B I M O N T H L Y
28 July 2010

Lorenzo Paglinawan, Communications Chair (Virginia ‘12)

A

ASIAN AMERICAN STUDY

1. I am hoping that my research can later lead to the implementation of specific interventions aimed to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors of sexual coercion which could hopefully lead to reduced rates of sexual coercion within the Asian American population and worldwide hansenk@fit.edu (Survey)

2. In order to participate, you must be Asian or Asian American and be at least 18 years old. If you would like to participate in my study, please click on the link below and you will be directed to my online survey:(Survey)

It takes about 15-20 minutes to complete the survey.  You will receive $10 in VISA gift card

INTERNSHIP

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (Link)

Minority Business Development Agency
U.S. Department of Commerce Internship

Our agency is currently recruiting interns for the fall of 2010.  Attached please find a listing of our available internships for that time frame.  There are currently (5) offices with internships available and the backgrounds vary depending upon the office.

The process for selection requires that all interested students forward their cover letters, resumes, and writing samples to me at lpurnell@mbda.gov.  I will then forward their applications to the office that they are interested in working for.  If a conditional offer is made, I will contact the student and email them a listing of documents to be completed by either themselves or the school.  Upon receipt of the documents and successful background check, MBDA will extend a firm offer.  Firm offers will NOT be made until completion of a successful background check. We are beginning the recruitment process now to allow enough time for completion of background checks prior to the arrival the student.

Student Eligibility: The prospective student must

1. Be enrolled at least half-time in an accredited institution and recommended by a school official.
2. Be at least 16 years old.
3. Be a United States citizen.
4. Meet the Department’s policy on employment of relatives.
5. Pass a background check & meet security or fitness requirements. (includes fingerprinting)

If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me at (202) 482-3102

OCA National Internship Facebook Fundraiser (Link)

OCA National Center Communications/Membership Intern

Description:
OCA National Center is seeking current undergraduate students interested in a paid internship for Fall 2010 (August-December). The selected intern will work directly with the Member Engagement and Public Policy Program Associate on communications and membership programming.
POSITION AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY. Last day to apply is August 13th.

To apply, submit a cover letter, resume, two references, 500 word writing sample, and graphic design sample if available to Lan Nguyen at lnguyen@ocanational.org or OCA National Center 1322 18th Street NW Washington, DC 20036.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival (Link)

NAAAP National Convention August 12 – 15 (Link)

EDUCATION

Advocates Work To Develop Asian Pacific American-serving Higher Education Sector (Link)

Spreading the Word on Asian American Diversity (Link)

The Model Minority Myth applied to Asian-American Health (Link)

National Asian American, Pacific Islander Advocates and Education Leaders Convene to Address Higher Education Needs of Students (Link)

US High Schools with highest Asian American enrollment (Link)

POLITICS

Kagan: Will she bring diversity to the bench? (Link)

County’s HIV/AIDS efforts criticized (Link)

California Congressman Michael Honda Calls for More Asian American-Themed Stamps (Link)

Asian American Civil Rights Groups Announce Co-Branding (Link)

More Asian Americans Recruited in U.S. Army (Link)

Glenn Beck Attacks the Bad Old Unions: The Chinese Must Go! (Link)

First Chinese American Woman Appointed as Chief of Criminal Division in DA’s Office (Link)

Washington deputy mayor a Filipina (Link)

White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders to Hold News Conference (Link)

Obama pushes to diversify federal courts, but it’s a slow process (Link)

International Acts featuring Hannah Zarate Youtube (Link)

vincent WHO? (Link)

Shyamalan film puts white actors in Asian and Inuit roles (Link)

DramaFever Bringing Hit Filipino Teleseryes to American Viewers (Link)

Jeremy Lin works out with NBA teams (Link)

Steven Low’s one-man show tackles Asian American romance (Link)

Unexpected Harmony (Link)

Do you want your information or suggest any news, events, opportunities that would be beneficial to Asian American awareness?

Email me contact information, website, and a few lines detailing your news at communications@ecaasu.org.

Sincerely,

Advocacy, Events & Conference, News & Videos, Updates, Weeklies

B I W E E K L Y

Lorenzo Paglinawan, Communications Chair (Virginia ‘12)

Dear Members,

In honor of Mother’ Day, please join me and thousands of other advocates in urging our senators to support the ratification of the landmark international agreement that affirms fundamental human rights and equality for women and girls. (Link)

Dara Chen, ECAASU Advocacy Chair for APA Women’s Issues

ASIAN AMERICAN STUDY

I am hoping that my research can later lead to the implementation of specific interventions aimed to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors of sexual coercion. Hopefully, this leads to reduced rates of sexual coercion within the Asian American population and worldwide hansenk@fit.edu (Survey)

AWARD

Award named after English professor and Students should apply (Link)

SUMMER INTERNSHIP

Finance/ Administration Internship (Link)

Important Opportunities for Asian Secular University Students (contact)

The CSIS Freeman Chair has an opening for a full or part-time paid internship this summer. (Contact) (Link)

The Leadership Conference Education Fund Internships (Link)

2010 Advancing Justice Conference, June 23 – 25 in Alexandria, Va. (Link)

A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES with director S. Leo Chiang, OCA Screening (RSVP)

Asian American Awareness Week celebrates Asian cultures (Link)

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: 2010 Annual Summer Cocktail Party (Contact)

Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Career Fair on Friday, July 9th at the John’s Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Asian American Literary Symposium Report (Link)

APIAVote EVENTS (Link)

Asian American Awareness Week celebrates Asian cultures (Link)

Asian American Literary Symposium Report (Link)

California API Policy Summit 2010 (Link)

Campus Progress’s National Convention (Link)

Decolonial Poetics, Kundiman West Salon, Third Area & Writing the Desert – Call for Participants! (Link)

Filipino Young Professionals – DC Spring Networking (Contact)

Jean Kwok: Girl in Translation @The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (Link)

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Link)

May Day 2010 – National Mobilizations for Immigrant Workers Rights: (Link)

Mayor’s APIA Heritage Month Celebration May 18th, 2010 at 7 pm, D.C. (contact)

OAPIA “Community Day 2010” Saturday, May 15th, 2010 from 11:00 a.m., D.C. (contact)

SAALT’s Chicago Reception: May 25, 2010 (Link)

The 2010 OCA National Convention in Houston, Texas from June 17-20 (Link)

EDUCATION

Newsom Convenes Black and Asian Leaders to Discuss Tensions (Link)

Pain for Asian youth didn’t end with school assault (Link)

Recent attacks prompt calls to relieve tensions (Link)

UC’s New Policy on Freshman Admission — Moving in the Wrong Direction (Link)

POLITICS

Asian-American groups weigh in on state redistricting process (Link)

Census Bureau News — Facts for Features Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2010 (Link)

Lieu on the Asian-American vote, his independence (Link)

Obama Administration Seeks Increased Asian American and Pacific Islander Access to Federal Programs (Link)

OCA Criticizes Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant Law (Link) (Contact)

Senate confirms Asian-American for appeals court (Link)

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) condemns SB 1070 in Arizona. (Link) (Contact)

Wanted: More Latina, Asian & Black Women Politicians (Link)

Washington deputy mayor a Filipina (Link)

White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders to Hold News Conference (Link)

5 May 2010, Tim Be Told released a brand new music video for their song, “Analyze,” off the critically acclaimed “From the Inside” EP.  Watch the INSPIRING video now at (Link), (Youtube)

For those of you that want to see Tim Be Told perform at your university next year, the band has a limited number of shows that it will be playing at college campuses.  Therefore, send a booking email request ASAP to (Booking)

Angry Asian Man (Link)

Changing Reality: The Voices of Asian American TV Stars (Link)

Tenured Radical (Link)

Top Ten Greatest Asian American Rappers of All Time (Link)

Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival hits 5th year (Link)

Stanford Asian American Cultural Center (Link)

Do you want your information featured in the newsletter?
Interested in suggesting any news, events, opportunities that would be beneficial to Asian American awareness?
Email me contact information, website, and a few lines detailing your news at communications@ecaasu.org.

