October is Filipino American History Month for a number of reasons, but probably not because it’s my birthday month. The Filipino American National Historical Society chose October because it’s the month when the first Filipinos are said to have landed in California, at Morro Bay, Oct. 18, 1587.
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I’m kneeling.
But not for the NFL, and not necessarily for my free speech rights (witness, I still have them). Most certainly, I am not on bended knee for Donald Trump (more on the NFL issue later).
No, as a good Catholic, I’m kneeling in prayer for Puerto Rico.
It could be the 51st state, after
For real bipartisanship in Congress, we must celebrate the passing this week of a resolution in both the House and Senate to honor Filipino World War II veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Low-hanging fruit? Slam dunk? Not necessarily.
It required 70 senators to co-sponsor a resolution led
As the head of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, Janet Napolitano knows all about DACA. Though it was announced by President Obama, it was Napolitano’s agency’s plan.
Now as the president of the University of California system, Napolitano feels DACA was repealed “capr
When President Obama was hailed as ushering in a “post-racial” America, the phrase was often said derisively by those who wished to bury our country’s race mistakes of the past.
That would include immigration exclusion laws, but the main debt was slavery. It was the only way some people could dea
If you’re a president known for tweeting, of course, there’s only one way to show any empathy.
You do selfies.
It was Trump in what would be known as a “mulligan” in golf–his second visit to Houston since Hurricane Harvey demolished Texas. Trump arrived on Saturday at the NRG shelter in Houston
“This is the worst,” Ed Gor, a Houston resident, told me on our podcast, Emil Amok’s Takeout. We were on the phone Sunday talking about the power of Harvey, demoted from hurricane to tropical storm, but still packing a wallop.
Gor knows he was lucky for now. His street was flooded, but the water
To better understand what’s happening in this great country, let’s all engage in the metaphor of the day!
The total eclipse of the sun will be over in less than three minutes.
But take off the glasses, open your eyes, and see the real eclipse that’s going on over the entire country.
That would
The Trump hotel brand oozes opulent luxuriousness. But now that Trump is in public office for the first time (and right at the top), I’ve coined a word to capture the new Trump style of government and political rhetoric.
Take one part truculent (“the quality of being disposed or eager to fight or e
On the edge of Chinatown in San Francisco, Filipinos always gravitated to Kearny Street. Known as Manilatown, it was not a tourist trap, just a place Filipinos called home.
But by 1977, development was eating up real estate on Kearny Street. Manilatown was down to just one block, anchored by what w
Eddie Huang said he’s currently working on a novel now. But when he first started writing a few years back and his literary ambitions were high, book publishers wanted a cook book, not a memoir.
He ultimately wrote the groundbreaking book, “Fresh off the Boat.”
It’s the good cheese compared to the
When I saw that BD Wong was recently nominated for an Emmy, my first instinct was to offer congratulations.
So I was surprised when I saw an Asian American group refrain from offering kudos and take the stand that only trans actors should get trans roles.
Sort of makes sense. Unless you’ve actua
In a news week that contained O.J. Simpson’s parole and President Trump’s trade-in for a slicker New York mouthpiece, sandwiched by even more Russia-Trump trauma, it’s not surprising you haven’t heard much about a story that recently took place in Washington, DC.
But it has a large segment of the A
It’s been a big summer for Simon Tam, musician and founder of the Slants, now trademarked, reappropriated, and unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court.
He also got married recently in his native state of California, so there’s been much to celebrate.
And yet it seems there still some who aren’
When I first heard about Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park leaving “Hawaii Five-0,” I couldn’t believe it.
The stars of the long-running TV crime procedural based in the 50th state simply asked for pay equity. They got the cold shoulder instead. Their exit leaves CBS with what it deserves. Hawaii Five-
Tonight, Thursday, June 29 at 10:30 pm PT, is the last night of “Amok Monologues” at the San Diego International Fringe Festival. The one-man show got a great review in San Diego Story, a local arts publication.
Coming next week after the San Diego Fringe Festival: podcast interviews with Asian A
We have now arrived at the 35th year of these essential Asian American facts:
On June 19, 1982, Chinese American Vincent Chin, 27, who was with friends at his own bachelor party, was mistaken for being Japanese by two white auto workers, Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz, at a Detroit strip
Say Asian or Asian American, and people think “Chinese.”
Most people know that’s not the case, but that tends to be the prevailing stereotype. And not just among whites, blacks, and Latinos.
It’s harder when even Asian Americans believe in the stereotype.
“East Asians need to recognize that South
Too much terror, too much news. And the really important event of last week–Trump’s nose- thumbing at world unity on climate change by pulling out of the Paris Accord– is practically forgotten.
Not that Trump would like us to dwell on that.
That was a classic Trump communication boner.
The Washin
Memorial Day always winds up the annual observation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
And what better way to remember the one story (along with the Japanese American Internment) that lingers as the moral compass of the community.
For that reason, this Memorial Day will be a special one for
