Shane Gillis was on “SNL” hosting last Saturday, and maybe you found him funny. But probably not if you’re Asian American.
Believe me, I empathize with people trying to be funny.
I detest people showing off or underplaying their racism.
I recently returned from Los Angeles where I did five minute
Comedian Shane Gillis was announced as the host more than a week ago for the Feb. 24th episode of Saturday Night Live.
Activists rev your engines? Or not?
Boycott the show? Or hope Bowen Yang and Shane Gillis mudwrestle on national TV?
If you’ll recall five years ago, Gillis was hired as a cast m
Ageism is everywhere now if you haven’t noticed, thanks to a certain Asian American special prosecutor.
First, I tried to get away from the news by watching Super Bowl 58, which at 58 is still well under mandatory retirement age.
The San Francisco 49ers seemed to explode out of the gate, dominatin
My father, Willie Guillermo, born under the American flag in the colonial America that was the Philippines, has a birthday today. He would have been 119 and thriving had he stopped eating pork at a reasonable age and gone vegan.
So, of course, he was in the back of my mind while I pondered all of t
Let’s thank Tom Cotton, the MAGA Republican Senator from Arkansas, for inspiring the uniquely racist Lunar New Year greeting for 2024.
I can hear Cotton now saying, “Gung Hay Fat Communist!”
Or words to that effect. More on that later in this column, but first, the Lunar New Year officially begins
If you’re an Asian American of Chinese descent who loves computers or data science, whether you’re an academic or not, be forewarned.
Once again, the FBI’s Christopher Wray is making news with another dire warning, this time at a Congressional hearing this week.
Wray said point blank that “China’s
Honestly, E. Jean Carroll should be made an honorary Asian American.
I’ll explain.
But first, at least for what she went through in her multiple trials against Donald Trump, Carroll is democracy’s hero.
In case you were wondering (and we all are considering the number of Trump's legal entanglemen
Nikki Haley, the lone Asian American, and lone woman, left running for president on the Republican side, isn’t quitting the race yet, despite an 11 point loss in New Hampshire.
Instead, she may be doing the country a big public service. As long as Haley keeps running, she baits Trump into showing u
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said this week that
“America is not a racist country.”
And then Donald Trump proved her wrong by calling Haley by her Indian name--Nimarata Nikki Randhawa Haley— just to rile up the scores of racists in Trump’s Republican MAGA base.
Only Trump put an even
And so we find ourselves this news cycle at a strange thematic confluence of democracy, MLK, and the Emmys.
Let’s take democracy first.
Over the weekend in Asia, our AAPI ancestral home, the pro-democracy movement appears strong, as voters in Taiwan have rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing
Though a career journalist, I sometimes do theatrical one-man shows where I often tell jokes. When I do, I would prefer to kill.
It depends on my jokes, but killing could be seen as a constitutionally-protected right under the First Amendment.
Donald Trump wants the Constitution to protect him too
I’ll get to the “Beef” at the Golden Globes, and the performance of comedian Jo Koy, all key historical Asian American first moments. But is anyone surprised there were no real political speeches given at the awards event on Sunday night?
Not a peep for the earth, global warning, or any of the worl
If you’re a person of color, it’s hard not to feel the pain of Claudine Gay.
As an Asian American alumnus of Harvard, it hurts even more.
Being a BIPOC person with a Harvard degree has always made you a target. The racist assumptions never fade. Why are you here? Because of your race? Your gender?
The war is not over in the two major geo-political flashpoints of the day.
I am, however, proud to report I witnessed the end of a significant AAPI culture war--the end of a feud, essentially a “lit war,” over the question, “What is an authentic Asian American story?”
Or at least, ”What’s our stor
I am moved to extend you the gift of history. President Joe Biden made me do it.
But first, consider the stark contrast in the recent immigration-speak from the two vying for your attention in 2024.
Last weekend, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in Iowa denouncing immigrants: “They’re ruinin
Shohei Ohtani? It’s Japanese for “new era in American race history,” or at least, that’s what I’m calling it.
You doubt that? Ohtani’s ascendence is not unlike what happened when Jackie Robinson broke a color barrier in baseball.
Ohtani broke a race barrier too, and combined it with the smashing o
If you haven’t realized it yet, the congressional hearing last week that continues to make news wasn’t about solving rising antisemitism in America in the shadows of the Israel-Hamas war.
That was the given pretext for the hearing, but it really served as a platform for an outright attack by right-
If you don’t remember how special December 7th is, I get it.
You’re busy. You’re likely traumatized after last night’s GOP presidential debate, where Vivek Ramaswamy attacked fellow South Asian pol Nikki Haley for Americanizing her name and playing identity politics.
But then fellow debater Chris
Asian Americans can be blunt about Henry Kissinger. He carpet-bombed Cambodia. He napalmed the hell out of Vietnam, a war that he should be pilloried for extending rather than praised for ending. But in a depraved war mongering world, it got him a Nobel Peace Prize. AAPIs who survived Kissinger’s da
Post-Thanksgiving week’s Black Friday was more like “Asian Friday” with a little something extra to be thankful for, if you were following world news from the Middle East.
One expected to see the 13 Israeli women and children swapped out for 39 Palestinians in the first major exchange of hostages o
