Make California Great Again! Vote!

Make California Great Again! Vote!

In 2016, Steven Choi ran for Assembly with a picture of himself and Donald Trump, saying that he and Trump would “Make California Great Again.”
 
Here’s how that has worked out:
 
· More than 220,000 Americans dead of COVID-19 and infections continue to surge, hitting record high numbers eight months into the pandemic. More than 70,000 Californians infected with the coronavirus, but Trump and Choi deny science and have no plan.
 
· Nearly 17,000 Californians dead so far from COVID-19, but Trump and Choi still have no plan.
 
· Thousands of California businesses closed, millions of jobs lost, and our economy in shambles, but Trump and Choi still have no plan.
 
 
 
· Trump denies emergency federal aid to California for wildfire victims and first responders. Choi is silent.
 
· Trumps increases offshore oil drilling on California’s coast, threatening major environmental damage to our ocean and beaches. Trump and Choi take $$$$ from major polluters.
 
 
· Trump attacks Mexican Americans and Muslim Americans, calls for building a wall with Mexico and bans entry to U.S. from Muslim countries. Choi agrees with Trump’s wall and his Muslim ban, calls Muslims “unfit for office.”
 
Trump and Choi have made California sick, not great.
Now it’s our turn to make California great again by voting them out.

Unlike Trump and Choi, I’ll never put our communities at risk.

Asian Americans Rising Honors Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Katie Porter, Melissa Fox and Other Political Leaders for Standing with the Asian American Community Against Xenophobia and Racism

This week, Asian Americans Rising, a non-profit group “committed to increasing Asian American representation in politics,” issued a statement thanking Orange County political leaders who “stood with us to denounce xenophobia and racism” when the Asian American community was under attack.

I am deeply honored to be included among these courageous political leaders.

Asian Americans Rising president Katie Nguyen Kalvoda explained:

“Over 2,000 hate incidents were directed at Asian Americans this year as a result of Trump’s hateful words calling the coronavirus the “kung flu” “Chinese virus”. Women, children, grandmothers of all Asian descent were attacked, stabbed, set on fire all across this country. I would have never imagined the day that I would bear witness to that. Me, my kids, our loved ones are viewed as the ‘yellow plague.’ This is why I appreciate so much the folks who have spoken out, denounced racism and shown us love.”

Asian Americans in California have reported thousands of incidents of discrimination and harassment in since the coronavirus outbreak, including assault and civil rights violations.

Anti-Asian American attacks and harassment have been stoked by President Trump’s repeated use of the term “Kung Flu” in recent rallies and comments on Twitter scapegoating China for the Trump administration’s catastrophic failure to control the pandemic. As California Assemblymember David Chiu, Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, told the Los Angeles Times, “There’s not just a pandemic of health — there’s a pandemic of hate.”

The Washington Post recently reported that “when Trump get coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price.”  On Twitter, in the three days after Trump announced that had tested positive for the virus, the civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League found an 85 percent spike in hostility against Asians: “The announcement [of Trump’s diagnosis] sparked thousands of online conversations blaming China for trying to purposefully infect the president.”

I am appalled by these acts of bigotry and by President Trump’s continued stoking of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian hate.

I am also appalled by the silence of Republican leaders in the face of Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric.

Sadly, even Republican leaders who are themselves Asian, including Assemblyman Steven Choi, have refused to protest Trump’s use of the racist and anti-Asian phrase “Kung Flu” in talking about COVID-19 and have silent about the significant increase in racist attacks targeting Asians and Asian Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I first raised the issue of the COVID-19 outbreak and incidents of discrimination, harassment, and bullying of people thought to be Chinese at the Irvine City Council meeting on more than a month ago, on March 10.  I stated that we needed to do more to educate the public about how racism and xenophobia will hurt us in this crisis, and that we are all in this together.

I continue to be concerned, especially as reports increased of a surge in racially charged attacks unfairly directing blame for the pandemic on Asians and Asian Americans, while President Trump continues to insist on using the phrase “Chinese virus” or “Kong Flu” when speaking of COVID-19.

All who have witnessed or experienced anti-Asian attacks are encouraged to file a report HERE.

Reports may be made in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Japanese, Hmong, Tagalog, Khmer, Thai and Punjabi.

If you have experienced anti-Asian bullying, harassment, hate speech, or violence in Irvine, please also contact the Irvine Police Department at 949-724-7000.  In an emergency, call 911.  Neither the Irvine Police Department nor the Irvine City Council will tolerate any such anti-Asian attacks or discrimination in Irvine.

Please also let me know at melissafox@cityofirvine.org.

