Screening of Lucky Chow with Danielle Chang

Screening of Lucky Chow with Danielle Chang

Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy — Application Now Available!

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June 26-28, 2016 – Seattle, Washington

NAPABA is currently seeking applicants for the fourth annual Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy (CBLA) in Seattle, Washington, from June 26-28, 2016 (Sunday afternoon through Tuesday morning).

The CBLA is intended for up-and-coming bar leaders who have been in practice for 5-15 years and have served as officers of a NAPABA affiliate and/or co-chair of a NAPABA committee. It is a collaborative effort among the American Bar Association, Hispanic National Bar Association, National Bar Association, National Native American Bar Association, and NAPABA. Beginning this year, the National LGBT Bar Association has joined as a collaborative partner. The purpose of CBLA is to strengthen the pipeline of diverse bar association leaders through leadership training and professional development programs. This is an excellent opportunity to foster collaborative relationships across national bar associations at the local or regional level, share best practices, and develop potential business opportunities and friendships.

If you have attended a previous CBLA, please consider joining us at CBLA this year for robust alumni programming.

Application Deadline | Friday, May 13

  • Applications can be found HERE.
  • Deadline to submit an application is Friday, May 13 by 8 p.m. EDT.
  • Applicants will be asked to submit a brief essay of 250-500 words; a CV/resume; and two letters of recommendation, at least one of which should be from a NAPABA member.

More information about the program can be found on the CBLA website. Please contact CBLA Steering Committee member Daniel Sakaguchi with any questions at dsakaguchi@ArmstrongTeasdale or at 314-342-4178.

Harvard China Forum 2016 | 哈佛中国论坛 2016

Harvard China Forum 2016 | 哈佛中国论坛 2016

Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Myth

Friday Evening Lecture Series

Please join us for a talk on, Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Myth, on Friday, April 1, 2016, from 6pm to 8pm, at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, Room 6304.01, Manhattan. This talk is free and open to the general public, and is co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center – Immigrant Seminar Series.

Tiger Mom. Asian patriarchy. Model minority children. Generation gap. The mainstream discourse has drawn on many generic concepts to describe the prototypical Asian family, which have given rise to two versions of the Asian immigrant family myth. The first celebrates Asian families for upholding the traditional heteronormative ideology of the “normal (white) American family” based on a hard-working male breadwinner and a devoted wife/ mother who raises obedient children. The other demonizes Asian families around these very same cultural values by highlighting the dangers of excessive parenting, oppressive hierarchies, and emotionless pragmatism in Asian cultures. In her new book Saving Face, Angie Chung shatters these one-dimensional portrayals of Asian families and reveals the emotional complexities of family relations in a changing economy through the eyes of adult-age Korean and Chinese Americans.

Based on the moving narratives of daughters and sons of immigrant families, Chung explores how the family roles American-born children assume in adaptation to their specific family circumstances have informed the way they view ethnicity and practice culture as adults. Although they know little about their parents’ lives, the author reveals how Korean and Chinese Americans assemble fragments of their childhood memories, kin-scripted narratives, and racial myths to make sense of their family experiences. Chung argues that this process of managing their feelings helps them to ease the emotional and economic strains of immigrant family life and to rediscover love and empathy through new modes of communication and caregiving. However, the book ultimately finds that these adaptive strategies come at a considerable social and psychological cost that do less to reconcile the racial contradictions and economic strains that minority immigrant families face today.

Angie Y. Chung is an Associate Professor of Sociology at SUNY Albany. Dr. Chung has served as visiting professor at Yonsei and Korea University and is currently the 2016 CUNY Thomas Tam Visiting Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her areas of expertise include immigration and the second generation, community and urban sociology, gender and family, race and ethnicity, Asian American studies, and qualitative methods. She is currently working on an NSF-funded research project on the politics of economic growth and urban redevelopment in Koreatown and Monterey Park, Los Angeles.

To RSVP for this talk, please visit www.aaari.info/16-04-01Chung.htm. Please be prepared to present proper identification when entering the building lobby.

If you are unable to attend the talk, streaming video and audio podcast will be available online the following week.

Thanks to CUNY AAARI for sharing this announcement.

