Firestorm erupts when Texas lawmaker questions Rep. Judy Chu's loyalty to US

Congressmembers Lance Gallagher and Judy Chu at odds.

Racist remarks from a Texas congressman against an Asian American lawmaker drew sharp rebukes from other members of Congress and the AANHPI community.

On a Fox News show, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, questioned the loyalties of Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, because she defended Dominic Ng, who President Biden appointed to lead US trade interests in Asia. Ng has been accused of having ties to the Chinese Communist Party, prompting a group of House GOP lawmakers to ask the FBI to investigate the appointee.

“I question her either loyalty or competence,” Gooden said of Chu during an interview on Fox News. “If she doesn’t realize what’s going on then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies.”

It didn't take long for a reaction to Gooden's remarks.

"Rep. Gooden’s comments on Fox News questioning my loyalty to the USA is absolutely outrageous," responded Chu, the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress. "It is based on false information spread by an extreme, right-wing website. Furthermore, it is racist. I very much doubt that he would be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese American descent."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a statement said Gooden's "slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic.

"Congressman Gooden appears to sympathize with violent insurrectionists and spreads big lies to the American people, having voted not to certify the election of President Joe Biden. Look in the mirror, Lance. You have zero credibility," he added.

On Friday, Gooden doubled down on his remarks, accusing both Chu and Jeffries of "playing the race card in a sick display of disloyalty to our nation," the typical reaction of someone who is trying to downplay his own biases.

Gooden is a member of the so-called "Sedition Caucus" of nearly 150 extreme-right Republicans in Congress who attempted to subvert the 2020 U.S. presidential election in service of former Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the election was stolen.

“Insinuating that Chair Chu is disloyal to the United States because she is Chinese American is categorically wrong," said a statement from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chaired by Chu.

"This type of racist targeting and profiling of Chinese Americans by right-wing extremists is not only xenophobic, it is incredibly dangerous. After centuries of being targeted for not being ‘American enough’ and viewed with suspicion based on looking ‘foreign,’ this type of insinuation and fear mongering only further endangers our communities.

“We hope Republican House leadership will join us in condemning these kinds of attacks on Chinese Americans, elected or otherwise."

Although the strongest criticism has come from Democrats as expected, at least one  Republican has expressed concern about Gooden's remarks.

“Let me say we should not question anybody’s loyalty to the United States. I think that is out of bounds. It’s beyond the pale,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chairman of the China select committee, told CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday.

“Absolutely, we shouldn’t question anybody’s loyalty,” Gallagher added. “And going forward, I think what’s critical and the reason we actually got the committee renamed to focus on the Chinese Communist Party, is to constantly make that distinction between the party and the people.”

AANHPI communitiy advocates also condemned Gallagher's comments. The Organization of Chinese Associations, the largest Chinese American umbrella agency issued a statement critical of Gooden.

"Hate crimes and xenophobia against the AANHPI community has risen precipitously because elected officials like Rep. Gooden continues to make ignorant and racist statements which have dangerous consequences," the statement said. "These unfounded suspicions and questions of loyalty towards AANHPIs only perpetuates distrust of the community and increases the division in America. These racist accusations have no place in our society."

“Dominic Ng and Rep. Chu are as American as Rep. Gooden, proud patriots of the United States. Questioning their loyalty to the U.S. based on nothing but skin color is racism, pure and simple,” said Zhengyu Huang, president of Committee of 100.

 “Comments like these continue the cycle of viewing Chinese and Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, strangers in our own homeland. Comments like these cause xenophobia and violence to increase against the AAPI community," Huang continued. 

"As a society, we cannot sit idly by and allow racially charged language to go unchecked. Words have meaning, and racially charged words have consequences. We strongly condemn the language used by Rep. Gooden and stand united with Dominic Ng and Rep. Chu as proud Americans.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

'Everything Everywhere All At Once' pile up awards from actors, directors and producers guilds

The cast of 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' accept SAG's Best Ensemble award.

UPDATED Jan. 27, 2 p.m.

Momentum for Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to build enroute to a big night at the Academy Awards next month after winning major awards from the Screen Actors Guild Awards show last night.

With actors making up a large portion of the Academy membership, the SAG Awards is a good indicator for the Oscars. The films chances for Academy Awards were strengthened when the Directors Guild and Producers Guild gave the film its top awards, also.

Four of the five acting awards for films were won by members of the Everything Everywhere cast: Best Actress, Michele Yeo; Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan; Best Supporting Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis; and Best Ensemble.

Only the Best Actor award, which went to Brendan Fraser for The Whate, kept EEAAO from a sweep.

“This is not just for me,” said Yeoh, the first Asian actress to win the SAG Award for female lead. “It’s for every little girl that looks like me.”

Her co-star Quan, the first Asian to win best male supporting actor at the SAG Awards, almost gave up acting for lack of work, said:

“When I stepped away from acting, it was because there were so few opportunities,” said Quan. “Now, tonight we are celebrating James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Hong Chau, Harry Shum Jr. The landscape looks so different now.”

But it was 94-year old James Hong, a veteran of hundreds of roles, who stole the show speaking about  the historic nature of the awards when he joined other cast members to receive the Best Ensemble award. He brought up the history of using yellowface in the movie The Good Earth made in 1937.

“The leading role was played with these guys with their eyes taped up like this and they talked like this because the producers said the Asians were not good enough and they were not box office,” said Hong. “But look at us now!”

James Hong's acceptance speech in behalf of the cast stole the show.

The SAG awards come a week after the Directors Guild gave their top award to EEAAO's directors and writers, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, and on Saturday, Producer Jonathan Wang accepted the best film award from the Producer's Guild of America. 

Although it looks like EEAAO will do well at the Oscars, the Hollywood Reporter points out that when results sometimes differ between the two major awards, it is because SAG-AFTRA, a more diverse group than the Academy as a whole, voted for a person of color. Members from other less diverse crafts could choose someone else.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is expected to garner more accolades and praise during the Academy Awards, the most prestigious award show in in the movie industry. The 2023 Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast live on ABC. Can you stream the Oscars? The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV.

 EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

New York City lawsuit claims redrawn district map splits up their Asian American neighborhood

AALDEF / TWITTER

Jerry Vattamala of AALDEF announces the lawsuit protesting the redrawn NYC council districts.

Residents of an Asian American neighborhood in Queens, New York say the newly drawn districts for city council dilutes their community influence and takes away their voice in city matters.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) filed a lawsuit Friday against the New York City Districting Commission, the New York City Board of Elections, and the New York State Board of Elections over the city’s adoption of the city council districting map that denies the Asian American community of Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park in Queens any reasonable chance of fair and effective representation.

Despite the protections of the NYC Charter and our warnings throughout the redistricting process, the council map carved up the community and muffled their voices, continuing our city’s painful history of dividing, marginalizing, and disenfranchising communities of color," said said Jerry Vattamala, Democracy Program Director of AALDEF.

“As one of the fastest growing populations in the city, Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park has a thriving Asian American community made up of immigrant and native-born New Yorkers of Guyanese, Punjabi, Trinidadian, Surinamese, and Bengali descent," he said.

"This is an important community whose members contribute to our city every day, and they deserve a reasonable opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.”

AALDEF is suing to defend the rights of the Asian American community in Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park, to enforce the clear and important protections of the New York City Charter, and delay petitioning for the upcoming city council primary election until a district plan is put in place that complies with the Charter and ensures the fair and effective representation of this community.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 18 individual petitioners who are all residents of Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park, as well as one community organization, D.R.U.M. (Desis Rising Up and Moving) that has members who reside in Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park.

Historically, this Asian American neighborhood in Queens has been divided up and prevented from electing candidates of their choice by the redistricting process at multiple levels of government, splitting the area into seven state assembly districts and three city council districts.

The plaintiffs say the area’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities have historically been divided among several districts at the local, state and federal levels. This past redistricting, they said, spreads the community across three separate districts

"Last year, the New York City Districting Commission divided Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park among three city council Districts. This action was done in violation of the New York City Charter’s mandate that the Districting Commission “ensures the fair and effective representation of racial and language minority groups” to “the maximum extent practicable,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Throughout the redistricting process, we and our neighbors have showed up to urge the Commission to keep our community whole and to preserve Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park as one district," says Jagpreet Singh, Political Director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM).

"The council map continues the historic oppression and silencing of our community — but we won’t be quiet. We demand the representation we deserve. We belong here as much as anyone else and should be allowed to take part in the decision making of the city we give so much to,” says Singh.

The plaintiffs said the area’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities have historically been divided among several districts at the local, state and federal levels. This past redistricting, they said, spreads the community across three separate districts.

They’re asking the judge for emergency relief to delay petitioning for the upcoming City Council races, due to start next Tuesday, Feb. 28, until a revised redistricting plan that “complies with the Charter” is enacted. Vattamala said he expects to hear from the court before Tuesday, Feb. 28.

