Advancing Justice Conference 2011

IN SEARCH OF A MAJORITY

admin2011 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:23:43 +0000

“IN SEARCH OF A MAJORITY”
BY JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS

Thank you very much for that wonderful introduction. And thanks very much — Maraming, maraming salamat, as we say in Tagalog — for welcoming me here.

As a journalist, as a story-teller, a big part of my job is to connect the dots. As an undocumented immigrant, my survival, my life, greatly depends on all of us — not just undocumented immigrants but also American citizens — connecting the dots. That’s why I decided to tell the truth about my life as an undocumented immigrant, in an essay published in the New York Times Magazine four months ago. In telling my very specific story, I sought to illuminate the larger universal truth about immigration and undocumented immigrants. Yes, undocumented immigrants are not just Latinos and Hispanics. We’re Filipinos, we’re Koreans, we’re Chinese, too. Yes, undocumented immigrants are busing your tables and mowing your lawns, but we’re also writing news articles, may it be on the 2008 presidential campaign or on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. We’re attending law schools and medical schools, we’re majoring in engineering and political science and biology. But most importantly, the message of the essay was — and it is so stunningly simple it often gets obscured– undocumented immigrants are just like everyone else. Our parents, like parents of our country’s first immigrants, came to America in search of a better life. Like everyone in this room, documented or not, we wish to live a life with dignity. With or without proper documents, I’m human too.

On the day my essay was posted on the New York Times website — and the phrase “Undocumented Immigrant” became a trending topic on Twitter and the essay was shared by thousands on Facebook — we launched a new campaign called Define American to elevate how we talk about immigration and the role of undocumented immigrants in this ever evolving country. My story, after all, was just one story. There are many stories to tell — not just of undocumented immigrants like me, but our allies, the Good Samaritans, those who make up what I’ve referring to, with all due respect and with an acute sense of history, as our 21st century Underground Railroad of supporters.

Two weeks ago, I went to Alabama, which recently passed HB 56, the country’s toughest immigration law. I went to Alabama to connect the dots. As it happened, I arrived in Birmingham, the cradle of the civil rights movement, the day after the 11th circuit issued an injunction that barred the provision which makes it a crime for me to be undocumented immigrant in the state of Alabama. Here’s the latest video on Define American:

The image and the words could not have been more striking. That clip was shot mostly at the basement of the historic 16th Street Baptist Church, where U.W. Clemon, a civil rights icon who marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., was the first African American federal judge in the state of Alabama. He’s now retired. Coincidentally, the judge who replaced him was Judge Sharon Blackburn, who ruled for HB56. As Clemon told me in an interview, he felt that Blackburn’s ruling was “mistaken.” Just as striking, this African American civil rights leader underlined the need for blacks and whites — indeed, for all Americans — to open the eyes of the American public when it comes to immigrant rights, which he linked to civil rights. The landmark Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial segregation, was signed in 1964. A year later came the signing of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which forever changed the ethnic make-up of our country, welcoming Asian and Latino immigrants to America.

And now, here we are: History cracking right before our eyes — the very question of who an American is and what an American looks like — the question of how we define American — coming face-to-face with a demographically changing America. America is no longer just black or white. America is black and white and brown and yellow. Some 130 years ago, the Chinese Exclusion Act denied Chinese immigrants rights and freedoms. Around that time, the novelist Bret Harte, writing an obituary of a Chinese man, wrote: “Dead, my revered friends, dead. Stoned to death in the streets of San Francisco by a mob of half-grown boys and Christian school children.” Now, in this city where at least a third of San Franciscans are Asian Americans, half a dozen Asian Americans — all from immigrant families — are running for mayor. Talk about “Strengthening the Legacy of Asian American and and Pacific Islander Activism,” the theme of this year’s Advancing Justice conference.

As America gets more and more diverse — you’ll hear more about the demographics report “A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans in the United States, 2011 later today; tomorrow, there’s a great panel called “Emerging Epicenters of Asian American and Pacific Islander Organizing” — as America moves into a minority-majority country, we need to re-examine the role of minorities in our society.

James Baldwin, my literary hero, the great American writer and humanist, once said: “Before we can begin to speak of minority rights in this country, we’ve got to make some attempt to isolate or to define the majority.” I grew up here — here being the San Francisco Bay Area. I attended Mountain View High School — before Google got to Mountain View. I’m a proud graduate of San Francisco State University, where I majored in political science and minored in Black Studies. And because I’m Filipino American, because I’m Asian American, because I am gay, because I am undocumented, all my life I’ve heard that I’m a minority.