Again, I call on all my colleagues in elected office in Orange County, both Democratic and Republican, to join me in loudly and unequivocally condemning these acts of hatred, as well as President Trump’s continued stoking of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian hatred and bigotry by using the terms “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” in reference to COVID-19. 

_________

Pictured above: Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congresswoman Katie Porter, Councilmember Andrew  Rodriguez, Scott Reinhart, Congressman Alan Lowenthal, Congressman Gil Cisneros, Josh Newman, California State Controller Betty T. Yee, Councilmember Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen, Congressman Harley Rouda, City Councilmember Melissa Fox, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, Congressman Lou Correa, Congressman Mike Levin, Senator Kamala Harris, and Vice President Joe Biden.

California Needs a Racial Bias Strike Team Against Anti-Asian COVID-19 Racism

Asian Americans in California have self-reported 832 incidents of discrimination and harassment in the last three months, including 81 incidents of assault and 64 potential civil rights violations, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center and the leading aggregator of incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic, founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and San Francisco State University Asian American Studies Department.

As California Assemblymember David Chiu, Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, told the Los Angeles Times, “There’s not just a pandemic of health — there’s a pandemic of hate.”

Discrimination and harassment of Asian Americans in California has drawn national attention recently after a series of videos in Torrance, California, featured a woman using graphic racist language against Asian Americans. The videos have received millions of views, and reflect just a handful of the incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate in California. The new report shows that incidents of racism and discrimination are not isolated to any particular area but are a statewide problem — Asian Americans have reported incidents in 34 counties so far. Incidents are reportedly taking place in California in retail stores, in the workplace, and online.

Anti-Asian American harassment has been further stoked by President Trump’s repeated use of the term “Kung Flu” in recent rallies and comments on Twitter scapegoating China for the United States’ devastating failure to control the coronavirus. 

I am appalled by these acts of hatred and by President Trump’s continued stoking of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian bigotry.

I first raised the issue of the COVID-19 outbreak and incidents of discrimination, harassment, and bullying of people thought to be Chinese at the Irvine City Council meeting on more than a month ago, on March 10.  I stated that we needed to do more to educate the public about how racism and xenophobia will hurt us in this crisis, and that we are all in this together.

I continue to be concerned, especially as reports increased of a surge in racially charged attacks unfairly directing blame for the pandemic on Asians and Asian Americans, while President Trump insists on using the phrase “Chinese virus” or “Kong Flu” when speaking of COVID-19.

In May, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.”

In response to these attacks, Stop AAPI Hate has now called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to establish a Racial Bias Strike Team comprised of key state agencies and departments that have jurisdiction over public education, implementing state and federal civil rights laws, overseeing workplace and employment discrimination, providing mental health services to vulnerable communities, and offering support to local Asian American-serving community-based organizations.

As Dr. Russell Jeung, Chair and Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, explains, “Without government accountability, we risk COVID-related racism against Asian Americans becoming deeply entrenched, ultimately impacting the lives of millions of people in California and around the country.”

I join with Stop AAPI Hate in calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom to establish a Racial Bias Strike Team against anti-Asian COVID-19 racism.

I further call on all my colleagues in elected office in Orange County, both Democratic and Republican, to join me in loudly and unequivocally condemning these acts of hatred, as well as President Trump’s continued stoking of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian hatred and bigotry by using the terms “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” in reference to COVID-19.

No one, especially not the president, should use racial or racist terms in describing COVID-19.

Sadly, no Orange County Republican elected official has explicitly condemned Trump’s racist, anti-Asian “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” language regarding COVID-19. Their cowardice and complicity leaves an indelible stain on their party and themselves.

All who have witnessed or experienced anti-Asian attacks are encouraged to file a report HERE.

Reports may be made in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Japanese, Hmong, Tagalog, Khmer, Thai and Punjabi.

If you have experienced anti-Asian bullying, harassment, hate speech, or violence in Irvine, please also contact the Irvine Police Department at 949-724-7000.  In an emergency, call 911.  Neither the Irvine Police Department nor the Irvine City Council will tolerate any such anti-Asian attacks or discrimination in Irvine.

Please also let me know at melissafox@cityofirvine.org.

We’re in this together.  Don’t hate, stay safe, and wear a mask!

“Breaking Bread”: Councilmember Melissa Fox Joins Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, Goodstock Consulting, and Others in an Important Discussion on Race in America

GOODSTOCK Consulting, LLC presents a discussion between its directors — Black women Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, Kellye A. McKenzie, Kimberly Butler Willis and Jocelyn Rogers — and three white women — Betsy Neely Sikma (corporate executive), Janet Robinson Alterman (women’s rights activist) and Melissa Fox (City Council Councilmember and California State Assembly candidate) — in the wake of the murder of Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the racist threats made to Black man Christian Cooper by a white woman in New York’s Central Park.

