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Governor Davis: Taking Us for Granted?

Was the incumbent front-runner Gray Davis taking the ethnic media, and its reach — estimated at 14 million Californians — for granted?

The first debate in California’s gubernatorial race took place last week at the New California Media Expo in Beverly Hills, and Gray Davis didn’t show up.

Was he washing his hair?

Maybe we should have called it a “fundraiser?”

Is not showing up really an option at a debate? The Libertarian candidate fired by his party for spitting was not there. That’s okay, he wasn’t invited.

Davis was invited, and if all he wanted to do was spit, that would have been just fine.

But he declined to show up.

Too bad. GOP guy Bill Simon, Jr. and third party candidate Peter Camejo, green in more ways than one, showed up, scrubbed and ready for display. It might have been a great kick-off debate, but it wasn’t to be.

Both chose to debate the phantom Davis, when they should have engaged each other. But Simon and Camejo are in a weird co-dependent relationship. Simon needs Camejo do to what I call a “Nader” on Davis. Al Gore knows what that feels like. And Camejo needs Simon because without him, no one really wants him around.

So the two very different candidates end up approaching a Davis-less debate like a pillow fight.

Meanwhile, Davis ignores the media and says he has too many things on his mind. Like not screwing up a double-digit lead with a little more than a month to go.

His strategy: Stay out of any political fights. And act like the governor. Say you’re too busy working.

Considering he has 1,200 bills to veto or pass in the next week or so, it’s probably the safest campaign strategy he can employ — look like you’re reading and carefully considering every bill word for word (sure, he is), and sign into law the ones that will make large segments of voters happy.

Payback time.

Of course, he can veto the ones people don’t like too.

But let’s stay positive.

Everyone has a bill they want the governor to sign. And Asian Pacific American groups are now pushing for one in particular, SB 987, a bill that increases immigrants’ access to social services.

If you thought we already have such a law, we have — for nearly 30 years. Trouble is, no one follows it. Only one in ten agencies translate materials for non-English speakers. SB 987 makes sure the work gets done so non-English speakers aren’t routinely deprived access.

Ted Wang of Chinese for Affirmative Action has a whole list of examples that show how good people who don’t speak English are getting screwed.

There’s the Mandarin-speaking garment worker who filed a complaint against her boss for back wages and overtime. The State Labor Commissioner was supposed to provide her with translated forms or an interpreter. She got none. When she entered a settlement conference, she needed an interpreter. Guess who served as her interpreter? The employer she was suing. Perry Mason wouldn’t have let that happen.

Then there’s the 17-year-old who misses school regularly to translate for a parent receiving cancer treatment at SF General.

You can say “just enforce existing law.” But considering the rates of enforcement, the law needs teeth. SB 987 gives the law fangs.

If Davis’ no-show was just an oversight and not a slight, not a gesture that shows he doesn’t care about us, he can use his gubernatorial powers and take care of the ethnic communities he dissed when he chose to skip the debate last week.

There’s no reason not to sign it. The legislature passed it as if routine. But Davis has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto. And stranger things can happen —like how he didn’t show up for the first gubernatorial debate hosted by the ethnic media.

It’s odd behavior considering how ethnic communities propelled Davis to that huge landslide victory in 1998. No one predicted a landslide. But no one could gauge the pro-immigrant backlash against the Republicans for backing Prop. 187. That’s why Davis is governor. So why isn’t he treating us like his meal ticket, instead of as his waiters and busboys? Sheer arrogance.

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

That APA groups are urging passage of SB 987 says a lot about our real edge politically. It shows that our different languages give us real leverage for inclusion. We demand translation.

But it also means as long as we retain our original language, we continue to have moral authority, uniqueness, and consequently, power.

The moral to the story: Who needs English?

At the New California Media Expo, there were hundreds of ethnic media outlets networking with businesses and ad agencies. The media that seemed to be doing far better than the others were those “in-language,” meaning the targeted immigrant media in Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish.

The struggling media outfits were almost uniformly based not in the native tongue, but in English.

“Advertisers won’t give us the ads,” one exec told me. “They say they’ll catch our audience in the bigger mainstream media. So the LA Times gets the ad, not us.”

I’ve heard this lament over and over. And it’s true. The part of us that triggers a sale is not our skin color or our exotic look. What defines us as a market is language. At least for advertising. They can’t reach us otherwise. Without our unique language edge, we’re like everyone else.

It’s a troubling fact for ethnic media in English that sees itself as a bridge between generations and cultures. It suggests that for sheer survival we should all start learning our ethnic tongue, and be, if anything, bi-lingual.

Salamat po?

In immigrant-dominated communities, it may be the only thing that gives us a real edge. Especially when it comes to growing our media and our political power.

It’s one reason in the coming weeks Davis has plans to debate just once in English (for the LA Times), and just once for Spanish-language TV.

But show up for the first gubernatorial debate at last week’s New California Media Expo? Not a chance.

Reach Emil Guillermo at emil@amok.com.