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David Wong, 40, of the New York City Fire Department has been named the first Asian American fire marshal in the department’s 109-year history.
Wong received the promotion yesterday at the Fire Training Academy on Randalls Island, along with 23 others. As the New York Post reports, Wong hopes his appointment will inspire more Asian Americans to join the force.
On Sunday, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Women for Hillary will gather at 65 house parties in 12 states and D.C. to watch the Democratic presidential primary debate on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
The event is, according to Hillary Clinton’s campaign Web site, “part of the campaign’s ongoing effort to reach out to and organize AAPI voters.”
“I am honored to have the support of so many people in the AAPI community,” the Web site quotes Clinton as saying. “I want to be the President that represents all Americans and I look forward to working closely with the AAPI community to change the direction of the country.”
Above: Where’s Joyce? Joyce F. Liu and the rest of the “I Wanna Be a Soap Star” contestants
Here are a few Asian American faces that have been gracing reality TV lately:
Joyce F. Liu is the first Asian American contestant to appear on SOAPnet’s “I Wanna Be a Soap Star” (now in its fourth season), in which 10 aspiring actors compete for a 13-week contract on “Days of Our Lives.” The show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, and the official Web site is here.
Steve Poon (aka Spoon), 27, was a contestant on VH1’s “The Pickup Artist,” which has dating-guru Mystery teaching the romantic arts to eight average frustrated chumps. After a harrowing night out, Steve chose to oust himself in the first round of eliminations (on episode 2) — a disappointment, considering that he displayed a lot of natural charm and won the first reward challenge. You can catch the series on Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. Official Web site here.
Vern Yip holds court as a judge on HGTV’s “Design Star,” which pits 11 hopeful interior designers against each other for the prize of — cue drum roll — another HGTV design show. Yip, an architect and interior designer, will host HGTV’s “Deserving Design” (premiering Sept. 12), and he doles out free design advice on his Web site and the “Design Star” Web site. Tune into “Design Star” on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
Ball game or Klan rally?
According to a new study, Major League Baseball umpires tend to call more strikes when the pitcher is of their same race. And when they’re not, more balls are called.
No, this isn’t a joke.
The research was led by Daniel Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, and involved analyzing calls on 2.1 million pitches thrown in the MLB between the 2004 and 2006 seasons. When all was said and done, the data revealed that the bias benefits mostly white pitchers — 71% of MLB pitchers and 87% of umpires are white. Apparently, the highest percentage of strikes were called when both the home-plate umpire and pitcher were white, and the lowest percentage were called between a white ump and a black pitcher.
Interestingly enough, the study also found that minority umpires judged Asian pitchers more unfairly than they did white pitchers. This is particularly bad news for Asian pitchers since there isn’t a single Asian umpire in the League.
Perhaps this explains the fall of Hideo Nomo and the Hideki Irabu disaster, I dunno.
But do these findings really prove that umpires are also closet Aryan Nation members or is something else at play here?
“We all have these subconscious preferences for our own group,” says Hamermesh, who has studied various levels of discrimination and believes racial bias is instilled in infancy. Hm. Interesting idea. Though that doesn’t at all explain the dating preferences of certain women I’ve met over the years.
But anyway, I digress.
Actually, I believe Mr. Hamermesh’s research begs, perhaps, the most important question: Who in the world funds these studies and would they be interested in contributing monies to an Asian American activism website?
 Scale 4 Physical Attack: The majority group vandalize minority group things, they burn property and carry out violent attacks on individuals or groups. Physical harm is done to members of the minority group. Examples: lynchings of blacks, pogroms against Jews in Europe, tarring and feathering Mormons in the 1800s. |
Stantonsurg, North Carolina — On Saturday, July 28, 2007, Song Ni, his wife, and two daughters (5 years old and 1 year old) were attacked and robbed at gunpoint by
for the sum of $700 — their restaurant’s earnings that day. Song Ni was shot and killed in cold blood by these heartless criminals.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert has been in office for only 53 days and he’s already making good on his campaign promise to reach out to the local Asian-American community, according to this article in the Dallas Morning News.
At a recent meeting with local Dallas community and busins leaders, Leppert indicated that
As the ninth largest city in the US, and as a city that is composed of a 26.3 percent immigrant population, Leppert is making a decisive move to court the attention of Asian Americans who live and work there.
On the heels of the Government Accountability Office’s report on the sobering reality behind the “model minority” myth, the National Education Association (NEA) has called for multiple changes to improve opportunities for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities that face educational challenges.
Among the initiatives that the NEA supports:
As NEA President Reg Weaver says, “The model minority myth is detrimental because it overlooks those students who need help and support. Some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders face significant challenges because of unique historical circumstances and socioeconomic factors. It is a great disservice to our children to lump test scores together and say everyone is doing well instead of examining ethnic-specific data to determine challenges and solutions.”
Fortune magazine reports on the Vietnamese of New Orleans, who are thriving in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The 20,000-strong group was among the first to return to the city after the disaster, forgoing an all-clear from the government, and since then it has scored victories against the local utility (which agreed to turn the community’s power back on after enough people had returned) and a nearby city landfill (which supposedly housed toxic waste).
Seems like Father Vien The Nguyen, a community leader, knows all too well the difference between apathy and self-sufficiency. “Before, we asked the government to stay out of our way,” he says. “What we needed to do, we did ourselves. Now we’ve become more active in the political life of the city, only because we saw the city government as impeding our way of life.”
Vancouver-based alternative daily The Tyee interviews Bobby Lee, who riffs on the Korean Wave, ethnic comedy and his upcoming show on Comedy Central, among other topics.
A couple choice quotes:
“I remember last year, me, Margaret Cho and John Cho all had deals with major networks. Ten years ago, an Asian actor wouldn’t even get a holding deal. … Networks and people are getting it.”
“… If Asian Americans want to take advantage of the American experience, they have to encourage their children to do all kinds of jobs. Be a porn star. Why not, if you’re male? … Whenever I see a homeless Asian guy, I feel happy. … If I saw an Asian NASCAR driver, great.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 303, or almost a tenth, of America’s 3,141 counties has a more than 50 percent minority population.
The study defined minorities as people who identified themselves as either Hispanic or a race other than white alone. It was based on counties with a population of 10,000 or more in 2006.
Some highlights in the Asian American numbers: L.A. County had the largest Asian population in 2006, with 1.4 million, and Santa Clara County, Calif., was a distant second with 556,000. Honolulu County had the highest ratio of Asian residents, with 59 percent, and San Francisco County led the mainland with a 34 percent Asian population.
The official estimates are available here.