“As one of the fastest growing populations in the city, Richmond Hill/South Ozone Park has a thriving Asian American community made up of immigrant and native-born New Yorkers of Guyanese, Punjabi, Trinidadian, Surinamese, and Bengali descent,” Vattamala said.

“Yet despite the protections of the NYC Charter and our warnings throughout the redistricting process, the council map carved up the community and muffled their voices, continuing our city’s painful history of dividing, marginalizing, and disenfranchising communities of color,” he added. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Report: 80% of Asian American high school graduates go to college

Students demonstrate in front of the US Supreme Court.

Edited from The Hechinger Report

College degrees are increasing among all racial and ethnic groups in the US but racial gaps continue to exist. Asian Americans and Whites are far more likely to hold a college degree or earn one than Black, Hispanic or Native Americans, according to an article published in the Hechinger Report.

Students’ race and ethnicity affect their chances of earning a college degree, according to several new reports on higher education released in January and February 2023. However, the picture that emerges depends on the lens you use. College degrees are increasing among all racial and ethnic groups, but white and Asian Americans are far more likely to hold a college degree or earn one than Black, Hispanic or Native Americans.

Earning a college degree involves two steps: starting college and finishing college. Before the pandemic, white, Black and Hispanic Americans were enrolling in college at about the same rates, especially when unemployment was high and jobs were hard to find. Asian American college enrollment rate was the highest among all ethnic groups.

READ the complete original article about higher ed data written by Jill Barshay and published  by The Hechinger Report, which provided the portions included in this post.

The bigger distinction is that once a student has started college, the likelihood of making it through the coursework and tuition payments and ultimately earning a degree varies so much by race and ethnicity.

There are two ways to look at this. One is to see how the demographic makeup of college campuses has changed over time, becoming less white and more Hispanic. 

The pie charts below were produced in January by the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization that provides data reporting services to colleges. In conjunction with these services, it monitors trends in higher education by aggregating the data submitted by more than 3,600 institutions, representing 97% of the students at the nation’s degree-granting colleges and universities. Earlier this year, the organization launched a DEI Data Lab site to put a spotlight on how college enrollment, persistence and completion vary by race and ethnicity.

In 2011, as the pie chart on the left shows, more than 60%of the nation’s 20.6 million college students were white, according to an estimate by the National Student Clearinghouse. By 2020, the year represented by the piechart on the right, the total number of college students had fallen to 17.8 million and the share of white students had dropped by almost 9 percentage points to 52%, still a majority.

During the same period, Asian students increased from 5 to 7% of the college population. However, the share of Hispanic students grew from 14% to 21%, and the share of Black students remained constant at just under 14%. This represents all undergraduate college students, both younger students entering straight after high school and older nontraditional students, studying full-time and part-time, and attending both four-year universities and two-year colleges.

What surprised the author was the college enrollment largely mirrorred each racial and ethnic group’s share of the general US population – with a few caveats. Asian Americans are slightly overrepresented on college campuses and Hispanic Americans are slightly underrepresented.

Another way to look at college enrollment is to see how many young adults enroll in college.

The chart below, by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that the college enrollment rates for Asian Americans is 80%, the highest for all ethnic groups after the 2008 recession. Black and Hispanic young adults improved after the 2008 recession, and approached the college-going rate of white Americans. Roughly 60% of young Black, Hispanic and white Americans are trying for a college degree. The zigs and zags in this chart show how college going among Hispanic and Black Americans is influenced by business cycles.

Every race and ethnicity saw gains. The eight-percentage point gain was the same for both Black and white adults.

But racial gaps continue. In 2021, there remained an enormous 40 percentage point difference between Asian American adults, among whom 66% have a college degree, and Native American adults, among whom only 25% have a college degree. Among Black adults, 34% have college degrees. Among Hispanic adults, it’s 28% and among white adults, it’s 50%.

Improvements in college attainment can seem slow because graduation rates are much lower among Americans over 35. It takes years for higher college graduation rates among younger adults to raise overall college numbers. College attainment rates have jumped the fastest among young Hispanic adults under age 35, rising from below 20% in 2009 to above 30% in 2021. 

Courtney Brown, the chief data and research officer at Lumina, credits a variety of support programs, from tutoring to food pantries, and the convenience of online courses to explain why more young people are graduating, despite rising tuition costs. “Colleges are trying to serve students better,” said Brown. “Even the way they staff colleges, not all on getting enrollments but having more success coaches available and counselors helping students get to the finish line.”

