“The ‘A’ is before the ‘O’, as in Oprah,” exclaims Bessy Lee-Oh, the CEO/Publisher of the new Asian American magazine called The Big A. “We plan to be big with an initial print of 700,000 copies for distribution nationwide”.

Launching a new publication at this time seems going against the grain because traditional media, as we know it, has been declining around the country. The four major TV networks have been losing millions of viewers and venerable newspapers like L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, and Baltimore Sun have watched their circulations down sloping in horror. Thousands of reporter jobs are slashed across newsrooms, large and small alike. The Internet age and the emergence of ethnic populations in America have changed the media industry dramatically.

Lee-Oh, the former ad executive at Greenspun Media Group in Las Vegas, and her diverse team of Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai-Laotian, Korean, and Mexican ancestries, believe Asian Americans, who are among the most educated and highest income earners, are underserved. They are almost invisible especially during this presidential election, she adds, because they, though accomplished in their careers, are both modest and unaccustomed to speaking out. “Our Big A magazine will be loud with role models, top executives, athletes, writers and Hollywood stars”. Traditional print media maybe down but the Asian demographic is up as a viable economic group to target, according to Lee-Oh.

Came out of the ‘60s civil rights movement, Asian-American was a term coined as an alternative to Oriental, which was perceived to be derogatory and colonialist (Wikipedia). “The ‘Orientals’ don’t value life the same way we do” was a controversial remark made by General Westmoreland, the top U.S. commander in Vietnam during the war (Hearts & Minds documentary 1974). Today Asian Americans, 13.5 millions according to U.S. Census 2005, are defined as Americans whose ancestors originated from the regions of South Asia (i.e., India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), East Asia (i.e., China, Japan, Vietnam), and islands in the Pacific (i.e., Samoa, Polynesia, Micronesia).

Despite efforts to build a cohesive Asian American group over the years by many social and political organizations, interaction between Asian communities is still not at the desired level. One of the barriers is language, as many foreign-born Asians (52% of total Asian Americans, U.S. Census 2005) are still more comfortable with their native tongues of Korean, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Khmer. While other ethnic groups have at least one common cultural language like Spanish in the Latino community, Arabic among Arab Americans, and English within the African American population.

The Big A is not treading on a new path of serving the younger and higher income sets of Asian Americans. There are publications like A Magazine, Audrey, Giant Robot, Asia – The Journal of Culture and Commerce, Hyphen, Thirteen Minutes; online magazines like Asians In America and Asiance Magazine; and TV networks like ImaginAsian TV and AZN TV. All have been targeting the emerging English speaking Asian demographic for years. The success rate, however, is mixed.

Most notable was A Magazine, founded in 1989 by Jeff Yang, which reached its peak with 200,000 in circulation and expanded into the dotcom business with Click2Asia. Thirteen years and $4.5 millions later, both the publication and the Internet venture were folded in 2002 (Wikipedia). When news that AZN, an Asian American TV Cable network was being cancelled by its owner, Comcast, late last year, it caused a small earthquake in the Asian community. Comcast cited that ad revenues were not enough to support it.

“But the most troubling concern may be the chilling effect this could have on current and future media for Asian American audiences. After all, if a giant like Comcast can’t make a business out of providing Asian Americans with original programming, investors and advertisers might have a hard time believing that anyone can,” writes Jeff Yang in the SF Chronicle’s online SF Gate. Yang is the same former publisher of A Magazine who is now a book author and columnist.

But Bessy Lee-Oh is undaunted by of all of that history. She is planning a giant launch of The Big A in Beijing, China, on the same date that the 2008 Olympics is set to open on August 8.
—By Julian Do

The Big A Magazine is headquartered Las Vegas.

Ever wondering why Arab Americans are indifferent and invisible in presidential elections? According to Rashad Al-Dabbagh who writes for The Independent Monitor, the reason is Americans of Arab descent usually feel alienated from these events since “most candidates prefer to distance themselves from Arabs.”

