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
I’m not going to take the Fifth like Donald Trump did more than 400 times on Wednesday at his deposition with the New York Attorney General’s office.
It’s a civil case concerning the financial structure of the Trump organization. Which is a different case from the FBI raid of Mar-A-Lago for possibl
“Asian American” is one big umbrella in our American cocktail, but what do we really know about each other and how we feel?
For example, Filipino Americans are beginning to break through on the big screen. Yes, Nico Santos was in “Crazy Rich Asians,” but now Jo Koy is out with his Steven Spielberg-
You may recall the picture of the anonymous “Tank Man” who stood up alone to the columns of military might rolling into Tienanmen Square in 1989.
It reminded me of Pelosi this week in 2022, though she was no anonymous passerby, and certainly no “Tank Lady.”
Not when you’re the third highest ranki
By now, anyone concerned about the rollback of social justice in America can name every single member of the U.S. Supreme Court. That’s how political the high court has become. For every issue, we know the “count.”
We know the death knell of the 6-3. We know exactly who’s on the six and who’s among
When I think of Jan. 6, I think of Michael Fanone, the Metropolitan Police Department Officer who’s become somewhat famous for defending democracy. As he was brutally attacked at the Capitol, his plea for mercy was a simple one.
“I have kids,” he told the mob.
And he does. Three of his four kids a
Asian Americans on to the next thing should really take a longer look at that picture of President Biden and Mohammed Bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
I paid $6 bucks for gas this weekend. And I’m still not over the “fist bump for gas pumps” photo op quite yet.
Not if you have any Fil
It’s amazing what happened when NASA pointed its James Webb Space Telescope into a patch of darkness. Suddenly we saw the whole truth—-stars and galaxies we never knew existed.
It was a look back at the speed of light, about 13 billion years.
I wish all of America could see more clearly right here
If you’re a Dreamer in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, my heart goes out to you after last week’s court hearing in Louisiana at the Fifth Circuit.
My father was undocumented.
He didn’t need any.
Documents, that is. Not in 1928. He was born in the Philippines an American
You don’t have to be a world leader to mourn the assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The longest serving prime minister of his country, Abe was always the symbol of political Japan to me. He was just always the man.
As Asian Americans, whether immigrants or born here, we alwa
Ready to get arrested?
You weren’t just going to grill cancerous hot dogs for the holiday, were you? (At least get the vegan ones.)
This holiday weekend, you may have noticed our rights and our very democracy hanging by a thread.
I’m sure you’d rather be doing something more American, more produc
You may have been marching and protesting this past weekend, but few had the kind of stage as Olivia Rodrigo, the Asian American Filipina pop megastar.
She spoke out as a voice for her generation before tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival in England.
“I’m devastated and terrified,” Rodri
I saw a crying Asian American woman on the TV news.
She reminded me of my daughters.
What is worse? To kill abortion in America, or to kill our sense of freedom and American democracy?
In Friday’s rulings, the Supreme Court of the United States managed to do both. The court declared itself a poli
This weekend is a confluence of historic moments on one day, June 19th, that should make every Asian American and everyone, not just members of the BIPOC community, pause for meditation.
Sunday is Father’s Day, and for so many of us, we are here because of an action our parents and forebears took t
