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Emil Guillermo: WDAAAT? I've tried to tell you.
What does an Asian American think? That’s what you’re left with when you de-acronymize “WDAAAT.“
That was always my goal writing an Asian American opinion column after I left my stint at NPR as host of “All Things Considered.” I did some time in politics as a press secretary and speechwriter for then-Congressman Norman Y. Mineta, the AAPI political icon. I felt it was worth it to cross the line for someone like Mineta. But I soon found I couldn’t be Mineta’s voice, I had to be my own.
I crossed back over the line between politics and media to anchor at a Washington, DC television station. I also did talk radio in DC on a big AM station that was dwarfed by Rush Limbaugh who fanned the flames on a competing station.
After that experience, I realized the best blend of reported journalism, opinion, and personality could be found in one place—the column voice.
In 1995, I started the column “Emil Amok” in an ethnic publication, San Francisco’s Asian Week. But when that publication shut down in 2010, I was looking for a new home for my column.
There was only one place that made sense: AALDEF.
Fortunately, AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung, whom I’d met at Asian American Journalists Association conventions in the past, agreed. And I will thank her forever for allowing me to be in this space since late October 2010, when this website became the digital home for my column.
What does an Asian American think?For the last 14 years, you could find out here in the 855 columns of roughly 1,200 words on average, amounting to nearly a million words.
A Tiger Mom might say I could have written more than a dozen 80,000 word romance novels. I still might.
But the job here was to say what an Asian American thinks about all the things that concern us as a nationwide community. They include ideas that don’t typically get expressed by AAPIs.
Through the years, I’ve had a lot to say about:
Immigration and birthright citizenship: https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-wong-kim-ark-gop-anchor-baby-suzanne-ahn-award/
Harvard and affirmative action. My favorite column on the latter was in an essay on the passing of Thich Nhat Hanh: https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-a-monk-s-last-breath-thich-nhat-hanh-and-the-high-anxiety-of-affirmative-action/
I’ve also spent a good deal of time writing about politicians and their actions.
Kamala then: https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-why-won-t-kamala-harris-talk-about-being-asian-on-cnn-s-town-hall/
I got personal and told my Father’s story:https://www.aaldef.org/blog/emil-guillermo-my-father-s-story-before-father-s-day/
And October, at least half of it, is always special for Filipino Americans:
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to express my views here.
My thanks, of course, goes to you, dear readers. And the bots as well. Until further notice, the old columns will stay up here.
But I will continue to write and post new columns at www.substack.com/@emilamok. You can subscribe to Emil Amok’s Newsletter there for free.
And if you’d like me to read the column to you and annotate it verbally, then join me on www.patreon.com/emilamok.
You can support my efforts by signing up for the tier of your choice where you can have access to the column, as well as the weekly and daily podcasts that I do, and anything else I might cook up (it’s a takeout, remember?). That would include online storytelling and standup shows, interviews, laughter yoga sessions, and more.
That’s at www.patreon.com/emilamok.
SOME SHORT EXIT BITS
Already, I regret that I will not be able to comment in this space on tonight’s vice presidential debate. But why bother watching? CBS, in an outright concession to the truth-challenged GOP, has announced moderators will not fact check the debaters in real time. It means that the night is sure to be full of lies, especially from the side that doesn’t know their dog-eater facts.
Haitians eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio has already been debunked as a lie, but it continues to be spread by the deranged J.D. Vance and Donald Trump.
It amazes me that 120 years ago in St. Louis, the GOP had a different take on dog-eating. In 1904, a white entrepreneur brought nearly 1,500 colonized Filipinos to be part of the largest exhibit at the World’s Fair. It was essentially a human zoo, where Filipinos dressed as savages in native dress, showed off their lifestyle, which included dog on the menu. Back then, the GOP used it to justify America’s imperial desires in the Philippines and elsewhere. To show a Filipino eating dog was seen as an appeal to Americans that the Filipinos must be civilized!
Now, yesterday’s colonial embrace is today’s negative xenophobic attack, an anti-immigration smear of the other to generate fear. And gin up white votes.
