Letters to the Editor
December 22, 2000
Hate Crimes Are Wrong — Regardless of the Race of the Victims
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- In retrospect, he said his family is trying to understand the merchant and deal with their anger without hating back. “A black person did this to us but I can’t hate all black people. Our parents taught us right,” Soonthorn said.
“We went to schools where the majority of people were black. And we are minorities, too. Dealing with a situation like this is really hard, really complicated.”
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the article “Violence Spotlights Lao Community,” (Dec. 7).
The article states:
This reasonable comment was from the son of a tragic beating victim in Baltimore, an Asian American man. We need to acknowledge the European American victims of hate crimes in San Francisco also. Please accept this basic responsibility. If we do not acknowledge a problem — there is little chance of solving it.
Also, the main question to ask the police is: Did the interrogation of the suspects contain a line of questioning that would bring out racial animus against the race of the victim? It appears as though the police have forgotten this simple investigative technique when searching for racial animus.
Louis Calabro
European/American Issues Forum
San Bruno, Calif.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
- Editor’s Note: The following letter was a message posted Nov. 24 on AsianWeek’s online discussion bulletin (http://www.asianweek.com/bb_frameset.html).
Dear Editor: I recently read columnist Phil Nash’s comment on the Florida elections, “Florida, Through a Third World Lens,” (Nov. 24).
How people perceive America is a very interesting topic, but one must recall from events of the past how a society and country became what they are today.
When the Constitution was drawn up, there was a major argument over how to divide power. We are all familiar with checks and balances, and comments like “vacuum of power.” The Electoral College was designed to protect the smaller states, as was the concept of two senators representing each state. There was also an issue called slavery, in which human beings were considered “chattel.” Our forefathers grappled with these questions and with the knowledge they had produced a magnificent document. One can argue that the document was drawn up by a privileged class, but are not our most educated people considered admirable?
I do admire a person who can paint, or write a beautiful tribute, or analyze a complicated legal document. As we are a republic and not a true democracy, we elect people who we trust to represent us in Washington. I do think that the representatives in Philadelphia were exceptional.
As many TV analysts have stated at the end of their comments about the happenings in Florida: We Americans are not in the streets shooting people, not panicking. We are still going about our business. Why? We have elected officials who we feel are up to the task before them. We may disparage our leaders at times, but we still trust our system.
Although many of the noble ideas in the Declaration of Independence were tested in a terrible Civil War, its words convey, “Yes this is possible.” It is possible to live in a free society, have differences, argue, and make mistakes. We must keep in mind that we had to add ten amendments called the Bill of Rights to our constitution to correct a lack of protection to our people.
Society is not perfect, but it should always continue to correct its mistakes. I feel that we can accept the failures of human beings, and hold out a proclamation: “You can do better; don’t give up.”
I am very proud of the fact that we have a Republican secretary of state in Florida, and Democratic voting officials in the counties involved in the recount. I trust the Supreme Court of Florida. I am proud that we will fight our differences in court with words, and not with guns. I am proud that we are “excited over this election.” I am proud that 100 million people had the duty, right and the desire to vote. I am most proud that we know there is right and wrong, and one vote, and possibly only one vote, can decide such a moment, that one human being can walk into a voting booth and make a decision and walk out knowing that they determine their own future.
Let’s continue to be the best — and read our history. As long as we make mistakes, I know of no better system that allows for correction than ours. Yes, our forefathers knew our weaknesses, and what would make us strong. Let us not disparage our differences, as that is what makes us the United States.
Donald McCarthy
via the Internet
For the Record
- Dear Editor: Thank you for including my letter about James D. Phelan in your Letters to the Editor section, “Facts about Phelan,” (Dec. 14).
I see AsianWeek — like other civil rights oriented Asian American journals/newspapers of the past 100 years — as important sources of research for future scholars and social activists.
It is the ability to recall memory residues, as in the Jewish Holocaust and South African apartheid, that will cleanse and, with hope, obviate such enormous hatred and rendering of one ethnic group into sub-speciation status by another. Otherwise, the unthinkable history repeats itself. In a couple of weeks, the new millennium will officially begin. The curse and sins of the fathers should not revisit future generations.
Raymond Lew
San Francisco
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A Whole New Game
December 22, 2000
On Monday the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s meeting commenced as usual, 2 p.m. sharp in the second floor legislative chamber of City Hall. This time, however, the scene had visibly changed. Mabel Teng was a no-show. Leland Yee beamed, perhaps basking in his re-election victory. And Michael Yaki was all giggles, cracking jokes and blurting out, “Ho, Ho, Ho!” at roll-call — an odd display considering his sobering defeat last week.
Beginning January 6, Yee becomes the sole API member of the board, and Sophie Maxwell the lone female. Along with Teng and Yaki, other minorities who lost their seats include Amos Brown and Alicia Becerril. In fact, only four incumbents retained their positions on the board. Almost overnight, the new players have turned their backs on the city’s one-time political superstars to forge new friendships. Kind of like the rules that govern social interaction in America’s junior highs.
For those who believe good manners and sophistication rule City Hall, think again. At last week’s meeting, Becerril (whose political career seems to have come to an abrupt end with her failure to make it into the runoffs), motioned to recognize an attorney to speak. Twice Yaki responded by turning her request into a question. (“You want to recognize?”) Finally, Becerril cried out, “That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Following Board President Tom Ammiano’s lead, several board members chimed in, mocking Becerril with “Ooohh.”
When the new cast of characters make their entrance, expect to see affordable housing organizer Chris Daly, public defenders Matt Gonzalez and Gerardo Sandoval, city administrator Tony Hall, electrician Sophie Maxwell, English teacher Jake McGoldrick and environmental activist Aaron Peskin.
Given the nature of San Francisco politics, it should be a good show.
Asian Americans Need Not Apply
December 22, 2000
Here’s how I know it’s Christmas. This year, Bill and Hillary have taken the time from their busy schedules — what with Mr. President meeting with Mr. President-elect, and the first lady buying mansions and selling memoirs — to send along their annual politically correct “holiday” card.
