---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 13:39:28 -0700 (PDT)

From: [email protected]

Subject: Media Coverage on Denny’s incident, police killing???

 

(Please post)

There have been several postings about the Denny’s incident in Syracuse, NY involving the hospitalization of 3 students and the police killing of Kuanchung Kao in the middle class suburb of Rohnert Park in Northern California.

About these incidents, I have a question and an observation for the APA cybercommunity:

1. My question is whether anyone has seen media coverage of the Denny’s incident, local or national. Here in California, there has been none. I had a recent discussion with some other Asian American journalists and we wondered why we had not seen a single AP wire report. Other racially suspect incidents at Denny’s that didn’t involve sending patrons to the hospital have received a great deal of media attention, so why not this one? But before any inquiries/actions can be made from the inside of the newsroom, we need to know if there has been an effort to get this news out, and if so, what has been the result. So if anybody knows of news coverage, could you please post what you’ve seen and approximately when it ran? Thanks.

2. My concern is that climate during the last nine months of Asian-bashing has contributed to these violent incidents and possibly others; who knows how many less injurious or deadly situations have gone unreported. In San Francisco, an Asian American business district was vandalized with swastikas and other hate messages.

 

We have certainly seen this cycle many times before, most recently with Japan-bashing and Korean-American bashings and the subsequent increases in hate crimes.

Now we are in a period of broad Asian-bashing—and this is only the beginning. Last week I attended the CAPACI (Congressional APA Caucus Institute) conference in Washington, and Kent Cooper, the executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog for issues like campaign finance, was on one of the panels. Cooper, who is white and as far as I know has no particular ties to the APA community, made some sobering predictions. He said that he fully expects the congressional hearings into campaign financing to go on for "at least a year, perhaps two" and that the APA community should "prepare itself" and "go into alert mode" because he expects these hearings will make the last nine months look tame. He suggested that APAs find whatever extra resources we can to deal with the upcoming hearings. My interpretation: the hearings could turn into a real witchhunt.

I think APA groups need to consider Cooper’s predictions carefully, and in any case, remember what we already know about times of heavy anti-Asian publicity.

Other postings have suggested ideas for APA organizations to build a cohesive response.

Where media coverage is concerned, the community needs to play an active role in holding the news media accountable for fair coverage of APAs. Letters, emails, phone calls, op-ed pieces, meetings with editorial boards, press conferences and other media events should all be considered. Anti Asian incidents should be documented, publicized, and sent to the various regional and national APA groups like NAPALC for tracking, and media coverage of such incidents should be monitored. If you have questions on how to reach the media, your local Asian American Journalists Association chapter may be able to help (though please be aware that APA journalists who may have to report on such stories will be unable to be involved. Other APA journalists, however, might be able to assist.)

I offer these comments and ideas for discussion and I welcome your feedback.

Thanks,

Helen Zia
[email protected]