They Call Us Bruce 235: They Call Us Asian American Studies

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.

What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome Pawan Dhingra, associate provost and associate dean of the faculty at Amherst College and current president of the Association for Asian American Studies. He talks about the newly minted AAPI Studies program at Amherst -- the first of its kind for liberal arts colleges -- what's behind the seemingly sudden surge of interest in Asian American Studies, and how the field still needs to grow and expand. Pawan also talks a bit about Kumon, the South Asian stranglehold on the spelling bee, and his incredibly titled book Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough.

Judge rules in favor of Harvard in admissions lawsuit

Federal judge rules Harvard can consider race in its admissions process in pursuit of a diverse class.



From NPR: A judge has ruled in favor of Harvard University in a high-profile court case centered on whether the school's admissions process forces Asian Americans to clear a higher bar to get in.

Federal District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued her decision Tuesday, saying "the Court finds no persuasive documentary evidence of any racial animus or conscious prejudice against Asian Americans."

In the decision, Burroughs said that while Harvard's admissions program is "not perfect," "ensuring diversity at Harvard relies, in part, on race conscious admissions."

More here: Federal Judge Upholds Harvard's Race-Conscious Admissions Process

This mom is roaming campus looking for a date. For her son.

Police at Towson University have issued an advisory about a matchmaking mother on the loose.



Just in time for Valentine's Day! Police at Towson University are on the lookout for a woman who has been apparently going around campus trying to find a date for her son. Heyyy ladies.

Towson University police warn of a woman on the loose, looking for a date for her son

Students complained to officers that a woman in her 50s approached them in two campus buildings, showing them a picture on her cell phone and asking if they were interested in dating her son.

It happened enough times for university police to issue a campus-wide "incident advisory," including surveillance video images, asking for help identifying the woman. Officials say she isn't wanted for criminal investigation -- they just want her to stop with the unorthodox matchmaking efforts.

UC Irvine student found dead after fraternity party

18-year-old Noah Caleb Domingo's death appears to be alcohol-related.



A UC Irvine student died over the weekend after going to a party, and his fraternity has been suspended indefinitely amid an active police investigation. The death appears to be alcohol-related.

18-year-old Noah Caleb Domingo, a freshman member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was apparently participating in a rush week event for his fraternity when he attended a "big brother/little brother" party on Friday night.

When Domingo was found the next morning, he was dead.

More here: Father of UC Irvine student asks after son’s death: 'Could it have been prevented?'

This Virginia Tech flyer for international students doesn't feature any actual international students

Perpetual foreigner syndrome strikes again!



Virginia Tech recently printed up a promotional flyer urging international students to complete an upcoming survey to help make the campus better for international students. The flyer, posted around campus, featured a photo of smiling Asian students at Virginia Tech. You know, international students. Cool, right?

There's just one problem: none of the students in the photo are international students.

If you're wondering what the problem is, it looks like these students just got inadvertently smacked in the face with the perpetual foreigner stereotype -- the idea that no matter how long or how much or how far Asian Americans make our way in this country, we'll always be perceived as foreign -- never quite enough American.

In this case, whoever put together this flyer saw a photo of a bunch of Asians kids at Virginia Tech and erroneously assumed they must be international students. Not the kind from "here."

Have we made it to the top?

Guest Post by Jessica Jinn, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles


The author at her college graduation with her very pleased parents.
My parents cried when I did not get into UC Berkeley. My dad literally held the denial letter in his hands and cried. I cried, too. All my life I had been told to go to Berkeley and suddenly, I wasn't allowed. What was worse was that one of my best friends, a Latina, had gotten accepted. Despite the fact that California banned its universities to consider race in admissions at that time due to Proposition 209, life as an 18-year-old was horrible and we didn't know what else to do but blame affirmative action.

As affirmative action comes into the national spotlight again, one thought comes to mind: not this again. I knew Asian Americans would be pulled into this debate and depicted as affirmative action haters. With a story like mine, I would have been a prime suspect to oppose affirmative action. I am the Asian American that Edward Blum is hoping to take advantage of.

First of 37 Defendants in Fatal Hazing Case Pleads Guilty

Michael Deng suffered major head trauma during a Pi Delta Psi hazing ritual



The first of 37 defendants in a 2013 fraternity hazing death of a Baruch College student in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains to go on trial pleaded guilty Tuesday in Monroe County Court of Common Pleas in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

Ka-Wing Yuen, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to hinder apprehension by evidence tampering, a third degree felony, and conspiracy to commit hazing, a misdemeanor. Three other felony charges were dropped.

Read more at NBC Asian America.

Professor claims university forced him to teach stats because he's Asian

Seung-Whan Choi is suing the University of Illinois at Chicago.



A professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago is suing the school, claiming that he was discriminated against because he is from Korea. His lawsuit alleges, among other things, that he was forced to teach courses in statistics because he was told "Koreans are very good at mathematics and statistics."

Professor sues University of Illinois at Chicago for racial discrimination

Seung-Whan Choi, a professor in international relations, says that school administrators unfairly fired him in 2011, only to reinstate him and force him to teach statistics. He was also forced to teach a course in Korean politics, despite having no formal education in the field.

