• MEMBERS

Hapa Issues Forum Plenary: Racial Privacy or Racial Ignorance?

Time: 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Date: Saturday, July 20, 2002.
Place: Jack Adams Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, SF State University (Open to the public)

Come find out how multiracial people are being used to promote a dangerous new initiative that would prohibit the collection of data on race, ethnicity, and national origin by state agencies. If successful, the initiative promises to devastate the state's ability to collect vital information on the race and ethnicity of Californians for critical purposes such as safeguarding health and safety, establishing effective education policies, and combating discrimination.

As multiracial Americans we have fought to learn more, not less about our population and for the right to claim in full all of our heritages on government forms. For the first time, the 2000 census allowed Hapas to "check all that apply" in the section on race. The Racial Privacy Initiative would reverse this and prevent mixed-race Californians from learning more about our communities.

Proponents misleadingly call their proposal the "Racial Privacy Initiative." In reality, the initiative affords no greater protection for privacy rights, but surely threatens to roll back important gains in civil and political rights for Asian Pacific Americans (APA’s). What does this initiative mean for the APA and Hapa communities? How can our communities address this issue?

Panelists: Maria Blanco, national senior counsel, MALDEF; Jan Liu, policy analyst, Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Curtiss Rooks, Asian American Studies professor, SJSU; Khari Tillery, Thurgood Marshall Fellow, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights. The plenary will be moderated by Pratap Chatterjee, producer, KPFA 94.1 FM.

Coordinator: April Elkjer, Communications Director, Hapa Issues Forum and the Asian American Journalists Association