RIP John Eric Swing: FilAm community mourns the loss of up-and-coming leader

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RIP John Eric Swing.

The announcement of the appointment of John Eric Swing as the new executive director of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) never got sent out. Instead the press release that was sent out was the announcement of Swing's death.

Swing, 48, died Sunday, June 28, another victim of the coronavirus. In mid-June, Swing had tested positive for COVID-19 and due to several complications was admitted to the hospital. 

"The entire board and staff of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans mourn the loss of our beloved leader, colleague and friend John Swing" said the the SIPA Board of Directors in a statement."The entire board and staff of Search to Involve Pilipino Americans mourn the loss of our beloved leader, colleague and friend John Swing. 

"John is known throughout the community for his dedicated, compassionate service in Historic Filipinotown, and we are proud of his latest achievement in being appointed our executive director. John was an extraordinarily kind and selfless human being, and we will carry on his legacy of community service and empowerment," continued the statement. We respectfully extend our deepest sympathies to John's family, particularly his wife and children." 

Earlier this year, the Board of Directors unanimously approved Swing's promotion to executive director of the Filipino American nonprofit after concluding a year-long nationwide search to fill the vacancy of its top staff position.

A greatly respected and passionate community advocate, Swing had worked at SIPA since 2015, leading the organization's small business counseling services and programming. He most recently managed SIPA's entrepreneurship program and multiple volunteer service projects. 

Under Swing's leadership, SIPA staff had migrated its community services, support services and educational programs online to provide ongoing, uninterrupted assistance for small businesses, youth and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, Swing led a food delivery project for seniors and minority families in HiFi with support from the office of California State Senator Ling Ling Chang. The California State Senate honored SIPA and Swing's leadership for early efforts during the pandemic with a certificate of recognition as "Unsung Heroes of Southern California."

Swing previously was appointed business director for the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC) and led fund development and operational management for Filipino American Services Group, Inc. (FASGI), as well as the Asian Pacific Health Foundation and Hep B Free San Diego. He served on the board for the Coalition of Filipino American Chambers of Commerce and My New Hope Foundation. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and avid world traveler, Swing was trilingual, fluent in Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish, and English.

Yesterday, the Board approved a motion to name its future small business center in Swing's honor. Tentatively planned as the "John Eric Swing Small Business Center," the future space will be a part of SIPA's soon-to-be redesigned headquarters at 3200 W. Temple Street. Details about the new mixed-use redevelopment project in Historic Filipinotown will be announced at a later date. More about John Swing's life's work is available at https://sipacares.org. More information on how to make a donation for the Swing family may be found at the family's GoFundMe page at: https://gf.me/u/ycc4t7.

Since 1972, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the multicultural district of Historic Filipinotown and the greater Filipino American community. As one of the oldest and largest Fil-Am non-profits in the United States, SIPA is widely known as an ambassador of Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles, where it is headquartered and where all are welcome. Led by Fil-Am business and community leaders, SIPA provides youth services and programming, family health and human services, small business counsel, arts and cultural education, events and resources.

Leadership. Education. Activism. & Dialogue [Filipino], another L.A.-based nonprofit, issued this statement: "This is a loss for all of us, as many in our statewide community benefited from and celebrated Kuya John’s gracious leadership, service, and generosity of his time, care, and talents. From San Diego, to Los Angeles, and the SF Bay Area, he elevated our development and work in social change and service provision. Our hearts are with his family, loved ones, and the SIPA community."

The SIPA press release announcing Swing's promotion, filed away and never sent, included Swing's last official statement:

"I am honored to be able to support, advocate, and program for the needs of the greater Filipino American community. While SIPA is centered on diversity and culture, we also work in the culture of changing all lives for the better. I invite everyone to join us in this effort as we build a stronger community in Historic Filipinotown and beyond."

Swing's family created a GoFundMe donation page to share updates with the community and solicit support for expenses. The link remains active for donations for his family and a memorial fund. Swing is survived by his wife and six children. The page notes that Swing's wife, Ellen, is at home recovering from the coronavirus.

