What's up with Marion Barry and Filipino Nurses

[bagiw.boi]

hmmm... chinese-americans and japanese-americans are taking up the cudgels for fil-ams.... interesting.


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APA Groups Slam Barry’s Anti-Asian Comments

Apr 26 2012

WASHINGTON — National Asian Pacific American civil rights organizations are urging Washington, D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry — already under fire for an earlier incident — to apologize for comments he made about Asians on April 23.

At a public hearing, Barry observed that immigrant healthcare workers are dominating the field: “In fact, it’s so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines.”

Barry went on to say, “And no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses … so that we don’t have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places, having to hire people from somewhere else.”

OCA (Organization of Chinese Americans) said in a statement on April 24, “We call on Mr. Barry to engage with the broader community to uphold his oath as an elected official to represent and respect the interests of every member of his constituency.

“This type of … inflammatory messaging on the heels of similarly framed rhetoric issued during a campaign victory speech on April 2, 2012 against Asian-owned businesses in Ward 8, his home district, is now setting a pattern of unacceptable public policy critique stereotypically casting APAs as being a perpetual foreigner.

“Anti-Asian sentiments within often unfounded economic context have in the past gravely influenced antagonistic sentiments resulting in the Los Angeles civil unrest of 1992, the violent and fatal attack on Vincent Chin in 1982, and the 1871 massacre of Chinese immigrants in California, to name a few.

“OCA, as a national civil rights organization with over 80 chapters and affiliates, urges all elected officials and political organizations … to be respectful of the multiethnic fabric of America. APAs in their own right are and continue to be strong social, economic, and political contributors and leaders of all ideological persuasions and affiliations.

“Demonizing a specific class of people using fear tactics based on broad political and economic generalizations should not be tolerated by the community at large.”

OCA called on Barry to issue “a meaningful apology” and “to meet with APA community advocacy organizations and other people of color advocacy groups to jointly address public policy strategies for educational and economic equity and equality.”

“His speech indicates consistent difficulty to conduct himself in a decent and reasonable manner commensurate with his duties as an elected official,” OCA said. “Absent of these initial steps, confidence in his ability to represent and respect the interests of every member of his constituency is highly suspect.”

JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) also condemned Barry “for his continued bigoted remarks concerning the role of Asian Americans in the city’s economy. Within the past month he has made public statements that are shameful and unbecoming a public official who alleges to be a champion of civil rights.

“Barry needs to apologize for continuing to point to Asian Americans as the problem and should recognize that the American people of Asian heritage are as American as anyone else and have been a key in the economic growth and development of small business and the health sector.”

Barry’s remarks about reflect “the same kind of inflammatory rhetoric that flamed the fires of racism toward Japanese Americans in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and led to their indefinite detention in concentration camps during World War II,” JACL said. “Responsible public officials should be closing the racial divide and not widening animosities that are based on false and misleading assumptions.

“His statements continue to perpetuate the mistaken public perception that all who are not white nor African American … do not belong in our society and are taking away business and jobs in America. This is far from the truth. Filipino Americans were among the earliest immigrants from Asia over 150 years ago. They have overcome decades of huge barriers in education and employment to become highly skilled in the health care industry and are in many cases multi-generational Americans.

“Like too often occurs in our society, Barry himself, who has used skin color to point out discrimination, has now committed the same egregious error in judgment.

“Barry is in a position to change this kind of negative stereotyping and he must take advantage of this incident to right many decades of wrongs. He needs to apologize to the Asian American community and set in motion actions to heal the chasm he has created by his thoughtless remarks.

“Barry can do something positive in a sincere and bridge-building manner. To do anything less is a discredit to all he has accomplished in his long career as a public servant.”

http://rafu.com/news/2012/04/apa-gro...sian-comments/
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[Kray0n]

hmmm... chinese-americans and japanese-americans are taking up the cudgels for fil-ams.... interesting.
...

“This type of … inflammatory messaging on the heels of similarly framed rhetoric issued during a campaign victory speech on April 2, 2012 against Asian-owned businesses in Ward 8, his home district, is now setting a pattern of unacceptable public policy critique stereotypically casting APAs as being a perpetual foreigner.
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you could make a case for him being racist based on his other statements. doesn't mean his statement about growing your own workers is wrong.

no two ways about it, he never said anything offensive in his speech.

[Kray0n]

how's that work against my "own point"? what do you think "my point" was?




read again.

he's not talking about unemployment. he's talking about increasing nursing grads so they wouldn't "hire people from somewhere else."

your original one below.

