One of the programs we’re developing here at the Equal Justice Society involves the intersection of race, media and popular culture. In our efforts to change the hearts and minds of Americans on race and racial issues, we cannot today rely solely on traditional communications strategies to influence attitudes on race – we must understand, partner with and leverage the power of cultural media such as television, movies and music.

At the same time, we need to remain constantly vigilant on how media outlets construct our racial views of the world and galvanize community and organizational forces around outlets that promote discrimination and hate.

EJS earlier this year played a key role in advocating against the publication of hate speech in the pages of AsianWeek, a prominent English-language newspaper based in San Francisco covering Asian American and Pacific Islander issues.

AsianWeek published a column by Kenneth Eng titled "Why I Hate Blacks" in its Feb. 23 issue. I noticed the column that morning and was surprised to find such unabashed racism printed. Neither satirical, nor informed, the piece was pure hate speech. Eng wrote a “list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks” and then filled the rest of the column with the kinds of stereotypes and completely false inflammatory information that African Americans have been subjected to for hundreds of years in this country.

I immediately emailed the paper’s then editor-in-chief, Samson Wong, for an explanation of the column’s publication. EJS president Eva Paterson and I simultaneously notified various Asian American civil rights leaders about the column and a consensus quickly grew that the Asian American community needed to quickly and strongly condemn the publication of such hate speech and demand accountability and remedies from AsianWeek.

It was important for Asian American leaders to demonstrate to the African American community that hate speech would not be tolerated, especially in a mainstream publication that seeks to reflect the views of Asian America.

Eva’s role in communicating with Asian American leaders on the issue contributed to a quick response, since she is viewed as a prominent civil rights leader. Without her early involvement, there might have been a time delay while the Asian American groups sought feedback from the African American community.

Within hours, a statement was released by the Washington, DC-based Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) that included quotes from Karen K. Narasaki, President and Executive Director of AAJC; Stewart Kwoh, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California; Vincent Pan, Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action; Gen Fujioka, Program Director of the Asian Law Caucus; Dale Minami, President of the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans; David Chiu, President of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area; and me.

In the statement, we called on AsianWeek to “take immediate action and issue an unequivocal apology, terminate their relationship with Kenneth Eng, print an editorial debunking the column and setting the record straight, review their editorial policy and process, and hold those responsible accountable.”

While AAJC continued to hammer out the statement, I created an online petition and started assessing blog coverage and other online strategies. The protest would only have maximum effect by combining an online presence with media relations and community organizing.

I received an initial response on Feb. 24 from AsianWeek editor-in-chief Samson Wong about the column, justifying its publication as part of the paper’s “policy is to reflect the diversity of Asian Pacific America – and even expose its disturbing warts.”

A day laterI launched a blog at http://dontspeakfor.us to anchor our online activism, consolidate links to the online petition, developments on the issue, statements of support and news coverage.

On Feb. 26, the Asian American Journalists Association, prompted by our outreach to them, issued a statement against AsianWeek that echoed the demands by civil rights leaders.

The media firestorm started on Feb. 27 – the Tuesday after the column hit the stands the previous Friday – with a front-page story in the San Francisco Chronicle, prompted by the statement released by the ad hoc coalition of civil rights groups. All the major local television affiliates covered the story.

The Chronicle article was followed the next day by an Associated Press story that covered both the initial protest and statements against AsianWeek by the San Francisco mayor and board of supervisors.

In media coverage to this point, AsianWeek’s statements reflected its refusal to take responsibility for publishing the column and to identify the editor responsible for authorizing the piece.

By the week’s end, the controversy would be reported in numerous other outlets and the subject of online pieces in Newsweek and USA Today. And statements of support came in from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, US Civil Rights Commissioner Michael Yaki, the San Francisco Democratic Party, the Asian American Advertising Federation, Center for Asian American Media, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the Japanese American Citizens League, the Organization of Chinese Americans and others.

On Feb. 28, New America Media (NAM) – the consortium of ethnic media outlets – issued a press release announcing a community meeting planned for March 2 at which ethnic media leaders (notably AsianWeek) would engage in a “dialogue” with community leaders over the controversy.

We have supported and continue to strongly support a sustained and in-depth dialogue between African Americans and Asian Americans. But the March 2 forum – in the format that it was originally presented – would likely have eroded from a constructive dialogue among genuinely concerned citizens and groups. Our coalition obtained from New America Media some format changes to the forum.

Throughout the week, the number of supporters of the online petition continued to surge and the petition now stands at more than 1,000 supporters.

Consistent messaging by the coalition prompted media coverage to refer to the column as hate speech and to focus on the issue of journalistic responsibility in producing content about race and race relations.

In late March, AsianWeek quietly removed Wong as editor-in-chief. The masthead of the newspaper's March 30 issue showed his title as "Senior Editorial Consultant."

"We asked AsianWeek to hold the editor responsible for publishing the piece accountable," said Gen Fujioka of the Asian Law Caucus. "Though the community still needs to hear directly from AsianWeek, we hope this indicates a step towards healing the hurt caused both to African Americans and also the vast majority of Asian Americans who abhor the racism expressed by the previous article."

"From the start, this has not been just an issue of hate speech, but an issue of journalistic judgment and responsibility," said Vincent Pan of Chinese for Affirmative Action. "All communities must be vigilant against bigots and racists, as well as those who hand them microphones."

Although this one local issue was for the most part resolved, a much larger issue of racism in the media was about to rear its ugly head.

Less than one week later, radio show personality Don Imus used a racist remark in referring to the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Outrage at his comments led to his show’s cancellation on April 12.