"We are devastated by the passing of our friend and colleague, John Swing. John loved his family, first and foremost. He also cared deeply for his extended family – SIPA, the HiFi neighborhood, the greater L.A. Pilipino community, and the many entrepreneurs that he worked with, first as SIPA's business counselor and most recently as its executive director. His leadership and compassion will be missed," said Ron Fong, executive director of the Asian Pacific Island Small Business Program.

President Obama personally offended by Trump's use of racist terms instead of Covid-19

President Obama's sister, brother-in-law andone of his nieces.

Former President Barack Obama lost his legendary cool when talking about Donald Trump's racially insensitive reference to the coronavirus.
In an invitation-only fundraiser held last week for former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign for president, Obama, who usually chooses his words carefully, issued his strong response Trump calling Covid-19 as the "kung flu."

“I don’t want a country in which the president of the United States is actively trying to promote anti-Asian sentiment and thinks it’s funny. I don’t want that. That still shocks and pisses me off,” Obama said, according to the New York Times.

Obama's unusually blunt response may be personally offended by the offensive term because he is related to Asian Americans, who may be affected by the impacts the offensive remarks could cause.

His sister, Maya Kasandra Soetoro-Ng, is half Indonesian, the daughter of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham and Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. Obama's sister is married to Konrad Ng, a Chinese Canadian.

Growing up mostly in Hawaii, where he spent the Christmas holidays when he was president, Obama's social circle there includes many Asian Americans.

President Barack Obama responded strongly against Donald Trump's use of "kung flu." 

When it became clear that the coronavirus wasn't to be taken lightly back in February, Trump began referring to the virus as the "Chinese virus" and the "Wuhan virus."

After someone explained to him that those terms were racist in nature, offensive to Asian Americans and may have led to attacks against Asian Americans, Trump stopped using the terms.

Trump revived the use of "kung flu" two weekends ago in a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I can name 'kung flu,' I can name 19 different versions of names,” Trump said. “Many call it a virus, which it is. Many call it a flu, what difference?”

A week ago at an event in Phoenix, Trump again used the term when prompted by the crowd, eliciting loud cheers from the partisan crowd.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans have been the targets of racists who blame them for the spread of the virus. Experts and AAPI community advocates believe that use of those offensive terms by Trump and senior members of his administration is encouraging the attacks against Asian Americans.

Trump's insistence in shifting the blame of the coronavirus disastrous impact is almost certainly tied to his reelection campaign. He has been lagging badly in the most recent polls because of his poor handling of the pandemic.  In order to energize his base of supporters, Trump is going back to an old playbook of racism that proved to be so effective in his 2016 upset victory over Hillary Clinton.

On top of the medical pandemic and the economic suffering, the nation is also undergoing a period of soul-searching in regards to the racism embedded in our country's institutions and in the hearts of too many Americans. Anything that could light a match to that tinderbox of emotions, such as the use of highly charged language from public officials, is irresponsible.

As long as his supporters react with loud cheers, the way they did in Tulsa and Phoenix, Trump will probably continue to use the racially insensitive "kung flu," "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus" when referring to Covid-19, much against the advice of the World Health Organization and his own Centers for Disease Control ... and much to the distress of AAPI community.

AAPI actors made strides on TV but future diversity is iffy

Mindy Kaling's "Never Have I Ever" stars a diverse cast.

With a snap of the fingers, relatively speaking, we have three shows on television with South Asian leads. If you count reruns of Priyanka Chopra's Quantico and Mindy Kaling's The Mindy Project, South Asians have gained unprecedented visibility on US TV.

The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) on March 24 heralded the premiere of two new television series on cable networks that feature South Asian Americans: the unscripted Family Karma on Bravo and the animated Mira: The Royal Detective on Disney Junior. The following month, Kaling's sitcom Never Have I Ever debuted introducing an Indian American perspective to the coming-of-age genre

For years, APAMC has advocated for greater diversity and inclusion of Asian Americans in Hollywood-produced programming.

“While South Asian Americans are glad to be represented, they also yearn for the chance to tell their own stories. That is why we applaud the entry of two new series that center Indian or Indian American life and culture.

Click here to read the full APAMC report.

“When APAMC met several years ago with NBCUniversal, we noted the absence of Asian Americans on the cable network Bravo, known for its pop culture personalities. We’re glad the network found a way to include us,” said APAMC Chair Daniel Mayeda.

