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Should the above title make you nervously expect a punch line of questionable taste to follow, just bear with me for a wee bit longer and all will be revealed.

If in our working world, there is a green thumb for the kind of money that grows on trees, then my thumb, figuratively speaking, typically stays in the red. That’s not the punch line yet, folks. Contrary to the stereotypes about Asian Americans being good with numbers, my savoir faire falls resoundingly to the side of the Liberal Arts. So why then should I take even the remotest interest in a New York Times article entitled “Is There Room at the Top for Black Executives?” by Ron Stodghill?

I think one of the most unfortunate results of excessive ethnocentrism is the view that falling into one particular minority demographic would preclude one from taking an interest in other minority demographics. In mainstream media, there seems to be this obsessive bipolar lock on how we discuss ethnicity, usually with the white majority as the go-to dance partner while the other minority groups each wait their turn on the floor.

The Punch Line

So here’s the punch line: in a truly ethnically enlightened society, an African-American CEO and an Asian-American Blogger occurring in the same sentence really shouldn’t have to seem like part of a punch line. In other words, the real joke is that a dialogue about members of two different minority groups (without the white majority) sadly seems more likely to occur within the context of vulgar ethnic humor.

So let’s make the title work and address the question I asked earlier, “Why should I, as an Korean-American with no direct background in business, take the remotest interest in a New York Times article about the state of black American corporate executives?” Well, for one thing, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that what has bearing on one minority group has bearing on others as well.

If there is a dearth of black executives in the corporate world, particularly given that blacks are one of our longest standing minority groups in U.S. history, then it stands to reason that other minorities may suffer a similar lack of representation. Of course there are experiences and conditions unique to each ethnic group, but looking at the plight of one minority group can serve as a bellwether for other groups.

But beyond the motive of self-interest by proxy, I believe that regardless of what demographic one belongs to, accepting a state of ignorance about other cultural groups with which we share this country invariably leads to the toxic by-product of bigotry, both overt and covert, both conscious and unconscious.

Can’t See Forest for the Trees

What struck me most about the article was that several of the black executives interviewed expressly stated wanting to be treated on the basis of their performance, whether good or poor, as individuals before the labeling of their black identity (if at all in the case of the latter).

The fact that they even need to provide the disclaimer, almost as if in some reflexive defense mechanism, is symptomatic of the problems that all ethnic minorities face in a dominant white society—the difficulty of seeing the individual before seeing the perceived attributions of the individual’s ethnic group. I discussed this issue in my earlier posting entitled, “Don’t Doubt the Benefit of the Doubt.”

But therein lies the pointed irony, despite claims of our living in a color-blind society, you can’t get to the individual without first properly understanding your own conceptualization of said individual’s identity—a process that is not always so easy to do.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly problematic comments of a few weeks back provide an excellent case example. Several weeks ago, he had made headlines for certain statements he had made on his radio show while recounting his dinner with Reverend Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s, a black-owned restaurant in Harlem.

On his radio show, he was discussing interethnic relations with Fox News analyst Juan Williams, specifically between blacks and whites. He cited his experience at Sylvia’s as a sign of social progress for blacks in America.

In the course of his dialogue with Mr. Williams, Mr. O’Reilly indicated surprise by stating he “couldn’t get over the fact” that there was no difference between black-owned Sylvia’s and other restaurants.

“It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,” he said. “And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

In general, I am not a fan of Mr. O’Reilly’s role in mainstream media (similar to that of his counterparts like Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck) in which he blurs his role as a demagogic pundit with declarations of being the American everyman, or in Mr. O’Reilly’s specific case, sometimes even with protestations of being the maligned “outsider” to mainstream media which he imbues with an overall liberal bias.

My honest belief is that Mr. O’Reilly meant to express relatively progressive views on the topic of interethnic relations, but his comments demonstrated perfectly the kind of bigotry that is in some ways more difficult to guard against or argue against than overt racism, because the initial intention was so well-meaning. He exhibited the classic soft bigotry of low expectations, or to put it more colloquially, he paid a back-handed compliment to Sylvia’s, and by problematic proxy, the black community.

For those who still believe his comments to be innocuous and the rest of us are being too critical or over-reactive, I find that role-reversal sometimes helps to point out the inherent myopia of a given perspective, and the blogger “Black Sentinel” effectively illustrates this in “Restaurant Review Bill O’Reilly Style,” a biting parody in which she as a black customer reviews a fictional white-owned restaurant.

Free Your Mind, The Rest Will Follow

Being a nationally recognized media figure, it’s too easy to pick on Mr. O’Reilly’s foibles to feel better about ourselves in our ostensibly superior social sensitivity, but at least he has engaged and continues to engage members of another ethnic demographic (in this case the black community) in dialogue. We as individuals would do better to carefully examine how we might also embody bigotries hidden even to ourselves that foster through a lack of engagement with worlds beyond our everyday familiarity.

This could entail a Korean-American blogger reading about black corporate executives in the New York Times or a white news pundit sharing a meal with Reverend Al Sharpton in a black-owned restaurant in Harlem—small steps towards greater understanding. The learning curve exists for every single one of us.

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. So what possible bearing could this have on the 18^th Annual Children’s Halloween Parade in Jackson Heights, Queens in 2007?

Because of this new policy which called for Daylight Saving Time to be extended starting in 2007 (clocks will fall back an hour on the first Sunday of November as opposed to the last Sunday of October), parade participants—as a first—were able march under a holiday-appropriate orange-hued sunset.

The act was implemented as a national policy effort to save energy, but for parade participants here, it provided the incidental benefit of having the sun take a little longer to set as the parade followed its westward course through the Jackson Heights neighborhood along 37^th Avenue.

Sponsored by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG), the parade was to be a family-friendly event, and that intention was in full evidence. Toddlers, teens, and everything between marched down 37^th Avenue, punctuated by local schools and marching bands throughout the line. I had caught a glimpse of an Optimus Prime here, a few Spider-Men over there, many princesses, a baby Cookie Monster, and the list goes on.

The wee little ones went in style as their parents pushed them along in wave after wave of strollers. Most parents opted for the plainclothes-chaperon look (as most busy parents probably do on Halloween night), but a few made the extra effort to also wear costumes with their kids. But even parents that didn’t dress up were sometimes stuck with the incongruous appearance of carrying their kids’ costume props, e.g., I spotted one mom in business-casual attire dutifully holding her child’s rather unwieldy (even if only plastic) double-bladed axe as he concentrated on gathering treats for his loot bag.

As the parade progressed, many local merchants kept their doors open in anticipation of annual trick-or-treaters who moved from shop to shop. For Octavio, co-owner of Lety’s Bakery (named after his wife), this is his first Halloween in Jackson Heights, having only opened up his bakery six months ago on 37^th Avenue.

Octavio rarely comes out from the back kitchen, working hard to put out a fresh assortment of Italian pastries for the store’s display cases, but on this Halloween night, he stands in the seating area (although never far from the kitchen) in order to take in all the sights from his storefront window. Two of his staff take customer orders as usual, pulling double-duty by also giving out candy to incoming trick-or-treaters. He apologizes for his limited English but smiles as I ask him what he thinks of the neighborhood. “Jackson Heights is beautiful. Yes.”

Moving further east, I ask the new owner of Monika’s Polish Meat & Deli, whose store is also along the parade path, how much money she had to spend on candy in preparation for trick-or-treaters. She chuckles, “I’m not entirely sure, but at least $40!” According to her, the store has been around for about 10 years, but this is also her first year experiencing the parade.

Back in the parade, a man in a dark fall coat bears a festive orange sash indicating “Parade Marshall” across his shoulder. He enjoys a lollipop (indeed, why should the kids get all the treats?) while waiting at the corner of an intersection for his students to come along the parade route.

Before his students arrive, one child in the parade exclaims (loudly enough even to overwhelm the music of one of the nearby marching bands), “You’re the guy from the church!” Indeed, that “guy” is Dr. Ronald Tompkins, Senior Pastor of the Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights. But this evening, he will be greeting his students as Chair of the Board that supports the 82^nd Street Academics, a local after-school program.

Walking into the middle of the avenue to greet them all, Dr. Tompkins finds himself standing waist-deep in a flow of children who continue along the parade route. His face beams with amiable pride. After the last students walk by, he returns back to the side of the parade to declare, “They’re 100 of the best kids in Jackson Heights.”

Throughout the entire parade event, police officers were at every intersection from 89^th Street to 77^th Street to manage the crowds, maintaining a firm but polite tone towards individual pedestrians who were wandering or dawdling where they shouldn’t be. They set up fairly elaborate barricades in the concluding block of the parade, where volunteers for the JHBG volunteers waited on hand with 3000 plus loot bags (they refer to them as “goodie bags”) to hand out to the children who participated in the parade.

For Richard Mirro, a local resident dressed as Harry Potter’s Professor Severus Snape, he estimates this is 6^th time attending the parade. In comparison to previous years, he says, “The parade has grown quite a bit,” but happily notes that it still retains a local flavor and remains dedicated to the children.

