Thursday June 10, 2010
DEAR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF JUSTICE: Welcome to our 2010 Celebration of Justice! For 41 years, CAA has defended civil rights and promoted social change to create a more equal and just society. Tonight, we celebrate our achievements, embrace new challenges, and recognize leaders who have inspired our work. Our honorees are four such pioneers. With grit and clear moral vision, they have each tackled tough social problems and built our community to what it is today. By giving voice to people whom society often overlooks, they have impacted the lives of countless individuals in achieving our shared vision of compassion, equity, and fairness. We honor Beckie Masaki, who forged innovative ways to break the silence of Asian American women facing domestic violence. We salute Edward Steinman, who navigated our highest courts to help generations of immigrant students overcome the setback of language barriers. We applaud Paul S. Fong, who grew up in San Francisco Chinatown and dedicated himself to service and leadership in his local community. And we celebrate Loni Ding, a filmmaker and educator who filled our void in history by creating narratives that gave Asians and Pacific Islanders both voice and identity. Like our honorees, CAA continues to pursue our vision of social justice by challenging the status quo and speaking up for those who need to be heard. Thank you again for sharing this event with us, and we look forward to working with you to build a more equal and just society. With warm regards,
Stephanie Ong Stillman Co-Chair, Board of Trustees
Germaine Q Wong Co-Chair, Board of Trustees
Vincent Pan Executive Director
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PROGRAM SCHEDULE
WELCOME Sue Kwon Emcee
REMARKS AND SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS Stephanie Ong Stillman Co-Chair, Board of Trustees Vincent Pan Executive Director
PRESENTATION OF AWARDS Beckie Masaki Presented by Helen Zia Edward Steinman Presented by Cecillia D. Wang Paul S. Fong Presented by Frances Lee Loni Ding (1931-2010) Presented by Julie Tang
CLOSING Germaine Q Wong Co-Chair, Board of Trustees
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SPONSORS DEFENDERS OF JUSTICE $6,000 Emily Leung, Ricky Ho, and Linda Ho Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
ADVOCATES OF JUSTICE $4,000 Kaiser Permanente Laura Lai Northern California Carpenters Regional Council Rolland and Kathy Lowe Southern California Edison
GUARDIANS OF JUSTICE $2,500 Bank of the Orient Bill Wong Bingham McCutchen LLP Bovis Lend Lease, Inc. California Teachers Association Carpenters Local 22 Chevron Colleen and Linda Lye Comcast EHDD Architecture Emily Lee
First Chinese Baptist Church Frances and Frankie Lee Friends and Family of Paul Fong Germaine Q Wong Heather J. Fong Henry and Priscilla Der IBEW Local Union 6 Ironworkers Local 377 Jones Day Keker & Van Nest LLP May and Larry Jew Minami Tamaki LLP Mock/Wallace Architects Nancy Fong Paul and Maxine Fong Portsmouth Plaza Parking Corporation SEIU UHW Sherman Fong Stella and Dick Wong Swinerton Builders Union Bank Wells Fargo
HOST COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS: Heather J. Fong Sinclair and May Louie Center for Asian American Media Michael I. Begert Diane T. Chin Henry and Priscilla Der Stuart M. Gaffney and John Lewis May and Larry Jew Emily Lee Jack W. Lee and Debbie Ching
Emily Leung and Ricky Ho Darlene and Raymond Lim Kathy Lowe Colleen Lye Larry Mock Steven C. Owyang and Onilda Cheung Frank Quevedo Lateefah Simon Lance Toma Ted Wang Brian M. Wong and Scott T. Hofmeister Stella and Dick Wong
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BECKIE MASAKI B e ckie M asaki’s first job out of graduate school was at a domestic violence shelter where she was the first and only Asian staff member, and no Asian clients used the services. Both of these circumstances reflected a pervasive myth that domestic violence did not affect the Asian community and that Asians did not need shelter because they stayed with their families. To address these challenges, in 1988 Beckie joined together with a group of Asian American women in the community and founded the Asian Women’s Shelter. As the founding executive director, Beckie developed extensive experience in providing multilingual and multicultural direct services to domestic violence and trafficking
survivors. She pioneered models of culturally appropriate services and advocacy that have influenced organizations nationwide. Like CAA in parallel areas of work, Beckie has challenged how institutions dedicate resources for cultural and linguistic competency in serving our communities. Her work cast off the pervasive invisibility of Asian American women; and by giving voice to an otherwise marginalized community, she advanced solutions to problems lying at the intersections of sexism, racism, and homophobia. She recently retired from Asian Women’s Shelter in 2009 and remains active in a host of national and statewide coalitions on domestic violence. Beckie is a third-generation Japanese American who grew up in Sacramento, California. She received her BA and MSW at UC Berkeley.
