guest post by oiyan poon: the college admissions debate & the asian american 1%

Our friend OiYan Poon weighs in on the latest round of media hype surrounding Asian Americans and college admissions. This post was originally published over at Hyphen.

'Tis the season again: of holiday parties, excessive consumerism... and media hype over whether elite colleges and universities discriminate against Asian Americans in their undergraduate admissions process. This annual tradition may have begun in 2006 with Jian Li's well-publicized lawsuit against Princeton. Li, who was a student at Yale and later transferred to Harvard, alleged that Princeton exhibited an anti-Asian admissions bias, in rejecting him despite his high test scores and GPA.

Almost a year ago, the media exploded with debates over the Tiger Mom's memoir on extreme parenting. Among Amy Chua's spurious arguments was the suggestion that her brand of childrearing helped explain why Asian Americans are highly represented, if not overrepresented, amongst undergraduates at Ivy League schools and similarly selective institutions.

Now, in the early winter of 2011, comes the latest hackneyed news story about how some mixed-race (hapa) Asian American applicants with non-Asian surnames are avoiding identification with their Asian heritages as a precaution against possible anti-Asian bias at top schools.

Over the last 5 years of this mainstream media-driven discussion, we have learned two things:

kal penn's next movie: harold & kumar do not go to lowe's

I particularly enjoyed Kal Penn's tweet about Lowe's and their bonehead, bullshit intolerance: Our next movie: "Harold & Kumar Do Not Go To @Lowes". Please take a sec to sign & support an all-American show. http://tiny.cc/eqbfw.

He links an online petition in support of TLC's All-American Muslim, directed at sponsors, urging them to ignore the Florida Family Association's bigoted whisper campaign: Repudiate Calls to Stop Advertising on TLC's "All-American Muslim."

missing: 28-year-old judy nam, last seen december 2

Some news of a missing person in Queens... Police are asking for the public's help in locating 28-year-old Judy Nam of Flushing, who has been missing for almost two weeks: Flushing woman missing.

Nam was last seen leaving her home on Roosvelt Avenue on Friday, December 2 at 3:00pm, wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. She is Asian, 5-feet-8-inches tall and weighs 135 pounds.

Anyone with information on Judy Nam's whereabouts is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477).

You can also submit a tip by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at NYPDCrimeStoppers.com or texting your tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All callers will be kept confidential.

yo yo ma on the floor of a bathroom, with a wombat.

Yo Yo Ma on the floor of a bathroom, with a wombat. I started seeing this phrase tweeted and re-tweeted the other day. I thought the reference was some kind strange code or lyrics or poetry I wasn't cool enough to understand. Turns out, it's a photo caption, and it couldn't be any more precise.

"lonely" 27-year-old posed as harvard freshman for months

Asians behaving badly... fake Harvard freshman edition! Last week at Harvard University, a 27-year-old man was kicked out of a Harvard Yard dormitory after passing himself off as a freshman at the College for several months: Weld Visitor Abe Liu: I Was Lonely.

Abe Liu, a student at Harvard Extension School, had been crashing in friends' dorm rooms and telling students that he lived in Weld Hall. His fictitious personal history and fake freshman activities extended to frequent postings on the Harvard University Class of 2015 Facebook group.

But Liu's lies caught up with him, and University Police officers showed up last week to escort his deceiving ass out of the door:

beatrock music 2-year anniversary celebration, september 17

If you're in the Bay Area, you've got to check out the second anniversary celebration of Beatrock Music, the independent record label home to artists like Bambu, Rocky Rivera, Otayo Dubb and Power Struggle, to name a few.

The event will feature art and performances from Beatrock's best, including Rocky Rivera, Power Struggle, Otayo Dubb, Bwan, and Kiwi, as well as a special performance with Bambu and Prometheus Brown.

It's happening this Saturday, September 17 at Workspace Limited Art Studios in San Francisco. Here's a promo video for the event:

vote for your favorite pitch in the unity new u entrepreneur competition

Check out the UNITY New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY fellowship competition. You can vote online for entrepreneurs of color who are competing to win a $10,000 seed grant to continue to fund their company.

Here are the five video pitches submitted through the Asian American Journalists Association -- including some friends of this blog:

asian american 2011 rap-up by jason chu

As 2011 draws to a close, here's a video of emcee Jason Chu looking back at the year in Asian America... in a rap: Asian-American 2011 rap-up. The ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs -- mostly relatedly to popular culture, but with some other stuff mixed in -- from Tigers Moms to Jeremy Lin to Mayor Ed Lee. Take a look:

racist graffiti found near korean church fire

This week in Los Angeles, authorities are investigating a possible hate crime and arson at a North Hills Korean church, which vandalized with racist graffiti: Racist graffiti found near Korean church fire; arson unit probing.

A small fire broke out in the kitchen area of the Valley Central Presbyterian Church, which was vandalized and set on fire with combustible material that had been stuffed inside a toaster. The graffiti included racial epithets scrawled on the walls in marker pen and on the floor in baby powder:

g.i. joe: retaliation trailer

Oh hell yeah. Check out the freshly dropped first trailer for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, directed by Jon M. Chu. Yeah, the first movie was kind of a turd, but this sequel looks pretty darn promising. You've got Lee Byung-hun back as Storm Shadow, Dwayne The Muthaeffin' Rock Johnson as Roadblock, and Elodie Yung as Jinx. And ninjas ninjas ninjas:

new york times museum review offers possible justifications for internment?

