By Livia Soong

A Bully Free Zone sign at a school in Berea, Ohio. (Photo: Eddie S.)

A national dialogue on school bullying has been reignited with the recently release documentary “Bully,” Lee Hirsch’s moving and troubling film about the misery some children inflict upon others.

Sure, the Weinstein Company film doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been talked about before and there is a debate on whether it’s an award-winning documentary or an extended public-service announcement.

Despite personal feelings about the documentary, the national issue seems to persist and remedial action doesn’t seem to be working.

The $1.1 million documentary is pertinent to everyone, especially to the Asian-American community because studies have shown they are some of the most bullied in U.S. schools.

As Asian Americans continue to climb the corporate ladders, something continues to prevent them from breaking through to the top.

By Harsh Vathsangam

The bamboo ceiling has made the promotion of APAs to senior managerial roles at top companies a rare occurrence. Art: Margaret To.

Stereotypically Asian Pacific Americans are known to enter careers as meticulous engineers, life-saving doctors, and mad scientists. But how many Asians become CEOs?

Although Asians make up only 5 percent of the U.S. population, according to a study by the Center for Work-Life Policy, they’re highly represented at some of the most prestigious universities, making up between 15 and 25 percent of Ivy League enrollment.

Yet the impressive credentials and achievements that have caused them to be dubbed “the model minority” aren’t reflected in senior leadership positions.

Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc., recently released a report that stated Asian Americans constitute only 2 percent of board members in Fortune 500 companies, and within these companies there are only nine Asian American CEOs.

The numbers point to a phenomenon known as “The Bamboo Ceiling,” a term that refers to the fact that while Asian Americans find no problem in acquiring prestigious academic degrees, they find it difficult to take the next step up and into senior managerial roles at top companies.

Why can’t Asians break through that bamboo ceiling? It’s certainly not for lack of interest. The CWLP researchers found that 64 percent of Asians compared to 52 percent of their Caucasian counterparts aspire to hold top seats at a company.

Asian family values have stressed hard work, avoiding confrontation, and humble respectfulness. Although these characteristics are positive on their own, these cultural values don’t necessarily match up with success in the cutthroat corporate world.

A popular argument is that these very same characteristics that put Asians on the top of college admissions stacks can work against them when gaining a foothold in corporate America. With these values as the cornerstones of their academic successes, thoughts such as putting one’s ideas forward in meetings, self-promotion, or taking credit for achievements end up being alien concepts.

The result? Often, silence is mistaken for arrogance and unwillingness.

A reason could be lack of mentorship. The CWLP study also found that only 46 percent of Asians say they have a mentor in their professional life compared to more than 60 percent of Caucasians. You can find strategies to help with breaking the bamboo ceiling here.

Another possible cause is that Asian culture places emphasis on eldercare, an activity that could for better or worse take time away from career advancement.

Taking a look at the issue from another perspective reveals more. There are now 61 Chinese and eight Indian companies in the Fortune 500.

With that said, companies with a largely Asian top brass are steadily rising up the rankings and making their presence felt. These numbers are only slated to increase. Conversely, according to Fortune magazine, the number of American companies on this list has been declining from 197 in 2002 to 133 in 2011.

I find myself asking how is it that these companies with Asian CEOs who have the similar cultural values are thriving. But, there is a key difference. It is important to note the distinction between Asians working in Asian companies and Asian Americans working in U.S. companies.

Thus, I argue that it has more to do with the clashing of cultures than any innate inability to perform. Asian Americans need to understand these significant cultural differences and recognize the corporate atmosphere in which they operate if they hope to break through the bamboo ceiling.

Or perhaps we should all book one-way tickets to corporate Asia?

Related Stories —

Science: Breaking through the “bamboo ceiling” for Asian American scientists

NPR: Looking at the ‘bamboo ceiling’

Cornell Chronicle Online: Model minority? A ‘myth of the American dream,’ says panelist at Asian American discussion

Inside Higher Ed: ‘The Myth of the Model Minority’

By Jeffrey Ledesma

Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii) Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) welcome Goodwin Liu before the Senate vote on May 19. Photo: Creative Commons

President Barack Obama made history in 2008 when he defeated Republican rival John McCain by becoming the first African American to head to the White House. With promises of “change we can believe in,” Obama hasn’t ceased to make historical headlines.

About six months after giving his victory speech in Chicago, Obama nominated federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor became the first Hispanic and third female member of America’s highest court.

But recently, the Asian American community was denied a similar honor.

Republican senators used a filibuster to block a vote on Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco since they considered him too liberal. The UC Berkeley law professor would have been the court’s only active or full-time Asian American judge.

If the 40-year-old were confirmed he would have been the only Asian American out of 175 active judges on the appeals courts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described Liu as a man living the American dream and a highly successful son of immigrants.

“His integrity has been praised by democrats and republicans,” Reid said. “Not just one or two, but many.”

Despite Reid‘s attempts to combat the filibuster with a long list of praises and qualifications, the Senate rejected cloture with a 52 to 43 vote on May 19.

