President Appoints Tony West as Asst. Attorney General, Civil Division
President Barack Obama yesterday announced his nomination of Morrison & Foerster partner Tony West to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
“I am grateful to have these distinguished individuals joining my administration, and I have the greatest confidence that their service will meet the highest standards of this department,” said President Obama. “The American people deserve to have faith that their Justice Department will keep them safe and uphold our most basic rights. This group has the depth of experience and integrity necessary to accomplish these goals.”
“Tony has been an outstanding leader in the firm,” said Steven M. Kaufmann, the Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Litigation Department in a statement. “He is a tremendous trial lawyer, mentor, and colleague. We will miss Tony as our partner, but are proud that he will bring the skill, values, and dedication that he demonstrated at Morrison & Foerster to the service of the American people. The Justice Department gains a tireless public servant and talented lawyer.”
Tony has been a longtime supporter of the Equal Justice Society. In 2006, he hosted at MoFo and emceed a packed gathering of summer law firm associates to introduce them to the Rollback Campaign. EJS organized and promoted the event.
All of us at EJS congratulate Tony on his appointment and wish him the best at DOJ.
Asian Pacific Americans for Progress
This is a statement provided to me on March 2. I’m posting it late, but thanks to APAP for the support!
The board of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, a national network of progressive Asian Pacific Americans, has voted to denounce views expressed in Kenneth Eng’s column in the February 23rd edition Asianweek. In addition, the board also voted to support the work of the Asian American Justice Center, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Equal Justice Society, Japanese American Citizens League and the Organization of Chinese Americans.
According to board member Nina Ahmad of Philadelphia, “It is so disheartening to have things like this happen. However, it only reaffirms our organization’s commitment to building coalition with other communities.”
Recognizing Asianweek’s longtime commitment and service to the APA community, we are confident they will do the right thing.
San Francisco Democratic Party condemns AsianWeek for printing hate speech
Last night, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee passed a resolution condemning AsianWeek. The resolution was offered by Speaker Pelosi’s representative to the Committee and passed by voice vote.
The resolution reads as follows:
“WHEREAS the hateful views expressed in Kenneth Eng’s column published in the February 23rd edition of Asian Week must not be tolerated, and Asian Week’s decision to print them was irresponsible;
WHEREAS Eng’s words were not only offensive to African Americans, but to all Americans, and speech that promotes hate has no place in San Francisco or anywhere in our country;
WHEREAS AsianWeek, a publication known for promoting diversity and civil rights, has taken steps in the right direction by issuing an apology and deciding to no longer run material by Mr. Eng;
THEREFORE, be it resolved, that the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee denounces the column by Kenneth Eng, asks Asian Week to re-consider its editorial policy and hold accountable its editor(s) who permitted the column to be published, and calls on Asian Week and all San Franciscans to recommit ourselves to fight racism and promote social justice for all.”
Asian American Advertising Federation – 3AF
Responding to the recent furor over a racist column titled “Why I Hate Blacks” which appeared in the February 23 edition of the San Francisco publication AsianWeek, the multicultural advertising industry trade group – The Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF) – announced that it strongly, and unequivocally condemns the opinions of the column. Noting that AsianWeek has publicly apologized for the column and severed ties with the column’s author, the 3AF urges AsianWeek to take extraordinary steps to rebuild the severe damage which the column has caused in the relationship between the Asian American and African American communities. Said Julia Huang, President of the 3AF, “While AsianWeek has a long history of service to the Asian American community in the San Francisco area, this column is an obvious blight on the publication. There is no acceptable place in Asian culture for discrimination against African Americans or any other segment of the population, and AsianWeek’s profound lapse in judgment must be condemned both within and outside the Asian American community.”
racist writer’s publisher pulls his books
I cannot verify the authenticity of this email, but it appears that Kenneth Eng’s publishers are disowning him.
from: editors@dnapress.com
date: Mar 1, 2007 6:18 AM
subject: RE: (Kenneth Eng) Please stop the production of Racist Kenneth Eng’s productsDear all:
We are absolutely stunned by the writing of Ken Eng.
We will immediately pull out his books from the market and ask our distributors to delete the title from their website. We will work with amazon.com to do the same. It may take a few days.
We apologize again. At the time of his book acceptance there was no indication that things like this would come up to the surface.
Thank you again!The Team at the small DNA Press publishing house.
Center for Asian American Media Speaks Out
The Center for Asian American Media does not support AsianWeek’s publication of Kenneth Eng’s article “Why I Hate Blacks” in its February 23rd edition. We join the growing coalition of Asian American and civil rights organizations in asking AsianWeek to take journalistic responsibility for printing these racist statements by taking appropriate action.
APALA Denounces Hateful Views in AsianWeek Column
The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Feb. 28 denounced the hateful views expressed by Kenneth Eng in his column published by AsianWeek in its February 23rd edition.
“Eng’s article is offensive and objectionable,” said Maria Somma, President of APALA. “There should be no place in America for this kind of bigotry. We want to tell our African American brothers and sisters that we do not tolerate Eng’s racism.”
“Even more disturbing is how AsianWeek allowed this to happen,” said Gloria T. Caoile, Executive Director of APALA. “This was not some minor mistake. Someone approved this article. Where hate and racism is tolerated in the magazine, it needs to be expunged. There is no place for this kind of journalism, if you will call it that, in the Asian American community.”
APALA is making an appeal to its members to contact AsianWeek and to sign the online petition.
APALA, AFL-CIO, is the first and only national organization of Asian Pacific American union members.
