(c) 2010 The Associated Press
February 1, 2010

WASHINGTON -- The government is fumbling some efforts to assure immigrants that U.S. census data won't be used against them, including gaps in outreach and foreign language guides that refer to the decennial count as an investigation.

With the launch of the head count weeks away, the Census Bureau's outreach has been falling short in at least a dozen major cities, such as Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Jose, Calif., and Seattle, according to a report released Monday by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Many of their states are on the cusp of gaining or losing U.S. House seats and face a redrawing of legislative boundaries that may tilt the balance of political power.

The report generally praises the Census Bureau for improved efforts since 2000. But noting the large ramifications of even a small undercount, AALDEF is critical of the Obama administration. The legal group cited the government's refusal to give fuller assurances that census data would be kept confidential and to suspend large-scale immigration raids during the count - as was done in the 2000 census. AALDEF said it wasn't ruling out legal action to get stronger guarantees.

The census officially began last month in parts of rural Alaska. Most of the nation will receive their forms by mail the week of March 15.

"We have heard a lot of speeches by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the census director saying the census is confidential. But speeches and Web postings do not have the force of law," said Glenn Magpantay, an AALDEF program director, in a telephone interview. "Our concern is how much risk immigrants are putting themselves at."

(c) 2010 The Philadelphia Inquirer
February 1, 2010

Less than 24 hours earlier, 30 Asian students said they had been attacked by roaming groups of mostly African American classmates at South Philadelphia High School. Now the bruised and beaten were telling their stories to the TV cameras, backed by leaders of the Asian community.

Helen Gym, a board member at Asian Americans United, directed the crowd like a traffic cop, connecting parents with interpreters and kids with reporters. Her cell phone wouldn't stop ringing. A few steps away, talking to a TV journalist, AAU executive director Ellen Somekawa lambasted the School District of Philadelphia, which she would later accuse of "a total lack of moral leadership."

In the days after that edgy Dec. 4 news conference at the Chinese Christian Church, Somekawa took pains to say that AAU was only one part of a larger coalition of Asian organizations. But from the start, it was obvious that AAU was in charge, framing the community response, as it had done many times before.

It was AAU that led the massive 2000 protest that opposed construction of a Phillies baseball stadium north of Chinatown and that pushed to build a multicultural charter school on the site. AAU helped organize Chinatown parents to demand better schools, blocked plans for a federal prison in Chinatown, worked to help a young illegal immigrant stay in the United States after she miscarried during a rough, forcible deportation attempt in 2006.

This year, AAU celebrates its silver anniversary, marking 25 years as a tenacious, pugnacious advocate. In its time, AAU has given voice to the voiceless and strength to the weak - and in the process succeeded in antagonizing innumerable politicians and elected leaders.

By Patrick Walters
The Associated Press
January 21, 2010

PHILADELPHIA -- The blocks surrounding South Philadelphia High School are a melting pot of pizzerias fronted by Italian flags, African hair-braiding salons and a growing number of Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian restaurants.

Inside is a cauldron of cultural discontent that erupted in violence last month - off-campus and lunchroom attacks on about 50 Asian students, injuring 30, primarily at the hands of blacks. The Asian students, who boycotted classes for more than a week afterward, say they've endured relentless bullying by black students while school officials turned a blind eye to their complaints.

"We have suffered a lot to get to America and we didn't come here to fight," Wei Chen, president of the Chinese American Student Association, told the school board in one of several hearings on the violence. "We just want a safe environment to learn and make more friends. That's my dream."

Philadelphia school officials suspended 10 students, increased police patrols and installed dozens of new security cameras to watch the halls, where 70 percent of the students are black and 18 percent Asian. The Vietnamese embassy complained to the U.S. State Department about the attacks and numerous groups are investigating, including the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The New York-based Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund joined the fray this week with a civil rights complaint to the U.S. Justice Department.

The Philadelphia school district acted with "deliberate indifference" toward the harassment and failed to prevent the Dec. 3 attacks, according to the complaint. It says Asian students' pleas for help and protection were ignored by school employees.

Asian students say black students routinely pelt them with food, beat, punch and kick them in school hallways and bathrooms, and hurl racial epithets like "Hey, Chinese!" and "Yo, Dragon Ball!"

By Terry Hong
A. Magazine
March/April 1998

In his bold multimedia performance pieces, saxophonist and composer Fred Ho combines politics, prose, and a dash of revolutionary fervor

FRED HO TELLS ME he philosophically doesn't believe in monogamy ("although I'm capable of practicing it") or the nuclear family. He's never had kids...that he knows of. "My projects are my kids," he adds after a pause. "They take just as long to birth and to raise, and cause as much heartbreak." And just before I rush off to get home to my waiting toddler, he tells me, "Most arts writers are not politically equipped to write about me. They're too reductionist and oversimplify my politics."

Ah, well. Quite the challenge to present a lifetime of evolution -- or should that be revolution? -- in a mere page and a half. Even more challenging is capturing the strong opinions of this baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, political activist, leader of The Afro Asian Music Ensemble and The Monkey Orchestra, and creator of interdisciplinary musical theater extravaganzas. In creating his work, he says he "utilize[s] everything in creating an arsenal to explode people's consciousness." His words and versatility invite comparison to another self-styled revolutionary, Frank Chin. But Ho claims absolutely no ideological resemblance. "He's a misogynist. I'm not. He's an embittered, aging Bohemian. I'm a revolutionary romantic," Ho says, and adds that he "would love to debate Frank Chin."

But that's for another time. February is going to be one Ho-focused month. He's travelling to the University of Wisconsin at Madison to provide the music for Ki-ache: Stories from the Belly, an interdisciplinary performance about four "women warriors" of African and Asian origin, envisioned by choreographer/dancer Peggy Choy. The same month at the Asian American Studies Institute of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, he will officially christen The Fred Ho Collection -- made up of a lifetime of private papers, including articles, books, poetry, music, critical reviews, speeches, commentaries, video and audio recordings. In conjunction, the school is sponsoring the Fred Ho Prize in Asian American History and Culture, awarding $500 to the best undergraduate essay based on Ho's papers.

The collection represents a culmination of Ho's life-long activism, which includes founding the Asian American Resource Workshop in Boston and the first East Coast Asian Student Union. "I'm trying to lead a clutter-free life," says Ho of his gift. "I'm not on any American Joe accumulation trip. I want my life to be filled with new music, new loves and lovers, new creative energy directed to changing society."