Irvine City Councilmember Melissa Fox was asked to participate by Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, following their recent ZOOM Town Hall on “Exposing Inequalities During COVID-19.”

Watch here:

Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia and a nationally recognized expert on how institutional racism has led to more severe impacts for communities of color from diseases such as COVID-19.

Melissa Fox is an Irvine City Councilmember and a candidate to represent the 68th Assembly District in the California State Assembly.

Visit Melissa’s assembly campaign website at http://votemelissafox.com

“Like” Melissa’s campaign Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/melissafoxforcalifornia/

Click here to watch Melissa Fox’s conversation with Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, “Exposing Inequalities During COVID-19.”

“Breaking Bread: Dear White Women”: Join Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton and Goodstock Consulting in an Important Discussion on Race in America

Join GOODSTOCK Consulting, LLC for a discussion between its directors — Black women Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, Kellye A. McKenzie, Kimberly Butler Willis and Jocelyn Rogers — and three white women — Betsy Neely Sikma (corporate executive), Janet Robinson Alterman (women’s rights activist) and Melissa Fox (City Council Councilmember and California State Assembly candidate) — in the wake of the murder of Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the racist threats made to Black man Christian Cooper by a white woman in New York’s Central Park.

GOODSTOCK Consulting, LLC. From L to R: Kimberly Butler Willis, MPH, CHES, CDP; Ebony Jade Hilton, MD; Kellye A. McKenzie, MPA; Jocelyn Rogers, MPH

We’ll talk about the collective responsibility of white women to do the right thing in the 400 year fight for the freedom of Black and Brown people in America. Join the conversation.  Join the work.  Join us!

Watch “Breaking Bread: Dear White Women”

Date: Weds. June 10, 2020

Time: 3:00 pm Pacific (6:00 pm Eastern) — 4:30 pm (7:30 pm Eastern)

Live on the GOODSTOCK Consulting YouTube Channel
www.youtube.com/channel/UCebSLSY2vh2H5pnkk74kDUQ

This is an important discussion that our hosts have said “will not be an easy conversation.”

Irvine City Councilmember Melissa Fox was asked to participate by Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, following their recent ZOOM Town Hall on “Exposing Inequalities During COVID-19.”

Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia and a nationally recognized expert on how institutional racism has led to more severe impacts for communities of color from diseases such as COVID-19.

Melissa Fox is an Irvine City Councilmember and a candidate to represent the 68th Assembly District in the California State Assembly.

Visit Melissa’s assembly campaign website at http://votemelissafox.com

“Like” Melissa’s campaign Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/melissafoxforcalifornia/

For more information, please contact Allison at alli@votemelissafox.com

Visit the Facebook page for this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/188795332408895/

Click here to watch Melissa Fox’s conversation with Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, “Exposing Inequalities During COVID-19.”

Irvine Must Declare Its Unequivocal Condemnation of the Murder of George Floyd. We Must Also Commit to Immediate, Practical Changes to Our Own Use of Force Policies

The Irvine City Council will be considering at our next meeting on Tues., June 9, a proposed “Resolution Assuring Our Community that the City of Irvine Will Not and Does Not Tolerate the Violent Treatment of Others and the Disregard of the Sanctity of Human Life” in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, as well as the protests taking place across the nation, including Irvine.

I strongly agree that the City of Irvine must go on the record officially declaring its unequivocal condemnation of the killing of George Floyd, casually and callously murdered by police officers on an American street in full public view and with an attitude of absolute impunity.

But a resolution alone is a woefully insufficient response to the killing of George Floyd and to the widespread and justified outrage across our nation.

This murder was no isolated incident. George Floyd was another person of color killed by excessive police force in a horrible history of victims of widespread and systemic racism that has plagued us since 1619.

As municipal officials, it is incumbent upon us not only to speak against this murder and the racism underlying it, but even more importantly, to make concrete, substantive changes to our use of force policies and procedures to assure a safer and more just future for our whole community.

As currently written, the proposed resolution fails to specifically acknowledge the profound pain and anguish in our nation and in our own community caused by the death of George Floyd and the racism and injustice his death has exposed; it fails to acknowledge the systemic racism and implicit bias and discrimination against people of color that has plagued our law enforcement practices; it does not acknowledge the justice of the cause of the rightfully outraged peaceful protesters, including thousands of Irvine residents; and it does not make any practical changes to the use of force policies for law enforcement in our own City

There is much that we can and should do as elected leaders in Irvine rather than simply state platitudes while taking no concrete action. Irvine needs to seize this moment and make real institutional changes to our use of force policies and procedures in support of justice and real equality.

