Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Timeline II - Recent Events on Admissions and How Accountability is Needed!

Brief Recap of "Timeline I"

From 2003 to 2013   Almost all Asian Am. "civil rights" type orgs. supported race-preference" college admissions in courts

March, 2012    80-20 took a SURVEY taken by 47,108 Asian Ams. The FOR/ AGAINST ratio for a "race neutral" admissions was 52.4 to 1. 

May 29, 2012   80-20 became the FIRST AsAm national organization to take legal action AGAINST "race-preference" college admission.         

June, 2013    The Supreme Court decision on "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas" came.     

Dec. 3, 2013     Calif. Senate passed SCA-5.

Mar. 17, 2014    A great victory!  SCA-5 was defeated.

Mar. 21, 2014    80-20 PAC announced to DEFEAT 2 Calif. AsAm politicians.

Mar. 28, 2014   Days of Reckoning I:  Sen. Leland Yee lost his senate position.

Nov. 2, 2014     Days of Reckoning II: Paul Fong was defeated. 

Timeline II -- Recent Actions on the College Admissions Front    

Nov. 17, 2014    Projects on Fair Representation filed lawsuits challenging admissions policies at Harvard and Univ. of N. Carolina - Chapel Hill in District Courts.  The cases are expected to work their ways to the Supreme Court eventually.  It is a high quality project led by Mr. Ed glum.  80-20 has assisted Blum to find highly qualified AsAm students, who were rejected by Harvard, as plaintiffs.

May 15, 2015    A coalition of 64 Asian American organizations filed a complaint

against Harvard President and Fellows of the Harvard College for discrimination against Asian-American applicants in the College admissions process.  The complaint was submitted to Office of Civil Rights, Dept. of Education and Civil Rights Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice.  80-20's Washington D.C. chapter is 1 of the 64 orgs. This complaint received a large amount of media attention, including articles from NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, China Daily, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessBoston GlobeChristian Science Monitor, Fox, NBCNEWSCNN.  The 64 orgs. calls itself The Coalition of Asian American Associations.

Unlike the pro or con amicus briefs filed by Asian American 501c-3 organizations of the past, which played supportive roles to lawsuits started by mainstream individuals and orgs, this complaint was filed by an pan-Asian group - a historic first.  It showed that Asian Ams' political activism had grown further.  A sign that the movement needs further nurturing is that the complaint is mostly based on the data from the lawsuit of the Project on Fair Representation, filed last November.  The data is so powerful that a number of the mainstream media articles publicize the ENTIRE complaint, a very rare practice.

May 19, 2015    An "open letter" from 135 AAPI organizations, led by the earlier “civil rights" type organizations like AAJC, OCA & JACL that had always supported "race-preference" college admissions, was issued to down the complaint filed by the "64 AsAm orgs.".  The open letter made two points:

(1) Affirmative action in college admissions does not constitute quotas.  However, it did NOT submit any data to prove that point.  Had it submitted data, it would have proved just the opposite.   

(2)  It implicitly accused the "64 orgs" of using "divisive wedge politics." 

Most AsAms might be befuddled by this accusation and ask, "how does politics come in?"  Let me explain.  The "open letter" group anticipated that the Depts of Education and Justice in the Obama Administration will NOT deal with the complaint seriously.  It is because the presidential election is near, and Democrats need the bloc vote from the black community, 9 to 1 in favor of a Democratic presidential candidate.  The Asian Am community will, as a result of the non-action of the Democratic administration, be upset with the Democrats, causing them to vote against the Democrats in 2016.  A distinct possibility!

The action taken by the "open letter" group owing to its anticipated non-action by the Democratic administration is MOST disappointing.  It revealed where its heart lied -with the Democratic Party instead of the Asian Am. community.  It should have urged the Democratic administration NOT to trifled with the "complaint."  Instead, it blamed the "64 org. group" for filing the complaint.

How outrageous!   These 135 orgs. had abandoned their own community.  Shouldn't "Days of Reckoning" be upon them as well, fellow AsAms?   But that is not an 80-20 PAC job.

Shouldn't you as citizens demanding accountability?

As expected, the shallow contents of the "open letter" didn't receive any attention from any of the major papers in the nation, in stark contrast to the huge media attention paid to the complaint from the 64 orgs. group.

S. B. Woo, a volunteer for the past 16 years
President, 80-20 PAC, Inc.

PS: I'll be a keynoter at USDA in D.C. at 10 a.m. on May 27. It's open to the public.

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80-20's Top 10 Accomplishment, published 3 years ago.  

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Timeline I - Days of Reckoning!


Timeline of Our Magnificent Effort to Overturn an Outrageously Discriminatory College Admissions Policy against Our Children

From 2003 to 2013   Almost all Asian Am. "civil rights" type organizations, led by APALC of Los Angles and AAJC of Washington D.C., and urged on by NAACP, supported "race-preference" college admissions.  They filed amicus briefs with District, Appeals and Supreme Courts to support "race-preference" admissions for more than a decade.  Since 2003 some of these organizations began to drop off or lower their volume.

March, 2012     80-20 took a SURVEY taken by 47,108 Asian Ams. The FOR/AGAINST ratio for a "race neutral" college admissions policy was 52.4 to 1 i.e. a 98% support share.  To see the names of the 47,108 survey participants in alphabetical order, click here and go to item 1(d).

