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News
PEKIN CHINKS

Despite the Pekin, Illinois school broad's decision to maintain the Pekin High School athletic team name, "Chinks", the Organization of Chinese-Americans (OCA) will continue campaigning to get the racially derogatory name changed.

The Pekin School board, on March 17, voted 5 to 2 against changing the high school team name, according to the President of OCA, Kung-Lee Wang.

OCA is a national non-profit organization concerned with domestic problems and issues relating to Chinese living in the United States. Wang said in a telephone interview that OCA plans to work with the Illinois Education Association and with other groups to conduct an educational process, in order to persuade Pekin citizens to change the name.

He said such an effort includes getting teachers aware of the issue and getting the media to educate the public on the matter.

If the issue is not resolved by the end of next fall, OCA may take other measures. The possibilities and consequences of various steps, said Wang, will be looked into.

One of these measures, Wang mentioned, is the possibility of getting the Illinois State Legislature to introduce a bill outlawing all derogatory names.

 If all efforts to change the name fail, Wang said that a court injunction would be used as a last resort.

The athletic team was given the name "Chinks" before World War II. In addition, the town's name, Pekin, was chosen because its longitude and latitude were said to be the same as Peking, China; actually, they are not.

Wang said that when the school first adopted the name for the team, they meant no derogatory intent. However, as he said, when the name is carried outside of Pekin, it does convey such a meaning. [[black dot]]


EASTERN WIND SEEKS NON-PROFIT STATUS
EASTERN WIND SEEKS NON-PROFIT STATUS

After almost two years of operations as a community newsletter, Eastern Wind has decided to incorporate as a non-profit corporation in Washington D.C. to provide educational and charitable services to the Asian American community in Washington,D.C.

The name of the corporation will be Eastern Wind, Inc. and the newsletter will continue as a project of the organization. Plans for expansion of activities include the development of a resource center that will house a collection of Asian American literature, documents, newspapers, and media as well as practice information that will be useful to the Asian American population in D.C. Workshops and forums on Asian American history and communities are also planned. The articles of Incorporation have been filed with the Recorder of Deeds in D.C. and Eastern Wind awaits their certificate.

Eastern Wind is grateful for the free legal representation that is being made available to it through Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C. in our efforts to obtain non-profit status. [[black dot]]

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H.R. 982 OR NON-WHITES WHO DON'T LOOK RIGHT

The allegation that illegal aliens are stealing millions of jobs away from U.S. citizens has been recently getting a lot of adverse publicity because of the current state of the nation's economy. Congressman Peter Rodino has introduced legislation, H.R. 982, which places sanctions against employed illegal aliens and employers who knowingly hire them. The bill is said to have a good chance of getting out of the House Judiciary Committee since Rodino is its chaiirman and onto the House Floor for a vote. If the bill passes, times will not only be difficult for illegal aliens but for anyone who resembles the American stereotype of a non-white alien.

H.R. 982, as it is written now, does not explicitly state what kind of questionnaires or forms will be used by employers to find out the status of their job applicants. The U.S. Department of Justice favors a much stronger bill and has publicly stated that they want employers to require job applicants to either produce a birth certificate or an appropriate Immigration and Naturalization Service work document. There are even some who argue that all residents of the U.S. should carry a national identification card.

The passage of Rodino's bill will be disastrous and discriminatory for anyone who is not white and resembles an alien. Employers will probably play it safe by hiring only people who look like white American citizens.

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Affirmative action hiring of Asian applicants will take a beating because employers will have a convenient excuse to delay and discourage Asian job applicants by telling them that "we have to investigate your background."

Asians should write to their congressman about the disastrous effects this bill will have upon the Asian community. [[black dot]]


BILINGUAL COURT ACT

Senator John V. Tunney has re-introduced legislation that will require translators in federal courts for persons who do not speak English. Last year, the Bilingual Court Act passed the Senate but was not presented to the House because of the lateness of the legislative session. This important legislation, S. 565, will begin to give limited-English-speaking persons equal rights in the U.S. judicial system.

Asians are encouraged to write letters of support to their U.S. senators and congressmen. [[black dot]]

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