ASSEMBLYMAN RON KIM CALLS FOR UNITY BETWEEN BLACK AND ASIAN COMMUNITIES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
Tony Cao, Office of Assemblyman Ron Kim
618-559-9672 | [email protected]

Flushing, New York –
On Monday, March 28, 2016, Assemblyman Ron Kim joined community leaders
at the NYC Bar Association to participate at a forum to bring the Asian
and Black communities together. Instead of just watching the recent
Peter Liang case pit communities of color against each other,
Assemblyman Ron Kim helped organize Monday’s forum to steer the Black
and Asian communities toward collaboration based on shared values.

Here is Assemblyman Ron Kim’s full speech:

“My
job as a public servant allows me to interact with hundreds of
constituents, sometimes thousands every week. The district I represent
is predominantly Asian, and as a result I have a deep understanding of
the hardships and obstacles that many Asian Americans face, whether they
are recent immigrants or natural born citizens.

I’m
participating today at this forum because I want to dispel a couple of
Asian stereotypes that are a result of racism, but more importantly,
further compound and promulgate institutional racism in the form of
applying double standards to, and scapegoating of Asian Americans by our
government and judicial systems.

First,
there is no such thing as ‘Asian privilege’ in this country. Asians do
not have it easier than other minority groups. We are denied access to
opportunities, face obstacles for upward mobility, encounter blatant and
covert prejudices, and often times denied justice due to the color of
our skin, same as every other man and women of color in this country.

Second,
Asian Americans are not foreigners. We are as American as every group
of immigrants who have settled on this land seeking life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. But often we are overlooked in the context of
American diversity. Despite how hard we pledge our allegiance to our
country, we continue to be asked, ‘where are you really from?’

As
a legislator, I’ve seen the detrimental impact of these stereotypes on
policies even today, in the 21st century, 135 years after the Chinese
Exclusion Act, and 74 years after the internment of Japanese Americans
in 1942.

Almost every day I experience
explicit racism and microagression. From comments like, ‘Go back to your
country, you c—k’ to ‘Hey, you look like my dry cleaner’, I deal with
it all. If an elected member of the state legislature who grew up in New
York can be treated as a foreigner and be subjected to racial taunting,
imagine what a recent Asian American immigrant, with language barriers,
goes through.

It is critically
important that we dispel the stereotype that Asians have an advantage
over other minorities in this country and that Asians are foreign. When
our fellow citizens have these perceptions of us, they tend to look away
and not see injustice to Asian Americans as an injustice to all
Americans.

Many have looked away when
powerful politicians, like the Governor of New York, decided to pick on
Asian small business owners and make examples out of them for quick
political points. When Governor Cuomo wanted to prove that he can go
after bad business owners, which group did he pick on? Asians.

Under
the guise of protecting workers, the Governor ordered his agencies to
target predominantly Asian American-owned nail salons even when
absolutely no data exists to suggest these businesses commit a higher
level of wage theft or worker mistreatment compared to other segments of
the beauty enhancement industry, or for that matter, any other
industry.

In response to my criticism of
such targeted and selective enforcement of the law, internally, the
Governor’s office said they had to start somewhere. And somehow, that
response was acceptable, even to some advocates of immigrant rights. But
this is the same response that past Governors and Mayors have given to
the black and hispanic communities when defending the Rockefeller Drug
Laws and Stop & Frisk policies: ‘You have to start somewhere…’ The
blatant discrimination obviously lies in ‘where.’

Just
last week, Governor Cuomo announced a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory
Council to promote the hiring of more minorities in this state. Even
though Asian Americans are the least represented in the state workforce
and obviously in the state legislature, he didn’t appoint one Asian to
this council.

The targeting of Asian
small businesses and exclusion of Asians on a diversity panel are just
two of many examples where our government validates society’s prevailing
sentiments that Asians are somehow more privileged than other
minorities, and that we are perhaps less deserving of protection because
after all, ‘we’re not really Americans’.

When
New York State’s top politician validates these stereotypes through his
actions and policies, it results in more racism, microagressions, and
even hate toward Asian Americans:

A
local member of the City Council recently questioned why Asian Americans
are applying for NYCHA housing at a public oversight hearing. That City
Councilmember either couldn’t fathom why Asians could live below
poverty or why foreigners could qualify for government assisted housing.