It’s been interesting how liberated I feel, considering how restricted and limited my life seems — at least on paper. A few weeks after the essay ran, my driver’s license got revoked. Everyone in this room, please give your driver’s license a big, tight hug. Frame that thing. I’ve been working since I was 18 years old — now, I cannot legally work. My lawyers are figuring out that out. But instead of feeling like a minority, like some “illegal alien” that some people call me, I actually feel like, for the first time, I am a part of the majority — I constitute the majority of one: how each of us, each of us in this room, can take charge of our own lives.

I took charge of my own life by telling the truth. Because the only way to solve a problem, parents chide their children, is to tell the truth.

We constantly talk about immigration and reform in the context of what it means for the people like me who are here without papers. We pretend that immigrants are the only people who are affected by this issue. That’s not the truth. Most Americans reap some benefit or pay some cost for the cracks in our system. We need to begin a conversation about the innumerable ways in which we all profit from our broken immigration system. We need to be honest about the low-cost labor that steadies the price of the poultry and produce we feed our families, and builds and repairs the homes we raise our children in. We need to be fair to educators across the country who are tasked to teach each student, regardless of immigration status. We in the media must do a better job explaining how immigration works — and why it works the way it does. Why is it that a German chemical engineer can obtain an H-1B visa to work here temporarily, and then be sponsored for permanent residency by his or her employer, but there isn’t a work visa category for a Honduran who wants to come here to work on a hotel’s housekeeping staff? We need to talk with as much passion and knowledge about enforcing our laws and securing our border as we do about honoring the immigrant tradition of a country that’s been built and replenished by immigrants from all corners of the world.

And we need to broaden the conversation, may it be in our dinner tables or virtual water coolers. If we want to tell the truth about immigration, then we need to begin by admitting that immigration isn’t just about us, the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. It’s about the larger us, the 310 million.

It’s about all Americans and about America itself.

America is not a land of one race or one class of men…. America is not bound by geographical latitudes…..America is not merely a land or an institution…. America is in the hearts of men that died for freedom…

America is in the heart.

Hutchinson, Nick

admin2011 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:59:50 +0000

A native of Northern California, Nick came to Juma from the Arusha Project, a microfinance institution based in East Africa, where he was Executive Director. Nick graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. His development background includes national political campaigns and public arts projects, including work with inSite05, a contemporary arts biennial in the San Diego-Tijuana border region. He has served as a consultant for the International Rescue Committee in Southern California. In San Francisco, he worked as Development Director for Performing Arts Workshop, a 44-year-old education organization serving young people in four Bay Area counties.

Lui, Richard

admin2011 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:34:28 +0000

Richard Lui is an American journalist and dayside news anchor for MSNBC. Lui also news anchors for NBC’s weekend Today show and reports for NBC News Investigations Unit and NBC Weekend Nightly News.
Before joining MSNBC, Lui was news anchor for five years at CNN Worldwide. He solo anchored Morning Express, and led morning political reporting during the 2008 Presidential election as cast member of the Robin Meade show. When Lui joined CNN Headline News in 2007, he became the first Asian American male to anchor a daily national cable news show in the U.S.

Before journalism, Lui spent 15 years in business with Fortune 500 and technology companies. This included work at Mercer Strategy and patenting and launching the first bank-centric payment system in a Citibank carve-out he founded with fellow Ross MBA alumni.
Lui has been active in community leadership for 25 years in Africa, Asia, and the U.S. He speaks at as many as 50 events a year, including for the U.S. State Department, Harvard, the Aspen Institute, and others. Subjects range from politics to minority communities. Currently, he leads pro bono strategy consulting teams, and is a board member for non-profits in homeless and affordable housing.

A first generation American, Lui has a twist in his background–Wong is his real last name, part of an immigration wrinkle because his grandfather, an illegal immigrant, filed false “Paper Son” papers.
Lui graduated from UC Berkeley, earned an MBA from Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and is currently enrolled at Stanford University in its postgraduate program on International Security.

A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans in the United States, 2011

admin2011 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:22:48 +0000

Asian American Center for Advancing Justice to Release Groundbreaking Demographic Research

The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice will release a groundbreaking report on the latest demographic trends in Asian American communities as part of the Advancing Justice Conference.

The demographic report, “A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans in the United States, 2011,” analyzes Census and other data on Asian Americans and highlights key issues facing the nation’s fastest growing racial group. It assesses the contributions and challenges facing the diverse ethnic groups that comprise the Asian American community, from their increased economic and civic contributions to continued challenges in housing and healthcare access to stereotypes around educational attainment and employment.

The report is among a series of demographic reports that is a project of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice. Copies of the report will be available at the conference session. The report will also be available for download at www.advancingjustice.org.

This event is free and open to the public.