...

so a country of immigrants doesn't want immigrants in a profession that the second-generation-and-above-immigrants have no love for?

and the opposition to nurse-immigrants-from-ph comes from someone-whose-ancestor-was-some-slave-brought-in-from-africa?

and really, he was talking about nursing grads?

"In fact, it's so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines," Barry said. "And no offense, but let's grow our own teachers, let's grow our own nurses -- and so that we don't have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places -- having to hire people from somewhere else."

he's not talking about nursing grads in particular, where did you get that? he's clearly talking about employment.

[Kray0n]

but not "significantly above the national average as of February 2012 (when the rankings were published)."

methodology here: About the U.S. News Best Jobs Rankings Methodology

ummm, it's not about relative figures. everybody knows that overall unemployment is high, no? they need more jobs

and why would it be about relative figures to begin with? ang labo ah...

I think people should look at the root cause why there many filipino nurses today in the US. not just Marion Barry.

1. No wants to take-up nursing U.S. its a nice paying job but nobody wants to enroll.
2. No wants to teach Nursing in the U.S. Its better to work as a Nurse than to teach. It pays better to work.
3. U.S. Hospitals wants to to hire Filipino Nurses. simple, empathy. we have empathy for the patients, co-workers, and the work itself.

As for Marion Barry, he might just be calling he's fellow citizen to take up nursing. I'm not offended.

i agree, it's simply a nationalist sentiment. they need to reduce unemployment, and having more americans become nurses is one small step.

[bagiw.boi]

you could make a case for him being racist based on his other statements. doesn't mean his statement about growing your own workers is wrong.

no two ways about it, he never said anything offensive in his speech.

of course, barry's advocacy for the training of more african-american nurses, rather than hiring nurses from overseas, is meritorious, logical, politically correct. no brainer.

it was barry's manner of verbalising that advocacy, which was less than sensitive to the sentiments and status of asian-americans/immigrants, that is the issue here.

you don't find it offensive. others disagree. so?

[bagiw.boi]

your original one below.



and really, he was talking about nursing grads?



he's not talking about nursing grads in particular, where did you get that? he's clearly talking about employment.

he's not talking about nursing grads? um...

Mr. Barry claimed that people were missing the larger points he was trying to make — i.e., how the University of the District of Columbia needs to train more local residents to meet the growing national demand for nurses

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...***_story.html

[bagiw.boi]

above cited link, in full:

Marion Barry’s latest offense

By Editorial Board
Published: April 26

UPON HEARING the latest bigoted comments from D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), the first impulse is to ignore them. The former mayor, by word and deed, long ago ceased to command respect, so why pretend that what he says really matters? Such thinking, though, gives a pass to Mr. Barry’s toxic prejudices and to those who have enabled him by years of looking away and making excuses.

Filipino nurses were the objects of Mr. Barry’s most recent spewing. At a hearing Monday on the University of the District of Columbia’s budget, Mr. Barry said: “If you go to the hospital now, you’ll find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines. And no offense, but let’s grow our own nurses, and so that we don’t have to go scrounging in our community clinics and other kinds of places, having to hire people from somewhere else.” The comments came just weeks after he was forced to apologize (sort of) for insults about Asian Americans. “We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops,” he said at a party celebrating his victory in the Ward 8 Democratic primary.

In both instances, Mr. Barry claimed that people were missing the larger points he was trying to make — i.e., how the University of the District of Columbia needs to train more local residents to meet the growing national demand for nurses or how some carryout restaurants ill-serve the neighborhoods of Anacostia. He either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that such issues can be discussed without maligning people by race and country.

Mr. Barry’s racism — let’s call it what it is — helps to perpetuate the divisions in this city. No matter how catchy the slogan, the District won’t become one city as long as its leaders look the other way when demagogues such as Mr. Barry pit one group of residents against another. Whether it is white vs. black or native-born vs. immigrant, there should be no place for such intolerance. It is clear that Mr. Barry is beyond rehabilitation. But one step that should be taken by council Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) is to remove him as head of the committee that oversees agencies that serve as liaisons between the government and minority communities.

Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.
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[idiot_savant]

Nothing wrong with protecting your own citizens, but targeting Asians on two occasions clearly shows what Marion Barry really is.

[cuch]

^ a crackhead ig'nant niggar! go smoke some crack mo'fo!

[SIOPAO MAN]

^ a crackhead ig'nant niggar! go smoke some crack mo'fo!

Oh the irony nga naman!!

[Nightwing2]

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Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry made comments Monday about Filipina nurses who work in District hospitals, just weeks after Barry told his supporters that Asian businesses "ought to go."

