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The Washington Post has an excellent expose today about a South Korean woman, a US resident, who is imprisoned in Florence, Arizona, awaiting deportation (story requires registration: it’s worth it). Not only is she suffering from multiple undiagnosed health concerns, including several possible cancers, the woman — Yong Sue Harvill — is being deported because nearly a decade ago, she was convicted of a felony for purchasing stolen jewelry.

A 1996 law had given the government new leverage to deport foreigners, including people living in the country legally as U.S. residents, if they had committed a crime at any time in the past, and the Bush administration was wielding that power aggressively. The law expanded the list of crimes defined as “aggravated felonies” that are grounds for deportation. It also for the first time required people to be locked up during their deportation cases — including permanent legal residents such as Harvill, who is not a citizen but has had a green card ever since she came to the United States.

On March 22, 2007, instead of going home, Harvill was handed an orange uniform at the Palm Beach County jail to await deportation. Her parents are dead. She lost track of her sisters long ago. She has no idea where or how she would live in South Korea, particularly because she has not held a job for years because she cannot put weight on her leg for too long.

The federal government has been waging a war against immigration for eight years. Permanent US residents, like Harvill, are just the latest victims in a growing nativist sentiment that would sweep many legal Asian American immigrants from this country. And, before we jump on the bandwagon to blame Bush, notice that the law forcing Harvill out of the country was created in 1996, during the Clinton administration.

Though the U.S. has been wrapped in a redefinition of the immigration debate as encompassing primarily Hispanic illegal immigrants, we must not forget that a significant fraction of the Asian American community in this country is comprised of legal and illegal immigrants, and that changes in immigration policy affect our community.

And more importantly, I don’t understand how this country can tout itself for its humanity when detainees — undocumented immigrants and legal US residents — are treated inhumanely in detention facilities. Food should be a necessity, not a luxury. Medical treatment should be part of the status quo. What kind of country would try to cut costs by sentencing immigration detainees to a slow death by neglect and apathy?

I’m not sure how much this movie could offend me more. In The Love Guru, Mike Myers dons brownface to play an Asian Indian “love guru”, chock full of every anti-Indian stereotype he can dream up.

Much like in the Charlie Chan mysteries, Myers complements his own brownface with a Real Live Asian Indian sidekick, who, judging by the trailer, plays the foil for Myers’ stereotypical jokes. This sidekick also exists, however, to dupe the audience into believing the Asian Indian community is supportive of these insulting jokes: if you could find a real Asian Indian to go along with the insulting humour, the community must find these degrading jokes funny, and it must be okay to laugh at.

The racist brownface aside, the trailer also contained several jokes against little people which I found offensive. I was actually also annoyed by Justin Timberlake and his Quebecois caricature. Justin makes some awesome music, but he is making some poor acting choices.

Regardless, the Love Guru is Mike Myer’s brain-child, and he is milking the anti-Asian Indian stereotypes for all they are worth. On YouTube, the marketing for the film has created a pure car crash of Myers’ brownface caricature.

Update: Based on the Love Guru YouTube channel, Myers’ character is actually supposed to be an orphaned American raised in India. So it’s brownface without being brownface — Myers can be White and still play an Asian Indian caricature! Oh, that makes it all better.

Asian Americans for Obama have worked tirelessly over the last several weeks to try and spread Senator Barack Obama’s appeal to the Asian American voting constituency. In this final pitch email, we will wrap up several posts written by Asian Americans detailing our support for Senator Obama. We hope that you will help spread the word to your blog readers and/or forwarding this email to your friends.