Unsubscribe You will regret it!

Events & Conference, News & Videos, Uncategorized, Updates, Weeklies

Transcript of Calvin D. Sun’s (ECAASU Board of Directors) Opening Keynote Address at PURSUIT’s inaugural conference

University of Virginia

Saturday, April 17th

11:30 A.M. EST

Well that was embarrassing. I don’t know why I signed up to do that but I hope that all got your attention. I don’t know how breakdancing will save the world, but it did save my social life back in college.

Hello University of Virginia! I would first like to thank the organizers of PURSUIT for making the mistake of inviting me to speak here today. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I jumped at the chance for a free trip to Virginia. Not to mention all the free food for a whole weekend. Thanks guys. You have me sold on global justice. So you got 1 down, 300 more to go.

The reason why I mention the idea of my being here as a mistake is because I don’t think I’ve hit it there yet. I’m still young. I’m your age. And I’m not here to give you all the answers like what you might seek from other keynote speakers. But maybe that’s why this conference is so amazingly unique; you’re going hear it not from a person 1-3 generations ahead of you, not someone who really has only a vague understanding of the way we think and live, but rather you’re going hear it from a peer – me — someone who’s going through exactly the same thing you’re going through. Again, don’t look to me as someone with all the answers, but rather as someone who’s involved in the fight with you and giving another perspective on things. So if I could address you all here today as a fellow colleague instead of an old fart of a parent-figure, I think this could be a beginning of a beautiful friendship.

That being said, I’m so happy to be here and truly honored to be the opening and first ever keynote speaker for PURSUIT in its inaugural year. I feel like such a badass. And I’ve been invited here today to address a number of topics that pertain to our mission as future leaders of this world. This crazy crazy world we’ve inherited. It’s a monumental task, and I must remind you that I’m only 23 years old. That’s not very much older than at least a quarter of the people in this room. So don’t take my words as gold; I’m still learning as much as you are…hopefully this will be more sharing than it would be lecturing.

If I can summarize my experiences of my growth as a student leader, it would be this: 7 years ago I took up a passion in addressing a personal issue, and then translated my experiences into learning how to become a global citizen and social activist on others issues in the greater community. In other words, I learned how to help myself first before learning how to help others. But how I did I get there? I think the best thing for me to answer that is to tell you how it happened from day one. Why? Because one, you might be able to take away something from it. And two, it’s a great rush to talk about yourself in front of 300 people.

I grew up with a childhood that might be familiar to some of you. Son of an immigrant family in an American city, struggling with the dual identity of being both Asian and American, I lived the reality of looking and being different from everyone else. The food I ate was too foreign, my speech was too accented, my eyes were too small, my nose was too snubbed, and my teeth were all braced up. It was as if when I was born, God went “oh, my bad.” And so I endured the stereotypical schoolyard bullying, taunted and kicked around like a slop bucket day after day. It sucked.

In being different, I dealt with the reality of immediately being perceived as “uncool” or socially awkward. That my innate shyness (yes, I was shy once!) – that my innate shyness exasperated the overwhelming social expectations, where I would always be picked last for kickball, dodgeball, basketball, soccer, the middle school dance. I was living the nightmare of being the asexually shy Asian American male, and I didn’t know how to get myself out of it. All I really wanted was not to be afraid anymore, to achieve the impossible dream of becoming those darling role models showcased in the media, but who looked exactly nothing like me; to simply having the confidence that I completely lacked simply stemming from the way I looked and the way I was raised.

During high school, I made one of my first attempts in finding refuge in what seemed like would be a familiar community: the Asian club. But to my immediate disappointment, I saw that the only thing they did was have dinners and touch each other. As someone who was looking for a way out, I only got free food and sympathetic nods of the head. There was no role models to look up to, no mentors who cared. The name of the group was the “Asian Appreciation Club.” I mean what the hell are you supposed to do in an “appreciation” club? “Look, there’s Asian people here, let’s appreciate them!” Think how awful it was to be both marginalized and have a shitty name for a club. Finally, their club tendency was to move in the familiar method of self-exclusion; to become safe from the taunts, we’d create our own safe haven, our utopia, our social clique…that wasn’t what I was looking for. I sought harmony and understanding, not division and separation. (That sounded cheesy, but I meant every word).

Then back in the early winter of 2002, my older brother from the Bay Area sent me a trailer for Justin Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow.” With my crappy 56k modem, I waited 2 hours for a 5 minute trailer to load. And then I saw the images. Young Asian American faces, speaking fluent English and being tough. They were flirting, they were kissing, and they were in high school. I didn’t know what the movie was about and frankly I didn’t care. Here was a film with major Hollywood support that was showing off young Asian American talent in non-stereotypical roles.

Within a week, I went on crazed autopilot. I started hijacking the Asian Appreciation meetings and hyped the film. I called up friends at other high schools and told them to organize their local Asian American clubs. And if they could, they should talk to their friends and their friends of friends, didn’t matter what color they were. I learned that simple genuine enthusiasm will get people to listen, as long as you’re not drunk. Once they’re convinced, they’ll start doing work for you. In 2 months, I had a list of 300 high school and college students and a handful of New York City theaters wanting to do business with us.

I decided to pick the largest venue in NYC – the AMC Empire in Times Square — who in turn offered us their biggest theater…but on the condition that we could sell out all 600 seats. If I failed, I would be banned from ever coming back. So did I tell the manager that I was a junior in high school and I had never done this before? You bet your ass I didn’t. I was precocious as I was stupid. I said “yeah no problem!” So I took the risk and tried to figure out how I could fill the last 300 seats in only 30 days.

I realized that if you’re intensely passionate about something, someone out there will also be just as crazy as you are to make it happen. You just have to find those people. And you know what? Sometimes being crazy can get you somewhere. Some people will call you stupid, but being stupid means you can take those risks most people are too afraid to consider. And at the same time, those people also won’t learn as much as you will.

So in being stupid, I posted our screening all over film forums, Asian American forums, indie forums, even porno forums, you name it. And one of my posts caught the eye of the co-producer of Better Luck Tomorrow: Julie Asato. She told me she was interested in sending out the cast and the director to our screening as long as I could pull off a good showing. If I failed, I would have been banned from being Asian American. Did I tell her I was a junior in high school and I had never done this before? I don’t think I didn’t…She probably would’ve laughed at me and called me stupid.

So I took that development as an added bonus to our publicity: come to our screening and you get to rub shoulders with upcoming Asian American Hollywood stars. And on Saturday April 12^th, 2003, I can safely say 600 Asian Americans and their friends attended a sold out screening in Times Square. I was just a high school junior, running around and taking it all in. The director, Justin Lin, who now directs the Fast & the Furious movies, came out, along with Sung Kang, Parry Shen, and Julie Asato herself.

And it was partly because of our screening and other similar efforts on the East Coast that Better Luck Tomorrow made the highest average ticket sales per screen than any other big-budgeted Hollywood film that weekend, including the Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson hit “Anger Management” which opened on that same weekend. (and just to compare: Anger Management made $11,889 per screen while Better Luck Tomorrow made $27,751 per screen). That’s where being stupid gets you. And for a 16 year old high school junior, that night taught me 3 things. First, I didn’t do it because I consciously wanted to represent Asian American pride; before this I had no experience with Asian American issues. I did it because I just felt I had to. There was no other choice for me. I saw a non-stereotypical Asian American ensemble in a Hollywood film and I felt that was enough to become part of a groundbreaking movement. And it was after this screening when I knew for fact I identified myself as an Asian American and I was proud of it. The second thing I learned is that it doesn’t matter how old you are to get things done. Passion knows no age limits. And the third? For the first time I grew a pair of balls. I was no longer the shy, stereotypical Asian guy with no identity to call his own…I had giant cajones, and it felt GREAT.

