How can we expect people to get along when in society we say that it’s ok to hate the Jets and like the Giants.

Something to think about?

James, I believe you do. The issue does go beyond NJ, but your actions directly affect people in NJ long after your part of this work is done. How would you feel if a bunch of non-Asian people decided to start speaking for Asian people in this situation without asking you or any other Asian people what they thought, and then stated that they didn’t think they needed to consult with any Asian people about this? imo, it’s important to, at minimum, consult with people who will later be dealing with the brunt of any possible backlash, including the other parts of this issue (like housing discrimination, discrimination at the polls, possible hate crimes, etc.).

It seems like you have a problem with many APIA groups who got involved in this issue (including us) in terms of approach in this Jersey Guys issue. I read over your comments and honestly I have no idea what you’re trying to tell me but here’s my take.

I don’t believe I necessarily need to know local people in terms of approaching this issue. We have had many successful campaign in the past (refer to our site: Details, Enzyte, Hot 97, etc. etc..) that were not really just NY local issues. This Jersey Guys issues just go beyond NJ local issue.

We were simply coming from the point of view of “What if they say something like this referring to African American? They would have been long gone.” Unfortunately, saying deragatory things about APIAs on air is still considered fair game. We are trying to change that.

As for the response, I don’t know if that was myself or my staff… You need to understand that we receive hundreds of e-mails every day. As one of fairly well known APIA non-profit groups, we just don’t have time to respond to every single e-mails. So the response may sound short from time to time. Please don’t take it personally. We are simply busy. I try to find time to respond to message boards whenever time allows but that’s pretty much the best I can do. We even post our phone number on our site (“Contact Us” section) and all you need to do is call, which is probably the best way to reach especially in the middle of major campaign like this.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I may not respond right away but be assured that I do read every single e-mails.

Sincerely

– James Fujikawa Co-Founder/Campaign Director Asian Media Watchdog 676 A Ninth Avenue New York, NY 10036 Phone: 212-560-5683 Fax: 212-957-9191 Visit our website at http://www.asianmediawatchdog.com

All I was originally trying to say was making ourselves the victims every time something like this happens isn’t the best way to do things. It’s more complicated than that since both sides feel victimized. In an ideal world, instead of punishing the Jersey Guys, both sides would sit down and talk things through.

I do realize, however, that we don’t live in an ideal world. Given New Jersey’s past, it’s important to be extra cautious about what is said in public: it’s an issue of freedom versus security to some extent. Although I still think South Asians need to combat this bigotry at an individual level, the people of Jersey should do whatever it takes to prevent violence.

I didn’t have a chance to respond before to Manish’s Civil Rights movement analogy:

The reduction in racism was not built exclusively on high-profile top-down steps like impact litigation or changing textbooks or media accountability or legislation, although those are all pieces of it. Those things happen at the end, when you already have some power. What generates the capacity for those things is people like Rosa Parks coming together to form community and a culture of treating each other well and understanding who to resist and how. And also, you need people like Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez and other folks (like MLK for that matter) who confronted and scared the $hit out of the elites, demanding accountability, and took things beyond the level of black people’s rights to human rights and the rights of vietnamese people not to get killed and poverty.

All that work and community building and empowerment leads to a culture of decent politics that reframes the way that people talk about political issues. It’s not a coincidence that advances in Black people’s rights, lgbt people’s rights, women’s rights, poor people’s rights, immigants’ rights (including my parents’ ability to enter the US) all happened at once.

For a view of what happens when you ignore context and do single-issue work, or don’t care about questions of strategy and people’s opinions outside of those who already agree with you, just look at the lgbt gay marriage “movement” today–it’s so single-issue focused, totally ignores the ways that other people are being f@#cked–including people within the lgbt community–and generally uses tactics like lawsuits that are so lacking in populism that it, quite naturally, generates enormous backlash (and undermines previously won victories that could have been sustained, like civil unions). It’s a really, really foolish and fundamentally anti-democratic way to try to promote people’s well-being and rights if that’s what it’s actually about; some of us think it’s really about primarily promoting the interests of a certain segment of the lgbt population at the expense of everyone else.

no need to apologize–i asked for it, and a lot of the questions you raised were really legitimate i agree in particular with this: “instinct and conscience are the backbone of any real positive social change”

also, just want to clarify, i hate the notion of organization (in fact, that’s a big part of the reason i work as a consultant despite the economic costs) in my overgrown adolescence, and vastly prefer a romanticized view of people working on their own, paid or unpaid, to do social justice work (that’s what i do). i think there’s a space for organizations and for groups of individuals, etc.–just as long as the whole decentralized structure is embedded with a culture of accountability to the people at the bottom.