Oh, I know they didn’t lick the envelopes themselves. That’s what interns are for.
But I had a special feeling knowing that along with my Harry and David Fruit of the month catalogs, there was a message in the mail just for me — and about a hundred thousand or so of the Clinton’s closest friends.
Give or take a thousand.
Ever since my days as a reporter in Washington I’ve been getting these things. They haven’t bothered to purge me yet. This is the holiday equivalent of being a dead person on the voting rolls. At least they didn’t see my last name and send me a card in Spanish.
For the first time, however, I actually took the time to read the card, especially considering this may be the last thing I ever get from the White House for a while.
Right under the White House seal, is the very non-sectarian, politically correct greeting: “With warm and treasured memories of our special time in the White House, our family sends you and yours our heartfelt wishes for a joyous holiday season and a new year filled with peace and good will.”
Coming from the Clintons, you know the language had to have been vetted and gone over a thousand times in order to create the perfect political card. This is one you could dash off to the Israelis and the Palestinians, even the Pope. Without the need for CIA clearance.
And of course, the card is signed “Bill Clinton,” and next to it, “Hillary Rodham Clinton.” Still. Not “Senator-elect” or anything. All in a nicely simulated longhand by machine (after a little “adult” eggnog, who could tell). Besides, you wouldn’t want them to get presidential wrist cramps, would you?
This year is even more special for Asian Americans, in particular, because of the greeting card’s face. Every season features a different portrait of a room in the White House. As I recall, one year was the Lewinsky room.
This year, adorning the card is the primary living room in the first family residence, otherwise known as the Yellow Oval Room.
As they say, how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall.
And boy, are the walls YELLOW!
Not an off-white that’s turned color in the sun. It’s a bright yellow. An Asian American yellow. With yellow drapes. Yellow frames on the wall hangings. A big yellow couch, with matching yellow accent chairs. An Asian accent? Hmmm. All of it picking up nicely the yellow carpet where they’ve added Buddy the dog and Socks the cat. Gifts under a Christmas tree. And a toy soldier.
Probably not Colin Powell.
Bush may kick out Buddy and Socks. But let’s hope the Bushs keep the room yellow.
From all indications it’s about as yellow as the administration is likely to get.
The early appointments of Powell to Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice to National Security Advisor, and Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales to White House Counsel, indicates the George W. knows certain colors.
Just not yellow.
You figured Bush would have to go do something to bring African Americans and Latinos into the fold. Minority communities voted overwhelmingly against Bush.
In Powell and Rice, Bush has two safe affirmative action hires. They’re qualified and competent. And they’re Republican. They’re also so non-ethnic. Ask Powell what his community is and he’s liable to say the military. Rice? The faculty and staff of Stanford? Neither has made ethnicity an issue, not as careerist Republicans on the way up. Powell and Rice are model minorities.
So where are the Asian Americans on the short list?
A few weeks back there was talk of a bi-partisan Bush government with real live Democrats. On the conservative Fox news channel there was even talk that Commerce Secretary Norm Mineta might be retained. Of course, the Fox News Channel showed how much they knew when the graphic actually said, “Commerce Secretary Bob Matsui.” It confused one Asian American Democratic stalwart, Congressman Bob Matsui of California for the venerable Mineta, the first Asian American cabinet member in U.S. history.
How’s that for an indication of how much we count?
There are only two names even remotely taken seriously. Elaine Chao, the Heritage Foundation fellow married to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). And then there’s Matt Fong. The Californian lost a senate race to Dianne Feinstein, but re-emerged to help lead Bush’s campaign in California. Bush lost the state, but Asian Americans were the most likely minorities to back Bush.
Where’s the payback?
It may be that the most zealot Asian American Republicans are among the more recently immigrated, and thus not considered by the Bush camp to be ready for prime time.
It means as we say goodbye to the Clintons we may be saying goodbye to the most Asian American friendly administration in U.S. history. Right down to the Filipino stewards in the oval office. And the first family residence’s yellow walls.
My Life as Special Ed
December 22, 2000
By Edward Nieto/PNS
When I began school, I was put in a class with kids who also had similar troubles. I thought I was just extra smart because I was put in “Special” Education. Even more so because my name is Ed: get it, “Special Ed”?
When I started school I got moved up a grade quicker than everyone else because there was no Special Education class in kindergarten. I was the youngest in the whole school, and no one wanted to hang with me at recess. I was not alone for long. I became friends with He-Man. Actually, I studied the cartoon to learn the ropes of life. I watched on TV how He-Man would fight someone, and then they always became friends afterwards.
I began looking around campus for who I thought was cool — then I would start a fight with them. I fought to make friends all the way to middle school.
In junior high I learned what being in Special Ed really meant. I remember sitting down on the bus and glancing over to some elementary school kid’s homework. Since I was obviously older, he asked me for help with his assignment. I couldn’t believe it — this kid was on timetables, and I was still in pluses and minuses. He had spelling words like “forbidden”; mine were words like “cow.”
Before, I thought the other kids teased me because they were jealous. After the bus ride, I knew otherwise. At parent-teacher meetings they would tell my mom as nicely as they could, “Your son gets along with other classmates pretty well … but he is not very bright.”
By eighth grade the Special Ed class had had it with the teasing, and we got together during break times to back each other up. We walked around school like a gang, and the rejection was temporarily made bearable by our unity. We felt like we ruled the campus, until high school hit and we all went to different schools.
The high school education system had given up on me before I even got there. While mainstream classes were having discussions and learning, Special Ed students were stuck watching the Little Mermaid for the umpteenth time and having crossword puzzles for homework. My senior year math teacher told me all I had to do was show up and I would pass. I spent that year reading comic books.
Toward the end of high school I wanted to learn a lot of things, but the counselors said I was better off just taking vocational training. I pleaded my case, but they said I had two choices — take the class they offered or drop out.
I took the class, and it was cool. We all got stoned every day and still passed. At the end of the year in the parent-teacher meeting, the teacher told my mother that “Edward is very well known, but he is still at a sixth-grade learning level.” He told my mother I was particularly bad at math, so I should not get a job as a cashier. He said that she should not expect much out of me. At the end, the teacher offered hope: “He is doing well at his welding class, so maybe he should be a welder.”
