OCA Action Day: Action For Higher Education

Take Action For Higher Education:

Dear OCA Chapters and Members,

Recently, Congress reauthorized the Higher Education Act and permanently established the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) program, which, similar to other minority serving institutions programs, provides grants to colleges and universities that serve considerable numbers of low income students, particularly underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).

We are asking OCA chapters and members to do the following in order to gain support for this important issue in the House of Representatives.


1) CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE via the email webform on each representative’s website and use OCA’s template (Word document entitled ‘newcongressmantemplate’).

1. To find your House representative, please refer to: http://www.house.gov/
2. Copy and Paste the template letter into the webform - http://www.ocanational.org/images/stories/docscenter/newcongressmantemplate
3. Or call your representative’s Washington DC office
4. Let dlee@ocanational.org know that you've done this!


2) CONTACT COLLEGES that are potentially eligible for the funding (.pdf file entitled 'Institutions’), and have them go through the process above and state their affiliation with the college.


Institutions - http://www.ocanational.org/images/stories/docscenter/institutions.pdf

We ask that you contact your Representative with the letters provided by Monday, March 30, 2009. The deadline for Representatives to sign-on is Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

Please submit to Douglas Lee at dlee@ocanational.org any action you or your chapter conducts.

Thanks,

OCA National Center

Apply for the OCA Summer Internship Program

Dear Friends and Potential Applicant,

OCA, a national organization dedicated to ensuring social justice for Asian Pacific Americans (APA), is now accepting applications for the 2009 Summer Internship Program.

Celebrating its 20th year, the OCA Internship Program seeks to cultivate future leadership by providing students an opportunity to be involved in the political process through a national organization. The program has successfully led past interns to become more active on their college campus, increased the presence of the APA community in local, state and federal governments, and encouraged interns to become leaders in the APA community and stay engaged with the APA community in their respective fields.

The OCA Summer Internship Program engages interns with numerous activities to bring to life all that Washington, DC has to offer. In addition, OCA will bring the interns to our annual national convention, the largest APA conference in the country. This year's convention will be in San Francisco from August 6-9. The convention will feature speakers, entertainment, workshops, and our signature gala. Applicants are strongly encouraged to make sure they are able to attend convention.

Summer interns will be placed at a full-time position in a federal agency, nonprofit, or congressional office that matches their interest. Interns can also be placed at the OCA National Center and work first-hand with one of the largest APA organizations in the country. In addition to their placement, summer interns will be highly engaged in many OCA activities and be involved with grassroots organizing.

For the summer session, the internship will last approximately ten weeks and a stipend will be provided. Applications will be reviewed by the Internship Committee and a telephone interview may be scheduled.
The completed application package should be sent in one package and should include:

* Application form
* Resume including extracurricular activities
* Academic transcript (copy is fine)
* One-page essay on your interest in participating in the OCA Summer Internship Program
* Two Letters of Reference

For more information on OCA’s internship programs and application, go to OCA’s website at www.ocanational.org. Applications for internships need to be postmarked or submitted online by March 15, 2009 for the summer session.
Eligible applicants for the internship program will be notified of selection as soon as sponsors and funding can be secured. A firm commitment will be required at that time to secure admission.

Please contact the OCA National Center at (202)-223-5500 or dlee@ocanational.org if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Douglas Lee
OCA - Senior Program Manager
1322 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
t 202.223.5500
f 202.296.0540
c 202.536.7512

email: dlee@ocanational.org
web: www.ocanational.org

Miley Continues to be an Epic Failure

Soooo... Miley made an "apology" to the Asian/Asian American community. But then, she had to kill the apology by saying,

Ive also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, Im sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context!

In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy? It seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me. If that would of been anyone else, it would of been overlooked! I definitely feel like the press is trying to make me out as the new 'BAD GIRL'

...But, when I have made mistakes in the past, I feel like Ive owned up to them and apologized.... Anyway, I really wish everyone would stop focusing on my personal life and get back to focusing on what I love! Music and Acting!

WELL! She said "sorry IF!" Well, I'm sorry IF your music, acting, and face just happens to be offensive to me too! A goofy face is a goofy face! Goofy face means an Asian face! How fun! We were just playing around![end sarcasm]

Bluntly speaking, you don't give a half assed apology. Also, don't piss off your Asian/Asian American audiences. I don't know if Miley knows, but hmm, there's a lot of us back in the motherlands (aka Japan, China, S/N Korea, India, Laos, Vietnam, i.e. all Asian areas of the world) and you don't wanna offend, got it? I believe DISGRASIAN said it best, "You were giving us the chink-eye, an internationally-recognized symbol of unwelcome."

OCA, Organization of Chinese Americans, stepped up their work and said, “The picture is offensive and now this statement is inadequate,” George Wu, Executive Director of the OCA, an Asian-American equality group said on Friday. “That’s not enough. It’s not a real apology. We’re not backing down without a fuller apology."

She needs some schooling, stat. She had a chance to apologize and she messed it up.

Source, Source

Miley Cyrus Gets Slanty Eyed: Epic FAIL

I found out about this from Jossip.com. What the heck is this crap? Not only does she and her pals look out of their minds, there's some slanty eyed business.

I'm also glad to see that OCA issued a statement to TMZ in regards to this.

"The photograph of Miley Cyrus and other individuals slanting their eyes currently circulating the Internet is offensive to the Asian Pacific American community and sets a terrible example for her many young fans. This image falls within a long and unfortunate history of people mocking and denigrating individuals of Asian descent......Not only has Miley Cyrus and the other individuals in the photograph encouraged and legitimized the taunting and mocking of people of Asian descent, she has also insulted her many Asian Pacific American fans, said George Wu, executive director of OCA. The inclusion of an Asian Pacific American individual in the photo does not make it acceptable.

What the image really boils down to is that slanted eyes have a history with Asian Americans (and Asians internationally, in general). The history is that Asian Americans have been made fun of, mocked, demoralized, dehumanized, seen as foreigners in the history of the United States and at ONE point, EXCLUDED (1882 Chinese Exclusion Act) from immigrating to the United States. So what's my point? My point is that Asian Americans are not seen as Americans, that they're seen as EASY SCAPE GOAT targets for racial/social commentary in the eyes of mainstream society and that if you know someone who's Asian (i.e. that Asian American guy in the photo), who thinks that this kind of disrespect to themselves is "ok" to participate in and showcases that to others, it's not acceptable. If one looks at the past of Asian Americans in the U.S., there are newspaper comics demonizing us, degrading us, hurting us, lynching us.

Maybe to push it even further, this slanty eyed business also creates feelings of exclusion, disrespect, heightened negative self-conciousness, isolation, anger and sadness from Asians/Asian Americans.

There isn't any motive in this kind of work aside from idiocy.

Additional Source