The views and opinions expressed on this site and blog posts (excluding comments on blog posts left by others) are entirely my own and do not represent those of any employer or organization with whom I am currently or previously have been associated.
Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
Normally, governments do not officially apologize for past actions or policies that may have negatively impacted particular racial, ethnic, or cultural groups. As one example, here on this blog, I have written numerous times about the consequences of the Japanese government’s inability or unwillingness to apologize for its atrocities during World War II. The one notable exception was when Read More →
One of the main themes in my research as a scholar in Sociology and Asian American Studies is the connection between individual and institutional processes of assimilation. As I’ve written about in various posts on this blog, this particular focus can take many different forms.
One form that I’ve recently started to follow more closely concerns anti-communist political activism among Vietnamese Read More →
While the “successes” of many Asian Americans have reinforced and perpetuated the image of our community as the “model minority,” sometimes examples come along to shatter that tranquil and serene image.
Case in point — as the Boston Globe reports, a video of a brutal beating by Vietnamese American gang members in Dorchester, MA has spurred the community there to Read More →
As a university professor, I tend to be particularly sensitive to how Asian Americans are treated on college campuses. With that in mind, two recent events highlight both the good and the bad aspects of how Asian Americans are treated in higher education.
First off is the bad part: as many Asian American bloggers have already commented on, last week Read More →
I’ve written before about how many aspects of traditional Asian culture are increasingly becoming incorporated into mainstream American culture, with some of the most recent examples being manga, food and cuisine, and meditation. As the Associated Press/Salon.com report, we can now add feng shui in fast food restaurants to that list:
The only familiar signs at the McDonald’s in this large Read More →
I received the following email enlisting my help to publicize a grant competition for older Americans engaging in “social entrepreneurship”:
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Hi, my name is Emily (half-Filipina!) and I work for an organization called Civic Ventures. We run a “Purpose Prize” program for social innovators over age 60. Winners receive $100,000; this is our third year.
Here’s another announcement from the folks at MixedChicksChat.com:
The First Annual Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival
We are now accepting submissions. This is going to be a wonderful event held at the Japanese American National Museum in LA on the anniversary of the Loving decision (June 12-15, 2008). Please see submission info below:
The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival will Read More →
As India and China continue to emerge as international superpowers, it is almost inevitable that they will see each other as rivals for global resources and influence. However, many people may not know that tension and even hostility between these two countries have existed long before their recent economic expansion.
As Time magazine reports, both countries have claimed a disputed part Read More →
Being the keen demographic observer that I am, I noticed that the Census Bureau just released their Atlas of the U.S., a collection of maps that illustrate the geographic distribution of various demographic characteristics of the U.S. population.
Within their chapter on Race and Hispanic Origin, they present one map that I found particularly interesting: the geographic distribution of interracial/interethnic couples in Read More →
This past week was extremely busy and tiring for me and therefore, I did not have the chance to comment on the Super Tuesday results, especially as they relate to Asian American voters. The basic summary is that, as you have probably already heard, it was pretty much a dead heat between Clinton and Obama, with Clinton winning slightly more Read More →
I received the following email asking to help recruit participants for a podcast on multiracial children (as always, links are provided for informational purposes only and do not necessarily represent an endorsement of their content):
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We’re Fanshen Cox and Heidi Durrow, hosts of Mixed Chicks Chat, the only live weekly podcast about being racially and culturally Mixed. We are looking for Read More →
You may have heard that today, February 7, 2008, is the Lunar New Year and the start of the Year of the Rat. For Vietnamese Americans such as myself, it is also the start of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year.
Read about some characteristics of people born under the Year of the Rat (those who turn 12, 24, 36, etc. from Read More →