My mom was mad at the teacher, and I hated welding, but by this time I was scared. Here I was wanting to go out there and rule the world, and everyone was shoving sticks in my wheels (only five of us graduated from the special education program). I chose not to listen to them and enrolled in junior college.
In college, it was called the disabled program. Once I got used to being labeled “disabled,” it wasn’t so bad. If I had wanted to milk it, I could have gotten a parking pass, even though I have no physical disability.
At De Anza Community College I was doing great in all my classes. Hell, I was doing better in the mainstream classes than any of the ones I had been forced into because of my learning disability. I was really looking forward to taking computer classes. Because of my label, they said I could not take them until I completed tests. At the end of a two-week testing spree, they had a meeting with me and said, “Look, we know its nice to go around saying you go to college, but college is not for everyone and you’re not De Anza material.”
So, once again, I was faced with a tough choice. I could try sticking it out at De Anza until the teachers blacklisted me, or, like many other college dropouts, move forward on my own and tell all those people to shove it.
That’s where I am at today. Just like everyone else my age, I am doing temp work in Silicon Valley. I have had at least 10 different temp jobs in the last few years. I never really wanted to do manufacturing and assembly work — it is really boring — but I have to pay the bills. I have built computer monitors, made boxes for printers, and shipped computers.
None of these jobs offered any training on how to use the technology we worked on. The computer skills I have now, I learned from teaching myself. I am also a staff writer and organizer for Silicon Valley Youth Outlook, part of a Bay Area monthly publication. We are giving young temp workers a platform to express their unheard voices. I am learning HTML to put Silicon Valley YO! on the Web. Oh, by the way, the first thing I did after school was go out and get a cashier’s job.
Edward Nieto, 22, contributes to Pacific News Service by writing for YO!, a youth publication.
Could We See Our Own Checkpoint Charlie?
December 22, 2000
The presidential election is over, and George W. Bush has been declared the victor by the Electoral College. Leaders from all over the globe have called to offer him their congratulations. However, in the international press, the prevailing view seems to be that he is, to use the title of last week’s edition of The Economist, “The Accidental President.”
I was in Berlin last week doing some training for political candidates interested in American online campaigning techniques, and had to follow the final lap of the election marathon as an expatriate. While CNN, MSNBC and the BBC provided plenty of cable television coverage, and while news Web sites provided minute-by-minute updates, I missed being in the United States to view an event as important and troubling as this latest transfer of presidential power.
As it turned out, I was in a small hotel a mile from Checkpoint Charlie when Al Gore gave his concession speech and George Bush gave his acceptance speech. Because of the time difference across the Atlantic, I set my alarm clock so I could wake up and watch the speeches at 3 and 4 a.m. on a tiny 14-inch screen beneath an idyllic 19th century scene of a Germanic countryside villa.
For those too young to remember, Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous guard-post in the world at the dawn of the nuclear age. As I viewed it, it appeared to be little more than the booth and gate you see at any parking garage, but the sandbags on the front of the guardhouse and the large “You Are Leaving the American Sector” and “You Are Leaving the Soviet Sector” signs are a reminder that this was no ordinary border crossing.
Checkpoint Charlie provided the opening between the East and West sectors of Berlin, at a time when the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union was still a source of front page news. After World War II, France, Great Britain, the Soviets and the Americans had joint control over the vanquished Germans. The Soviet-controlled part became East Germany. Within East Germany, the pre-war capital in Berlin was split into four sectors. The Soviets called theirs East Berlin, and put a wall around it in August of 1961, when too many East Berliners started to leave for jobs in the West. The Soviets had also hoped to surround West Berlin and get it to become part of East Germany, but a heroic airlift of supplies and munitions allowed West Berlin to stay out of Soviet control.
The museum at Checkpoint Charlie provides photos of the famous stand-offs between the Soviet and American tanks that stood guard there four decades ago. It also houses a museum devoted to world peace, which chronicles the efforts of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and others who stood up to injustice using non-violent means. (See www.dailysoft.de/berlinwall/index.html, www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/checkpoint-charlie.htm, www.dailysoft.de/berlinwall/time.
htm .)
In talking to any Berliner over the age of 50, the building of die Mauer (the Berlin Wall) in 1961 is a time-stopping moment, just like the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 is embedded in the minds of Americans of that generation. One cab driver told me that he was 14 when the wall separated his parents’ home from the homes of his grandparents. They died before the wall came down, so he never saw them again.
A woman in her 80s described how she and her sister were separated for 28 years by the wall, and spent a jubilant evening in November 1989 toasting its fall. Soon thereafter, however, the sister from the East started to see the sister from the West as patronizing and arrogant. The sister from the West grew tired of the complaints and requests for assistance from her Eastern sister. Within a month, the relationship had a barrier that was even more insurmountable than the one made of concrete and reinforced steel.
As an Asian American, I was happy to see that Germans of Thai ancestry were able to sell sweet and sour soup and pad thai from a German language menu at the Asian Snack take-out restaurant near the Friedrichstrasse U-Bahn (subway) near Checkpoint Charlie. However, racism still rears its ugly head, as is evident in the decline in applications for German schools by foreign students, and the skinhead crimes carried out against people of color. In a country where unemployment was 12 percent in 1997, and some estimate is twice that now in East Berlin, Germans of Turkish, Iranian, Sudanese and other backgrounds are free to drive cabs, go to school, and sell Christmas items near the world famous Pergamon Museum. The resentment expressed against them by a cross-section of Germans with whom I spoke, however, is an ominous sign of underlying intolerance that pervades the society.
Former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, now president of Georgia, said in a letter read out at the ceremony dedicating the re-built Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse, “I would like it to remain as a symbol of history. You must always remember how easy it is to divide people.”
Indeed, in our own country, where political parties and people are divided by barriers that were magnified by the Florida re-count, the issue of dividing people is a real one. No one is being threatened by tanks, and no one has built any concrete-and-steel walls, but the institutions of democracy were sorely tested in the Election of 2000. President-elect Bush has promised to be a “uniter, not a divider,” and top Democratic leaders are promising the same.