Even though most of my concerns before then had stemmed from petty superficial desires that any insecure adolescent would be guilty of, it nonetheless represents the overwhelming social issues that all of us – even adults – struggle with when addressing arbitrarily constructed and superficial standards that encumber…. those who look “different” trying to be “accepted.” Those issues have always been universal, whether it’s being accepted as the “cool” kid when you’re young or being accepted as a “real American” when you’re an adult. Now, our two choices have always been either to take the passive approach, to assimilate and lose your identity, or to take the activist role in changing the status quo of what it means to be “accepted”; that even if you look “different” you can be accepted.” For me on that fateful April night, I became an activist.

And I want you to know that each of us in this very room is capable of activism no matter how young we are. By the very nature of being here, as part of a passionate community hungry for change, the chance for us to succeed multiplies. The next Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Mother Teresa or Barack Obama could be you, you, or you. All it matters is discovering that passion and seizing the opportunities. And I think that by all of us being here today, a little bit of that passion is coming out.

So with Better Luck Tomorrow I took something personal and turned it into a cause others could join in on. That’s all it took for me to get involved. Then I realized how useful it was to promote what I learned in even greater community affairs; there’s so much more you can do for communities beyond your own immediate ones.

For example, as soon as I became a freshman at Columbia, I immediately noticed how ethnic-interest organizations seemed like this amorphous monster that ran on its own, segregated from the larger community. Do you guys have the same problem here?

Yeah, so I also realized that by being self-exclusive, we lose potential allies. That’s where my involvement with student government came in.

I never did student government in high school, and I didn’t have an interest going into it as a freshman in college. I also never had an interest being a resumé padder or being the ultimate tool on campus. But I couldn’t say no to a friend. Someone I trusted. He was a good friend of mine, sensitive to what I wanted to do as an activist, and he told me he wanted me on his ticket. I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t say no to such a unique opportunity and I couldn’t judge something without first trying it out. And I admit, when we did get elected, it ultimately did seem like a pretty cool thing to do (but then again, I can also be a big tool myself).

From day one, I was pretty much the only student of color on my class council. I felt a little whitewashed; my nickname might as well have been “Token” like the character on South Park. But I could’ve dealt with that. Then I recalled how disappointed I was with the status quo back in high school and how Better Luck Tomorrow was the opportunity for me to do something about it. I saw student council as that new opportunity. Even though I understand that some of us here may have negative attitudes towards student government, being on it gained me constant, daily access to the University administration and allowed me to send class e-mails to the entire student body. Do you know how much good work you can accomplish with that? I don’t have to get you started on being able to talk to the Dean of Academic Affairs on expanding ethnic studies or putting every Asian American Alliance or Black Students Organization event in the class e-mail. That was pretty sweet.

In my capacity on the council I also fought hard to convince other students of color to step outside of their comfort zones and run for class president or vice president. Harboring activist interests shouldn’t automatically discourage us from thinking we don’t belong in “that” group. I was happy to see that by the time I was a senior, half of our elected student government were minorities. I don’t want to say that I was solely responsible for such a dramatic change, but I think for some people, the very nature of seeing other activists and students of color working in student government, was enough of an encouragement for them to run. Sometimes all you need is one spark, one firestarter, to create a chain reaction.

But being on student government also got me into trouble. With increased interest in sociopolitical issues came a backlash in some peoples’ trust of me. After all, I was just one person and despite my efforts, being on student council still made me part of the “establishment” in the eyes of many people. How could student activists trust me if I represented a University administration that historically were so neglectful of issues like ethnic studies? I don’t have a clear-cut solution to this problem because there really isn’t any. They were right; the reason activism exists is because it highlights something unjust with the status quo that needs to be fixed. I was representing that status quo by being on student government. But at the same time, nothing can be fixed unless we have allies within the establishment listening to us. That is where you guys come in. I want to stress the danger of being too “activisty” to the point where you become blind to the opportunities that present themselves when they take the form of allies that will be surprisingly — part of the establishment. If you start drawing the lines in the sand, it becomes “us vs. Them.” People can’t work together like that. Although sometimes that method is necessary if there’s no other recourse, most times it’s overly aggressive, overly combative. So if you refuse to listen to people because of their titles or the organizations that they represent, you yourself will contradict everything that you’re fighting for. Nobody will want to hear you out; nobody will want to work with you. So you can yell loud and proud, but don’t forget to listen. Sometimes the unlikeliest of allies might be the opposition and sometimes it takes working with the opposition to change it from within. And that’s also important…if you want to change the status quo, most times it takes a change from the inside. The Civil Rights Act wouldn’t have passed if Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t closely communicate and work with the “man within the system” President Lyndon B. Johnson. Homosexuality would have still been diagnosed as a mental illness if it weren’t for the president of the American Psychological Association, a closeted gay psychologist who communicated and worked with the gay community in changing the status quo behind the scenes. There were also many other factors the propelled those changes, but those are notable examples of ‘change within the system.’ I quote the Dalai Lama when I say this: “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.” That is why communication with your friends AND foes — strong level-headed and open-minded communication that involves both talking AND listening – has been the answer to 99.9% of the problems in the world. That might not be a real statistic, but we know it’s right. So, whomever your “enemy” may be, sometimes the best and easiest way to get them on your side is with fair understanding and civil communication.

Another important thing to realize in why we need to communicate is that we as conscious global citizens will always find ourselves on the right side of history. And most importantly, we’re all on the same side. That includes students of all races and creeds, students of all religions, yes even potential allies on student government. You can find a kernel of hope in each of these communities if you try, no matter how foreign they are to your own. All you have to do is to appeal to their ability to listen, so they can empathize with our struggles as student activists. Befriend them, party with them, buy them a beer, gain their trust, and then not only will they be willing to work with you, but they will want to work with you. And if all else fails, join their community and see what you can do from the inside.

For example, when I was a junior at Columbia I was the incoming Asian American Alliance Vice President and I had to address the issue of the “Asian American” identity being consisted only of East and Southeast Asians. The South Asian community largely ignored our events and we never could not find a way to include them without making it seem too forced. So what did I do? I went into crazy mode. I became a dancer of the Columbia Bollywood team and learned Bhangra from the Columbia Bhangra team. In other words, I took a personal passion of mine – dance – and used it in a way to communicate with other communities. That passion created genuineness in my approach. And the result was not only amazing new friends, dance partners, and learning new dance styles, but a South Asian interest in what we did on AAA when I became President the next year. And it went from 1 South Asian represented on the AAA board increasing to as many as 6 the next year. All I had to do was to learn a few dances and make a few friends. And again, like what I did with Better Luck Tomorrow, I took a personal passion of mine and applied it in a broader context.

So run for student council, join a dance team of a culture than is not your own, enlist in a cultural group not of your own color….we have the responsibility to take a proactive role in trying something out of the box when something isn’t working, because frankly, we got nothing to lose. The ultimate goal is to recognize that we are all members of a global community, that we are citizens united together in our common humanity and that we must take the active steps in addressing that shared identity. That is activism.

I also want to address how a misconception of activism is associating it with constant negativity. You can protest something all you want, that’s great, but without making an equal effort in positively supporting the people who are doing a good job, you’re gonna end up looking like an army of angry rabid aardvarks. People don’t like working with an army of angry psycho aardvarks. We’d rather work with glue-sniffing anteaters than mad flesh-eating aardvarks. That’s because people are naturally drawn to positive energy. Enthusiasm is infectious. So what I’m trying to say is that positive activism is still activism. Just like how I wanted to highlight with Better Luck Tomorrow, we want to show the establishment that we’re willing to support them if they’re making the right choices. Because one day, there is the very likely possibility that many of us will grow up to become part of the establishment, and that’s okay. We’ll be calling all the shots, and we’ll be hoping we won’t make the same mistakes that our predecessors have. Just because you become part of the establishment, doesn’t make you any less of the activist. An activist works towards its goals, not its representative positions.