It’s Carl Eden’s 8^th time (he’s sporting a beanie with devilish horns), and even with the conclusion of the parade, his Halloween won’t end until he’s distributed candy to all the trick-or-treaters he expects will come around to his apartment complex later in the evening. For some of his over-eager trick-or-treaters, he posts a sign, “You can come by once, but the second time you might be cursed!”

Putting aside the temptation of going for seconds at the same doorstep, the children of Jackson Heights are fortunate to receive the community support that they do on so many levels, and not just this one day out of the year. And as for the piles of candy the children will have accumulated from this Halloween night, it’s good to know that the Jackson Heights community also has its fair share of dental offices (or scary to know, depending upon how you feel about dentists)! Brush those teeth, kids.

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Considering that the evening we now celebrate as Halloween evolved through various cultures–finding its roots in Celtic traditions that go back as far as 2,000 years ago, which in turn were influenced by Roman and Christian civilizations in succession; then, specific to its celebration in the United States, by various European immigrant and Native American cultures–it seems fitting that the neighborhood of Jackson Heights, itself a result of contributions from numerous cultural groups, would host an annual Halloween parade.

The 18^th Annual Children’s Halloween Parade is scheduled for Wednesday, October 31^st to begin at 5:00 PM. The parade will start at 37th Avenue and 89th Street and proceed onto 77th Street where more than 3,000 “goodie bags” (prepared by volunteers from the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and P.S. 69 Parents Association) and will be given out to all the kids. Not a bad way for our young trick-or-treaters to get a head start on their Halloween swag.

Although the Children’s Halloween Parade might not necessarily compete with the urban chic and stylized ostentation of its Manhattan counterpart (the New York Village Halloween Parade), its overriding virtue lies within in its namesake. The parade is a family friendly event meant for children, and it maintains the intimacy of local flavor that can’t be beat. In fact, one could argue the use of the term “Village Halloween Parade” might be more accurately applied to Jackson Heights than to Manhattan, in terms of scope and feel.

Still, the parade features its own notable attendees (aside from, of course, all the enthusiastic kids dressed in adorable costumes). Elected officials expected to make an appearance, to name a few, are Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, State Senator John D. Sabini, and NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson. They will likely come dressed as…well, politicians. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had made an appearance last year, although the latest update indicates that he will not be able to make an appearance this year.

Various local community representatives will be in attendance, including Queens Community Board Chairman Vasantrai Ghandi and Manager Giovanna Reid, Ms Maureen Allen of the Kiwanis Club of Jackson Heights, Ms. Allen from the Kiwanis Club of Jackson Heights, Mr. Bryan Pu-Folkes from the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), Ms. Donna Raymond from North Queens Homeowners Civic Association (NQHA), and Mr. Ralph Moreno from the Jackson Heights Action Group.

The marching band from P.S. 69 “Magnet School of Cultural and Performing Arts” will take the lead position. The “Flying Puppets” of I.S. 230 will take the middle position while Joseph Pulitzer I.S. 145 “There’s Only One Race, The Human Race” will conclude the parade line. Local area schools will also participate in the march, including Renaissance Charter School, Garden School, P.S. 212 “Magnet School for Cyber Science & Literacy,” P.S. 228 “The Early Childhood Magnet School of the Arts,” and 82^nd Street Academics.

The parade is made possible through the volunteer organizational efforts of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group (JHBG), specifically the JHBG Halloween Parade Committee headed by Ed Westley. Their leading financial sponsor for the event is Citibank. Met Foods on 37^th Avenue provides fruit drinks for the 3,000 plus “goodie bags” distributed to the kids at the end of the parade. The Coca Cola Bottling Company supplies beverages for all the parade volunteers.

I asked Josh Weiss, vice president of the JHBG, for any advice he might have for anyone wishing to attend the upcoming event. He strongly advised against anyone driving in the area on the night of the parade, particularly since 37^th Avenue will be closed off to accommodate the route of the parade.

He further advised that “standard common-sense safety precautions” should be taken: parents and caregivers should keep an eye on their children. A sensible stance in any public area with substantial crowds. However, emphasizing that this was a family-friendly event centered on the children, Mr. Weiss added, “The police presence is quite pronounced, so this should be a nice safe night for families to enjoy together.”

So with all the details taken care of, it seems all that’s left for the residents to do is carve the pumpkins, ready the digital cameras, stock up on unseemly gobs of treats, and hope for favorable weather.

I myself will be out and about on the night of the parade, taking in the sights and sounds in order to write up a post-event blog to follow the parade, doing my best to channel the spirit of Jackson Heights on Halloween night. I’m planning to dress up as a…umm…blogger. Trick or treat!

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