The Senate Runoff in Georgia has a new mantra. On Tuesday, you just GOTA vote.
GOTA?
Get Out the Asian Vote, at least in Georgia.
If you know someone in that state, remind them that early voting ends on Friday. As I write, more than 1.1 million Georgians have already voted. Once early voting ends...
Excuse me. I had to wait a few days. Nov. 27 is both political and personal for me as an American Filipino.
It is the day I celebrate the birth of my cousin, Stephen, a next generation Filipino immigrant in my family, who in 1984 was 27 and about to finally graduate from college.
But then he was...
The runup to Thanksgiving is predictable. Like clockwork, President Biden has pardoned Chocolate and Chip, two North Carolina turkeys. But think about the other 45 million unpardoned birds and just go vegan. It’s not impossible to go beyond the cruelty of the Thanksgiving meal. You’ll still be full,...
A week ago, there was no Red Wave. Was there a Blue one?
If you look at other exit polls, not as much as there could have been.
BIPOC voters were seen and heard on election night. And their unity was the key.
But from the numbers, it appears the coalition is beginning to fray a bit.
Overall, whi...
I knew it wasn’t going to be a “red wave.”
I was watching Republican Allan Fung, dubbed by Fox as one who could flip Rhode Island’s decidedly blue Congressional District 2. When he lost, I knew some election day prognosticators would be confounded.
America did not exit from democracy on Tuesday. V...
Asian Americans know why our families are here. It wasn’t just economic opportunity. It was democracy.
Whether you or your family originally came on a boat or a plane, after a stint in a refugee camp, or after a decades-long wait for visa approval, we all have our story of why we came to America. W...
There’s a photograph in the news of a young Asian American woman holding up a sign at the Supreme Court last Monday
The sign said “My race is my story.”
It is all our stories.
It is more important than grades and test scores, really. It’s what we overcame to get where we are.
That’s what an admi...
Did your favorite team(s) lose this weekend? Don’t go around moping like you’re preparing for a dismal Nov. 8.
There’s still hope. Races are close everywhere. Everything is winnable. Everyone just has to vote.
Early voting has already begun, by mail and in person. Vote early and once. Just vote.
...
If Donald Trump were watching last night’s “Celebrity Jeopardy,” he would have seen this answer seeking a question: “October is the history month for this Asian-American ethnic group that includes Olivia Rodrigo and Jo Koy.”
First, we must call “sic” on the hyphenated “Asian American,” with apologi...
Last week’s column showed how Filipinos in America provided the basis for the racist Dred Scott decision (1857), where a Black slave was prevented from suing for his freedom. Chief Justice Roger Taney based it on an opinion he wrote in 1840 that since only White Christians could participate in socie...
October 2022 marks the coincidence of the new Supreme Court session, the start of Filipino American History Month, and the opening of a new satirical history of race in America by the esteemed African American writer Ishmael Reed.
All of them are connected. Read on.
First, the Supreme Court. No ma...
Hurricane Ian has exposed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the small, mean political animal that he is.
In fact, he could learn something from someone who in the hurricane’s aftermath is doing more to reassure all Floridians and the rest of the country. That someone would be President Joe Biden.
...
Jin Yut Lew is a 61-year-old in a coma requiring 24-hour care in Chicago.
He couldn’t watch anything on Sunday night. Not even Simu Liu.
Technically, Liu of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” fame (you know, that movie where a despicable character named Emil gets his ass kicked in a cage ...
Since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, I took to criticizing the repressive colonial misdeeds of the British Empire to balance out the steady stream of adulation.
When you hear someone say queen, remember Kenya. Or Kowloon. Or Burma.
And it was in all things royal. The queen may have been nice to her c...
For the AAPI community, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII by the U.S. and the subsequent redress payments is a major human rights milestone. There’s a similar story relevant to today’s confluence of historical events, Queen Elizabeth’s passing and the anniversary of 9/11.
But firs...
I’m overcome by the news. I reported on Queen Elizabeth II just once, when she visited San Francisco in 1983. Then as now, as the world mourns her death, I am gratefully reminded how in our American democracy there is no monarchy.
I respect the Queen, of course, but I am still thinking about how in...
As Asian Americans, we are always tied to our homeland politics in some personal way. China, Taiwan, India, the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, you name it.
We are aware of the moments of the present day that may ultimately become history. The calendar marks days you never forget.
...
I remember Sunday, August 21, 1983 well. It was the day Benigno Aquino, Jr., the man Filipinos called “Ninoy,” was gunned down at the Manila airport after flying home from exile in the U.S.
I was a television reporter on the NBC station in San Francisco. With around 250,000 Filipinos in the Bay Are...
The new Uncle Sam may be Liz Cheney. She’s not the “Karen” wagging her finger saying she’s wants to speak to the manager. She is pointing her finger at us because now she has a proposition.
But is Cheney going to change the spelling of her name to CH-AA-NEY– just to lure us Asian Americans? She’ll ...
We are now entering an era when the greatest threat to our democracy is one FPOTUS.
FPOTUS?
That was the description on the affidavit attached to that historic search warrant on the property of The Former President of the United States, a/k/a FPOTUS.
But why stop at one F when there’s a foultitud...