The APAMC—the only organization to have graded the top four television networks since 2001—issued its annual Report Cards for the past 2018-19 season, assessing the four major TV networks on their progress toward diversity and inclusion of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) onscreen and behind the camera.

Although ABC and CBS maintained their same grades for Actors and NBC increased (from C to C+), the Coalition fears that the unprecedented success of Crazy Rich Asians in the Summer of 2018 failed to boost significantly the number of APA-led series on network TV. ABC had three pilots in contention that would have starred APAs (first name in the credits), including two that would have featured Asian American families. NBC had a pilot about an Asian American magician, and CBS was considering an Asian American family sitcom including Ken Jeong as a cast member. But none of them made the 2018-19 line-up.

“Since the APAMC began meeting with the networks in 1999,” noted Mayeda, “we have generally seen an improvement in the various categories (such as Actors, Unscripted, Writers/Producers, Directors). For example, in the 2002-03 season, onscreen representation of APAs was so bad, we gave two networks Fs in the Actors category. As part of the larger Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition (MEMC) —which also includes the NAACP, National Latino Media Council, and American Indians in Film/TV—we pushed the networks to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), create diversity departments, actors showcases, writers and directors programs, and other pipeline programs.”

But progress has plateaued in many cases for the networks, with Fox recording its lowest grade in the Actors category (D+) in the past 18 years.
The biggest gains for APAs now seem to be happening in non-network media, including streaming services Netflix (Master of None, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before parts 1 and 2, Ugly Delicious, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, Always Be My Maybe, Tigertail, Never Have I Ever, The Half of It), Amazon Prime (Man in the High Castle, Warrior), and Hulu (PEN15); cable channels Comedy Central (Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, Ronny Chieng: International Student), AMC (Into the Badlands, Killing Eve, The Terror: Infamy), Bravo (Family Karma), and Disney Channel (Andi Mack, Mira, Royal Detective); and theatrically-released motion pictures (Searching, The Farewell, Plus One, Stuber).

“While we continue to advocate for the networks to feature more APAs in leading roles, the Coalition applauds the increased inclusion of APAs in other venues,” Mayeda said. “We recognize that many of these programs and films would not have been possible without the training and opportunities created by the networks’ diversity efforts. But the networks themselves need to redouble their efforts to avoid slipping behind their streaming and cable counterparts in representing APAs.”

ABC received the highest overall grade -- a "B" -- for the third year in a row and led with the highest grade in five of the seven categories: Actors (A-; third consecutive year), Commitment to Diversity (A; likewise), Development (B+), Directors (B+; tied with CBS), and Writers/Producers (B).

CBS came in second earning an overall grade of B-, Fox maintained its C gradevfollowed by NBC's C- (a huge improvement from the previous year's F grade). 

APAMC members include Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, East West Players, Japanese American Citizens League, Media Action Network for Asian Americans, National Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Visual Communications.

With the loss of Fresh Off the Boat and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC will be hard-pressed to maintain its grade next year.

In fact, with the 10th and final season of Hawaii Five-O, The Good Place, the single season of The Terror: Infamy largely set in a WWII Japanese American internment camp, the final installment of Man In the High Castle, the cancellation of the martial-arts dystopian Into the Badlands and the end Disney's Andi Mack, television will likely be lacking in an AAPI presence overall.

Long-running "Hawaii Five-O" with its diverse cast of secondary characters has said 'Aloha."

One area the networks can improve on is coverage of AAPI in the news.

“Given the backlash many Asian Americans have faced because of COVID-19, we urge the networks to also produce news stories on this rising concern as well as the remarkable contributions our communities have made to this country,” added Rita Pin Ahrens, Executive Director of OCA—Asian Pacific American Advocates, an APAMC member organization.

The AAPI audience is moving to other media for their news and entertainment. According to Nielsen, the Asian American community is the most plugged-in ethnic group and mostly depend on online sources for entertainment by AAPI artists, vlogs and communication via social media.

