November 7, 2009
By Veena Dubal, Staff Attorney, National Security and Civil Rights Program
Yesterday, was a difficult day for me.
I spent the morning “dialoguing” with a former Republican Senator, a conservative law professor, and the director of a non-profit that works against “big government” (among others) on issues of race in America. We debated everything for an educational television program: from the use of race in law enforcement to affirmative action.
During the course of this two hour program, I tried to maintain a countenance of civility while listening to a white man deploy narratives of “personal responsibility” while talking about black men and violence. After abstractly opining on “racism in America” for the taping, I walked back to our offices in Chinatown in the drizzly San Francisco rain and thought about my clients whose lives were plagued by the complexities and intersections of racism and imperialism. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 
Asian American, Asian Law Caucus Staff, civil rights, current events, Politics | Tagged: 1st cavalry division, Affirmative Action, Arab, backlash, Fort Hood, george hennard, homegrown terrorism, Imperialism, killeen, Luby's cafetaria, muslim, Nidal Hassan, Race, racism, religious extremism, senseless violence, suicide bomber, Texas, violence | 
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Posted by asianlawcaucus
November 3, 2009
reposted from
here with permission from the author
By Raj Jayadev
On Oct. 24, the San Jose Mercury News released the video of a San Jose State math major getting beaten and tased by the San Jose Police Department in his home on Sept. 3, 2009. Police were called to the scene after 20-year-old Phuong Ho allegedly wielded a knife during an altercation with his roommate. All the viewer can hear, in between groaning cries of pain and calls for mercy, are the cracking sounds of the batons as they meet 20-year-old Phuong Ho’s head and body, and the torturous zapping of a Taser gun. It is, in a word, disturbing. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian American, civil rights, community organizing, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: asian law alliance, civil rights complaint, david pham, department of justice, FBI, independent police auditor, la raza lawyers association, mercury news, naacp, Phuong Ho, pitf, police brutality, public intoxication task force, Raj Jayadev, rodney king, san jose police, San Jose Police Department, san jose's rodney king, Sunshine Reform Task Force, taser, vietnamese association of northern california | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
September 3, 2009
This blog post is re-posted from here with permission from the author.
By Shahid Buttar
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano recently highlighted her department’s efforts to reach out to build “stronger relationships with Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as South Asian communities across the country,” seemingly reflecting an awareness of how the war on terror has stigmatized and cast irrational suspicion on these groups. Despite the best of intentions, however, Napolitano’s self-assurance is premature. DHS’s engagement of vulnerable communities emphasizes form over substance and, historically, has amounted to mere public relations.
Outreach efforts conducted by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), for instance, have long fallen short of repeated requests from vulnerable communities. Just last month, a coalition of over a dozen civil rights organizations issued a letter (PDF) to Secretary Napolitano reiterating a series of substantive and structural concerns, while proposing concrete solutions to fulfill the new administration’s promise to pay greater respect Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Asian American, civil rights, community organizing, Politics | Tagged: arab americans, CBP, crcl, DHS, FBI, muslim americans, office of civil rights and civil liberties, secretary napolitano, shahid buttar, south asian community, TRIP | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
September 1, 2009
Posted by: Christopher Punongbayan
Dear America:
My name is Michael Tsui, and I’m 21 years old. I’m an undocumented student recently transferred to San Jose State University to study Computer Engineering. I want to talk to you about the DREAM Act, but before I do, I want to tell you about my story, about how I came to the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian American, current events, Politics, Stand Up Speak Out! | Tagged: Asian immigrant youth, Asian youth, DREAM, DREAM Act, immigrant rights, undocumented, youth | Permalink
Posted by cpunongbayan
August 21, 2009
Posted by: Christopher Punongbayan
Below is the story of 21-year old, Stephanie, who is an advocate for the federal and California DREAM Act. She is a member of the immigrant youth group, ASPIRE – Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights Through Education.
My name is Stephanie and I am 21 years old. I was born in Guan Dong, China. Once people get to know me more and know about my personal history, they reply; “Oh! Stephanie, you are so mature!” Every time I hear that, it reminds me of what I have gone through independently for six years. The things I have gone through were full of tears, sadness, loneliness, happiness, obstacles, homesickness, hopes, and dreams. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Asian American, Asian Law Caucus, civil rights, community organizing, current events, Politics, Stand Up Speak Out! | Tagged: Asian immigrant youth, Asian youth, DREAM, DREAM Act, immigrant rights, undocumented, youth | Permalink
Posted by cpunongbayan
August 20, 2009
Posted by: Christopher Punongbayan
Below is testimony given by Ju Hong, a 19 year old student at Laney College in Oakland, in a recent legislative visit to the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Ju is the school’s first Asian American student body president. His activism is part of a national Asian American and Pacific Islander Week of Action urging Congress and the President to pass a fair and humane immigration reform bill that upholds the rights of all Americans. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian American, Asian Law Caucus, civil rights, community organizing, current events, Politics, Stand Up Speak Out! | Tagged: Asian immigrant youth, Asian youth, DREAM, DREAM Act, immigrant rights, undocumented, youth | Permalink
Posted by cpunongbayan
June 29, 2009
By Raj Jayadev
(this article was originally published by New America Media and is re-posted here with the author’s permission)
A few months back, I wrote an article called “Copwatch 2.0”. It was about the shooting death of Oscar Grant by law enforcement, the fact that the act was shown on YouTube, and how our internet cutlure has changed the landscape of police accountability.
