The Saints’ Japanese-American X-Factor in Super Bowl XLIV
February 7, 2010
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MIAMI—The New Orleans Saints will be packing a Japanese-American double whammy for the Indianapolis Colts Sunday when they face off in Super Bowl XLIV. The unlikely duopoly consists of the speedy, 6-5, 255 lb. strong-side linebacker Scott Fujita and front office marvel James Nagaoka, a guy who doesn’t even have to don a jock and pads to make his team a winner.
A UC Berkeley political science grad with a master’s in education, the inspirational Fujita has done much to rehabilitate the image of the professional athlete by taking some courageous stands on hotly debated social issues, such as abortion rights and gay marriage. While most ballers’ quotes are monosyllabic, Fujita’s are nuanced and articulate.
Given up for adoption by his 16-year-old birth mother when he was six weeks old, Fujita was adopted by third-generation Japanese American schoolteacher Rodney Fujita and his wife Helen, a Caucasian.
Though not Japanese American by blood, Fujita received a typical Japanese American upbringing (with all the trappings) in Oxnard, Calif., considers himself Japanese culturally and says the strongest person he knows is his tiny grandmother Lillie Fujita, who was imprisoned in a concentration camp by the U.S. government during World War II.
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But the Saints’ real secret weapon just may be the team’s incredibly resourceful director of operations James Kuniki Nagaoka, 60, who orchestrates where his players eat, sleep, travel, work out and practice with the exacting logistical skill of a four-star general. He runs the show that is Saints’ football.
An NFL veteran of 31 seasons, Nagaoka excels at giving the Saints the winning edge of preparation, especially on the road, where the season can be won or lost, through hurricanes Katrina and Gustav and the media conflagration that is the Super Bowl.
A graduate of the University of Washington with degrees in communications and Japanese literature, Nagaoka was lured away in 2000 from the Seattle Seahawks franchise for whom he handled a myriad of logistical duties for 22 seasons. The unflappable operations chief may prove to be the difference on Super Bowl Sunday.
- NFL Stats: Scott Fujita, NFL.com
- The Saints Linebacker Who Speaks His Mind, NYT
- A Linebacker With a Conscience, ESPN
- Scott Fujita: Family Valued, The Times-Picayune
- Fast Facts: Jaclyn Fujita (Scott’s Wife), playerswives.com
- Curriculum Vitae: James K. Nagaoka, Spoke
Japanese Singer Matsuda Seiko Lands Role on Fox TV’s Bones
February 5, 2010
TOKYO—Veteran Japanese singer/actress Matsuda Seiko, 48, has landed a role on the popular U.S. drama series Bones, entertainment media are reporting here. She plays the part of a Japanese journalist in the new season of the Fox show, set to air beginning in April.
Gallup: Asian-Americans More Liberal, Less Religious Than Any Other US Racial/Ethnic Group
February 3, 2010
PRINCETON, NJ—Asian-Americans tend to be more liberal and Democratic in their political orientation than the national average, and are the only major racial or ethnic group in the United States with more liberals than conservatives, according to Gallup Daily tracking data.
The findings were based on aggregated data from Gallup’s 2009 Daily tracking survey and included interviews with more than 4,000 Asian-Americans. For the purpose of analysis, respondents were categorized as Asian-Americans if they self-identify their race as Asian.
Gallup said 353,849 whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians 18 and older were interviewed as part of the survey. Read Jeffrey M. Jones’ summary of Gallup’s Asian American data here.
Forty-one percent of Asians identify politically as Democrats, 41% as independents, and 16% as Republicans. As a result, Asians are above the national average in terms of the percentage of political independents (37% nationwide) and Democrats (34%), and below average in terms of the percentage of Republicans (27%).
According to the survey data: “Asian-Americans tend to be less religious than those in other racial or ethnic groups.”
The percentage of Asians who attend church on a weekly basis also is lower than for other U.S. racial or ethnic groups. A slim majority of Asian-Americans say they seldom or never attend religious services.
COMMENT: Gallup is a respected litmus of American opinion. But something doesn’t feel right about these results. Perhaps Gallup didn’t include a representative sampling of Korean Americans in their tracking data. Living in Asian America tells us that Korean Americans are among the most churchgoing-est folk in the entire country, from Fairfax, Virginia to Hacienda Heights, Calif. College and university campus Christian student organizations are dominated by Asians. How about the politically conservative Vietnamese American communities; were they included in the mix?
h/t Keith Kamisugi and Vida Benavides
Anthony Kim Shows Jessica Alba How to Putt
February 2, 2010
via Korean Beacon
RIP: Pauly Fuemana — ‘How Bizarre’
February 2, 2010
via Leor Galil/True Slant Network
Pauly Fuemana, the half-Niuean and half-Māori lead singer of New Zealand group OMC, died Sunday. He was 40.