Still, Brown acknowledges that it’s been difficult to make a dent in the stubborn gaps in college attainment between people of different races and ethnicities. “Unfortunately, everyone is increasing,” Brown said. “And so we are not seeing those gaps reduced.”

The reasons for why completion rates remain much lower for Black, Hispanic and Native American students are complex. These students are more likely to attend community colleges, which have lower funding per student and fewer support services. Many students weren’t adequately prepared in high schools to handle college-level coursework, especially in math.

A poll of Black college students by Gallup-Lumina, released on Feb. 9, found that 21% of Black students report feeling discriminated against frequently or occasionally at the college they are attending, and that 45% have considered dropping out in the past six months. Black students in bachelor’s programs are far more likely to juggle family and work responsibilities alongside their studies.

“Black students are encountering so much more discrimination, and they have multiple responsibilities that no other race or ethnicity really has,” said Lumina’s Brown. “A lot of it is that Black students are more likely to have children. Working full time, having children and trying to get a bachelor’s degree at the same time is just obviously overwhelming.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Olivia Rodrigo is no longer a teenager

TWITTER / OLIVIA RODRIGO

The Filipino American singer/songwriter celebrated her birthday on Feb. 20.

Her brief appearance at the Grammys this year to present the Best New Artist award to Samara Joy reminds us just how much we miss Olivia Rodrigo.

With her world tour finished, and the three Grammys that she won in 2022 safely at home, the Filipino American songwriter and singer has been relatively quiet after her hit debut album, Sour, topped the charts and several of her songs broke record sales.

On Feb. 20, she celebrated her 20th birthday. In an Instagram post, Rodrigo shared a snapshot with a plain cake with two decades, representing decades,  with the caption: "20 year old girrrrrlllllll."

In November, her fans got an early hint that Olivia has been busy writing some new songs when the singer sent a special video message out via Spotify Wrapped: 

“Hey, it’s Olivia! I just wanted to say thank you so much for listening to my music this year,” she said. “I really, truly couldn’t be more grateful and I’m so excited for next year, and all of the new things and new music that 2023 will bring. So I’m sending so much love your way and thank you again! Bye!”

FYI: View the new clip on Rodrigo’s Instagram Stories.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

An avowed "anti-woke" Indian American Republican joins race for US President

SCREEN CAPTURE

Vivek Ramaswamy is the second Republican Indian American runing for President in 2024.

A second Indian American millionaire has come out of nowhere to announce his candidacy for US President.

The meteoric political ascendency of South Asian Americans is on full display in preparation for the 2024 campaign for US President as tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 37, threw his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination for President.

He launched his Presidential bid a week after former South Carolina Governor and Donald Trump's Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced her campaign for the GOP nomination. Donald Trump is the only other major candidate who has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

Unlike Haley, however, Ramaswamy has no political resume to lean on, which may be a good thing or a bad thing considering state of the Republican Party being torn asunder by MAGA Republicans and what can be called the right-of-center moderates, a self-cancelling designation.

Not much is known about Ramaswamy's policies but his oped in the Repert Murdoc-owned Wall Street Journal indicates he is on the far right political spectrum

“To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That’s why I am running for president,” Ramaswamy wrote in his opinion article. “I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.”

“We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American,” Ramaswamy wrote in his oped.

“The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance,” he continued.

In his article he also hopes to win over some of Trump's base. He's in favor of eliminating affirmative action, stronger border control and repealing civil service protection for federal employees.

On Twitter, he wrote: "As President, I will end federally mandated affirmative action. I will repeal Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 which mandates race-based quotas. Every Republican since Johnson had the opportunity to do it. I’ll do it on Day 1 without apology."

He also dived right into the culture wars the GOP is trying to make their major appeal to conservative. In a video reelased at the same time he was being interviewed by Fox News, Ramaswamy announced his presidential ambitions taking aim at the “woke left” as well as “new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology.”

Ramaswamy also thinks climate change can be solved by relying more on oil and nuclear power even though most scientists, including climatologists, the way to slow climate change is to reduce society's reliance on fossil fuel.

In 2014, Ramaswamy founded the biotech company Roivant Sciences. The company went on to give birth to over 20 subsidiaries with varying levels of success, including six approved products to date. Notable offshoots are immunology-focused Immunovant, whose prized asset batoclimab is currently in three potentially registrational studies, and dermatology-focused Dermavant, whose Vtama cream is the first and only steroid-free, FDA-approved medication in its class for adults with plaque psoriasis, according to Fierce Biotech.

Roivant confirmed to media that its CEO, Ramaswamy had “stepped down from the company’s board of directors to focus on his U.S. presidential campaign.”