News

• Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Obama Buttons
  The store at BarackObama.com now has AAPI for Obama buttons available!
• Filipino Veterans Benefits
  Earlier this year, Senator Barack Obama issued his support for a bill authored by key Asian American leader, Senator Daniel Akaka, to call for benefits for Filipino veterans of World War II. That bill is currently up for debate in the Senate tomorrow, and Asian Americans are excited that Senator Barack Obama issued a statement in February detailing his support.
• Asian American Online Phonebanking Tool
  Earlier last week, the Obama campaign launched an Asian American online phonebanking tool that could be used to allow Asian Americans across the country to reach out to voters in Pennsylvania. The response has been great!
• Canvassing at the Philadelphia Chinatown Obama Office
  Casperr of DailyKos documents the experience, and Asian Americans for Obama reports on the office’s amazing work!
• Taiwan for Obama?
  There’s a surprising amount of street-level support for Barack Obama in Taiwan, where a large number of Democratic American expatriates cast their vote for the good Senator from Illinois.
• Senator Obama Wishes Cambodian Americans a Happy Cambodian Lunar New Year
  Asian Americans for Obama reports on an event held in Philadelphia earlier this month.
• Asian American Delegates
  Asian Americans worked hard this month to be elected as delegates for Senator Obama.

Asian Americans: Why We Support Obama

• A Lesson from my Father: Vote for Obama
  Obama’s living in Hawaii gave him a historic and an everyday perspective of Asian life. Obama, in describing his family’s arrival in Hawaii in 1959, makes historical reference to the indenturing system that kept Japanese, Chinese and Filipino immigrants stooped sunup to sunset in the sugarcane fields and pineapple plantations of Hawaii. My dad was in Hawaii for a number of months, living with an uncle, before his final leap to America. Obama also vividly recounts that a Japanese American man named Freddy, who ran a small market near his family’s house in Hawaii, would save his family the choicest cuts of aku for sashimi and give him rice candy with edible wrappers. When I was young, I remember the fun of eating the “wrapper” around the rice candy.
• Obama Campaign in Pennsylvania: A Tale of Two Levittowns
  ”I got my first overtly racist anti-Obama comment today while phoning central Pennsylvania. It was a 62-year-old man, who said, simply, “I’m not voting for the black man.” I moved to end the call, but he continued, “I’ve worked with hundreds of black people.” He meant that as a defense (”Some of them are my best friends!”) but the point was clear. At least he was honest.”
• Working People: The Real Casualties of Hillary’s Finger-Pointing
  Hillary uses the same tools of division as many have used on working people in the past when she parses Obama’s statements to justify calling him an “elitist.” [The past actions of her surrogates who have attributed both Obama’s success (a la Ferraro) and inelectability (a la Rendell) solely to his “race” is only further proof of her campaign’s divisive tactics].
• Why I Support Obama as a Sikh American
  As a Sikh American whose family settled in America 100 years ago, this election is different than any other my family has seen. This is the first election where I believe the future of my community and country rests on our support of a single presidential candidate: Barack Obama.

Profiling Asian American Volunteers and Staffers for Barack Obama

• Chris Lu, Obama Legislative Director (World Journal article in Chinese (.pdf) or English (.pdf))
• Saleem, superstar volunteer in Pennsylvania (YouTube)
• Preeta Bansal, staffer

YouTube Videos

• A More Perfect Union with Chinese subtitles
• Si Se Puede Cambiar with Chinese subtitles
• Korean Supporters of Obama speak about their support
• Obama ad featuring Maya Soetoro-Ng

More videos with non-English subtitles can be downloaded at Captioned Media for Obama, all of which were created by volunteers and supporters.

Don’t forget to get out and vote for Obama tomorrow in Pennsylvania’s much-anticipated primaries. And, as always, Asian Americans for Obama, a concerned group of Asian American supporters for Senator Barack Obama will be working tirelessly to help spread Obama’s message within and outside of the Asian American community. For more information, go to Asian Americans for Obama. 

This email may be forwarded or reproduced. Any questions should be directed to jenn@reappropriate.com

Senator Daniel Akaka co-authored a proposal earlier this year to call for retirement benefits for thousands of Filipino veterans of WWII. The proposal (part of the larger Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007, S. 1315) passed the Veterans Affairs Committee but is currently being stymied by Senate Republicans. In a final attempt to keep the bill alive, it will be brought to a vote tomorrow.

Akaka, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other supporters, on Thursday filed a motion for cloture, a procedural move that attempts to bring the bill to the floor for debate and an up-or-down vote.

