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- Emil Guillermo
Racial profiling anyone?
I guess U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. thought racial profiling just wasn’t sexy enough for the Supreme Court. Or maybe it was too obvious. And then I suppose when you get to the high…
Immigrant go home? Gladly, sort of.
Here’s a trend I call “false hope” for xenophobes: What if all the foreign-born and their offspring actually pick up and go home? Well, it’s not quite happening in such massive numbers that the Tea…
Fighting Barry’s Racist Eruption
Modern racism has evolved with the eruption of D.C. Councilman Marion Barry. Can one still say overtly racist things about Asian Americans and get away with it? Sure you can. And Barry’s exhibit A. As…
No Model Minority: The Alienation of Oakland’s One L. Goh
Next time a stupid disc jockey makes a joke about an Asian American’s accent or when someone goes to the buck-tooth “ah-so” route to describe an Asian immigrant, please don’t laugh and say, “Where’s…
Saving Justice Kennedy’s blind man and the Affordable Care Act
My dear mother hated broccoli. She was healthy without it. She lived among the hipsters in San Francisco’s SOMA district, only her perch was the senior housing at Clementina Towers. Mom never had much…
After the Ravi verdict, a need for compassion, clarity
After the Dharun Ravi verdict, suddenly I’m nostalgic for the days when a noose was a noose, a hood was a hood, and a hate crime was a hate crime. Was there ever a doubt in that grand old formula? Add…
Romney wins in the South–Pacific
It’s not exactly the southern headline the Romney campaign wanted to wake up to the morning after. But a win is a win in–American Samoa, where it’s not true Romney got to count the big Samoans twice.…
My first bully, Lady Gaga, and Rush Limbaugh
Lady Gaga is all gaga about bullying, which she’s trying to elevate in our consciousness as tantamount to human rights abuse. A bit far-fetched for some, but not for me. What is bullying but racism…
Leaping to Super Tuesday
The most hateful rhetoric of Tuesday night came from the mouth of a white male, probably late 20s-mid 30s, who was part of a CNN focus group in Ohio, a key state in next week’s Super Tuesday voting.…
Watching Oscar: Sacheen Littlefeather, we need you
Once again I watched the Oscars waiting for a Sacheen Littlefeather moment. You’ll remember her (unless you think Christopher Plummer is the name of someone to call to fix that problem in the…
Linsanity is no reason to bring out the “C” word
We were all having so much fun, too. But that’s no excuse for racism. I was wondering when someone would use a “Chink in the Armor” reference. I’m sure many Asian Americans thought about it too. But…
Linsanity? Call it Linphomania.
Maybe they should take down all the “NO MSG” signs in Chinese restaurants around New York. MSG officially stands for Madison Square Garden, and MSG is saying “YES!” in a big way to our new national…
Zakaria’s Soros interview: Thinking like a billionaire
A prior engagement on the West Coast meant I couldn’t get to the AALDEF dinner in New York City last week. So let me give my own award to AALDEF honoree Fareed Zakaria for an excellent interview…
Giants may be hot, but the NYPD? Not.
A Super Bowl victory means New York is now home to a world-class football team. (It’s primarily in Jersey, but who’s to quibble?) Coach Tom Coughlin, the man everyone wanted fired mid-season, is now…
Winning dirty in Florida and the fight goes on
In politics, when the going gets rough, the tough get dirty and divisive. Even though voters say they don’t like to see it, when a campaign is desperate to have a victory, going negative really works.…
Obama’s Fair or Foul?
After all the countless GOP debates, last night we really needed to see someone act presidential and remind us why this whole campaign process is important. And who else but a president can reassure a…
Romney’s taxes, self-deportation, and observations about Florida Debate I
I don’t care about Romney’s taxes. If H&R Block didn’t do them for him, he made too much money, and he likely paid less tax proportionately than any of us. Indeed, to make $43 million over two…
Gingrich Win is an Opening for – Santorum?
Now that we are in primary season, it’s pretty clear: The GOP doesn’t have a real answer to President Obama. The party’s once and future front-runner Mitt Romney is imploding. His hair is in place,…
Bye-Bye Yahoo, Hello Jerry Yang 5.0?
Jerry Yang, Chief Yahoo and quintessential Asian American internet entrepreneur, is no longer wildly shrieking the brand. Instead, the words from Yang’s lips are whatever you say when something…
Sado-Capitalist Romney heads to the South
The first GOP primary was a bit like musical chairs, except when the music stopped, there were still the same number of chairs and the same number of candidates. No one wants to leave, though surely…
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