IMDiversity Writings |

Stewart David Ikeda is former Director of Online Content for iMinorities, Inc. and Editor-in-Chief for its IMDiversity.com web site.  In addition to his editorial and management duties, he contributed a regular feature column including editorials, commentaries, interviews, reviews, and entertainment pieces to the site between 1998 to 2002.

Some of these are indexed and annotated below. Readings appear off-site in a new browser window, and some older archived versions may have had links removed.

Other publication credits may also be found in the site's New Media and Literary sections.

September 11, 2001 Attacks, Backlash, War Special Section

For Asian Americans, a War on Two Fronts
Editorial on how Asian-Pacific Americans reacted to distant and not-so-distant historical lessons after 9/11 bombings

God(s), Bless America
Post-September 11 editorial on religion, war, unity, and exclusion

Election 2000 Diversity Surveys: Gore-Bush-Nader Q&As

Bush & Gore: Introduction and FAQ
Despite the unprecedented pre-convention buzz of the words "diversity" and "inclusion," the IMDiversity team felt that the 2000 conventions talked at us more than to us, and that the candidates should have a non-partisan forum to address minorities' concerns directly and frankly, as both had professed they wished to do. Working with outside consultants, I coordinated an exhausting, several-month initiative to let the campaigns "put their money where their mouths were" by responding to a "diversity survey": 27  questions pressing to our readers, staff, partner organizations, and fellow ethnic media outlets that weren't being adequately, honestly addressed (if indeed they were ever posed) in either the mainstream media or in campaign releases.  We committed to posting unedited, side-by-side, on equal terms, what they had to say to minority voters on affirmative action's future, the use of Census data, racial profiling, Wen Ho Lee, U.S. treaties with the First Nations, the Supreme Court justices we expected one of the candidates to appoint...We'd run whatever they sent in whenever they sent them, however substantive or stupid, and otherwise dictated no conditions, restrictions, or fees. This special section houses the results of this initiative and the ensuing community dialogue.

To the Polls: The Last, Last Word
No specimen of journalistic brilliance, this typical get-out-and-vote dispatch was pounded out at 6:38 PM Central on November 7, 2000, with mere hours left in the day that failed to decide the next U.S. president.  In hindsight, it's a somewhat interesting time capsule of the night when Americans relearned a lesson in the (in)significance of our individual votes.

President's Initiative on Race

A Constructive Dialogue on the President's Initiative on Race (under renovation)
The brainchild of Preston Edwards, Sr. -- iMinorities, Inc. CEO and visionary founder and publisher of The Black Collegian -- this early community dialogue project was our first attempt to fully leverage the powerful, multicultural structure of our site network and the exponential increase in minority Internet users to foster substantive, pan-ethnic dialogue about race and racism in America, beyond Black and White.  Beginning with President Clinton's inspired and unprecedented national initiative to improve race relations, we followed an initial survey of minority community leaders with months of mediated, online community discussion, which I ultimately compiled and edited into a final report submitted to the administration's Race Advisory Board.

Internment Days of Remembrance

2002 Day of Remembrance: Not "Just a Japanese Thing"
2002 editorial introduction looks at how the 9/11 terrorist attacks have given the internment and 1988 Civil Liberties Act new rhetorical currency

2001 Hypertext Commentary: The Art of Apology
Hypertext commentary grading the ex-presidents on their internment lessons

2000 Day of Remembrance, Year of Forgetting

1999 Day of Remembrance - "Closing the Book" on Internment

Interviews

Q&A: Paul Igasaki, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The Vice-Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discusses workplace discrimination, non-litigious ways of resolving disputes, why Asian Americans have trouble asserting their rights, and the agency's future

Q&A: Norman Y. Mineta
Shortly before Clinton named him the first Asian-American cabinet secretary, the then-Lockheed-Martin executive spoke with me about the need for increased APA representation in the U.S. political process

The Coolest Job in the Universe
In this illustrated profile, David Takemura, a special effects wizard for Paramount's Star Trek shows, gives an inside look at his work in the industry and the craft of creating special-effects

Q&A: Stephen H. Sumida
A year after the tumultuous break-up of its Board, the Ass'n of Asian American Studies got back on track at the 1999 Convention in Philadelphia.  Its new president spoke about the upheaval surrounding the controversial novel Blu's Hanging and the organization's future directions.

Working in Digital Publishing with Barbara Tran
A widely respected poet and editor of the landmark anthology, Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose, Tran talks about her move to a career in digital publishing

Q&A: Marina Budhos
Author Budhos talks about the release of her novel, Professor of Light, and the moving nonfiction book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teens

Q&A: Eileen Tabios
Discussion with the Philippines National Book Award winner on Filipino American Heritage Month, art criticism, and recovering Filipino literary heritage

Politics

Playing the Hate-Card in the Midterm Elections
Race-baiting is often politically effective; now, it's also politically correct

Powell, Mineta to Form Third Party (Humor)
A breaking beltway news exclusive by AAV Senior Political Correspondent April Foole

What's an "Asian American" Now, Anyway?
This response to a reader letter about Census 2000 category changes looks at the complexities of racial (self-)definition and political coalition

Other Miscellaneous Writings

"I’m Vincent Chin!": 20th Anniversary Memorial
Remembering 6/19/82 as Asian America's defining moment

On the Secret Pleasure of Racist Stuff
Commentary on Abercrombie & Fitch, golliwogs, and the thin line between love and hate

Adoption, Hapas, and Asian-American Heritage
On the future of the 'traditional non-traditional' Japanese-American family. Originally appeared in The Pacific Citizen.

Opening Dialogue, or Dealing with the Devil?
Among my more controversial AAV pieces, this examined a "community dialogue" feature on the old ABCFlash site. Purporting to be an open, frank, interactive forum about allegations that employees and customers at a Syracuse Denny's had assaulted Asian-American customers, the feature was regrettably nothing of the sort.  Widely circulated and cited in discussions on- and offline, the commentary was erroneously taken as a condemnation of ABCF and Denny's. Really, it was about the Internet's then-novel capacity for facilitating invaluable, mutually informative, two-way corporate-consumer communications.  By relying on old approaches to multicultural outreach and promotions, Denny's parent had failed to maximize a golden opportunity that the new medium and ABCFlash offered: to engage interactively with, and learn something deeper and more meaningful about the hearts of a consumer niche than a merely-massive ad and sponsorship blitz could ever impart.  It was about recognizing the Web as the most user-centric medium yet created.

Dr. Amy Ling, 1939-1999
In 1999, my friend and former colleague Professor Amy Ling succumbed to cancer after a valiant, several-year battle. My tribute, and an obituary by our friend Mitsuye Yamada, recalled Ling's kind nature and achievements in the field -- especially her efforts to uncover the works of long-invisible Asian-American women artists.

Villager Puzzler: Asian-American History and Trivia Puzzles
In the just-for-fun category: Experimenting one day with the surprising number of puzzle-making software demos out there, I quickly learned that creating actual crossword puzzles with specific themes and words is exceedingly difficult and time-consuming. These looser-form vocabulary puzzles, however, make it easy to collect and present thematically focused information. Better still, providing "Hint" links make the puzzle an engaging and educational sort of site-navigation tool: Each Puzzle leads to 4 feature articles that happen to contain hidden clues. Why shouldn't learning something, or just reading the news, be fun?  Withholding answers until the following week can create a rewarding sense of investment and expectancy in a user, not to mention site-stickiness.