More on Asian Porn Sites
Your article, "Women Protest Asian Porn Sites," (Jan. 28) touched me because it is related to an issue close to my heart. I would like to add some points that I felt you missed or could have delved more into.

I definitely agree that as far as the Internet goes, Asian women are singled out as sex objects for their race. You will still find a lot of sex-oriented sites when you use search terms such as "Asian," "women," "Asian women" and "Asian girls." Do the same with other non-Asian ethnic terms, and it is a slightly different picture.

What is worse, banner ads displayed along with the search results page blatantly advertise pornography. It made me cringe when such advertising appeared while I was teaching my then 12-year-old sister how to use the Internet.

I think that your article could have explored more on this aspect of the issue, and how it can affect parents and kids of Asian heritage on the Internet.

I created a Web site called AsiangURLs.com two years ago in part because I was sick and tired of having my search for information turn up porn sites. I also created the site because there are none for Asian and Asian American women that I was able to find-believe me, I looked.

This problem with Web site listing can be partly blamed on how search engines organize Web sites. Some search engines have improved, which is worth noting. Yahoo! is better because you get to search by category, and other sites like AltaVista now have a filter that you can turn on or off. Sometimes, you are just better off using a specialty search engine like orientation.com.

All porn sites treat women as sex objects. Asians run porn sites, too. When I tried to register my domain name, I couldn't register asiangirls.com because it was already taken by a "multimedia gallery." Domain names like asianwomen.com are similarly registered to sex/porn companies, sometimes mail-order bride operations. I have nothing against porn in general-if someone wants porn, it's out there and they will find it. However, I think there is a legitimate complaint that sites can be better organized so that users don't get insulted when using a search engine.

There are hideous obstacles for Asian American women searching for relevant content, but there are ways to fight back. The best way to bump sex sites down in the search results of terms like "Asian" or "Asian women" is to link together, literally. By site-linking Web sites of interest to Asians and Asian Americans, the non-porn sites will get better listings. Complaining to search engines individually can help, though in my personal experience, search engine companies are less than responsive. There is still a general perception that Asian women comprise a tiny population of Internet users. We can do something about this by encouraging more women to participate on the Internet, especially by creating their own Web sites and putting more content out there. I think this is where the community should organize an Internet campaign. It would show that we, Asians and Asian Americans, are on the Net, and we want better representation.

Mayor Brown Lost His Opportunity
Regarding Samson Wong's column about my goading Mayor Wilie Brown (Feb. 18), allow me to set the record straight: Three years ago, San Francisco's first black mayor had an opportunity to become the Nelson Mandela of urban America-statesmanlike, visionary, and building consensus in one of America's most racially diverse city.

Sadly, he squandered all the goodwill build up around his charismatic personality. He allowed his ego to override the task of forming a good, talented management team with hands-on management of and solutions to some of the seemingly intractable problems of San Francisco, including urban ethnic and racial tensions, public transportation and traffic gridlock, a housing shortage, a bloated bureacuracy, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, education, and a widening wealth gap.

Instead,he surrounded himself with "yes" men and women as subordinates, played "crony" politics and converted City Hall into a house of ill repute and influence-peddling. To the Chinese community, he is connected only through "gatekeepers," "brokers," "fixers" and "influence peddlers," reflective of "plantation politics." Instead of ensuring himself a place as one of America's visionary minority leaders in governing cities with ideas and imagination, he has become the Emperor Mobutu Seko of San Francisco: imperial, dictatorial and tarnished.

The mayor is in denial. He is a man who could have done so much good for all minorities in San Francisco. Instead, he has mixed up "doing good" and instead is "doing well" for himself and his super-ego.

Protesters Are Hypocrites
Regarding the protests by South Vietnamese refugees over a Westminster video store owner's Ho Chi Minh poster, it's nice to see that our latest immigrants are continuing the great American tradition of touting this country's many freedoms, and then proceeding to harass anyone who dares to exercise them.