Desis in these areas do make cultural ties. They go to the same stores, malls, parks, courts, etc. as everyone else is the community. They are your doctors, your lawyers, your real estate agents, your gas station attendants, your life insurance representatives, your bank tellers, etc. Such cultural ties are attempted, and made, every single day. Food, folks and fun, the whole 9.

This is especially so in the public school system, where typically friends’ circles are more diverse than a Benneton ad.

Its not about desis becoming more “American” or assimilated…its about America recognizing desi-America as legitimately American.

I know I may sound like a Polyanna, but the reality is that African Americans were making *strides* in the civil rights movement by public outreach and education.

The abolitionist movement had been preaching its good word in vain for over 150 years by the time Brown v. Board came out. What really made the changes were the protests all across the South and legal action. That is what makes changes in this country. Otherwise, we will be sitting around for decades wondering when the racism will stop.

If the Jersey Guys were trying to incite violence, then by all means, take them to jail.

Chances are it wouldnt meet the test for inciting violence but such comments DO influence (and reiforce negative) attitudes. And as such they are harmful and dangerous to desis….not in an blatantly illegal way, but certainly in a way that must be redressed by the community.

First apologizes because the tone of my post was unduly harsh. Second, I’ve never ever been to the Asian Media Watchdog’s site, the response I was talking about was even broader and disorganized than their approach seems to be in your view (I have no idea either way). It is the response of bloggers, friendsters, mass-email recipients, etc. who individually have responded to the issue. I think there is real value in that response, as visceral as it may seem, because instinct and conscience are the backbone of any real positive social change.

That said, I completely agree with you that as a collective we should capitalize on this response for future issues for as you say

But even if it doesn’t foster that broader set of connections, the work that’s done leaves something behind in the form of social networks and greater knowledge/empowerment among the people who were part of it, and, for some, the remediation of what prompted them to get together in the first place, etc.

So I take back my question, grassroots orgs are definitely useful, I was just saying disorganized movements are also a good thing (although not terribly efficient) and should be given credit as such.

New Jersey history:

In October, Jud Colicchio, former mayor of Wanaque, New Jersey, created a public furor when he said he didn’t want more housing in the district because it would attract “all these dot heads” to the area. In November 1987, in nearby Jersey City, Navroz Mody was murdered. Witnesses said the accused suspects shouted “Hindu, Hindu” while beating Mody to death. A hoodlum gang – “the Dotbusters” – claims credit for attacks on Indians who wear the traditional Hindu pottu… An angry Hispanic in Jersey City told an India West reporter, “These Indian people, they come in. They take over. They’ve got a house and business because they’re screwing us around. Everyone knows you can’t trust them. They’re cheap and will [manipulate] you around for a dollar.” Another said, “Indians don’t tend to hire these kids to work at their stores. They hire other Indians or do it themselves. That makes the kids angry because they feel they’re somehow losing out.”

And:

[I]n September 1987, a group calling itself the ‘dotbusters’ wrote a letter to a Jersey City newspaper. The letter read: “We will go to any extreme to get Indians to move out of Jersey City. If I’m walking down the street and I see a Hindu and the setting is right, I will hit him or her.” A couple of weeks after that, an Indian doctor, Kaushal Sharan, was beaten up by three white men. And three days later, in the neighbouring town of Hoboken, an Asian Indian, Navroze Mody, was beaten to death by a gang of 11 men.

Ironically, Hoboken/Jersey City today have huge numbers of desis who work in Manhattan. In Edison/Iselin, there have been tensions over celebrating Navratri.