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ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN
HISTORICAL TIMELINE DETAILS IN THE YEAR 2001

Our victories, obstacles and leaders (Part 4)


Discover additional specific info on the many links (outlined in "red" or "blue") listed below


2001 
LAOTIAN AMERICAN MAN MURDERED IN HATE CRIME

Thung Phetakoune, a Laotian American man was fatally attacked in a hate crime in Newmarket, New Hampshire on July 16, 2001. Phetakoune was tragically killed when 35-year old white male Richard Labbe attacked him in a parking lot; the assailant was involved in a dispute over an eviction notice with the property manager, who was also Asian Pacific American (APA). According to witnesses - including the assailant's teenaged son - Labbe attacked Phetakoune without provocation during an anti-Asian tirade; he was mortally wounded when his head struck the pavement.

The attacker mentioned the Vietnam War to the police, saying "those Asians killed Americans, and you won't do anything about it, so I will . . . call it payback." Ironically, Phetakoune had served in the Vietnam War for Laos, fighting side-by-side with Americans.

2001 
SARAH SILVERMAN'S JOKE REGARDING A "CHINK"

NBC late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has apologized for not bleeping a racial slur (a derogatory term for Chinese people in a joke about trying to avoid jury duty by pretending that she was a bigot) uttered by female comic, Sarah Silverman, on his program on July 11, 2001.

The intent of the joke was to illuminate racism, not support it. - Sarah Silverman, 23 July 2001

Richard Roeper remarked that "Silverman found herself in a small tempest over the joke--but what would have happened if she had substituted the word ''nigger'' for ''chink''? Would NBC's censors have thought for even a second about allowing the joke to go on the air unbleeped? - Doubtful." Click HERE to read how the "General Public" (white) communities felt about the incident.

2001 
UNITED WAY'S 1ST APA MAJOR FUND-RAISING HEAD

Dominic Ng, chairman and president of East West Bancorp, became the first Asian American to head a major United Way fund-raising campaign in the charity's history.

2001 
FIL-AM HATE CRIME

In what police called a hate crime, four members (James Smiley/24, Michael Keaser/23 and Christopher Wallace/18) of a Ventura white supremacist gang were arrested on suspicion of beating a Filipino man in Port Hueneme.

2001 
JAPANESE AMERICAN MEMORIAL OPENS

The National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism (created by Nina Akamu) commemorates the sacrifices of more than 800 men of Japanese descent who were killed in World War Two and the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in camps as a national security threat during that same war.

Built on an extension of the Capitol grounds, the memorial's central space is a ring of granite walls inscribed with the names of the camps, surrounding a bronze sculpture of two cranes struggling to break free of barbed wire.

The names of those who died in the war are inscribed on a tapered wall along a walkway that also holds a tubular bell that visitors can ring. Water falls from a pool that contains large rocks recalling the islands of Japan and Okinawa and the three generations who lived through the war years.

Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, who won the Medal of Honor for his service in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and California Rep. Robert Matsui, both of whom were interned, cut the ribbon for the memorial.

2001 
INOUYE INTRODUCE JLA REDRESS BILL

The struggle to redress the unjust government treatment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II reached another landmark.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii,[1] announced he would introduce a Senate companion bill to H.R.619, the Wartime Parity and Justice Act of 2001.[2]

The bill has already been introduced to to the House by Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif. It provides redress for Japanese Americans who have been denied compensation under the Civil Liberties Act (CLA) of 1988 for technical reasons....

2001 
FALLOUT FROM THE "SPY PLANE INCIDENT"

In an April 4th column by National Review Online editor Goldberg stating: "I will be in favor of apologizing [to the Chinese] the moment they apologize for all those menus they keep leaving outside my front door - I've got considerable sympathy for the Red Chinese - despite the fact that if my dog were a member of the American crew, Jiang Zemin would have eaten him by now."

After the 24 American crewmen returned home, a CNN reporter interviewing one of the pilots of the spy plane asked what they would do differently if a "Japanese" fighter plane came at them again.

A host at Fox News and Friends declared support for the firing of "Chinese national laboratory employees" in retaliation for China's insistence on an apology.

In Washington, D.C. on April 3, a convention hosted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) featured a skit performed by a satirical troupe called Capitol Steps. A white male member of the troupe impersonating a Chinese official cried "Ching, ching, chong, chong" while gesturing wildly as he donned a black wig and thick glasses. ASNE President Tim Mcquire responded: "[We] have learned invaluable lessons about diversity…[but] I do firmly believe that there are important First Amendment issues in this case." ASNE is the leading organization of daily newspaper editors in America and have recently engaged in efforts to increase newsroom diversity.

In New York, New York on April 4, at a shopping center in Westchester County, a carload of four white males was competing with a Korean couple for a parking spot when the white male driver exited his vehicle and taunted the couple with, "Yo, don't let me f___ up your car like our plane did to your stupid pilot." The other three white males laughed at the couple as the driver barraged them with racist remarks. In fear, the Korean couple gave up the parking spot.