In post 9/11, Arab Americans have become “infamously” a visible group. There was a paranoid about having “Arabs in our midst” in America since the 19 terrorists were all Arab Muslims. They are singled out at airports, schools, and public gathering events. Ironically, the U.S. Census categorizes Arabs as “white,” as supposed to a separate check box for other ethnic groups like Vietnamese, Mexican, and Puerto Rican.

Of the estimated 3.5 million Arabs in the U.S., most are actually native-born Americans whose original homelands included 22 Arab countries. The majority, however, came from Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The largest communities of Arab Americans currently reside in Los Angeles, Orange County, Detroit, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Furthermore, Arab Americans are largely Christians, which is consistent with the fact that only 12% of the world’s Muslims are Arabs. The largest Muslim population in the world is in Asia, not the Middle East and North Africa.

Barack Obama’s background of having a Muslim father and spending part of his childhood in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, has been a connection point with many American Muslims. But not necessary all Arabs since the majority are actually Christians. To Arab Americans, their top issues are the situation in the Middle East (i.e., Iraq, Palestine-Israeli conflict, Lebanon) and their civil liberties since the tragedy of 9/11.

When Obama recently remarked his supporting of President Bush’s position against holding talks with Hamas, the political party elected by Palestinians in 2006, many Arab Americans saw their hope for “change” from the candidate—whom once shared a table with their icon, the late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said—vanished once again.

But Al-Dabbagh argues that he would be pleased if Obama wins the presidency. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel may have sympathetic stance favorable to Arab Americans, but the reality is these candidates don’t have a shot. He has hope with Obama; he credits him for speaking out against the Iraq invasion since the beginning and has announced that he would “call for a summit meeting with the Arab and Muslim countries to improve America’s relationship with the Muslim world.”

“The case for Obama
Rashad Al-Dabbagh | The Independent Monitor | February 2008

The Independent Monitor, based in Orange County, is a national English monthly covering Arab American affairs and the Middle East.

Raising a child alone is never easy in any cultures. In certain Asian societies, it’s a taboo equivalent to social leper. The single-mother and her child can be so ostracized that leading a normal life would be difficult. The situation has prompted many single mothers, though reluctantly, to put up their children for adoption in Western societies where they believe their kids would grow up in a more stable and loving environment.

In South Korea, Annie Sirgey writes in the Korea Quarterly, discrimination towards a single-mother and her child can be “cruel and unjust, bordering on inhumane”. When the unwedded Eunjeong Park—who shares her personal experience in Sirgey’s article—noticed some abnormal behaviors by her 3-years-old daughter, she decided to investigate. She was horrified to discover that “the mothers at her daughter’s daycare center were locking her in a room by herself to keep her from interacting with the other children”. She then moved her daughter to another center and had to lie about her marital status to prevent similar treatments.

After striking out many job interviews, it dawned on Park that she had to fabricate her family story to gain employment. She thought that although South Korea has become a more prosperous society and ranked among the top in technological advancement, the prejudice against unwedded mothers and their children has remained unchanged.

When more single mothers are speaking out with supportive organizations like KoRoot (Seoul-based organization that helps connect Korean adoptees with their homeland), Sirgey believe this would gradually help the Korean society to rethink and provide supports instead of out casting these women with shame.

“Raising a child alone in Seoul”
Annie Sirgey | Korean Quarterly | Winter 2007/2008 Issue
Annie Sergey is an adopted Korean living and working in Seoul, South Korea. She’s a member of the group Adoptee Solidarity Korea (ASK). Korean Quarterly is an English-language journal based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Petey Greene, the late DJ and talk show host of a D.C. radio station in the 60s and 70s, had pioneered what we called today “interactive media,” making a connection with the audience. His talk show started out as a social release valve for African Americans to vent what they saw as injustices in the society and issues in their personal lives. As the civil rights movement took on momentum and with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Greene, on radio and later included TV, became a political voice calling for social equality and human rights in America.

Fast forward to the present in Compton, southeast of Los Angeles, a once primarily African American neighborhood is now mixed community with a growing number of Latinos. Globally among rap music fans, Compton, though only 10 square miles in size, has become well known through NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” music CD. Locally, this small city is “home to some 57 active gangs and patrolled by only around 80 L.A. County sheriffs,” writes Mark Allen Johnson in The Digital Journalist’s Dispatches. Compton is also where many Black and Brown tensions have erupted in recent years.

