjoy how purely stupid this whole thing is.
Who are these Americans she’s referring to? The whole issue is on VOTING. You must be an American citizen to vote. Every last person in the Organization of Chinese AMERICANS is an American. When Brown suggests that Asian Americans “adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with” and refers to the OCA as “you [the rep] and your citizens,” she’s making a distinction between Chinese Americans and Americans.
Chinese Americans are Americans.
This is a bit tangential, but still relevant. Up until this year, I used to be wary of calling things racist. Especially as an Asian American Studies major, I didn’t want to be seen one of those people who see racism everywhere – from tv shows to textbooks to the bottom of my coffee mug. So I would use phrases like “poor lack of judgement” or “unfortunate choice of words” or “momentary lapses of sanity and reason.”
I’m done with that. This year, I’m calling them like I see it. Remember kids, “racist” is not a bad word, it just refers to bad people.
author: elainechen category: berkeley madness, calling 'em out tags: date: April 2nd, 2009
I got some updates about the fight against the new UC Admissions policy, which I wrote about for issue 12.4. You know, the one that wants to increase diversity by increasing the white population and decreasing the Asian American one. Ring any bells?
Here are some follow-up links to this article. It’s reassuring to know that Asian Americans aren’t going to take this sitting down. Hell yes!
“New UC admissions policy gives white students a better chance, angers Asian-American community” By Lisa M. Krieger, Mercury News
“Asian-American education group seeks delay in UC admissions reform” By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times
Some good quotes:
“How can we not be concerned?” said Patrick Hayashi, a retired UC Berkeley and systemwide leader. “The projections show our community will be decimated. We have to keep in mind that these numbers represent real people.”
“The changes over the last two years took place inside the ivory tower and closed the door, without the public’s knowledge,” he said.
Added Hayashi: “A public university should be more responsive. Private schools can do anything they want. But public schools have a different set of objectives. “It will have a devastating impact on our community. It is a fatal mistake to think it will blow over.”
“It’s affirmative action for whites,” said UC-Berkeley professor Ling-chi Wang. “I’m really outraged “… and profoundly disappointed with the institution.”
Now let me know. How pissed are YOU?