KAYA-LA Filipinos For Obama Mobilization Day

Saturday, May 19, 9AM-1PM

8337 Telegraph Rd., Suite 214, Pico Rivera, CA 90660

RSVP on facebook here

Cross posted from Hyphen Magazine

Filipino Advocates for Justice’s Geraldine Alcid (with baby) and Mobilize the Immigrant Vote’s Rebecca Apostol discuss strategy at a seminar on voting in the Filipino community.

How much time would you need to make 20,000 phone calls? Would your fingers get tired from all that dialing? Would your ear start to hurt?

Better to divide up the workload like Geraldine Alcid, the programs director of Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ), did. Late last year, her small team — maybe half a dozen strong — put their fingers and ears to the test by making approximately 20,000 calls. It took nine weeks to complete the job, carried out in regular evening shifts at FAJ’s Oakland office. The nonprofit undertook the effort to gauge how Filipino voters in the East Bay felt about raising taxes on the rich.

Of those surveyed, an overwhelming 85 percent favored taxing the rich out of a sample size of about 880 responses.

After their poll confirmed this, FAJ began gathering signatures to put the Millionaire’s Tax Initiative on California’s November ballot. With a hybridized version of the measure expected to qualify, FAJ plans to pick up the phones again this fall to deliver the community’s votes.

As a general rule, phone bank volunteers reach a household’s voicemail much more frequently than they do an actual person. With such a lopsided ratio, the activity can turn into a major grind. And even when someone answers, conversations do not always go smoothly.

“Once they hear that it’s a Filipino person on the other line, that normally provides a lot of familiarity,” Alcid said. “But we still get lots of people who hang up on us and do all of that.”

Through whatever heights of rudeness “do all of that” might imply, those who volunteered to make calls said they remained upbeat and focused during the task.

“We had a good rapport with each other, and we kind of pushed each other,” team member Sammy Gutierrez said. “It was good energy. Even if you had a bad call, it was like, ‘Oh well.’ You could joke about it.”

On occasion, a few of the callers were rewarded with a particularly heart-warming experience.

“Some of our senior citizen volunteer phone bankers have…run across the name of someone they went to high school with in the Philippines,” Alcid said. “It almost sometimes gets that small town feel to it, you know, like ‘I recognize this last name, are you related to so-and-so’?”

This latest undertaking is part of FAJ’s long history of political advocacy. The organization has taken a stand against Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot measure that created funding gaps in California’s public schools, as well as later initiatives that FAJ believed were threats to Filipino Americans.

“We’ve always worked on … ballot initiatives that really attacked immigrant rights, rights of the Filipino community in that sense,” Alcid said.

More recently, in 2008, the organization threw its weight behind successful local measures to fund youth programs in Union City and Oakland. In 2010, it advocated against a proposition to repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act and supported another proposition to balance the state budget.

This year, FAJ has not decided whether to target any other issue besides the Millionaire’s Tax Initiative. However, the organization has larger challenges to grapple with.

For the very first time, Alameda County will integrate Tagalog into the process during the primary vote on June 5. Not only will there be translated registration forms, information guides, ballots, and polling place signage, there will also be bilingual poll workers.

Federal law requires counties to provide bilingual voting assistance if there are 10,000 voting-age citizens with the same language preference that concurrently have limited English proficiency. Alameda County just cleared the 10,000 mark for Tagalog speakers in the last census.

The move also represents a broader shift that could potentially elevate the entire Filipino community’s political influence. Already, three other counties in California support Tagalog-speaking voters. With Filipinos having one of the highest naturalization rates in the US, more counties could follow suit.

But FAJ faces an uphill battle to increase voter turnout. Possible reasons include a low number of Filipino candidates, a belief that policymaking has no personal impact, or even a fear of getting called for jury duty, according to Alcid. Moreover, the community’s first-generation members often prefer to follow political developments in the Philippines, or reject politics altogether because rampant corruption in the Philippines has turned them off to it. All these factors cause low electoral turnout, a problem that will hopefully be mitigated if FAJ and other groups can leverage the language angle effectively.

It won’t be easy. Alcid worries about the accuracy and accessibility of the translated materials.

“Election language in and of itself is already kind of difficult to navigate, and now you’re going to add deep Tagalog on top of that. We’ll see how that works,” she said.

FAJ must also take care not to offend the majority of Filipino Americans in Alameda County who speak English, and might be insulted by the notion that they need help reading ballots. This means that in the push to publicize bilingual assistance, FAJ must carefully frame its message.

How to spread that message is also an overarching challenge leading up to the election. No one devises neatly packaged marketing plans for watershed moments like these. “This is new territory for us,” Alcid said.

In preparation, Alcid and other organizers of various affiliations gathered on the evening of May 3 to set strategy. In one especially relevant segment, Rebecca Apostol from the non-profit Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV), who has collaborated with countless coalition partners in coordinating grassroots campaigns, recommended “picking up the phone and talk to them (Filipino voters) in a language that they understand.”

MIV supported FAJ’s phone banking efforts by providing ballot measure analysis, voter education training, and lists of phone numbers to dial. But Apostol believes additional activity needs to happen to improve turnout.

“Our folks aren’t voting because people aren’t talking to them,” she said. “Those of us who have knowledge, the little bit that we have, we have to be more open about talking about it.”

The organizers discussed everything from educating voters about the primary to increasing voter registration. Turnout could be better this year because three Pinoys are running for State Assembly, including two from Alameda County — Rob Bonta and Jennifer Ong. All three will be taking a shot at history, since no Filipino has ever won a seat in the California legislature.

To build more political buzz, FAJ will host its 39th anniversary celebration, pun-ily titled “Rock the Balut” this Friday, May 18. The event aims to raise awareness about the importance of this election year for the Filipino community. Although there is no word on whether chef Dominic Ainza intends to serve fertilized duck embryos for dinner, Nato Green, Allan Manalo, and Nice Hat will perform political comedy, and collaborators like MIV will be honored at the event.

FAJ will also use this opportunity to raise some funds. With all those calls, the organization’s phone bill must be a monster, and it has to get paid somehow.
***

“Rock the Balut” will be held on May 18 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center at 388 9th Street in Oakland, California. For more information, call (510) 465-9876.

This post is part of Hyphen Politics, an ongoing series that looks at where Asian America and politics intersect in the run-up to the 2012 general election.

Cross posted from Patch

This month we celebrate an American community whose cultural heritage is so diverse that it has gilded the mountain tops of the Himalayas and soared down the shimmering rivers of Laos. It is a heritage that represents cutting-edge innovation in the West Coast and a vision of triumph in the Gulf Coast.  It is a heritage that has shaped the values and ethics of generation after generation across the globe, and demonstrated an unflinching resilience in deriving possibility out of improbable circumstances. It is a heritage whose community in the United States boasts more than 100 languages & dialects, spans 40 national origins, and is 17 million strong.

In essence, the deep-seeded traditions of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community represent the very spirit, and the very best, of the American dream. Every day, two million AAPIs breathe life into small businesses—the lifeblood of our economy. And with over one million AAPI-owned firms in our country, such enterprises not only generate more than $300 billion dollars in annual sales, but they also employ 50 percent of all workers at minority firms nationwide.

That’s why the Department of Commerce and the Obama Administration have remained squarely focused on reducing barriers to entrepreneurial development—so that AAPI-owned businesses can optimally continue creating new jobs and new opportunities.

First and foremost, the capacity for growth of any enterprise rests in the ability to attract funding, raise capital and spur additional research & development. So the Administration has taken concrete steps to improve this funding ecosystem through the Start-Up America Initiative. By building partnerships with the private sector, the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration match up to $2 billion with private funds that invest in early-stage R&D, invest in businesses in underserved communities, and invest in small entities that face difficult challenges in accessing capital. These nationwide partnerships not only help break down barriers that AAPI entrepreneurs may face, but they also encourage and expand the role of minority owned venture in budding innovation clusters growing in cities like New Orleans and Pittsburgh. And for businesses seeking intellectual property rights to protect their ideas, the Department of Commerce is also working to rebuild the country’s patent and trademark system through a more efficient process that affords discounts to small businesses.

Already these and other efforts throughout the Administration have helped AAPI small business owners secure $15 billion worth of loans and contracts.. If you launch a small business, you can deduct a full $10,000 of its startup costs.  If you are self-employed, you can deduct 100 percent of the health-care expenses incurred by you and your family. If you hire new employees who had previously been unemployed, there’s a tax credit for that. And if you have existing employees or hire new employees and offer them health care, there’s a tax credit for that as well., From tax relief and small business loans, to insurance reforms and Recovery Act contracts–this Administration has provided more direct assistance to AAPI firms than any previous time in our nation’s history. And because so many of us have family, friends and contacts in other countries around the world, the Department of Commerce has also made AAPI outreach an important part of our National Export Initiative.

Certainly there’s more to be done, and with a rich tapestry of language in our community—communicating the tools that are out there is also a challenge. In turn, Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency has also developed an aggressive outreach plan that targets AAPI entities and educates   businesses on the federal grants and resources at their disposal.

But ultimately, we know that no two groups participating in this great democratic experiment are alike. The needs of Vietnamese Americans will invariably differ from Indian Americans which will also vary from Chinese Americans. Yet only when we genuinely listen to one another will differences be exposed, and individual needs be addressed. That’s what this Administration’s efforts are rooted in. That’s what this country has been built on. And that’s what this month is all about.

Vikrum Aiyer is Senior Speech Writer & Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) Vagina Monologues
Friday, May 25, 7:30PM at Herbst Theatre
401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco 94102

In this year’s Presidential Proclamation on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the President reminded us that “generations of AAPIs have helped make America what it is today.”  In light of this celebration, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) will be hosting briefings at the White House and other engagements across the country throughout the entire month of May.  You can find blog posts and a listing of this month’s engagements on WHIAAPI’s Weekly Highlights: AAPI Heritage Month Edition page.

Last week, I participated in one of these engagements as a part of WHIAAPI’s Heritage Month Community Leaders Briefing, which was held at the White House on May 9, 2012.  This briefing brought together national, community and government leaders to hear from senior White House officials on critical issues to the AAPI community, including the economy, immigration, healthcare and education.  Given that approximately 60 percent of Asian Americans were born outside the U.S., how we implement our immigration policies matters to AAPI communities. The Administration takes seriously its responsibility to implement and enforce our immigration laws so that they are consistent with our finest tradition of being  a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. At the briefing, I discussed the Administration’s efforts to build a 21^st century immigration system through administrative reforms and legislative action on comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

The Administration will continue to improve our system while still insisting that Congress take up and pass comprehensive immigration reform.  We have developed a blueprint for a 21^st century immigration system that lays out our policy proposals for Congressional action.  In the meantime, however, we have begun important reforms to the system so that it that it prioritizes the safety of detainees, while enhancing our legal immigration system and promoting innovative citizenship integration programs.

For example, the Administration implemented common sense guidelines for prosecutorial discretion and a case-by-case review process to focus federal enforcement resources on the highest priority individuals.  We have also increased our engagement and immigrant integration efforts by providing Chinese-language engagement opportunities through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and by creating the immigrant integration grant program. USCIS has also developed helpful tools for individuals preparing to naturalize and the organizations that serve them.  Many of these materials are available in multiple Asian languages. According to DHS, over 1 million AAPIs are eligible to naturalize.

Earlier this year, the Administration announced a proposed regulatory change to allow in-country processing for family based visas. Given that Asia-born persons are more likely than other immigrants to enter under family-sponsored or employment-based immigration preferences, this proposal has the potential to significantly impact the AAPI community. In fact, it has been hailed a huge victory by attorneys, and other AAPI leaders in the immigration advocacy world.

During the Q & A session, AAPI leaders shared helpful feedback on the impact these and other Administrative reforms are having on AAPI communities across the country. The Administration will continue to work to ensure that the immigration system is serving all immigrant communities, including the AAPI immigrant community. I look forward to continue working with WHIAAPI and other leaders from around the country to help ensure that issues particular to the AAPI community are heard and understood.

Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Director for Immigration at the White House Domestic Policy Council, speaks at the WHIAAPI’s Heritage Month Community Leaders Briefing, May 9, 2012. (Photo courtesy of the White House Domestic Policy Council)

Celebrate San Francisco’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and V-Day San Francisco

You are cordially invited for an exclusive debut of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues performed by an all Asian Pacific American identified cast. The APA Vagina Monologues is more than just a show. It’s about igniting change, raising the issues of Asian Pacific American women, and ending violence (of all forms) against women everywhere.

Mark your calendar!

Asian Pacific American Vagina Monologues

Show Starts at 7:30PM

Historic Castro Theatre

429 Castro St,

San Francisco, CA

Ways YOU Can Help Make APA Vagina Monologues A Success!

BUY TICKETS

Be a part of herstory by attending the show with your friends and family! All show proceeds benefit 501(c)3 women’s organizations that are committed to stopping violence against women.

RSVP on facebook here!

DONATE

Your donation via http://www.indiegogo.com/APAVM12 will benefit the National  Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum,

the nation’s only multi-issue women’s organization in the country for Asian Pacific American women and girls.

JOIN US

Be a warrior for our communities. Spread the word about us!

Share the APA Vagina Monologues website 

Follow us @APAVaginas on twitter and use the official hashtag #APAVM12

Like NAPAWF Bay Area on facebook

Blog it, write it, tweet it, facebook it!

 website | www.apavaginamonologues.com

 twitter | @APAVaginas

 facebook | www.facebook.com/APAVM

Learn about National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, the nation’s only multi-issue women’s organization in the country for Asian Pacific American women and girls, by visiting the NAPAWF website.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 8, 2012

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT THE 18TH ANNUAL GALA OF THE

ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR CONGRESSIONAL STUDIES

Ritz Carlton

Washington, D.C.

