Year in Review - 2002 (Feature) No Exit: Another Act in American Immigration Policy, Post-Sept. 11 (in National News) Upcoming Welfare Cut to Hurt APA Families (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: 2002 Gamer's Gift Guide (11/29/02) (in Consumer) APA Community Should Tell Shaquille O’Neal to ‘Come down to Chinatown.’ (in Sports) Hot ‘n’ Sour: Primal Scream (in A&E) INS Roundups Put Nation’s Growing Ethnic Media in Bind (in Opinion)

2002 was a year of reconstruction, reaction and organizing. As the Bush Administration tried to expand the “War on Terrorism” on all fronts, Asian Pacific Americans had to deal with the nasty side effects, which ranged from secret midnight deportations and continued detentions to the loss of jobs. In response, community-based organizations and leaders doubled their efforts to make their voices heard. More than a few APAs said the reason they ran for office in 2002 was because they saw the need after Sept. 11, which led to some 200 APAs being elected this year. Overall, it was a year of storm clouds and well-earned silver linings.

ACTIVISM

APAs Speak Out About Israel-Palestine

Across the nation, people amassed for a huge mobilization, Stop the War at Home and Abroad, on April 20. In San Francisco, a large multi-ethnic coalition focused the demonstration on the strife in Israel and Palestine. Groups like the Japanese American Nosei Network and the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) were active participants in the San Francisco demonstration. Police estimated that there were some 75,000 demonstrators in D.C. and 30,000 in San Francisco. In response to escalated activity in the Middle East, APAs struggled to understand the issue and voiced their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. “It’s not only about Israelis and Palestinians — it’s about representation and acceptance for Arabs and Muslims, which is something we need to be working on as South Asians as well,” said Kanwarpal Dhaliwal of ASATA. (April)

APAs Protest Abercrombie & Fitch

A new line of T-shirts by Abercrombie & Fitch, featuring caricatures of smiling Asian men with slanted eyes and conical hats created an uproar within the APA community. The protesters called for an apology and the recall of the offensive line of shirts from stores nationwide. Two days later, Abercrombie & Fitch announced it was pulling the shirts from its 311 stores in all 50 states, in response to criticism that the shirts reinforced negative stereotypes. (April)

Remembering Vincent Chin

APA civil rights supporters in seven cities across the country staged teach-ins, viewed the Academy Award nominated documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and rededicated themselves to the struggle for justice that Chin inspired. Chin was the first APA whose case was prosecuted under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which tries hate crimes cases federally. In the 20 years since the beating and murder of Vincent Chin by two laid-off autoworkers who accused Chin of being a “Jap” and blamed him for their unemployed status, the government has put together legislation entitled the Local Law Enforcement Act of 2001, which will provide new protections concerning hate crimes based on perceived gender, sexual orientation and disability. This amendment to the current law broadens its status to help more individuals. (June)

GLOBAL REACTIONS

South Asian Americans React to Overseas Strife

Throughout the year, South Asian Americans around the nation organized and spoke out about tensions back in their homelands. The beginning of 2002 saw a wave of organizing over the Indian government’s actions in Kashmir — as a result of a bloody terrorist bombing in India’s Parliament building. Protestors in front of the Indian consulate in San Francisco implored the two governments to pursue peaceful and constructive means of resolving the issue. Soon after, groups all over the world resolved to rally for peace on the last Sunday of every month between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., local time, calling on the governments of India and Pakistan to open communication. At the same time, organizations like the Friends of India Society International in San Jose spoke out against the Pakistani government and rallied “against terrorism,” showing the diversity of the South Asian community. In June, when nuclear issues in South Asia flared up to the point to travel restrictions being issued for the whole area, South Asian Americans again came together to call for peace. (January-June)

Korean Americans React to Military In Korea

Korean American groups across the country organized numerous rallies protesting the deaths of Hyo Soon Shin and Mi Sun Shim. Shin and Shim, both 13-year-old Korean girls, were crushed to death by a U.S. armored vehicle in June in South Korea. This incident has led to an increase of anti-American sentiments in South Korea and a renewed call for the removal of all U.S. troops from the peninsula. The acquittal of the two soldiers accused of the killings in late November gave the Korean American community a renewed sense of zeal to rally through the new year. (June-November)