Whether you believe that the Republicans stole the election or the Democrats delayed the inevitable, the specter of Checkpoint Charlie reminds us what can happen when civil discourse breaks down. For the sake of our fragile democracy, we must never forget.
Wen Ho Lee Book to Be Written with Help of Helen Zia
December 22, 2000
California author Helen Zia will help former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, targeted in what originally was an espionage investigation, tell his story in a first-person book.
Stacy Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Lee family, said Friday they were “extremely happy’’ with the choice of Zia by the publishing firm Hyperion, a branch of ABC Inc.
The Lees know Zia, who followed the case from the start and flew to Albuquerque several times for hearings.
“I really do feel very connected to this story,’’ Zia said. “I feel very strongly that Dr. Lee has a very important story to tell. All Americans and our nation should be concerned about what happened to him.’’
Lee, a Taiwanese-born U.S. citizen, was arrested on Dec. 10, 1999. He was never charged with espionage, but rather faced 59 counts of downloading restricted nuclear weapons information.
He spent nine months in solitary confinement at the Santa Fe County jail and was denied bail three times before pleading guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to an unsecured tape. Lee, 60, was sentenced to time served and released Sept. 13.
His prosecution brought stinging criticism and allegations he was singled out because of his race. He still has pending a civil lawsuit alleging his privacy was violated by a government smear campaign.
NYC Schools to Consider Offering English Immersion Choices
December 22, 2000
New York City’s schools chancellor will propose expanding bilingual education options for children with limited English, allowing immigrants to choose how quickly their kids face English immersion.
Harold O. Levy’s plan follows an October study revealing problems in the current program, including substandard teaching and keeping students too long.
Currently, enrollees who fail an English competence test are automatically assigned to one format of bilingual education. Under the current format, core subjects like math and science are taught in the student’s native tongue.
The proposal would allow parents to choose from three plans: the current format; English as a second language (ESL), which teaches core subjects in rudimentary English, uses props, and requires students to take as many as three additional hours of English per day; and an intensive ESL program.
There are currently 176,000 students enrolled in New York’s bilingual education or ESL program. Over 65 percent of students enrolled in the classes are Latino. The rest are largely of Chinese or Russian decent.
Latino civil rights leaders who fought to establish the standing program in the 1970s worry the plan might reduce the ranks of bilingual teachers, cut program funding and reduce its availability to students.
But critics have long complained that foreign-born students become trapped in bilingual programs that offer substandard academic courses.
Mistrial Declared in Case of Fatal Stabbing
December 22, 2000
Jury deadlocked over first-degree manslaughter charge
By Associated Press
A mistrial was declared Dec. 13 in the first-degree manslaughter trial of a Vietnamese American man from Seattle who fatally stabbed another man during a racially charged Fourth of July confrontation in Ocean Shores last summer.
Grays Harbor County Superior Court jurors deadlocked on whether Minh Duc Hong, 26, should be convicted in the killing of Christopher Kinison, 20, outside a gas station and convenience store. Jurors deliberated 10 1/2 hours over two days.
Once jurors indicated they were deadlocked, Judge David Foscue asked them to go back and consider whether they could reach a verdict in a reasonable amount of time. They quickly returned and said they could not.
“We worked very hard to come to a joint verdict,” said Eugene Schermer, the foreman. Jurors said they had agreed not to discuss the case.
Hong said he was relieved. The victim’s mother, Molly Kinison, left the courthouse in tears. She had no comment.
There was no immediate word from prosecutors on whether they will seek to retry Hong.
Hong, who had been with his twin brother and a friend, said Kinison and others accosted them, shouting racist taunts as they tried to leave a Texaco gas station parking lot.
Kinison stood in front of the young Asian American men’s car, blocking it and waving a Confederate flag, defense lawyer Monte Hester told jurors earlier that week. Hong’s brother got out to run away and wound up in a fight with Kinison. Hester said Hong had to step in to defend his brother and eventually defend himself.
When Duc Hong took the stand in his own defense last week, he told jurors that he had feared for his life when he took out a knife and started slashing at Kinison during the fight.
Hong spoke for about two hours as the defense closed its case in Grays Harbor County Superior Court.
Prosecutors had contended that although Hong was defending himself, he acted “recklessly” when he stabbed Kinison 23 times.
“I was trying to get away from the attack,” Hong told jurors last week. “I was scared for my life. He made me believe my life was in danger.”
The fatal encounter began when the three Asian American men visited a Texaco minimart to buy food about 2 a.m. on July 4. Hong said he saw a crowd of five or six white men who looked like skinheads standing between his parked vehicle and the door.
Hong said a “man with a Confederate flag,” identified as Kinison, yelled racial slurs at him and the group mocked the trio’s language with words like “ching chong.” He said Kinison looked through the store window at the trio inside and made a gesture of slashing his neck.
On the way out, Hong said, the same man taunted him, spat on him, and said loudly to his face, “You don’t effing belong here. Go back to your country.”
As the trio tried to drive away, the man got in front of the car, and others were nearby, Hong said. He said he was scared and tried to call 911 but the cell phone didn’t work.
“My brother said, ‘Just make a run for it,’” Hong said. His brother and the friend got out of the car but Kinison started punching the brother and another man started fighting with the friend, Hong said.
“I came out of the car and I wanted to push him away. Before I got to the person with the flag, I got hit in the face,” Hong said, and his glasses were knocked off.
Kinison then grabbed Hong by the neck and started hitting him, Hong said. He said he reached for a knife in his pocket and started slashing in the man’s direction.
“I know that I used the knife — I didn’t know that I stabbed anybody,” Hong told jurors.
He said he did not tell police about the knife because he was afraid he would get in trouble for shoplifting it from the minimart.
But a witness who had attended high school with Kinison testified that she had heard Hong say “he’s going down” and gesture toward Kinison when Hong was inside the store. On the stand, Hong had denied any such conversation.