"After the mega success of Crazy Rich Asians,” says founding APAMC member Guy Aoki, “other Asian American projects have done well, including Always Be My Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and The Farewell. And the Korean drama Parasite became the first international film to win the Oscar for best picture. We don’t want to lose momentum and want to remind Hollywood that what we learned from those successes still holds true: people of all races are interested in stories about Asian people and are willing to pay money to see them."

Aoki adds: “We want the networks to re-commit to getting Asian American family shows back on the air, which people will gladly watch for free.”

Biden and Trump surrogate take part in AAPI town hall

Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo,  left, who represented Donald Trump, and Joe Biden took part in a town hall
 directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo, a surrogate for Donald Trump, met with AAPI leaders in a virtual town hall Saturday. The stark difference between the two campaigns was never more clear.

While Biden Zoomed in for the event watched by AAPI leaders, Trump was golfing in Virginia.Both presidential campaigns covered topics the Asian American Pacific Islander community during the fourth APIAVote Town Hall event 

Spurred by moderators by Vicky Nguyen from NBC News and Amna Nawaz of PBS, Biden and Calvo covered topics as wide-ranging as the economy, immigration and race relations.

'Kung Flu'

On the topic of Asian Americans being targeted by racists and blamed for the coronavirus, Biden jumped in first.

“We’ve all heard about the horrible acts against Asian Americans blamed for the coronavirus," Biden said. "Harassment. Violence. Conspiracy Theories. Blaming Asian Americans for COVID. Dangerous smears, including by Donald Trump."

“Asian Americans are being targeted with violence in subject to xenophobic rhetoric from the mouth of the president himself,” said the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. “This is the president who, instead of bringing our country together, does everything he can to fan the flames of hate and division in this country.”

Just like Trump, with no proper explanation, Calvo instead tried to shift the blame on President Barack Obama. “Take a look at history," he said. "That Kung Flu comment even came from the Obama administration. I’m here as an Asian American and Pacific Islander to represent the Trump campaign.”

(Although a couple of VA hospitals used the term Kung Flu but no one in the Obama administration, including the President, used the term to describe the N1H1 flu.)

Calvo defended Trump's attempts to limit immigration saying his policies are meant to help the American worker.

“It's not about the immigrants, they're important,” Calvo said. “But his first and foremost priority is getting Americans back to work.”

On Day One, Biden said he would send Congress an immigration reform bill that would include a roadmap for citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants who contribute so much to this country, including 1.7 million AAPI.”

He also expressed his opposition to Trump's recently implemented pause on foreign workers. 

During the town hall, both men were asked about the diversity of their campaign staffs. Neither Biden or Calvo could answer that questioned but promised to give the numbers later in the day.

Hours after the town hall, Biden's staff released the information about the diversity of its campaign staff.

People of color accounting for 35% of his full-time staff. The figures given by staff included consulted consultant. It showed a staff -- including part-timers -- that’s 53% female and a senior staff that is 36% nonwhite and 58% female.

Trump's reelection campaign also released figures that showed his senior staff is 25% people of color and 56% female, according to the campaign, with 52% of the full-time staff female. 



The 2-hour virtual Presidential town hall was the marquee event of the National AAPI Leadership Summit that started June 22 and continue through Thursday, July 2.

REGISTER for the remainder of the Summit, click here.

Sunday Read: White extremists have infiltrated police ranks

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Louisiana police officer Raymond Mott (left) was fired after this photo of him surfaced doing a Nazi salute with a KKK member during an anti-immigration rally.

One of the ominous aspects of the racial awareness brought about in the aftermath of George Floyd's death is the apparent friendliness between the police and counter-protestors who show up at Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

In 2015, a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide, obtained by The Intercept, stated that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.”

Not all police officers are racists! Let me repeat: Not all police officers are racists.

Despite the lofty words of law enforcement leaders promising to institute reforms and weed ou the bad cops, the rank-and-file Blue Line just doesn't get why the reforms are necessary.

Just before police teams tear-gassed and forced demonstrators away from the White House just prior to Donald Trump's photo op at St. John's Episocopal Church, white police officers warned armed white counter-protesters to go inside because of the pending police action. 

• During protests in New York City, a New that has been linked to white supremacist groups, basically the thumb and forefinger forming an "O" and the other three fingers extended.

