“Alligator Alcatraz” Echoes Angel Island

“Alligator Alcatraz,” as a grotesquely flippant nickname for a Florida incarceration camp, makes light of what will happen to the people there. It’s really an inaccurate comparison as well, since Alcatraz was a max-security prison for America’s most violent, already-convicted criminals. The more accurate comparison would be with Alcatraz’s neighbor in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island, just two miles away. Like Alcatraz, Angel Island is surrounded by cold, shark-infested waters. Unlike Alcatraz, it was, from 1910-1940, a federal immigration station that processed 550,000 travelers to the U.S.

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Representation Matters a Lot in Indie Film “For Izzy”

Will Yu, the creator of activist movements #StarringJohnCho and #SeeAsAmStar, daily tweets, “Representation matters today.”

If that’s true – and I’m of the opinion that it is – then the award-winning indie film For Izzy matters as much as anything I’ve seen in years. It’s a heartbreaking, yet hopeful story that presents several types of characters rarely seen in other productions.

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Once Upon a Time, the Wall Was for Me

As a means of crying for my beloved country, I posted these images on social media earlier this week. The response has been heartfelt. I share the pictures here in the hope that they’re useful to you as well.

I was in the 7th grade when I first learned of the Chinese Exclusion Act, signed by President Arthur in 1882 and augmented by subsequent laws. I didn’t even learn about it from my history textbook or my teacher; it was something my group project team unearthed digging through library books.

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