The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) issued the following statement on Aug. 7, and I believe the short statement is certainly worth your time.
I have written about microagression racism before and the JACL describes both overt and microagression racism in its statement.
Mountaintop-mining (a form of surface coal mining where the tops of Appalachian mountains are removed to expose valuable coal reserves) and “fracking” (a form of accessing oil and gas reserves that many claim to be destroying water quality and causing subsidence and small earthquakes), are both forms of extracting natural resources for energy production. Both processes involve highly charged support or opposition by the coal/gas & oil industry (and their service industries), on one side, and environmental groups (and their supporters) on the other.
Pro-Mountaintop Mining Coal Miners
Leveling Appalachia
As an environmental attorney working in Appalachia, I have had the misfortune of working on both mountaintop mining issues and oil & gas fracking issues. Unlike other highly charged issues on which I have worked during my career, there is virtually no opportunity for any compromise on either side of these issues, turning political policy decisions on the subjects into metaphorical IEDs, ready to explode and alienate a large segment of voters, regardless of which side benefits from a given policy.
Fracking Policy–Supporters & Opponents are Polar Opposite
Anti-Fracking Process Description
Although I have worked with Native American tribal liaisons regarding ancestral artifacts and human remains, I have never worked with them on issues related to natural resource extraction/exploitation–though I did discuss the issue hypothetically in a graduate level Environmental Ethics course I taught as an adjunct professor. As expected, the students in the course were divided in their strongly held beliefs on both sides of the issue of whether natural resources should be allowed to be removed by private industry from Native American lands, with obvious environmental effects, if the action would result in cheaper electric bills.
Native American view of land as sacred
The Nation of Change article linked below shows one Native American tribe’s views toward the practice of “fracking” and the effects this process will have on their traditional lands.
Native Americans Launch ‘Love Water Not Oil’ Ride to Protest Fracking Pipeline
Anishinaabe Native American Activist Poster
Anishinaabe Native American Dance Troupe
I would be interested in receiving feedback on readers’ particular views on these two natural resource extraction methods.
The death of privacy in the digital age
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/19/3387373_vincent-cao-too-many-believe-that.html?sp=/99/349/&rh=1
In the past I did harbor some measure of concern about my social media privacy, but eventually I came to the realization that there was no longer a reason for my concern–Big Brother has (or will have) all of my posted information anyway . .. so there is no need to worry. I simply strive to be a little more cautious about what I post to social media or what I say in email to friends.
I do, however, constantly preach to my teenage daughter about the need for caution when using social media, even though she has yet to give me a single reason to question her judgment on such matters. When I see some of the posts she shows me from her classmates, I cringe about the many interviews and opportunities that will be denied them by prospective employers or boards reviewing applications to professional schools.
The linked article above provides a very good description of the current state of privacy in our addicted-to-wifi society and our “digital thumbprint.”
Digital fingerprint–evidence for the rapidly approaching future
School Bullying
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20140820/OPINION/140819669
The story linked above provoked me to comment on a bullying complaint policy recently adopted by a school district in my state currently being investigated by the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for racial/ethnic harassment, discrimination and retaliation, all or some of which fall under the umbrella term “bullying.” Bear in mind that under Title VI of the Civil a Rights Act, a complaint can be made to OCR within ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY (180) DAYS of the incident.
In agreement with the article linked above, every study I have seen has found that students are reluctant and often wait long periods of time to tell their parents they have been bullied. Despite Federal guidance to the contrary, a local school district (with a well-deserved reputation for allowing bullying to continue unabated) has adopted a new policy requiring students to prepare and submit to the SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT a written complaint describing the bullying they have suffered WITHIN FIVE (5) DAYS of the incident OR FORFEIT THEIR RIGHT TO REDRESS. This policy doesn’t even pass the straight face test. It is a policy clearly designed to repel any attempts to investigate bullying allegations, given the short time period allowed to report an incident and by including an intimidation factor–requiring a bullied victim to report his complaint to the highest ranking official in the school system.