In San Francisco, California on April 6, a radio talk show host at Star 101.3 FM spoofed the spy-plane standoff in what he called a "fry over." He then called a restaurant in China and laughed and taunted the person who answered, who could not speak English, as music from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" played in the background. A listener called the radio station and the station offered a generic apology. An estimated 31% of Asians and Pacific Islanders live in San Francisco.

In Springfield, Illinois a radio morning host at WQLZ allegedly called for the internment of Chinese Americans and admitted to stating that he would not patronize Chinese restaurants or play Chinese checkers until the US crewman were home. He then randomly called residents of Chinatown in New York City and reached a woman who was limited-English proficient. She hung up on him and he relentlessly called her back. In an apology, the radio talk show host admitted to the insensitivity of his actions and cited his personal experience of racism as a Mexican American.

Spanish language station, FM Mega 92.3, airied a skit involving a Mexican pilot being attacked by Chinese jets and screaming in Spanish, Chinese! Chinese! Japanese! Eat Shit! Die!

Ex-navy pilot Briggs bought billboard space in Ontario to put up the sign to boycott all products made in China FOREVER. In one TV interview, he was quoted as saying that he "wanted to go over there with my shotgun and shoot up the place, but I'm too old for that." So investing $5,000 in a billboard was his next best choice.

2001 
TAIWAN PRESIDENT CHEN SHUI-BIAN WINS PRIZE FOR FREEDOM

Taiwan's democratization has won worldwide attention and praise. In recognition of Chen's role, Liberal International (LI) announced that President Chen would receive its 2001 Prize For Freedom.

LI - a London-based alliance of 84 liberal political parties from 67 countries - hailed President Chen's "solid record as a human rights activist."

2001 
PUFF DADDY APPOLOGIES

SEAN "Puffy" Combs is apologizing to Asians everywhere for some ill-advised lyrics on his latest single. The tune "P. Diddy" includes the line,
    Third Verse:
    Now hold up, stop, wait a minute
    We don`t stop we rock cause ain`t a limit
    My aim is winning
    Got Asian women
    That`ll change my linen
    After I done blazed and hit `em

When the website AsianAvenue.com published the lyrics, Combs received such a barrage of hate mail that he's having an updated version of the track sent to radio stations, minus the Asian-bashing. The rapper also issued an apology through his record label, pleading for the Asian community's continued support.

Response
"P. Diddy nor his co-writers of the song had any intention of offending any ethnicity particularly Asian women. As a result of your response, Mr. Combs has in fact removed the line from the track and we hope you will continue to support him and his music."

Since, P.Diddy has cut the lyric from the music video for "Diddy", which was filmed this past weekend. Combs is reissuing an edited version of the single to be distributed to radios and DJs.

2001 
MTV HONORED

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) presented its American Courage Award to MTV's President Van Tomer on October 18, 2001. Lisa Ling (from "The View") will present to the award to MTV - in addition to Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford and Merill Lynch Executive George A. Schiersen. "MTV's vision and cutting edge leadership is an example to corporate America. NAPALC is proud to call MTV a partner in its campaign against hate" stated NAPALC Executive Director Karen Narasaki.

MTV (considered the most widely viewed cable network for young people) launched a year long anti-discrimination campaign, "Fight For Your Rights," focusing on combating intolerance and hate crimes. They have addressed, in straight-forward fashion, in dispelling myths about Arabs, South Asians, Muslim Americans and Islamic culture in the wake of September 11, 2001.

2001 
TED FANG FIRED FROM S.F. EXAMINER

Florence Fang, matriarch of San Francisco's politically powerful Fang family and chairman of its newspaper chain, yesterday fired her son, Ted, as editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, which has been buffeted by financial problems and family infighting.

The move comes as seven construction companies have filed more than $1.4 million in liens against ExIn LLC, the Examiner's corporate parent, citing the failure to pay them for remodeling work on the newspaper's offices in the old Warfield Theater on Market Street.

The Fangs acquired the Examiner from the Hearst Corp. last year in a controversial deal that shook the city's political establishment and barely survived an anti-trust challenge in federal court.

Hearst announced in August 1999 that it would purchase The Chronicle and either sell the Examiner or close it if no buyer could be found. But in January 2000, real estate investor Clint Reilly sued to stop the sale, arguing that Hearst planned to shut down the Examiner and create a San Francisco newspaper monopoly.

Hearst then agreed to transfer the Examiner to the Fang family, publisher of the San Francisco Independent, the weekly Asian Week and other small papers in the Bay Area. The deal included a subsidy from Hearst to the Fangs of up to $67 million over three years.

But Reilly pressed his suit through a monthlong trial that finally ended in favor of Hearst and the Fangs in July 2000. When the Fangs took over the Examiner, both Ted Fang and the media made much of the fact that it was the nation's first major metropolitan newspaper owned by an Asian American family.

 

Click HERE to continue the timeline of the year of 2001.

Click on the appropriate below-listed section to discover the other events
that occurred to the Asian Pacific American communities during the year of 2001.

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