By Annie Lo
A recent summer day in Manhattan’s Chinatown naturally led me to Columbus Park, where lush trees shade the benches lining one of the neighborhood’s few parks. I sat and ate my baozi as a pickup soccer game fanned out across the playing field in front of me. But despite the peaceful atmo...
By Ronak Patel
A week cannot go by without a headline reporting a new attack on our multiracial democracy. Politicians seeking personal and partisan advantage, aided by shadowy donor networks, have waged a ceaseless two front war against minority voting rights, chipping away at the Voting Rights Ac...
Joe Biden, still isolated with Covid, spoke via speaker phone to his campaign staff early Monday evening to tell them the truth behind his big decision.
“I know it’s hard because you’ve poured your heart and soul into me,” Biden told the campaigners who won him the nomination and then the presidenc...
You can stop praying for Donald Trump.
Since at least a third of all Asian American voters said they would vote for Trump, according to a recent Asian American national survey, I’m sure there were at least some Asian American Filipino Catholics saying an extra rosary since last Saturday.
Well, you...
I confess my optimism that all the calls for unity after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump could end the polarization that has crippled our nation’s politics for years.
And then I saw the first three days of the Republican National Convention, where Asian Americans were essentially… invisib...
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., is the man the FBI has identified as the shooter at the Butler, Pa. Trump rally, in what law enforcement is calling an “assassination attempt.”
Some news organizations will choose not to say the name of the rally shooter, thinking that doing so would ...
As Joe Biden in fine fettle would say, “Look folks, we have reached an inflection point…”
But what kind of fettle is Biden in today? Aging for sure, but it’s not a crime to grow old in America.
If we apply the president’s favorite rhetorical metaphor to his current crisis, is the geometric curve ...
As the nation and Joe Biden ponder whether he is too old for a second term as president, I contemplate the birthday of one of the most influential persons in my life.
Flossie Lewis is 100 this week.
Flossie is older than Joe Biden, but not too old to still be my teacher, my friend, and the Jewish ...
As we approach the 248th birthday of our country on July 4th, consider that at no time in our history-- from the founders to modern times—has anyone ever thought it necessary to do what happened Monday.
The Supreme Court just turned our constitution upside down and made the president a “demi-king.”...
The earliest presidential debate in U.S. history was supposed to shake up the race and reset the campaign for the president with a 38 percent approval rating.
Instead, we are left wondering who has the tougher choice—voters or Joe Biden. Four more years--is he able?
It was not a good debate for th...
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a young pioneering Asian American politico, must be wondering how a convicted felon with 34 guilty verdicts can be riding high, while an uncharged Thao fights for her political life.
That’s how strange politics is in America today.
On the national stage, President Joe Bid...
Asian Americans, especially Filipinos whose primary family members came to this country as colonized nationals to work the fields in California, identify with the African Americans in Texas in 1865. The Texans lived as slaves for two years longer than they had to, even though everywhere else black m...
On Father’s Day, how many times did you tell your dad that his wish was your command?
I know, it can get old fast. But it’s just for a day. And Dad has earned it.
Too bad it doesn’t work that way with another upcoming holiday, this week’s Juneteenth (June 19th).
Descendants of slaves don’t get to...
In 1989, I was the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” where, incidentally, I was also the first Asian American male to host a national news show.
During my brief tenure, I’d say maybe the best story I ever told while I had that opportunity was to tell my father’s story in an audio essay.
It is...
There is a reason why I bang a gong in the one-man shows that I do across the country.
The agung is a kulintang instrument, indigenous to the Philippines, where my parents are from. My gong also is part of an historical legacy, having been owned by my late dear friend Thelma Buchholdt, the first Fi...
When I coached my daughters’ youth soccer teams, some parents, who didn’t know the game, would yell “charge” and encourage the girls to kick the ball toward the goal as hard and as far as they could.
Wrong.
Sometimes, if the ball-handling skills are up to it, you kick the ball backwards in order t...
I respect the rule of law. I don’t always like it, but I understand why we need it in a democracy.
For example, when the homicide laws did not favor a prosecution in the murder of my cousin in California in 2014, I was outspoken and critical.
My family still did not get justice. And unless there w...
History was made on the eve of the last day of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the month we celebrate our inclusion in society.
It was the first time ever a former president became a convicted felon. And without a doubt, it was fueled by an unconscious but racist Asi...
I couldn’t make the AALDEF 50th anniversary gala in New York this week, because I was in Florida fighting for the next 50 years.
I’m doing my show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad,” an iteration of the show I did while in New York a few months ago.
Here’s what I found in ...
Simu Liu was announced this week as a Justice in Action Award recipient to be feted at the AALDEF 50th anniversary gala on May 20.
Simu, you will recall, beat the monstrous Emil Blonsky as an appetizer in “Shang Chi…” Oh, and he’s done some other things too. Like stand up for all Asian males as the...