All I can write, without a hint of irony, is “How Bizarre.” I can still remember the immense joy I got listening to that song in elementary school. Be it jammed on the bus on the way to school, hearing it blasting on some radio station somewhere… The song was practically everywhere. It’s one of those rare moments when a song seems to fill the air. It really was everywhere. I never thought twice about how I could connect to a song created worlds away.
That’s a testament of a good song: Even some kid somewhere in the world can’t get it out of his head and (even years later) wouldn’t want to anyway.
Didn’t know about OMC (Otara Millionaires Club, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Otara’s status as one of the poorest suburbs of Auckland.). Mellow and very reminiscent of Sugar Ray/Mark McGrath, but they apparently predated SR. Wow. Sold over a million copies in the U.S. (four million worldwide), and “How Bizarre” is the biggest selling record ever to be released by an act originating from and recorded in New Zealand. according to Wikipedia.
Right on, my Asian/Pacific brother! Thanks Leor.
Saying Good-bye to the Green Card: Good-bye
February 2, 2010
“It’s final. I am naturalized citizen of the United States of America. I am an American—a Korean-American to be specific.
“The ceremony was a mix of corny and genuine. The couple in front of me held hands and glanced several times at their 8-year-old-ish daughter who was presumably American-born and their photographer for the day. The couple and the woman to my right shed a few tears as 121 of us stood up as the names of the 44 countries we represented were called out. Lucky for them I always carry Kleenex.”
So begins Kathy Khang’s Saying Good-bye to the Green Card: Good-bye; her thoughts on the occasion of her recent naturalization ceremony. Khang describes herself as a mother of three who lives in the north suburbs of Chicago. She works for a parachurch organization as a multiethnic director.
Khang writes that before entering the hall where the swearing-in rites were to be held, each soon-to-be U.S. citizen had to surrender their Permanent Resident Alien or “green card” after having their ID’s checked and double-checked. Here’s the line that got me:
“There was something beautiful and poignant in that stack of green cards—so many stories to be told.”
Read Ms. Khang’s essay in full at her blog, More Than Serving Tea.
What’s So Funny About the iPad?
February 1, 2010
Is Steve Jobs’ Cupertino campus just one big boy’s club… or what?
The Internet tsunami that swept over the world last Wednesday started just after 10 a.m. PST. Luckily, the tidal wave was made up mostly of bad puns and schoolboy giggling. Susan Kim (inset), a New York-based Korean American playwright, graphic novelist, TV writer and co-author of FLOW: The Cultural History of Menstruation, comes clean on this mess of junior high school humor and watercooler snickering with a spot-on Huffington Post piece which rags on Steve iJob’s first marketing flub in a while which begs the question: Did the Apple marketing team even bother to vet the product’s name before it’s Jan. 25 27 unveiling?
“People apparently find any mention of menstruation, however fleeting and indirect, to be so uncomfortable-making as to be truly hilarious. Humor is, after all, partly rooted in anxiety,” writes Kim.
- Read Kim’s Jan. 28 HuffPo article here.
- About Susan Kim, IMDb / St. Martin’s Press
- Myths About Your Period, marie claire
- More by Susan Kim: Menstruation and Otherwise, HuffPo
Overground: “Schick mir ‘nen Engel”
January 29, 2010
What was that? That was Overground, a one-hit-wonder German boy band that had a brief encounter with fame in the mid-2000s (2003-2005). He didn’t get much camera time, but did you notice the Asian kid with the high voice?
‘Beautiful Nail’
January 29, 2010
I was cleaning out the Epicanthus video vault when I came across this vid of Mexican American funnygirl Angelah Johnson’s then-controversial (circa 2005) Vietnamese nail salon routine. Yeah, Angelah went on to land a cast gig on MADtv, most notably as Bon Qui Qui, from over at King Burger.
Li Na, Zheng Jie in Australian Open Semifinals
January 27, 2010
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- [Update] Belgium’s Justine Henin steam-rolled China’s Zheng Jie 1 and 0 in their semifinal match setting up a confrontation with No. 1 seed Serena Williams Saturday.
- [Update] No. 1 seed Serena Williams defeated China’s unheralded challenger Li Na, 7-6, 7-6, in a baseline-to-baseline slugfest Thursday in Melbourne to advance to the finals of the 2010 Australian Open women’s singles championship against either Belgium’s Justine Henin or China #2 Zheng Jie.
