The case of Vincent Chin, where two white men publicly brutally beat a Chinese American man to death in 1982 and only received 3 years probation each, is an open sore in Asian American history. While Asian American activists took the case to court, filing the first federal case of a hate crime against an Asian American, the killers were still acquitted of all charges (including committing a hate crime) by an all white jury in Cincinnati.

Most recently, two young white men beat to death Luis Ramirez, a Mexican immigrant, while taunting him with racial slurs. The killers were also acquitted by an all white jury of all charges including third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation. Although the Vincent Chin case has passed but is continually remembered by the Asian American community, Luis Ramirez's case is still active. This is where crossracial coalition and alliance work is crucial.

So far, this is the only petition/action I've found, but let's all please keep our eyes peeled for more actions to come. Petition

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No Justice for Vincent Then, No Justice for Luis Now

Editor’s Note: Last week, two of the young white men who allegedly killed Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Penn. were acquitted by an all white jury. The case mirrors the first federal hate crime prosecution involving an Asian American. Carmina Ocampo is a Skadden fellow and staff attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) of Los Angeles. Immigration Matters regularly features the views of immigration advocates and experts.

Last July, Luis Ramirez, a Latino immigrant who worked in a factory, was brutally killed by a gang of drunken white teenagers motivated by their dislike of the growing Latino population in their small coalmining town of Shenandoah, Penn. Two of the young white men who killed Luis were recently acquitted by an all white jury of all serious charges including third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation.

The facts of this case sounded all too familiar to those of us lawyers who work on civil rights cases. They mirror the facts at the heart of the 1982 Vincent Chin hate crime case.

Luis Ramirez was taunted with racial slurs and beaten to death during an altercation with a group of drunken white teenagers....Luis’s murder occurred during a time of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment directed primarily towards Latino immigrants, exacerbated by the economic crisis. Vincent Chin’s murder took place during a climate of intense anti-Asian sentiment directed at the Japanese who were blamed for taking jobs away from American workers. Helen Zia, a well-known Asian American civil rights activist described the early 1980s as a dangerous time to look Asian. The same may be said for Latinos today.

In both Luis’s and Vincent’s cases, the killers argued that their actions should be excused because they were drunk, the victims were the aggressors, and they were merely exercising self-defense during a drunken brawl.

continue reading...

Yesterday, a Vietnamese immigrant named Jiverly Wong entered the American Civic Association, an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, New York, and murdered thirteen individuals in a citizenship class. For those who are not familiar with the situation, you can read about it here.

As I read the updated news reports, attempting to process the event and understand the motivations, I increasingly become more upset. An immigrant, a daughter of immigrants who struggled to learn English and gain American citizenship, and someone who seeks to work with immigrant communities now as a student and in the future professionally, I am simultaneously connected to and detached from what happened. I say detached because I have the privilege as someone not directly involved to read, express dismay/shock/sympathy, and move on. But personally, I cannot, and feel the responsibility to recognize the implications of this event. What happened involves many factors, among them the issue of mental health in Asian and Asian American communities and immigrant communities at large and ideas that Asian immigrants are “successful” and “models” when they, too, share common struggles with other immigrants. This is why I am frustrated when I see influential Asian American commentators like Phil Yu write things like this on his blog:

So he decided to kill as many people as possible, before shooting himself? That's the act of a coward. Look, I am sympathetic to those who are going through tough times. Maybe you're not happy with the way your life has turned out. It seems like you're alone, and things don't look like they're going to get better.

But there are a lot of people getting through tough times, and they're not strapping on bulletproof vests and shooting up crowds. There's something seriously wrong with this condition -- and no, it's not just an Asian thing, or an immigrant thing. Don't try to turn it into that. People need to deal, and we need to help each other deal.

Indeed, Phil Yu is right when he says it is not just “an Asian thing” and “an immigrant thing.” There is more to it; all situations involve multiplicities. But to move forward, take care of our communities, and seek justice for those murdered, we must take proactive steps beyond blame and anger. The crime was cowardly, yes. Murder is senseless. But to deconstruct his, to see broader implications, requires sensitivity and thoughtfulness. What provoked this man to vent his frustration in such a way? And, further, upon members of his own community? And how may we better understand this situation so that it does not happen again? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but thinking about the event as more than an “act of a coward” will eventually be more fruitful.