Our neighboring City of Tustin has done much better.

Accordingly, I will move to amend the currently proposed resolution, using the Tustin proclamation as our guide.

Specifically, I will move that we add the following language taken from the Tustin proclamation: “the City Council supports peaceful protests in [Irvine] that can serve as a critical tool for public awareness; “the City also intends to engage the community to promote open dialogues about intolerance of racism, implicit bias, and discrimination,” and that Irvine “proclaim its solidarity with those who protest peacefully against injustice, racism and hate.”

Additionally, I move to immediately adopt the following eight common sense “use of force” policies that have been identified by experts as having the greatest impact on reducing the excessive use of force by law enforcement and ending the mistreatment of people of color:

  • Prohibit the use of choke and strangle holds.
  • Require officers to exhaust all other reasonable means before resorting to deadly force.
  • Require officers to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance, and otherwise eliminating the need to use force.
  • Develop a “force continuum” that limits the types of force and/or weapons that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance.
  • Require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor.
  • Prohibit officers from shooting at moving vehicles.
  • Require officers to give a verbal warning before shooting at a civilian.
  • Require comprehensive reporting that includes uses of force and threats of force.

My call for these changes does not mean or imply criticism of the professionalism and dedication of our own Irvine Police Department.

I have tremendous confidence in the integrity and commitment of our police officers, and the inspirational leadership of our Chief of Police. Not only has the Irvine Police Department made Irvine America’s Safest City for 14 years in a row, Irvine was 1 of only 11 police major departments in the nation that did not use deadly force from 2016-2018.

I am glad that Irvine Police Chief Mike Hamel has publicly stated that he was personally “deeply disturbed” as a member of law enforcement by the “unjust and disgraceful” murder of George Floyd; that it “erodes the trust and confidence we work so hard to reach”; and that he demands that his officers “treat every member of the public with respect and professionalism.”

Nor does my call for these changes in our use of force policies mean or imply criticism of law enforcement officers in general. The majority of police officers in our nation are dedicated and conscientious public servants, true to their oaths to serve the public with respect and fairness.  As the daughter of a retired law enforcement officer, I know the difficulties faced by law enforcement and the sacrifices that law enforcement officers and their families make to keep our communities safe.

It is as a supporter of law enforcement and a member of a law enforcement family that I say that now is the time to end, once and for all, the murder and mistreatment of black and brown people by the police. In particular, now is the time to adopt common sense restrictions on the use of force against civilians as the best way to counteract the institutional bias and systemic racism against people of color.

No One, Especially Not the President, Should Use Racial Terms in Describing COVID-19

Tonight the City Council will be voting on a Resolution proposed by Mayor Christina Shea and Councilmember Farrah Khan “in support of Irvine’s Asian American Community.”

The Resolution states that “In the weeks since the coronavirus spread to the United States, there has been a noted increase in bias incidents targeting Asians and Asian Americans.”  It notes that there have been at least two such incidents in Irvine.

But the Resolution makes no mention of President Trump’s repeated use of the term “Chinese virus” as a cause or incitement of these acts of hatred.

I first raised the issue of the COVID-19 outbreak and incidents of discrimination, harassment, and bullying of people thought to be Chinese at the Irvine City Council meeting on more than a month ago, on March 10.

I asked whether we needed to do more to educate the public about how racism and xenophobia will hurt us in this crisis, and that we are all in this together.

At the time, I was told that we had no reports of any such incidents in Irvine.

Nevertheless, I continued to be concerned, especially as reports increased of a surge in racially charged attacks unfairly directing blame for the pandemic on Asians and Asian Americans, while President Trump insisted on using the phrase “Chinese virus” when speaking of COVID-19.

As a public official in a city with a significant Asian American population, I was appalled by President Trump’s continued stoking of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian bigotry.

While the memo accompanying the Resolution states that “there is no common characteristic with the disease and human ancestry. It doesn’t have a race, nationality, or political ideology” and condemns the “acts of hatred” that have been directed toward Asians and Asian Americans as a result of falsely associating them with COVID-19, it does not even mention the racial language that President Trump has insisted on using to describe the virus.

I will gladly vote in favor of condemning bigotry and acts of hate against Asians and Asian Americans.

I would like it say that it is not acceptable for anyone —  especially not the President of the United States — to use the racial term “Chinese virus” when describing this deadly pandemic.

We’re All in this Together. The Coronavirus Doesn’t Discriminate. Neither Should We.