At first glance, Edward Rothstein's New York Times museum review of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center in Powell, Wyoming seems like a thoughtful, sober reflection on one of the former sites of the U.S. government's relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II, now a museum.

But the latter part of the article spends a little too much effort expressing possible justifications -- or at least a plausible rationale -- for the internment, throwing out Malkin-like evidence of possible wartime espionage. It's entirely inappropriate for what's supposed to be a museum review.

So I'm passing this along from Jennifer Hayashida, Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College, who sent out the following letter asking friends, colleagues and concerned citizens to call out the New York Times on this "misrepresentation of civil rights history." Check it out:

angry gift guide: kid's walker

Holy crap. For my latest nomination for The Awesomest Thing Ever (international committee, are you listening?) I give you the Kid's Walker by Sakakibara Kikai, available for sale and rental. 400 lbs. of robotic gears and metal, it stands 1.6 meters tall and is powered by gasoline. Here's a video of the thing in action:

lawmakers condemn lowe's for withdrawing advertising from all-american muslim

By now, you've heard about Lowe's ridiculous, cowardly decision to pull advertising from Discovery Channel/TLC's All-American Muslim, a reality show depicting the lives of Muslim American families living in suburban Michigan, including the discrimination they encounter because of their religious beliefs: Lowe's faces backlash over pulling ads from 'All-American Muslim.'

The home improvement chain withdrew advertising after the conservative, anti-Muslim Florida Family Association accused the show of being "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values." It's dumbass, hateful nonsense, but Lowe's lacked any kind of spine to listen to reason and caved.

Several politicians, including California State Senator Ted Lieu and Congresswoman Judy Chu, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, are condemning Lowe's actions: Lawmaker: Lowe's 'bigoted' for pulling 'All-American Muslim' ads. Here's Rep. Judy Chu's statement:

visions of astropolis, december 16

If you're in Chicago, I implore you to check out the premiere screening of Visions of Astropolis, an audio-visual collaboration between indie-rock/electro-pop artist XYZR_KX and visual artist Chien-An Yuan, described as "a hypnotic expedition into the vanishing dreams of a not so distant future."

What the heck does that mean? The evening will feature a live performance, videos and a special preview of the upcoming Visions of Astropolis sound and visual installation. It's happening this Friday, December 16 at Transistor in Chicago. And it's free. Here are some more details:

parents asked church member to discipline their kid -- with a beating

What the hell? Last week in Irvine, California, a man was arrested for beating a teen with a metal pipe -- with the permission of the kid's parents: Authorities: Southern California family asked fellow churchgoer to beat their child.

According to authorities, the parents dropped of their child at the home of 39-year-old Paul Kim, asking him to discipline the 15-year-old after they found a lighter in his possession. Kim was apparently their church's go-to guy when parents needed someone to kick their kids' ass:

target commercial: little drummer girl

Yet another one of these awesome nationally-televised Target commercials featuring an Asian American family front and center. This one features a mom and her budding rock star daughter. Love this: Little Drummer Girl.

guest post by karin chien: an open letter to the producers guild of america

Our friend, indie film producer extraordinaire Karin Chien, whose latest film Circumstance is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, drops in with a guest post calling out the Producers Guild of America on their outdated, archaic and inexplicable English-only stipulation for awards consideration.

Recently, a film I produced with Melissa Lee and Maryam Keshavarz, Circumstance, was submitted for the Producer's Guild of America's awards consideration. Circumstance is a hard film to categorize: it's a story of teenage love and personal freedom set in Iran, filmed in Beirut, edited in Chile, finished in France, and financed primarily by U.S. sources. And the film is in Farsi. We knew we were a long shot to be nominated, but we were still excited by the prospect. Producing is often thankless and invisible work, and awards that solely recognize a producer's contribution are few and far between.

That excitement ended when I received an email from the PGA's Director of Arbitrations & Legal Affairs on December 1. It informed us "unfortunately under the current rule structure, we are unable to accept foreign language films at this time."

chan sung jung defeats mark hominick in seven seconds

I'll admit I'm not much a fight fan, but this is pretty sweet. Over the weekend at UFC 140 in Toronto, underdog South Korean fighter Chan Sung Jung, aka "The Korean Zombie," took down Mark Hominick in just seven seconds -- tying record for fastest knockout in UFC history. Here's the video (it's short):

firefighters in pearl harbor photo identified!

Remember that awesome photo of female firefighters at Pearl Harbor? Some research has turned up more information about the photo to set the record straight. Turns out, the photo was indeed taken at Pearl Harbor, but definitely not on December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor surprise: Photo of female firefighters wasn't from Dec. 7.

It's likely that this is actually a Navy publicity photo taken to showcase the roles of women during role. At some point, the photo was mislabeled by various sources that described it as taken during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But the original photo has been uncovered at the Hawaii War Records Depository -- with the correct caption:

"A crew of women fire fighters, all crews having been chosen from personnel working in the immediate vicinity of the pumper stations. From left to right: Elizabeth Moku, Alice Cho, Katherine Lowe, and Hilda Van Gieson."

The woman pictured second the right, Katherine Lowe, is still living in Hawaii at age 96. She confirms that the photo definitely wasn't taken December 7, 1941:

jeremy lin heading to the houston rockets

On Friday, news broke that Jeremy Lin had been let go from the Warriors. That had to be rough to get cut from his hometown team, but before the end of the weekend, we had already gotten word (via Jeremy's tweet) that he has been scooped up by the Houston Rockets: Rockets pick up guard Lin.