At a hearing, Barry told the president and board members of the University of the District of Columbia that the school should be supplying D.C. residents to serve in the "lucrative" posts of nurses and teachers.

But that was not the case, Barry said.

"In fact, it's so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines," Barry said. "And no offense, but let's grow our own teachers, let's grow our own nurses -- and so that we don't have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places -- having to hire people from somewhere else."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/...-nurses/527206

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so a country of immigrants doesn't want immigrants in a profession that the second-generation-and-above-immigrants have no love for?

and the opposition to nurse-immigrants-from-ph comes from someone-whose-ancestor-was-some-slave-brought-in-from-africa?

Dude that is so out of line How do you know your own ancestor was not a slave of a Datu,Sultan or a Rajah? What his sentiments are no different from FilAms complaining of sending their sons and daughters to expensive UC schools with hardly a scholarship assistance and yet the local hospitals are still hiring nuses in PH.The same hospitals that were supported by theFilAms property tax. BTW i do agree that most Asian stores do look and smell dirty but we just got used to it.

[gumacanian]

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph-demands-...-official.html


Perhaps the US and other countries should demand a little more parity before Filipino`s can get away with rants like "We have a right to work abroad"!!
Foreigners have NO rights in the Philippines. Yeah... NONE.
An American back packer that wishes to work here as a qualified English tutor to a Korean?
No chance!! At least not legally.
Why is it so bad for Barry to say that its better for nurses in that state to be "home grown"?
WTF is racist about that?
The Filipino embassy? What a bunch of onion skinned pussys!!
F@ckin embarrassment!

[Papichulo168]

Needless to say, why aren't there enough homegrown nurses in the US? I think Barry's statement draws more attention to his countrymen's aversion to this service profession.

[bagiw.boi]

Dude that is so out of line

agreed. nonetheless, with his ancestry (which he has exploited politically) and background of fighting for civil rights, and as someone who officially liaisons with minority communities, one would expect better from barry than him being xenophobic, if not outright racist.

How do you know your own ancestor was not a slave of a Datu,Sultan or a Rajah?

unless history says the muslims conquered the cordilleras, i doubt it.

What his sentiments are no different from FilAms complaining of sending their sons and daughters to expensive UC schools with hardly a scholarship assistance and yet the local hospitals are still hiring nuses in PH.

well then, take your complaints to the hospitals who do the hiring. or lobby for the end of issuing work visas to foreign nurses, if that's not already done. why take it out on immigrant nurses who were invited and gone on to persue their "american dream" legally?

looks like your situation in CA is somewhat different from that in DC:

If blame is to be assigned for the shortage of homegrown talent, however, Mr. Barry might pause to reflect on the role that he and his political allies have played in this crisis. After all, the scarcity of native nursing graduates is merely a symptom of a deeper problem - poor preparation in the District’s school system.

District schools spend more than $16,000 per pupil - one of the highest rates in the country. Adam B. Schaeffer of the Cato Institute places this figure closer to $28,000 once costs such as transportation, capital expenses and debt service are factored in. With such a hefty price tag, one would expect phenomenal outcomes. But, unfortunately, D.C. taxpayers don’t earn a very good return on their investment.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) statistics from 2011 show that the District has the highest proportion of students scoring “below basic” - often by a wide margin. For math, 40 percent of fourth-graders and 52 percent of eighth-graders fall below basic, while for reading, 56 percent of fourth-graders and 49 percent of eighth-graders do. This means those students are functionally illiterate and will have difficulty catching up to their grade level.

Not surprisingly, this poor early education carries over to high school. A recent study by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education found that just 58.6 percent of D.C. public high school students graduate within four years, well below the national average of 75.5 percent.

In the face of these sobering statistics, congressional Democrats and the White House have attempted to terminate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a program that has helped more than 1,600 low-income students escape dangerous, underperforming public schools and attend private schools of their choice. Mayor Vincent C. Gray has shortchanged the city’s charter schools while doling out supplemental funds to the city’s public schools. Eighty percent of D.C. charter school students graduated on time, in case you were curious. Teacher tenure reforms begun under former schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee appear to have been shelved, which means substandard teachers will be allowed to keep their jobs and continue to fail students.

This means the public school system - in dire shape now - likely will get worse in the future as government officials roll back choice programs and protect the status quo at dismal government-run public schools.

This is a travesty. The District’s young residents deserve access to quality schooling options, and Mr. Barry, who was elected as a member of the city’s first school board in 1971, is well-positioned to advocate for change.