At last night’s Irvine City Council meeting, I raised the issue of the coronavirus outbreak and incidents of discrimination, harassment, and bullying of people thought to be Chinese.  I wondered whether we needed to do more to educate the public about how racism and xenophobia will hurt us in this crisis, and that we are all in this together.

In response, our Police Chief stated that his department had no received reports of any such incidents in Irvine.

I am one hundred percent confident that Chief Hamel truthfully answered my question.  However, I am not as certain that such incidents are not, in fact, occurring, but have not been reported to our local authorities.

Therefore, I want to encourage residents who have experienced discrimination, harassment, and bullying due to their perceived race, ethnicity, or national origin, to let me know.  I will pass this information on to the proper officials and we will take appropriate actions.

I also want to assure Irvine residents that our Irvine Police Department and our City are committed to ensuring that every resident or visitor to Irvine feels welcome and respected, especially in this difficult time.

As Chief Hamel has written, “One of the best things about Irvine is that we are dynamic and diverse. We are made up of people from cultures and countries all over the world, but this also means that various community groups may have specific and unique needs. We are here to do all we can to help address your needs. It doesn’t matter where you come from, your lifestyle, what language you speak or what religion you practice, we are your police department and we are here for you.”

The number for the Irvine Police Department is 949-724-7000.  In an emergency, call 911.

I can be reached at mefox@cityofirvine.org.

 

 

Stand Up for What is Right: California Governor Newsom Declares “Fred Korematsu Day”

“If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.” — Fred T. Korematsu (1919-2005)

Fred Korematsu, a Californian who challenged the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War, was born 101 years ago on January 30, 1919.

Although Koresatsu lost his case in 1944, his fight against racism and for justice has been vindicated by history.

This week, Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring January 30th as Fred Korematsu Day in the State of California.

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, on January 30, 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese-American parents Kakusaburo Korematsu and Kotsui Aoki, who immigrated to the United States in 1905. He attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School (Oakland, California) tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family’s flower nursery in nearby San Leandro, California.

When called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, Korematsu was rejected by the U.S. Navy due to stomach ulcers. Instead, he trained to become a welder in order to contribute his services to the defense effort. First, he worked as a welder at a shipyard. He went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there. He then found a new job, but was fired after a week when his supervisor returned from an extended vacation to find him working there. Because of his Japanese descent, Korematsu lost all employment completely following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On March 27, 1942, General John L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Area, prohibited Japanese Americans from leaving the limits of Military Area No. 1, in preparation for their eventual evacuation to internment camps. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids in an unsuccessful attempt to pass as a Caucasian, changed his name to Clyde Sarah[13][14] and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian heritage.

On May 3, 1942, when General DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report on May 9 to Assembly Centers as a prelude to being removed to the internment camps, Korematsu refused and went into hiding in the Oakland area. He was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro on May 30, 1942. Shortly after Korematsu’s arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California, asked him whether he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed.

Korematsu felt that “people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial.” On June 12, 1942, Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail (equivalent to $76,670.06 in 2018). After Korematsu’s arraignment on June 18, 1942, Besig posted bail and he and Korematsu attempted to leave. When met by military police, Besig told Korematsu to go with them. The military police took Korematsu to the Presidio. Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court on September 8, 1942, for a violation of Public Law No. 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066, and was placed on five years’ probation.

He was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah. As an unskilled laborer, he was eligible to receive only $12 per month (equivalent to $184.01 in 2018) for working eight-hour days at the camp. He was placed in a horse stall with a single light bulb, and later said “jail was better than this.”

When Korematsu’s family was moved to the Topaz internment camp, he later recalled feeling isolated because his imprisoned compatriots recognized him and many, if not most, of them felt that if they talked to him they would also be seen as troublemakers.

Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which granted review on March 27, 1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7, 1944. He appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court, which granted review on March 27, 1944. On December 18, 1944, the Court issued Korematsu v. United States, a 6–3 decision authored by Justice Hugo Black, in which the Court held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, was justified during circumstances of “emergency and peril.”

Dissenting Justice Frank Murphy criticized what he called a “legalization of racism.” Justice Murphy added: “Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must, accordingly, be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment, and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.”

1942 editorial cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel (later author Dr. Seuss) depicting Japanese-Americans on the West Coast as prepared to conduct sabotage against the US.

