The conservative-dominated Supreme Court on Jan. 24 agreed to hear a challenge to the consideration of race in college admissions, adding another blockbuster case to a term with abortion, guns, religion and COVID-19 already on the agenda. The court said it will take up lawsuits claiming that Harvard University, a private institution, and the University […]
2021 Notebook: Redrawing the conversation about race
January 6, 2022 by Leave a Comment
After 2020 became a year of racial reckoning with the public killing of George Floyd and the protests of injustices against Black people, 2021 offered what can best be described as a follow-up year — a continuation of some familiar story threads with other new ones emerging. Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed […]
‘Fresh’ history of Hawai‘i’s Nikkei is somewhat lacking
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
FROM RACE TO ETHNICITY: INTERPRETING JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCES IN HAWAII By Jonathan Y. Okamura (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014, 272 pp., $42, cloth) It is a somewhat curious fact that many of the people I have met on the mainland, Japanese Americans and others alike, seem rather uninformed about the Nikkei experience in Hawai‘i. (I […]
Asian Americans create resources to aid discussions on anti-black violence
July 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Philando Divall Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop July 6 by St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minn. While Castile, an African American male, had been carrying a gun, he had reportedly told the police that he had a permit to carry it and […]
RABBIT RAMBLINGS: Rooting for the Warriors (and thoughts on race)
June 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
So I’ve become a rabid Warriors fan in the last few years. I’m sure that there are mobs of others who have gotten interested in this team — not just in the Bay Area — but worldwide, because of their prowess and spectacular play. It seems to me that this year is special and we […]
Five things you should know about Asian Americans
May 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. In honor of the occasion, here are five things that I think you should know about Asian Americans.* 1. We Don’t All Look Alike. In fact, most of us aren’t alike at all. When many non-Asians conjure a picture of “Asian American” in their minds, they see an East […]
RABBIT RAMBLINGS: The legacy of race in politics
May 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
As my readers already know, I have strong opinions on most things, and I try to be true to my feelings when writing this column. I’m giving you a bit of a warning on what I am going to say here, because it may offend and upset some folks. But, like I say, I’m an […]
A ‘Secret’ worthy of the Ghibli name
March 2, 2012 by 2 Comments
“The Secret World of Arrietty” (playing in theaters now, dubbed in English) is a new Studio Ghibli film, and neither Hayao Miyazaki nor Isao Takahata directed it. Animation fans know that this can be bad news; such Ghibli films have proved to be embarrassments to the esteemed studio. But fortunately that’s far from the case […]
AFFIRMATIVE (RE)ACTION: Cal’s pay-by-race bake sale gets yawn from Asian students
October 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
BERKELEY, Calif. — The debate over colorblind admissions policies in California’s four-year public colleges is heating up again. The passage of Prop. 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative passed by state voters in 1996, prohibited public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity. SB 185, one of hundreds of bills currently before Gov. Jerry Brown awaiting […]
An internal conversation on race
Allow me to first introduce myself. I have been educated in the psycho-analytic school of thought and a central feature of my education was to observe my internal psychological processes while I was working with someone receiving psychoanalytic psychotherapy, both as a method of gaining some information about what was going on with my clients […]