Ocean Shores resident Amanda Algeo had been one of 11 witnesses called by the prosecution. She said Hong talked to her when she was in line at the gas station minimart behind Hong, his brother and a friend of theirs.
“He asked me if Chris had a problem with Asians and I said ‘not to my knowledge’ and after that he said, ‘Well he’s going down,’” Algeo said.
Prosecutors asked her about Hong’s demeanor and she said “a little anxious, irritated and mad.”
She said she asked the store clerk to call 911 but he didn’t do it.
Algeo also said she bumped into Kinison on her way out of the store and her old acquaintance told her he wanted to start a fight.
“I asked him why and he said it was called racism,” she said. “I said it was called stupidity … I said somebody was going to get hurt and that’s when I left.”
Another witness, Alyson Green of Olympia, said she was standing outside the minimart when Kinison asked her if she wanted to see a fight.
Of 15 prosecution witnesses called in the trial’s first two days, only one testified to seeing Kinison and others surround the car driven by Hong’s twin brother and keep it from exiting the gas station.
Matt Gonzales, a 21-year-old Olympia resident, was the last witness to testify. He said Kinison tried to pick a fight with him but he wasn’t interested. Gonzales said he watched from a parking lot across the street as Hong’s brother stopped the car carrying the three young Asian American men as they were trying to leave the Texaco station. Gonzales said Kinison was standing at the front corner of the car on the driver’s side, less than a foot from the bumper.
Org vs. Com
December 22, 2000
It’s the era of dot-com gentrification — Do you know where your local community arts organization is?The first week of December saw a housewarming and a baby shower in the Asian American art organization family. This family traditionally has been and currently is in the front lines of the space war between community and poorly regulated business development. On Dec. 7, despite the hostile climate of the tech-industry monoculture, Kearny Street Workshop celebrated its sixth relocation with a party at its new home in the SoMa district. Meanwhile, north of Market, just a few weeks after of death Japantown Bowl, we felt the prenatal stirrings of a new community gathering place in J-town. Christened Locus, it promises to be the point of convergence of the Asian American art scene. Artists are not the only ones who are nurtured by the presence of art organizations. We, as part of this diverse Asian American culture, are strengthened by these community centers, which bring us together. On top of that, they throw great parties in the face of eviction. In This Community Arts Feature:
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Mistrial Declared in Case of Fatal Stabbing: Jury deadlocked over racially-charged killing in Ocean Shores, Washington.New York City Schools to Consider Offering English Immersion Choices: The city may provide new options for students trying to learn English. Also in National & World News… |
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Struggling to Stay Open: The Oakland Unified School District, in dealing with its budget deficit crisis, may shut down adult education programs, including ESL classes.Maybe Next Time: Are there lessons to learn from the loss of Asian Americans on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors? Also in Bay Area & California News… |
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Stretching Across Chinese Communities: Leading edge Web portal Sina.com unites the Chinese Diaspora.The Shattered Ceiling: Q&A with Sashi Chimala, founder of India’s first chain of coffee shops. Also in Business… |
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Tetrasomia — The New Era in Circus Art: Master trainer Lu Yi’s Circus of the Elements pushes human limits and showcases San Francisco’s burgeoning talent.Crouching Talent, Hidden Masterpiece: How director Ang Lee has brought a new sense and sensibility to martial arts cinema. Also in Arts & Entertainment… |
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Voices from the Community: My Life as Special Ed. Edward Nieto of the Pacific News Service is moving forward, with or without help from America’s school systems.Emil Amok: Asian Americans Need Not Apply. Columnist Emil Guillermo gets his last holiday greeting card from the Clintons. Also in Opinion… |
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Community Baby
December 22, 2000
Locus arrives in Japantown
By Joseph Hong
Mobilized to action last April by the displacement of many Asian American art and community centers suffering from San Francisco’s skyrocketing rent, an all-volunteer group of mostly 20- and 30-something API artists and activists have formed a nonprofit organization dedicated to opening a flexible, multipurpose performance art space/resource center/café in the heart of Japantown. Called Locus, the organization and venue hope to literally be the physical point of convergence of performing, literary, musical, and visual arts for San Francisco’s API community.
Located across the street from the Miyako Hotel at 1640 Post Street, Locus also hopes that by attracting the public to the arts, they’ll be able revitalize Japantown as a home base for Asian Americans as it once was.
“It was very apparent even last April that there was going to be a severe space crises for art spaces and nonprofits in general, so we were really looking to the possibility of taking this space in Japantown — a place that is struggling with its own coming to age, generational shift, and loss of community centers — and transform it into a community hub and also a place where the artist and the community can converge …” says Locus board member Jane Kim.
San Francisco, with an API population of 37 percent, does not currently offer an institution dedicated to showcasing works from Asian American artists — there are only administrative offices and rented performance spaces.
Asian American art spaces such as the Asian American Theater Company recently lost its lease on Arguello Street in 1994 due to rent increases and costs incurred from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damage; the Filipino American performance space Bindlestiff Studio lease will expire in spring; and Japantown Bowl, a much heralded community hangout for the youth and elderly, recently shut its doors after a buyout.
“Locus can meet the need for a central clearinghouse and homebase for the Asian Pacific American artists and community members to use as a resource,” says Julia Kim.
“As an artist at a Latino community art organization noted, ‘Physical institutions are where a community consolidates its power,’ ” Kim adds.
The venue plans to offer a flexible performance space to accommodate the city’s diverse art scene: experimental theater, jazz, hip hop, and political discussions are just some of the events which Locus hopes to showcase. A gallery will also exhibit the work of artists while a café in the works would generate revenue to keep the nonprofit financially self-supporting. Additionally, plans for an Asian American library and resource center, which will include Asian American and ethnic studies texts, novels, poetry chapbooks, and magazines by Asian American writers, are being mapped out.
“It’s going to be place for not only performances but for people just to come and hang out, and with the resource library, it’s also a place where ideas can be cultivated and where minds can come together and where people can talk and develop ideas — it’s a space for performance and creativity,” says Locus member Chi Hyi Xang, who is also director of National Asian American Telecommunication Association (NAATA), which produces the Asian American Film Festival in San Francisco each year.