“This legislation will enable Congress to begin to rectify a wrong done to Filipino World War II veterans over 60 years ago,” Akaka said in a statement released through his office. “The United States has a moral obligation to care for those who have served under its flag.”

Reid (D, Nevada) said obstinacy from Republican leadership to move on the bill left him with no other choice.

This move requires that 60 Senators vote to end debate, and ultimately vote in favour of the bill, before the benefits for Filipino veterans can be stripped down. It is imperative that within the next day, you contact your local Senator and strongly urge them to vote in favour of benefits for Filipino veterans tomorrow.

The Veterans Equity Center is urging you to contact your senator tomorrow. Here’s the action they recommend:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202)224.3121 or check the online directory, or log on to find list of Senators and their corresponding fax number and contact information.

The message should be simple and clear: “I urge you to support  our Filipino World War II veterans and to vote in favor of S. 1315 Veterans Benefit Enhancement Act.”

If you have even just a few minutes tomorrow, please contact your Senator and urge them to support benefits for our underserved Filipino veterans of WWII.

The National Asian American Student Conference (NAASCON) is looking for sponsors for its conference. Check out this email:

National Asian American Student Conference (www.NAASCon.org) is announcing its search for financial sponsors of the 2008 National Conference!* We are currently seeking individual/private, organizational, and/or corporate sponsors at all levels for our upcoming conference on October 17-19, 2008 at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. (Please see attached file for all details!)

NAASCon is an organization created by and for students of Asian descent. This organization aims to serve as a forum for Asian American/Pacific Islander student activists from across the country to compile resources, coordinate campaigns, and build community around shared values of social and economic justice, human rights, and collective decision-making. NAASCon envisions a progressive Asian American student movement that works in solidarity with all oppressed communities to construct a just and equitable society in which human dignity is respected. This conference serves as a national forum, providing a dynamic space where students from every college and university can converge and share ideas, develop relationships, and think critically about the world around us.

Although you may not be located in Atlanta, there are multiple reasons why your involvement as a sponsor can be valuable to you:

By becoming a sponsor of NAASCon, you will:
– *Encourage the leadership and professional development of student leaders*; our goal is to attract 500+ students from colleges and universities across the United States.
– *Help students* with financial need to attend the conference by funding scholarships and subsidizing travel costs.
– *Acknowledge the need for community building and service.*

As an organization/business, you will also:*
– *Obtain various benefits for sponsorship *including placement of your company’s logo on our website(s), advertising space in the conference program/brochures, and recognition at the opening and closing sessions of the event.
– *Support a national conference* that links student communities across the United States; providing promotional exposure on both local (Atlanta) and national levels.
– *Reinforce your company’s/organization’s objective* and reputation as a leader in diversity.
– *Promote your mission, products and services* to the conference participants and respective communities that these students represent.//

The theme is “From Visions to Actions: Let’s Get Our Movements Going,” and with your support, NAASCon can reach its potential and empower student leaders and their communities.

NAASCON is a very large Asian American conference and has historically been a great forum for exploring new ideas within the Asian American community. Please check out the NAASCON website if you are interested in becoming a sponsor.

… the hearts of thousands of Asian Americans break.

Just got this email from Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor a couple seasons back. Apparently, he popped the question to long-time girlfriend, Sophie Tan.

Survivor Winner Yul Kwon Gets Engaged

April 16, 2008

Yul Kwon won $1 million by outlasting, outwitting and outplaying fellow castaways on Survivor: Cook Islands. Then he nabbed the title of one of PEOPLE’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2006. Now the 33-year-old Stanford grad is celebrating another victory: popping the question to girlfriend Sophie Tan on stage at a concert — and getting a yes.

“It feels wonderful!” an elated Kwon tells People.com. “I’ve always thought that the single most important decision in your life is who you decide to spend it with.”

Kwon proposed to Tan, 29, a product manager at a mortgage bank, April 12 at a benefit concert at his alma mater in Palo Alto, Calif. The band, Seriously, played the couple’s special song before Kwon took the stage and presented her with a platinum, 2.2-karat, cushion-cut diamond ring. “It seems my strategy of proposing in a public forum, maximizing social pressure, and shocking her into silence … seems to have worked,” says Kwon. “Now I just need to plan the wedding before she comes to her senses.”