5:46 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Thank you. Everybody, please, please, have a seat. Have a seat. You’re making me blush. (Laughter.) Mahalo!

AUDIENCE: Mahalo!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Thank you, Norm, for that kind introduction. More importantly, thank you for your lifetime of distinguished service to our country. I want to thank all the members of Congress who are with us — including two people who are fighting hard every day on behalf of every member of this community — Judy Chu and Mike Honda. Give them a big round of applause. (Applause.)

Now, I am thrilled to be here tonight because all of you hold a special place in my heart. When I think about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, I think about my family — my sister, Maya; my brother-in-law, Konrad who’s in the house somewhere — (applause.) I don’t know where Konrad is. My nieces Suhaila and Savita. I think about all the folks I grew up with in Honolulu, as part of the — (applause) –

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Aloha! (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: As part of the Hawaiian ohana. I think about the years I spent in Indonesia. So for me, coming here feels a little bit like home. This is a community that helped to make me who I am today. It’s a community that helped make America the country that it is today.

So your heritage spans the world. But what unites everyone is that in all of your families you have stories of perseverance that are uniquely American. Some of you — those from Hawaii or the Pacific Islands — (applause) — live where your family has lived for generations and your story is, in part, about keeping alive treasured native traditions. But for others, your story starts with ancestors who, at some point, left behind everything they knew to seek the promise of a new land. Maybe the story traces back a century and a half, to the laborers who risked their lives to connect our coasts by rail. Maybe it begins with one of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who, decades ago, made the tough journey to Angel Island.

Maybe the story starts with your parents. Or maybe it starts with you. But here’s the thing. No matter when it began, no matter where it began, your stories are about someone who came here looking for new opportunities not merely for themselves, but for their children, and for their children’s children, and for all generations to come.

Few of them had money. A lot of them didn’t have belongings. But what they did have was an unshakeable belief that this country — of all countries — is a place where anybody can make it if they try.

Now, many of them faced hardship; many of them faced ridicule; many of them faced racism. Many were treated as second-class citizens — as people who didn’t belong. But they didn’t give up. They didn’t make excuses. They kept forging ahead. They kept building up America. They kept fighting for America — Like Danny Inouye, who’s here. (Applause.) Danny, who was my senator most of my life. (Laughter.) Love that man.

But they were trailblazers like Dalip Singh Saund — a young man from India who, in 1920, came to study agriculture, stayed to become a farmer, and took on the cause of citizenship for all people of South Asian descent. (Applause.) And once Dalip earned his own citizenship, he stepped up to serve the country he loved — and became the first Asian American elected to the Congress. (Applause.)

They were pioneers like my former congresswoman, Patsy Mink, who was not only the first — (applause) — not only the first Asian American woman elected to Congress but the author of Title IX — which has changed the playing field for all of our girls. (Applause.)

And then there’s the story of a young Japanese American boy, just 10 when his family was forced from their home and taken hundreds of miles away to an internment camp. For three years, they lived in that camp, but when that boy got home, he didn’t turn his back on America — he devoted his life to America. In his words, he pledged “to speak out for the underrepresented and to pick up on those issues that weren’t being carried by others.” And as the first Asian American to ever serve in a President’s Cabinet, Norm Mineta made good on that pledge. (Applause.)

So think about how proud all those previous generations would be to see this room, to see how far this community has come. Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders are now the inventors and entrepreneurs keeping our country on the cutting edge; the businessmen and women at the helm of some of our most successful industries; leaders in every aspect of American life — in science and medicine, in education, in sports, in the arts, in our Armed Forces; in our government and in our courts. In fact, over the past three years, we have more than doubled the number of Asian Americans on the federal bench. (Applause.)

Just yesterday, Jacqueline Nguyen became the first Asian American woman to get confirmed as a federal appellate judge. (Applause.) Where’s Jacqueline? She’s here tonight. There she is. (Applause.) You didn’t bring your robe, though. (Laughter.) That’s pretty cool. (Laughter.) And we’re so proud to have her along with another appellate judge I appointed, Denny Chin. He’s here. (Applause.) Where’s Denny? There he is, back there. So we thank them for their service.

Whether your heritage stems from South Asia or East Asia, from my native Hawaii or the Pacific Islands, whether you’re first generation –

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Wahooo!

THE PRESIDENT: These Hawaiians here — (laughter) — what’s up with that? (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Wahooo! (Laughter.) Aloha! (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Whether you are first generation or the fifth, you’re helping to build a better America.