According to Julia Kim, Locus is not only for Asian American artists. There will be an “open door” where Latino, black, and white artists are encouraged to join and work along side with API artists.
“The Asian American community is an extremely diverse population that spans dozens of ethnicities, generations, and historical traditions. Nevertheless, in mainstream America, Asian Americans are often lumped together in one stereotypical ‘Oriental’ or ‘foreign’ whole-stereotypes. Misunderstandings that can lead to discrimination and hate crimes,” says Kim. “We believe in the nurturing of many different artists and many forms of arts is essential to the empowerment of the API community and to building bridges with other communities.”
According to Locus board members, the most daunting hurdle for organization, at this point, is raising the $50,000 needed for obligatory renovations and constructions to meet city compliance codes. The first Locus fundraiser, a silent day auction and an open night auction, raised around $5,000. Aside from the dollars, Locus needs “a lot of help” with developing a business strategy and hiring a CPA, according to Jane Kim.
The fundraiser was, however, successful in other ways. The event attracted over 300 people who had filled the center to capacity, with even more folks waiting outside the door. Even a host of artists in San Francisco as well as throughout the nation were on hand to donate their artwork for the auction. “Someone had heard of the fundraiser on an FM station, and he just showed up with a piece of art to help, so I think there is a real recognition in the community, not just in the Asian American community, but just across the board that any new art space is vital. People are ready to support art in whatever way they can,” says Annie Koh, a Locus board member.
The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors (18MMW), a crazy, no-holds-bar Asian American comedy group, hosted the auction in which anything was up for bid: from a multi-course Chinese banquet to be cooked in a winner’s home to a dinner date with actor and slam poet Beau Sia.
To invoke the audience’s generosity the phrase “Don’t be Chinese. Don’t be cheap” became almost a mantra of the 18MMW during the auction. About $100 were the average winning bids for most of the items.
Though not officially opened yet, community use of Locus has already begun. There are monthly dinners for professionals of non- profit organizations. There has also been Asian American issues forum such as a panel discussion on hate crimes in the community and also on how the Asian American community fare in Election 2000.
But early as last spring, Locus was just a nascent idea, and the 1,700 square foot space where it sits today was part of the Korea House restaurant, which had not been in regular use for 20 years.
Julia Kim, 24, whose family has owned the property for 30 years, became increasingly concerned with the future of Japantown as a community. Many small business owners in neighborhood were reaching retirement age and it seemed unlikely that the next generation, whose career options are greater than their parents, would take over their businesses. Japantown Bowl, an important community center for where the young and old could congregate, was also closing at this time. There were also fears that the Kubuki 8 cinema would be next. Kim was fully aware that Japantown population was aging and there were no incoming immigrant populations to sustain the community as an Asian American ethnic enclave as it once was. She prepared to do something about what she and others had perceived as the deterioration of Japantown’s social and economic infrastructures. Kim asked her father if the unused ground level space could be utilized to help maintain the identity of the community. With the approval of her father, Kim, as a volunteer at NAATA Asian American Film Festival, told the organizers of her available space.
“Word just spread from there and things just happen quickly,” she says. Nonprofits, art organizations, and people just rallied around the idea to where Locus is anticipating an official March 2001 opening.
“On a personal level, I would like to be able to help preserve the history of Korea House, which has been a family-run business over 30 years,” Kim says of her reasons for sharing her family space with the rest of the community.
“It was actually where my parents first met,” Kim says. “The people that have come through both as customers and employees have always been like family.” During the 1989 earthquake when the city lost power, her family kept their doors opened, and served people by candlelight hot soup with heated portable gas stoves.
“The restaurant has only closed its doors twice in my lifetime, for my grandfather’s funeral, and for my sister’s wedding,” Kim remembers. “In a way, by laying down a foundation for the future generation through Locus, we are recording a history of a community of mostly immigrants, who very rarely get to be in the spotlight.”
Nomad Momma
December 22, 2000
Kearny Street Workshop moves … again
By Yi Hai Lai
On Dec. 7, friends, supporters and members of the Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) gathered for a house-warming party in its new space. In the wake of eviction madness in the South of Market, KSW, the oldest existing Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization, has recently moved in with SomArts, a city-funded cultural center, on Brannan Street.
Nancy Hom, the executive director and a driving force at KSW since 1974, inaugurated their new home with a characteristically gentle passion. Several founding members of KSW lent their presence, one of whom was Charlie Chin of the “first-ever Chinese American folk band” Grains of Sand. He grabbed the stage and had the crowd rolling by doing an impression of his uncle who went to church for free English lessons and fell in love with a white woman. Also present was Japanese American writer and poet Roy Kamada, who read from his personal collection.
Having moved six times since its Manilatown beginnings in 1972, KSW has seen several cycles of artist displacement in San Francisco.
“If you look at the history of gentrification, there are definite patterns where by a space is revitalized by an arts community moving into the neighborhood,” says Claire Light, KSW’s program and office manager. “A neighborhood might be built as a middle income area, deteriorate over a period of several decades and becomes a working class neighborhood. And because the rent is cheap, an artist community will move in; and because they are there making it happening, some young, hip, venturesome professionals will move in and gentrify the neighborhood. Pretty soon you’ll have an upscale neighborhood again.”
Only this time, the tech-industry-specific growth rate is highly unprecedented. According to an S.F. Bay Guardian report, more than $20 million of venture capital was pouring into the city everyday in the fall of 1999, and jobs doubled from 500,000 to 1 million in the span of a year. With the city’s limited square-footage and poor transportation system through the boroughs, these rapid growing pains have proven fatal for nonprofits and artists’ communities.
Most visibly, thousands of musicians that regularly practiced at Downtown Rehearsal in Hunters Point have been evicted. The landlord aims to find more lucrative use for the space. In the Asian American arts community, Teatro ng Tanan lost its rehearsal and performance space in August this year. Its former stomping ground was part of the Mint Mall, a predominantly Filipino American community center. Other API community organizations like Bindlestiff Studio, also a Filipino American performance group, and National Asian American Telecommunication Association, which supports Asian American artists working in film, video and other electronic media, are anticipating unaffordable raises in rent in the coming year.
