8 Asians

Iwao and Hanaye Matsushita were a loving Japanese husband and wife. Their favorite passtime? Hiking the beautiful Mt. Ranier National Park. To them, it was not just their home away from home, not just a towering reminder of great Mt. Fuji in the land of their birth. If home is where the heart is, both of their linked hearts resided at Mt. Ranier. The Matsushitas hiked there every weekend they could and lovingly documented their [...] Continue »

UPDATE 3/9/2013 @ 10am: YouTube removed the original video for being hate speech, so I’ve updated the video embed with a mirror from LiveLeak. Thanks to commenter Aishi Yupi for providing the link. UPDATE 3/6/2013 @ 9:30pm Pacific Time: It looks like Sam Hendrickson has deleted his Facebook page. When I looked at it a few hours ago, his page was filled with lot of Asians calling him out for his racism and a bunch [...] Continue »

By Simon Tam A few years ago, I filed a trademark application for my band, The Slants. The US Trademark Office rejected it, claiming it was disparaging towards Asians. I was baffled: I’m Asian. At first, we fought it by collecting testimonies and letters of support from Asian American organizations; having several independent surveys done (they showed the majority of Asian Americans supported us), getting linguistics studies, and so on. Over the years, we have [...] Continue »

A few weekends ago on January 27th, The Korematsu Institute celebrated Fred Korematsu Day 2013 by honoring a group of American civil rights heroes. The event was hosted by San Francisco native and activist Danny Glover. In keeping with the theme of event, American Idol star Jasmine Trias performed a rendition of Mariah Carey’s Hero. Those honored included:

DiversityInc published an articled entitled 7 Things NEVER to Say to Asian-American Executives but I feel like most of these are things that people shouldn’t say to any Asian American, regardless of whether or not they are “executives.” The list includes one of the “most dreaded questions” (according to 8Asians) and also explains why these questions could be potentially offensive: “You must be the IT person.” “You aren’t like them” or “You don’t act very [...] Continue »

Now, I do have to admit. I voted for Julia Gilliard at the last election. For those who don’t know, Julia Gilliard is the head of a minority government compromised of the Labour and Green parties. Traditionally, they’ve stood out as being more accepting of migrants and the lower class, as well as since this video came out, a staunch defender of female liberties and identity. However, Julia Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, made a rather [...] Continue »

When I was growing up, one of the stereotypes for Filipino kids was that we were all supposed be able to dance.  In this video, it looks like this stereotype, probably encouraged by the success of Asian American Dance Crews like the Jabbawockeez and Poreotics, has spread to Asians in general.  A white kid, Alex “Kid Ice”  repeatedly tries and fails to do certain break dance moves.  Looking at his injured leg, his Mom unplugs [...] Continue »

This past Wednesday, the Duke Student Government and Asian Students Association co-hosted a rally (“Race Is Not a Party: Rally for an Inclusive Duke”)  where over 500 students of all ethnicities gathered to protest over a racist Asian-themed fraternity party at a Duke fraternity over this Kappa Sigma past weekend. I first heard about the incident from a friend who sent me this Gawker article the other night since he knew I went to Duke: [...] Continue »

There has been a series of violent muggings in East Harlem that appeared to target Asian Americans, and the suspect is named as Jason Commisso. In all the incidents the suspect followed the victims into their elevators, violently attacked them, and robbed them of their phones, purses or wallets. Commisso was caught using a credit card from one of the victims approximately 40 minutes after the attack. The list of assaults:

“We should be worried about online silos [news, information, opinion, and discussion communities that are dominated by a single point of view]. They make us stupid and hostile toward each other.” Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and Citizendium Six years of living in Los Angeles reinforced several conclusions in my head: 1) if New Jersey is called “the armpit of the union” then Los Angeles is by far the asshole of the union; 2) my [...] Continue »

U.S. District judge Phyllis Hamilton refused to block the enforcement of California’s ban on the sale of shark fins, rejecting charges that the law is discriminatory against Chinese Americans.  Two organizations, Asian Americans for Political Advancement and the San Francisco Chinatown Neighborhood Association, had asked for enforcement to halt.  Said Judge Hamilton: “Plaintiffs have provided no evidence that the law was enacted for the purpose of discriminating against Chinese Americans.  Plaintiff’s own evidence shows that [...] Continue »

After Number Two Son played in a basketball tournament that had a team from California School for the Deaf (CSD), I was immediately intrigued when I saw this video by Tama Irie from Silicon Valley De-Bug.  The video features Easter Fa’afiti,  a deaf Samoan American who played basketball at Gallaudet University.  Asian American Pacific Islanders often talk about having to deal with different worlds, but Fa’afiti has one more world than most to deal with.  [...] Continue »