Ronald Ellerbe, editor of the community newspaper Hub City News, is the Petey Greene of Compton and other neighboring cities like Lynwood, Carson, and Watts. He has created a reader/editorial column called “I’m Mad as Hell,” which he describes as an avenue for all residents, African Americans or Hispanics or Asians, to voice their frustrations and issues. Over the three years since the Hub City News (circ. 20,000) was created, readers have sent Ronald letters addressing many issues from traffic fines to budget cuts and immigration.

“I know a number of my Hispanic readers are not fluent in English,” says Ellerbe. “So have had special Spanish-language articles in my paper to reach this group.” He tries to be fair with all ethnic groups and that has generated some criticisms from all sides.

In his “I’m Mad as Hell” column in the February 22nd issue, Ellerbe expresses his opposition the “hate campaign against so called illegal aliens receiving Social Security benefits”. While the opponents of the legislation (S. 1348) claim this access would undermine welfare reform and promote more social security fraud, he argues that this group annually spends “$4.8 billion in the American economy and pay about $200 million in taxes to local and state governments”. Furthermore, many undocumented immigrants actually use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) instead of Social Security numbers.

“I’m Mad as Hell”
Ronald Ellerbe | Hub City News | 2.28.2008

One major story of the 2004 presidential election is the emergence of minorities. These increasingly visible groups are poised to play a significant role in America’s 21st Century.

The numbers are all there in plain sight. Based on the U.S. Census, by 2050, ethnic population will increase to one-half of the total population.

Hispanic group will be 24.4% of the total population, or about one out of four Americans. Already for a while now, women represent 51% to 53% and the majority in many college campuses nationwide. Though comprised a mere 4.2% of the population in 2000, this diverse community (i.e., Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean) has one of the nation’s highest birthrate (along side with the Hispanic group) and is expected to double at 8% in 2050.

African American population will also increase, though small, from 12.7% to 14.6%.

White population, especially the white males, has been shrinking and aging. By 2030, about 1-in-5 people would be 65 or over. White baby-boomer population (born between 1946 and 1964) will dominate this category.

California is the state that tends to set the socio-economic-political trends for the rest of the country. The U.S. Census 2000 shows California has become the first “mainland” state whose population majority are ethnic groups, 55% of the total 32 millions (Hawaii is the first state with a minority majority). Recent Census Bureau surveys report that Texas, Florida, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia are also now minority-majority states. Next are Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona.

The large field of Democratic candidates started with 5 white males, one Hispanic, one woman, and one Black. About one year later, it’s the woman and African American candidates who have generated the most excitement and pulled out record-breaking voters from all social spectrum. For the minority populations, the 2004 presidential election has a special resonance. Never in their lives have there ever been candidates whom these populations could “really connect on a personal” level with until now.

The “connection” factor is also true for the youth. Ever since 18-years-old Americans were allowed to vote 1972, their voter turnouts had been small. But this election is different. According Matt Presser who wrote in the American-Statesman Staff, “about 80 percent of voters ages 18-29 who were polled by Rock the Vote say they plan to vote in November, compared with the 49 percent in that age group who voted in 2004”.

The number of racially mixed population is unknown at this point, but for certain it’s growing. It’s safe to say that the Tiger-Wood demographics are more than likely to vote for Obama than McCain. Never before, this Hapa (Hawaiian term for mixed descent) group has a candidate whom they could truly identify with. Befittingly, Obama grew up in Hawaii and has a stepsister who is half Indonesian. And America, perhaps for the first time, is beginning to have a national conversation about “race” in the social-cultural context without the automatic “-ism” attached.

Even if neither Obama nor Clinton wins the election, the floodgate has been open for civic engagement and participation for these ethnic groups. In the future, there will be more and more political candidates from these emerging demographic populations. That’s the beauty of America: constantly re-invigorating itself.
—Julian Do