And those of you out there but don’t feel the “activist vibes” stirring within you, I’m gonna warn you all about what it means to be complacent. I got this from one of my conversations with one of your workshop facilitators today and my best friend over there, Christian Piña. I learned that everyone dies alone. So what ultimately matters in life is the conversations you will have on your deathbed. And the only conversations you’re going to have on your deathbed is going to be with just you, yourself, and if you believe in him – God, or whatever nature/energy that it is you believe in. And God – or you – is gonna ask: “Did you make the most out of this gift I’ve given you?” And if you, on your deathbed cannot answer a resounding “yes” with 100% conviction, that’s it. That’s your life. You were given an opportunity to be all you can be, or even something larger than yourself, but then you’ve squandered it. And you will never have another chance to make up for that. That’s why I truly dread the knowledge that a majority of the people in the world today endeavor only to make money, raise a family, and die. They live to serve only themselves. And they die never knowing the immense potential they’ve wasted in themselves.

One of my closest friends, Nilam Patel, when she heard about what I was gonna say today, she wanted me to give you this quote by Steven Prefontaine: “To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.”

But long before that deathbed experience, I want you to all see how we, all of us, how extremely privileged we are on this planet. We’re still young, we’re intelligent, we’re well-fed, we’re healthy, we’re all good looking and we’re educated in one of the richest and most well-established educational systems in the world. So if we’re born smart and capable enough to be social activists, what’s the obvious path for us? Inheriting undeniable opportunities, we also inherit undeniable personal responsibilities. So, in this moment of truth, we make a choice: we can take these gifts and use them to serve only ourselves for the rest of our lives, or we can take these gifts and give back to the people who weren’t as fortunate as we are: Communities in poverty, starving children, those infected with common diseases, those without a decent education all around the world – those are the people who need these hands – our hands. And some of us in this room have already dedicated ourselves to the crucial responsibility we owe to the world. This to me – is global justice and social activism at its very core.

And if you ever doubt yourself, find what frustrates you as something that can motivate you. It frustrates me to see homeless people and take that as acceptable. It frustrates me to see laws passed that kick people out of this country even though they’ve worked hard here for 10-20 years. It frustrates me to see a great portion of our minority communities have an easier time getting into jail than into college. It frustrates me that even though we’re the richest country in the world, we let these injustices happen. Those frustrations motivate me. These frustrations can be that fuel in creating great leaders.

Some of you may already be great leaders at whatever you do, but also don’t forget you’re a leader because you’re serving a community, a constituency, a group of people, and never yourself. Being aware of this, Mr. Peter Drucker wrote: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” That quote is so sexy I wish I could take credit for it.

We all must do well, but we also must do good. And there is a lot of good out there that needs to be done. That is why we’re here. To do good and to learn how.

So to the ladies and gentlemen of PURSUIT: Recognize why you are here. Recognize that you are needed. Recognize that you are capable. You all have what it takes to do great great things. Our world is sorely in desperation for leaders like you. We can’t look anywhere else for help because the spotlights are on us. And we’re going to tell the world that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere.

To sum it up, especially for those of you new to activism and want to get involved: First, find your personal passion – something that moves you deeply, then find a way to address that passion, and then finally find the vehicle to translate your newfound skills so others can benefit from your passion. For me, that was Better Luck Tomorrow and how it changed the negative perceptions of myself and my own community…and the skills I gained from BLT in turn rendered me capable me of addressing the issues in the Columbia community, and eventually, even more acquired knowledge would allow me to eventually handle issues for the global community. Step by step, I could now see how the sum of my experiences, both successes and mistakes, allowed me to take on even greater challenges and responsibilities.

Second, know that success has no age limits. You’re all more than ready to make big things happen…all you need is confidence in yourselves and never losing sight of your goals.

Third, don’t be afraid to be stupid. Without being stupid, you stop taking risks, and without taking risks you neither make mistakes which you can learn from nor do you have the potential to achieve anything profound. Think about it: every single passionate person in the world has always been called crazy or stupid at least once in their lifetimes. Those are the people, those who in live their passions, whom also end up being regarded as amazing and fearless individuals. They are the true activists.

Fourth, there is no such thing as mistakes, just lessons. I define success not by how many achievements we rack up but rather how well we can bounce back from our inevitable moments of failure.

And fifth, think outside the box when working with communities outside your comfort zone. For me, I used my passion for dance when I reached out to the South Asian, Latino and Black communities at Columbia. What’s your passion? You have one. Just find it. Because the more allies we communicate with, the more friends we have on our side, and the better looking our team.

If we are able to stand united upon those goals, then we already commit ourselves to the inherent responsibilities that make humankind worth fighting for.

Thank you PURSUIT so much for your time and thank you for having me!

Delivered by ECAASU Board of Director, Calvin D. Sun, at 11:30AM, Saturday, April 17th at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Imagine this. It’s six in the morning and, like the other couple thousand kids in the city, you hit the snooze button a couple of times instinctively before finding yourself on the verge of being late to your first class. You get up and get ready for school, groggily nibble a slice of stale toast, and head out the door to your seven o’clock French class. Backpack pressed tightly against your school sweatshirt with lunch bag in hand, you stride quickly down the street, careful not to bump into anyone while overtaking the early-morning dog-walker. You know it will be a long day, but you also know that one day it will all pay off. You know that, if you work hard enough, anything is possible.

On the way to school, you encounter a gang of students—all bigger than you. You think about turning around, and, just as you do, one of the students elbows you in the face until your nose starts to bleed. Another punches you in the eye until it’s so swollen that you can’t see out of it anymore. You feel a knee to your stomach, a hard blow to your back. Soon enough, you are being kicked and stampeded on by a group of students, and all you can think about is why you had to get up that morning, but the thought doesn’t last long. Upon trying to open your eyes, you get a glimpse at the splattered blood, now seeping into the cracked pavement tiles. You try to yell for help, but nobody can hear your cries. All you can do is suffer and wait. All you can do is hope that it will be over so you don’t get a detention for being late to your seven o’clock French class. You mumble to yourself: pourquoi est-ce qui m’arrive?

Sound like the plot to the latest blockbuster movie? Maybe, but you would be wrong. In fact, the story just recounted became the norm for an unfortunate group of students at South Philadelphia High School. Sadly, on December 3, 2009, a gang of students viciously attacked twenty-six of their classmates over the course of a single school day. No arrests were made; only ten students were suspended. No formal charges were filed. The victims were all of Asian descent.

Read more…

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continued from SERCAAL Recap, Day 1 of 3. . . .

- Saturday, October 10th -

Waking up on the floor of Jo-Ann’s dorm, I remember the Ring Ring Ring’s at 8am in the morning. Yes I was irritable. Yes I was underslept. Yes I didn’t know where I was for a moment. But those ring ring rings reminded me that I had a keynote to do. So off I was in a mad dash waking up poor Jo-Ann to have her drive me and Eugene to the Reitz Student Center as soon as possible. I had 20 minutes until my keynote and already I wanted to curl up in a corner in a fetal position and dream of Tempur-Pedic® mattresses. Beautiful beautiful Tempur-Pedic® mattresses. . . .

We arrived at the student center and were immediately served brown bag breakfasts (ingenious!). I managed to scarf down a few muffins before going on to deliver my keynote. How did it go? Well, here’s note to self: never write down jokes. I’m funnier — if I’m funny at all — when I’m joking off the cuff. Otherwise, I can’t really say how I did except that my audience looked like they were paying pretty close attention (at least from the pictures, that’s my only evidence). Kudos to them, because it was 8:30am in the morning and if I were them, I would have slept through my own keynote speech. And if you’re reading this and you did end up sleeping (shame on you!), ECAASU was kind enough to put up an edited transcript of my keynote speech online: http://www.ecaasu.org/site/?p=676

I took a few Q&A and then quickly segued into leading the general mixer where all 100-150 attendees got into a large SERCAAL (circle, haha, GET IT?! If you don’t I’ll pat your head and give you a biscuit) and I asked random questions. It’s pretty much  playing “never have I ever” except it’s about 9:30AM in the morning, you don’t have a drink in your hand, and you have to stand up and sit back down if you’ve done it.