Dissenting Justice Robert H. Jackson, who later served as Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, wrote that “Korematsu was born on our soil, of parents born in Japan. The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity and a citizen of California by residence. No claim is made that he is not loyal to this country. There is no suggestion that apart from the matter involved here he is not law abiding and well disposed. Korematsu, however, has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime. It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived. […] [H]is crime would result, not from anything he did, said, or thought, different than they, but only in that he was born of different racial stock. Now, if any fundamental assumption underlies our system, it is that guilt is personal and not inheritable. Even if all of one’s antecedents had been convicted of treason, the Constitution forbids its penalties to be visited upon him. But here is an attempt to make an otherwise innocent act a crime merely because this prisoner is the son of parents as to whom he had no choice, and belongs to a race from which there is no way to resign.”

After being released from the camp in Utah, Korematsu had to move east since the law would not allow former internees to move back westward. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued to fight racism. He still knew there were inequalities among the Japanese, since he experienced them in his everyday life. He found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid. He told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get him arrested just for being Japanese, so he left his job.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation formally terminating Executive Order 9066 and apologizing for the internment, stated: “We now know what we should have known then—not only was that evacuation wrong but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home the names of Japanese-Americans have been and continue to be written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation.”After this incident, Korematsu lost hope, remaining quiet for over thirty years. His own daughter did not find out about what her father did until she was in high school. He moved to Detroit, Michigan, where his younger brother lived, and where he worked as a draftsman until 1949. He married Kathryn Pearson in Detroit on October 12, 1946. They returned to Oakland to visit his family in 1949 because his mother was ill. They did not intend to stay, but decided to after Kathryn became pregnant with their first child, Karen. His daughter was born in 1950, and a son, Ken, in 1954.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed a special commission to investigate the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, which concluded that the decisions to remove those of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which had been sponsored by Representative Norman Mineta and Senator Alan K. Simpson. It provided financial redress of $20,000 for each surviving detainee, totaling $1.2 billion.

In the early 1980s, while researching a book on internment cases, lawyer and University of California, San Diego professor Peter Irons came across evidence that Charles Fahy, the Solicitor General of the United States who argued Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had deliberately suppressed reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens posed no security risk. These documents revealed that the military had lied to the Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had willingly made false arguments. Irons concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision was invalid since it was based on unsubstantiated assertions, distortions and misrepresentations. Along with a team of lawyers headed by Dale Minami, Irons petitioned for writs of error coram nobis with the federal courts, seeking to overturn Korematsu’s conviction.

On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu testified before Judge Patel, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.” He also said, “If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.” Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s name, but was incapable of overturning the Supreme Court’s decision.

President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, Parks … to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.” That year, Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal of San Francisco’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.

A member and Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Korematsu was twice President of the San Leandro Lions Club, and for 15 years a volunteer with Boy Scouts of America, San Francisco Bay Council.

From 2001 until his death in 2005, Korematsu served on the Constitution Project’s bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. Discussing racial profiling in 2004, he warned, “No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy.”

Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter’s home in Marin County, California, on March 30, 2005. One of the last things Korematsu said was, “I’ll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country.” He also urged others to “protest, but not with violence, and don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.”

In 2018, in Trump v. Hawaii, the Supreme Court expressly declared that Korematsu’s case was wrongly decided. Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—’has no place in law under the Constitution,” quoting Justice Jackson’s dissent in Korematsu v. United States.

The proclamation by Governor Newsom reads as follows:

“PROCLAMATION: “Fred Korematsu did not set out to become a civil rights hero, but his bold decision at the age of 23 to challenge the policy of Japanese internment forever altered the course of history. This year, as we commemorate the 101st anniversary of his birth, we reflect with gratitude on his brave crusade for civil rights.

An Oakland-born welder, Korematsu refused to abide by Executive Order 9066, the federal government’s demand that Japanese Americans report to incarceration camps. Korematsu’s act of protest led to his arrest and conviction, which he fought all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ultimately ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was justifiable based on military necessity.

Korematsu found vindication 40 years later, when a federal court overturned his criminal conviction. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said then, “a grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II.”

Over the course of his life, Korematsu fought for the civil liberties of others. He was tireless in his work to ensure Americans understood the lessons learned from one of the dark chapters of our history. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Korematsu v. United States still hangs over this country after 76 years. Korematsu’s legacy reminds us that we must continue to strike out against injustice in our daily lives.”

Let us celebrate Fred Korematsu Day by learning his story, affirming our rejection of racism, and committing ourselves to stand up for what is right.

 

Yes, Let’s Create a Gun Violence Task Force — And Let’s Also Have a Real Discussion about How to Prevent Mass Shootings and Gun Violence

Based on her recent social media post, it appears that in the wake of three recent mass shootings (in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio) leaving at least 45 people dead and many dozens more injured, Irvine Mayor Christina Shea intends to create a task force to discuss what we can do in Irvine to prevent gun violence.

