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Chicago-based, Asian Pacific American performance group Mango Tribe makes these awesome T-shirts that break APA stereotypes. They have one that reads: “I’m bad at math.” Lately though, it seems these shirts may be more fitting for our law enforcement and leaders, who’ve been having a hard time with the numbers lately.
Take last Saturday’s anti-war march, for example. Prepared to get it right, organizers in San Francisco had a helicopter taking aerial shots, plus volunteers staffed at a point near the Civic Center counting numbers in five-minute intervals. They estimated about 200,000 people, yet the masses of SF police personnel doing crowd control reported about 50,000. That’s quite a discrepancy. The police later amended their numbers to 150,000.
While the protest numbers are all about building the movement, other counting errors can cause huge problems. The 2000 Census missed about 68,000 people in the Bay Area, which could cost the region some $181 million in federal funds. In fact, the Census is now considering using phone calls and the Internet to take polls of people. Of course, the use of math in the form of scientifically proven adjusted numbers could have solved these issues — but the Republicans were all against accuracy on that one.
Gov. Gray Davis is wishing he had paid closer attention in econ. this month, as California’s budget crisis has called for some drastic measures. California may be the fifth largest economy in the world, but we are also $35 billion in the hole. Ouch. Sadly, schools and community colleges may feel it the worst — with cuts in teachers, programs and staff. Looks like a lot of our lawmakers could have used some remedial courses at the local community college. Too bad all of those classes will be cut due to the new budget.
Speaking of stereotypes, Shaquille O’Neal still hasn’t formally apologized to Yao Ming or the APA community, but he has been saying “all Asians are my brothers.” Does that make things better? Definitely not. In fact, just the other day Kenny Lee — a third-generation Chinese American and a middle school counselor — was walking back to his car after catching a matinee with his wife. A group of young men wearing official sporting gear from Gonzaga University of Spokane, Wash. walked by and one leaned over to Lee and made, yup, “ching-chong” remarks. Lee later found out that the Gonzaga basketball team was in town to play USF that afternoon. He couldn’t help but feel the connection to what happened in the NBA, and said the experience was disturbing and humiliating.
Thanks Shaq, for bringing out the worst in our country.
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