Non-Profit Group Accused of Funding Hindutva

Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems have suspended donations to the Indian Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) following a report alleging that IDRF had links to a Hindu nationalist group once banned and shunned for its connections to the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi. Many corporations hand over large donations to the IDRF, which is one of the better-known Indian charities in the United States. IDRF has been under attack from multiple groups for allegedly diverting funds marked for disaster relief victims and directing them towards Sangh Parivar — a network of Hindu nationalist groups. IDRF denies all allegations and connections. IDRF says they focus on five major areas: education, healthcare, women, children and tribal welfare. (December)

FALLOUT FROM SEPT. 11

These were Asian Pacific America’s biggest stories of 2002 and formed an ongoing series that we covered in nearly every issue.

NYC Chinatown

With business receipts still down some 40 to 60 percent in New York City’s Chinatown at the beginning of the year, organizations like the local Lower Manhattan Residents Relief Coalition and umbrella groups like the Asian American Federation were doing their best to raise funds and connect disenfranchised victims with federal aid. Chinatown leaders prepared to fight for their share of the $40 billion that was allotted to rebuilding the city after the attacks. The Asian American Federation of New York released a study that reported the community’s backbone industries — garment, restaurant, retail and tourism — were hardest hit. More than 40 garment factories were shut down in Chinatown, and nearly 8,000 workers who lived in the area were laid off. Only about 237 of Chinatown’s more than 4,000 businesses have received loans from the Small Business Administration.

Continued efforts by the community are being made to make sure they get aid and a seat at the bargaining table.

Detainees

As the dust from Sept. 11 finally settled, fear of hate crimes gave way to the problem of detentions for the South Asian and Arab American communities. South Asian activist group Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), one of the main organizers in the detention campaign organized a series of protests and weekly bus rides to the Pasaic County Jail in New Jersey, where many of the detainees were held. At the beginning of the year, DRUM claimed that there were over 1400 people being held without charge.

A National Solidarity Day on Feb. 20 was organized by over 150 community organizations in at least 28 cities to speak out about the detainee situation. The protest brought out speakers from Saikou Diallo, the father of Amadou Diallo to Bay Area radical grandmother Yuri Kochiyama.

More than 1,000 post-Sept. 11 detainees were released in July after being cleared of criminal involvement in the attacks. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government and two New Jersey counties for secrecy surrounding the identities and treatment of the detainees. But even though the original detainees have been released, other loopholes in the USA PATRIOT Act, such as the Absconder Initiative, are accounting for hundreds more detainees. On top of that, secret deportations of Filipino and Pakistani detainees began this fall.

With a new Justice Department push to register young nonimmigrant men, the detainee situation does not seem to be getting better.

AIRPORT SCREENERS

This year was a challenging one for airport screeners, especially the noncitizens who make up the majority of workers in the Bay Area and Southern California. At San Francisco International Airport, over 80 percent of the screeners were non-citizens. In the Bay Area, most of these screeners were Filipino. After the passage of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in November of 2001, 28,000 screeners were replaced by federal agents. On Jan. 17, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Service Employees International Union and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium filed a lawsuit that would challenge the measure, which barred legal immigrants from working as screeners. Numerous protests were held throughout the year at airports, all targeting the citizenship requirement. Rhonda Ramiro, of the Committee of Human Rights in the Philippines, said: “This legislation would result in the racial and ethnic cleansing of Filipinos at these airports. What exactly is underlying this new law? Is the United States government trying to say that Filipinos are not smart enough to do federal screening? Or are the Filipinos just not trusted?” In the end, the majority of the screeners lost their jobs to a mostly white American federalized force.