“If the city protected arts interests, and social service interests, then the neighborhood would be much stronger,” says Light. “You have a situation in San Francisco recently where people haven’t been chased from neighborhood to neighborhood — they’ve simply been chased out because of the expansion in a particular industry. That is a problem.”
Kearny Street Workshop is unique in its resilience as a continued force in API community arts promotion. More than any other group of its nature, it has validated the nomadic model of organization. Over the years, its mission statement has evolved to incorporate movement as a strength.
Earlier last year, KSW had the chance to move back temporarily to the Chinatown area, where it first gathered strength. It made a conscious decision not to do so, partly in effort to be non-denominational in its space. With a certain degree of mobility, it can better serve the entire community. KSW continues to do location-based projects with different artists within the API arts community, such as the 1999 collaboration with artist Flo Oy Wong in made in usa: Angel Island Shhh…, a mix-media exhibit about Asian immigrants detained on Angel Island during1910.
“I know some arts organizations dream of a cultural center. A big building somewhere in J-town [for example],” says Hom. “It works to our advantage not to be too closely related to one ethnic group. It keeps us fluid and that fluidity is what keeps us going in hard times.”
A measure of success for this unique model is the large community donor base that KSW enjoys. Over the years, by virtue of its instability, it has deservedly collected a lot of fans from different neighborhoods in the Bay Area, rather than relying heavily on one or two.
Across the bay, the city of Oakland has its own rich loci of artistic development, originally aided by the cheaper rents and larger spaces. Now more than ever, it has made room for artists and some arts organizations that have been squeezed out of San Francisco. Given this phenomenon, some wonder if the cultural centers in Oakland will eventually supercede those in San Francisco.
Mayor Jerry Brown has been floating the buzzwords “Oakland Renaissance” in hopes of establishing the city as a cultural force rivaling San Francisco. Within its large Asian American community, pockets of artistic energy have been emerging. “The activist, collective art-making is what’s more energetic [in Oakland],” says Dennis Somara, a Filipino American artist involved in projects on both sides of the Bay Bridge. Somara is part of Godzilla West, an API arts organization that hosts Ohana, an open mike event in Oakland. He also performs with Teatro ng Tanan, which recently lost its rehearsal space South of Market. He helps out at KSW when he has time.
It is fair to say that Oakland has an independent scene that is up and coming. It remains to be seen if it will draw out the San Francisco art lovers.
“For cultural centers to move out to Oakland it would take a lot more than what’s already been done,” says KSW’s Light. “The psychological barrier is still there, it exists eastward and it exists southward. I know that a lot of people have had to move to Oakland. They are willing to travel back into the city for events, as well as attend those in Oakland, but the reverse is not true.”
For now, API arts organizations born of San Francisco continue the fight to channel the city’s prosperity into the creative endeavors of its artists.
“It’s not just that the community is booming. It’s that you have to educate the people to contributing to the arts,” says Hom. “Art really is food for the soul. You need it like you would need food or water.”
Community Calendar
December 22, 2000
Announcements, workshops, and opportunities for community, family and career.
REGIONS:
Northern California
National
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| NORTHERN CALIFORNIA |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Children’s Services Fund As a collaborative between Wu Yee Children’s Services, Whitney Young Child Development Center and Children’s Council of San Francisco, The San Francisco Vendor Voucher Program assists San Francisco low-to-moderate income families in paying for licensed childcare for children 0-13 years old. It is designed to serve single-parent families who are working or have been offered employment, and two-parent families, of which either parent is working and offered employment and the other parent is working or enrolled in school or job training. Through the program, parents will be free to choose any licensed child care provider, as well as receive child care counseling. Registration is on-going and enrollment is based on availability of open-slots. For more information and application forms, call Wu Yee Children’s Services, 415-391-8993.
Free Computer Recycling Recycle your old computer for free. The San Francisco Recycling Program and participating computer stores and recyclers are offering a computer recycling service for San Francisco residents and small businesses. Simply take your old computer to one of ten drop-off locations for recycling. Call 415-RECYCLE for more information.
KCI & IIC Millennium Benefit Gala Please join the Korean Center, Inc. and the Intercultural Institute of California for its Millennium Benefit Gala on Saturday Dec. 30 at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Tickets start at $150. Black Tie/ Korean dress optional. In 1995, the Korean Center incorporated the Intercultural Institute of California to provide students with educational opportunities to fulfill their academic needs as well as empower them with knowledge to participate in a multi-ethnic society. For more information contact 415-441-1881 or iic@iic.edu.
SAIL Writing Contest Save Angel Island League is proud to announce two bilingual (Chinese and English) writing contests on the topic of “The Meaning of Angel Island History in 21st Century America to Me.” Adult contest 1st prize - $1,000; highschool contest 1st prize - $500 . Please submit to Save Angel Island League, P.O. Box 3468, Berkeley, CA 94703. Deadline: January 15, 2001. Fax Chia-Chia Chien for details at 925-932-3492.
Computer Classes Free after-school computer classes for low-income children in the Tenderloin, Mission, Chinatown and Western Addition are available through the Career Resources Development Center in San Francisco. For more information, call 415-775-8880.
EVENTS
Crazy About Orchids The Peninsula Orchid Society is pleased to announce its 2001 show and sale, Crazy About Orchids, on Saturday, Jan. 6 and Sunday Jan.7 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the Community Activities Building. This year’s event will feature exhibits, lectures and demonstrations on orchid culture, growing and potting tips. (1400 Roosevelt Avenue, Redwood City. 650-365-1765. www.geocities.com/~orchidsoc)
VOLUNTEERING
Acupuncturist, Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic Are you a licensed acupuncturist? You can help members of diverse communities during all stages of HIV. Provide acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatment on a weekly basis and help maintain the acupuncture clinic. Contact Scott Wallin at 415-487-5638 ext. 123.
Asian Neighborhood Design; Seismic Retrofit Employment Consortium Help in the office while gaining skills in employment development and placement, and help give low-income individuals more advantages in today’s job market. Some computer required and training will be provided. Contact William Bishop at 415-586-1011.
