I Have a Dream…

Dear Fellow Asian Americans and Friends,

The current “race conscious” college admissions policy is Anti-affirmative action, as shown in this poignant cartoon.

It requires AsAm students to vastly outperform the whites for equal opportunity.  It took a “two wrongs make it a right” approach to surreptitiously pass the burden of correcting “historical injustice” (that the whites committed against the minorities) onto the silent AsAm community. It is a “white man’s burden” carried by AsAm students.

80-20 stands firmly for equality, the most fundamental American value. 

All people must be judged by individual merits. In college admissions, individual merits should be broadly defined to include academic qualification necessary for successful college learning, and personal character strengths such as perseverance, good work ethic, leadership skills, and individual initiative to overcome adverse conditions. The last point would help the true needy but worthy students, rather than wealthy students who happen to have the right skin colors, as the current race-conscious policy tends to deliver.

Race and ethnicity are immutable group characteristics that an individual cannot change, therefore cannot possibly be a personal merit no matter how broadly defined.  The current race-conscious policy creates resentment and stigmatizes the so-called beneficiaries.  It breeds cynicism and invites abuse (“Elizabeth Warren”, anyone who have undocumented 1/32 heritage of the right kind?).  Worst of all, it hurts American competitiveness while masking over deep-rooted social problems, thereby permanently condemning some minority groups it supposed to help.

“I have a dream”, DO YOU?

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

More than a generation has passed since Dr. King’s speech, why is his dream slipping further away all the time? 

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” -John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Dr. King and Chief Justice Roberts get it.  This is why we appeal to the Supreme Court to reconsider that current race-conscious practice in college admission. 

Do you have the courage to fight for your basic rights as afforded by the “Equal Protection Clause” of the 14^th Amendment in the US Constitution?  Will you be a proud participant of unfolding history to fulfill your generational duty to your children and grandchildren?

If your answer is Yes, Join 80-20 Today. 

Go to  http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership/join.asp

Or send your check to: 80-20 PAC, 13337 South St. #189,  Cerritos,  CA 90703.

Family membership is $50 (two), individual $35, student $15.

Please see us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/8020PAC 

Respectfully,

80-20Collective Leadership

CALL TO ACTION on Endorsement Questionnaire!

Dear Fellow Asian Americans and Friends,

Call to Action!

Presidential election is the perfect time for “collective bargaining” via a SWING BLOC vote.

By focusing on Battle Ground States (BGS) which are currently split ~50/50, a small minority like AsAms can decisively affect the election outcome, and hence motivate politicians to court our votes. Hold them accountable through a written and enforceable pledge to our community!

Please send e-mails to urge the two presidential candidates to respond to our questionnaire http://www.80-20initiative.net/news/preselect2012_questionaire.asp

Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina: JMessina@barackobama.com

Political Director Katherine Archuleta: karchuleta@barackobama.com

Romney Campaign manager Matt Rhoades: MRhoades@mittromney.com

Chief of staff Kelli Harrison: kharrison@mittromney.com

When solicited by either campaign, please answer "I will not contribute to your campaign until you have answered 80-20's questionnaire.  Indeed, if you are endorsed by 80-20 National Asian American PAC, I'll donate, vote for you, and try to get all friends & relatives to vote for you."

If polled on the phone, answer "undecided." If both R and D see in their own respective polls that a large % of Asian Ams are undecided, they'll court us a lot harder. Please pass this important message to all Asian Ams.

80-20 will hold its Endorsement Convention (EC) on Sunday, August 26 in Los Angeles.

Our membership elected EC delegates, comprised of equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, will debate which candidate to endorse based on his deeds and pledges to our community and then the delegates will vote according to their informed judgment of the two candidates.  80-20 will endorse the candidate winning the majority of delegates’ votes.

Together we can make a difference!

Join 80-20 Today.  Go to  http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership/join.asp

Or send your check to: 80-20 PAC, 13337 South St. #189,  Cerritos,  CA 90703.

Family membership is $50 (two), individual $35, student $15.

Please see us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/8020PAC 

Respectfully,

80-20Collective Leadership

Who is Perpetuating Racial Discrimination Against AsAm Students?

Dear Fellow Asian Americans and Friends,

The schools are smart, they know the best defense for race conscious policies is to portray all minorities love it.  Vocal AsAm allies create just that impression. 

Watch this AsAm legal counsel for Univ. of Texas (UT) publicly proclaiming “Fisher v. UT Austin” to be without any merit during the critical period the Supreme Court was evaluating whether to take up Fisher’s petition. Fortunately the Supreme Court did NOT listen to him.

http://www.heritage.org/events/2011/12/fisher-v-ut

With “Fisher” moving forward, many AsAm orgs rushed to the schools’ rescues ONCE AGAIN!

