LGBT Perspective: For 2009: Tolerance Not Violence
December 29, 2008
A woman was beaten and raped by four men. They terrorized her for close to an hour and, when they were done, left her naked in the street. Throughout the attack, they taunted her with the reason she was chosen: She is a lesbian. Read more
Christmas and Its Malcontents
December 16, 2008
Much to my annoyance, some of the Christmas zealots in my neighborhood put up their lights as early as Halloween this year. And I distinctly remember hearing the first hints of Christmas music over the speakers in a pharmacy two weeks before Thanksgiving, as if to remind everyone to think of their local drugstore first when desperately seeking those oh-so-one-of-a-kind Santa hats. Read more
Blasian Perspective: Discovering My African Roots
December 9, 2008
Are Asians descended from the African continent? While many side with historians who believe that civilization started in Europe or China, I have believed the answer to the above question to be an emphatic yes since reading The Destruction of African Civilization by Chancellor Williams and The African Presence in Early Asia by Runoko Rashidie and Ivan Van Sertima. Read more
LGBT Perspective: The Success Of A Loss
December 3, 2008
California now has a constitution with an amendment that discriminates against a minority.
California now has two groups of people: one can marry, the other cannot. Read more
Faith Perspective: Praying for a Future President
November 24, 2008
Congratulations, Asian America, on the new president! You worked hard, listened and voted. But is Obama the answer to your prayers?
For African Americans, Obama is an answer to decades of prayers, not cheap please-don’t-let-the-Republicans -win-again kind of prayers, but prayers borne of the Civil Rights movement — prayers that asked for a glimpse of what King saw from the mountaintop. Read more
Blasian Perspective: Yes, We Did!
November 16, 2008
Remember my August 7 column where I boldly predicted that Barack Obama would be the first BlAsian president of the United States? (BlAsian in the combined biological-family-cultural sense: His father is Kenyan and his stepfather, who helped raise him, is Indonesian. And Barack was born in Hawai‘i and lived there as well as in Indonesia during his formative years.) Read more
LGBT Perspective: After Proposition 8
November 6, 2008
The Path Forward
By the time you read this, California’s Proposition 8, which would define marriage as only between a man and woman, will have been either rejected or passed. Either way, much work needs to be done to heal the fissures rendered by this divisive issue. Read more
Young Asian Americans Sound Off on Plunging Economy
October 23, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — For some young Asian Americans, the country’s tanking economy hasn’t resulted in any major immediate changes to their pocket books. But the market’s topsy-turvy rise and fall has definitely impacted their mentality.
“Even if I have tremendously good credit, it will be harder for me to get a loan,” said UC Davis student Lily Read more
Faith Perspective: One Apology
October 16, 2008
“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Na-ze oreo kirai nahn dah is Japanese for “Why do you hate me?”
I learned the phrase as a college sophomore when my older Korean roommate was desperately seeking a way to earn attention from an attractive Japanese ESL student. Perhaps he thought playfulness in the native Read more
BlAsian Musician Explores Both Sides of His Roots
October 9, 2008
The release of the CD Ten in September continued drummer/ percussionist/educator/musicologist/Asian American Orchestra director Anthony Brown’s long career of combining music that reflects his BlAsian roots.
Born in the Presidio neighborhood of San Francisco to —who met in Isuzo, Japan, during World War II and are both featured on the CD cover—Brown has been a seminal figure in Read more
LGBT Perspective: Why Would APIs Favor Discrimination?
October 2, 2008
At a meeting to defeat Proposition 8—the one that “eliminates the right of same sex couples to marry”—we learned that APIs are slightly more in favor of the proposition than against it. We are surprised.
APIs, with a long history of fighting against unequal rights, are now actually in favor of unequal rights? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Have we forgotten all those exclusion acts enacted to deny us rights other people take for granted? Have we forgotten what discrimination feels like? Read more
Gen. Y Perspective: Young Chinese Artist on the Road to Success
September 26, 2008
Nikki Lau habitually fell asleep during her high school Advanced Placement Art History slideshow, but she now hopes to make eyes pop open with her art.
At college in Seattle, Nikki’s work was displayed in several art exhibitions and commissions. Howard House, a major art gallery in Seattle, hosted one of her most notable exhibitions on the University of Washington campus. Read more