Monthly Archives: January 2011
The cost of racism
Part 932.
Before Dr. Ronald E. McNair was an astronaut, he was a little boy who lived in Lake City, South Carolina. And the Lake City library did not allow African Americans to borrow books. Nine-year-old McNair refused to leave the library and the police were called.
Now the library is being renamed after him.
McNair was the second African American astronaut in space. He held a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and was a specialist in laser physics. What a loss it would have been if he had never been allowed to borrow those books.
Fred Korematsu Day
Fred Korematsu was an American of Japanese descent who was jailed for refusing to willingly be moved to a U.S. concentration camp. He took his case to the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 that the exclusion order was constitutional.
This article in the SF Gate discusses Korematsu vs. U.S. and how the case is being discussed in one school:
Sixty-nine years after U.S. soldiers herded 120,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II, she was able in one moment to make her young charges gain a new understanding of racial discrimination in America – and it was all really thanks to one man.That man is Fred Korematsu.
Sunday is his day in California, the first in U.S. history to be officially named after an Asian American, and more than 500 teachers like Trinh are using it to tell elementary and high school students about his life and its landmark place in the annals of civil rights.
‘State’s racism delayed Asian Americans’ victories’
Article in the SF Gate by the fabulous Helen Zia.
It’s not only about time, it’s way past time to have Asian American mayors in San Francisco and Oakland, considering how long these cities have boasted substantial Asian American populations. What took Asian Americans so long to get this far?
The answer lies in the darker side of California’s history. On the streets of San Francisco, Oakland and throughout California, vigilante lynch mobs stoked a xenophobic movement in the late 1800s with the stated goal of driving every “Asiatic” out of America. Federal laws turned all Asians into “persons ineligible for citizenship.” The disenfranchisement was so comprehensive that Asian Americans who were naturalized had their citizenships revoked; white American women who married Asian men were stripped of their citizenships; U.S.-born citizens of Asian descent were assumed to be illegal if they left the country and were subject to detention, interrogation and deportation upon returning. Immigration from Asia was limited to a trickle.
By the numbers
Google search:
Brisenia Flores – 24,700 results
Christina Taylor Green - 6,940,000 results
Google image search:
Brisenia Flores – 7,000 results
Christina Taylor Green – 2,660,000 results
New York Times:
Brisenia Flores – 1 result
Christina Taylor Green – 930 results
CNN:
Brisenia Flores – 2 results
Christina Taylor Green – 24 results
MSNBC:
Brisenia Flores – 1 result
Christina Taylor Green – 33 results
How did that happen?
All of a sudden I realized about 15 people are coming over for new year dinner. It was one of those things where friends have company coming in and then a couple of extra relatives decided to come and, well, you know how that goes.
So wise internets, please tell me what I can cook in advance. I am going to make char siu and char siu bao, jiaozi, some kind of bean dish and a green salad. The fish has been rejected because of no easy preparation method. Some of my guests are going to arrive at my house before I do, since I have to work. I will probably also make a big bowl of chirashi sushi. (Because any of the kneeses are acceptable and because it’s easy.)
You get extra points if the dish is Chinese and if it is easy to prepare from easily available foodstuffs.
I might end up ordering some pizzas.
‘An ache 37 years long’
Diane Drinkwine with photo of daughter Sally as a baby and Sally in background on Skype. Photo by Gary Friedman.
The story isn’t really clear. Was Sally Inman kidnapped by her nanny? Her brother never stopped wondering about her. And 37 years later, they were reunited.
Story from the LA Times here.
Domestic terrorism.
Let’s call it what it is. They burst into the home of husband and wife Raul Flores and Gina Gonzalez. They shot Flores dead. Gonzalez was also shot but played dead. And then they murdered the couple’s 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.
They were members of the Minutemen. Shawna Forde’s trial began yesterday. Her lawyer says that there is no evidence she was in the house. But when she was arrested she had Gonzalez’s wedding ring. Story here.
You can read past coverage by the Unapologetic Mexican.
Canadians!
Please explain this to me:
Canadians are split on whether racism is a growing problem in the country, according to a new survey by the Association of Canadian Studies and Canadian Race Relations Foundation … Canadians in this survey were categorized as English, French or allophone, the last of which would be most likely to include visible minorities. Half of English Canadians thought racism was a growing problem, while that proportion was at about 40 per cent for both francophones and allophones.
The Canadian Race Relations Foundation article is here.
