There was yet another racist on-air outbreak this week, on NJ 101.5 FM. Two radio hosts and a caller blasted Asians during a conversation about a local mayoral race in which Korean American candidate Jun Choi is challenging the incumbent. Referring to our "little beady pocketbooks," they lament about the fact that Chinese people are dictating elections (versus "Americans") and that Chinese and Indians are taking over parts of NJ. I really hate to give any blog space to this kind of trash, but you can read details at angry asian man (see 04.27.05 entry) and in the Star Ledger.

Keep in mind, these are only the stories that make it into mainstream media, which, I'm sure, is a tiny fraction of racist behavior and thought in this country. Many people are calling for letters, petitions, and protests against this radio station. Which is all fine and well. But that is only a band-aid for the wrong that has already occurred. Let's allocate some of that energy to efforts that combat against the root of the problem:

a)
Begin with ourselves. It's easy to advocate for people like ourselves. But the most important thing I've learned from working for Stewart Kwoh, a leading figure in the civil rights advocacy arena, is that strength is in numbers. And numbers require collaboration. The callers on this radio show would just as likely rail against the burgeoning Latino population in Southern California, or the growing Vietnamese community in Orange County. We need to look beyond racial and cultural boundaries and respect and protect all communities who are victims of hate.

b)
Participate in civic life. There are elected officials such as Judy Chu (D-Assembly, 49th District) who are passing laws in Sacramento that have an impact on the lives of Asian immigrants in a both a direct (AB309) and indirect way (AB1071). Asm. Chu was elected by people like you and I. According to APALC's CA Demographic Profile Report, Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in the state. Peter Hong reports in the L.A. Times that there are more Asian Americans than any other racial group among undergrads at Berkeley, UCLA, UCI, and UCR. These are our future corporate and government leaders. (So cliché but true nevertheless.) These are people who have no language barriers, and have higher levels of education and interpersonal skills than most of the U.S. population. We won't all be elected officials or execs, but we will be the ones hiring and firing. We will be volunteering. We will be attending town hall meetings. We will be teaching in classrooms. And writing for mainstream and new media. We will be making the big bucks. And most importantly we will be voting.

c)
Empower the Asian market. In a recent AsianWeek article, Grace Niwa of Niwa Public Relations reports that Corporate America is starting to realize the relatively untapped potential of the Asian market. Yes, ultimately they want our money, but in order to get to our pocketbooks, marketers will have to cater to our needs and desires. This means more Asian faces in advertising, more ethnically targeted products, and, especially signficant for my industry, more money for our cause.

d)
Finally, we need to build relationships. In forming friendships with individuals from different backgrounds and with different philosophies, our personalities, gifts, and talents will help form their impression of an entire race. Better yet, we can blow stereotypes to pieces by proving them utterly inaccurate. The problem with many young Asian American professionals (myself included) is that we don't make an effort to diversify our circle of friends. How can we expect Abercrombie to have a rainbow of models in their catalogue if we can't even do it in our personal circle?

One last thought: forgiveness. Let's not be guilty of the same kind of hatred that these people hold against us.