VEGAS, VOTING, AND ASIAN AMERICAN COMEDIANS
I missed Kamala Harris by a few days when I visited Vegas last week. But from what I saw, the women are going to have to carry Kamala in this battleground state. The men don’t appear to be with her. That’s white men for sure, but surprisingly most of the Black and Latino men I encountered do not appear to be Kamala fans.
As I talked to Nevadans during my “Lyft ride focus groups,” (the only times I had a real captive audience), one Black driver was so anti-Harris when I pointed out a previous passenger left a pro-Harris poster, he reached back, grabbed the sign, and ripped it to shreds.
In fact, few really wanted to talk about politics. There was a real disenchantment with government and our leaders. They just didn’t want to engage. Not even for a five-star rating.
Most all the drivers were youngish, under 40, and concerned about the economy.
But on my last day, I got a driver who was a Mexican immigrant named Enrique. To him there was no question. Who was he backing?
“Anyone but Trump,” he said. “I’m voting for her.”
My visit to the battleground state was more personal than political. I had come to Vegas to do a standup comedy set at a festival known as the “World Series of Comedy.”
As they say, I killed. At least, all those who were awake and breathing. And I had a few Trump and Kamala jokes.
There was no Shohei Ohtani of standup in the lineup. Just us batboys, working our way up the comedy food chain.
I met Atul Patel, an Indian American from Minneapolis, who besides being the “funniest person in Minneapolis” is anengineer and an MBA, of course.
He just wants to make people laugh, so they can “forget about their problems.”
Like politics, I suppose.
Of course, as an Asian American, Atul is older than he looks. And he has a fall back. He’s a product manager for a company that measures invisible particles in pollutants.
Oh, that’s like me trying to find Asian Americans in U.S. society.
People like comedian JP Lambiase. French last name, Italian American parents. Korean adoptee. Thanks to his Asian-ness, again, JP’s older than he looks. He also said he had no problem with being an adoptee. He’s had a good life. That is, until a long term romantic and business relationship turned sour.
Now he’s on the road, going from city to city doing comedy, and living in a van. It’s a different kind of unhoused.
“I’m a comic nomad,” JP tells me about his mission to do comedy and document his life on his YouTube channel @Where’s JP.
https://www.youtube.com/c/JPLambiase
I found hanging out with the comedians to be somewhat therapeutic for a political junkie journalist.
When I asked about politics, JP was bluntly apolitical.
“I don’t know anything about politics,” he said. “I didn’t even know who Kamala was.”
He says he’s registered independent in Texas. But he has no desire to vote. He doesn’t know enough. But shouldn’t he vote if our democracy’s at stake?
“If I don’t like the way things go, I’ll move to another country,” he said.
I tell him he has a voice, and he should vote.
“What am I gonna do?,” he said. “I’m one voice. I don’t see any bearing or weight on my voice.”
His comic voice? Certainly. Just not politics.
“I got involved at one point, and man, did I get infuriated with the stupidity of America,” he told me. “I get upset with ignorance and stupidity. And I got really angry when I heard opinions and points of views, and I said, man, this is gonna wear out my mental health.”
So he turned to comedy, in self-defense of others’ political stupidity. It keeps him smiling to make people laugh.
“Politics brings out the worst in people,” he said. “I live in bliss.”
One man’s answer to our current political climate.
I always saw humor as a tool that was part of politics. It’s the freest of free speech forms that ridicules the powerful and creates a catalyst for change. It’s not just entertainment.
But for comics who want gigs, staying apolitical and clean makes you bookable and cancel-free.
Still, you should vote.
In this existential election year, let my last column here be one that encourages you to vote. It’s a must do. Your voice matters. Democracy matters.
I’m sure, whatever the result in a month or two, there will still be room for comedy. We will need it. By November, is there any doubt, we’ll all be saying how much we could use a laugh?
Let’s see what happens. It's time to stand up for democracy.
Find me on substack.com/@emilamok And on www.patreon.com/emilamok
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Emil Guillermo is an independent journalist/commentator. Updates at www.amok.com. Follow Emil on Twitter, and like his Facebook page.
The views expressed in his blog do not necessarily represent AALDEF’s views or policies.
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