Statistics on School Bullying
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/19/3387373_vincent-cao-too-many-believe-that.html?sp=/99/349/&rh=1
When I made complaints to coaches and administrators at my daughter’s former school system about the stream of racial slurs made to my daughter (“chink”, “slant eyes”, “nigger lover”, and ” Commie”, to name a few), none of my complaints were taken seriously and no investigations initiated as required by Federal law. My wife did receive a call, though, after one of my complaints, from an assistant basketball coach and wife of the athletic director, questioning my sanity and “instructing” my wife that,”There is no racism going on at this school system.” And to make sure my wife received the message, the coach/AD’s wife asked a rhetorical question, “You understand what I am saying don’t you?”
It wasn’t until the Asian American Legal Defense and a Education Fund (AALDF), an outstanding civil rights group out of New York City, became involved (and their complaints were ignored for weeks until the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) was contacted and KDE specifically directed the school’s superintendent to conduct an immediate investigation into my and AALDEF’s complaints). Many weeks passed before the school district even made contact with AALDEF, and to this day continues to delay or block any attempt at resolving the issues, though investigations are ongoing with the U.S. Department of Education and Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.
It did not take long after the school board hired an attorney to begin a smear tactic against my daughter and me, which in a small town got back to me fairly quickly-comments such as: I was only trying to line my pockets with the school district’s limited budget because I am an attorney and that’s what attorneys do. I was going to sue all of the parents individually for the slurs “allegedly made by their children”. I wanted to destroy the name of the school district. Blah. Blah Blah. [In truth, I DID NOT FILE THE COMPLAINTS with the Department of Education and Department of Justice. AALDEF filed in their own name on behalf of my daughter after their many attempts to enter into negotiations with the school district were ignored or not taken seriously. Additionally, I was captain of my football team there, still use my number76 in my Twitter handle (terryclarke76) and gmail email address (terryclarke76@gmail.com) and my late father and two of my close cousins are in the high school’s Hall of Fame. In short, I had no interest in destroying the school’s reputation. In fact, as incredible as it appears, those associated with the school have openly questioned my motives that I was concerned with improving the climate of cultural tolerance in the schools within the school district though I am on my city’s Commission on Human Rights, and consciously made the choice not to sue the school for money damages.]
Why is still PC to make racist comments about Asian Americans?
The site linked below is a story a television station (WDRB) in Louisville filmed and posted in an article on its website. The sports reporter, Eric Crawford (who has an outstanding reputation as a national basketball reporter) came with a camera man and interviewed my daughter and me for hours after driving 3 hours to my home in the extreme Northeastern part of Kentucky where it touches Ohio and West Virginia. We only consented to two more interviews, one with an Asian American reporter I have always admired, who was the former host of NPR’s All Things Considered, and Mellisa Issacson of ESPN who wanted to seek my daughter’s opinion on bullying in the locker room of girls sports teams as the Richie Incognito–Jonathan Martin saga was unfolding. We turned down countless other interview requests because neither my daughter nor I wanted to bring attention to ourselves. A link to Ms. Issacson’s story on ESPNW story is also included below the link to WDRB’s Eric Crawford’s story.
This is the same school system which was placed on probation for openly cheating during the State’s regional Governor’s Cup competition. This is the same system whose supporters claimed that this school district was too “culturely sophisticated” for their students to ever utter a racial slur, not a single one, though my daughter was the only minority on her basketball team and it was her teammates who admitted they hated my daughter. Bear in mind the link at the beginning of this post was from an Asian American living in Kentucky’a second largest city (Lexington) and much more culturely diverse than my daughter’s former essentially all-white school located in the Appalachian area of the State (the hillbilly part). Despite the school district’s representatives claims that all of its schools “embraced diversity”, this school system has the reputation in the area as one of arrogance and intolerance. When the state’s ruling body on academic competitions issued a lifetime ban to the high school’s academic team coach from ever coaching in, or even attending, academic contests, the media asked the school’s principal if the cheater would be fired. The principal’s response, “Heck no. He made ONE mistake and they Pete Rose’d him.”