Asian
cab drivers and food delivery workers are frequently abused verbally
and violently. Asians tend to under report crimes, some have language
barriers, and many are reluctant to believe that the justice system
works for them. As a result, they are perceived to be easy targets. Yet
crimes of opportunity against Asians are not considered hate crimes.

Now,
today’s forum is about the Peter Liang case and there are many in the
audience who may be wondering, ‘How is all this related to Liang?’

Every
Asian who participated in demonstrations across the country to support
Peter Liang, signed a petition, or shared an article or a sentiment on
social media understands the Peter Liang case is not just about Peter
Liang. It’s about the prevalent mistreatment of Asian Americans that
stem from the dangerous stereotypes held by our fellow citizens, and
promulgated by the highest levels of this city’s, state’s and nation’s
governing bodies.

They are not asking
for Asian privilege. They are not asking for white privilege. They are
standing up to finally say, ‘We are not going to take it anymore. We are
Americans. We refuse to remain silent, we refused to be scapegoated, we
refused to be subjected to double standards.’

The
sentencing and guilty conviction of Peter Liang symbolizes the ultimate
double standard against Asian Americans. To us, this was about the
system making an example out of an Asian for the system’s injustices
against young blacks and hispanics in this country. This was about the
system pitting communities of color against each other instead of making
sure justice is equally served for all communities.

I
believe there are two main challenges for the Black and Asian
communities to overcome in order to unite in the fight against unjust
double standards that all minority communities bear the crushing burden
of.

First, I believe the African
American community must let go of any notion that Asians have it easy
and that they are foreigners in this country.

Second,
Asians must overcome our own mindset that sometimes contributes to the
model minority myth. Instead of striving to gain better access or what
society often refers to as ‘white privilege’, we must work toward ways
to rewrite the rules to ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all.
That means getting more involved with local community work and politics.
That means empathizing with other minority communities and forging
long-term partnerships based on shared values.

There
are number of issues we can identity that both communities must work
together to overcome: Better public schools, more affordable housing,
long-term transportation investment for the outer-boroughs, more funding
for senior centers, etc.

However, the
first step, I believe, is to have open and honest conversations at
forums like this to dispel theses stereotypes or misperceptions that
lead to more hatred than collaborations.

I
thank the main organizers, 100 Black Men Inc and Asian American
Business Development Center, for bringing us all together. I also want
to thank the NYC Bar Association for hosting this historic event to
promote our shared values.”

NAPABA Supports the Reintroduction of the Reuniting Families Act

For Immediate Release
March 17, 2016

For More Information, Contact​​:
Brett Schuster, Communications Manager
202-775-9555; [email protected]

The
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) applauds the
reintroduction of the Reuniting Families Act by Representative Michael
Honda (D-CA). The bill attempts to alleviate visa backlogs, promote
expedited family reunification, and provide relief to the families of
Filipino American World War II veterans. The bill also brings much
needed updates to the family-based immigration system which has kept
many families apart for years, including disrupting the lives of many
Asian Pacific American families. It is a compelling reminder that the
United States should always uphold the core national values of family
and fairness in our immigration system.

For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at 202-775-9555 or [email protected].

2016 NAPABA Convention Call for Programs – Deadline April 15 at 5 p.m. EDT

2015 NAPABA Convention
Call for Programs – Deadline April 15 at 5 p.m. EDT

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is now accepting program proposals for the 2016 NAPABA Convention, which will be held in San Diego, California, from Nov. 3-6. We welcome program submissions on topics that celebrate the diversity of NAPABA and will provide practical solutions and advice for our attendee’s future development and advancement.

Deadline:
Monday, April 15 at 5 p.m. EDT

Submission Information:
Less than one month to the deadline — submit a proposal for the International Law Symposium, Solo/Small Firm Boot Camp, or general NAPABA CLE programming!

1. Visit the Call for Programs webpage.

2. Click submit at the bottom of the page and create a username and password to view the submission guidelines. 

3. NAPABA recommends a program endorsement or co-endorsement by a NAPABA Committee or Network. Contact a NAPABA Committee or Network chair by April 8 (suggested deadline) to have your program endorsed. Please note that you are not required to seek an endorsement.