Asian Women’s Shelter Opportunities exist to provide emotional and practical support for residents. Volunteers can assist clients with basic needs, accompany residents to appointments and organize activities for children. Bilingual and bi-cultural skills are helpful. For more information, call 415-751-7110.
Asians Over Age 55 Needed This New Year, become an Experience Corps volunteer and help children excel in school and in life. Join the movement of older adults serving children in San Francisco public school. Help out in classrooms, provide homework assistance, read one-on-one, supervise recreational activities, or run after school programs. Make a difference by giving children in our communities caring Asian American adult role models. A monthly tax-free stipend of $150 is available for volunteers who serve 15 hours per week. No prior experience necessary. For more information call Lori Byer at 415-759-3690.
Child advocacy The San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (SFCASA) seeks community volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children. Represent a child’s best interest in Juvenile Dependency Court and develop a supportive mentoring relationship. Men and people of color are especially needed. Call now for information about the Feb. 1, 2001 training at 415-398-8001 x 104 (833 Market St., Suite 1004, San Francisco. www.sfcasa.com)
Christmas Cheer from Little Brothers Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly, a non-profit that provides companionship to isolated elders, needs more than 500 volunteers to visit seniors who are without family and who would otherwise be alone on Christmas Day. Volunteers can pick up meals to take to elders any time between 10 a.m. and noon on Monday Dec. 25, and are asked to visit 1-2 elders for about an hour each. A short orientation is required and it is strongly recommended that volunteers have a car. To sign up, contact Nea Benton at 415-771-7957 or sign up on line at www.littlebrothers.org/sanfrancisco.
Citizenship Class Teacher San Francisco-based On Lok needs people who can help guide elderly clients to become citizens. Contact the volunteer coordinator at 415-550-2230.
Counselors Needed There are many rewards and challenges in parenting children. Everyone needs someone to talk to sometimes. Parental Stress Service’s 24-hour family hotline offers supportive counseling to families who need to be heard. As a telephone hotline counselor, you can make a difference in our community, helping to protect children and strengthen families while doing satisfying work in a team environment. To learn more about opportunities, call 510-893-9230.
Graphic Designing The UCSF Clinical Cancer Center needs you to lend your artistic talents this holiday season. We need you to create graphic designs for holiday cards, donation postcards or a prescription pad for doctors to use in referring patients to particular services available at our center. Please contact Elizabeth Ortega Lau at 415-885-3693
Project Open Hand We need help shopping for clients in our on-site Grocery Center. Please contact Artrese Morrison at 415-447-2310 x 310
St. Anthony Foundation Have you wondered what you could do to make a difference in the lives of people who are poor or homeless? St. Anthony Foundation needs volunteers for several of its programs, including people to serve lunch in the free dining room. St. Anthony’s serves 2,000 meals a day, 365 days a year. For more information, please call 415-241-2600, or visit www.stanthonysf.org.
Survivors International The group seeks a volunteer activity guide for two or more hours a week to help refugees master English and become familiar with parks, museums, banks, post offices, public transportation and free cultural activities in the Bay Area. For more information, contact Tracy Deskin at 415-765-6999.
Translation Volunteers The Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center is looking for volunteers to translate and proofread documents. For more information, call Bryan Pangilinan at 415-292-3420, Ext. 360.
YWCA-Chinatown The organization is looking for volunteers to tutor children in its after-school program Monday through Friday. Volunteers are especially needed to facilitate an English conversational hour for immigrant teen girls. A 3-4 hour per week commitment is required. For more information about volunteering, call Laura or Shelly at 415-788-5437.
WORKSHOPS
English Classes The Chinatown YMCA offers free morning English classes with bilingual counselors to help Cantonese speakers with limited English skills. Enrollment is open. For more information, call 415-928-4419.
Everything to Do with Parenting Parents Place is offering workshops for families with children of all ages. All groups and workshops are held at Parents Place, 3272 California St., San Francisco. To register call 415-563-0335 x 122 or register online at www.jfcs.org/pplgroup2000d.html. Call 563-1041 to find out January through March workshops.
Free Counseling for Seniors Do you or someone you care for need support with a difficult life transition? Get help from one who’s been there. Senior Peer Counseling trains volunteers over 55 to assist fellow seniors through emotional support, problem solving and compassionate listening. All services are voluntary and free of charge. For information or referral call Family Service Agency at 415-474-7310 for Nancy Alpert.
Free Legal Clinic Legal consultation for seniors is available for general legal rights, immigration and naturalization, housing and eviction, and public benefits. Services provided by Khin Mai Aung, staff attorney from the Asian Law Caucus, at Self-Help for the Elderly. Dec. 27 from 9 a.m. to noon. No appointments. For more information contact Northeast Senior Center at 415-438-4800. (407 Sansome Street, 4th floor, San Francisco)
Free Traditional Chinese Music Lessons The Chinese Culture Center is pleased to announce the commencement of ongoing workshops and lessons in traditional Chinese music, taught by acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Hong Wang, the artistic director of Melody of China, Inc. Beginning and intermediate classes will be held on Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon. Advanced classes for music teachers are on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The registration fee is $15, but all classes are free. Please bring your own instruments. For more information call 415-986-1822. (Chinese Culture Foundation, 750 Kearny Street, 3rd floor, San Francisco)
Tantrice Buddhism Study The Oakland True Buddha Vijaya Temple is pleased to present Tantrice Buddhism study. Class is scheduled every Wednesday at 8 p.m., ending Jan. 3. Topics include Buddha Shaykamuni’s life and his first teachings after enlightenment. For registration please contact Rev. Lian Hung at 510-532-9988.
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| NATIONAL |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Going Home Pie Town Productions is bringing a new heartwarming show to Home & Garden Television. Going Home is a half-hour long program that follows real-life people returning to their hometowns and their childhood homes. If you know of anyone who is going home (domestic travel only please) please contact us. We are taping 65 episodes and looking for energetic people from all around the country with positive memories about their hometown. For more information contact Amy Rosenberg 323-851-2333 x 284
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