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A Serious Laugh

AALDEF celebrates New Year by honoring comedian and activist

By Tomio Geron | Special to AsianWeek

Who says Asian Pacific American politics can’t have punch and still be funny?

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is holding its annual Lunar New Year Celebration in New York City on Feb. 13. While the event will benefit the serious work AALDEF has done leading the movement to protect immigrants’ rights since Sept. 11, it also has some room for humor.

Its annual “Justice in Action” awards will honor Margaret Cho, the comedian known for her hilarious, hard-hitting one-woman shows. It may be a slight surprise for Cho to be honored by an APA civil rights group.

But Cho has been active in breaking down barriers for APAs, says Margaret Fung, AALDEF’s executive director.

“She’s concerned about issues of race and gender,” says Fung, who recently saw Cho speak on BET. “She was starting to speak out about that. And she’s been very critical of the limited [acting] roles available to Asian women.”

Cho’s no-holds-barred comedy has taken on topics such as identity, sex, drugs and eating disorders in her one-woman shows I’m the One That I Want and Notorious C.H.O., both of which toured nationwide and were released as feature films. Cho, who made history in 1994 by starring in the first APA family sit-com All-American Girl, will be opening a new show in March, Revolution Tour.

Fung praises Cho’s “use of comedy to give insights into race, gender and other social issues.”

AALDEF’s other awardee is Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (TWA). Desai has been organizing the large South Asian and Muslim community of taxi drivers in New York City.

AALDEF is giving the award to Desai “based on her work with South Asian and immigrant workers, especially after the 9/11 attacks,” says Fung. “She and TWA were really at the forefront of documenting hate crimes against South Asian, Muslim and Sikh drivers — organizing legal clinics and helping them seek relief.”

New York City taxi drivers represent more than 90 countries and work 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, in the most dangerous job in the United States. More cabbies are killed per capita than police, according to TWA. TWA has been active in working for racial and economic justice for these drivers, according to Fung.

Fung says it makes sense to honor Desai because so much of AALDEF’s recent work has focused on protecting the rights of immigrants since Sept. 11. “A lot of our work we’ll be describing [at the celebration] is in response to 9/11 — hate crimes, immigrant detention, special registration — basically the targeting of particular communities.”

AALDEF has been active recently in helping immigrants who fall under the INS National Security Entry-Exit System (NSEERS), also known as the “special registration” program. Under the program, all men over age 16 from Arab or Muslim countries (as well as North Korea) must register with the INS and submit personal information. Many who have registered have faced the prospect of deportation proceedings for various reasons.

AALDEF’s benefit dinner, which will be held at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City, is expected to draw some 700 people. The celebration of Lunar New Year will include a lion dance performance and special guests. The emcee will be WNBC-TV reporter Ti-Hua Chang, and playwright David Henry Hwang will give a special message.

The message of the dinner will be focused on supporting AALDEF’s work in various civil rights areas. But it will still have time for some lighter moments.

“We wanted to have a brief moment of humor with Margaret Cho but also celebrate the New Year by honoring two very dynamic women,” says Fung.

For more information on AALDEF go to www.aaldef.org.