Choi, a Korean-born U.S. citizen, claims he experienced years of discrimination and retaliation due to his race and national origin. His lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Chicago, alleges that he was ostracized and denied raises comparable to his peers in the department of political science.

USC professor fatally stabbed by PhD student

David Brown stabbed psychology professor Bosco Tjan after a "personal dispute."



Damn. In Los Angeles, a doctoral student at the University of Southern California was taken into custody after stabbing and killing a psychology professor in a campus building on Friday afternoon.

USC PhD student accused of fatally stabbing professor on campus

28-year-old David Jonathan Brown, PhD student in brain and cognitive science, is accused of fatally stabbing Bosco Tjan, a co-director of USC's Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center.

Police received a 911 call from USC's University Park campus about a victim with multiple stab wounds. Emergency responders found Tjan's body in a science building. He had been stabbed in the chest.

Asian American Group Files Anti-Affirmative Action Complaint Against Yale, Dartmouth, Brown: What You Need To Know

By Jenn Fang. Cross-posted from Reappropriate.


Yale Law School (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I can't believe we're dealing with this again.

Less than a year after the Department of Education dismissed a frivolous administrative complaint filed by the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) against Harvard University, the AACE has now announced it will file a nearly identical administrative complaint against Yale University, Brown University and Dartmouth College. In their complaint against Harvard, AACE alleged -- absent any significant evidence -- that race-conscious affirmative action discriminates against Asian American applicants.

This work bolsters efforts by conservative partisan and lobbyist Edward Blum, who has made a career out of opposing civil rights measures for people of colour. Blum is best known as the architect of the Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court cases, which is the Right's latest campaign to invalidate affirmative action in higher education. Outside of his interest in ending race-conscious affirmative action, Blum has backed numerous Supreme Court cases to reverse portions of the Voting Rights Act and to silence voters of colour. In the recently defeated Evenwel v. Abbott Supreme Court case, Blum and his fellow litigators argued that districts should be drawn so as to disenfranchise thousands of non-voting citizens, who are predominantly young people and people of colour. (AAAJ-AAJC talks about how Evenwel v. Abbott would have resulted in the disenfranchisement of numerous AAPIs).

Edward Blum is clearly no ally of the AAPI community. So, one must wonder why some Asian Americans would support his causes.

Where Are We Now in the #Fight4AAS?

Join 18 Million Rising's Google Hangout on Monday, May 9.



Where are we now in the fight for Asian American Studies? 18 Million Rising invites you to join them for a Google Hangout with some awesome Asian American student activists from Northwestern, CUNY Hunter, and Cornell, who will talk about their work organizing for Asian American Studies programs at their campuses.

Join the conversation on Monday, May 9 at 3:00-4:00pm ET. Here are some more details:

Homeless teen arrested in murder at University of Texas

UPDATED: 17-year-old Meechaiel Criner suspected of killing freshman Haruka Weiser.



UPDATE: In Austin, police announced that a homeless teenager has been arrested in connection with the death of University of Texas student Haruka Weiser. 17-year-old Meechaiel Criner was taken into custody and booked into the Travis County Jail Friday morning on a charge of murder.

Haruka Weiser case: Meechaiel Criner, 17, arrested in UT homicide

On Thursday, the Austin Police Department released surveillance video showing a "person of interest" in the case. Police said they were able to tie Criner to the murder through a separate incident involving Criner and a trash fire, and a duffle bag possibly belonging to Weiser.

UC Santa Cruz students arrested in alleged drug ring

Three sorority and three fraternity members were arrested for possession of over $100,000 worth of MDMA.



Daaaaaamn. Asians behaving badly... collegiate drug ring edition! Last week at the University of California Santa Cruz, three sorority and three fraternity members were arrested for allegedly a running a drug ring and possession of over $100,000 worth of the club drug MDMA.

Six UC Santa Cruz students arrested in alleged drug ring, affiliated with Greek organizations

The suspects were identified as Mariah Dremel, Benny Liu, Cesar Casil, Nathan Tieu, Hoai Nguyen and Cecilia Le, all students at UC Santa Cruz, and all affiliated with the Alpha Kappa Delta Phi sorority or Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity. They were all arrested for possession of a controlled substance.

Dremel, Liu, Casil and Tieu are also suspected of conspiracy, according to police.

Police investigating possible hate crime at USC

Student says assailants threw eggs and called him "Ching Chang Chong motherfucker."



Can't a guy just mind his own business and enjoy his Saturday night without some racist asshole neighbors calling him racial and homophobic slurs and throwing eggs at him? Apparently not.

LAPD investigating racist incident in USC Housing

University of Southern California student Ivan Tsang says he was chilling in an outdoor common area of his campus apartment early Sunday morning when some guys from a nearby apartment hurled several eggs at him from their balcony and called him, among other things, "Ching Chang Chong motherfucker gay."

UCLA student is earning his PhD while homeless

26-year-old Louis Tse is a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering. He's also living in his car.