Kwon, a management consultant, met Tan in December 2006, just before his skills as a master strategist led him to victory in the 13th season of the CBS reality show, which initially divided castaways by race.

When Kwon realized he was smitten with Tan, “I gave her the hidden immunity idol as a token of my love,” he says, referring to a sought-after prize from the show. “And I knew she loved me back when she didn’t laugh in my face.” —Alexis Chiu

Congratulations, Yul!

The Washington Post had an article today about the “Chink’s Steaks” battle over in Philly. Joseph Groh has been running the restaurant for years, but it got its names from its original owner, a man who was supposedly nick-named “Chink” for his “slanty eyes”.

Four years ago, a young Korean American, Susannah Park, earned notoriety for launching an attack on Chink’s Steaks, demanding that the name be changed. I remember being involved in forum-based versions of the protest movement, which had a huge following amongst online Asian Americans. However, Park’s movement was unable to overcome Chink’s Steaks’ reputation as a local landmark, and even earned her derision from local Philadelphia press.

While Park backed off, Chink’s Steaks remains an infamous institution of the mainstream’s apathy towards anti-Asian racism. And when Joseph Groh tried to expand his restaurant into a second location, Asian American groups returned to the picket line, this time to demand that the Philadelphia River Port Authority not approve the expansion. Groh’s proposal was denied and he was unable to secure the location for his second restaurant.

A minor victory for Asian Americans, but the point has not yet been made to Groh, who, according to the WaPo article, acknowledges the problems with his restaurant’s name but seems to nonetheless advocate a grandfather clause for racist slurs.

Taking a break between the lunch crush and the dinner crowd, Groh was reflective. He knows the name is a problem. But he has a long history with the popular business, which put his daughter through college.

Groh said he likes the name because of its tradition, and does not see the need for a change. But he acknowledges, “I don’t think you could open a place today with that name.”

Chink’s Steaks may be a homage to the original owner of the restaurant, but the restaurant’s name is racially painful to today’s Asian American community. Are we really supposed to put our interests second to respect for the restaurant’s deceased former owner? The Philadelphia Asian American community is willing to pay for the restaurant’s name change and associated publicity materials, but Groh is adamant that the name should be retained out of respect for the original restaurant owner.

Even when the homage is rooted in racism.

(Hat-tip: Angry Asian Man) 

On April 9th, Jack Cafferty told Wolf Bitzer on CNN’s Situation Room that the Chinese were the same bunch of “goons and thugs” they had been for the last fifty years. It’s the kind of dumbass racism that Cafferty and his ilk (elitist White male moderate conservative on-air op-eds) have been spouting for years in order to generate ratings. I watched Lou Dobbs last night on my flight, and the bigoted fear-mongering he vocalized was truly breath-taking.  Here’s Cafferty’s clip:

I do find Cafferty’s remarks questionable, primarily because they perpetuate an image of Chinese people as evil and predatory — far above and beyond a viable criticism of China and its national policies. However, I am worried that those who are reacting to this issue are basing their anger more out of displeasure that China is being insulted (i.e. Chinese nationalism) than out of genuine belief that the words were racist and discriminatory; after all, some of China’s political practices over the last fifty years could indeed be likened to “bullying”, although no more so than America’s. We must be careful that in our disdain for intolerant words, we don’t sweep under the rug a relevant message.

Some folks online have started a petition to demand an apology from Cafferty and CNN. Follow the link to sign — however keep in mind that the petition offers no indication regarding if or when it will actually be delivered to CNN. As with all petitions, read the text carefully before signing.

I want to say I’m shocked by this story, but I’m not. Following last year’s deadly shooting at Virginia Tech which culminated in the suicide of gunman Seung-Hui Cho, Daniel Kim, a Korean American student at Virginia Tech fell into a deep depression. According to his family, Daniel feared that other students at Virginia Tech would mistake him for the killer, Seung-Hui Cho, because of their shared Asian/Asian American identities.

