INSIDE:

NEWS/STORIES/ARTICLES
Book Reviews
Columns/Opinion/Cartoon
Films
International
National
NW/Local
Recipes
Special A.C.E. Stories
Online Paper (PDF)

NW RESOURCE GUIDE
Archives
Consulates
NW Job Market
Organizations
Scholarships
Special Sections

Upcoming

The Asian Reporter Thirteenth Annual Scholarship & Awards Banquet -
April, 2011

May, 2011

Asian Reporter Info

About Us

Advertising Info.

AR Merchandise
Contact Us
Subscription Info. & Back Issues

ASIA LINKS
Asian Studies
Currency Exchange
More Asian Links
Public Holidays
Time Zones


Copyright © 2000 - 2010
AR Home

My Turn by Elisa Dozono

From The Asian Reporter, V19, #40 (October 13, 2009), page 6 & 7.

There’s a reason people have to wait six months before mounting a recall election — "sour grapes" prevention. Yet that is all campaigners for the recall of Portland mayor Sam Adams have been offering for the past nine months.

Mayor Adams didn’t have the luxury of six months to get his administration started. Granted, it was due much to what he has admitted was "self-created adversity." But the attorney general’s refusal to prosecute Adams gave him a new lease on his political life, and since then he has made every effort to be worthy of the title.

Mayor Adams continues to push the community dialogue on the Columbia River Crossing, the convention center headquarters hotel, and future urban renewal areas. All of this, looking to the future of what Portland should strive to be, while recall petitioners insist on living in the past.

All the energy spent on the recall would be better served looking for and cultivating new leaders. And if the recall petitioners think they’ll be those new leaders based on their efforts, well, personally, I don’t want an elected official who dwells on negativity. I want someone like my nephew Akira, who at two years old believes he can do most anything.

"No, mama; Aki do!" was Aki’s constant refrain during our recent vacation with him.

Humility be damned, the only time he has one of his aunts, uncles, or grandparents do anything is if he doesn’t want to.

At two, he hasn’t yet learned the phrase, "No, you don’t want me to do that, I’m not that good," or "No, ask my friend, she’s much more qualified …"

And yet, those eventually become phrases many in the Asian community learn too well.

As Holly Fujie, president of the California Bar Association, puts it: GET OVER IT.

OK, maybe she said it more tactfully and with a few more words, but that’s essentially the message.

Fujie was in Portland recently as part of the Oregon Women Lawyers’ 20th anniversary celebration.

It was Fujie’s comments at last year’s 20th anniversary of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association that inspired me to help found an Oregon chapter.

Fujie was raised knowing no limits thanks in part to a mother who in grade school went to a friend’s house after school.

"Would you like a sandwich?" asked the friend.

"No, too much trouble," said Holly’s mom.

"No, no trouble, I’m going to make one for myself," said the friend.

"No, really, it’s too much trouble, and I’m really not that hungry," said Holly’s mom.

At that point, her friend said OK, made one sandwich, and ate it all herself.

Holly’s mother told her that story and the lesson she learned: "Not everyone asks three times." Today, Holly, a woman whose family was interned during World War II in California, now leads that same state’s professional organization for lawyers, which is one of the largest in the country.

How is it that we feel slighted or pigeonholed that many think of Asian people as hardworking, but submissive, worker-bees, but not leaders, when that is exactly what we let others believe by failing to get in the game?

About a month ago, one of the only African-American state legislators, Oregon senator Margaret Carter, announced her retirement from the state senate. The press attempted to stir up controversy by asking whether her senate seat should remain a "minority" seat.

Let’s be clear. Senator Carter’s seat should not be a minority seat. Minorities cannot and should not be relegated to any one particular seat.

EVERY seat should have the potential to be a minority seat. And yet, when we had no immediate minority successors for the seat, people seemed disappointed. People scrambled to find a seat-filler.

Certainly, some new, and encouraging, candidates appeared. Roberta Philip, for instance, a 2006 Lewis & Clark Law School grad who took it upon herself to create a scholarship for students attending Rosemary Anderson High School in north Portland. And yet when the dust cleared, the state had one less minority elected official, and also one less female elected official.

We should be cultivating leaders, not scrambling to find a person of color to fill a seat solely because he or she is a person of color. That is what is demeaning, not the fact that we could be relegated to "a" minority seat.

We need people to get involved now. Make connections now. Learn what it takes to be a politician, be a judge, and be the leader of a business before we are left scrambling.

It is not enough to be seen as pretty, congenial, and culturally aware. It is about understanding the culture into which it seems we sometimes fight assimilating.

Enough ego about whether mainstream educators, business leaders, and elected officials understand us. Why not become them? Rather than complaining to the leaders, why not become the leaders and effect change from the inside? If we don’t assert ourselves, we become self-fulfilling prophecies of the Asian stereotype.

Last month there was a historic moment when three Asian Americans were up for confirmation as U.S. District Court judges. Who cares? Anyone with an immigration issue; anyone with a civil-rights issue; anyone with an employment-discrimination issue who comes before them for the rest of these judges’ lives.

Notably, those three Asian judicial appointments were for federal courts in California, where Fujie is the state bar president. Here in Oregon, we should take note of that while taking stock of our — count them — three judges statewide of Asian descent. Out of 208 judicial posts, that is a dismal 1.4 percent, despite the fact Asians comprise 3.6 percent of the population.

We need to promote each other, and we need to be ready to step forward when it is clear that the community needs our leadership.

On October 14, 2009, Multnomah County Democrats will select a replacement for now-senator Chip Shields’ house district seat. So far, no Asian Americans have put their names in for the seat.

We are limited only by our imaginations, and our ability to say yes on, if not the first, maybe the second time. Because as Fujie reminds us, there may not be a third, and we’ll be left hungry for representation.