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Inside Verizon: How Diversity Survived the Merger

Sandra Lee

Oscar Gomez, head of the Office of Diversity at Verizon, has been with the company for 26 years and has worked in various departments throughout the organization. Although he officially became involved with the diversity effort six years ago at GTE – which recently merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon - Gomez says his involvement reaches back much further. "I was one of the first Hispanics at the director level, so I became someone that people reached out to."

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao Hosts Asian Career Fair

Yueska Honda

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao hosted a career summit Wednesday to address the shortage of Asian-American federal employees in senior-level positions. The summit was planned to help kick off May APA Heritage Month celebrations.

Not Again! Abercrombie's Latest Cultural Foul-Up

Christine Lee

The clothing manufacturer Abercrombie & Fitch recently came under fire for its line of men's shirts depicting slant-eyed Asian caricatures and one liners such as 'Two Wongs Can Make it White'. The company pulled the shirts from stores and maintained that the racism was unintentional.

But further research shows the controversy is far from over.

Princeton Adds Author Chang Rae Lee To Faculty

Yueska Honda

Chang-rae Lee, author of 'Native Speaker', has been added to the high-profile stable of writers at Princeton University's faculty, joining the ranks of Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates.

Talking the Talk: State Farm's In-Language Ads Strike Gold

TJ DeGroat

How does a company attract a new market? Speak its language. Whether it's adopting current slang to draw in teenagers or creating a Mandarin-language Web site to reach out to Chinese Americans, advertisers in today's increasingly global market have to be more flexible than ever.

Abercrombie: Innocent Marketing Gaffe or Company-wide Neglect ?

Chan Cho

A now controversial line of T-shirts by Abercrombie & Fitch featuring racist caricatures of Asians set off a firestorm of protests and outraged emails last week.

The company promptly issued an apology and recalled the T-shirts from its 311 locations nationwide. Now the question is if the Ohio-based clothier can repair its image in the Asian community-and does it want to?

Creative Marketing Tactics Help Fuel Western Union Profits

Sandra Lee

Having increased profits by more than a third in the first quarter, with a 15 percent growth in revenues, the financial performance of Western Union continues to be a beacon in the currently dismal economy.

A major engine for its success in recent years has been the company's strategic outreach to the Asian immigrant population in the United States, a group that is noted for sending money to loved ones in their native countries.

Axis of Evil? Bush's Speech Raises Concern Among Asian Americans

TJ DeGroat

During the mostly lauded State of the Union address, President Bush uttered three words that have since prompted concern from Asian-American community leaders: axis of evil.

The Road to Profits: GM Signs First National Asian Ad Campaign

Sandra Lee

When Elcid Choi moved to Los Angeles, Calif., in 1998 to start Innovasia, an Asian-American ad agency, the Census 2000 was still on the horizon and corporate interest in minority markets was just beginning to stir.

Meanwhile, at the corporate headquarters of General Motors (GM), in Detroit, Mich., plans were underway to create a Center for Expertise on Diversity (CED), which would bring the company's various campaigns with minority markets under one department. The announcement of the new department finally came last year as waves of information were being released from the Census 2000.

Spotlight on Conrad Lee

Chan Cho

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has named Conrad Lee administrator of Region 10, which encompasses programs and services in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.

India Elects Its Third Muslim President

Chan Cho

A prominent Muslim was sworn in last week as India's 12th president in a move widely seen as bolstering the nation's secular credentials after a wave of religious violence.

A.P.J. Kalam is the third Muslim to serve in the largely ceremonial post in majority Hindu, but officially secular, India. The 71-year-old Kalam rose to become a national folk hero by overseeing India's successful nuclear tests in 1998.

World Cup Games Unify Koreans Around the World

Christine Lee

The World Cup has always been the game of games for the rest of the world – insults, bets, and punches are typically exchanged over the support of one's team. But for ethnic Koreans around the world, this year's games created an unprecedented sense of unity as fans watched the South Korean team eliminate powerhouses like Italy, Spain and Portugal.

New Vistas: Acting on Your Dreams

Christine Lee

A career in arts is far from an easy stroll - from landing a lucky break to running a production crew, these jobs initially offer few financial rewards and require a long, persistent journey for most.

For Asian Americans, a career in theatre offers other obstacles including overcoming stereotypes to finding an interested audience. The following is a brief account of a few Asian Americans who have found their own niche in theatre.