According to Politico.com, the filibuster will be met with disappointment from both progressives and Asian American groups that advocated for Liu and hoped to see him seated on the Western court that covers a region of the country with a significant Asian American population.

With the exception of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who supported Liu and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who voted with the GOP, voting was almost strictly along party lines.

“I stated during the Bush administration that judicial nominations deserved an up-or-down vote, except in ‘extraordinary circumstances,’ and my position has not changed simply because there is a different president making the nominations,” Murkowski said in press release following the vote.

“This is a loss for our country and a deep disappointment for the Asian American community,” Vincent Eng told the LA Times. Eng is an Asian American civil rights advocate.

The successful GOP filibuster appears to have doomed Liu’s chances of becoming the only active Asian American on the court that serves California, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon.

Along with fellow Republicans, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Liu too progressive for the position.

“Mr. Liu said he believed that the last presidential election gave liberals, as he put it, quote, ‘a tremendous opportunity to actually get their ideas and the progressive vision of the Constitution and of law into practice.’” McConnell said. “This is repugnant.”

Americans for Limited Government echoed this feeling calling Liu “the most radical nominee to the federal bench in a generation.” Similar in sentiment, the American Center for Law and Justice called the vote “a victory for the rule of law and a sound defeat for judicial activism.”

But not everyone agreed. Many senators believed that the filibuster has set an unfortunate precedent.

“I think the ramifications of this filibuster are going to be long and difficult for those who cause this good man to be filibustered,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California on the senate floor.

Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley criticized the denial of cloture in a blog posted by Berkeley Law student Jonathan Singer.

“I met just this morning with a delegation of lawyers from China,” said Edley. “I had planned to talk with them about our national pride in having a federal judiciary independent of partisan politics and discuss the efforts of many in China to develop a similar legal culture.”

Edley explained that the situation with Liu’s nomination was upsetting.

“It would have been fraudulent to boast on the very day the Senate cast aside respect for merit,” he added. “The Senate has had up-or-down votes on many Republican nominees far more conservative than Goodwin is ‘liberal.’ It’s shameful.”

Law professor and former prosecutor David Sklansky described Liu as a brilliant scholar and a dedicated public servant.

The American lawyer of Taiwanese decent has been recognized for his writing on constitutional law, education policy, civil rights, and the Supreme Court.

“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to have Goodwin as a colleague, and the students have been fortunate enough to have him as a teacher, know he would have been an exemplary and fair-minded judge,” Sklansky said.

In the end, history was still made as Liu became the first judicial nominee named by President Obama to be successfully filibustered. It was the first successful filibuster of a judicial nominee since 2005.

By Michelle Banh

Chinese railroad workers line the Transcontinental Railroad, buried in snow. Roughly 3,000 Chinese were recruited to work on the railroad project, which started in 1865.

From as early as the mid-1800s, people from Asian countries have immigrated to the United States seeking better lives. With assurances of prosperity and opportunities abound, the U.S. has and continues to play the role of the promised land for many foreigners.

Filipinos expected just that when they settled in modern day Louisiana in the 1760s. Arriving by Spanish galleons – broad, multi-decked ships – that stopped in Mexican ports, these Asian pioneers deserted their maritime posts to make their way into America. Once settled, Filipinos began forming shrimping villages that have lasted to this day.

Roughly 80 years later, Chinese and Indian immigrants came to the U.S., though under extremely unsavory circumstances. With the abolition of the slave trade recently underway, British and Spanish colonialists were running short on African slaves. Before long, South China and India became the new “it” locations to find replacement laborers. These Chinese and Indian individuals were ultimately “recruited” to work at remote sugar and cotton plantations.

Approximately 250,000 Chinese and 500,000 Indians were transported to America under this new system of slavery.

It was not until 1848 that Asians voluntarily immigrated to the U.S. in significant numbers. Lured by the promise of wealth at “Gold Mountain” (a Chinese nickname for California during the Gold Rush), Chinese immigrants flocked to America in record numbers. While some became miners, others worked as smalltime merchants, gardeners, and domestics.

Then in 1865, the Transcontinental Railroad project revolutionized transportation and effectively established Asian social standing in America.

As the Union Pacific worked westward from Nebraska and the Central Pacific worked eastward from Sacramento, the two companies hired roughly 3,000 Chinese immigrants to take part. Although they worked strenuous hours – often without fair pay – and sacrificed a number of their lives in the process, the Chinese were ultimately left out of any celebrations when the railroad was complete.

Anti-Chinese sentiments came to a head in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped all immigration from China and denied citizenship to any Chinese already in the U.S.

Such were the beginnings of Asian immigration to America – not always positive, but definitive of the Asian American community today.

“When I read about how Asians used to be persecuted by Americans in history, I feel a sense of happiness that we have moved so far from that now that Americans can embrace being Asian,” said Jenny Liu, a USC freshman from Fremont, Calif.

Though the Asian American community has had its fair share of obstacles in immigrating to this country, its tremendous efforts to build and foster an Asian American identity from the ground up has forever impacted the millions of people living in America today.