The Best Way to Celebrate Independence Day

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The Best Way to Celebrate Independence Day

July 1, 2020
Hieu Le, PIVOT Board Member

The United States of America for decades has been a country of refuge for Vietnamese immigrants and refugees, offering levels of freedom and opportunities that were not possible elsewhere. Millions of Vietnamese people gave up everything they knew, uprooting and risking their entire lives to traverse to an unknown country. They did so because they knew that the United States represented freedom and opportunity.

This country has allowed many Vietnamese Americans to achieve the American dream, such as attaining quality education, providing better opportunities for their children, and having the ability to live in a democratic country where they can vote and exercise their civic duty.

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Finding the Equilibrium Between Privilege and Whatever the Opposite of Privilege Is

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Finding the Equilibrium Between Privilege and Whatever the Opposite of Privilege Is

June 28, 2020
Tung Nguyen, PIVOT president

I’ve been working through this for a while now but still haven’t got to a place of equilibrium regarding my privileges and whatever is the opposite.

Some of my privileges are that my 2-parents household was middle class, I received an elite education at the college and post-grad level, I am a professional making decent money, and though I have no formal power, I do have a certain amount of influence in my spheres of work, namely health research and academia. And I’m a man.

I don’t know what to call the opposite of privilege that I have, because I don’t consider them penalties but also privileges. I was a refugee. I was an English learner. I have always been a minority wherever I’ve been since I was 10 years old. I was young in a culture that respects the old and now I’m old in a culture that values youth. I live in a world that emasculates Asian men.

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COVID Blog June 20, 2020

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COVID Blog June 20, 2020

June 20, 2020

As of June 20, 2020, there are over 8.4 million people diagnosed with COVID-19 and over 445,000 deaths worldwide. In the US, there are over 2.2 million infections and more than 118,000 deaths.

The number of cases is surging in many states, particularly those in the South and Southeast. In Oklahoma, which has been in the news because of the planned Trump rally on 6/20, there were 450 new cases on Thursday, 150 more than the previous high earlier in the week. California had several days this week with over 5000 new cases, the most during the pandemic. Florida and Arizona also had the highest number of cases to date. As I’ve mentioned before, tracking # of hospitalizations is a good way to distinguish between increasing number of cases due to testing or due to new infections. In Texas, the number of people hospitalized with COVID is approaching 3000 per day, doubling what it was 3 weeks ago.

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PIVOT Celebrates the Decision on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

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PIVOT Celebrates the Decision on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

June 18, 2020

PIVOT celebrates today’s major victory with our DACAmented community, as we laud our nation’s decision to choose humanity over injustice. Today’s Supreme Court ruling recognizes that immigrants are interwoven into the fabric of America’s society.

As Vietnamese immigrants and refugees and their children, we stand in solidarity with these DACA recipients. As we breathe a sigh of relief, we know our fight continues. For the other 11 million immigrants who still face deportation. For our Black community whose lives are senselessly taken by police brutality and systemic racism.. For our LGBTQ+ community who face ongoing discrimination and violence for just being. As we celebrate this momentous victory, let us commit to continuing the fight for our collective liberation.

Let us protest. Let us kneel. Let us act in true solidarity. Let us fight for permanent legislative reforms. Let us vote. For those who cannot do so, and ultimately for all of us.

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IT’S TIME VIETNAMESE AMERICANS TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THE WAY WE VIEW BLACK AMERICANS

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IT’S TIME VIETNAMESE AMERICANS TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THE WAY WE VIEW BLACK AMERICANS

June 13, 2020
Thang Do, PIVOT board member

You could be an ordinary farmer, student, or housewife, going about your business. Strangers take you at gunpoint, tie you up and string you together with folks like you, then force you to walk, sometimes for a thousand miles or more. They pack you along with hundreds of others into the cramped hull of a ship. The place is ridden with disease; there’s barely enough air to breathe, room to move; people relieve themselves where they sit. The journey across the ocean will take at least two months. If you show signs of disobedience, they beat you mercilessly to set an example for others. They are prepared to kill you one by one and throw you overboard until you all “behave.”

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PIVOT for Black Lives Matter

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PIVOT for Black Lives Matter

June 12, 2020

PIVOT stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. We mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Nina Pop and so many others lost to police and systematic violence and oppression against the Black community. We stand in support of millions of people taking to the streets to express pain, grief, and outrage, and to demand fundamental change in this country.

As refugees, children of refugees, and immigrants, who all have roots to Việt Nam, we have a history of denouncing injustice, fighting against oppression, and believing in a better future for ourselves and our family. We also recognize that our community has also been complicit in this systematic oppression. It is time we stand up against this injustice and fight alongside our Black brothers and sisters, as they have fought for us and ensured that we as Vietnamese Americans have equal rights in America. Communities of color must come together in this moment of test.

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A message to older Vietnamese Americans from PIVOT's President

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A message to older Vietnamese Americans from PIVOT's President

June 8, 2020
Tung Nguyen, PIVOT president

I've tried my whole adult life to stay out of the lightning rod in Vietnamese American communities of talking about the emotions and politics of the Viet Nam War. Partly because that has always been personally painful. Partly because I know it is much more painful for those who went through it and lost friends and family. But mostly because it is just a topic that begets a lot of arguments about the past that infects the present and usually does not lead to anything positive for the future.

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The Terrible Burden of a Skin Color

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The Terrible Burden of a Skin Color

June 7, 2020
Loc Vu, San Jose

Vũ Văn Lộc, pen name Giao Chỉ, served as Colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam prior to 1975. Coming to the United States as a refugee at the end of the war, he was among the first to lead a social service non-profit organization, the IRCC (Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center). He later founded the Viet Museum in San Jose's History Park. He is the author of several books, including Cõi Tự Do, published shortly after his arrival in the US. His articles appear frequently in Vietnamese publications in the US.

Thắng Đỗ is a board member of PIVOT (The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization). He adapted the Vietnamese original into English, with permission from the author.

In 1926, almost a century ago, the world designated a week in February as the Negro History Week. About 50 years later, the US thought one week was not long enough and decided to call the entire month of February as the African American History Month. The name pays tribute to the origin of this race, but to be fair, Black Americans continued to experience considerable hardship. Regardless whether the white policeman was right or wrong, or whether the black man was good or bad, the image of a white man pressing his knee on the neck of a black man lying on the ground until he was suffocated resembles a re-enactment of scenes from the era of slavery 300 years ago at the nation’s founding.

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Of Pandemics, Policies, and Police

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Of Pandemics, Policies, and Police

June 5, 2020
Tung Nguyen, PIVOT president

Health disparities researchers have known for several decades the main underlying causes of such disparities. We call them the social determinants of health, and they include poverty, education, the environment, and healthcare access.

Racism is often thought to be one of those determinants as well, because chronic exposure to racism cause the body to change through the release of stress hormones and neurotransmitters. Acute exposure to racism can lead to death, as in the case of the recent killings of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. From a health disparities perspective, the George Floyd shooting was an acute exposure to racism, with the 4 police officers serving as the vectors that delivered the disease of racism and its ultimate health outcome, death.

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