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18mr:
Hey y’all, we’re going to be a little light on the posting this afternoon because we’re going to be on Twitter talking about Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and immigration reform. The bill moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last night, and there are a lot of unanswered questions, including what will happen to sibling and adult child visas? and will binational LGBT couples be included in the final bill?
Come chat with us, as well as some of our awesome friends, at 12p PST/3p EST. Our featured guests include:
- Ai-Jen Poo, National Domestic Worker’s Alliance and We Belong Together
- Amardeep Singh, Sikh Coalition
- Greg Cendana, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
- Margaret Huang, Rights Working Group
- Pramila Jayapal, Center for Community Change
- Richard Lui, MSNBC
- Saket Soni, National Guestworker Alliance
So come through! It’ll be great to have your voice in the conversation.
This initiative focuses on educating people – especially teens – about the dangers of texting and driving. The message is simple, yet vital: When it comes to texting and driving, it can wait.
Each pledge made to never text while driving is a symbol of commitment to be part of a movement that helps everyone make safe choices with their wireless devices on the road. Teens on average, text five times more a day than a typical adult. That’s a lot of texting! And drivers that text while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash*
*According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
OCA will donate to MAASU one dollar ($1.00) for every pledge; up to one thousand dollars ( $1000.)! Only one pledge submission per person. Entries to pledge closes Thursday June 6, 2013: 11:00PM EST. Winner of prizes will be announced on this page. Every pledge will be entered into a raffle for an opportunity to win prizes.
Prizes:
- One (1) Kindle Fire Color Tablet (Value $199)
- Five (5) $10.00 Gift Cards
- Five (5) OCA Student Memberships (Value $10)
- *One (1) all-inclusive paid trip to the OCA 2013 National Convention in Washington, DC! (Value $1,000)
John Cho (x)
The only Asians I remember seeing on mainstream TV when I was a kid were Sulu on Star Trek, nameless Asians loading trucks in the background or dying on MASH (which was all about funny lovable white US Americans waging war on Asians), and the “ancient Chinese secret” Calgon laundry detergent commercial.
(via zuky)
Was the same when I was a kid. That moment of seeing George Takei not being overly-stereotyped when I was a kid was a powerful one. I think the only place I had really seen other Asians on the screen was finding the rare (because I was a kid in mountains, far from the rest of the community) movie that had Asians in it. Unfortunately, a lot of those were the “white guy learns martial arts, beats up Asians because ‘Merika” type movies. Which, of course was not TV. They were still the “Asian other” just as in MASH backdrops. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Sulu always has a special place in my heart. Star Trek helped me get through some bad emotional spaces as a kid, and I think part of what made it welcoming was having POC, especially George Takei ( since I’m JA too, and the other Asian American actors who came later), represented on screen in positive and whole characters, with names instead of “Solider #1, Henchman #4, Ninja #18”.
(via reallifedocumentarian)
(Source: divorcedreality)
In 2011, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) began a qualitative review of HIV/AIDS surveillance reports, epidemiologic profiles (epi-profiles), and other surveillance-related documents across 50 state health departments and several cities funded directly by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through this review, several jurisdictions were identified for further review to detail and document “promising” practices related to HIV/AIDS data collection, reporting, and dissemination for AA and NHPI populations.
This report includes in-depth case studies of three jurisdictions: New York, Hawaii, and San Francisco. All three represent jurisdictions with significant AA and NHPI populations and significant rates of HIV/AIDS in AA and NHPI populations. Each jurisdiction historically and/or currently demonstrates a level of responsiveness to increased needs for AA and NHPI HIV/AIDS data to inform planning and prevention service efforts. In developing these case studies, APIAHF also conducted multiple interviews with health department surveillance staff (current and former), health department leadership (e.g. Prevention Managers), community-based organization (CBO) representatives, and other stakeholders.
This report also includes “bright ideas” or mini-case studies of practices implemented by jurisdictions across the U.S. These mini-case studies include states where there are emerging AA and NHPI communities and/or trends of increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on AA and NHPI communities. Similar to the in-depth case studies, these “bright ideas” were developed based on review of available documents as well as key informant interviews with health department staff.
May is APA Heritage Month Confirm Sri Srinivasan to the DC Circuit! There are only two Asian Pacific Americans currently serving on the Federal Appellate Courts. If confirmed, Srinivasan will be the first South Asian American on the U.S. Court of Appeals in American history.
Srinivasan is eminently qualified. A graduate of Stanford University (law school, business school, and undergraduate degrees), he is the current Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States and has argued 25 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. The American Bar Association rated Srinivasan “unanimously well-qualified,” its highest rating.
Srinivasan has lived the American Dream. Srinivasan was born in Chandigarh, India and immigrated to the United States with his parents and two younger sisters as a child, later becoming a naturalized citizen. He was raised in Lawrence, Kansas, where his father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas, and his mother taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and later worked at the University of Kansas in the Computer Science Department.
Srinivasan has bi-partisan support. Srinivasan was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with unanimous bi-partisan support. Former high-level officials from the Solicitor General’s office—six of them Democrats, six of them Republicans—issued a letter in support Srinivasan’s nomination.
Help Sri Srinivasan Today!
Sri Srinivasan was UNANIMOUSLY voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 16th and is now eligible to receive a Senate vote for confirmation. You can help confirm him by asking Senators Reid and McConnell to schedule a confirmation vote.
Calls should be made to both Senator Reid and Senator McConnell.
