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Top 10 Victories for Immigrant Rights in 2013

While Congress struggled in 2013 to enact just and meaningful reform, and the President is close to surpassing 2 million deportations, immigrants won victories in many states and many levels.

In no particular order:

1. The Supreme Court Strikes Down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act

Undoubtedly, the fall of DOMA’s Section 3 has brought much-needed relief among members of the LGBT community. While there is much more left to do in terms of winning rights for all members of the LGBT community, over 36,000 bi-national same-sex couples can finally live together without worrying about imminent family separation … Read more “Top 10 Victories for Immigrant Rights in 2013”

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My Big, Fat White Xmas

 

The holidays are a trying time for my family. As an inter-racial, inter-faith, bi-national, same-sex couple, we have to choose between having a quiet holiday with Chinese food and a Netflix movie, or visiting my in-laws in Michigan for 12 unending days of a truly white Christmas.

My partner and in-laws are your typical well-intentioned white people. I actually love them dearly as my adopted family. It is when I come face to face with their friends or extended family members that the trouble starts. Should I tolerate and keep the peace, or should I speak up for myself?… Read more “My Big, Fat White Xmas”

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Racing the Story

When Renisha McBride’s killer looked on his porch on Nov. 2, he saw a threat, not a victim. The middle aged white man wielding a shotgun looked at the 19-year-old, Black, unarmed McBride and shot and killed her at point-blank range.

Would Theodore Wafer have shot McBride if she had been a 19-year-old white woman seeking help? We may never know. But we do know that Wafer’s perceptions of who and what constitutes danger are informed by a media culture that is increasingly controlled by people who don’t look like Renisha McBride or her community.

According to a 2013 Pew … Read more “Racing the Story”

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About This Twitter Thingamajig… #NotYourAsianSidekick

The recent explosion of online conversation addressing Asian American feminism has been at turns exhilarating, frustrating, challenging, and affirming. #NotYourAsianSidekick went globally viral at lightning speed, shining a bright light on the stunning lack of space for Asian American feminist public discourse challenging all aspects of white supremacy, and the intense hunger for it.

Many things were spinning in my head as I stared at my phone late last night desperately trying to catch up with what had happened, what was happening. My head itself was spinning at the speed at which the conversation had expanded. Dang, how do people … Read more “About This Twitter Thingamajig… #NotYourAsianSidekick”

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Not Your Asian [Insert Word Here]: Thoughts on Movement and Liberation

In the U.S. and worldwide, a hashtag devised by @SueyPark, #NotYourAsianSidekick was trending* since Sunday, prompting the largest scale–and most visible–public conversation related to Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawai’ian** feminism I’ve seen in my lifetime. With the sheer volume of tweets (over 45,000 in less than 24 hours) and no real analysis conducted yet, I’ve only seen what has appeared on my timeline, the BBC, CNN, Buzzfeed and Slate articles that have emerged, and I’ve checked in with some of the fiercest feminists I know and have been digesting all the Twitter furor as best I can.

#NotYourAsianSidekick prompted the … Read more “Not Your Asian [Insert Word Here]: Thoughts on Movement and Liberation”

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Guest Bloggers

India Criminalizes Gay Sex: A Response to Misplaced Outrage

In a shockingly poor decision, the Indian Supreme Court has reversed the July 2009 ruling of the Delhi High Court decriminalizing gay sex between consenting adults. In doing so, India’s Supreme Court has recriminalized gay sex in India, rendering a substantial portion of the global LGBT population illegal.

Overturning a High Court decision, the Indian Supreme Court upheld Indian Penal Code 377, an archaic and barbaric law that criminalizes “homosexual” acts:

377. Unnatural offenses — Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, … Read more “India Criminalizes Gay Sex: A Response to Misplaced Outrage”

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NYT Sunday Edition: “All the Propaganda That’s Fit to Print”

I bought The New York Times on Sunday for the first time in years this weekend. When I was growing up, we had a subscription and my father would insist that I and my siblings read the Week In Review, which, of course we didn’t, but the few times I tried I had no idea what any of it meant. I lugged the stack to a diner for a little self-date with some waffles and coffee. These were 4 of 5 of the front page headlines, reading left to right, above the fold to below the fold:

Wall St. Mothers, … Read more “NYT Sunday Edition: “All the Propaganda That’s Fit to Print””

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Thanksgiving Reflections: An Ode to a Korean-American Mother

 

Like most good, loving, and respectful daughters, I gripe about my mom all the time. So recently, when three of my friends began to share lighthearted stories about their “overbearing” mothers while we huddled together on a crowded subway platform, I knew I was well qualified to contribute my own. “My mother is ridiculous,” I started. “This one time in high school–”

“–But your story is understandable,” one friend interrupted. “You have a ‘tiger mom’. Our mothers have no excuses.”

I stared blankly, completely annoyed and unsure how to respond, while all three of my buddies on the platform

… Read more “Thanksgiving Reflections: An Ode to a Korean-American Mother”
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Thanksgiving and the Conundrum of Cultural Racism

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we thought we would serve up some leftovers early with this post from last year on the subject. Enjoy!

Every time I try to write about culture, I end up stuck with a lot of big words. For instance, the word conundrum. A conundrum is a problem for which the solution is a matter of conjecture. In other words, we can only guess at how to resolve a conundrum.

Our white supremacist culture is a conundrum. I’m not talking here about the culture of cross-burning and white sheet-wearing. I mean culture as in the collective … Read more “Thanksgiving and the Conundrum of Cultural Racism”

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Guest Bloggers

Deportation Nation: Yes, Obama Can Pull the Brakes

Ju Hong was scared, even unsure, as to the consequences to him if he interrupted President Barack Obama during his stump speech on immigration in San Francisco earlier this week.

After all, he was put there by the White House, vetted, to make sure he was merely another prop while the President gave yet another boring speech on immigration.

[youtube_sc url=” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDEk3OTT_kY”]

Hong, an undocumented graduate of U.C. Berkeley with a gutsy record of engaging in immigrant rights activism, has grown weary of speeches on immigration. With the House unlikely to pass comprehensive immigration reform, he represents the many … Read more “Deportation Nation: Yes, Obama Can Pull the Brakes”