Daniel Kim felt like he had few friends at Virginia Tech, and no one on campus seemed to notice his increasingly suicidal behaviour. An off-campus friend whom Daniel met through World of Warcraft was the only person who noticed Daniel’s dark thoughts and sent the following email to Virginia Tech’s on-campus health center last November:

“Dear health center,

This is a serious email, this is not a joke. I am Shaun Pribush, a student at RPI, but I am e-mailing because me and some other individuals are very worried about our friend at Virginia Tech, Daniel Kim.

Daniel has been acting very suicidal recently, purchasing a $200 pistol, and claiming he’ll go through with it. In one incident, he said on a Friday, he would do it after the weekend, but then told us he failed to go through with it.

On about November 2nd, Daniel told me and a friend over “Instant Messenger” that he just swallowed 22 pills and said this is the end and signed off, but on the morning of November 5th, he logged on saying “third time will be a charm i made myself puke up the pills when i was on the road and then … couldnt shoot myself so then i was thinking about getting into a car accident then i got all depressed over that sh-t and slept in my car. …”

We are very concerned for his safety and are unsure the next time he might attempt suicide or go through with it, please forward this to who can give him the best care. Once again, this is very serious; this is not a joke.

Please update me if you acknowledge this and take action so I know if I reached the right e-mail adress. Thank you.”

Virginia Tech says they followed protocol in response to the email, but Daniel Kim was never seen by an on-call psychologist. Nor did anyone from campus health ever check up on Daniel; instead, his case was referred to University police who, on the morning following receipt of the email, knocked on Daniel’s door. Seeing that he was, indeed, not dead at the time, they didn’t perform any subsequent follow-up.

On December 9th, 2007, a month after Campus Police checked on him and decided he was not a threat to himself, Daniel Kim shot himself in his father’s car, parked in an on-campus parking lot.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, Virginia Tech tried to absolve itself of any guilt over its ignorance of Seung-Hui Cho’s increasingly erratic and anti-social behaviour. Nonetheless, reports showed that Cho displayed several warning signs of a man crying out for help, all of which were ignored by his roommates and on-campus officials. The treatment (or lack thereof) of Cho, in combination with VT’s apathy towards Daniel Kim’s cries for help, paints a picture of an administration that simply doesn’t care about its Asian American students. Studies have long shown that Asian Americans are at an above-average risk for mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts, and yet university campuses including (but not limited to) Virginia Tech have responded with nonchalance and ignorance. Asian American students face unique obstacles when it comes to mental health, including decreased awareness of warning signs and symptoms coupled with a belief that psychologists cannot — or will not – offer culturally-specific or culturally-sensitive advice.

The bottom line is that the university administration has perpetuated an on-campus culture that views Asian American students only as the model minority, not requiring resources and aid to help cope with difficult academic situations or mental illness. Despite several studies that have shown (for years) an alarming overrepresentation of Asian Americans amongst this nation’s on-campus suicides, only now are we even beginning to have a dialogue about providing resources to Asian American students to help treat signs of depression and suicide.

Meanwhile, college students even feel so lackadaisical about Asian American suicide that they comfortably joke about it in April Fool’s Day columns. Wrote Cornell University blogger D. Evan Mulvihill in a prank column,

President David Skorton announced the plans for the construction of an Asian Community Center at a midday press conference today. The building is to be located directly adjacent to Uris Library on the Clocktower Side, and will be designed by the famous architect I. M. Pei.

“I believe that this building will dramatically reduce the amount of Asian suicides at Cornell,” Skorton announced. “We also plan to fill in the gorges with those chewy bubble tea orbs so that distraught students will have to rely on other methods.”

The fact that during my years as an undergrad at Cornell, over 50% of Cornell’s suicides were committed by Asian Americans? So freaking hilarious.

Until colleges and universities across America start taking this issue seriously, I will be saddened by stories like Daniel Kim’s, but I will not be surprised. American universities have not prioritized ending these preventable deaths, and even in the wake of these deaths, still seem more motivated by political damage control and keeping their school coffers full of alumni donations than they are moved by the blood on their hands.