Remade in America is the New York Times' new "series about the newest immigrants and their impact on American institutions". Two parts have come out already - Part I: Schools, and Part II: Workplaces. There are some really weirdly uncomfortable articles, like "The Best Way to Teach Young Newcomers [English]", and then there are some interesting (but still problematic) things, like the interactive map showing how the "foreign-born" demographic has spread across the U.S., ca. 1880-2000.

Holy crap! According to NYTimes' blog City Room, Tsue Yue Wang (owner of eight restaurants) has been ordered to pay $8.3 million to workers due to labor and wages mistreatment:

The owner, Tsu Yue Wang, also agreed to allow the Labor Department’s staff to conduct seminars at the restaurants to educate the workers, who are mostly Chinese, about their rights under state labor law. The settlement is the culmination an investigation that began in 2006.

The settlement covered three restaurants named Ollie’s Noodle Shop and Grill, and five others: Ollie’s, Ollie’s Brasserie/Mainland, Japanese Restaurant, Chao Zhou Restaurant and Central Kitchen. (A ninth restaurant in the investigation, Ollie’s Noodle Shop at 200 West 44th Street, near Broadway, has since closed.)

During the investigation, the Labor Department found that one additional restaurant, Tomo, owed 100 workers about $1 million. Mr. Wang claimed he had no affiliation with Tomo, which has since closed, but corporate documents suggested otherwise, and the Labor Department is continuing to try to recoup those wages.

Just because this is amazing, I'm going to bring back that picture of students occupying and protesting Saigon Grill:


It's amazing how far this has come... from protests to settlements. Yeah!

In Florida, an Initiative Intended to End Bias Is Killed

"An obscure ballot initiative in Florida intended to end a legacy of bias against Asian-Americans was defeated Tuesday, apparently because voters incorrectly assumed it would prevent illegal immigrants from owning property."

Also, in my home state of Nebraska, they banned affirmative action. And we all know about Proposition 8 in California. There were similar referenda in Arizona and Florida. Obama is President-elect, and the symbolism (and potential) in his presidency is very potent, but there is obviously much more to be done, especially in light these setbacks. As I have been reminded by various blogs and commentators, progress is not linear, and we can't stop now.

I've been hearing about this movie for months now (PC's inclination towards working on illegal immigrant workers' rights doesn't hurt). Directed by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, Take Out is "a day-in-the-life of Ming Ding, an illegal Chinese immigrant working as a deliveryman for a Chinese take-out shop in New York City." Though the story is fictional, the sad truth is that you can probably find tons of illegal immigrant workers in nearly every restaurant in NYC who share nearly an identical experience to Ming Ding's. Thankfully, the critics have caught on to this as well.

Take Out opens this week in Quad Cinema.

To learn about the sufferings of real service workers, visit JWBS!

Progressive hapa film director Eric Byler has produced another film in his series on 9500 Liberty in Prince William County, VA. Take a look! Below the embed is his own writing.



Our latest 9500 Liberty video is an important piece of the immigration puzzle in Prince William County, VA.

If enough people see this, we may improve the lives of immigrants and other residents of Prince William who are watching county's social fabric fall apart as immigrants flee in droves and the economy and housing markets plummet as a result. The video encourages the Chairman of the Board of Supvervisors to distance himself from a hate group (so classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center). If the Chairman does indeed separate from his former political allies, we may recover from this period of racial tension and division much sooner than I thought
possible.

Also, if you have a cogent voice to lend us, please comment on the video on the new blog www.antiBVBL.net, established by a moderate (and kind-hearted) Republican, as a beacon of hope and reason.

http://www.antibvbl.net/index.php/2008/04/12/does-corey-have-a-greg-problem/#comment-4503

Well, it looks like Angry Asian Man beat us to it. If you haven't heard already, last weekend's ECAASU introductory speech by Cornell University President David J. Skorton was less than impressive:

During his speech, he referred to the Asian American students attending the conference as immigrants, and claimed to have "a love affair with Asia." Yeah, definitely not the best choice of words. Apparently, the President's comments did not sit well with the conference-goers, because I [Phil Yu] have been getting emails like this all day.

I distinctly remember the reaction after the speech: a lot of students were looking around incredulously, asking, "Wait. Did he just call us immigrants?" Later, a girl also stood up during Q&A with Jeff Chang, the second keynote speaker, and claimed that she was personally offended by the President's speech (as he sat in the front row in the auditorium, ouch). David was sending out private e-mails in an attempt to recover exact lines from the speech, but props to Phil Yu and all the proactive attendees for getting the word out first.

