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Thanks to a link which AAA's Chair from two years ago e-mailed (to undisclosed recipients), here's a NYT article covering the benefits of Healthy San Fransico, "a new program that offers free or subsidized health care to all 82,000 San Francisco adults without insurance." Needless to say, this will help immigrants a huge lot.

Here are some excerpts:

The initiative, known as Healthy San Francisco, is the first effort by a locality to guarantee care to all of its uninsured, and it represents the latest attempt by state and local governments to patch a inadequate federal system.

After a phased start-up, the city plans to bring private medical networks into the program next year, expanding the choice of doctors. Until November, enrollment will be limited to those living below the federal poverty line ($10,210 for a single person; $20,650 for a family of four). Then it will open to any resident who has been uninsured for at least 90 days, regardless of income or immigration status.

"Only in the Bay. God damn."

Hell, yeah.

This will be part of a series, and will probably not end as long as the blogosphere exists.

Let me direct you to this comment on the Bwog. It doesn't matter the article it appeared under.

An (asian) student had an open container outside Broadway. NYPD rolled by, had a discussion with student, discussion became heated, student was handcuffed aggressively and thrown onto the ground, crowd assembled, NYPD officers called for backup to deal with crowd, several cars arrived, officers emerged to keep crowd away, lots of yelling, several racist comments were made by police (personal favorite: "had too much sake tonight?) Spectator was informed last night but has remained strangely silent on the issue.
Below:
As for the racist comment, I'm a little unclear how you heard this comment, since the cops were keeping people away. Regardless, prior to the arrest it is doubtful profiling occurred. Perhaps somewhere in New York City cops profile against Asians, but I would bet in the majority of asian-NYPD relations, racism works in Asians' favor, and ignorant cops assume that Asians are going about their gentle Buddha-tofu-meditation authority-loving business. Doesn't excuse the potential racism, but hey, are we really surprised at this point that the chaps with guns are willing to crack some skulls and make racist remarks? Well we shouldn't be.

If you want to be outraged at authority, that's cool, or if you want to be outraged at racism, that's cool. Hell, if you want to be enraged at both at the same time, that's cool too. But I would suggest not getting authoritarian tactics and racism mixed up in your own mind since it allows you two modes of completely separate arguments against the cops. Although both the abuse of authority and racism may have been displayed simultaneously, the phenomena are not intrinsically related since white cops will bust rich white boy heads from time to time. Just a helpful hint in case you ever have to go to trial with it.

All of this is pretty interesting (and pretty racist!) commentary on race relations in law enforcement, but to boot...

Dude, the only legitimate claim Asians can have of being discriminated against is by Columbia admissions.

Thanks a lot. As for the police incident, AAA will investigate...

We still contend, however, that racism escapes no one. Not the educated, not the worldly, not the intelligent, not the Ivy-Leaguer, not the New Yorker, not the person of color ... it goes on. Bwog comments get pretty ridiculous anyway, but here we still see real products of human thought. Keep that in mind.

Interviews for OCMs (Organizational Committee Members) are today. What does this mean? Over twelve hours of meeting people and hearing interesting observations/insight about our club. The following is a live feed of the what is occurring inside the interview room - starting at 10:00 am.

Note: Guys and gals, please know the following before you come in:

  • Purpose of AAA
  • Difference between AAA and other cultural groups.
Note: PiC stands for partners in crime. The essence is that Marilla and I are criminals (not an inside joke).

Feed by Marilla (PiC2) and David (PiC1).

10:45 am
"I'm very oriental."

10:50 am
PiC2 & all of the female board members: HOT ENGLISH ACCENT

11:07 am
Someone from South Carolina

11:20 am
PiC1: SO DISORGANIZED
PiC1: AGH.

11:20 am
(Talking about tuition)
"I'm paying a lot... it's really a shit lot."

11:48 am
(In response to the tsunami event)
"I've never encountered something like this before."