Significantly, Mayor Shea asks that we not turn this discussion into a “partisan” issue, and that we not hold local, state, or national politicians responsible for their actions, or lack of action, leading to the proliferation of mass shootings and gun violence.

I fully support a discussion of how our City Council can help prevent Irvine from becoming the site of the next gun violence atrocity. This discussion is long overdue. Our nation is suffering from a gun violence emergency.

But the discussion must not be a sham, and not be muzzled from the very beginning by preventing mention of the fact that Republican politicians — at every level of government — have sided with gun dealers and the NRA over the safety of our communities and families, and have stubbornly blocked Congress from enacting meaningful, common sense federal gun regulation.

We must also be willing to acknowledge the fact that President Donald Trump has incited violence and manipulated racial hatred in ways that many of us had hoped belonged to our tragic past. And we must explicitly reject and condemn Trump’s racist rhetoric.

As President Obama recently said, as elected officials and community leaders, we must reject the rhetoric of those “who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.” Such language “has no place in our politics and our public life” and it is time “for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much — clearly and unequivocally.”

Let’s have a real discussion of mass shootings and gun violence — without any attempts at mirco-management by the Mayor or self-serving limitations on that discussion being imposed in advance by local politicians who are afraid that the public is fed up with the Republican Party’s spinelessness in the face of the NRA and the racist rhetoric of Trumpism, and their policy of creating diversions after each mass shooting rather than enacting real, common sense, gun control regulation.

I also ask that this Task Force be comprised of and led by real experts in the field of gun violence prevention. We have many such experts here in Irvine on the faculty of UCI and the UCI School of Law.  Our task force should not be solely composed of — or led by — politicians with an interest in self-promotion or self-protection, or protecting their political allies from justified and necessary criticism.

In addition, I suggest that the Irvine City Council immediately direct our Irvine Police Department to promote awareness of California’s Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) law, which allows family members and law enforcement to seek the temporary removal of firearms from someone they believe poses a danger to themselves or others.

While GVROs have been called “the best tool in the state of California for responding to a threat of gun violence,” they are rarely used because residents and law enforcement remain largely unaware of the law and its potential to help stop a crime before it has been committed.

You can see a video presentation of California GVROs here:

I also propose that the City of Irvine and the Irvine Police Department remind residents about California’s safe storage laws requiring that guns be locked away from minors and anyone who should not have access to them.

I look forward to a lively, positive and open-minded discussion of what we can do in Irvine to prevent mass shootings and gun violence, including an awareness and educational campaign about GVROs, issuing official statements from our City Council calling on President Trump to stop his inflammatory rhetoric demonizing immigrants, Muslims, and people of color, and calling on Congress to pass common sense gun regulations relating to universal background checks, military-style assault rifles, and high capacity magazines.

 

Stand Up for What is Right: Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Fred T. Korematsu

“If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.” — Fred T. Korematsu (1919-2005)

Today is the 100th Birthday of Fred Korematsu, a Californian who challenged the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

Although Koresatsu lost his case in 1944, his fight against racism and for justice has been vindicated by history.

Let us celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fred Korematsu’s birth by learning his story, affirming our rejection of racism, and committing ourselves to stand up for what is right.

Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, on January 30, 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese-American parents Kakusaburo Korematsu and Kotsui Aoki, who immigrated to the United States in 1905. He attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School (Oakland, California) tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family’s flower nursery in nearby San Leandro, California.

When called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, Korematsu was rejected by the U.S. Navy due to stomach ulcers. Instead, he trained to become a welder in order to contribute his services to the defense effort. First, he worked as a welder at a shipyard. He went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there. He then found a new job, but was fired after a week when his supervisor returned from an extended vacation to find him working there. Because of his Japanese descent, Korematsu lost all employment completely following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On March 27, 1942, General John L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Area, prohibited Japanese Americans from leaving the limits of Military Area No. 1, in preparation for their eventual evacuation to internment camps. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery on his eyelids in an unsuccessful attempt to pass as a Caucasian, changed his name to Clyde Sarah[13][14] and claimed to be of Spanish and Hawaiian heritage.

On May 3, 1942, when General DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report on May 9 to Assembly Centers as a prelude to being removed to the internment camps, Korematsu refused and went into hiding in the Oakland area. He was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro on May 30, 1942. Shortly after Korematsu’s arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California, asked him whether he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed.

Korematsu felt that “people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial.” On June 12, 1942, Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail (equivalent to $76,670.06 in 2018). After Korematsu’s arraignment on June 18, 1942, Besig posted bail and he and Korematsu attempted to leave. When met by military police, Besig told Korematsu to go with them. The military police took Korematsu to the Presidio. Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court on September 8, 1942, for a violation of Public Law No. 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066, and was placed on five years’ probation.