- Chinese Players Making History at Australian Open, Yahoo! Sports
- Zheng Donates Wimbledon Winnings to Sichuan Quake Victims, mirror.co.uk
- Tattoo Watch: The Flower on Li Na’s Chest, tennisservedfresh.com
- Chinese American tennis pro Vania King Sings “America the Beautiful” at U.S. Open, goldsea.com
Sun-hwa is Unfazed by the News
January 27, 2010
The Binges: Rockin’ the Museum
January 26, 2010
Hard-rockin’ Los Angeles-based band The Binges shook the Japanese American National Museum to its core Sunday at Giant Robot’s Biennale exhibit.
via Cate Park
Educational Crisis Looming for Minority Males
January 26, 2010
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Sacramento) points out that men of color significantly trail behind most students on achievement and school completion scales. African American, Hispanic, Native American and Asian American men are outperformed by their female counterparts in each racial grouping by 9%, 9%, 7%, and 2 %, respectively.
“We must address this crisis and quickly,” Honda wrote in an article appearing in the Jan. 26 Huffington Post. “While Asian Americans are over-represented in the top scores, they are also over-represented in the bottom scores.”
Read Rep. Honda’s entire HuffPo article here.
The Myth of US Census Data Privacy
January 25, 2010
A chilling cautionary tale related to the 2010 U.S. Census from the Mar. 30, 2007 issue of Scientific American: “Despite decades of denials, government records confirm that the U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II.”
The disclosure, while legal at the time, was ethically dubious and may have implications for the 2010 census, say historian Margo Anderson, University of Wisconsin, and statistician William Seltzer, Fordham University, who together rooted out and confirmed the federal agency’s 67-year-old duplicity.
“Records show that in 1943 the Census Bureau revealed names and addresses of Japanese-Americans in the Washington, D.C., area. Prior research had found that the Bureau provided the government with less specific information about Japanese-Americans in California and other states to round them up (above) for imprisonment in internment camps,” writes JR Minkel in his Scientific American piece entitled, Confirmed: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WW II. Read Minkel’s entire article here.
Census data is routinely used to enforce the National Voting Rights Act and other policies, but not in a form that could be used to identify a particular person’s race, sex, age, address or other information, Census Bureau officials contend.
The Bureau admits it provided neighborhood data on Arab-Americans to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002. A provision in the controversial Patriot Act—passed after the 9/11 attacks and derided by critics as an erosion of privacy—gives agencies access to individualized survey data collected by university researchers as well.
via Larry Shinagawa, director, Asian American Studies Dept., University of Maryland.
Related resources:
- Official Statistics and Statistical Confidentiality, Anderson/Seltzer
- How We Protect Your Data, U.S. Census Bureau
- The 2010 Census and the JACL, jacl.org
- From Flip-flops to Falafel: Deja Vu 1942, epicanthus
- Census Confidentiality? The Check Is in the Mail, Dave Kopel, i2i.org
Aaron Takahashi: Saving the Economy One TV Spot at a Time
January 20, 2010
The reason that Aaron Takahashi’s face seems familiar is the hilarious “Busted” TV spot for Amp’d Mobile he shot in 2006. It’s the one where the Asian dude rocks out in the men’s room to E-40’s My Ghetto Report Card cut “U and Dat.” Since then Brutha Takahashi been blowin’ it up!
‘Rainy Day, Please Stay’
January 20, 2010
“Rain” by Priscilla Ahn
Etheriel ~ Musings
January 18, 2010
“One of my favorite blog writers is Grace Wang, of ‘Etheriel Musings,’… She’s a natural writer. You sense no angst or hesitation in her prose. It sparkles like conversation. She attended the Toronto Film Festival, and her entry on “City of Life and Death” will not be bettered by any other critic.”
—Roger Ebert
“In a perfect world, my life will be brimming with my passions: Cinema, Travelling, Writing, Photography, Fashion, and little else.”
Fortune Cats
January 18, 2010
iPhone pic via Sasurau
Asian America: Changemaking, Envisioning, Designing
January 13, 2010
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- Social Media Force Majeure Noelle Chun: Linkedin, Twitter, Alltop, Posterous, Ashoka.
- Re-envisioning Tritia Toyota: L.A. Observed, Google Books, Epicanthus.
- Camaro, C6 Corvette Designer Sangyup Lee: US Automakers’ X-Factor, WSJ, Edmunds Inside Line, kfupmblog
Little Tokyo Reimagined
January 8, 2010
Intimization of L.A. streets courtesy of artist/designer David Yoon