11:56 am
PiC2: still annoyed?
PiC2: (are you hungover at all?)
PiC1: a little
PiC1: i want to see the good people

12:10 pm
Board members bitch and moan and yell at each other

12:50 pm
An interest in human rights helps :)

1:15 pm
Board members argue about interview questions. (Written / Spoken answers, etc etc.)

"I really don't think that people feel like they're being judged [properly?] with these questions."

1:16 pm
PiC1: [INSERT NAME HERE] IS HOLDING A PEN
PiC1: what an improvement

1:30 pm
Board interviews improve drastically

1:42 pm
(Chair pulls out camera; interviewee throws up "V" pose and bares teeth)
Board: "Put up a normal pose!"
Interviewee: "Oh. (Sits awkwardly)"
Board: "Now put up a scared pose!"

[Auto Response from PiC2 (1:48:23 PM): Board interviews]

1:50 pm
Secretary reads a written application out loud.
Chair comments that answers are bad.
Board discovers that application is a fake crafted by last year's Treasurer. (See: The Fake)

2:20 pm
(Response to the Hot97 "Tsunami Song" lyrics)
"Well, it says 'chinks' here... I think that's kind of racist... I feel bad for the African orphans. Won't they not have parents and stuff?"

3:33 pm
Interviewees reach new highs (and new lows).

3:45 pm
Wow. New lows: "Asians are academically competitive... and I guess we're seclusive because of our culture, but that's okay." Board member writes, I never knew there was really a wrong answer.

4:00 pm
Eating sushi, various comments: "Some of these people were worse than Britney Spears at the VMAs." We are, however, quite loving at times. Don't let this fool you.

4:15 pm
We throw cookie boxes across the room and decide that we've been in this room for too long.

4:45 pm
AAA begins to crack.

5:01 pm
Answering a question about stress and organization of priorities, "... I should be honest?" Same person, "If no one comes to my events, I'll personally threaten my friends." After seven hours for us, not at all a bad answer.

5:24 pm
PiC2: how are you
PiC1: ... i almost don't want to talk about being too bummed out to talk about being too bummed out
PiC1: WHAT
PiC1: did i just write that
PiC2: WHAT
PiC2: lol
PiC2: yes you did
PiC2: you should be sleeping
PiC1: YEEEEEEESSSSSSSS
PiC2: YESSSSS
PiC1: dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddsjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

5:37 pm
(Secretary asks the "What's your favorite candy?" question)
Interviewee (after answering Mango Altoid Sours): Um, that was a really scary question; I thought that there was some subliminal message in there.
Social Chair: Actually, now you have to compare each one of us to a Mango Altoid Sour.

5:40 pm
Webmaster manages to offend Marilla a second time.

6:15 pm
Chair: "Last question... what's your favorite Leslie Feist song?"

6:30-6:50 pm
Some members of the board leave. BC Vice-Chair cleans up the room and pushes Lerner's ugly black leather couches around. Yang Liu arrives and questions our remaining sanity.

We pare down the final few candidates; screams of "NOOOO" echo throughout the room.

PiC2: yeah i want to go home and sleep
PiC1: i want to die

7:04 pm
(Interviewee reading the tsunami lyrics)
"This is really mean! This is not nice!"

7:05 pm
(David preparing to ask the candy question)
"We kind of take a sadistic pleasure in asking this."

7:12 pm
Calvin: "Last year we were like, passing around notes and looking at each other every other interview! This year, I... I just... I just want to graduate!"

7:30 pm
David seriously, seriously throws a pillow at the wall. Our CC/SEAS Chair brings tea.

7:30 - 8:15 pm
The board compares Britney then (pre-pregnancy/grossness) to now. Then we look at Madonna, who's loads hotter.

(While watching Britney's VMA performance)
"Wow, who wouldn't want that mother-of-two ass?" David, clearly, has reach a point of insanity.

