Updates

How silly to ask during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. But really, do Asian American lives matter? Not just the super-achieving model minority cubs breastfed from Tiger Moms, but the struggling Asian American immigrants who are seldom heard, hardly seen or even recognized? I won

I remember seeing Bruce Jenner throwing a javelin at the Olympics in 1976. It was the same time Renee Richards was challenging the tennis world to allow a trans woman to compete as a pro. Richards’ fight went all the way to the New York Supreme Court, a victory for what was then called transsexual

Serap Jangbu Sherpa, 46, was hanging on every bit of communication from the base camp in the Himalayas -by text, online, Facebook–when I called him on Saturday. It was like he was hanging on the side of the mountain he loved. Serap is a premier climber who has scaled Mt. Everest three times. But

We’re coming up quickly to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, and once again, I’m wondering where we are with our umbrella term that expands and becomes inclusive. Or has the term become meaningless? We know it’s a political term, but shouldn’t we be feeling a little unity in th

The New York City cop caught on video in a racist rant, wailing on a South Asian driver, has apologized, but to me it just rings hollow. In an exclusive interview with WNBC-TV, Patrick Cherry tells his side of the story, primarily that we didn’t see the events leading up to the video that more than

When the verdict in the Ellen Pao discrimination case came down last Friday, I didn’t have a good feeling. Individual cases of discrimination are so hard to prove. Pao had some evidence that there was an old boy’s club, but the good folks at Kleiner Perkins had the typical defense. They maligned h

Patsy Mink was a 12-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii–the first woman of color and first Asian American woman elected to Congress in 1964. She ran for president in 1972. And for all you March Madness fans, she authored Title IX of the Higher Education Act, officially calle

At face value, Vincent Wu, 73 years young this week, looks like many successfully retired Asian American engineers. At Atari, the company that brought the world “Pong,” Wu led the effort to bring “Donkey Kong” home–to the home PC, that is. Remember the floppy disk version? That was Vincent. But as

A fundamental story pattern on “Fresh off the Boat” has emerged. Eddie’s hip-hop clash is the New American Asian Fusion that sets off the comedic and leads us over the bridge to racial harmony!It all came into focus this week when Eddie gets automatically paired with a new student, an adopted Chines

There’s something about a march. It’s not a parade. It’s a march. People together. Maybe arm in arm, maybe not. But definitely believing in the same principles, and moving forward in the same direction. Does anyone doubt that sense of unity is what our country needs more than ever? So I don’t kn

By the time you read this, the whole world will have watched the Oscars. And while there’s a great chance of someone on the red carpet “wearing an Asian American,” I am sure of this: There’s absolutely no chance an Asian American will win in any of the major categories. Not Best Picture, Best Direct

The Lunar New Year is coming, bringing the prospect of good luck and great fortune. We hope. After last week, we all need something inside that proverbial big red envelope. Let’s start with justice. If you’re NYPD Officer Peter Liang, you have to be wondering about your luck when your case just

Eddie Huang, producer, chef, memoirist, former lawyer, all-around bad dude, and self-proclaimed “human panda,” was born in Washington, D.C. on March 1, 1982. He was in diapers when I was well into my television news career, the first Filipino American on one of the big three network affiliates in S

Fred Korematsu would have been 96 on Friday, January 30, and if you don’t know him, you should know why he’s important. Even if you do know Korematsu’s basic story, you might be surprised by some details here. There was nothing easy about what he did. It’s been just four years since the inaugural F

If you’re an Asian American like me, you may be watching movies and media for any presence of Asian or Asian American anything. It’s like our “AA-dar.” Among the Oscar-nominated movies of note, mine went off in “Boyhood,” when Mason crashes at his sister’s University of Texas dorm with his girlfri

More than Jennifer Lopez’s dress, it was Margaret Cho on the Golden Globes that made me do a double-take last week. And she was in that sexy North Korean military drag. At first glance, I just wasn’t sure it was her. If you’ve seen Cho’s stand-up shows on cable, you know she’s outrageously tatted

I always wondered whether I could create a ruckus by getting a voting membership in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, by virtue of my column “Emil Amok” appearing in a Philippines publication. You know, as the second coming of dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the movies, I could vote for more Fil

Je suis Charlie. Nous sommes Charlie. Can you tell I was a Francophile in high school? (The man can conjugate an irregular verb!) My French high school teachers were teachers’ union radicals who had an impact. I loved everything French for many years. I even lived in France–in Paris, but also on a f

I won’t waste your time. Here’s the problem with that “Saturday Night Live” Asian American Doll sketch right up front: It’s so self-consciously aware of pandering to diversity that it’s really a blatant attack on remedies for equality, fairness, and civil rights. These are principles we should all

And to think we’d heard it all when the Senate report on CIA torture gave us that memorable headline phrase, “rectal rehydration.” With hummus and pine nuts, it may be the gift that keeps on giving. But there’s so much more in the stocking stuffer as we head into the holidays, beginning with… SERI