Say what you will about My Little Pony, but I would have loved this as a kid.
(See also: our pal Keith at The Nerds of Color writes it up!)
So, this is a cool idea. You Might Find Yourself suggested that Google should feature Fred Korematsu in a Google Doodle, and The Fred Korematsu Institute ran with this image and found that you can suggest a Doodle via email. We streamlined the process to make it easy for you to ask Google to honor Fred for Korematsu Day 2015 (Jan. 30, 2015).
From the NYU Asian/Pacific/American Institute: it wasn’t until 1983 that Fred Korematsu’s conviction for disobeying military orders was vacated.
Even though Fred Korematsu’s conviction was overturned, and Congress passed an official apology and reparations for Japanese Americans who were displaced by concentration camps, the ruling in Korematsu v. United States–that the camps were constitutional–still stands.
Justice Robert H. Jackson’s dissent is a chilling reminder that even though Executive Order 9066 has been roundly discredited by many, it technically still has the green light from SCOTUS. Recently, the New York Times considered what it would take to reverse the decision.
Happy Korematsu Day! Today we honor the legacy of Fred Korematsu, the young Japanese American who took Executive Order 9066 to the Supreme Court.
New York Post, the apology for this horrendous cover image is weak sauce:
“We recognized early on that an image intended to amuse and play off the Yankee nickname ‘Bronx Bombers’ might be considered offensive by some people, even though that was not our intention. Therefore, it was removed after a very small number of papers had been printed.”
And props to the Asian American Journalists Association for not taking that for an answer:
We take you at your word that it was not the paper’s intent to offend. However, when something that egregious is published, we believe it warrants a more direct apology….We’re sure you understand how hurtful and damaging stereotypes are. Seeing Tanaka, a Japanese national, depicted in such a way conjured up hateful imagery.
Today in 1891: Queen Lili'uokalani becomes the last queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Just less than two years later, she would be overthrown by a group of American, German, and British businessmen with the backing of the U.S. government.
The overthrow led to a provisional government led by Sanford B. Dole (of the same family as the Dole Food Company) and later, annexation by the United States.
