links for 2011-01-26

"You’ve heard of Earth Day, Groundhog Day, but have you heard of Fred Korematsu Day? That’s right — next Sunday, January 30, is Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution. It’s the first day in U.S. history named after an Asian American and it was signed into law on September 23, 2010 by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Korematsu (1919-2005) was a national civil rights hero who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton in 1998."

Still more reactions to Rush Limbaugh's racist "chong chong" gibberish tirade on his radio show last week. Here's the Asian Pacific American Legal Center's response, demanding an apology to the Asian American community from the controversial talk show host…"

"You will have to excuse me for losing faith in the administration to do anything on immigration remotely looking like reform, this is including the alleged new push to pressure employers instead of the employed (more on that later). Instead of how continued raids and increased enforcement have broken more families apart than ever before, we have a President who waves the enforcement first flag along with the best among the GOP. Additionally, we have Latinos in the media saying that advocates and activists have a messaging problem, not a humanity problem, not a compassion problem, but a marketing issue, since we as Latinos, as immigrants, are commodities, bargaining chips."

"Brisenia Flores, 9, was killed on May 30, 2009, when a group led by anti-immigration fighter Shawna Forde raided the girl's family home in the border town of Arivaca, Arizona. Allegedly, the attack was organized in the name of the Minutemen, a crew of vigilante border patrols, who hoped to steal money and drugs to fund their revolution against immigration. The Flores household was attacked mistakenly, for they had no drugs or money, but according to reports, Forde and her cronies commenced to shoot Brisenia's father in the head, killing him, before wounding her mother and eventually, shooting Brisenia in cold blood. Minutemen honcho Shawna Forde's trial is set to open this week. But why has this story not been more thoroughly covered by the media in the meantime?"

"The sender, Michael Santomauro, whose son is in third grade at P.S. 290, on the Upper East Side, said Tuesday that it was not until minutes later, when two parents replied with complaints, that he realized his mistake. He meant to send the message to another group he belongs to, where members debate whether accounts of the Holocaust are exaggerated, and he apologized to the parents for the 'total confusion.'

"Still, the damage was done, and school officials and parents, many of whom are Jewish, were stunned not only by the e-mail, but also that there was such a parent in their midst."

"Ms. Rhodes-Pitts is in her early 30s. She grew up in Texas and graduated from Harvard. She doesn’t tell us that she attended Harvard in her book, as if that fact might soil her street cred. But then, her past is mostly a gray smudge in 'Harlem Is Nowhere,' her personal exposition of the neighborhood. She was the only black student in her high school English class. She has a Texan sense of personal space. She read a lot as a teenager. That’s about all we learn…[t]here are curious omissions. Hip-hop music — which defines Harlem’s sonic atmosphere, as well as its street fashion — is barely mentioned. This is a loss: we need young, black female intellectuals who can size up rap’s sacred and profane monologues. It’s like talking about Harlem in the 1920s without mentioning jazz."