• The Albuquerque police department in communicating with each other on their walkie-talkies referred to one militia group at another protest as “heavily armed friendlies,” according to KUNM radio station.

• Around 100 young, white men wandered around Philadelphia wielding baseball bats, tire irons and golf clubs, unchallenged by the white police officers. They were allegedly protecting their neighborhoods. They "beat the shit" out of one bystander recording them. Witnesses said officers "high-fived" some of the vigilantes.

• In Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed, the leader of the police union of the Minneapolis Police Department, Lt. Bob Kroll, was a defendant in a discrimination lawsuit brought by four black police officers against the MPD. In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the Lieutenant openly wore a “White Power badge” on his a motorcycle jacket.

The vast majority police officers mean to do well in their service to their communities. Most never shoot their guns during their entire career.

Unfortunately, those good men and women are having their profession sullied by a few bad officers who abuse the power given to them by the public.

The recent incidents that have occurred since the anti-racist demonstrations began occurring every day since Floyd's death but earlier studies have warned about the infiltration of police departments by white supremacists and the recruitment of current police officers by the same radical white organizations.

As early as 2006, an FBI assessment, “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement,” warned of white supremacist plans of “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” The report said that skinhead groups were encouraging members to become “ghost skins” within law enforcement agencies, a term the report said white supremacists use to describe members who “avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”

One of the cases cited in this report about an 18-year-old Chinese student in Nashville, Indiana, who was attacked by a white supremacist with a hatchet.

In 2009 report by the Department of Homeland Security looked into right-wing extremism and its relationship to “violent radicalization” in the United States. 

“Federal law enforcement agencies in general — the FBI, the Marshals, the ATF — are aware that extremists have infiltrated state and local law enforcement agencies and that there are people in law enforcement agencies that may be sympathetic to these groups,” said principle researcher Daryl Johnson told The Intercept.

The reports were so strongly denounced by Republicans that nothing came of them during the Obama administration. Obama's DOJ did enter into consent decrees with over a dozen police departments needing reform. However, Donald Trump's first Attorney General Jeff Sessions stopped enforcing the decrees and no new consent decrees have been signed by Trump's DOJ. 

Despite these reports' warnings, there have been an alarming number of reports of officers exposing racist beliefs and tendencies from -- Facebook photos of an officer giving a Nazi salute or wearing a Klan hood to discovery of actual membership in hate groups such as the KKK, the League of the South or the Oathkeepers. 

When discovered, these racist officers are usually fired, but the good intentions of higher-ups don't do anything to prevent the rise in white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement or falling prey to racist ideology.

Police departments must do more to root out the bad officers and they need to employ more sophisticated personality and bias tests to discover the racist beliefs held by the men and women trying to enter law enforcement.

What makes the matter worse, it appears that the police officers have adopted the "no snitch" rule when fellow officers commit unlawful acts or use excessive force against a suspect. If law enforcement hopes to regain the trust of the people they are supposed to serve, the majority of police officers need to speak out when they see one of their peers doing something wrong.

Although the First Amendment’s freedoms of association and expression mean it’s perfectly legal for anyone to join a hate group and still be a member of law enforcement, modern screening tests can uncover aggressive behavior, flawed decision-making and racial biases that might affect the way they perform their duties thus should disqualify police recruits' eligibility. According to the FBI memo, the government can limit employment opportunities of members “when their memberships would interfere with their duties.”

“Many people in these communities of color feel they have been the subject of police violence for decades,” said Samuel Jones, professor of law at the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago. “And when an officer engages in conduct that adds or enhances that divide," says Jones,  "they are ultimately jeopardizing the integrity of their agencies and putting their fellow officers in danger.”

Now that George Floyd's killing by a police officer allowed people to see what Blacks have been saying for years -- the unequal justice meted out to their community.

Pete Simi, a sociologist who spent decades studying the proliferation of white supremacists in the U.S. military, agreed. “The report underscores the problem of even discussing this issue. It underscores how difficult this issue is to get any traction on, because a lot of people don’t want to discuss this, let alone actually do something about it.”

It took Floyd's death to get a serious police reform bill introduced in Congress. The House of Representatives voted June 25 to pass H.R. 7120, the "George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020." 

