#NeverAgainIsNow: Fort Sill

A Little Tokyo protest to end all family separation and detention centers.


If you're in Los Angeles, join concerned community members in Little Tokyo this Thursday evening to protest the White House's plans to use Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a detention center for immigrant children and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention practices in general.

Organizers are demanding an end to the inhumane conditions at ICE facilities, an end to family separation policies, and for compassion and humanitarianism toward all people. All who share concern about these issues are invited to participate.

It's happening June 27 at 7:00pm on the plaza of the Japanese American National Museum.

When Angry Asian America showed up to march

Reader-submitted photos from the Women's March on Washington and beyond.



You may have heard that some people got together and marched on Saturday. In Washington DC and cities across the nation, an estimated 3.7 million took the streets -- the biggest one-day protest in U.S. history -- in widespread, vocal defiance of Donald Trump's presidency. This is the first day of the next four years.

I knew a lot of friends and readers of this blog would be participating, and I thought it might be fun to create a photo gallery of faces and sights from the Women's March. So I put a call out on social media asking for folks to send photos of themselves and their signs in action...

... And I got flooded with photos. People showed up. I received hundreds of amazing photos from people who participated in marches in cities all around the country. I received so many, I couldn't keep track, and there was no way I could process all of the photos into a gallery in any reasonable amount of time.

But here is a small sampling of the reader-submitted photos from the march. Thank you to everyone who sent one in. I apologize; not every photo I received made it into the gallery. People are still sending them as I write this, and I just had to cut it off. But I appreciate your support and enthusiasm. Stay Angry!

Video shows McDonald's employee attacking customer

Korean American community groups are calling for a boycott of the restaurant.



In New York, several Korean American community organizations are calling for a boycott of a McDonald's restaurant in Queens after an employee was caught on video hitting a Korean patron with a broomstick, and allegedly refusing service and shouting, "We don't serve coffee to people like you!"

Korean-Americans Seek Boycott After an Attack in a McDonald's in Queens

The incident occurred last February at the McDonald's location on Main Street in Flushing. The customer, 62-year-old James Jin Kim claimed that the employee, Rooshi Sajjad, attacked him after he complained about the slow pace of service. In response, the employee yelled at Mr. Kim, and told him "Get out of my restaurant!" When Mr. Kim began recording video on his phone, Sajjad attacked him with a broom handle.

The restaurant's security cameras caught the incident on video:

Join the campaign to release the #ElPaso37

More than thirty Punjabi asylum seekers remain in ICE custody without due process



In Texas, more than forty Sikh men from India -- members of a minority political party from the Punjab region -- have been detained since spring of 2013 at the El Paso Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center. They fled their home country seeking asylum from persecution, only to find themselves languishing in custody here in the United States without due process for nearly a year.

Earlier this month, 37 of the detainees -- dubbed the #ElPaso37 -- initiated a hunger strike in protest of continued denials of their rights to due process. The ended after ten days, with several hospitalizations, amid promises from ICE that the detainees' paperwork would finally move forward. But so far over thirty detainees still remained in custody in El Paso.

18 Million Rising has launched a campaign to increase pressure on ICE to release these detainees and call attention to their plight. Starting today, 18MR has partnered with United We Dream to kick off a three-day protest, during which community members, activists, and organizers from across the country will inundate ICE with phone calls expressing concern about and demanding the release of the #ElPaso37.

Want to participate? Here's what to do:

White House responds to petition regarding Jimmy Kimmel's "Kill everyone in China" comment

"The comments you are writing about do not reflect mainstream views of China in the United States."



Back in the fall, Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a segment called "Kids Table," in which Jimmy Kimmel sat down with precocious kids to talk about the state of the nation. During the discussion, one of the kids suggested that we "kill everyone in China." The moment made it on the air. It made a lot of people very upset.

The "kill everyone in China" comment went viral, and in addition to protests attended by thousands around the country, someone started a We the People petition calling for the Obama administration to "immediately cut the show and issue a formal apology." Since the petition surpassed 100,000 signatures -- the threshold for an official response -- the White House was compelled to release a statement on the matter.

It's pretty much what you'd expect. The White House response points out that the parties involved have already apologized, the federal government can't force ABC to remove the show, and you know, free speech and stuff:

President Obama delivers remarks on immigration reform in San Francisco's Chinatown

Protestors call on the President to halt all deportations.



