B-Ball Blunder: Racist NBA player yet to apologize (in National News) Equality for All: SFUSD plan targets racial disparities (in Bay Area News) Business in the Aftermath of Census 2000 (in Business) Asian American Oscar predictions (in A&E) Emil Amok: Roundball Asian Gals and the Census (in Opinion)

Marginalized Wisdom

The 2000 census shows that some Asian American ethnic groups quadrupled in population over the last ten years. As our community grows exponentially, our differences come to light. The communities within our community are becoming visible and voicing their struggles.

The Asian Pacific American transgender community in San Francisco may be as large as 6,000 people. One of the most marginalized communities across the board, the “T” community has a lot of struggle to voice. Based on a 1996 study done by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, 83% of transgender people surveyed reported suffering from verbal abuse, 46% suffered from employment discrimination, 37% suffered from physical abuse and 32% had attempted suicide. A transgender person is 16 times more likely to be murdered than an average person in the United States. Add to this the burdens of immigration, language-barriers and racial discrimination and the picture seems hopeless.

But the real stories of the men and women who identify as transgender are basic. They speak of feeling ugly, self-conscious and struggling for self-expression. Which one of us has not felt these things? From white-washed suburbs to urban streets, across ethnicities and racialized notions, the struggle to be true to one’s self is at the core of everything. So the stories of the transgender community can be seen as pure inspiration. Here are people who risked it all — social acceptance, discrimination, violence — to be true to what was inside of them.

As we struggle with identity, labels, sexual categories, societal norms; we must look to all corners of our community for wisdom. Perhaps in the new changing world, our new shamans and elders, heroes and warriors are not battling on mythic landscapes. They are fighting the darkness in their own lives, the evils of discrimination and hate, and coming out triumphant. It is our own stories, our individual courage, that will bring together our collective strength.