He was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah. As an unskilled laborer, he was eligible to receive only $12 per month (equivalent to $184.01 in 2018) for working eight-hour days at the camp. He was placed in a horse stall with a single light bulb, and later said “jail was better than this.”

When Korematsu’s family was moved to the Topaz internment camp, he later recalled feeling isolated because his imprisoned compatriots recognized him and many, if not most, of them felt that if they talked to him they would also be seen as troublemakers.

Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which granted review on March 27, 1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7, 1944. He appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court, which granted review on March 27, 1944. On December 18, 1944, the Court issued Korematsu v. United States, a 6–3 decision authored by Justice Hugo Black, in which the Court held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, was justified during circumstances of “emergency and peril.”

Dissenting Justice Frank Murphy criticized what he called a “legalization of racism. Justice Murphy added: “Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must, accordingly, be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment, and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Dissenting Justice Robert H. Jackson, who later served as Chief US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, wrote that “Korematsu was born on our soil, of parents born in Japan. The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity and a citizen of California by residence. No claim is made that he is not loyal to this country. There is no suggestion that apart from the matter involved here he is not law abiding and well disposed. Korematsu, however, has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime. It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived. […] [H]is crime would result, not from anything he did, said, or thought, different than they, but only in that he was born of different racial stock. Now, if any fundamental assumption underlies our system, it is that guilt is personal and not inheritable. Even if all of one’s antecedents had been convicted of treason, the Constitution forbids its penalties to be visited upon him. But here is an attempt to make an otherwise innocent act a crime merely because this prisoner is the son of parents as to whom he had no choice, and belongs to a race from which there is no way to resign.”

After being released from the camp in Utah, Korematsu had to move east since the law would not allow former internees to move back westward. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued to fight racism. He still knew there were inequalities among the Japanese, since he experienced them in his everyday life. He found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid. He told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get him arrested just for being Japanese, so he left his job.

1942 editorial cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel (later author Dr. Seuss) depicting Japanese-Americans on the West Coast as prepared to conduct sabotage against the US.

After this incident, Korematsu lost hope, remaining quiet for over thirty years. His own daughter did not find out about what her father did until she was in high school. He moved to Detroit, Michigan, where his younger brother lived, and where he worked as a draftsman until 1949. He married Kathryn Pearson in Detroit on October 12, 1946. They returned to Oakland to visit his family in 1949 because his mother was ill. They did not intend to stay, but decided to after Kathryn became pregnant with their first child, Karen. His daughter was born in 1950, and a son, Ken, in 1954.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation formally terminating Executive Order 9066 and apologizing for the internment, stated: “We now know what we should have known then—not only was that evacuation wrong but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home the names of Japanese-Americans have been and continue to be written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation.”

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed a special commission to investigate the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, which concluded that the decisions to remove those of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which had been sponsored by Representative Norman Mineta and Senator Alan K. Simpson. It provided financial redress of $20,000 for each surviving detainee, totaling $1.2 billion.

In the early 1980s, while researching a book on internment cases, lawyer and University of California, San Diego professor Peter Irons came across evidence that Charles Fahy, the Solicitor General of the United States who argued Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had deliberately suppressed reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens posed no security risk. These documents revealed that the military had lied to the Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had willingly made false arguments. Irons concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision was invalid since it was based on unsubstantiated assertions, distortions and misrepresentations. Along with a team of lawyers headed by Dale Minami, Irons petitioned for writs of error coram nobis with the federal courts, seeking to overturn Korematsu’s conviction.

On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu testified before Judge Patel, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.” He also said, “If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.” Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s name, but was incapable of overturning the Supreme Court’s decision.

President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls: Plessy, Brown, Parks … to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.” That year, Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal of San Francisco’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.

A member and Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Korematsu was twice President of the San Leandro Lions Club, and for 15 years a volunteer with Boy Scouts of America, San Francisco Bay Council.

Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001, on how the United States government should not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern descent as what happened to Japanese Americans. When prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long a period, in Korematsu’s opinion, he filed two amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court and warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment.

From 2001 until his death in 2005, Korematsu served on the Constitution Project’s bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. Discussing racial profiling in 2004, he warned, “No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy.”

Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter’s home in Marin County, California, on March 30, 2005. One of the last things Korematsu said was, “I’ll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country.” He also urged others to “protest, but not with violence, and don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.”

In 2018, in Trump v. Hawaii, the Supreme Court expressly declared that Korematsu’s case was wrongly decided. Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—’has no place in law under the Constitution,” quoting Justice Jackson’s dissent in Korematsu v. United States.