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.
The Pacific News Service and New California Media have released the results of a survey of Asian Americans in California, which found that California Asians disproportionately contributed to the tsunami relief efforts. As the article explains,
70 percent of Asian Californians have contributed to tsunami relief efforts, compared to 33 percent of all adult Americans across the country. . . Asian Read More →
The Pacific News Service has a very interesting article on the leading candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles and how each of their campaigns addresses the city’s complex racial/ethnic issues. To make a long story short, demographic changes in recent decades has led to Latinos becoming the majority population (although not yet a majority of voters) and they are increasingly Read More →
As I’m sure you’ve heard, Pope John Paul II has been through several illnesses recently. He is 84 years old, stricken with Parkinson’s Disease, and it is widely believed that he may be nearing the end of his life soon. In that context, speculation about who may succeed him as the next Pope is already well underway.
As reported by Asian American Village, a new study conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, entitled “Asian Pacific American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender People: a Community Portrait,” notes that the overwhelming majority of Asian American LGBT have experienced multiple forms discrimination. Some of the key findings are:
Nearly every respondent (95%) had experienced at least one form Read More →
Salon.com has an article that describes the growing popularity of using multicultural situations and multiracial actors in commercials and advertisements. However, as is generally the case in the advertising world, the reality of the everyday world does not always match up perfectly with stylized advertisement images:
In the idyllic world of TV commercials, Americans increasingly are living together side by side, Read More →
This probably won’t be notable to many people who don’t follow international open wheel motor racing but in case that describes you, you may find it notable that the Formula One team Midlands Jordan Toyota has just named Narain Karthikeyan as the first Indian-born driver ever to race in Formula One, the pinnacle of automotive technology and competition and most popular Read More →
Well-respected Vietnamese American journalist Andrew Lam has a commentary article in the Pacific News Service in which he describes the emerging phenomenon of “stress” in modern-day Viet Nam. As he notes,
Stress is the latest trend to hit Vietnam from America since MTV. At first glance it seems impossible: Vietnam, after all, is a country full of hardworking young people, and Read More →
As you probably know, there’s been a lot of controversy about outsourcing in the last few years and the perception that too many American jobs are being shipped overseas to Asian countries like India, China, the Philippines, etc. But how about outsourcing in reverse, a.k.a. ‘insourcing’ — bringing jobs and investment from Asia over here to the U.S.? The Read More →
On the heels of the recent tasteless and offensive incident in which a radio DJ insulted and physically threatened a call center operator in India, Hot97 FM in New York recently created a parody song to “We Are the World” entitled “Tsunami Song” that mocks the tragedy in south and southeast Asia and that also uses racial slurs against Asians. Read More →
The FBI has notified law enforcement authorities in the northeast about a possible terror plot that involves about 10-14 Chinese nationals who may be be planning some kind of terrorist attack against Americans involving some sort of nuclear or “dirt” bomb in the Boston area. This alert is significant because, as far as I know, it is the Read More →
The Seattle Times has a very interesting article about the legacy of Washington Governor Gary Locke. If you’ll recall, Gov. Locke was the first mainland Asian American governor ever, and his governorship recently ended after two terms (he decided not to seek a third term). As the article describes, Gov. Locke seemed to have a rather complex set of Read More →
The San Francisco Chronicle has a series of articles written by Vera H-C Chan and Jeff Yang that reviews the Best and Worst of Asian Pop Music 2004, along with summaries of other Asian American culture-related news from this past year. It’s a very nice, interesting overview of many events that made news (and some that should have). Make Read More →