According to a census conducted last year, there are an estimated 44,000 homeless individuals in Los Angeles County. In an ongoing video series for the Los Angeles Times, Lisa Biagiotti sets out to put the faces to the statistics, meeting people on the streets and learning about their experiences and the issues they face.

In her most recent video, she meets 26-year-old Louis Tse, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at UCLA. He also happens to be homeless. (According to 2013-14 Federal Student Aid Form data, more than 56,000 college students identified themselves as homeless.) Tse reveals that he's been earning his PhD while secretly living out of his car for over a year. This is the first time he's going public with his situation.

In the video, Tse walks Lisa through his morning routine, talks about "rational homelessness" and his post-doctorate goals. He also shares that he's working to create a shelter for homeless youth.

Watch it here: He is getting his PhD - and is homeless

University cancels production over casting controversy

Playwright Lloyd Suh objected to the casting of white actors in Asian roles in 'Jesus in India.'



Last week, Clarion University canceled its theatre production of Jesus in India after the playwright voiced concerns over white actors being cast in roles written for actors of South Asian descent. Yuuuuup.

Cancellation of College Production of ‘Jesus in India’ Over Casting of White Actors Prompts Debate

The play, Jesus in India by Lloyd Suh, is described as "a contemporary reimagining of a wild stretch in the lost years of Jesus Christ." Three of the five characters in the play are Indian, but in Clarion's production, two were to be played by white student actors and a third by a non-Asian mixed-race student.

Suh told the university that he was not supportive of white actors portraying Indian characters in his play, and wanted the parts recast. After being told that finding Asian replacements would not be possible, he ultimately pulled the university right to stage the production -- a week before the play's scheduled opening.

Five suspects charged with murder in fraternity hazing death

Former members of Pi Delta Psi arraigned in 2013 death of Baruch College student.



Last week in northeast Pennsylvania, five former fraternity members were arraigned on murder charges for their participation in the brutal hazing ritual that killed a New York City college student in 2013.

5 Suspects Charged With Murder in NYC Student's Hazing Death

On Thursday, 26-year-old Kenny Kwan, 24-year-old Charles Lai, 22-year-old Raymond Lam, 23-year-old Sheldon Wong and 23-year-old Daniel Li -- identified by police as the most culpable of 37 suspects in the case -- were arraigned in the death of Baruch College freshman Chun "Michael" Deng.

According to police, fraternity members at Pi Delta Psi, an Asian American fraternity, forced Deng to participate in a hazing ritual in which he was tackled repeatedly, then tried to cover it up after he suffered a brain injury.

"You Indian piece of shit!" yelled the frat boy.

USC's Student Body President speaks out after racist fraternity house altercation.



Well, school's back in session. This week's edition of racist collegiate idiocy comes from the University of Southern California. Unsurprising bonus: It involves a fraternity. Over the weekend, USC's student body president says she was accosted by someone who shouted at her "You Indian piece of shit!"

The shocking racial epithet hurled at USC's student body president

Rini Sampath, who is Indian American, was walking back from a friend's apartment on Saturday night when someone leaned out of a fraternity house window and shouted, "You Indian piece of shit!" In case there was any doubt that his remarks were directed at Sampath, the unnamed fraternity brother then threw a drink at her.

Sampath, a senior international relations major who serves as president of USC's Undergraduate Student Government, shared the account of what happened to her in a Facebook post. She says that one of the assailant's fraternity brothers began to apologize -- after realizing who she was.

"I couldn't quite figure out why their after-the-fact apologies deepened the wound. But one of my friends explained it to me the best this morning: 'Because now you know, the first thing they see you as is subhuman.'"

Her post goes on to make a public plea for compassion and dialogue on campus.

Five fraternity members face murder charges in hazing death

37 members of Pi Delta Psi will face a range criminal charge in the 2013 death of Michael Deng.



In Pennsylvania, five fraternity members from Baruch College in New York City will face murder charges for their involvement in the death of a freshman during a hazing ritual at a rural retreat in 2013.

5 From Baruch College Face Murder Charges in 2013 Fraternity Hazing

A grand jury recommend that five members of Pi Delta Psi face a range of charges, including third-degree murder, in the death of 19-year-old Chun Hsien "Michael" Deng. A total of 37 members would face a range of criminal charges, including assault, hindering apprehension and hazing in connection with Deng's death.

Deng suffered severe brain trauma while being forced to play a game called "glass ceiling" in an apparent pledge ritual gone wrong during a weekend fraternity retreat to the Poconos in December 2013. To make matters worse, the fraternity members didn't call 911 after Deng was knocked unconscious, and waited hours before someone drove him the hospital.

University of Cincinnati will cover college expenses for sons of slain police officer

University will cover tuition and other costs for the sons of Officer Sonny Kim.



The University of Cincinnati says that it will cover the full cost of tuition and other expenses for the three sons of slain police officer Sonny Kim, who was killed in the line of duty, if they choose to attend the school.

Ono offers full ride to Kim's sons

In Ohio, state universities and community colleges are required by law to offer free tuition to children and spouses of officers killed while on duty. This week, University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono announced that the school will cover other expenses such as room and board and textbooks for Kim's sons.