WNYC reporter Arun Venugopal posts his round-up on the South Asian Journalists Association Forum site:
A February 23 column in AsianWeek by Kenneth Eng has created a huge uproar among Asian-American community leaders, politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Asian American Journalists Association. The column, “Why I Hate Blacks,” is not nearly as ironic as I thought it might be; it’s a straight-out, racially-supremacist diatribe…
Hello all,
Here is my PROPOSAL for all Asian-American groups, regardless of which Asian community you represent:
I believe we need to discuss race relations at a forum where Americans of all communities are represented and our voices can also be heard. We can discuss this on the blogs until the cows come home, or TAKE ACTION AND MAKE A COMMITMENT TO IMPROVE RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA. If the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Indonesians, Malayasians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, people of Myanmar and others that I may have missed on this Asian list, would like to have a forum with the African-Americans and all-encompassing white Americans … I think it can be arranged this summer in Atlanta. After all, Atlanta was the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.
The convention runs for several days and is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of people. I know the person who is heading the planning committee. She is an African-American friend who specializes in conflict management, and is the key organizer of the convention. I have not run this proposal by her, but if the Asian-American organizations are interested, I can talk to her about it, and then we will have to submit a proposal within six weeks.
If there is interest in the Asian community (including South Asian community) to follow up on this, I will update this column with more details. I have been thinking about this option since the day Kenneth Eng’s article was published on SAJA blog two days ago, and wanted to help bridge the gap between all Asian communities, African-Americans and all other Americans.
Could some of you PLEASE POST THIS PROPOSAL ON MY BEHALF ON OTHER ASIAN-AMERICAN BLOGS, or direct that blog to the SAJA site, or publish it in a daily or weekly Asian newspaper. Those interested can post their responses on the SAJA site. Thanks.
Jaya Kamlani