Vivek Ramaswamy has declined to disclose his exact net worth in light of his presidential bid, but previous estimates from Forbes reports put Ramaswamy’s net worth at $600 million. The biotech entrepreneur did not dispute that his net worth has been over half a billion dollars, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati to Indian parents. In high school he was class valedictorian, a nationally ranked junior tennis player and an accomplished pianist.

He graduated from Harvard College in 2007, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a major in biology. Later he entered Yale Law School.

While at Harvard, a precis of his senior thesis, on the ethical questions raised by creating human-animal chimeras was published in the Boston Globe and The New York Times. He was chairman of the Harvard Political Union and served as one of three undergraduates chosen for an advisory board for the selection of the current president of Harvard. During his senior year, Vivek co-founded StudentBusinesses.com, a technology startup company which connected entrepreneurs with professional resources via the internet, and he led the company to its acquisition in 2009.

He is the author of two books that further explains his ultra-conservative views, "Woke, Inc." and "Nation of Victims."

Although there are only 4.5 million Indian Americans , or 1.35% of the US population, according to the 2020 US Census, they are the second largest ethnic group under the AANHPI umbrella after Chinese Americans and just ahead of Filipino Americans. 

The political emergence of Indian Americans has been noticed by both major political parties. However, of the dozens of AANHPI communities, Indian Americans heavily favor the Democratic Party the most, which makes the two Indian American candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination noteworthy. There are five Indian Americans in Congress, all Democrats, and despite the relatively small number of Indian Americans, they have surged politically in state and local elections.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Federal agents approaching immigrants, noncitizens, foreign students

NBC

Federal law enforcement agents accused of coercing individuals.

Federal agents are looking more closely at the AANHPI communities and unjustly targeting individuals and coerce them to become informants, according to the Asian Law Caucus.

Agents from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are approaching AANHPI residents and citizens, often on the basis of their race, immigration status or religion, states an ALC press release.

Targeting by federal agents takes different forms, says the ALC. For some community members, federal agents may show up at their homes. For others, agents from the FBI or other agencies may regularly visit their work, school, or place of worship, or cold-call them, seeking what is called a “voluntary interview.” 

Particular vulnerble to these questionable tactics are those members of refugee communities, particularly those whose families fled South Asia and Southeast Asia at as the US military ended operations in those countries, including those from Afghanistan, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. While those targeted are not compelled to comply with such requests, they can often feel that they have to comply simply because the request is coming from a federal agent.

In many cases, FBI agents coerce people to become the agency’s informants by implying that they could create issues in their immigration or visa status, place them on watch lists, and even separate people from their families if the potential FBI recruit does not comply, claim the civil rights attorneys.

Amid this rise in unwarranted federal surveillance and targeting, the ALC team has been providing free legal representation to many individuals and families. As part of the work of the Asian Law Caucus helping community members protect their civil rights, the legal advocates' National Security and Civil Rights program represents San Francisco Bay Area residents.

In just the past year, for example, the ALC supported Afghan families who were approached by federal agents near their homes seeking information to use as leverage, as well as small business owners, university students, and Bay Area residents who are also U.S. citizens. The team is currently representing an Afghan American and US citizen who has been repeatedly approached by FBI agents and has been asked about his wife, who is an Afghan national, on a number of occasions.

Chinese and other Asian students, professors, and researchers have also been frequently approached under suspicion of having ties with the Chinese government and/or engaging in technological espionage. These accusations are typically baseless and often motivated by racially biased assumptions.

The Trump-inspired China Initiative, which focused on Chinese researchers and professors suspected of spying for China proved so ineffective, rarely achieving a guilty plea, was ended in 2021.

In one case, a PhD student at Stanford studying physics was visited at their home by two DHS Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. When first approached, the student was asked about their research, any “military applications” to the projects they were working on, and the extent of their contact with scientific institutions and researchers in China. The student consulted ALC attorneys, who communicated directly with the HSI agents and effectively ended their inquiry into the student’s life. Since then, the student has not been contacted by agents.

The ALC, part of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice community consortium, issued information (below) for anyone who believe they are being unfairly targeted by federal agents.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

2023 Day of Remembrance: 'Let it not happen again," says Biden

Memories turn into lessons never to be repeated.

During this current time when anti-Asian hate and violence is surging, the Japanese American Day of Remembrance has become everybody's Day of Remembrance.

