Trying to regain hope in a time of fear and uncertainty

As the election polls started closing on Nov. 8, most of America was in a state of utter shock, as a presidential candidate who so easily stoked the flames of racism, sexism, xenophobia and misogyny was suddenly trust into the office of the presidency. A mere eight years after a movement for hope and change […]

San Francisco’s Japantown holds vigil against post-election hate

Two weeks after the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States, a crowd of about 500 people gathered at San Francisco Japantown’s Peace Plaza Nov. 22 to hold a candlelight vigil to express their unity with the groups affected by the hateful rhetoric that both the president-elect and his […]

The princess phenomenon

CINDERELLA ATE MY DAUGHTER: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture By Peggy Orenstein (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 256 pp., $25.99, hardcover) While true gender equity has yet to be achieved in this country — women are still underrepresented at top levels of government and industry — we’re at least at […]

AFFIRMATIVE (RE)ACTION: Cal’s pay-by-race bake sale gets yawn from Asian students

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 […]

“Ga(wo)man”: On Yuri Kochiyama & Sexism/Patriarchy in Japanese American Culture

  Note: For readers who are not of Nikkei heritage, Gaman means “to persevere through extremely difficult times with patience, grace and dignity.” With March being Women’s Herstory Month, we may assume by inference – if we are to look deep enough together – that January, February, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November […]

Nikkei Reflect on ‘What it Means to be a Japanese American Woman’

When community members at this year’s Mountain View Obon Bazaar and Festival were asked to explain what it means to be Japanese American, the responses were as diverse as the community itself. To some, their Nikkei experience and identity is formed by the injustices of wartime incarceration that tens of thousands of persons of Japanese […]

Kyplex Cloud Security Seal - Click for Verification