POLITICS

Mee Moua First Hmong in Office

Hmong American Mee Moua was sworn into office on Feb. 4, becoming the first Southeast Asian Pacific American to be elected to state office. Moua, a 32-year-old lawyer, won the Senate District 67 seat in St. Paul, Minn., which was left vacant after 12 years when Randy Kelley left to run for mayor. (February)

Jeff Adachi Wins SF Public Defender

In possibly the most watched race for public defender in all of history, Japanese American Jeff Adachi came out victorious after a grueling battle with appointed incumbent Kimiko Burton. Adachi, who had worked in the Public Defender’s office for over 10 years and was being groomed for the top position by PD Jeff Brown, found himself suddenly ousted in 2001 when Mayor Willie Brown appointed Burton, daughter of California senate pro-tem John Burton. What ensued was one of the dirtiest, most polemical races for a seat not even elected in most cities in this country — starting with Burton firing Adachi from his job. Much mudslinging and nepotism-denying later, Adachi emerged victorious, saying that the voters had made a choice between his grassroots campaign and one funded by the infamous political machine. (March)

APAs in Office

This year’s election ballots boasted nearly 200 APA candidates running for office. With the most considerable gains in the state houses, over 100 APAs were elected across the board. While the most wins by APAs were in California and Hawai’i, the Midwest states of Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota elected five APAs collectively to State House and Senate positions. (November)

Ma on Board

In a run-off election for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in District 4 (the Sunset), Fiona Ma reigned victorious over Ron Dudum. With four APA candidates running for former Supervisor Leland Yee’s position in the primary election, many were worried that the APA community in the Sunset District — nearly 53 percent — would spilt its vote, canceling itself out. (December)

HATE CRIMES

Action Against Hate Crimes

Hundreds gathered at San Francisco’s City Hall early in the year to assess and discuss how to prevent the backlash against Arab, South Asian and Muslim Americans after Sept. 11. Thus began a series of efforts around the country to take precautions against the onslaught of crimes in the months following the attacks. In San Francisco, a coalition effort came up with an anti-hate crime campaign which posted “We Are Not the Enemy, We Are Your Community” posters on MUNI buses and in bus stops, featuring several people of color, including a turbaned South Asian man. (January)

Election Hate

Candidates in the South Bay faced vandalism and hate mail. South Asian candidate Syed Mahmood, who ran for Congress, received phone calls with expletives. Maad Abu-Ghazaleh, who ran for California’s 12th District was told to go back home after he informed a woman that he was born in the West Bank and raised in Saudi Arabia. (October)

NEWSMAKERS

Literary Wen Ho Lee

Two books were published this year detailing the trials and tribulations of Wen Ho Lee. San Jose Mercury reporter Dan Stober and former Albuquerque Journal reporter Ian Hoffman wrote A Convenient Spy: Wen Ho Lee and the Politics of Nuclear Espionage (Simon & Schuster) and APA activist Helen Zia co-wrote My Country Versus Me (Hyperion) with Wen Ho Lee himself. While Stober and Hoffman’s book interviews hundreds of people from the CIA, Congress and Los Alamos, they do not speak to Lee — but with a detailed analysis of the facts and furor surrounding the case, insist they have the story. Zia and Lee’s book talks about the incident from Lee’s own view. (January)

Vietnamese American Woman Says Thank You with Parade Float

Madalenna Lai, a Vietnamese immigrant, paid $120,000 for a “Thank You to the American People” float in the 2002 Tournament of the Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. Lai escaped Vietnam by boat in 1975 with her four children, at first landing in Guam and then moving to Philadelphia. She finally found success in Pasadena where she opened a number of beauty salons. She promised herself that she would buy a float declaring her gratitude to America when she could afford to. After an eight-year battle with parade organizers, who were worried the float might offend Vietnam, Lai sold her home and used the equity she earned as a down payment on the float, as well as funds raised by the local community. (January)

Anand Patwardhan in America

Renowned Indian documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan spent a number of months in America this year, showing off his new film War & Peace, which looks at the nuclear machinations of India, Pakistan and the United States. But even without his presence, controversy was stirred when two of his films — which take a critical look at the Hindu caste system and Hindu fundamentalism — were slated to be shown at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City as part of an exhibit about Hinduism. Hindu group the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America protested these films and later controversy suggested that threats of violence were made to stop the films from screening. While the museum officially said that the films were cancelled due to capacity issues, this conflict was a major sign that the Hindu right was flexing its muscles in America. (February)

Ann Coulter Bashes Mineta

Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter wrote that Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta is “burning with hatred for America” by refusing to use racial profiling as a security measure in American airports among other things, in a column entitled “Mineta’s Bataan Death March.” Coulter’s words were met with fury from the Asian Pacific American community and the Democratic community at large. In a radio debate with Congressman Mike Honda, Coulter had this to say in her defense: “… Secretary Mineta needs psychological counseling. We have just come under attack by fanatical Muslims. You can see them all sitting around the national security table trying to figure out how to prevent commercial aircrafts from being turned into cruise missiles, and little Norman raises his hand and starts babbling about how his baseball bat was taken away from him when he was 10 years old when he was sent to a Japanese internment camp.” (March)

Leading the Crowd

Two APAs led the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade as grand marshals. Hoover Lee and Christopher Lee beat out hundreds of nominations to lead the annual parade. Hoover is a pioneering member of the Association of Lesbian and Gay Asians, and an active member of Gay Asian Pacific Alliance and of the Harvey Milk Gay Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club. He is credited with forming coalitions between the APA and LGBT communities. Hoover is the first female-to-male transgender to be a grand marshal in a parade, and is the co-founder of Trannyfest, a weeklong arts, film and video celebration dedicated to positive and diverse media images by and for transgenders. (June)

Space APA

Aboard the Endeavour space shuttle, astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz set a record as the second human to launch into space seven times during a mission. Endeavour returned to Kennedy Space Center on July 29 after a cross-country trip. The return marked the final leg of a record-setting mission in which two astronauts surpassed the previous U.S. space flight duration by spending 196 days in space, aboard the international space station. Chang-Diaz is a native of Costa Rica. (July)

Hot Dog!

For the second year in a row, Japan’s Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi ate his way to a new record at the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. Kobayashi noshed 50 franks and buns in 12 minutes, beating his own record by half a hot dog. The 113-pound Kobayashi beat out rival Eric Booker, who weighed 410 pounds. (July)

Female Power

California saw its first Vietnamese and Korean American women on the state’s judiciary seats. Jacqueline H. Nguyen, whose family escaped war-torn Vietnam, was sworn in by Federal District Judge Nora Manella as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Nguyen graduated from Occidental College and UCLA’s School of Law. Tammy Chung Ryu became the first Korean American women to be officially sworn in as a California State Superior Court Judge. Ryu grew up in West Oakland and attended UC Berkeley. She later received her law degree from UCLA. (September)

Not Safe to Fly

Rohinton Mistry, winner of the Kiriyama Prize for fiction and nominee for a Booker Prize for his new novel, Family Matters, canceled his book tour in the United States due to the constant “random” security checks at the airport. Mistry said, “It’s a very peculiar kind of random when it happened to me and my wife 100 percent of the time.” (November)

CENSUS, POLICY, LEGALITY

St. Paul Most Segregated

U.S. Census data shows that the APA population in St. Paul, Minn., is the most segregated in the country. After the Vietnam War, the Hmong — who comprise the largest APA group living in St. Paul — began arriving in the Twin Cities area and ended up in Frogtown, St. Paul’s eastside. Today, nearly 25 percent of residents in these areas are Hmong. Local community leaders say the segregation is most probably due to several public housing projects in St. Paul that are heavily Hmong. (January)

Immigration Policy Changes

On three different policies, the Immigration and Naturalization Service vowed to take stricter measures by guarding border entries, instituting a plan to increase fees for family petitions, green card and naturalization applications and announcing the suspension of Cambodian adoption. (January)

ACLU Slaps Major Airlines With Lawsuits

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Relman & Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm, filed five lawsuits against American Airlines and United Airlines for discrimination on June 4. The lawsuits were filed in federal courts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Maryland and New Jersey. The ACLU said that five men — four U.S. citizens and one permanent legal resident — were taken off their flights because of their Middle Eastern appearance. (June)