Arntz, John

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:52:07 +0000

John Arntz has worked for the San Francisco Department of Elections since October 1999. He joined the Department as a temporary employee working at the public counter. Mr. Arntz has also assisted in the formatting and printing of voter information pamphlets and ballots, oversaw the vote-by-mail program, and managed the voter registration division. In April 2002, Mr. Arntz was appointed the Acting Director and in May 2003 he was appointed as the Director of Elections. In 2004, Mr. Arntz oversaw the implementation of a ranked-choice voting method in San Francisco.

Mr. Arntz earned a B.A. degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a J.D. degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law. Mr. Arntz lives in San Francisco.

Fletes, Christina

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:49:37 +0000

Christina is a research fellow at DataCenter where she is managing the first ever national study on domestic workers. It is a participatory research project designed to document the demographics, wages, working conditions, and training needs in the domestic work industry. DataCenter is partnering with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Center for Urban and Economic Development at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Nako, Lindsay

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:41:45 +0000

Lindsay Nako is an attorney with Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C., in Oakland, California. Lewis Feinberg is a national law firm that represents plaintiffs in employee welfare benefit and pension litigation, civil rights and employment discrimination litigation, and wage and hour overtime litigation. Ms. Nako’s practice includes representing employee classes in Title VII employment discrimination class action litigation, and individuals and classes of employees in ERISA welfare benefit and pension cases. She speaks regularly on topics relating to Title VII class action and ERISA litigation. She is a Contributing Author to Employee Benefits Law, edited by Sacher et al. and published by BNA books, Plaintiff’s Co-Chair of the ABA Labor & Employment Law, Employee Benefits Committee, Reporting & Disclosure Subcommittee, and a Vice-Chair of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section. Ms. Nako was recognized as a “Northern California Rising Star” for 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Law & Politics magazine. Ms. Nako is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall.

Low, Joanne

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:39:23 +0000

Joanne Low is a native San Franciscan with over 30 years of experience providing service to the City’s immigrant population. With her BA in Liberal Studies and a teaching credential in hand, she began her teaching career working with adults in a manpower training program in San Francisco’s Chinatown. This led to additional teaching and materials development opportunities and a degree in bilingual vocational education. Joanne has taught as well as developed materials for ESL, Vocational ESL, and Citizenship. She is currently working for City College of San Francisco as its Associate Vice Chancellor for the School of International Education and ESL, and the Chinatown/North Beach Campus. She is also on the Board of Directors for the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, a non-profit organization providing youth and adult oriented services for over 2000 families.

Zheng, Eddy

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:14:57 +0000

Eddy Zheng is a Project Manager with the Community Youth Center of San Francisco. He is a Mayor Appointee of the San Francisco Reentry Council, a board of director for the San Francisco’s Neighborhood Vision Project, a national advisory board member of the Asian American Law Journal, a member of the Community Police Advisory Board, and the co-chair of Asian Prisoners Support Committee, based in Oakland. In addition, Eddy led a book project which culminated in the publication of “Other: An Asian and Pacific Islander Prisoners’ Anthology.” Eddy is a Chinese immigrant who spent 21 years of his life in prison for crimes he had committed at the age of 16. Since his return to the free world, Eddy has dedicated his life to serving the youth and communities of the greater Bay Area. Eddy hopes to utilize his experiences to inspire and motivate young people to invest in their education, raise awareness about the detrimental impact that the Prison Industrial Complex has on the Asian and Pacific Islander population, and promote racial harmony among people of color.

Chun, Randy

admin2011 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:11:03 +0000

Randy Chun is a Regional Vice President for the Wells Fargo Foundation. The Wells Fargo Foundation is a private foundation funded by Wells Fargo Bank. Total giving in 2011 is expected to exceed $220 million.

Randy presently manages contribution programs in Central California to the San Francisco Bay Area. In keeping with the core expertise of a financial institution, Randy’s primary focus area for contributions is economic development issues; including but not limited to affordable housing, small business and workforce development issues.

Randy joined the Wells Fargo Foundation in 1995. Prior to his current assignment, Randy helped manage Wells Fargo Foundation programs in Oregon, Washington State, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico. He was assigned responsibility for Central California contributions in 2000 and the Bay Area Region in 2002.

Previous to the Foundation, Randy was a business banker with Wells Fargo’s Business Banking Group assigned to small business lending. Randy’s fifteen year’s work in Business Banking ran the gamut, including commercial lending, small business development and entrepreneurship.

Randy is currently the Board President for Asian and Pacific Islanders In Philanthropy (APPIP). APPIP is a national membership organization focusing on leadership development and capacity building in API communities.

Randy is a resident of San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a 20 year old son and enjoys rollerblading.