Vlog #3: Connie & Raisa

Raisa brings up several points of discussion in this brief introduction to APA month:

To find out more about the Denny's incident in 1997, come to the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Exhibit. The exhibit will launch on Monday, April 11th at 4 pm and run until the end of the semester in Bird Library's Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (1st floor).

For more information about the Asian & Asian American minor, attend the forum discussion, "Asian American Student Struggles in Central New York," on Saturday, April 9th at 3 pm in room 114 of Hall of Languages. See you there!

What's the low-down on Asian cliques?

Illustration by Sean Basista. Provided by Jerk Magazine.

Jerk Magazine's latest issue published an article entitled, "Asian vs. Asian Smackdown: Can't We All Just Get Along?" criticizing Asian and Asian American students on campus for self-segregating from one another. Its author, Karen Hor, calls out all the APA student organizations and asks, "What's the damn difference?" According to Karen, these student organizations "fortify racism within a race."

Have you had an experience similar to the one Karen illustrates? Do you agree with the points in her article? Is there self-segregation on our campus, and if yes, how do you think that affects our student body?

"The struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality transcends racial and ethnic barriers."

Richard Aoki was a social activist: field marshal in the Black Panther Party, founding member of the Asian American Political Alliance, leader in the Third World Liberation Front Strike at UC Berkeley, coordinator for the first Asian American Studies program at UC Berkeley. He dedicated his life to human rights. Aoki demonstrates that the fight for social justice is a collective effort, regardless of cultural or racial barriers.

Richard Aoki: Valedictorian & Lumpen (In His Younger Years)

One of the things that seems to be odd is that, here I am. I’m a Japanese American. This is an African American based organization. So meeting there the first night of the founding, Huey asked me to join the Party. I looked at him and I looked at Bobby and I said, “I know you two guys are crazy, ‘cuz we drafted the program together. Are you blind as well? I’m not Black.” Then Huey responded by saying, “That’s not the issue, Richard. The struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality transcends racial and ethnic barriers. As far as I’m concerned, you Black.”

In fact at one point I had the title of being the “toughest Oriental to come out of West Oakland.”

At first I looked over the other majors: rejected psychology for their subjective approach to the problems of the world, and philosophy as nothing but thought, mental masturbation. Political science, I couldn’t deal with that at Berkeley, because at the time the Poly-Sci department at Berkeley was politically conservative. In fact some of the professors worked for the CIA and that was public knowledge.

Credits to thefuckingloudestazns.tumblr.com 

Vlog #2: Blake

Vlog #1: Ricky

Introduction to Vlogs

Hey everybody,

We will be uploading interview vlogs all throughout APA Month, talking to people on campus of various backgrounds about APA Month and why diversity is important. They will be posted on YouTube and embedded to this blog. If there are any specific questions or issues you are curious about exploring, feel free to let us know and we will incorporate them into future vlogs. Enjoy!

APA Month Kick-Off Reception

Thanks to everybody, who came out to the kick-off!

 We enjoyed the amazing Pan-Asian lunch that OMA served in their office.

From top left to right: Ricky Mo, Neville Sun, Judy Wang, Amy Lau, & Dana Wan

From top left to right: Diana Huynh, Jenny Sui, Jessica Louie, Daryl Cheung, & Tim Huynh

From top left to right: Alice Feng, Leo Wong, Diana Huynh