EDWARD STEINMAN Edward Steinman is a civil rights attorney and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University. He is currently involved as both a lawyer and community resident in the operation of programs for the homeless in San Francisco. He also works with California Food Policy Advocates on issues of hunger and malnourishment. In the 1970s, Edward was completing an internship in San Francisco Chinatown that helped low-income Chinese workers file complaints against sweatshops. He soon discovered that Kinney Timmon Lau, the son of a client, was failing at school because of his limited English skills and that his school did not provide language assistance to help him succeed. On behalf of Lau and 1,800 other Chinese-speaking students, Edward and CAA filed a class action lawsuit
against the San Francisco Unified School District for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court and Court of Appeals initially denied that the School District had violated the Equal Protection Clause, but Edward appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled in the landmark Lau v. Nichols decision that English language learners have unique instructional needs that schools must meet through special educational programs. Lau v. Nichols has since then become the foundation of bilingual education around the nation — an issue at the heart of the intersection of race, language, and immigration that CAA still advocates for today. Edward holds a BA from Northwestern University and a JD from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. He then served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Peckham in San Francisco.
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PAUL S. FONG As a second-generation Chinese American growing up in San Francisco Chinatown, Paul’s childhood centered around the Chinese YMCA, the First Chinese Baptist Church, and the local community. His immigrant parents worked hard to provide for their seven children, so the YMCA and Church became Paul’s surrogate parents, from which he learned the value of concern for others. This principle has guided Paul’s belief in volunteer work and supporting local organizations. As an attorney, his pro bono services have helped many organizations, such as The Association of Chinese Teachers and the Robert Louie Memorial Fund, incorporate as formal nonprofits. He has served on the boards of many nonprofits for over ten
years, including the Chinatown Resource Center, Chinatown Youth Service Center, and Lawrence Lowe Memorial Fund. Always thinking ahead, Paul had helped numerous nonprofits secure resources for long-term sustainability: he secured a landmark donation to the Chinatown YMCA’s capital campaign, sold his family’s Fong Building to house low-income residents, and, as a longtime Chair of the CAA Board of Trustees, secured a permanent office building that remains CAA’s home today and worked with philanthropists Sinclair and May Louie to realize their commitment to their son’s legacy through CAA. Paul holds a BA and a MA from San Francisco State University and a JD from Golden Gate University. Prior to becoming an attorney, Paul enlisted in two years of active duty in the Navy, where he was assigned to a fighter squadron and served aboard the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Lexington and U.S.S. Ranger.
LONI DING (1931-2010) Loni Ding was a pioneering filmmaker, university instructor, and community leader whose career spanned for more than three decades. During this time she mentored countless individuals and produced more than 250 programs for national broadcast. Among her groundbreaking and Emmy Award-winning opuses include The Color of Honor and Ancestors in America. While working at KPIX TV in 1969, Loni, in collaboration with CAA, co-produced Sut Yung Ying Yee (Practical English), which taught English to immigrants and ran for 65 episodes and won an Emmy. Loni also worked with CAA and The Association of Chinese Teachers to
produce Bean Sprouts, a five-part children’s series about Chinese American parents and children that navigated issues of cultural belonging, which also garnered an Emmy. Her vibrant and innovative work promoted topics on civic engagement and raised awareness on issues like the fight for the International Hotel. She also helped organize a three-day conference at UC Berkeley which eventually led to the formation of the Center for Asian American Media, which CAA supported as a fiscal agent until the organization received its formal 501(c)(3) status. Loni grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She studied at UC Berkeley and taught media production in the university’s Ethnic Studies department. Loni passed away on February 20, 2010 in her hometown of Berkeley, California.
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SUE KWON Reporter and Journalist Sue Kwon is a ConsumerWatch reporter for CBS 5 Eyewitness News and host of Bay Sunday. She brings years of experience covering Bay Area technology and business news for CBS 5 Eyewitness News. Prior to joining CBS 5, she served as the hightech reporter for KRON. Sue covers emerging technology, Silicon Valley companies, stock market developments, and economic trends. She started her journalism career in the White House Press Office, gather-
ing news summaries for President George H.W. Bush and his staff. For her journalism, Sue has won many awards, including Emmy Awards in 2007 and 2005. Sue is a Bay Area native and an active member of the Asian American Journalists Association. She studied British Mass Media at Oxford University and graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a BA in Political Science and Communications. While at Stanford, she taught public speaking and wrote for the Stanford Daily. Sue grew up in Clayton, California and now lives in San Francisco.
