aThis just in! Storm Lake's Pilot Tribune recently published an article saying that Lori Phanachone was reinstated into the National Honor Society after having her membership revoked last Friday. Lori, a Laotian American high school senior at Storm Lake High School, was punished for refusing to take a state-wide English competency test simply because she marked on her registration forms that she spoke Laotian at home. For more info, see previous Blaaag posts by both Marilla and myself.

A civil rights agency representing a Laotian American Storm Lake High School honor student reports that the National Honor Society membership of Lori Phanachone was revoked at SLHS on Friday, then restored on Monday.
The district had given assurances that she would not be punished by removal from the program, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund officials said early Monday, calling for immediate reinstatement of the student to the National Honor Society as well as removal of any disciplinary action from Phanachone's files and assurance in writing that she will not be further punished or excluded.

AALDEF DEMANDS JUSTICE FOR IOWA STUDENT DISCIPLINED FOR PROTESTING ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TESTING

Honor student deemed an English Language Learner for declaring Lao as her home language

New York, NY — The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which is representing Iowa honors student Lori Phanachone, has called for the removal of all references to disciplinary action from her school record after she refused to take an English Language Learner (ELL) test. Phanachone was mislabeled an English Language Learner (ELL) after naming Lao as her home language.

Khin Mai Aung, the AALDEF staff attorney representing the student, said: “Lori Phanachone is an honor student who has excelled in mainstream classes throughout her life, and happens to speak Lao as her home language. Storm Lake has improperly conflated my client’s knowledge of Lao with lack of fluency in English.”

The Storm Lake School District, which did not assess Ms. Phanachone’s English level when she enrolled two years ago, has since subjected her to a yearly test for ELLs. The 3.98 GPA senior did not receive English as a Second Language or other ELL services before moving to Storm Lake as a sophomore. Since matriculating in Storm Lake, Ms. Phanachone has excelled in advanced courses–all of which were taught in English. This year, she boycotted the yearly ELL test in protest. As a result, Ms. Phanachone was suspended for 3 days and threatened with the loss of National Honor Society membership, exclusion from school activities including the track team, prom and other extracurricular activities, as well as further disciplinary action.

Lori Phanachone said: “Storm Lake labeled me an English Language Learner when I enrolled without even bothering to test me. All I want is to continue my education without the school labeling me unfairly.”

Among other things, AALDEF demands that the Storm Lake School District:

• Remove all references to Lori Phanachone’s suspension and other disciplinary action from her school records;
• Assure in writing that it will not impose further disciplinary action on her;
• Clarify Storm Lake’s procedures for classifying students as ELL upon enrollment;
• Explain how and why Lori Phanachone was classified as an ELL under Storm Lake’s classification procedures; and
• Reclassify Lori Phanachone, and other affected students if appropriate under Iowa and federal law, as English proficient.

Claire Light from Hyphen Blog wrote an excellent piece on Yuri Kochiyama and her problematic legacy of being the woman whose arms Malcolm X died in:

She is the activists' activist; she is the Asian American North Star, she is our godmother, our justification, our revered elder and sacred crone, she's the one everyone points to when we think of Asian American women role models. She is our Malcolm X: beyond doubt, or corruption, or naysaying. And, whereas Malcolm was placed beyond doubt, corruption or naysaying by death, Yuri is there by the grace of her association with the sainted Malcolm.

This constant association, though it honors her, causes me discomfort; because the first thing anyone mentions about Yuri, and the top priority, is her relationship with Malcolm. It's true that this relationship was very important to her, but ... Malcom X died in Yuri Kochiyama's arms, they always say, and in just that tone of hushed reverence. It makes a Mary of her, the woman who washed Jesus' dead body, or the one who first saw Jesus alive when he came out of his tomb; her significance is that of witness to the transcendent sacrifice of a man. (Or two men: in this Democracy Now! interview, they have her tell at length of her father's death and then Malcolm's, but nothing about her own life.)

In December of 2007 we wrote about Richard Aoki - radical activist and Black Panther Field Marshal. This weekend, he passed away at 70 due to complications from medical conditions.

From the documentary of Aoki by Ben Wang and Mike Cheng, Aoki was said to have had an "I don't give a fuck" type of attitude (in addition to supplying arms for the Panthers.) Really, those shades didn't give that away?

Via Angry Asian Man

Wow:

Lori Phanachone is a member of the National Honor Society, has a 3.9 grade point average and ranks seventh in the senior class of about 119 at Storm Lake High School.

But school officials have told her she is considered to be illiterate based on her refusal to satisfactorily complete the English Language Development Assessment, a test she says is demeaning and racist.

On Wednesday, Phanachone finished serving three days of in-school suspension for what school administrators say is insubordination. She faces another three days for continuing her silent protest with a second refusal to take the test. According to a written statement presented to her Wednesday, Phanachone said, she could be suspended again and then expelled for a fourth refusal.

"Mr. Ruleaux (assistant principal Beau Ruleaux) told me I was 'no Rosa Parks' -- that I should give up because I would not succeed in my protest," Phanachone said.

Luckily, I generally have the ability to enter periods of deep thought during finals crunchtime. Unfortunately, it's never really about the finals themselves. This time, it's about my thesis and the reclamation of an Asian American radical history based on theoretical conceptions of, and community actions around, race, nation, class, empire, and society.

I found this video on YouTube, a preview for a documentary on Richard Aoki, a longtime Japanese American radical from Oakland, CA:



This looks legit, featuring the likes of Yuri Kochiyama, Bobby Seale, and Prof. Diane C. Fujino, who penned Yuri's biography and is currently working on a bio of Aoki himself. But to backtrack for a moment, and give a brief description of who this guy is.