David:

Some details I've been able to scavenge...

The first speaker (a dean) also gave us a list of Asian countries that have produced the greatest number of international students for Cornell - China, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Singapore. One of the speakers also enchanted us with the story of the first Asian student at Cornell. (Obviously an international student.) He then went on to talk about the contributions of Asians to Cornell University, at which point most of us had either conked out or were viscerally pissed off at the guy.

A part of me wonders if they could have done their speeches better if they had just cracked open the program...

Marilla:

After reading an anonymous comment, I realized that our general sentiment towards ECAASU may be misunderstood (which is reasonable due to our lack of live-blogging during the conference and our harmful but habitual internet snarkyness). If this isn't clear - we had a cold-reckless-amusing-and-inspiring blast. Yes, the President's speech was unnerving (when the words finally sank in), and we questioned some of the conference's co-sponsorships; but ECAASU is one of the oldest APA conferences on the East Coast and is known to uphold an excellent tradition of spreading awareness. Our thoughts are merely for future boards (Rutgers in 2009) to keep up the good work, and (in line with David's comment) to confirm that university presidents read the conference program carefully before letting themselves get comfortable at the podium.

This week is Lucha's Immigration Week. Check out the great events planned! Below is our statement in solidarity...
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On June 6th, 1993, a rusty freighter named Golden Venture ran aground in Queens after nearly circling the globe with almost three hundred Thai and Chinese immigrants. Most of these immigrants had paid thirty thousand dollars to be able to work in this country free from China's coercive reproductive policies. But as the Golden Venture crashed, these passengers jumped a mutinous ship to freezing waters and swam toward shore, where the immigrations services laid in wait.

Among the passengers of that fated vessel, ten drowned, six disappeared, and the rest were detained, to be deported to a punishing homeland or left in a difficult legal limbo in this country. Like most Asian immigrants, these people came to the United States primarily to earn a living. They were met instead with years of detainment, deportation, and forced sterilization in their home country.

Today, the individuals who remain help make up America's evolving history of migration, one which is already shared by Asian American Alliance and Lucha's predecessors. Just as Filipino and Mexican farm workers came together in 1936 to form a dual-ethnic AFL charter, just as Philip Vera Cruz and Cesar Chavez fought side by side to improve working conditions of migrant workers, so are we coming together today to build coalitions against the forces that weigh us down.

Tonight, we celebrate not just the rights of immigrants but the rights of all people of color. Let us take this time not only to remember our privileges deprived but also the ones received, thanks to those fighting since before our time. Without our predecessors, our teachers, we would not know the true meaning of what we deserve. Let us thank and remember them for the history which they made, for the history which we will continue writing.

Just wanted to congratulate CU Democrats for their performance in the debate last night on immigration against the College Republicans. With the coming of the ostentatiously racist Islamo-Fascism week, we're glad this fight is starting already.

If you want a live-blog of the debate, here's the link to perhaps the only other campus blog to use a lame Blogger template. (Or do you?)

Alas, we couldn't be there (teahouse with Conchita's Collective!), or we would've submitted our own questions. As Howard University Professor Frank Wu writes in Yellow, all debates regarding immigration are ultimately debates about race. (And his word is absolute truth. Duh.)

Our favorite part:

9:35 Greer just took the Republicans to task for pretending not to see xenophobia in immigration issues while at the same time inviting speakers like Jim Gilchrist to campus.

Good job!

Just take a look at this article by Xiaochen Su '10 from the Yale Daily News. In this article, he blames a decrease in US living standards on immigrants and the poor, deplores government resources for the disadvantaged, and proposes the enactment of "child tax credits" and "entrance fees" for poor parents and immigrants.

Su, if your piece is in some way a satire of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, I hope you will realize that putting it in your school newspaper is totally ridiculous on any day other than April Fools. And if your piece was never intended as satire... well, good luck with your internalized self-hate issues.

Congratulations for being the first person in the APA Hall of Shame from the Ivy League. It's important to make this point because, evidently, messed up thinking escapes no one. Even people who will one day lead our society, as scary as that sounds.

(Can we say something about the fact that the YDN even let this be published?)

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:

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.)