I figured some of you might be interested in the results, so here were some of the following questions I asked:

• How many of you took a shower this morning? (about 1/3 didn’t….dirty people)

• How many of you have peed in the shower before?  (about 1/3 admitted they have, and the rest are LIARS)

• How many of you identify yourself as South Asian American? (2 people)

• How many of you have the “Asian Glow”? (1/3 did, 1/3 didn’t, the final 1/3 didn’t know what “Asian Glow” meant)

• How many of you have taken Asian American studies? (about a 1/3)

• How many of you voted in the last presidential election? (about 1/2, the other 1/2 didn’t citing that they were too young at the time)

• How many of you have been in an interracial relationship? (about 2/3 with a good mix of both guys and girls . . . very impressive)

• How many of you have dated/hooked up with someone who was White? (2/3)

• How many of you have dated/hooked up with someone who was Hispanic? (1/3)

• How many of you have dated/hooked up with someone who was Black? (1/4)

• How many of you have dated/hooked up with someone who was South Asian? (probably no more than 4 people)

• How many of you feel your parents would be upset by interracial relationships? (3/4)

• How many of you find yourselves sometimes judging interracial couples? (1/4)

• How many of you have been teased because of your ethnicity? (2/3)

• How many of you have teased others because of ethnicity? (1/2)

• How many of you have ever been ashamed of being Asian American? (1/3)

• How many of you have ever considered being an Asian American politician? (only about 1/5 . . . surprising!)

• How many of you have been victims of a hate crime? (2 people stood up when they thought it meant “violent” crimes but when I said it included hate speech, about 2/3 of the conference stood up. In solidarity!)

We then discussed whether it was surprising that in a ballroom packed with East Asian and Southeast Asian Americans, fewer have dated a fellow South ASIAN AMERICAN than any other ethnicity including White, Latino and Black. We also talked about why many of our communities are mutually exclusive, what was the correct approach to confronting hate crimes, and a few other related topics to the questions I had asked. It was a great way to get a good visual picture of the conference and the overall makeup of our collective experiences as Asian Americans.

Then we were off to the workshops! ECAASU was lucky to fill up all 3 workshop sessions with two topics: “Asian Americans: Sex & Sexuality” and “How to Walk, Talk, and Dress Like a Baller: Social Networking Etiquette.” Both of our workshops packed to the point that SERCAAL staff had to ask groups of 15-20 people to leave at a time. Never deterred, ECAASU presented each topic at least twice, with an extra 4th session facilitated during the conference break for those who got kicked out of our earlier sessions. About 20-30 people attended each workshop, and we were glad to meet everyone on a more intimate basis (you can’t get any more intimate than exchanging personal thoughts and stories on sex & sexuality). However, the 3rd workshop on Sex & Sexuality was like pulling teeth — although it was full, nobody was relating to each other about their views on sex & sexuality except for myself, Rob Scharr, Linda “Alanys” Li, Melissa “Maisa” Reyes (what is with all these nicknames?), and 2 other girls whose names aren’t resonating with me right now (I guess you needed a nickname for me to remember). Rob, Linda, Melissa, and those 2 other girls: Thank you for speaking your minds! I really wished the males could have stepped it up because we need to break this stereotype that Asian American guys are uncomfortable with talking about their experiences with sex and sexuality. Where’s the confidence, amigos? It’s not that hard. (that’s what she [didn’t] say . . . har har har).

Sidenote: What made this conference run like a well-oiled German machine was the fact that everything…EVERYTHING (keynotes, workshops, mixers, performances…) was on one floor. For you future conference hosts, take notes.

Sometime in between the 2nd and 3rd workshops we took a lunch break where we hung out and chatted with Mandeep Sethi. What started off as a 5 minute conversation about what it was like growing up in our respective communities, turned into a 30 minute dialogue about the possibility of uniting the East and West Coast for future networking and collaboration. And thanks to a long lunch break, a scrumdiddlyumptious Floridian “chee-burger” that fell apart when I tried to eat it (delicious hot mess nonetheless), and the eagerness of Eugene, Mandeep, and myself, we left the conversation knowing something unique was about to brew; keep an eye on Mandeep and ECAASU because some amazing things are about to happen! (As I’m writing this, Mandeep just facebook chatted me inviting me out to San Francisco State University for a big West Coast conference coming up….Free trip to California? ABSOLUTELY.)

We then finished our lunch and listened to 3rd keynote of the conference, Dr. Beheruz Sethna, the first person of Indian origin to serve as President of an American University (University of West Georgia). Quite a big deal, and his keynote was no less impressive; Dr. Sethna was able to uniquely present his argument that the idea of the “melting pot” or a series of “separate enclaves” of communities is unsuitable not only for the optimization of diversity, but also ineffective for in business environments and living conditions. Dr. Sethna proved his point by asking (and demonstrating, literally): Would we rather eat a taco salad when it’s blended as a drink or when its separated into its individual ingredients? Although I have heard this speech given over and over in the last couple of years, I never saw someone actually manually blend a taco salad into a drink. On a side note, as this nuclear waste/liquid turd was being passed around, I unwisely decided to take a sip of it. . . . All I remember is that thinking how this would be the closest I would get in knowing what a male foot tastes like.

After Dr. Sethna’s intriguing and fascinating speech and the aforementioned packed 3rd and (impromptu) 4th workshops, the ECAASU team were immediately rushed by our dedicated stalwart brother-in-arms, Brandon Magtalas, to his house for a quick shower and change for the SERCAAL’s closing banquet dinner. Naturally after giving a workshop on social networking etiquette where half of it was discussing dress code, I couldn’t let SERCAAL down; I busted out my newly tailored suit and came in there rolling in like a baller, or at least I tried my best to . . . because no more than 10 minutes after sitting down  and listening to Jim Toy deliver an impassioned speech of what it was like growing up as a LGBTQ Asian American since 1971 (quite interesting . . . and I’ve heard Jim Toy speak before about this topic . . . he’s been through a lot), Brandon rushed me out of the banquet hall again to change into a frumpy set of T-shirt and jeans. Apparently I was scheduled to dance with a bunch of other b-boys while Mandeep would go up to perform; how could I possibly turn that down?

So we did our tricks and we did our flips. Naturally, for someone who hasn’t practiced since March, I tried my best to not fail too miserably or break my neck. But it did feel good to perform again.

Finishing a quick cypher, I dashed out the ballroom to change back into my suit. So before anyone could realize I was gone for too long, I was back in my suit finishing my chicken and rice. Clark Kent is overrated.

Sidenote: Shout-outs to the wonderful people at my table: Eugene, Arienne, Eva, Long, Lai Ling, Linda, and Thao! Thanks for making me feel way too self-conscious about my table manners, especially since I forgot to discuss it in my workshop.

The conference then wrapped up with another edgy performance by Kate Rigg including an impassioned disparaging of the Hot 97 racist “tsunami song,” a musical piece on the Asian Fetish/Yellow Fever phenomenon, and a rehash of “Rice Rice Baby.” My praises of her shall not go unsung; we best get her ass to ECAASU, stat! She’s amazing!

A few subsequent thank you’s from the SERCAAL staff (HOLLA FOR A DOLLA!!! YOU DID IT!) signaled the end of the 2 day whirlwind of a truly fantastic conference, and I had the enormous pleasure afterwards to meet many attendees one-on-one as we took pictures, joked around, and gave a lot of hugs. Goodbyes are painful, but hugs make them easier. And ECAASU loves hugs.

Eugene and I then hung out with Kate Rigg and the ambitious AASU Presidents of UF, Philip Cheng and Vanessa Kwong, on how they can get involved with ECAASU. Kate Rigg expressed interest in working for ECAASU as a consultant, while Philip and Vanessa were considering an actual bid to have ECAASU hosted at UF in 2011. We literally spoke to them for a good 2 hours about this so all I can say is that the competition is on, and you better bring your A-game if you want ECAASU to come to your school. UF’s got some serious connections.

. . . Then the afterparty. It was a lot of fun. That is all you need to know.