May 29, 2012   80-20 became the FIRST AsAm national organization to take a legal action AGAINST "race-preference" college admission by filing an  amicus brief with the Supreme Court to support Fisher in "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas".    The news was extremely well-covered by mainstream and ethnic media.  Click here and go to item 5.                       

June, 2013        The Supreme Court decision on "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas" came down.  It made two main points.

         (1)  Race-preference should NOT be used unless there is "no workable race-neutral alternatives (that) would produce the educational benefits of diversity."

         (2)  Asked the lower court to apply "strict scrutiny" in determining whether "race-conscious" in college admissions is called for.

Dec. 3, 2013      Calif. Senate passed SCA-5 to make a "Calif. Constitutional Amendment" to abolish Calif's existing "race-neutral" college admission. It seemed certain to pass, since Democrats had a super-majority in both the Senate and the Assembly.

Mar. 17, 2014    A great victory!  SCA-5 was defeated by an informal coalition of Calif. AsAm organizations and 80-20 Initiative, a national organization.

Mar. 21, 2014    80-20 PAC announced via its e-newsletter to DEFEAT two Calif. AsAm politicians, who betrayed the Asian American community during our STOP SCA-5 struggle.  Who?   Sen. Leland Yee and Assemblyman Paul Fong, who was the Chair of the AsAm Caucus in the Calif. Assembly.  Click here and go to Q3's A(2).

Mar. 28, 2014    Days of Reckoning I:  Seven days later, Sen. Leland Yee lost his senate position, banished by the Calif. Senate for his alleged illegal activities.

Nov. 2, 2014       Days of Reckoning II: Paul Fong was defeated running for a San Jose Council seat, since he was term-limited not to run as an Assemblyman again.  

This series of victories, from the shocking success of the STOP SCA-5 to the political banishment of former Senator Leland Yee and former Assemblyman Paul Fong, made it obvious that a consensus for "race-neutral" college admissions is spreading and that the community is more and more inclined to adopt political activism to protect its rightful interests.

NEXT MONDAY, 80-20'LL SEND YOU "A TIMELINE II -- FROM 64 ORGS' COMPLAINT TO 135 ORGS' OPEN LETTER."

DONATE HERE to SELF OR LOSE 80-20. 

S. B. Woo, a volunteer for the past 16 years
President, 80-20 PAC, Inc. 
Help us spread the word, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter !

80-20's Top 10 Accomplishment, published 3 years ago.  

Open Letter to AWISV (Part II)


Dear Asian Am. Workers in Silicon Valley (AWISV):
Great response to 80-20's Open Letter I !
In 4 days, SELF's "Total Donation" reached $500,003 per year for 5 years. "Total received" climbed to $ 1,103,296.  Click here to verify.
Enough? No!   Can't do big-time politics on the cheap. Recall that AIPAC, a Jewish political organization, has an annual budget of $67 million. 

Q:  Can 80-20 actually help AsAm break glass ceilings?  Give examples!
A:  YES!  Two examples.        

(1) 80-20 broke the glass ceiling for AsAm lawyers and judges in becoming life-tenured federal judges - tripling the number and getting 4 Appeals Court judges. Click here for evidence.
(2) See how 80-20 helped push up the glass ceiling for the 100,000 AsAm government workers.  Focus on the heights of the green bars for all races and gender.  For government workers, the top is merit-based SES (Senior Executive Service) level which is normally promoted from the G15 level.  

In 2003, the (SES/G15) level is the lowest for AsAms when compared to all other Americans.  It was only 0.33 that of the "chance to rise" of the national average, represented by the blue dashed horizontal line and arbitrarily set to be 1. 


In 2008, 80-20 asked presidential candidate Obama if he would help AsAms break glass ceiling.  Sen. Obama replied "YES".   By 2012, the (SES/G15) ratio has risen to 0.62, however, we still face the lowest glass ceiling, because we are so dis-organized and such cowards.  But it is an 88% improvement over 9 years and primarily improved during Obama's presidency.

Q:  Don't see much improvement in the blue (private industry) and red (university) bars.  Explain that please.
A:  President Obama can appoint federal judges and SES appointees (e.g.

Dep. Sec. of DOL Christ Lu has the sign off on all SES appointees).  He can't appoint managers and administrators in private industries and universities. 

In those areas, we (you and 80-20) need to apply a RETAIL approach, which include the following steps:
(1) Invite the next president to come to S.V. to make a major speech regarding giving minorities equal opportunity, possibly connecting with the industries in the S.V.  80-20 will use the occasion to put all relevant parties together;
(2) Connect with local capable AsAm leaders and civic organizations;
(3) Hook in the media, including buying a full-page ad in Mercury News, and;
(4) Form teams to visit CEO of companies in the S.V. area to enlist their critical support and commitment.
Again, we'll spare you the details.
To fight or not to fight?  
God Helps Only Those Who Help Themselves!
The only way we'll win equal opportunity is if YOU help 80-20 also.  This seems like such a GREAT deal for AWISV.  We hope that AWISV will get it.  After all, it involves not only your pragmatic interests but also your dignity.  Your donation urges us to fight.  You inaction tells us that you'd rather suffer discrimination.
DONATE HERE  to SELF*!    


S. B. Woo, a volunteer for the past 16 years
President, 80-20 Asian Am. National Educational Foundation, Inc.
*If SELF fails, all donations will be returned in full.  I and all other old war horses don't benefit from a penny of your money.  

Help us spread the word, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter !
80-20's Top 10 Accomplishment, published 3 years ago.