They DID it in the past

APALC and its affiliates filed an amicus brief in support of Univ. of Michigan’s race-conscious admissions program in the 2003 Supreme Court case, “Grutter v. Bollinger”, insisting AsAms are “not harmed by” but rather “benefited from” such practice.  Thanks to APALC, the “Grutter” decision opened the flood gate to enhanced race-conscious policies many schools practiced over the last 9 years that your children and grand-children currently enjoy:  UT Austin announced on the VERY SAME DAY of the “Grutter” decision that it would RE-INTRODUCE race/ethnicity into college admission, which led to the current “Fisher v. UT Austin” case.  When the “Fisher” case was at the US Fifth Circuit court in 2010, APALC and its affiliates promptly filed an amicus brief again, ensuring the upholding of “race conscious” policy which has now reached the Supreme Court.

Emboldened by “Grutter”, AALDEF and its affiliates filed an amicus brief to extend race-conscious admissions policy into K-12 education.  In the 2007 Supreme Court cases “Parents v. Seattle School District” and “Meredith v. Jefferson”, they argued for the school districts’ racial balancing plan.  Under such a policy, a student could be bused to other school districts if the school across the street reached the predetermined racial quota.  Imagine the agony of AsAm parents who literally sacrificed everything to move into a good school district only to find that their children really need to “benefit from” forced racial integration into a bad school district.

Now they are doing it AGAIN

APALC and AALDEF have publicly announced they will file an amicus brief YET AGAIN at the Supreme Court (August 13^th deadline).  If they are as successful as they have been in the past, you can be rest assured that your children and grand-children will “benefit from” the race conscious college admissions policy for the next quarter century.

In preparation, AALDEF issued a press release on June 25 titled “The Majority of AsAms Support Race-Conscious Admissions Policies”, aimed specifically to discredit 80-20EF’s historic open & neutral survey of 50,000 people showing overwhelming AsAm support for race-neutral, merit-based college admissions.

Our response is simple: Why don’t we work together to conduct a large-scale AsAms survey specifically on college admissions, designed by professionals, monitored by neutral third parties, and open to all AsAms, to find out who is lying?

If you disagree with the APALC and AALDEF stance, please let them know their upcoming amicus brief will do immeasurable harm to AsAm interests, especially if it creates the impression “The Majority of AsAms Support Race-Conscious Admissions Policies”, as AALDEF publicly proclaimed.

Stewart Kwoh (skwoh@apalc.org), Asian Pacific American Legal Center

Margaret Fung (info@aaldef.org), Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund

It takes courage to challenge the status quo and defend our core interest.  Your silence has been interpreted by APALC and AALDEF, and maybe by the Supreme Court, as “the silent majority” supporting the current policy, a perfect recipe to ensure your children and grandchildren would continue to “benefit from” the race-conscious policy for the next quarter century.

Will you do your part to support 80-20 in this ferocious battle for equality?  The future of your children is in your hands.

Join 80-20 Today.  Go to  http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership/join.asp

Or send your check to: 80-20 PAC, 13337 South St. #189,  Cerritos,  CA 90703.

Family membership is $50 (two), individual $35, student $15.

Please see us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/8020PAC 

Respectfully,

80-20Collective Leadership

Celebrate July 4th with a Flag!

Dear Fellow Asian Americans and Friends,

Celebrate July 4^th with a Flag!

On July 4^th, help celebrate the founding of a great nation, OUR NATION, the United States of America, by displaying a flag at your home.  Legality aside, the essence of citizenship is the pride of ownership.  It means we owe our primary allegiance to the USA while celebrating the vitality of our ethnic communities and preserving our cherished cultural heritages.  It means we stand up and fight for our rights as full-fledged citizens.  It means we are equal partners in making this great nation a more perfect union.  But are we?

AsAms must shatter the “perpetual foreigner” image before we can become first-class citizens.

Don’t just blame others for bias: Are you behaving like a citizen? No amount of enlightenment by others would help if you think, talk and act like a refugee in a foreign land.  As the proverb put it well, “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it is a duck.”

“Refugee mentality” is a state of mind that makes you a foreigner regardless of your citizenship status.

It affects a person’s conduct, yet has nothing to do with his education attainment, professional development, family income or wealth.  Many “model minority” individuals, suffer the same “refugee mentality” as would a destitute, despite being in the top 10% income bracket and living in suburban McMansions:  Constant insecurity about job and financial well-being, exclusive focus on immediate family needs, look at everything from a “what’s in it for me” perspective, don’t give away anything to anyone, don’t care or get involved in the community, don’t dare to defend own rightful interests lest it would step on toes and cause a backlash, and above all, avoid “dirty” politics like the plague.  Then look around and wonder why are we looked upon as perpetual foreigners, why our children face the highest bar to college, and why our adults face the lowest ceiling?

Look around your friends and look at yourself.  Look no further:

“First-class citizenship” is an ideal that germinates in your heart and emanates through your actions.

The change is in you!

80-20 toils to plant the seeds for a better and stronger AsAm community, support us by paying your membership dues and help spread the words.

Join 80-20 Today.  Go to  http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership/join.asp

Or send your check to: 80-20 PAC, 13337 South St. #189,  Cerritos,  CA 90703.

Family membership is $50 (two), individual $35, student $15.

Please see us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/8020PAC 

Respectfully,

80-20Collective Leadership

Acknowledgements:

Pedro Chan, California, life member, $1000

Tiepeng Zhou, New Jersey, $405