- Sunday, October 10th -

The morning after I was awoken to melodious karaokeing by my wonderful hosts Kim Sabilona and Jessica Concha. Their dorm is like a freaking hotel…and I won’t tell you where they live because I don’t want everyone to know where the best place in Florida to stay is.

We had a nice breakfast and then decided to drive to Lake Wauberg; at some random point last night I had demanded that I wanted to swim. There was an FSA potluck event going on, so I got to eat from a grill. For a New Yorker, that’s a big freaking deal.

Enjoying an hour or two listening to people sing much better than I ever will (people in FSA apparently love to sing), I dove into the lake for a swim with fellow aforementioned buddies Brandon Magtalas and Melissa “Maisa” Reyes. Brandon showed off his somersault dives, I showed off my racing dives, and Melissa fell into the lake. I swear, If I could have stayed a little longer I could have turned her into a pro diver (next time, Melissa). Of course, this being Florida, I must mention that I was told “not to go too far out” because there were alligators roaming around who wrestle me away via a bloody mess. That’s nature for you.

I took a few dives, laps, and a 20 minute canoeing around the lake before I realized it was time for me to go home. The goodbyes were even more painful because I knew I was never going to swim for at least another 8 months. Just kidding. It was painful because saying goodbye to Christy, Melissa, Brandon, Vi, Diana, Shakila, Merancia, Pauline, SophieAnn, became a terrible ordeal. Never will I meet such a great group of people who were willing to laugh at all my bad jokes.

After taking a few pictures and many more hugs, Kim and Jessica began to drive me to the airport in Jacksonville. We played music and sung in the car all along the highway and almost got lost. After breaking a few speeding laws, they got me there about 30 minutes before my flight was about to leave, which is how I like it. After a few last hugs and goodbyes to a group of wonderful souls, their car pulled away and before I knew it, my adventure was over.

Looking back, I think it was difficult for me to write about SERCAAL without recalling the amazing number of people I’ve met at UF. Missing was the self-indulgent snobbery you would find on the Northeast as nobody I met at UF was “too cool” for school and everybody was willing to get to know you. I think it was one of the few conferences where I was able to remember many people by their first names because they created such a personal and intimate atmosphere throughout the weekend; people actually wanted to be your friend, not because they had to. In any case, I can’t thank the SERCAAL 2009 staff enough for not only pulling off an amazing conference in the nick of time, but also providing me with the unique opportunity to befriend what possibly could be the most down-to-earth group of people I could ever meet face to face. I’ll miss you all terribly. Stay classy, Florida.

pictures courtesy of Alan Ho & Long Nguyen.

written by Calvin Sun, ECAASU Board of Directors.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 15, 2009

Contact: Kayleigh Huang

Cell: (617) 692-0769

communications@eccasu.org

2009 Fall Campaign: ECAASU Visits MA & FL

Connect, Network, and Form New Friendships at

ECAASU-Sponsored Regional Mixers

October 10, 2009—The National Board for the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU), as part of its East Coast 2009 Fall Public Relations Campaign, visited cities along the East Coast to meet with interested students at mixers in Boston, MA and Gainesville, FL.

National Board divided forces to attend two highly anticipated APIA conferences along the East Coast. To Boston Asian American Students Intercollegiate Conference (BAASIC), we sent Tiffany Su (National Chair), Michelle Horikawa (Vice Chair), Caspar Wang (Marketing & Internal Chair), and Kayleigh Huang (Communications Chair). To Florida’s Southeast Regional Conference of Asian American Leaders (SERCAAL), we sent Eugene Mok (Vice Chair), Clara Ng-Quinn (Student Issues Taskforce Chair), and Calvin Sun (Board of Directors). After the two respective conferences, ECAASU led the group to the dinner venue where the organization had pre-ordered food and drinks for the group in Boston, or led the attendees to participate in an interesting poll about their Asian American identity (results of these polls will be posted in Calvin’s upcoming blog on his experiences at SERCAAL).

ECAASU mixers have given students and organization leaders a chance to communicate effectively, enjoy food, and converse with old friends, new contacts, and future connections. These dinners are also opportunities to learn about the ECAASU organization and to give the ECAASU national board an opportunity to get to know members who are interested in making a positive difference in the APIA community.

At SERCAAL, ECAASU’s own Calvin Sun (ECAASU Board of Directors, 2009) delivered the keynote address to the group of participants. In this address, he captured one of the essential points in ECAASU’s mission statement,

Each of us in this very room is capable of doing great things. By the very nature of being here, as part of an Asian American community, the chance for us to succeed is multiplied. The next Kal Penn or Helen Zia could be [any one of you]. All that matters is discovering that passion and seizing the opportunities. And I think that by all of you being [at this conference] today, a little bit of that passion is coming out.

If you missed ECAASU in Boston and Florida, ECAASU will be arriving in your area soon. Our schedule includes trips to Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.

* * *

ECAASU is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the Asian-American population, promoting a community of mutual understanding among all nationalities, and educating Asian-Americans about events of prejudice, discrimination, human & civil rights, racism, hate-crimes, newsworthy accomplishments, and current events—among others—by activities permitted under Section 501(c) 3 of the Code.

For more information on the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU), as well as to obtain photographs or memorable quotations, please visit our website: http://www.ecaasu.org, Kayleigh Huang at (617) 692-0769, or e-mail ECAASU Communications at communications@ecaasu.org.

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Excerpts from Calvin D. Sun’s (ECAASU Board of Director) Keynote Address at SERCAAL

University of Florida

Saturday, October 10th

9:00 A.M. EST

SERCAAL might have made a terrible mistake by inviting me because I don’t belong here. How many of you are between the ages of 21 to 23? OK, half of you in this room probably are just as young as I am. Note that your keynote speaker before me was highly renowned new media designer and filmmaker, Lina Hoshino. She has been making films for 15 years; 15 years ago I was 7 years old and watching the Power Rangers. Your keynote addresses later today will be delivered by Jim Toy, longtime community activist since 1971 — which is 15 years before I even existed — and Dr. Sethna, the first person of Indian origin to serve as the President of an American University. Me? I’m just proud to be first person of Chinese origin to serve as mascot of my high school swim team. The Trinity Tunafish.

It just so happens that I’ve been incredulously asked to be one of your keynote speakers and all I can do is acknowledge how awesome you guys are — not as a mentor or an advisor 20 years ahead of you, but as a peer. You made a big step just by being here and you should all applaud yourselves for taking such an initiative.

. . .

I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood in New York City. At home, I toiled under the strict Chinese values of my parents while at the same time I took on the lifestyle of American living. However, both sides still viewed me as the odd one out. I was the Americanized bastard son at home and I was the token Asian guy at school. To make matters worse, both sides thought my eyes were too small. I didn’t fit in anywhere and I was sad. Like a platypus. . . . Then high school where I transferred to Trinity School. I remember my first meeting with the Asian American club and saw that the only thing they did was have dinners and touch each other. In fact, the name of the group was the “Asian Appreciation Club.” What the hell are you supposed to do in an “appreciation” club? “Look, there’s Asian lookin’ folk here, let’s appreciate them!” Think how awful it was to be marginalized without having even a cool name for our club.

. . .

Back in the early winter of 2002, my older brother from the Bay Area sent me a trailer for Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow. With my crappy 56k modem — remember those days? — I waited 2 hours for a 5 minute trailer to load. And then I saw the images. Young Asian American faces, speaking fluent English and being tough. They were flirting, they were kissing, and they were in high school. I didn’t know what the movie was about and frankly I didn’t care. Here was a film with major American studio backing that was showing off young Asian American talent in non-stereotypical roles.

Within a week, I started hijkacking the Asian Appreciation meetings and started hyping up the film. I called up friends at other high schools and told them to rile up their local Asian American clubs. And if they could, they should talk to their friends and their friends of friends. In all of this, I learned that simple genuine enthusiasm will get people to listen, as long as you’re not drunk. Once they’re sold, they’ll start doing the work for you. Within 2 months, I had a list that plateaued at 300 high school and college students and a handful of New York City theaters wanting to do business with us.