The bill languishes unheard in the Mitch McConnell-controlled Senate.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.

#ShapePride Summit: Geena Rocero calls for people to 'wake up' during this time to protest

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Geena Rocero gave the keynote address at the Pride Summit.

“Pride Month this year, besides the celebrations, at its core should be a protest! A reminder that the work is far from over," said Geena Rocero at the #ShapePride Summit Friday.

The Filipina American LGBTIQ+ activist gave the keynote address at the virtual event that took place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, movements for racial justice and renewed push back on LGBTIQ+ rights in some parts of the world.

"We should all protest systems of transphobia, homophobia, racism, inequality and all forms of dehumanization. I’m celebrating by uplifting the voices and leadership of black and brown LGBTIQ+ voices. Pride was started by trans people of color."

June is Pride Month promoting equality and visibility of the LGBTIQ+ community. Pride represents a time to celebrate self-affirmation, reject shame and social stigmas, stand up for human rights and uplift the powers of love and diversity.

This year, Pride Month is taking place within context of the activism spurred by anti-racism demonstrations after the death of George Floyd, a black man, while he was being arrested in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

"If the movements for gender equality doesn’t involve and center trans people of color, it won’t last and it won’t be effective," said Rocero.

"Now more than ever, we have to be there for each other. We have to be more intentional. For me the future of activism is when it is a common calling for everyone. If you’re not dismantling any systems of oppression, it’s time to wake up,” she said.

Rocero (she/her) is a supermodel, transgender advocate and founder of Gender Proud, a media production company that tells stories of the transgender community worldwide to elevate justice and equality, based in the U.S. 

She kept her sexual status a secret as she established a career as an international supermodel. Rocero shocked the fashion industry when she came out as trans in 2014 in a TED talk. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

'Bojack Horseman' creator admits error casting a white actress to voice Vietnamese American character

Animation industry doing 'soul-searching' in casting of characters of color in the wake of anti-racism protests

Diane, a Vietnamese American character, and Bojack Horseman

ASAM NEWS & VIEWS FOR THE EDGE

The creator of “Bojack Horseman” admitted on Tuesday that he made a mistake casting white actress Alison Brie to voice a Vietnamese American character named Diane Ngyuen, Miami Herald reports.

The show’s sixth and final season aired in January. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of the popular Netflix adult cartoon, discussed his “huge racist error” in a Twitter thread in response to the animated "yellow-facing" of the Diane Ngyuen character.

In the past week, responding to the racial sensitivity raised by weeks of anti-racism demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd and the systemic racism in US institutions, including the animation industry.

Bob-Waksberg admitted in the thread that he was asked about casting Brie to voice Diane early on but evaded the questions because his understanding of the issue was still evolving.

“I didn’t want to give a defensive or half-thought-out answer,” Bob-Waksberg wrote.

In 2018, nearly four years after the first season was released, Bob-Waksberg addressed the casting decision in an interview with Uproxx. He told Uproxx he knew when he was writing the pitch that Diane was going to be Vietnamese American, but that she would be “fully American.”

“Her race is barely going to play a factor and she’s just going to be a person,” the creator of the show said in 2018.

Bob-Waksberg recounted his 2018 explanation in Tuesday’s Twitter thread saying that his comments were a “very ignorant way to talk about WOC.” He said that his intent was to write an Asian American character that wasn’t defined by stereotypes, but admitted he went too far in the other direction.

“The intention behind the character is I wanted to write AWAY from stereotypes and create an Asian American character who wasn't defined solely by her race,” Bob-Waksberg wrote. “But I went too far in the other direction. We are all defined SOMEWHAT by our race! Of course we are! It is part of us!”

Bob-Waksberg also added that it was a mistake not to have hired a Vietnamese American writer to reflect on Diane’s heritage, The Independent reports. Over the course of six seasons, not a single Asian American writer was hired.

“We should have hired a Vietnamese writer, and a Vietnamese actress to play Diane - or if not that, changed the character to match who we did hire,” he wrote.

Bob-Waksberg concluded the thread by thanking people for continuing to engage him on the issue. He said he feels it is important for him to keep talking about it.