On Feb. 19, President Biden issued a statement that ended in, "Nidoto Nai Yoni" – to “Let It Not Happen Again” referring to the incarceration of 125,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

"When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, eighty-one years ago today, it ushered in one of the most shameful periods in American history" said Biden. "The wrongful incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent tore families apart. Men, women, and children were forced to abandon their homes, their jobs, their communities, their businesses, and their way of life. 

"They were sent to inhumane concentration camps simply because of their heritage. And in a tragic miscarriage of justice, the Supreme Court upheld these immoral and unconstitutional policies," he continued.

"Despite losing liberty, security, and the fundamental freedoms that rightfully belonged to them, 33,000 Japanese Americans volunteered or were drafted for service in the U.S. military during World War II. While their own families were behind barbed wires, Japanese Americans fought in defense of the nation’s freedom with valor and courage."

In conclusion, Biden said: "The incarceration of Japanese Americans reminds us what happens when racism, fear, and xenophobia go unchecked. As we battle for the soul of our nation, we continue to combat the corrosive effects of hate on our democracy and the intergenerational trauma resulting from it. 

"We reaffirm the Federal Government’s formal apology to Japanese Americans for the suffering inflicted by these policies. And we commit to Nidoto Nai Yoni – to 'Let It Not Happen Again.'”

Observances were held across the nation, as the few remaining survivors tell their stories in the media and classrooms, this dark chapter is being told ad retold so Americans can learn how fragile their civil and human rights are and how xenophobia bubbles just under the thin veneer of civility in the Unite States. 

The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, consisting of AANHPI members of Congress and those representing large communities of AANHPI issued their statement via chair Judy Chu, D-CA:

"This Day of Remembrance continues to be significant as xenophobia and fear-mongering are once again leading to anti-Asian hate and racist policies which infringe on the civil rights of Americans. I am proud that over three decades ago, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to formally apologize and provide redress to Japanese Americans who were racially targeted and stripped of their rights. However, we as a nation must continue to recognize this shameful part of our country’s history to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of our past.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-CA, whose grandparents were incarcerated during WWII, said: “On this Day of Remembrance, we reflect on the pain and suffering Japanese Americans endured in internment during World War II with the signing of Executive Order 9066. More than 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry, including my parents and grandparents, suffered because of unjust fear and discrimination combined with a failure of political leadership. We are a nation that celebrates diversity and equality, and we must remain committed standing as one union, free of prejudice, intolerance, and xenophobia.”

CAPAC Freshman Representative Rep. Jill Tokuda (HI-02) is the granddaughter of an incarceree,said: “When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, families were torn apart, once valued community members were shunned and subject to rampant xenophobia and racism, and hardworking business owners and workers saw their life's work and everything they owned taken away from them.

"Generations later, the shameful forced removal and incarceration of over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry lives on as a painful reminder of how fragile our civil liberties are in times of crisis, and how steadfast we must be to stand up and protect them. As the great granddaughter of an internee, I join my fellow AANHPI brothers and sisters in calling for this Day of Remembrance to serve as a moment of reflection as we band together to ensure these atrocities never happen again,” she said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Filipino American football player holds this year's NFL rushing title

Raider Josh Jacobs is one of the few Asian Americans playing in the National Football League.

Las Vegas Raiders' halfback Josh Jacobs rushed for only 45 yards in the last game of the season but that was enough to win the National Football League's rushing crown this year. The Filipino American capped off the season with a total of 1,653 yards.

Jacobs said it was the hardest game he's had to play in because his mind was on the health of his father who was recovering from a heart attack and surgery.

The week prior to the last game, Jacobs was at the side of his father in a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His father, Marty, had to undergo emergency heart surgery the Wednesday before the game after Jacob's 6-year old son called 911 when his grandfather was in pain.

“For me, family is always before anything, especially when you know the severity of what is going on,” Jacobs told reporters following a 31-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. 

“My dad had woken up and told me he wanted me to play, so that’s why I’m here.”

Jacobs booked a flight back to Las Vegas on Friday night and had little bit of sleep before the Saturday game against Chiefs, who eventually went all the way to win the Super Bowl.

“This is probably the hardest game I’ve ever played, not in the sense of physical or anything like that – just mentally, like trying to stay in it,” Jacobs said. “Being on the sideline and having too much time to think, think about what’s going on and think about being the rock of your family. It’s never easy when your rock is going through it, so it’s been an interesting time for me.”

Jacobs is a member of a small group of Filipino Americans in the NFL, a privilege he doesn't take lightly. Jacobs and Seattle Seahawks kicker Jason Myers were the only Filipino American representatives at this year's Pro Bowl that was played Feb. 5.