International Students Face Difficulty

International students from colleges and universities across the country have been facing difficulties obtaining F-1 student visas this year due to the anti-immigrant sentiment of new legislation put into effect this year. Profiled students are predominately those originating from India, China, Russia and Korea and those with fields of study in science and engineering. The INS implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System this October, which will enforce registration and fingerprinting requirements as well as exit controls for nationals of Middle Eastern and North African countries and other “nonimmigrant aliens whom the State Department determines to present an elevated national security risk.” (October)

MEDIA

AMagazine Shuts Down

A victim of the dot-com fallout, aMagazine was shut down along with Asian Pacific American web portal click2asia.com. Started in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment 13 years ago, aMagazine folded just before the February/March issue was about to hit the stands, leaving a gaping hole in the APA media scene. (March)

Hyphen Fills the Gap

A group of young Bay Area activists, artists, writers and organizers are producing the newest national, pan-APA multigenerational magazine, Hyphen, with the first issue to premiere in March 2003. Through interviews, essays, photography and artwork by or about APAs, the magazine hopes “to illuminate Asian American through informative, engaging investigation of lives, culture and politics.” (November)

LABOR

Tulsa Company Accused of Keeping Indian Workers as Slaves

More than 50 Indian men, employees of the John Pickle Co. of Tulsa, Okla., were forced to work as virtual slaves. The John Pickle company was accused of locking up off-duty Indian employees and paying them little more than $3 per hour. The company, which manufactures pressure vessels for use in power plants and oil refineries, said the employees were part of a “foreign national training program” that would have transferred them to John Pickle’s Kuwait factory after training in the United States. (March)

Wins Victory

In July 2001, Anna Wong and Toha “Jimmy” Quan, owners of Wins of California, filed for bankruptcy, neglecting to pay their workers three months of wages. Over 200 former garment worker employees of Wins of California, involved in a 15-month-long struggle, were finally offered redress when the California labor commissioner announced that the state would pay nearly $1 million in back wages. (October)

REPORTS

APAs Among Top Net Users

According to a survey done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 75 percent of English-speaking Asian Pacific American adults have used the Internet. Some 70 percent go online on a typical day, compared with 58 percent of whites, 48 percent of English speaking Latinos and 39 percent of blacks. APA users are more likely than other groups to use the Internet to get news, look up financial, travel and political information and conduct school or work research. (January)

Highest Numbers of International Students from Asia

Despite a visa entry reform bill introduced by Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in 2001, the “Open Doors” report — published by the Washington D.C.-based Institute of International Education — showed that Asian students comprise over one-half of international students. The top three countries from which international students came to the U.S. were China, India and Japan. (January)

New Report Points Out Serious Disparities at National Labs

The federal General Accounting Office (GAO) has produced a new report that reveals that a greater percentage of white men at the nation’s weapons laboratories are in management positions and hold professional jobs than minorities and white women. There is also a disparity in the rate of pay between the groups. Joined by leaders of other ethnic congressional caucuses, Rep. David Wu — the current chair of the API Congressional Caucus — called for congressional hearings to investigate the hiring, employment and promotion practices of federal labs. The GAO initiated its studies in the wake of the 1999 Wen Ho Lee case, because the former Los Alamos scientist was alleged to have been the victim of racial profiling. (May)

SPORTS

The Rise and Fall of Shinjo

The San Francisco Giants gained the popular Japanese player Tsuyoshi Shinjo, who was traded from the New York Mets. Shinjo arrived on the scene with much fanfare for his movie star looks and appeal to the Japanese American community. Sadly, Shinjo mostly sat on the bench during the team’s heartbreaking loss in the World Series and won’t be appearing on the rooster next year. (February)

Olympics 2002

Asian Pacific Americans aren’t too prominent in the Winter Olympics, but we still had a few stars on the ice. Michelle Kwan, the highly touted favorite going into the games, wiped out in a major way and came home with a bronze. But a new APA heartthrob was born in Apolo Ohno, the speedskating hapa, who won a gold and silver medal at the Olympics. True, some Koreans may want his head for that judge’s decision that put World Cup champion Kim Dong-Sung out of the running, but with that soul patch, what can you do? (February)

Yao!