Brie also expressed regret at voicing the Vietnamese American charactoer. The 37-year-old wrote: 'In hindsight, I wish that I didn't voice the character of Diane Nguyen. I now understand that people of color, should always voice people of color.

'We missed a great opportunity to represent the Vietnamese-American community accurately and respectfully, and for that I am truly sorry. 

'I applaud all those who stepped away from their voiceover roles in recent days. I have learned a lot from them." 

Brie was referring to the voice actors who last week stepped away from their animated roles of characters of color. The soul searching by actors and producers of animated shows were reacting to the demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd two weeks ago in Minneapolis and the racial awareness raised by global protests calling for racial equity.

In a pair of statements shared on social media on Wednesday (June 24) within hours of one another, the white actresses — Jennie Slate and Kristen Bell, of the animated shows Big Mouth (Netflix) and Central Park (Apple TV Plus) — said their casting had contributed to the “erasure” of their black colleagues. 

White actress Jenny Slate provided the voice for Missy, a character of mixed race, in 'Big Mouth.'

“Black characters on an animated show should be played by black people,” Slate wrote.
“Casting a mixed race character with a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race and Black American experience,” Bell wrote on Instagram.

On Friday (June 26) Mike Henry, a Family Guy voice actor who is white, tweeted that he would no longer play the role of Cleveland Brown, a black character who has appeared on that series since its debut in 1999.

“It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on Family Guy for 20 years,” Henry wrote in his tweet. “I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role,” he said in his tweet.

The creators of The Simpsons, which is in its 31st season said they would no longer use white actors to voice their characters of color. Earlier this year, actor Hank Azaria said he would no longer portray Apu, an Indian American character that often resorted stereotypical behavior.

“Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice nonwhite characters,” its producers said in a statement.

“Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore. It just didn’t feel right,” said Azaria, who stopped portraying Apu role in February.

Joe Biden, Trump representative to Zoom into AAPI Leadership Summit

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The campaigns of Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will address the Asian American community in a virtual town hall today, June 27,

Biden will be present at the historic event to answer questions and concerns, while former governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo, will serve as a surrogate for Trump. 

Amna Nawaz, a journalist at PBS News Hour, and Vicky Nguyen, a journalist at NBC, will moderate discussions.

This is the fourth time Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote has hosted a Presidential town hall. Asian Journal reports that in 2016, former president Bill Clinton replaced former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic voting demographic in the United States and are projected to “reach new highs” in 2020, Pew Research Center found. Despite this, a 2018 Asian American Voter Survey released by APIAVote and AAPI Data, found that 46% of respondents said they were not contacted by the Democratic Party and 56% said they were not contacted by the Republican Party.

The town hall, which starts at 3 p.m. EST, will highlight Asian issues during this 2020 presidential election cycle, a move that organizers see as an opportunity to address a growing demographic.

“This two-hour event will allow the candidates and campaigns to present their vision in how that addresses the concerns of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander folks,” APIAVote Executive Director Christine Chen said.

The virtual Presidential town hall is the marquee event of the National AAPI Leadership Summit that started June 22 through Thursday, July 2. The Summit convenes Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) elected officials, activists, and community leaders for conversations and workshops about the political and policy issues most important to the AANHPI community — the fastest-growing racial or ethnic population in the country — and how to mobilize the community during the 2020 elections. 

This year’s Summit includes workshops and sessions on civil rights, health care, and political organizing, among other topics. Notable speakers will include eight members of the United States Congress and nationally recognized advocates, academics and journalists.


"This is a historic moment because, as a collective group, this will be the largest opportunity for the presidential candidates to participate and address our communities' needs for the General Election. This will also allow our communities to unite our voices in political engagement this year and into the future," said the APIAVote website.

REGISTER for the remainder of the Summit, click here.

• For questions or further inquiries about our programming, please visit Presidential Town Hall at APIAVote or email townhall@apiavote.org.
• A full schedule of the Summit events can be found here. 

TGIF Feature: Beauty products manufacturer rebranding skin care products in wake of Black Lives Matter demonstrations

Lighter skin actresses have an advantage in the Philippines' movie-making industry.

Who would have though that the death of a black man in Minneapolis would have such a worldwide impact and trigger a series of seemingly unrelated societal changes that may indicate a worldwide cultural shift on the concept of beauty?