9:35 pm
We're with our last interviewee, yet the madness remains...

The candy question, version 129312097412093812098
(note: each line represents a separate board member's input)
You're walking down the street. It's very dark. You're all alone.
In your pocket, you only have... chapstick and a dollar.
Suddenly, it begins to rain and the only store that's open is Duane Reade, so you walk in.
Suddenly you realize that you're starving. You are dripping everywhere.
Your blood sugar is dropping rapidly. You suddenly you realize that you still have that dollar
and you need a sugar fix. Which candy bar would you buy?

9:44 pm
IT'S OVER!

Now, for the cold, senseless judgment.

11:45 pm
Cold, senseless judgment has ended. I doubt many people have the energy to party this Friday night. (What a sad, sad situation.)

The Fake

Name: Yang Liu
Nickname: Hobbes
Intended Major (if applicable): Asian American Studies
School/Year: GS ‘11

What are your interests/hobbies outside of school and work?
I like to play a lot of video games, chess, and read science fiction. I also want to go a Star Trek convention while in New York City.

What clubs/activities were you involved in during high school (list organizations & positions if applicable):
Founder, Asian Students Club (ASC)
Chair, Political Union of Color (PUC)
Director, Model United Nations (MUN)

Which other clubs do you plan to be involved with at Columbia:
Asian American Society of Engineers
Chinese Students Club
Club Bangla
Club Zamana
Dimensions
Hong Kong Students and Scholars Society
Japan Society
Korean Students Association
Liga Filipina
Organization of Pakistani Students
Singapore Students Club
Sounds of China
TAAL
Tablet
Taiwanese American Students Association
Thai Students Association
Vietnamese Students Association

Black Students Organization
Chicano Caucus
United Students of Color Council

How would you identify yourself?
I am afraid that as a freshman, I don’t have much a concept for identity. From my experiences in high school, it has always been a tough issue to discuss and we often don’t reach a conclusion that is satisfactory no matter how many times we come back to this topic. One source of constant confusion is the underlying meaning between identity and its interplay with other ambiguous ideas so I think for me to answer this question I really have to take a few
approaches and see which one works.

One way I can identify myself is based on citizenship. Since I am not currently a citizen of the United States, I cannot legally call myself an American, but Chinese, as my passport would indicate. I would imagine that once I am naturalized, my legal distinction would then revert to American, as I would have to forfeit my Chinese passport. Yet, when this transition takes place, I am still the same person with the same identity. So why am I suddenly American instead of Chinese? It seems that identity runs deeper than citizenship.

Another way I can identify myself is by the color of my skin. I am neither black nor white, but been told that I am yellow. Yet when I look at look at my arm, it does not remind me of a canary or the sun. I tend to think it resembles a mixture of black and white. At some point this color was associated with a continent and given the Asian. When I converse with new Columbia students who share the same color of skin, I noticed we all call ourselves Asian, even though
some have never been to the eastern hemisphere. It seems like identity runs deeper than skin color.

Another approach is to take experiences into account. My parents were born in China but I came to the United States when I was quite young and received most of my education in the US. But I also lived in Canada before. So does that make me a Chinese Canadian American? If I buy an American flag in Chinatown while on vacation in Toronto, how do I think about that experience? American? Chinese? Canadian? What if I was born to Jewish parents, been raised in Hong Kong and now work in Spain while eating nothing but Indian food? It seems like identity runs deeper than experiences.

The more approaches I try to define identity, the farther it gets away from me. It is a term that has different meanings at different times of different reasons for different people. So while I’d love to answer your question, I really need to know what you mean by identity.

List three adjectives that best describe you:
1) Short
2) Light
3) Ugly

If you had no work, exams, or schoolwork, what would you do on a Saturday night in NYC (be honest; we won’t tell the popos)?
Since I am a freshman and still getting accustomed to what there is to do on a Saturday night in NYC, you’ll have to excuse me for ignorant and ask again in a couple of weeks after I get a better
idea of what I like in college.