However inarticulately stated, Mr. Barry obviously is committed to encouraging local residents to become white-collar professionals and entrepreneurs. But to achieve this goal, he needs to stand up to members of the Democratic Party on education reform - not attack other ethnicities.


source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ans-set-me-up/

The same hospitals that were supported by theFilAms property tax.

don't these immigrant nurses pay taxes too?

BTW i do agree that most Asian stores do look and smell dirty but we just got used to it.

apparently, barry still hasn't got used to it. and he's so unhappy he wants them out of his turf. *shrugs*

[bagiw.boi]

while i sympathise with the immigrant nurses, the philippine government should just stay on the sidelines on this one.

ambassador cuisa's statement is more than enough. VP binay getting in on this is just OA, imo. it's a minor USA issue.

barry has a ton of bodies piling on him as it is. bodies from overseas is overkill already.

[bagiw.boi]

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph-demands-...-official.html


Perhaps the US and other countries should demand a little more parity before Filipino`s can get away with rants like "We have a right to work abroad"!!
Foreigners have NO rights in the Philippines. Yeah... NONE.
An American back packer that wishes to work here as a qualified English tutor to a Korean?
No chance!! At least not legally.
Why is it so bad for Barry to say that its better for nurses in that state to be "home grown"?
WTF is racist about that?
The Filipino embassy? What a bunch of onion skinned pussys!!
F@ckin embarrassment!

those nurses in DC complained of by barry, were they just walk-in applicants, hired on the spot because they demanded "hire us"? the unions just allowed them to work in those hospitals? no work visas involved? aren't some of them americans too?

[Papichulo168]

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph-demands-...-official.html


Perhaps the US and other countries should demand a little more parity before Filipino`s can get away with rants like "We have a right to work abroad"!!
Foreigners have NO rights in the Philippines. Yeah... NONE.
An American back packer that wishes to work here as a qualified English tutor to a Korean?
No chance!! At least not legally.
Why is it so bad for Barry to say that its better for nurses in that state to be "home grown"?
WTF is racist about that?
The Filipino embassy? What a bunch of onion skinned pussys!!
F@ckin embarrassment!

Working in the Philippines

Non-Resident Aliens Who Intend to Work in the Philippines

All foreign nationals seeking admission to the Philippines for the purpose of employment, all non-resident foreign nationals already working in the Philippines, and all non-resident foreign nationals admitted to the Philippines on on-working visas, who wish to work in the Philippines, regardless of the source of compensation and duration of employment are required by the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to secure an Alien Employment Permit (AEP).

Where to Apply

Foreign nationals can apply for an AEP at the nearest Philippine Embassy or Consulate. Local employers who wish to hire the services of a foreigner can apply on behalf of the foreign national at the nearest Regional Office of the DOLE. Foreign nationals who are already in the Philippines should apply through their prospective employers with the nearest Regional Office of the DOLE.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwha006.html#Work

No rights? Bawal?

[Papichulo168]

I don't see any racism on Barry pointing out a fact. Nurses in a lot of hospitals in the US come from somewhere else and majority of them come from the Philippines.

His remarks about Asians and opening up dirty businesses on the other hand is just dumb generalization.

[gumacanian]

Working in the Philippines

Non-Resident Aliens Who Intend to Work in the Philippines

All foreign nationals seeking admission to the Philippines for the purpose of employment, all non-resident foreign nationals already working in the Philippines, and all non-resident foreign nationals admitted to the Philippines on on-working visas, who wish to work in the Philippines, regardless of the source of compensation and duration of employment are required by the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to secure an Alien Employment Permit (AEP).

Where to Apply

Foreign nationals can apply for an AEP at the nearest Philippine Embassy or Consulate. Local employers who wish to hire the services of a foreigner can apply on behalf of the foreign national at the nearest Regional Office of the DOLE. Foreign nationals who are already in the Philippines should apply through their prospective employers with the nearest Regional Office of the DOLE.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwha006.html#Work

No rights? Bawal?

An employee must be petitioned by his/her company and it must generally be shown, to the satisfaction of the government that:

That no person found in the Philippines is willing or competent to perform the service for which the foreign national is hired.


Call that parity?
Nuff said!

[gumacanian]

Needless to say, why aren't there enough homegrown nurses in the US? I think Barry's statement draws more attention to his countrymen's aversion to this service profession.

Thats a different issue..
It is not however the business of the Philippine embassy to get involved with U.S domestic politics at any level..
A foreigner that tries that in the R.P is liable and will probably be deported ..
Quite rightly so!!