"It's definitely big, man," Jacobs said at the Pro Bowl, according to TFC News reporter Steve Angeles. "I mean, just because my grandma growing up and my dad kept us along with the culture out there and let us understand where we come from and things like that. So with not a lot of us in professional sports and things like that, it's good to be a prominent advocate for who we are and what we believe in, so that's dope."

Jacobs' rise to NFL stardom has is a rags-to-riches story, battling homelessness as a youth with his Filipino American father Marty.

Despite the struggles, the Oklahoma native landed a scholarship at college football powerhouse Alabama. After winning a national college scholarship, he was drafted in the first round by the then-Oakland Raiders in 2019, winning Rookie of the Year.

Because of his family's past hardships, he has an affinity with those who are struggling.

"I think it's very important just because there's a lot of guys where I come from that I see do good and I never see them come back. Growing up, I told myself, if I see a chance to be on a certain platform and touch and affect people's lives, that's what I'm going to do so I kind of do it," he said.

This offseason, Jacobs said he plans to visit with his grandmother's family in the Philippines.

"I’m just meeting with my family so I’m gonna go out there for like two weeks and go to Angeles City and be with my family so it’s cool," he said.

He'll also have time to ponder his future. He's a free agent and teams will be vying for the Filipino American. If the Raiders don't meet Jacob's terms, he'll try the open market. The 2023 NFL Year and Free Agency period begins at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15.

But Jacobs sounds like he'd like to stay with Las Vegas, especially if the Raiders sign quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who will also be a free agent after playing years with the Green Bay Packers.

Jacobs spoke with Stacking The Box, the Raiders' fan blog, and noted that he’d love Rodgers to come to Vegas and take the team to the next level.

“I definitely want to play with Aaron Rodgers,” Jacobs said. “He’s one of the top guys to ever do it. Really he’s one of the top guys left in the league. Just to be able to be around a guy who’s played a lot of football at a high level and be able to pick his brain on a day-to-day basis and be able to witness how he does his football.”

Jacobs told CBS Sports that if Rodgers came to Vegas, it would change how he views his own future as a free agent.

"I ain't gonna lie, I feel like that (would) change a lot of dynamics for me," Jacobs told CBS. "Especially with just like the contract talks and everything. I feel like when you bring certain guys in the building, you're willing to do things a little differently. It definitely would be a great day."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Day of Remembrance statement from the JACL calls for reperations for African Americans

History matters

By the Japanese American Citizens League.

This Sunday, February 19, 2023, marks the 81st anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, resulting in the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Similarly, thousands of Japanese Latin Americans and Japanese Canadians were incarcerated en masse in their own countries or, in some cases, were kidnapped to the United States against their will to serve as “prisoners of war.” As we look back and mourn one of the darkest moments of our community’s and nation’s history, we also celebrate the many triumphs as well.

This past year for example, we saw the passage of legislation to study the creation of a National Museum of Asian-Pacific American History and Culture, where the stories of all AANHPI communities will be celebrated and remembered. Towards the end of 2022, we saw the passage of two major bills, namely, the Norman Y. Mineta Japanese American Confinement Education (JACE) Act, and the World War II Japanese American History Network Act. Both bills will support organizations that work to educate the public about the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.

This year also marks the 35th anniversary of one of the greatest triumphs of our community in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 as a response to our history of incarceration. It was the culmination of nearly two decades of multigenerational work by former incarcerees, their children and grandchildren, members of Congress, community leaders, supporters, and thousands of allies across multiple communities.

While no amount of money could heal the traumas of everything our community lost, it was our government’s acknowledgment of its wrongdoing that allowed our community to begin the healing process. The Civil Liberties Act showed the power of community organizing in how it forced our government to acknowledge and apologize for the suffering it caused to its people. In the 35 years since the passing of this bill, our journey toward achieving true reparatory justice continues. 

HR 40, or the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been introduced in some form in every Congressional session since 1989, the year after the passage of Japanese American redress. It was first introduced by Representative John Conyers, and more recently by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee.

Much of the framework of HR 40 is based on the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) which helped pave the way for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The African American community was one of the first to support the Japanese American community in its path toward redress, and now it is time that Japanese Americans do the same.

Late last year, the JACL, the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition, and over 70 other Asian American organizations joined together to send a letter to President Biden calling for the creation of a commission to begin the process for the African American community toward reparations and healing. 

