Fifty years ago in Long Beach, California at the inaugural International Karate Championships competition the legendary martial artist, action TV/film star, and philosopher Bruce Lee performed his martial arts feats that stunned and shocked the attendees and competitors at the event. Bruce Lee was a complex individual, beyond the punching and kicking; he was a philosopher, a civil rights activist (in his own way), a rebel against traditions that he saw as stifling to human progression, and a family man. For …
Tag: Human Rights
The murder of Michael Brown by the police in Ferguson, MO brings back memories for Asian Americans of another murder, that of Vincent Chin some 32 years ago in Detroit, MI. Vincent’s murder case became a turning point in galvanizing the Asian American community to take action and becoming involved in social activism, reaching beyond the young Asian American progressive/radical college student set. Since Vincent’s tragic murder in 1982, there have been countless incidence of hate crimes; a recent example …
Japanese American human rights activist and a longtime Oakland resident Yuri Kochiyama passed away yesterday June 1st, 2014 at the age of 93. [NPR] [Democracy Now] Yuri Kochiyama was known for her activism since the 1960’s, her comradeship with Malcolm X (she’s the mysterious Asian lady holding Malcolm’s head when he was assassinated on February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, pictured in Time magazine), her later activist work with the Puerto Rican independence movement, reparations for Japanese interment camp survivors, political …
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