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Letters to the Editor

Cruising ‘Gaysians’
Q writes: “The truth is that you don’t have to be physically attracted to your own race” (“Cruising ‘Gaysians,’” Ask Q, Jan. 4). Nonsense. You are completely glossing over how attraction is shaped by popular culture and media representation. It is abnormal to not be attracted to your own race. Nobody says you have to date your own race, but to view your own race as fundamentally unattractive is a result of internalized racism.

Randy
[last name not provided]
Via Web site

Cho: Most Newsworthy in 2007
As a licensed clinical APA psychologist working in a nonprofit, community-based behavioral health program focusing on the Asian American community, I can only wonder if the services that were available for Seung-Hui Cho were culturally and linguistically competent as those offered by many mental health providers in the Bay Area, such as Asian Americans for Community Involvement (“Sadly, Cho is Most Newsworthy APA in 2007,” Emil Amok, Dec. 28).

The Cho family members’ experiences are similar to those faced by many APAs in the Bay Area. Fortunately, the availability of culturally and linguistically competent mental health services greatly diminishes their chances of becoming headline news.

Jorge Wong
Asian Americans for
Community Involvement,
Behavioral Health Service director
San Jose, Calif.

APA of the Year: Michael Yaki
We join Phil Nash and AsianWeek in heralding the outstanding service Michael Yaki has provided this year as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (“APA Person of the Year: Michael Yaki,” Washington Journal, Dec. 28).

Commissioner Yaki steadfastly stands up for the rights of all Americans, not just APAs, and he has not been deterred by a Commission majority that often disagrees with him.

John Trasviña
Mexican American
Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, president and general counsel
Los Angeles, Calif.

Kudos to Clip-Tabs CEO
Great to see an Asian woman entrepreneur take risks and succeed (“Clip It Good: Janet Lau’s Clip-Tabs Keep it Together,” Dec. 28). Janet easily could have stayed in her comfortable corporate job, but instead took the road less taken.

Rayfil Wong
San Francisco, Calif.

Hippie Vs. Republican Math
I know Arthur Hu has issues with hippies, but “hippie mathematics” (“Finland Über Alles,” Hu’s On First, Dec. 14)? Give me a break! We hippies never had a position on math one way or the other. After all, two plus two equals four no matter what your political viewpoint, right? Well, maybe.

Bear in mind it was Bill Clinton — after saying he never inhaled — who balanced the federal budget and even gave us a surplus. Then it was George W. Bush who squandered that surplus and gave us the largest federal deficit in our nation’s history. Perhaps we should be more worried about “Republican mathematics.”

Michael Wong
San Francisco, Calif.

Comments

In response to Emil Guillermo’s “Why is Obama Snubbing Asian-Americans?”

He’s not.

In a field of exceptional Democratic candidates, Obama stands out to me as the strongest candidate for Asian American communities. I would not discount the importance of his multicultural background and immigrant roots. Obama’s connection to the Asian Pacific American community is not as shallow as simply growing up in Hawaii, having lived in Asia as youth, or having an Indonesian American sister and Chinese Canadian brother-in law–although I submit to you that those are true and meaningful connections with Asian Americans. (Moreover, Obama’s brother in law is actually an adviser to the campaign on AAPI issues who has a history of involvement in the Democratic party and championing AAPI issues.)

More importantly, he is committed to issues that matter to AAPIs. He has a compassionate stand on comprehensive immigration reform and protecting family-based immigration, investments in quality K-12 and higher education, more support to minority-owned small businesses, met with Filipino Veterans and is supporting the Filipino Veterans Equity Act as a member of the Veteran Affairs Committee, and is the only candidate with a history as a civil rights lawyers who fought employment discrimination and who expanded healthcare and protected voting rights as a state legislator in Illinois. In addition, Obama has been a supporter of Asian American lawyers–keynoting the 2005 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) conference. He is the only candidate that has a specific page on his site devoted to AAPIs and issues that our community cares about: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/aapiissues

Because of his strong record in working with the Asian American community, the Asian American Action Fund of Greater Chicago, a group of APA leaders familiar with Obama’s record through working with him over the last decade in Illinois, endorsed him in the fall. Please speak with members of his AAPI National Leadership Council (a list can be found on the asianamericansforobama.com, or Obama AAPI site), like Wilma Chan, who represented Obama at the AAA-Fund Candidate Forum in LA in December, where he won the straw poll by 71%. http://www.aaa-fund.org/press/2007dec06.asp (Clinton and Richardson were the other candidates represented.)

The stakes are too high for our communities to miss the boat on this historic moment because of incomplete information.

Angelica Kristen Ortega Jongco
Filipino Americans for Obama
San Francisco, CA

–Angelica Kristen Ortega Jongco on Jan 14, 2008

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