The New York Times recently did a follow-up story to Hiu Lui Ng, who died under custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year. It sounds like they've stopped accepting more detainees where he was kept and are investigating his death. I blogged about it a while back, and if you haven't read about him, I warn you that you will probably be angry and appalled.
In other somewhat positive news, JetBlue and TSA workers settle for $240,000 with Raed Jarrar, who was harassed in 2006 for wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing on it. The t-shirt read "We Will Not be Silent" in English and Arabic. He had to cover his shirt and was moved to the back of the plane. This is apparently a very, very large settlement, though JetBlue officials deny Jarrar's account. I like how they follow that with: "JetBlue believes diversity adds great strength to our company; diversity among our crewmembers as well as our customers," which I don't see being relevant at all. It's like saying, it's okay for me to be racist cause my best friend's black. Sigh.
Now for something a little more lighthearted. Our latest issue of Hyphen has a story about Asian American stand-up comedians. Here's a great little short film about the topic. Enter: Manoj. (I didn't get it the first time I watched it. But now I think it's very clever and subtle). The short film's been on YouTube for a while now, but I recently watched it again with a cousin who was visiting from out of town because he hadn't seen it.