And I know it can be tempting — given the success that’s on display here tonight — for people to buy into the myth of the “model minority” and glance over the challenges that this community still faces. But we have to remember there’s still educational disparities like higher dropout rates in certain groups, lower college enrollment rates in others. There’s still economic disparities like higher rates of poverty and obstacles to employment. There are health disparities like higher rates of diabetes and cancer and Hepatitis B. Those who are new to America — many still face language barriers. Others — like Vincent Chin who we lost three decades ago — have been victims of horrible hate crimes, driven by the kinds of ignorance and prejudice that are an affront to everything America stands for.

So those are real problems, and we can’t ignore them. And if we’re going to do a better job addressing them, then we first have to stop grouping everybody just in one big category. Dozens of different communities fall under the umbrella of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and we have to respect that the experiences of immigrant groups are distinct and different. And your concerns run the gamut.

That’s something that Washington needs to understand better. And that’s why I reestablished the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — (applause) — so that we could better identify specific issues within specific communities. Many of those commissioners are here. I want to thank them for the great job that they’re doing. (Applause.)

And so we’re making a difference — on that front and on many other fronts. When we stepped up support for America’s small businesses, we stepped up support for this community — providing over $7 billion in loans for small businesses owned by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (Applause.) When we passed health care reform, we put in place new mechanisms to get better data about health disparities. (Applause.) Because of that law, nearly 3 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are going to receive expanded and preventive coverage through private insurance and nearly 1 million are receiving free preventive services through Medicare. (Applause.)

So some of the things that matter to this community are things that matter to every community, like making sure that a woman earns an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. (Applause.) Or ending “don’t ask, don’t tell” so that nobody has to hide who they love to serve the country they love. (Applause.) Or enacting education reform so that every child has access to good schools and higher education. (Applause.) Or caring for our veterans because it’s our duty to serve them as well as they have served us. (Applause.)

That’s what this country is about. That’s what we’ve always been about. We’ve gone through some tough years because of this extraordinary recession and we’ve still got a long way to go. But we will get there. We will arrive at that destination where every child born in America regardless of race, creed, color, is going to have a chance. We’re going to do that together — because in this country, we look out for each other. We fight for each other. If somebody is suffering through injustice or inequality, we take up their cause as if it was our own. That’s the story of America. And that’s certainly the story of this community. (Applause.)

In the midst of World War II, when the son of Japanese immigrants, Gordon Hirabayashi, ignored the curfews and refused transfer to an internment camp; when he was jailed for his defiance; when he later appealed his conviction and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court — he understood that he was fighting for something larger than himself. And he once said, “I never look at my case just as a Japanese American case. It’s an American case, with principles that affect the fundamental human rights of all Americans.” (Applause.) And while Gordon is no longer with us, later this year I’ll award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian award America has to offer. (Applause.) Because he reminds us that each of us is only who we are today because somebody, somewhere, felt a sense of responsibility — not just to themselves, but to their family, and their communities, and to this country that we all love.

So tonight, we honor the trailblazers who came before. But we also celebrate the leaders yet to come — all the young people who are here tonight. (Applause.) Together, it’s our turn to be responsible for the future. It’s our turn to make sure the next generation has more opportunities than we did. It’s our turn to make sure that no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, no matter what you look like, America forever remains the place where you can make it if you try.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END 6:00 P.M. EDT

Cross-posted at White House Blog

Posted by Gautam Raghavan on May 08, 2012 at 09:00 AM EDT

As we observe AAPI Heritage month, we have an opportunity to reflect on how much we have accomplished throughout the Obama Administration for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and acknowledge the work that is still to be done to empower those in need.

Through numerous briefings and town hall meetings, we have heard many of you describe some of these needs: the importance of health insurance for those who cannot afford it, the urgency to fix our education system, the need for immigration reform to fix the broken system, the plight of small business owners working to keep their businesses afloat.

Throughout the month of May, we are posting regular blogs that detail the work of this Administration to address those needs. We will also be hosting a White House Briefing tomorrow from 12:00 p.m. ET to 2:00 p.m. ET to continue this conversation with various White House and Agency leaders. This event will be live-streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live and we hope that you’ll join us. Here is an agenda for the event:

Welcoming Remarks
Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Congresswoman Judy Chu, Chair of CAPAC

Jobs & Economy
Portia Wu, Senior Policy Advisor, White House Domestic Policy Council

Immigration
Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Advisor, White House Domestic Policy Council

Health
Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health & Human Services

Education
Martha Kanter, Under Secretary of Education, Department of Education

Gautam Raghavan is an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.