George Floyd's horrible videotaped death triggered worldwide protests against inequitable justice and, in general, a loud outcry against all forms of racism that through the centuries have been imbedded in institutions and cultures.

When Bollywood actresses, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, added their voices against racism and support of the Black Lives Matter movement, they were accused for their apparent hypocrisy for enjoying the benefits of "colorism" for the roles they were awarded.  

The Bollywood actresses were also criticized for promoting products that were based on the "colorism" that placed  a higher value of light-skin over dark-skin.

That debate has been going on for years in Asia -- from South Asia to East Asia -- where the preference for light skin was explained away as a cultural/class value because dark skin meant the person worked under the sun in the fields. 

Some Asian countries such as India, Vietnam and the Philippines, were affected by centuries of European and US imperialism that imposed the desire for lighter skin tones. 

Amid the growing global awareness of racism spurred by the killing of Floyd and the Black Matters Movement, the attacks against colorism appear to be gaining some traction from unexpected sources, including beauty product manufacturers.

Unilever announced Thursday (June 25) the next step in the evolution of its skin care portfolio to a more inclusive vision of beauty – which includes the removal of the words ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightening’ from its products’ packs and communication. As part of this decision, the Fair & Lovely brand name will be changed in the next few months.

Sunny Jain, Unilever's president of Beauty & Personal.

Sunny Jain, Beauty & Personal Care president, explains, “We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skin care brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty. We recognize that the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this. As we’re evolving the way that we communicate the skin benefits of our products that deliver radiant and even tone skin, it’s also important to change the language we use.”

“We have been working on the evolution of our Fair & Lovely brand, which is sold across Asia, progressively moving to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates skin glow. We have changed the advertising, communication and – more recently – the packaging in South Asia, and we think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name. We will also continue to evolve our advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India and other countries. We want Fair & Lovely to become a brand that celebrates glowing and radiant skin, regardless of skin tone,” adds Jain.

Unilever’s ”Fair & Lovely” brand dominates the market in South Asia, while similar products are sold by L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble. Amid Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks, a number of the businesses are heavily criticized for selling products promoting colorism, or discrimination supported complexion.

The brand’s advertising has been changing since 2014, to a message of women empowerment. Fair & Lovely upholds principles that no association should be made between skin tone and a person’s achievement, potential or worth. Unilever is aware that historic advertising is available on the internet; these ads are not aligned with the current values of the brand, adds the company in a statement. 

A Unilever ad in India plays off a cultural value by implycing the effect of one of its skin products

In 2019, Unilever reflected this evolution on the Fair & Lovely pack in India, removing before-and-after impressions and shade guides that could indicate a transformation; and we have progressed all communication of product benefits towards glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance.

As part of this journey to embrace and reflect a more inclusive vision of beauty, the next significant step is to update its brand name, which will be shared once several legal and regulatory requirements are met in each country where the brand is available. This registration process is already underway, and we expect to be able to unveil the new brand name within the next few months.

Fair & Lovely has never been, and is not, a skin bleaching product, the European-based company claims. The product is designed to improve skin barrier function, improve skin firmness and smoothen skin texture - all of which help enhance radiance and glow, as currently represented in advertising and communication.

Whether Unilever's historic marketing decision is a game-changer in terms of redefining beauty is still up in the air. A steamroller effect may be in play as rival Johnson & Johnson also said this month it might stop selling skin-whitening creams.

Separately, a source within French beauty products giant L’Oréal in India said the company was also having discussions in regards to its marketing strategies. It markets skin lightening products under both its L’Oréal and Garnier banners in India.

While Unilever's shift in its marketing strategy has received praise, in the U.S., there has been significant blowback from racists and their bots causing the international company to cease advertising in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

In a press release issued Friday (June 26) morning, Unilever says: "The complexities of the current cultural landscape have placed a renewed responsibility on brands to learn, respond and act to drive a trusted and safe digital ecosystem.

"Given our Responsibility Framework and the polarized atmosphere in the U.S., we have decided that starting now through at least the end of the year, we will not run brand advertising in social media newsfeed platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S. Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society."

And ... so it goes!