You just won the lottery; what are you going to do now?
That would depend on how much the jackpot was. Assuming this is a pretty badass jackpot that I just hit, I’d probably pay the taxes first, invest some in creating an enterprise while stashing the rest away in index funds until I get a chance to speak to a respectable portfolio manager. Oh yeah and buy a yacht, that sounds pretty pimp.

If you could date anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Since I am just a freshman and meeting a lot of new people with different experiences and values from what I was used to, I don’t think I can make a claim at who I would like to date because it will probably change in the next couple of weeks. Ask me again later.

What do you think of free food (this may or may not be a trick question)?
Free food can be either beneficial or deleterious depending on how it is used. If there is an event with the right purpose, free food is a great way to attractive people who would normally be on the borderline. Free food gives them an extra incentive to come but ideally, they would come for the worthwhile content of the event rather than the free food.

What part of the Asian American Alliance interests you (social, political, community service)? Why?
I think social, political, and community service are very complex ideas that need some clarification. As students, everything we do with other people is inherently social, political, and communal at the same time. Politics for example, enwraps everything we do, whether it’d be club politics, campus politics, or community politics. Yet it’s hard to imagine these scenarios without social connotations, or an impact on the community at large. I would need to know how Asian American Alliance defines these words before I can comment further.

Any computer/web design/graphic design/advertising/artistic skills:
I’m ok with computers.

When will you be free from 10AM to 10PM on Friday, September 14th for a 10 minute interview with us?
Probably not but I don’t think you guys want to interview me anyway.

KAPs

[Due to some feedback about the extreme sensitivity of previously written content -- not to say that all our race-filled entries Aren't sensitive -- The Blaaag is going to put this topic on hold until further notice]

& WE'RE GONNA GET YOU, INTERVIEWEES. 9 MORE HOURS.

If you've been dying to join the executive board of AAA, interviews for OCM (Organizational Committee Member) positions are tomorrow, Friday the 14th, in Lerner East Ramp Lounge. If you haven't gotten a questionnaire to fill out, email aaaocm@gmail.com. Afraid it's too late? Maybe you can stalk one of us down.

We might just do live updates through all of tomorrow, so keep checking us out. (OCM interviews are really, for us, a highlight of the year.)

Just don't do this...

Engrish?

Last night as I pored over Edward Sapir's (a name which any anthro major should recognize) horribly dense writing in the confines of Lehman Library, I found this:

"The average person unconsciously interprets the phonetic material of other languages in terms imposed upon him by the habits of his own language."


For those of you who don't read this stuff every night: The above claim is one of Sapir's many that link a complicated relationship between language and culture. He later goes on to give the example of "the naive Frenchman" who does not separate "the two sounds 's' of 'sick' and 'th' of thick… not because he is really unable to hear the difference, but because the setting up of such a difference disturbs his feeling."

On The Blaaag, that all translates into, "blah blah blah." But Sapir is worth quoting anyway because the idea of language and its ability to be patterned by culture rings true to the injustice that immigrants in America face as they are chided for their difficulty speaking "proper (North American) English".

Even problematic, colonialist thinkers of the 19th Century believe that forcing a person to adjust to new linguistic habits causes a disturbance in one's innate patterning; yet this fact is overlooked and language still serves as an easy target for racial attacks, coupled with various other general impressions to create some sort of rice papery, ink brushed stereotype. ("...stlawbelly, lasbelly, chelly, alange, lemon, lime...")

Let this be a lesson learned for you who think that evidence towards racial injustice can't be found in unexpected places.

(p.s. Since we're talking academia – Ethnic Studies: support it now.)

On Friday this week there is an event about race and power in the workplace. From the Center for Career Education web site:

Unfortunately, students of color do not advance on par with their peers once they enter entry level jobs. Why does this occur? How can you navigate the subtle nature of institutional racism and advance your career? Learn how to create transformative dialogue about power and privilege in the workplace.

