In 1977, I was too late for Vietnam. The war’s end made my draft lottery number obsolete.
It was also too early to talk about the shortcomings of civil rights in America.
But there was one moral eyesore in the world all good people could agree on: It was right–and necessary—to rail out against Sou...
I just came back from Asia, so I have Asia on the mind. What do you know–on Monday night football, there was the NY Giants’ Justin Tuck doing the prayer-bow Thai move after sacking RGIII.
It was the wai, the Thai gesture of appreciation.
I know the move well. I saw Ronald McDonald doing the move i...
I’ve played basketball at the Chinese Rec Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown as a kid, but this was a one-on-one game no one would have expected.
An undocumented Asian student in America, Ju Hong, 24, a DREAM activist from San Francisco State, was one of those with an invite to the special preside...
I just came back from Asia, where I felt like a white guy. And I am not.
I’m an Asian American of Filipino descent, but when I was over there, it was clear I was the foreigner. Most of the people were in Western business dress, so on one level there was a “We Are The World” sameness. But a line was...
Called Yolanda in the Philippines, Haiyan internationally, by any name, the super typhoon has heaped on a sense of despair and helplessness.
Though we all knew it was coming from the warnings in both old and new media, there was still such an overwhelming sense that nothing could be done to help th...
Lorne Michaels is a comedic genius, sure. But from what I know from people who have worked at “Saturday Night Live,” Michaels rules his comic fiefdom with an iron hand.
So what’s he got against a little diversity?
The lack of African American females on SNL is like a blackhead on the face of a ski...
On the weekend of his 100th birthday, it was the next best thing to having Larry Itliong there.
We didn’t have a special Ouija board, just a cassette tape with his voice.
At a symposium in his hometown of Stockton, California, the Filipino American National Historical Society unveiled excerpts of ...
Asian Americans, dutifully trying to meet early decision college deadlines last week, may have found themselves–like my daughter—on the Common App website.
After the experience, I’m not sure if any of the apps got to the colleges to which she applied.
But she did get this notice: “Congratulations ...
“You go to the United States where they pick money on trees,” Larry Itliong, the Filipino American labor leader and the equal to Cesar Chavez, says on a special tape recording of a classroom talk at Debra Panganiban Louie’s Asian American class at UC Santa Cruz in 1976.
“Did that happen? Hell, no,”...
Bullies had their way with the public last week in Congress and on a highway in New York City.
I thought that for inspiring real rage, there could be nothing quite like watching video bits of the Sen. Ted Cruz filibuster on C-SPAN. Cruz frivolously compared this publicity stunt to the Bataan Death ...
It’s hard not to think of the final episode of “Breaking Bad” right about now, because its recent shutdown is all very natural.
The federal government’s isn’t.
And in the interest of our democracy, it is worth a spoiler alert.
The hit TV show, which is really about what good moral desperate peopl...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler saved an awkward Emmy show opener with a few well-timed twerk jokes. But then Fey stumbled onto the stage throwing her cleavage out of alignment, and the show never quite regained its footing.
No matter how badly Neil Patrick Harris (nee TV’s “Doogie Howser, M.D.”) tried to...
For those of us who scan mainstream American culture for blips of Asian American life, it was quite a wild weekend when the two biggest stories in our universe–Julie Chen’s secret revelation of double-eyelid surgery and the unprecedented Asian American representation on the once lily-white Miss Amer...
It was practically the impossible dream, to think that President Obama could match the oratorical greatness of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech—even on the 50th anniversary of its delivery at the March on Washington.
I would have been happy with something like a “state of the stat...
As the speeches ended, Asian Americans were at the start of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
I was in front of the march banner and took this photo. I could see Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. John Lewis. For a brief moment, they held the pose and then it began–a massive non-stop flow o...
If you’re a card-carrying member of the Model Minority, the ones always vying to be first, then why aren’t you at the front of the line for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington?
The historic march in 1963–that galvanized a movement and brought on such landmark measures as the Civil Right...
Too bad law enforcement agents never seem to profile the likes of Whitey Bulger and James Lee DiMaggio.
For some reason, the white bad guy stereotypes just don’t stick like the black, Latino hoodie hood.
But this week, we got lots of bolts of reality. Bulger finally was convicted after 16 years on...
If you haven’t noticed, in one week the anti-Asian/Asian American meter was off the charts and maxing out in the red.
But it’s likely that you, like everyone else, probably didn’t even notice.
Asian American cultural slights? Are you kidding? Who takes those seriously as civil rights violations?
...
If you’re a CNBC watcher, chances are you barely have the attention span for a stock ticker. So here’s an executive summary: The phrase “Chink in the Armor” shouldn’t be used–unless you’re complaining about how Guinevere screwed up your dry cleaning.
Remember the big race conversation that Presiden...
Three mid-level managers at KTVU-Oakland, CA were fired over the broadcasting of fake Asian names in the coverage of the Asiana Airlines crash Wednesday, according to reports on SFGate.com.
It was first reported on Rich Lieberman’s 415 Media website.
Years ago, I knew professionally one of those f...
