Nineteen civil rights and civic engagement organizations, including AALDEF, issued the following statement regarding the Census Bureau’s recent release of reapportionment data:
The organizations listed below are civil rights and civic engagement organizations that intend to have significant involve...
In California, with 4.4 million Asian Americans–the most Asian state in the nation–Jerry Brown is once again the chief executive.
Are you ready for the pain?
Previously a two-term governor at age 36, Brown is back for a third term at age 72, after a mid-life spent in pursuit of the White House, an...
I don’t know about you, but I’ll be watching Sunday night football on Tuesday and feeling happy that Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania will be out of office on Jan. 18.
It couldn’t come soon enough.
He may not like it that America is getting “soft,” but that doesn’t mean he has to go borderline raci...
AALDEF today applauded the congressional passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 as a major step to rebuild the lives of heroic first responders and community residents in Lower Manhattan, including Chinatown and the Lower East Side. This legislation will provide long t...
by Jeff Gammage
Much of the credit for two landmark settlements to battle racial bias, Chairman Stephen Glassman told spectators at the state Human Relations Commission meeting on Monday, goes to people who weren’t in the room:
Asian students at South Philadelphia High School.
It was the quiet po...
by Disgrasian (Jen Wang and Diana Nguyen)
There’s been a lot of talk this year about how America’s schools are failing its children. That talk has focused primarily on two separate issues: 1) the quality of education and 2) bullying in schools. In the case of South Philadelphia High School in the P...
Too many historic votes in the Senate this past weekend. Some good. Some bad.
So maybe it’s appropriate that my week began by attending a funeral of a young Asian American.
My nephew Brian Francisco was just 31, an American born Filipino with a little “rasta” accent thrown in.
A “Rastapino,” we c...
by Krissah Thompson
A year after more than two dozen Asian American students were attacked at a high school in South Philadelphia, the Department of Justice has reached an agreement with school officials there, resolving a high-profile investigation into school bullying.
The Philadelphia incident,...
by Andrew Tangel and Matthew van Dusen
A Palisades Park restaurant has paid $48,000 to former employees who picketed the eatery over unpaid wages.
The wages of seven workers, including cooks and sushi chefs, earned at the Dokdo Sarang Restaurant on Broad Avenue in 2009 were finally repaid in late ...
The Philadelphia School District signed a two-and-a-half year civil rights agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to address anti-Asian immigrant violence at a Philadelphia high school.
“Schools have an obligation to ensure a safe learning environment for everyone. We will continue to use all o...
The U.S. Justice Department today announced that it filed a settlement agreement in federal district court with the School District of Philadelphia in order to address the severe harassment against Asian students at South Philadelphia High School (SPHS). Today’s development is the result of an admin...
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s New Jersey- Asian American Legal Project (AALDEF NJ-AALP), announced a major victory for seven Korean restaurant workers in their hard fought campaign for unpaid wages. After months of leafleting and picketing Dokdo Sarang Restaurant, the workers...
When Barack Obama gets in trouble, he usually rallies with a rousing and passionate speech. But his compromising ways have turned him into just half the man we thought he was.
So as the hot talk in Washington turns to tax cuts, we don’t get a passionate president fighting for the common man. We get...
This week when Congress is expected to finally vote on the so-called Dream Act, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will vote to kill it.
And what of his one-time role as a lead sponsor of the original bill many years ago?
It turns out THAT was just a dream.
Hatch is one of a handful of legislators now poi...
Today, AALDEF called for Senate passage of The James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R. 847). President Obama has made a commitment to sign the bill if the Senate passes it intact before the end of December.
This legislation would fund for 10 years clinical programs that currently sc...
For all journalists, this I know to be true: We all love a good leak.
It’s the sexy part of the news game, to reveal something that heretofore was so off-limits and so verboten. That makes it one lucky day when a reporter is leaked upon for subsequent dissemination. It’s practically orgasmic.
Stil...
In the last few weeks, airport security has gone X-rated in the hunt for terrorists. A new era has arrived when airline passengers are being quoted in the New York Times saying, “I didn’t really expect her to touch my vagina through my pants.”
We didn’t have to go there. But we have. And we’re stil...
by Richard Springer
South Asian American organizations have exulted over the Election Day victories of Republican Nikki Haley as governor in South Carolina and Bangladeshi American Democrat Hansen Clarke for Congress in Detroit, Mich.
But there were also musings by political analysts after the Nov...
Nineteen years ago, the musical Miss Saigon first came to Broadway with a white actor augmented by eye prosthesis and bronzing cream to make him look more Asian.
Sound a bit too Charlie Chan-like for the modern day? It seemed that way to me, and I said as much in a commentary on NPR at the time.
A...
George W. Bush smiled and chatted up Matt Lauer on the Today Show Wednesday. “I’m enjoying selling the book,” Bush said. “My debating days are over.”
Yes, with his memoirs out now, Bush is all about retail. And I certainly understand his not wanting to debate.
Who wants to get into a debate, say, ...
