What's NAASCon, you ask? It's the National Asian American Students Conference, taking place this year at Emory University in Atlanta. Conference theme: "From Visions to Actions." Lots of exitement from the youngins about political change and participation. Opening night screening of WHO's VINCENT? by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress was telling--about 1/2 knew who Vincent Chin was or had vaguely heard of the landmark 1982 hate crime/murder in Detroit; about 1/2 had never heard of him.
ACV brought filmmaker Johnny Kwon, director of ALWAYZ BE BOYZ--an AAIFF '08 feature and National Festival Tour offering--out to Atlanta to help us conduct a media arts and social change workshop. The kiddos were excited about "cultural activism," or, what we called "right-brained activism." The wave is catching on.
Most of the students were excited about Obama; but a thoughtful student leader from North Carolina State expressed reservations about Obama's pro-choice stance (the student having strong Christian beliefs), and also a skepticism about the idealistic visions being presented: "It sounds good, but..." he said. He was undecided, as a large percentage of Asian Americans still are.
AALDEF and APIA Vote conducted a meaty workshop about voters rights protection and Asian American voter participation. 2006 stats show Asian Americans at the lowest participation rate of all ethnic/racial groups--across the board, and in the 18-29 age range specifically. Hopefully we'll see something different in 16 days. Daunting accounts and reality check about what goes down at the polls--poll workers violating all kinds of rights (rushing people who have language issues, sending ESL speakers to the back of the line, refusing to let elderly/ESL voters bring a relative with them into the booth for assistance, which is their legal right)--so volunteer to monitor voters rights! Go to the AALDEF Web site for more info; they're in 13 states.
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1 comment:
Greetings from Western NY! Great blog ;)
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