The End of a Pan-Asian dream?

John Fang had a “Pan-Asian” dream that all communities of Asian heritage could come together in a special place to get their news and ideas. From this vision, AsianWeek was born. When I first saw the newspaper, I was a TV reporter for a San Francisco station. I didn’t know quite what to make of it. But it was a sincere and earnest rag. It was also physical evidence, the DNA of ethnic American life, a sure sign that we were here, with a voice, taking a stand.
I started going amok for AsianWeek Jan.1, 1995.
Fourteen years later, my column is believed to be the longest-running Asian American news commentary in journalism. Throughout all the stops in my career from major network TV affiliates to NPR, from big-chain papers to small tiny ones, my work for AsianWeek has defined my work and my voice as a journalist. It’s one of the few places you’llread a column like the one this Friday that makes Wen Ho Lee Person of the Year in 2008. Who but a mad man would do that? But the recent nomination of Bill Richardson to Commerce secretary makes Lee relevant again. Richardson is the instigator of the worst transgression against Asian Americans in the last quarter century. There should be no redemption for Richardson.
You won’t hear that opinion anywhere else but in AsianWeek.
In an earlier draft of the column, I took a slightly broader view and wondered why there wasn’t more concern over Richardson. Was there some statute of limitations on transgressions on Asian Americans? Did Wen Ho Lee not count? Or did we, once again, not count as a community?
The lack of concern was not just among the politicos and the mainstream, but within our community as well. A handful have gone to wenholee.org and signed on to a petition. But you don’t hear people outraged about Richardson being placed in the cabinet while Wen Ho Lee, stripped of his scientific career, lives in quiet obscurity. That’s why I saw Wen Ho Lee as our very real and practical litmus test to see if there is a cohesive Asian American community sense of justice, where all people of Asian descent see a bit of themselves in Wen Ho Lee. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe it’s time to say that all of us as Americans should be outraged at what happened to Lee and the failure of Richardson to be held accountable. Or maybe the grievances of race politics really are old-hat.
Maybe in John Madden-speak it’s time to say “FIMO.” (That would be an acronym for “forget it, move on,” all be it the “f” would be a slightly more passionate term that rhymes with “duck.”)
But where does that leave the “Pan Asian” dream?
From Gold Mountain to the present, we’ve left a paper trail. After this week, we may just be part of the ether.