I decided to settle for the AMC Empire in Times Square who offered us their biggest theater . . . but on the condition that we could sell out all 600 seats. If I failed, I would be banned from ever coming back. So did I tell the manager that I was a junior in high school and I had never done this before? You bet your [redacted] I didn’t. I took the risk and tried to figure out how I could fill the last 300 seats.

. . .

And on Saturday April 12^th, 2003, I can safely say 600 Asian Americans and their friends attended a sold out screening in Times Square. The director, Justin Lin, who now directs the Fast & the Furious movies and indie flicks like Finishing the Game, came out along with Sung Kang, Parry Shen, and Julie Asato herself.  And it was partly because of our screening and other similar efforts on the East Coast that Better Luck Tomorrow made the highest average ticket sales per screen than any other big-budgeted Hollywood film that weekend, including the Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson hit Anger Management which opened on that same weekend. (and just to compare: Anger Management made $11,889 per screen while Better Luck Tomorrow made $27,751 per screen).

For a 16 year old high school junior, that night taught me two things. First, I didn’t do it because I consciously wanted to represent Asian American pride; before this I had no experience with Asian American issues. I did it because I just felt I had to. There was no other choice for me. I saw a cast that looked exactly me and I felt that was enough to become part of a groundbreaking movement. And it was after this screening when I knew for fact I identified myself as an Asian American and I was proud of it. The second thing? I learned that it doesn’t matter how old you are to get [redacted] done. Passion knows no age limits.

. . .

Each of us in this very room is capable of doing great things. By the very nature of being here, as part of an Asian American community, the chance for us to succeed is multiplied. The next Kal Penn or Helen Zia could be you, you, or you. All it matters is discovering that passion and seizing the opportunities. And I think that by all of you being here today, a little bit of that passion is coming out.

. . .

How many of you here identify yourselves as East Asian? Southeast Asian? How about South Asian? Notice that the proportions here are drastically skewed. It is the unfortunate fault of both the establishment and ourselves that we have come to accept the notion of Asian American to refer to really, East Asian American. Well, we NEED our South Asian brothers and sisters in this fight. Without them, we only hurt ourselves.

[In working with the South Asian American community] I got to discover many new ways of outreach and bridge building while promoting the goals of the Asian American sociopolitical movement. Diversifying the face of what it means to be Asian American only gains you even greater support because it grants a legitimacy to the fact that we’re not a self-interested or exclusive community. So to the South Asians, we told them: your fight is our fight.

. . .

I realized that by being self-exclusive, we lose potential allies that can tip the scales in our favor. That’s where student government came in. I admit, I ran for student government back when I was a freshman because I thought it was the cool thing to do. (But l was also a tool). When I got elected, I was pretty much the only Asian American on student council. I felt a little whitewashed at that moment, but instead of just going along with it, I decided to change the game. I fought hard to encourage other Asian American students to step outside of their shells and run for class president or vice president. Even though some of us may have negative attitudes about student government, being on it gains you constant, daily access to the University administration and allows you to send class e-mails to the entire student body. Do you know how much good work you can accomplish with that?

. . .

I was just one person and despite my efforts, being on student council still made me part of the establishment. How could fellow student activists trust me if I represented a University administration that historically were so neglectful of issues like ethnic studies? I don’t have a clear cut solution to this problem because there really isn’t any. They were right; the reason activism exists is because it highlights something unjust with the status quo that needs to be fixed. I was representing that status quo by being on student government. But at the same time, nothing can be fixed unless we have allies within the establishment listening to us.

. . .

I want to stress the danger of being too activisty to the point where you become blind to the opportunities that present themselves when they take the form of allies that will be surprisingly — part of the establishment. If you start drawing the lines in the sand, it becomes Us vs. Them. People can’t work together in that environment. Although sometimes that method is necessary if there’s no other recourse, most times it’s overly combative. So if you refuse to listen to people because of their titles or the organizations that they represent, you yourself will contradict everything that you’re fighting for. Nobody will want to hear you out; nobody will want to work with you. So you can yell loud and proud, but don’t forget to listen. Sometimes the unlikeliest of allies might be the opposition and sometimes it takes working with the opposition to change it from within.

. . .

The important thing to realize is that we are on the right side of history. But most importantly, we’re also on the same side. That includes other students of color, students of all religions, white students, yes even the South Asian students and student government. You can find a kernel of hope in each of these communities if you try. All you have to do is to appeal to their ability to listen, so they can empathize with our struggles as Asian Americans. Befriend them, party with them, buy them a beer, gain their trust, and then not only will they be willing to work with you, but they will want to work with you. And if all else fails, join their community and see what you can do from the inside. Run for student council, join the bhangra team, enlist in the Black Students Organization. Because we have the responsibility to take a proactive role in trying something out of the box when something isn’t working, because frankly, we got nothing to lose except our egos. And what better way to shatter a stereotype and prove our confidence when we become future Asian American leaders.

Another misconception of activism is associating it with constant negativity. You can protest something all you want, that’s great, but without making an equal effort in positively supporting Asian Americans, like their presence in the mass media, you’re gonna end up looking like a group of Debbie-Downers. People don’t like working with Debbie-Downers. We’d rather work with glue-sniffing teletubbies than Debbie-Downers. That’s because we’re all naturally drawn to enthusiasm of positive activism. And positive activism is still activism.

. . .

There are just so many ways to get involved without being so angry and losing 15 pounds. You just have to find those ways.

. . .

And for the minority of you out there who are at SERCAAL but don’t feel the activist vibes stirring within you, I’m gonna warn you all about the plagues of complacency. You all may be great leaders at whatever you do, but don’t forget you’re a leader because you’re serving a community, a constituency, a group of people, and never yourself. So what’s just as bad as an inability to listen to potential allies is the inability to care for the allies that we already have. Being aware of this, remember this quote by Peter Drucker: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” That quote is so sexy I wish I could take credit for it.

. . .

So I like to impress upon you 3 things today: Find your passion, understand that potential achievements have no age limits, and think outside the box when working with communities outside your comfort zone. If we are able to stand united and commit to those ideals, our achievements will be remembered sooner than we think.

. . .

So to the ladies and gentlemen of SERCAAL: Know why you are here. Know that you are needed. Know that you are capable. You all have what it takes to do great great things. Our community is sorely in need of Asian American leaders like you. We can’t look anywhere else for help because the spotlights are on us. And we’re going to tell the world that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere.

I tell you this not as someone who’s a generation or two ahead of you, but as a companion who’s going through the exact same things as you’re going through. I’m right there with you, guys. So expect me to stay in the good fight. Because I hope to be working with all of you someday, maybe even as soon as tomorrow. And, I’m looking forward to that. Thank you SERCAAL so much for your time and thank you for having me!

Delivered by ECAASU Board of Director, Calvin D. Sun, at 9:00AM, Saturday October 10th at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

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President Obama signed an executive order reestablishing the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders today, and he gave a little speech. Just read this, or at least watch his speech on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VRb9lGjeFY

….If you have identified yourself as an Asian American all your life, you can’t help but be moved when he speaks about the importance of the AAPI community in the United States. It’s especially moving when he talks about the dangers of the model minority myth and how the data collection on our communities have been sorely limited. Never before have I heard something like this in recent memory on such a large scale.

More work needs to be done, yes, but this is truly a memorable step for us. Let’s not forget that we are currently riding a wave of progress and it’s our responsibility to get as much involved as possible. Don’t look back one day and feel like you missed out on a historic movement, especially when it was right in front of your face.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT AAPI INITIATIVE EXECUTIVE ORDER SIGNING AND DIWALI EVENT

East Room

3:46 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Please be seated. Welcome to the White House. I’m glad you could join us today as I proudly sign this executive order reestablishing the President’s Advisory Commission and White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Now, when we talk about America’s AAPI communities, we’re talking about the industry and entrepreneurship of people who’ve helped build this nation for centuries: from the early days, as laborers on our railroads and farmers tilling our land, to today, as leaders in every sector of American life, from business to science to academia, law and more.

