General Clark, one of the 2 leading Democratic presidential
candidates, phoned 80-20 President S. B. Woo at home last night to
apologize for his use of the word "Chinaman." Here is the
background.
On 11/03, Gen. Clark was interviewed by The National Public
Radio. He said, "I am a fair person.... But if somebody from Russia does
something right, or a Chinaman does something right, or even a
Frenchman, I'm going to say they did something right. Same thing with
the Republicans."
That statement was reported to 80-20 by one of its 650,000
supporters. Although it's obvious from the context that Gen. Clark
didn't mean to use "Chinaman" in a negative sense, Woo thought
Gen. Clark should know that Chinaman was a derogatory term. Woo,
therefore, e-mailed one of Clark's strong Korean Am. supporters,
Richard Choi Bertsch, asking him to make the general aware of his
faux pas and consider apologizing to the APA community.
To Woo's great surprise, Gen. Clark phoned him at home at 5:40
p.m. yesterday to PERSONALLY DELIVER THE APOLOGY. Such a
gesture seems a very positive reflection on Clark's leadership quality.
In their chat, Clark also expressed strong support for helping
the APAs break the glass ceiling. He stated that if elected President, he
will order the Labor Department to enforce Executive Order 11246,
should a Congressional hearing or a Labor Department study
conclude that there is a glass ceiling above APAs. E.O. 11246 is a
very powerful law that has been enforced on behalf of African Ams. and
women, but NOT APAs, to help them break glass ceilings. Equal
enforcement of that law will be 80-20's single crucial goal for
campaign season 2004.
Gen. Clark's verbal promise makes him the FIRST presidential
candidate to do so. 80-20 will soon write to BOTH Republican and
Democratic presidential candidates seeking their written promises to
enforce E. O. 11246 on our behalf. To find out more about the E. O.,
go http://80-20initiative.net , click on E.O. 11246.
Note that the two leading Dem. candidates, Gov. Dean and Gen
Clark have both made sincere effort to reach out to our community
through 80-20. Gov. Dean helped 80-20 raise funds in Los Angeles by
being a keynoter. We trust that President Bush will soon do the same.
Together, we shall overcome.
ANNOUNCEMENT: S. B. Woo will be speaking at Princeton U.
coming Monday in Woodrew Wilson Bldg, Bowl01 at 4:30 p.m.
