LOS ANGELES –
APALC News Release:
October 10, 2011
Bill co-sponsored by APALC requires the disaggregation of data on Asian ethnic groups in key state departments.
Legislation requiring key state agencies to collect and post information about job programs participation and employment and housing discrimination faced by Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicities was signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday.
Assembly
Bill
(AB)
1088,
introduced
by
Assemblymember
Mike
Eng
(D-Monterey
Park)
and
co-sponsored
by
the
Asian
Pacific
American
Legal
Center
(APALC),
a
member
of
Asian
American
Center
for
Advancing
Justice;
Asian
Americans
for
Civil
Rights
and
Equality
(AACRE);
and
Asian
and
Pacific
Islanders
California
Action
Network
(APIsCAN),
requires
two
key
state
agencies
to
include
the
full
spectrum
of
Asian
American
(AA),
as
well
as
Native
Hawaiian
and
Other
Pacific
Islander
(NHOPI)
ethnicities
in
their
data
collection,
consistent
with
those
groups
reported
by
the
U.S.
Census.
Events are conspiring to hurtle me into my distant past, to my childhood years in Oakland’s Chinatown, where my sisters, brothers and I served time at our restaurant, the New Eastern Café.
First, there was the closing of the Silver Dragon, an institution among restaurants in Chinatown; one of the first ones built for banquets and special events. Since 1974, when it settled in at Ninth and Webster Streets, it was a gathering place for the community, whether it was a young couple on a date or a family hosting a red egg and ginger party or a wedding banquet.
It’s being replaced by Asian Health Services, and that organization had a fundraising dinner gala the other night at the nearby Marriott, with 600 people in attendance. The featured entertainment was a tribute to the Chee family, the clan behind the Dragon.
Sherry Hu, the MC for the event, asked me to speak as part of the tribute, and, although I didn’t have the time, I made time.
You see, my family’s restaurant was sold, in 1954, to the Chees, who turned it into the first Silver Dragon. I was nine years old then, but my time at 710 Webster Street helped shape my life.
As I told the audience at the Marriott, the title of my memoirs, The Rice Room, is about a space in the back of that restaurant. “We were all in the rice room,” I said, “where rice, soy sauce and children were stored.
Jeremy Lin graces the cover of the November issue of GQ Magazine, hitting news stands October 23.
AsianConnections thanks GQ and Conde Nast for permission to use these knock-out images of Jeremy by Paola Kudacki/GQ Magazine.
The slogan on GQ's cover is "Look Sharp - Live Smart" - Jeremy Lin certainly looks sharp in these photos, he's one photogenic guy.
Lin talks with GQ writer Will Leitch who spent time with him when he was in the Big Apple to do the GQ photo shoot and attend other events. It was Lin's first trip to New York since it was announced that he would no longer be a Knicks player.
Lin talks about how the fans and Linsanity affected him, the Knicks, the Houston Rockets, and being Asian American.
Read the GQ article and view more images of Jeremy by Paola Kudacki and a behind the scenes video by Matt Baron here.
"There's a lot of perceptions and stereotypes of Asian-Americans that are out there today, and the fact that I'm Asian-American makes it harder to believe, even crazier, more unexpected," he says. "I'm going to have to play well for a longer period of time for certain people to believe it, because I'm Asian.
And
that's
just
the
reality
of
it."
It's
not
all
that
dissimilar
from
what
Yao
Ming
went
through.
With a nation grieving over the loss of loved ones and the destruction from Hurricane Sandy on the East coast, a relief concert "Coming Together" with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Sting raised funds for Hurricane Sandy victims at NYC's Rockefeller Center which aired on NBC, HBO, and other outlets. With more recovery and fundraising efforts underway, our spirits are uplifted by the countless stories of courage and heroism by people helping people in the face of Hurricane Sandy. On the West coast, Ben Fong-Torres describes the dancing in the streets of San Francisco, and a thumbs up by Mayor Ed Lee over a World Series win with people from all walks of life and ethnicities coming together. The capacity of the human spirit is boundless. There is hope after all. - Suzanne Joe Kai, editor, AsianConnections.com
By
Ben
Fong-Torres
Yes, there was the joyful craziness, the dancing in the streets of San Francisco when Giants closer Sergio Romo struck out triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera in Detroit to win the World Series. (click here to full story with images)
And yes, there was the victory parade and Civic Center celebration, drawing more than a million fans into San Francisco, from all over Northern California.
But I also think of the line of 15 or 20 people in front of a tiny Taco Bell/KFC place on a recent late Tuesday afternoon. Taco Bell had promised free tacos if any player in the Series stole a base.