I think the San Jose Police Officers Association just read the title because based on their recent Internet postings, they have their own ideas of what happens to police accountability in a hyper-communications era. They feel that if activists are using new media to expose what they feel is police abuse – posting videos and blogs of civilians getting tased, beaten, or otherwise mistreated – cops can create their own media as well. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | community organizing, current events, Politics | Tagged: Barack Obama, DeBug, iranian revolution, law enforcement, Media and social movements, new media culture, POA, protectsanjose.com, racial profiling, Raj Jayadev, san jose city council members, san jose mercury news, san jose police officers association, silicon valley, technology and activism, youtube | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
June 19, 2009
By Veena Dubal, Staff Attorney
“To cast this case into outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily . . .” –Korematsu v. United States (1944)
“The September 11 attacks were perpetrated by 19 Arab Muslim hijackers who counted themselves members in good standing of al Qaeda, an Islamic fundamentalist group. Al Qaeda was headed by another Arab Muslim – Osama bin Laden – and composed in large part of his Arab Muslim disciples. I should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attacks would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the policy’s purpose was to target neither Arabs nor Muslims.” –Ashcroft v. Iqbal, (2009)
In 1942, in the midst of World War, 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent by federal order to internment camps. Fred Korematsu resisted and was soon arrested and sent to Topaz, a camp in the Utah desert that was surrounded by barbed-wire fences and watchtowers armed with machine guns. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian Law Caucus Staff, current events, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: arabs, ashcroft, brooklyn metropolitan detention center, cia prisons, clinton, fbi director mueller, guantanemo bay, institutionalized racism, internment, japanese empire, javaid iqbal, javed iqbal, justice black, justice kennedy, koremastu v. united states, korematsu, muslims, national belonging, necessity of war, presidential medal of freedom, racialized citizenship, racism, september 11, south asians, supreme court, topaz, u.s. empire, Veena Dubal, world war II | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
April 20, 2009
By Debbie Sheen
During one of my Constitutional Law class discussions about the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Korematsu case, a fellow student suggested that the United States government should be free to enforce whatever airport search policies that it deemed necessary for national security purposes, especially in light of the September 11 attacks. This comment sparked passionate responses from other classmates who recounted their personal experiences of humiliation and frustration from being targeted at airport searches. The first student’s opinion, Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian Law Caucus Staff, current events, Politics | Tagged: airport search, border profiling, constitutional law, custom and border patrol, korematsu, middle eastern, muslim, september 11, shirin sinnar, south asian, stanford law school immigrants rights clinic, Veena Dubal | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
April 13, 2009
By Christine Ahn
Last week, North Korea launched a satellite, which has raised the ire of Japan, United States, and South Korea, who managed this week to get the UN Security Council to rebuke North Korea.
Many in the Korean-American community involved in the movement for peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula were surprised by President Obama’s harsh response. But Korean-Americans who know Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | current events, Politics | Tagged: Korea Policy Institute, Korean War, missile test, National Campaign to End the Korean War, North Korea, peace treaty, South Korea | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
April 8, 2009
By Veena Dubal
“I drove you to Harris’ Steak House once. Do you know that I have never eaten there? The best I can do is McDonald’s. And you want to take the happy meals out of the mouths of my children to make yourselves happy!”
–Taxi driver to a SFMTA Board Member during the Taxi Charter Reform Meeting
A few months ago, via the SF Chronicle, Mayor Newsom announced a scheme that would fix part of the City’s Budget Crisis. The City would take medallions (permits that give taxis the right to be on the road) away from working drivers and put them on auction. This, Newsom, surmised, would generate millions of dollars for the City and improve service.
Mayor Newsom has since been called on his bluff. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian Law Caucus Staff, community organizing, current events, Politics | Tagged: asian law caucus, coalition to protect prop k, green cab, mark gruberg, mayor newsom, medallion privatization, medallion sale, medallion transferability, nat ford, proposition k, san francisco chronicle, sfmta, taxi, taxi charter reform, taxi strike, united taxi workers, wall street journal | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
April 6, 2009
By Veena Dubal
A Coalition of Muslim groups called the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (based in Newark) has recently announced that they will limit the social interactions between their communities and the FBI. This decision comes on the heels of the FBI’s decision to “limit” its work with CAIR — the Council on American Islamic Relations. According to the SF Chronicle, the FBI’s decision was based on the fact that one of the founder’s of CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the highly criticized and debated Holy Land Foundation case.
There are many things wrong with this decision by the FBI (namely that the Holy Land Foundation case was a political witchhunt in and of itself and also that being “unindicted” means that one has not been found guilty — what happened to due process?). Ultimately, however, the lesson for Muslim and other communities comes as somewhat of a relief for me. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Asian Law Caucus Staff, Politics | Tagged: American Muslim Taskforce, CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations, FBI, Federal Criminal Code 1001, Holy Land Foundation, political persecution, Veena Dubal | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
March 30, 2009
By Debbie Sheen
These days, San Francisco seems to be caught up in a frenzy of what Supervisor Chris Daly has called “anti-immigrant hysteria.” Take a look at the readers’ comments that follow this recent SF Chronicle article on the advisory resolution passed by the SF Democratic Committee Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Asian Law Caucus Staff, Politics | Tagged: immigrant rights, San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network, SF Chronicle | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
March 2, 2009
By Konrad Ng, Ph.D
First, let me convey my thanks to the Asian Law Caucus for providing over three decades of community service. Thank you to Titi’s invitation to contribute to Arc of ’72 – the ALC’s new blog. As a way of returning Titi’s kind invitation, I would like to share Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Politics | Tagged: Arc of 72, Barack Obama, Blogosphere, Konrad Ng, linkedIn | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus