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OUR WORK AT BOTH THE LOCAL AND STATEWIDE LEVELS create systemic change that protects immigrant rights, promotes language diversity, and remedies racial injustice. For the 2010 Census, CAA led the formation of a 13-member multiracial, multi-neighborhood coalition to ensure that the most hard-to-count communities are not systematically excluded from full political representation or its fair share of resources. Immigrant, minority, and limitedEnglish proficient communities have traditionally been undercounted in the Census, and CAA and partners brought much needed resources to those communities through canvassing, phonebanking, and monitoring census outreach. CAA also led one of 12 trainings in San Francisco to increase census participation through collaboration with our community partners. Our work ensures that communities have a chance to get their fair share of government funding for schools, hospitals, critical social services, and proportional political representation. We continue to monitor the construction of the City College Chinatown/North Beach Campus to ensure that the campus is built on schedule, and that job opportunities created by the construction are open to local residents. The campus was approved in 2007 after CAA led an historic mobilization of tens of thousands of community members. It reached a major milestone in February when concrete was poured for the foundation, laying the base to what will be modern
facilities for generations of immigrant students to gain job skills, learn English, and prepare for U.S. citizenship. It is scheduled to open its doors in 2012. CAA believes that when immigrant and limited-English proficient residents have full access to city services and resources, everyone benefits through increased public safety and an engaged, participatory citizenry. CAA continued to expand the San Francisco ordinance last year that increases language access services at key San Francisco agencies and begins to assess the needs of smaller language communities. CAA is now working with City Hall to ensure compliance of the law. Through our employment services, CAA continues to serve hundreds of newcomers seeking employment and training in sustainable careers. Each month, we place clients in living wage jobs in the construction, service, clerical, and and trade industries; and we continue to work with state agencies, community-based organizations, and building trades and contractors to ensure that there is local hiring and a diverse workforce in our schools and public works projects. CAA continues to build civic engagement through the Visitacion Valley Parents Association, our leadership development project for Chinese American immigrant parents with children in public schools. In its seventh year, VVPA leaders have made significant contributions to shaping local language access and immigration laws, promoting dialogue between different communities of color, and inspiring other parents to be advocates in their own communities.
Photo captions The foundation for the new CCSF Chinatown/North Beach Campus was laid in February 2010. To date, CAA has placed 16 San Francisco residents to work on the project. API Equality marches in the 2010 Tet Parades in southern and northern California to raise awareness of LGBTQI issues in the Vietnamese American community. It is the first time a queer contingent has ever marched in the Tet Parades. In the heart of Chinatown, Vincent Pan, community leaders, and a census official urge Chinese American residents to get counted in the 2010 Census. SFILEN members representing many languages and communities come together for Immigrant Family Day at San Francisco City Hall.
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CAA advocates for immigration policies which recognize the contributions of hardworking immigrants, keep families together, and provide immigrants full access to critical social services and resources. Through the San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network, we’re ensuring that the rights of all immigrants are protected and respected, regardless of an individual’s legal status. SFILEN is working with the Board of Supervisors to urge the Mayor and the Juvenile Probation Department to implement a juvenile justice bill that was passed in 2008, which protects due process for immigrant youth, but which has not yet been implemented. SFILEN has also joined the nationwide efforts on comprehensive immigration reform to urge Congress to fix America’s broken system, by hosting town halls and educating the public on the importance of immigration reform. Consistent with our values of inclusion and equity, CAA believes in advocating for the fair treatment and acceptance of all our community members, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex. Together with API Equality, who joined us in 2007, we continue to support ballot and legal efforts to overturn Proposition 8, the California initiative passed in 2008 which bans marriage between same-sex couples. Through Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality—our partnership with the Asian Law Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center—we advocate for APIs on statewide issues in Sacramento. In responding to the state budget crisis, AACRE made it a priority to protect the programs that serve the most vulnerable in our community from cuts; programs that provide food assistance and health insurance for immigrants who cannot get coverage through the federal system. AACRE continues to co-host the annual API Policy Summit in Sacramento, which convenes over 500 members from API communities around the state, to discuss statewide issues impacting our communities and train activists to be more effective advocates in Sacramento, where so many of the decisions concerning our schools, health care, and basic rights are made.
Photo captions A VVPA parent leader makes her voice heard at City Hall during the 2010 Immigrant Family Day. On April 15, SFILEN reminds the public that immigrants contribute to society as workers and taxpayers and deserve recognition through comprehensive immigration reform. Vincent Pan joins Asian American leaders in a news conference protesting the new UC eligibility and admissions policy, which was passed without community input and would hurt minority students. Responding to frightful raids and the deportation of immigrant youth which tears apart families, SFILEN protests on the steps of City Hall. CAA and 12 other organizations of the Yes We Count coalition kick-off our 2010 Census campaign with a spirited rally.
In 2009 the Board of the UC Regents, with the recommendation of the UC President, passed a new UC freshman admissions and eligibility policy that would go into effect for the fall 2012 entering class. By the UC President’s own studies, it is shown that this new policy would reduce the admissions of UC-eligible racial minorities, with big reductions for African American, Asian American, and Latino students. This issue has affected our community in different ways over the decades—for example, CAA played a big role in trying to stop Proposition 209—and as an organization we believe that all communities of color should have an equal opportunity in employment and education. Currently, we are coordinating with a number of groups around the state, which include UC faculty and student organizations, to raise awareness about this issue and identify the resources needed to persuade the UC regents to rescind this policy. 17
Since 1969, CAA has fought to defend civil rights and promote social change. Our work has challenged social norms to advance equality, created coalitions that bridge traditional boundaries, and prioritized the needs of our community’s most marginalized. Our civil rights leadership encompasses over four decades of achievements. 1969 CAA is founded by young activists grounded in the civil rights and Third World organizing movements. Their work is part of a broader generational and political upheaval to challenge the status quo and achieve social change. 1970 CAA helps prepare the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols, which results in bilingual education provisions for growing numbers of Chinese- and Spanish-speaking public school students in San Francisco. 1972 CAA demands bilingual election ballots in San Francisco to comply with new state election code mandating bilingual assistance where a significant need is identified.
1973 CAA joins Officers for Justice and other minority and women groups to challenge discriminatory hiring and promotional practices of the San Francisco Police Department. The lawsuit leads to a dramatic increase in API police officers.
naire. The Census ultimately lists nine distinct API groups. 1978 CAA files a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for violating the voting rights of minorities (Chinese for Affirmative Action v. Leguennec). The lawsuit sets the stage for CAA’s later work with the U.S. Justice Department to secure a consent decree with the City to provide multilingual materials and ballots for limited-English proficient voters.
1983 CAA joins a nationwide coalition to protest the brutal murder of Vincent Chin and initiates a campaign with the U.S. Department of Justice urging prosecution of the two men involved in the killing. The case is appealed and retried.
1975 CAA files a complaint against the largest HMO in Northern California for failing to provide equal access and services to Chinese-speaking patients. The settlement reached through the federal government becomes a model for other bilingual health access programs.
1986 The first of a series of Broken Ladder reports, analyzing the lack of API representation in management and promotional opportunities in San Francisco civil service, is published. CAA intervenes in the lawsuit against the San Francisco Fire Department to address the under-representation of APIs in the department.
1978 CAA mounts a national campaign to oppose clustering all Asian and Pacific Islanders in one racial category in the 1980 Census question-
1989 CAA joins nation-wide efforts to stop the regressive Kennedy-Simpson immigration bill, which would have substantially reduced visas
and given preference to independent immigrants with English-speaking skills.
and get passed the California Hate Crime Civil Remedies Act.
1993 CAA and Latino groups intervene in the desegregation lawsuit against the San Francisco Unified School District in order to improve services for educationally disadvantaged minority students, especially low-income and immigrant students.
2006 To meet the needs of dislocated garment workers, CAA partners with community groups to expand vocational training and job placement services. CAA publishes Lost Without Translation, a survey report on language barriers faced by limited-English proficient parents with children in the San Francisco school district.
1995 CAA convinces SFUSD to transform Galileo High School into the magnet Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, thereby benefiting its primarily lowincome, minority, immigrant, and limitedEnglish proficient students.
2001 CAA successfully advocates for the passage of the Equal Access to Services Ordinance in San Francisco, requiring key City agencies to provide services to limited-English proficient communities and increasing residents’ access to vital services. 2002 A study published by CAA finds a 22% decrease in total dollars awarded to minority/women-owned businesses in seven government agencies after passage of Proposition 209, resulting in a loss of almost $100 million dollars annually to these businesses.
1996-1998 CAA leads opposition of California’s Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative, and Proposition 227, which would ban bilingual education. Staff develop programs to help local businesses and workers overcome the barriers created by Prop 209. To serve the growing Chinese American community in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, CAA opens an office in The Village. 1999 CAA successfully advocates for millions of dollars in state and local funds to support ethnic media coverage and community outreach in the 2000 Census, aimed at improving the count of APIs and other hard-to-count communities. 2000 CAA combats the racial profiling and incarceration of Dr. Wen Ho Lee through national organizing, legal actions, and media advocacy, including purchasing a full-page ad in the New York Times titled “Charged with being ethnic Chinese.”