President Obama was in San Francisco this morning, delivering remarks at the Betty Ong Recreation Center in Chinatown, where he called on Congress to pass commonsense immigration reform. His speech included a shout out to Batkid, an acknowledgement of some of the city's earliest Asian immigrants by way of Angel Island, and a challenge to House Republicans to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Obama's Speech Disrupted by Undocumented Student Calling to Halt Deportations

But President Obama's visit to the city by the Bay would not be complete with some spirited protests, including an exchange with an outspoken audience member -- identified as undocumented student Ju Hong -- who disrupted his speech and called on the President to halt all deportations. When security attempted to escort Hong out, the president stopped them, saying he wanted Hong to stay.

Here's a clip of Hong's exchange with Obama:

Thousands gather for protests against Jimmy Kimmel

Chinese American groups demand late night host's firing for "kill everyone in China" remark



Man, this Jimmy Kimmel controversy appears to have some legs. Over the weekend, protestors gathered in cities across the country in response to the late night talk show host's recent segment which jokingly suggested that we "killing everyone in China." On Saturday in Burbank, more than a thousand people picketed ABC's headquarters: Protestors slam Jimmy Kimmel over 'kill everyone in China' joke.

During the "Kids Table" segment, which aired last month, Kimmel gathered a group of children to get their take on politics and the economy. When asked how the United States should deal with its ballooning foreign debt, one of the kids suggested that we should "kill everyone in China." Obviously, it's just a kid being a kid, and kids say crazy things. But critics say the moment was irresponsible and should never have made it on the air.

Both Kimmel and ABC have since apologized for the segment, and quickly removed the clip from all public platforms. But these actions are apparently not enough:

Bao Phi's lessons from Miss Saigon

In which a poet tells me everything I need to know about the hit musical



Just want to point you to this powerful, thoughtful personal essay by poet/community activist Bao Phi, who speaks about his personal history of protest against the musical Miss Saigon: War Before Memory: a Vietnamese American protest organizer's history against Miss Saigon.

Miss Saigon is scheduled for a one-week engagement in St. Paul's Ordway theater next month, and has already been met with considerable objections from the community because, well, it's a really friggin' racist show. And dude, this ain't the first time: Twin Cities is home to long legacy of protest of 'Miss Saigon'

I'm going to be completely honest: I've never had the opportunity to see Miss Saigon. I heard there's a helicopter on stage. Yay. But I'll take Bao's word for it. I definitely don't need to see this show.

Race is Not a Party: Fraternity suspended for "Racist Rager"

An update on what's going down at Duke University, where a fraternity is getting its ass kicked for throwing a racist Asian-themed party over the weekend. The "Racist Rager," as critics are affectionately calling it.

According to Duke's student newspaper, The Chronicle, operations of the Eta Prime chapter of Kappa Sigma have been suspended. The fraternity will undergo an investigation to determine the status of its charter, but all activities and events are now prohibited. That's a start.

Meanwhile, several hundred Duke students gathered Wednesday to protest the Kappa Sigma's party, and the culture of ignorance and discrimination at Duke that allowed it to happen. This wasn't about just one incident:

You were not invited to Kappa Sigma's "Racist Rager."

Sometimes, you just need one guy to say, "Hey, maybe this isn't such a good idea." Alas, nobody in Duke University's Kappa Sigma chapter had that good sense when they threw their Asian-themed "racist rager" last week: Duke Kappa Sigma party ignites firestorm of criticism.

I know. A racist themed frat party -- shocker. Who would do such a thing? The flyer above was made by Asian American students in protest of the party, and all the other racist and sexist marginalization that consistently goes down at Duke and campuses everywhere. No, this is not a new thing.

Here are some more protest flyers, created using Facebook photos from the party, as well as emails that were sent to invitees. Looks like it was a jolly good racist time for all. Well, for all those white kids, I mean:

LGBT groups excluded from Little Saigon's Tet parade

This week in Orange County, a coalition of lesbian and gay Vietnamese groups staged a protest after being excluded from Westminster's annual Lunar New Year Tet parade. They were specifically asked by organizers not to participate: LGBT group says it's been ousted from Tet parade.

The LGBT coalition has marched in the parade for the last three years as part of the overall Vietnamese American community. This year, they tried to submit their application to join this weekend's festivities, but were denied by parade organizers. They were instead encouraged to organize their own parade. Right. And basically defeat the entire purpose of marching in the Tet parade in the first place.

On Monday, the Partnership of Viet Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organizations and their supporters demonstrated in front of the offices of the parade organizers in Little Saigon.