Aoki, a third-generation Japanese American, was born in San Leandro, CA in 1938; at the age of 4 he and his family were evacuated and relocated in the forced movement of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast during WWII. After returning from the Topaz, Utah relocation center in 1945, his family returned to the Bay Area, where he would eventually encounter fellow Oakland residents Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, co-founders of the revolutionary nationalist Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Aoki, credited as a "radical Japanese cat" in Seale's autobiography, Seize the Time, provided the inchoate Panthers with their first firearms in their now-legendary method of patrolling Oakland cops, or "policing the police."

A relatively unsung figure in the BPP (Newton makes no mention of Aoki in his biography, Revolutionary Suicide), and often marginalized (he was, for a while, the sole member of the BPP's Berkeley chapter), Aoki was nevertheless a significant player in the Panthers' activities, one of six Field Marshals. He also enrolled at UC Berkeley in the late 1960's, was a co-architect in the campus' Asian American Political Alliance (one of the first organizations to proclaim themselves "Asian American"), and an organizer in the Third World Liberation Front, the coalition of color whose campus protests in 1969 led to the formation of one of the nation's first Ethnic Studies programs. As he says in the vid, "I do believe in mass action."


Aoki--like fellow Japanese American Panthers Guy Kurose and Mike Tagawa in the Seattle chapter--is part of a hidden history of Asian American activism that, while perhaps no longer so well-figured in a racial consciousness that has been radically altered by the changing face of Asian America since the 1960's, is nevertheless crucial in an understanding of what previous generations have contributed to our lives. Aoki's organizing--bridging campus and community, uniting different peoples of color, challenging the very structural base of state and society--has profound implications for current and future generations of Asian Americans, students or not, activists or not, and provides a space for legacies that must be remembered, kept alive, and cherished.

I'm gonna work on tracking down this documentary. In the meantime (and I think I'll do these from time to time), next up will be Chris Kando Iijima and his mother, Kazu. Now back to studying...

A message of solidarity from AAA to AAA.

A Harvard Crimson article describes the ways that campaigns for Asian American Studies at Harvard University have over 20+ years risen and fallen, while actual programs in AAS at other schools such as University of Pennsylvania and Cornell have thrived. (UPenn is even bringing in Kal Penn as a visiting professor in the spring of '08. Damn, that's impressive.)

While we hope that Harvard comes around soon concerning what should be an anachronism in the lack of ethnic studies (or in this case Asian American) course offerings, we support fully the progressive endeavors that students there (including their AAA, the Asian American Association) are taking to instate such a program/department.

Whether or not students there are ready to undertake such activist measures such as hunger strikes (as we did in '96 for both Latino and Asian American Studies following similar successes at schools all across the country), the AAA of Columbia is willing to aid this and all campaigns for Asian American Studies in all ways possible. (With two of our senior advisers as chairs of NAASCon and more of our members and constituents as activists in this cause, we're more than happy to offer help! Just let us know...)

And for all students wishing to bring about Asian American Studies at their respective institutions, take a look at this NAASCon student advocate's guide to campaigning for Asian American Studies.

P.S. Whooa, history professor Mae Ngai apparently turned down Harvard for our ethnic studies program... We're eternally grateful, 'cause I hear she's a kickass (and hardcore) teacher.

Justice Will Be Served! Campaign pickets demanding justice for nail salon workers and industry-wide change in nail salons are currently every Sunday at 2pm, and Tuesday at 6pm at the 167 NAIL PLAZA salon (located at 167 Amsterdam Avenue, between 67th & 68th Streets). Some Columbia Asian American Alliance members are going to the picket this Sunday. Let us know if you're interested in attending.

Background of the case from the Justice Will be Served! Campaign:

Here in New York City the nail salon industry is booming from block to block, yet the conditions nail manicurists face are far from pretty. The Justice Will be Served! Nail Salon Network was sparked when a group of workers at the 167 Nail Plaza and 68 Nail Plaza salons were the first women to publicly stand up and expose the industry's shocking and exploitative conditions. Susan Kim, a Korean-American manicurist, was fired by Nail Plaza, Inc. owners Dong Rim Park and Mou Ran Rim for simply requesting break time during the day. Since then, her Chinese and Vietnamese co-workers have since joined her in calling for proper meal and break times, healthier work conditions, overtime pay, and an end to the retaliatory practices.

The example set by the Nail Plaza workers has paved the way for other women from across the tri-state area to stand up for their rights in an industry where women are routinely denied their basic rights and are dangerously exposed to chemical nail products. Many nail salon workers have reported serious skin and eye irritation, respiratory illnesses, and even miscarriage and infertility among the women stemming from prolonged exposure to acrylic powders and chemical-based nail glues and gels in poorly ventilated environments. In many salons, women workers are also prohibited from using the bathroom, taking meal breaks, or even wearing masks or gloves to protect themselves. Like the case of Nail Plaza, employers often use the women's different ethnicity and immigration status to keep them from coming together. Despite these increasing dangers, the industry remains largely unregulated by any government agencies and existing laws are not enforced. In addition, the majority of shops do not abide by basic wage laws, failing to pay overtime and sometimes minimum wage.

Now other women workers are standing together to make an example of Nail Plaza and to demand change in the entire industry. We hope you will join JWBS!'s Nail Salon Workers Network, along with NYS elected officials Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, State Senator Tom Duane, and City Councilmember Gale Brewer, Institute for Women and Work at Cornell University, ILR School; and Bellevue Hospital, on September 16th to kick off our campaign to call for:

1) Justice for the Nail Plaza workers
2) City-funding for a study and treatment program for nail salon workers
3) Government regulations to protect workers in the nail salon industry