Aired April 20, 2007

Northeast Ohio plays host to a gathering of Chinese-American leaders this weekend. They'll be meeting in Cleveland to discuss matters of social justice at a time when the color of your skin and the nature of your accent are still barriers that can be hard to climb. ideastream's David C. Barnett has more.

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• Organization of Chinese Americans
• Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Cleveland

Johnny Wu wants people to get over his accent. Johnny Wu prepares for the Cleveland meeting of the Organization of Chinese Americans. Johnny Wu edits his latest film.

Johnny Wu had a tough sales job when he tried to convince the Organization of Chinese Americans to hold their annual Board meeting in Cleveland.

Johnny Wu: The first thing that the board members said was 'Where is Cleveland?' And then, one person brought up, 'Isn't that the place that had the fire on the lake thing?'

Of course, it was the river, not the Lake, that caught on fire in 1969, and that image still haunts the city's national reputation. As a filmmaker, Wu knows the power of images. As president of the Greater Cleveland chapter of the Chinese American group, it was a challenge to overcome that negative perception. But, he pulled it off, and for the past week he's been submerged in planning for the arrival of chapter presidents from across the nation.

Johnny Wu: We are looking for the benefit and embracing the Asian culture of the13 million Asian-Americans in the U.S.

The Washington-based Organization of Chinese Americans was started back in 1973. President Ginny Gong says the group has grown steadily ever since.

Ginny Gong: In fact, we're an organization of over 80 chapters and affiliates, across the country.

And the OCA has expanded to represent the interests of all Asian Pacific nationalities, including Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai, among others. Ginny Gong says a key agenda item at this weekend meeting will be a call for comprehensive immigration reform. She explains that many Asian-Americans are struggling with technical restrictions on their residency that can leave other family members in limbo between two countries for years.

Ginny Gong: These are applicants who are still in Asia, waiting to come to this country, so that they can meet up with the rest of their family. That's our first priority - keeping families together.

For Cleveland-based engineer Ray Chan, the logic of embracing immigrants follows simple business sense.

Ray Chan: I don't believe in just one culture, or one party, or those kinds of things. I believe in good competition.

But, Chan realizes that what he sees as "good competition," might be perceived as an economic threat to others. And Ginny Gong says, that fuels the fire of discrimination.

Ginny Gong: We really have a double-tier problem. Like African Americans, we're visibly different. But, we also have names that are different. And so, if someone were to see our names, immediately they would have a perception about who we are, and what we might be like.

Consider this past week, and the event that plastered an Asian name and face across newspapers and TV reports. 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui took his own life after shooting dozens of students on the campus of Virginia Tech University, this past Monday. Ray Chan also went to school at Virginia Tech. Chan would like to think that people will look deeper than the skin color of the young Korean man on their TV screens.

Ray Chan: Of course, I have a concern about that. I don't think that people look at him as Asian. I think they look at him as one of the young people which for some reason has a mental problem. It can happen to any other race.

Johnny Wu: People have a lot of stereotypes. Like, because you have an accent, people feel like you're not from here.

Johnny Wu says people are often surprised to learn he is from here. As a native Clevelander, he's working to change the perceptions that some have of Chinese-Americans. As president of the local Organization of Chinese Americans, he's also doing his small part to boost the national image of his home town - now that he's put out that fire on the Lake. David C. Barnett, 90.3.