We’re talking about the creative energies of musicians like the singers Penn Masala — we appreciate them — who performed today. And we’re talking about the competitive spirit of athletes like Wat Misaka, who played for the New York Knicks back in 1947 — the first non-white player in the NBA — and who served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Mr. Misaka is here as well today and — where’s Mr. Misaka? There he is. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

We’re talking about the public service of leaders like Secretaries Gary Locke and Steven Chu and Eric Shinseki and the folks on stage with me today. And we’re talking about the courage and the patriotism and sacrifice of heroes like the members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team who served in World War II, including Terry Shima. Please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.) Mr. Shima is the Executive Director of the Japanese American Veterans Association, and we are grateful that he took the time to be here today.

Some of their families had been interned. Some had been interned themselves. But they still insisted on fighting for America, and went on to become the most highly decorated unit of their size in history.

And one member of the regiment, Private Jake Kirihara, whose parents were held in a camp here in America while he fought overseas, later said: “… even though this wrong was done to us, there was never any question whether America was my country. If America needed me to help, I’ll do it.”

So this proud tradition of service continues today in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world, carried on by folks like Tammy Duckworth, my dear friend who’s here today. (Applause.) Tammy is a decorated member of our National Guard, a passionate advocate for our wounded warriors, who is now serving as our Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Veterans Affairs Department. I’m proud to have her on board and pleased that she could join us today.

And on a personal note, when I talk about America’s AAPI communities, I’m talking about my own family: my sister, Maya; my brother-in-law, Konrad; my beautiful nieces, Suhaila and Savita; and the folks I grew up with in Indonesia, and in Honolulu, as part of the Hawai’ian Ohana, or family.

Our AAPI communities have roots that span the globe, but they embody a rich diversity, and a story of striving and success that are uniquely American.

But focusing on all of these achievements doesn’t tell the whole story, and that’s part of why we’re here. It’s tempting, given the strengths of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, for us to buy into the myth of the “model minority,” and to overlook the very real challenges that certain Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are facing: from health disparities like higher rates of diabetes and Hepatitis B; to educational disparities that still exist in some communities — high dropout rates, low college enrollment rates; to economic disparities — higher rates of poverty in some communities, and barriers to employment and workplace advancement in others.

Some Asian American and Pacific Islanders, particularly new Americans and refugees, still face language barriers. Others have been victims of unthinkable hate crimes, particularly in the months after September 11th — crimes driven by ignorance and prejudice that are an affront to everything that this nation stands for.

And then there are the disparities that we don’t even know about because our data collection methods still aren’t up to par. Too often, Asian American and Pacific Islanders are all lumped into one category, so we don’t have accurate numbers reflecting the challenges of each individual community. Smaller communities in particular can get lost, their needs and concerns buried in a spreadsheet.

And that’s why I’m signing this executive order today, reestablishing the advisory commission and White House initiative created by President Clinton 10 years ago. Because when any of our citizens — (applause) — when any of our citizens are unable to fulfill their potential due to factors that have nothing to do with their talent, character, or work ethic, then I believe there’s a role for our government to play. Not to guarantee anybody’s success or to solve everybody’s problems, but to ensure that we’re living up to our nation’s ideals; to ensure that we can each pursue our own version of happiness, and that we continue to be a nation where all things are still possible for all people. That’s the impact that our government can have.

It’s the impact of a Small Business Administration that offers loans to Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs whose small businesses sustain so many communities around the country. It’s the impact of a Department of Health and Human Services that funds research on the diseases that disproportionately affect Asian American and Pacific Islander families. It’s the impact of a Justice Department that upholds the Voting Rights Act and its promise of language assistance and equal access to the polls. And it’s the impact of evidence-based research and data collection and analysis on AAPI communities — so that no one is invisible to their government.

All of that is the mission of this initiative and commission — to work with 23 agencies and departments across our government to improve the health, education, and economic status of AAPI communities. The initiative and commission will be housed in the Department of Education, and they’ll be co-chaired by Secretaries Arne Duncan and Secretary Gary Locke, both of whom have devoted their lives to promoting opportunity for all our citizens.

And I think it’s fitting that we begin this work in the week leading up to the holiday of Diwali — the festival of lights — when members of some of the world’s greatest faiths celebrate the triumph of good over evil.

This coming Saturday, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, here in America and around the world, will celebrate this holiday by lighting Diyas, or lamps, which symbolize the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. And while this is a time of rejoicing, it’s also a time for reflection, when we remember those who are less fortunate and renew our commitment to reach out to those in need.

While the significance of the holiday for each faith varies, all of them mark it by gathering with family members to pray and decorate the house and enjoy delicious food and sweet treats. And in that spirit of celebration and contemplation, I am happy to light the White House Diya, and wish you all a Happy Diwali, and a Saal Mubarak. (Applause.)

(The White House Diya is lit.) (Applause.)

Now I’m going to sign this bill — sign this order.

(The executive order is signed.)

All right. There we go. (Applause.)

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One of my friends passed along an interesting article that appeared in the latest edition of the Economist. It’s a pretty quick and easy read, so definitely take a glimpse when you get a chance. It begins to touch base on why the census is such an important issue and how monumental the task of counting every American truly is.

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13832403

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A cold February breeze scattered powdery snow outside the quiet Cornell lecture hall where the bid presentations to the East Coast Asian American Student Union National Board were taking place. Pride and contentment were prominent emotions as colleagues Anjlee Joshi and Caspar Wang announced the conclusion to the 2009 ECAASU bid presentation from the Rutgers University Bid Committee.

A roar of cheers from a sea of scarlet apparel demanded the attention of every other school in the room. Rutgers had indefinitely won the bid to host ECAASU 2009.

Since then, months of weekly meetings for the newly elected 21-member planning board have consisted of forcibly tossing ideas, arguments, and jokes alike across the lengthy Asian American Cultural Center conference room table. Livingston Campus has never quite looked the same for these active leaders.

Joshi and Wang, former bid committee members and current Co-Directors, have facilitated numerous meetings consisting of sponsorship discussions, GoogleDoc sharing, and curry tasting. Jane Ryu and Riddhi Shah, Finance chairs, meet often with Ji Lee, AACC Director, in hopes of raking in a generous budget amidst a teetering economy. Ryu and Shah have known from the start that this conference is absolutely nothing without money and work diligently to gain a lead with companies and their very large corporate piggy banks, knowing full well those same piggy banks may be long broken and cleaned out as early as weeks from today. (The sponsorship Google Doc is filling up handsomely!)

As Ryu and Shah work numbers at one end of the table, a quiet and dignified Isha Vora sits at the opposite end working networks that, until now, she never knew existed. With the American job market in crisis at a 6.1% unemployment rate and major companies making layoffs like daily breakfast choices, Vora is optimistic that students will, nevertheless, donate their time free of charge to the ECAASU cause.

Seated next to her is Jodie Shin, Internal Entertainment Chair, who is adamantly explaining the benefits of soy ink for printing conference packets over the sound of Secretary Jessica Lai’s rapid typing. Shin’s counterpart, James Kim (External Entertainment Chair) is busy working on a promising multicultural sponsorship proposal for a mobile-phone titan, confident his epic Saturday night entertainment will be financially viable.

Philip Chen, Housing Chair, is anything but swayed. He geniously suggests a personal contact from Project Michelle, a bone marrow foundation, as a potential table at the conference’s career fair and then discreetly returns to his game of N-Blox on his Mac. Unknowingly, Chen freely surfs on the same server on which hundreds of people, in hospitals across the nation needing blood & bone marrow transplants also play to pass the time. Many of these same people live day to day with insufficient or no health coverage at all.

In short, we are busy students here at the ECAASU meetings, but seeing beyond the present is what keeps us striving for the success of this conference. The United States, a whirlwind of political instability, social inequality, and economic downturn, still has freckles of unchanging faith like us here at Rutgers. Our distinct world may toss and tumble at the mercy of international human dynamics, but our one vision as a people is what draws our attention away from the clamor and up towards a brighter future that we continuously strive to be a part of.

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