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/40234312.html?device=tablet
“The Gooks of Hazard”
So . . . Does anyone actually find the Appalacian school district’s position credible that racial slurs against Asian American DO NOT OCCUR at their rural school when those slurs occur daily in the halls of the schools in the State’s urban areas?
Asian American students are the most bullied ethnic group in American schools
I have a very keen interest in the state of affairs of the post Soviet countries, as described below, but I recently came across a very good article in The Guardian that lists the current state of affairs of the 15 post-Soviet countries, and am providing the link below.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/-sp-profiles-post-soviet-states
Map showing the former countries of the Soviet Union
My daughter was adopted from Kazakhstan nearly 14 years ago–not that long after the Soviet Union collapsed, relatively speaking. Because I have tried very hard to keep my daughter connected to her motherland (with whom she holds a dual citizenship), I have befriended many hundreds of Kazakhs on Facebook, LinkedIn and through Skype and simply word of mouth. My daughter Milena (Tulegenova) Clarke is from the Middle Horde (Orta Zhuhz) and the Naiman tribe (ru) and she and I have visited Kazakhs throughout the USA during my business trips over the years and spoken with many over Skype or Goggle’s Hangouts. Accordingly, I know much better how Kazakhstan has faired (extremely well, despite the crude, inaccurate portral in Boraдt) than the other former Soviet countries since the collapse of the USSR.
I am constantly amazed by the Kazakhs’ closeness to and concern for one another, even including their great concern for my daughter, who has not yet returned to her mother country (though I plan to take her “home” for an extended holiday for her 16th birthday next year). I continuously receive articles and music related to Kazakhstan to show Milena, though at her age, they oftentimes send information directly to her. Milena continues to list Almaty, Kazakhstan as her hometown at every opportunity and tries diligently to celebrate her Kazakh culture as much as she does her American culture (whatever that is).
Milena maintains pride in the heritage of both countries in which she has dual citizenship.
When the national media reported on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) filing of complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education against Milena’s former school system for their deliberate indifference in allowing her to be harassed and the subject of discrimination (and accompanying retaliation) based on her ethnicity, national origin and race, well over a thousand Kazakhs came to her defense on Facebook, creating a page dedicated to Milena and offering her support in both English and Russian. Most of our Kazakh friends know that I have raised Milena to be bilingual (English, out of necessity, and Russian, her first language–though she is determined to learn Kazakh, which, though it currently uses the same Cyrillic alphabet as Russian, is a Turkic, not a Slavonic language).
The Kazakh Facebook community’s show of support for Milena
I have had more contact with Central Asians because of the similarty of their cultures with Kazakhstan, maintaining friendships with people of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Also, because my daughter and I practice the Russian Orthodox faith, we have a greater understanding of the non-secular issues of Russia.
If anyone has any information they would like to share on any of the 15 post-Soviet states, please be sure to add your thoughts, ideas or information in the comments section.
Like hundreds of others who are Asian American or are have strong ties to the Asian American community, I have written about self-proclaimed feminist Kathy Groob who tweeted that Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao (former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Director of the Peace Corps) essentially could not be a Kentucky citizen because she’s Asian. Her logic would make my Asian American teenage daughter and Kentucky citizen non-existent, with her ridiculous rationale that having Asian ancestry and being a Kentucky citizen are mutually exclusive.
Again, I am a political moderate, clinging to my belief that neither party actually represents any position, other than that which would result in the election of their candidates.
With that disclaimer, I am linking to an article by a guest commentator, obviously a Republican, who nonetheless makes some valid points and asks some difficult questions which the Democratic Party has failed to answer.
Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
Kathy Groob, Self-Proclaimed Feminist (exceptin Asian American Women)
When will America stop with the prejudice and stereotyping?
terryclarke blog 