This event is part of the series "Getting Your Foot In The Door - Career Education for Multicultural and Nontraditional Students." Please check the calendar at www.careereducation.columbia.edu for upcoming events in this series.

Supported by the Center for Career Education, Office of Multicultural Affairs, the School of General Studies, and the Center for Student Advising.

And stay tuned: On October 5th, there will be a workshop at the CCE on racial stereotypes and how they translate in the workplace. This workshop will be hosted by no other than the venerable Carmen Van Kerckhove, CC '99, the keynote speaker for the 1st Annual New York City Asian American Student Conference in which we took part spring this year. Carmen is the president and co-founder of New Demographic, an anti-racism training company. She also writes for four (4!) of her own blogs: Addicted to Race, Racialicious, Anti-Racist Parent, and Race in the Workplace. We're enormous fans of Carmen, and are so glad she's coming back to speak to us!

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
-Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit"

At the University of Maryland, a noose was found hanging from a tree outside of the campus's cultural center for black students this past Friday. Understandably and rightfully, campus officials are investigating the matter, nothing less than a blatant and frightening hate crime... recalling centuries of undying racism against African American communities and the innumerable bodies found hanging from these very nooses throughout U.S. history, strange fruit, the victims of scum.

What's even worse--this happened already this year, in the town of Jena, Louisiana, where at a local high school multiple nooses were found hanging from the "white" tree and black students are being charged with aggravated assault, for physically protesting this appalling display. That the judicial system would indict these minors in the wake of such glaring symbols of white supremacy, makes it all too clear where the priorities lie for those in power.

We see it time and time again--police unloading dozens of bullets into the body of an unarmed black man. Katrina refugees, two years after being displaced with minimal government aid, still struggling to return home. The Supreme Court essentially reversing Brown vs. Board of Education and nulling racial integration in public schools. If we're to believe this fallacious idea that racism is somehow dead, then we close our eyes to the damage done all around us.

Asian American or not, activist or simply someone with a conscience, it affects us all. As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We'd be best to remember that.


New York Times: Why Lead in Toy Paint? It’s Cheaper

Or maybe Chinese people intrinsically have a lower set of moral values? Raging red-capitalist opportunism? The dog is getting to their brains? (Sarcasm blunt enough?)

No, it's never been acceptable to allow lead contaminants in sight of anything touched by children; the stake of the issue is out of question. But if you don't feel a tinge of American xenophobia in this latest journalistic fad, take another look. Welcome to the new "yellow peril".

At the behest of (the always amazing) Mar and David, I've been asked to describe my experience over the summer as a new board member of the National Asian American Student Conference (NAASCon), a.k.a. my life after (sadly) leaving the hallowed ranks of the AAA board.

NAASCon was founded in 2001 as an organization to network progressive Asian American students across the country, to share in the collective strength of various campaigns and movements in different campuses and communities, and ultimately to host a biennial conference where these goals and principles would culminate. Our board, the fourth in NAASCon's history, took hold of the reins in late June, and we've been at it ever since.

Currently we're finalizing a location for the next conference--somewhere in the South, because it's a region that would definitely benefit from having an Asian American organizing presence--which will be held in the fall of 2008, and there will be more info to follow as it arises. But on a more personal level, I'm thrilled to be a part of it all--as someone who's strongly found my identity and pride as an Asian American in the activism in which I take part, NAASCon represents a way to connect the efforts made at Columbia (along with fellow AAA alum and CC'09er Christina Chen, who's NAASCon's co-chair) to campuses all across the country similarly invested in promoting and fighting for Asian American student empowerment and social justice in the world around us.

There's a lot to be done, however, and much more to say in the future (hopefully a little less narcissistic, too)... so until then, peace. And a very big plug for the Asian American Alliance Political Committee, which is awesome. 'Nuff said.


 

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