As we continue into 2023 and beyond, we look back on our triumphs and hardships, as well as our solidarity in the hopes that we can make a change for a better future for all people in this nation. When our country seems more divided than ever, let us stand together and show that the unimaginable tragedies our ancestors suffered are not forgotten and are worthy of our government’s recognition and repair. 

Biden reinforces racial equity goals of federal agencies

President Biden with Asian American lawmakers when he signed the first racial equity order.

Two years into his term, President Joe Biden signed his econd Executive Order on racial equity Feb. 16.

The Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the federal government order is designed to address systemic barriers that hold communities of color back from prospering.

Biden said in a statement, “members of underserved communities — many of whom have endured generations of discrimination and disinvestment — still confront significant barriers to realizing the full promise of our great Nation, and the Fgederal government has a responsibility to remove these barriers.”

The executive order "will build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s extensive and historic whole-of-government efforts to strengthen racial equity, support underserved communities, and create an America where everyone has full access to the American Dream," said Democratic Congressmember Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Under the executive order, federal agencies will be required to investigate and address any discrimination in technology services, improve accessibility for people with disabilities and improve language access services.

It also requires federal agencies to improve their community engagement strategies which includes involving the diffeent communities during the development of the Equity Action Plans, funding opportunities, budget proposals and regulations.

The order also sets a goal of increasing the share of federal contracting dollars going to small disadvantaged businesses by 50% by 2025 and directs agencies to expand opportunities for these businesses to procure grants from the historic investments within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

"Communities of color, and AANHPI communities in particular, will benefit from the Administration’s efforts to develop and strengthen partnerships with community groups, promote data equity, and address emerging civil rights risks and language accessibility,” said Chu.

Although Biden signed the first equity order on Day One of his administration, federal agencies have been slow in implementing some of the policies. Anyone who has worked in government know that building momentum for some of the required changes is a slow process.

"Advancing equity is not a one-year project—it is a generational commitment that will require sustained leadership and partnership," said Biden.

“It is imperative to reject the narrow, cramped view of American opportunity as a zero-sum game,” Biden said. “When any person or community is denied freedom, dignity, and prosperity, our entire Nation is held back.  But when we lift each other up, we are all lifted up."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley: "Take it from me, America is not a racist country."

Nikki Haley formally launched her campaign for President.

Nikki Haley made her bid for President official with her formal announcement in Charleston, South Carolina in front of hundreds of her cheering supporters.

Leaning into her Indian American heritage, she said, "Take it from me, America is not a racist country," a statement with which other Indian Americans and members of other ethnic groups disagree.

"I know America is better than all the division and distractions that we have today," Haley said trying to bridge the partisan divides that characterizes this era's politics.

Placing such an emphasis on her ethnicity could backfire on Haley.

1. Republicans who are closet white supremacists, or outspoken racists, who have flocked to the GOP in recent years would never support a person of color.

2. Her apparent blindness towards racial issues could turn off a lot of AANHPI voters, who overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in 2020 and 2022.

Of the ethnic groups falling under the AANHPI umbrella, Indian Americans are the strongest in voting for Democratic candidates and progressive issues. They are for gun control and reproductive rights, issues the GOP has railed against.

Haley doesn’t represent the community, Varun Nikore, executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, told NBC. “There’s a multitude of issues where she specifically and the Republican Party are diametrically opposed to where AAPIs are.”

Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who surveyed Indian American voting attitudes in 2020 compared Haley's campaign to the former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's unsuccessful run for President in 2016.

"They have sought to kind of play it up when they thought it was convenient to appeal to a certain kind of narrative,” Vaishnav told Politico, “but at the same time, have stood with the Republican Party when Republican officials, including Donald Trump, (have) engaged in kind of racist tropes or racist activity.”

Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina in 1972. Her Sikh parents Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, who had emigrated from Punjab to Canada and then to the US in the 1960s, named their daughter Nimrata Nikki Randhawa.

Although raised in a Sikh family, she converted to Christianity when she married Michael Haley in 1996.

She served two terms as South Carolina's governor. Even though she didn't endorse Trump as the Republican nominee, Trump appointed her as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

"We're ready — ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past, and we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future," said the 51-year old Haley.

"When America is distracted, the world is less safe... And today, our enemies think the American era has passed. They’re wrong. America is not past our prime. It’s just that our politicians are past theirs!," indicating that she will make he age of opponents (Trump is 76, Biden is 80) an issue in her campaign. 

"We won’t win the fight for the 21st Century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th Century. And so, I have an announcement to make. I stand before you as the daughter of immigrants – as a proud wife of a combat veteran – and as the mom of two amazing children," she said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.