Minami Tamaki LLP Senior Counsel Dale Minami appeared on a recent episode of Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast, a program hosted by retired pastor Dr. Ken Fong. Dale recounted the background and details of some key moments in his life and his efforts as part of the legal team representing Fred Korematsu.
Dale also spoke with Dr. Fong about the precarious moment we’re in with anti-democratic forces “allied with white supremacists, and the [right-wing] Supreme Court, and the lack of protections for civil rights” … threatening “us as minorities as people of color on the streets every day.” “… Maybe I read too much, maybe I watch the news too much, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t know that this country is on the edge of a disaster.” Listen to the episode here.
On May 21, Dale visited the Minnesota Historical Society, to give a presentation in conjunction with the ongoing traveling exhibition “Right a Wrong,” developed by the National Museum of American History and adapted for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Dale recounted how a fraud on the United States Supreme Court resulted in upholding of the conviction of Fred Korematsu and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II at a lecture titled “Echoes of History: The Japanese American Imprisonment Resounds Today.”
“No History, No Self: The Fight for Asian-American Studies at Hunter College” is a new documentary released on May 20 that includes an interview with Dale. For the past 15 years, students and faculty at CUNY’s Hunter College have protested for an institutionalized Asian American Studies Program. This documentary serves to remind CUNY of its imperative responsibility to pursue an Asian Studies Program to combat ongoing racialized violence.
I think it’s important to “humanize people and show that their history is not that different than other minority groups, people of color,” says Dale in the film. “That would help at least mollify some of the criticisms about Asian Americas being the model minority, which is one of the worst constructs ever promoted to divide us with other minority groups, other people of color.”
In March, Dale was the featured speaker on a program hosted by the Asian American Federal Employees for Nondiscrimination (AAFEN), an advocacy group that seeks fair and equal treatment and inclusive representation of Asian Americans in the federal government. Dale’s talk was “Asian Americans and Loyalty: What Can We Learn from the Japanese American Incarceration Experience?”
AAFEN co-founder Aryani Ong hosted the program, with opening remarks by White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders Deputy Director Rebecca Lee.