Reid: 202-224-3542 • McConnell: 202-224-2541
When you call tell the senate staffer:
“Hello. My name is _____________. May is APA Heritage Month. As an Asian Pacific American, I would like the Senator to schedule a vote in May for Sri Srinivasan, nominee for the DC Circuit and vote to confirm him.”
The senate staffer will ask where you live. Provide that information and say Thank You.
Support Senator Hironos amendments to keep families together by calling Senate Judiciary Committee Members
The Senate Judiciary Committee has gotten through 90% of the amendments to the immigration reform bill. CALL THESE SENATORS NOW to voice your support for family reunification!
Asian Pacific Islander Americans are strongly affected by family-based visas. ACT NOW!
In sixth grade Mrs. Walker
slapped the back of my head
and made me stand in the corner
for not knowing the difference
between persimmon and precision.
How to choose
persimmons. This is precision.
Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.
Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one
will be fragrant. How to eat:
put the knife away, lay down newspaper.
Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.
Chew the skin, suck it,
and swallow. Now, eat
the meat of the fruit,
so sweet,
all of it, to the heart.
Donna undresses, her stomach is white.
In the yard, dewy and shivering
with crickets, we lie naked,
face-up, face-down.
I teach her Chinese.
Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten.
Naked: I’ve forgotten.
Ni, wo: you and me.
I part her legs,
remember to tell her
she is beautiful as the moon.
Other words
that got me into trouble were
fight and fright, wren and yarn.
Fight was what I did when I was frightened,
Fright was what I felt when I was fighting.
Wrens are small, plain birds,
yarn is what one knits with.
Wrens are soft as yarn.
My mother made birds out of yarn.
I loved to watch her tie the stuff;
a bird, a rabbit, a wee man.
Mrs. Walker brought a persimmon to class
and cut it up
so everyone could taste
a Chinese apple. Knowing
it wasn’t ripe or sweet, I didn’t eat
but watched the other faces.
My mother said every persimmon has a sun
inside, something golden, glowing,
warm as my face.
Once, in the cellar, I found two wrapped in newspaper,
forgotten and not yet ripe.
I took them and set both on my bedroom windowsill,
where each morning a cardinal
sang, The sun, the sun.
Finally understanding
he was going blind,
my father sat up all one night
waiting for a song, a ghost.
I gave him the persimmons,
swelled, heavy as sadness,
and sweet as love.
This year, in the muddy lighting
of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking
for something I lost.
My father sits on the tired, wooden stairs,
black cane between his knees,
hand over hand, gripping the handle.
He’s so happy that I’ve come home.
I ask how his eyes are, a stupid question.
All gone, he answers.
Under some blankets, I find a box.
Inside the box I find three scrolls.
I sit beside him and untie
three paintings by my father:
Hibiscus leaf and a white flower.
Two cats preening.
Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the cloth.
He raises both hands to touch the cloth,
asks, Which is this?
This is persimmons, Father.
Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk,
the strength, the tense
precision in the wrist.
I painted them hundreds of times
eyes closed. These I painted blind.
Some things never leave a person:
scent of the hair of one you love,
the texture of persimmons,
in your palm, the ripe weight.
405 notes (via reallifedocumentarian & calypsoed)
Rep. Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional APA Caucus, today in Politico
Senator Patrick Leahy has suggested today might be the last day of the Senate Judiciary Committee markup process. If there were ever a time to call a Senator and tell them to stand up for reunification for all kinds of families, it’s now.
I don’t usually bother y’all with this kind of thing, but this is a golden opportunity to move Senators like Schumer (D-NY) and Feinstein (D-CA) who have been waffling on some of these issues in the right direction.
(via 18mr)
Watch the livestream of the CIR Markup here
The Southeast Asian Student Coalition’s (SASC) mission is:
“To unite Southeast Asian Communities, particularly those bounded by the historical context of the Viet Nam War, and to address the economic inequalities, social injustices, and political under-representation that they face.”
SI is an all-expense paid, five-day educational program hosted at UC Berkeley that connects high school students and community members nationwide. We bring 36 high school students from all over the country to address Southeast Asian underrepresentation in higher education and low recruitment and retention rates.
20% of US population DO NOT have a high school diploma
20% of Asian Americans DO NOT have a high school diploma
Compare this to
38% of Vietnamese Americans, 50% of Laotian Americans,
54% of Cambodian Americans, 60% of Hmong Americans
DO NOT HAVE A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA
The US National Average for a Bachelors Degree:28.8%
US National Average for Asian Americans for a Bachelors Degree: 44%While 7.5% of Hmong Americans and 9.4% of Laotian Americans have a Bachelor’s Degree.
By connecting students to their culture and history, we aim to foster young leaders and empower students to create social change.
SI offers free housing in the UC Berkeley dorms, free transportation to all northern and central California residents, free food, and workshops.
Your donation would allow us to make this program more accessible to youth all over the nation. It would enable us to provide dorm housing for students who are stepping onto a college campus for the first time or who may not have any other opportunity to experience college otherwise. Dorm reservations, food and transportation take up the bulk of our budget, but they are crucial to the overall experience of this program.Other Ways You Can Help
We understand that there are folks who want to contribute to the success of the program, but donations are not always possible. We would appreciate it if you could circulate our campaign to others who you think would be interested in donating or supporting our mission.
Forward Mentee Application to students who might be interested in theprogram.tinyurl.com/si2013app
Apply to be a Mentor or Volunteer for the program. Applications will be open soon.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fo…Attend our annual Benefit Concert on March 16th
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