2003 CAA and partners open the first statewide policy office for APIs based in Sacramento, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. AACRE produces the first Asian and Pacific American Legislative Report Card, reporting on how California state legislators voted on priority issues for APIs. CAA teams up with grassroots organizations in California to defeat Proposition 54, which would have banned state and local governments from gathering race and ethnicity data. 2004 CAA launches the Visitacion Valley Parents Association, a community organizing project for limited-English proficient Chinese Americans, focused on parent leadership development to improve public school education. 2005 No Parents Left Behind, a CAA report recommending public school improvements in the translation of important written communication to parents, leads to new allocations at the California Department of Education for additional translation resources. CAA and AACRE co-sponsor
2007 CAA leads over 100 community groups in a historic mobilization to win a permanent City College campus in San Francisco Chinatown for generations of immigrant students. API Equality, working in the API community for the fair treatment and acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people, officially joins CAA. 2008 CAA and partners successfully advocate for a San Francisco Police Department General Order on police interactions with limited-English proficient residents, aimed at improving public safety and protecting immigrant rights. To foster the next generation of API leaders, CAA and API Equality train the first nine Helen Zia Fellows for Social Change to lead social justice campaigns on California college campuses. 2009 CAA publishes Access Deferred: Progress, Challenges and Opportunities, which surveys the experiences of limitedEnglish proficient Chinese- and Spanishspeaking residents with San Francisco City agencies and leads to stronger language access laws in the City. CAA convinces the U.S. Census Bureau to reverse a harmful policy that would have eliminated key multi-lingual correspondence between Census and residents across the country. 19
STAFF Vincent Pan Executive Director Benita Benavides Community Advocate Vanessa Coe API Equality Community Organizer Nattie Fong Finance and Administration Assistant Susan Hsieh Communications and Membership Manager
Victor Hui Finance and Administration Manager Yorbee Hui Receptionist/Intake Coordinator Jenny Lam Director of Community Initiatives Eric Xiyu Li Development Coordinator
Elaine Ng Employment Advocate Tawal Panyacosit, Jr. Director of API Equality Santosh Seeram-Santana AACRE Legislative Advocate Michelle Yeung Community Advocate – Immigrant Rights Joanna Yuan Community Organizer
Susan Mooney Associate Director for Organizational Capacity
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Stephanie Ong Stillman, Co-Chair
Jeff Chang
Rolland C. Lowe
Robert Chen
Omar Mencin
Germaine Q Wong, Co-Chair
Bernadette Chi
Raymond Sheen
Celia Lee, Vice Chair
Leon Chow
Anne Tang
Keith Kamisugi, Secretary
Bill Jeong
Kathy Owyang Turner
Victoria Wong, Treasurer
Deborah Lao
Cecillia Wang
Kent M. Lim
Bill Wong
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CAA HAS CHOSEN THE LOTUS to thank you — our community of supporters. The lotus flower rises above the water toward the sun, the leaves support the flower and shade the roots below, the stems emerge through murky waters, and the seeds anchor in the muddy floor of the pond to take root. Together, these parts sustain the lotus year after year.
CAA’s deep and lasting impact would not be possible without each and every one of you. Individuals pay memberships in amounts that range from modest to extraordinary to sustain CAA each year. Members also use recurring gifts through their credit cards to make monthly donations to boost their annual giving as a sustainable way to help CAA. Leadership Circle members donate $1,000 or more each year ensuring that CAA has the flexibility to respond to changing issues and needs in our community. Legacy Society members have chosen to include CAA in their will or estate plan, leaving a legacy of justice for generations to come.
CAA depends on your support – Please use the envelope and reply card provided to donate today.
CAA was founded in 1969 to protect the civil and political rights of Chinese Americans and to advance multiracial democracy in the United States. Today, CAA is a progressive voice in and on behalf of the broader Asian and Pacific American community. We advocate for systemic change that protects immigrant rights, promotes language diversity, and remedies racial injustice. www.caasf.org
Chinatown The Kuo Building 17 Walter U. Lum Place San Francisco, California 94108 415-274-6750
Visitacion Valley 29 Leland Avenue San Francisco, California 94134 415-287-0228
AACRE | Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality 1225 8th Street, Suite 590 Sacramento, California 95814 916-321-9001