Seven-foot-five Yao Ming, 21, made his debut in the NBA season as the number one draft pick by the Houston Rockets. Now, “Chairman Yao” is one of the most watched stars in the NBA. (August)

ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

Linkin Park Wins Grammy

This Los Angeles-based rock/rap/electronica group won the music industry’s top honor for best Hard Rock Performance with their song “Crawling.” Linkin Park has two APA members, vocalist Mike Shinoda and turntablist Joseph Hahn. The band was started by Shinoda, who studied classical piano for 10 years. (March)

‘Flower Drum’ on Broadway

David Henry Hwang, award-winning playwright of FOB, M. Butterfly and Goldenchild, rewrote Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song returning it to Broadway nearly 40 years after the original. Flower Drum Song holds a place in APA history as the first Broadway musical about and starring APAs. While the classic love triangle was kept intact, Hwang changed the stories of each of the lead characters. “In the new version,” Hwang said, “the original clash of cultures becomes a clash of theatrical forms — how traditional theater transforms itself into a nightclub. It’s about assimilation, about the changes that come about from that.” (September)

Bollywood Bang

With movies like arthouse flick Monsoon Wedding and cricket epic Lagaan making waves in the theaters and at the Oscars, Bollywood seemed to have really arrived in America this year. To top it off, commercial rappers like Truth Hurts and Redman have made sampling Hindi songs the hottest new trend in the hip hop scene — making it an interesting year for South Asian culture.

OBITUARIES

Nobu McCarthy

Japanese American actress Nobu McCarthy died at the age of 67 on April 6. During her long career, McCarthy appeared in 20 motion pictures, many of them made in the 1950s and ’60s. They include The Hunters, Wake Me When It’s Over and Walk Like a Dragon. More recently she played the love interest of Pat Morita in Karate Kid, Part II. She appeared with Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffith in Pacific Heights in 1990, and in The Painted Desert in 1993, as well as the Emmy-nominated television movie Farewell to Manzanar. (April)

Sukhpal Singh

Singh, whose brother was killed in Arizona a week after the Sept. 11 attacks, was fatally gunned down in San Francisco on Aug. 4 while driving a taxi cab on 24th Street, one day after his 52nd birthday. Singh’s cab then crashed into a power pole and two parked cars at Mission and 24th. One of the cars combusted, and the power pole caused 167 households to be without power for the night. Singh’s brother, Balbir, drove a taxi in San Francisco for several years until he bought a gas station and 7-Eleven in Mesa, Ariz. (August)

Patsy Mink

U.S. Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-Hawai’i) passed away on Sept. 27 at the age of 74. The first woman of color elected to Congress as well as the first APA woman to practice law in Hawai’i, Mink was a strong advocate for education reform, civil rights, social issues, the underprivileged and the environment. Mink co-authored Title IX of the Education Act (1972) which required schools for the first time to devote funding to women’s and girls’ sports which previously had been reserved for men’s and boys’ sports. (October)

Chang-Lin Tien

At 67-years-old, Professor Chang-Lin Tien, former chancellor of UC Berkeley, passed away on Oct. 29 from pneumonia. An educator, administrator, scientist and “unofficial diplomat,” Tien made history by becoming the first APA to head a major U.S. research university. According to UC Berkeley students, the personable Tien made the campus more accessible to minority students and he was instrumental in launching successful fundraising campaigns to generate funds for the school when it faced budget cuts from the state. The campus raised over $1 billion under his guidance. (October) 

Beulah Quo

Chinese American actress Beulah Quo, who passed away during routine surgery on Oct. 23, appeared in more than 20 feature films, 16 movies for television and has credits in more than 100 television shows — beginning with her debut in the WWII drama From Here to Eternity. A community-minded activist, Quo helped found groundbreaking theater company the East West Players. (October)