u/dudeman_01

TLDR: "Preferences" now translated into blatant racially-motivated self-selecting and discriminatory behavior. Not this nonsense again. See the article attached.

Mysterious platform ‘WMAF Meet’ uses AI to facilitate SF’s ‘most in-demand pairing’

By Eddie Kim

2:34 PM PDT on August 17, 2026

Are you a “Western” man looking for your perfect Asian girlfriend?

A new invite-only dating platform is offering to help in that search, using AI to find compatible matches and help create “families that start here, and friendships that last a lifetime.”

The site is called WMAF Meet. The acronym usually refers to a “white male, Asian female” coupling; the use of “Western” by the site is a deviation from the norm online. 

It is unclear if only white men qualify as “Western” for the website, but it suggests that it is a place intended for people searching for the “the most common pairing in this city.” 

WMAF Meet is currently in a pre-launch stage, with no set date for a full unveil, according to the site. The site does not name any founders or operators, but a lookup of the website’s domain name found it was registered on May 19. 

So far, there are allegedly 2,431 applicants in a “Cohort 1” waitlist of up 8,888. (Intentionally or not, the number 8 is a lucky number in many East Asian cultures.) 

You have to pay to access the service, but the cost is hidden until after sign-up. The first cohort of applicants will get a “reduced rate,” according to the site. In order to join, applicants have to verify their identity and submit a short written application. (This reporter did not get an application invite by press time.) No other gender identity besides “male” and “female” are offered in the sign-up process.

WMAF Meet insists that the entries are initially reviewed by humans to allow only “good-faith” applicants and weed out “fetishistic applicants”; the site does not go in-depth on what kind of review or criteria is used for this selection process. 

Then, the applications are reviewed by AI. “Our matching model analyzes applications for compatibility, intent, and lifestyle fit — surfacing matches that a swipe would never reveal,” the site states. 

The site also acknowledges the risk of racial stereotyping, but its makers claim WMAF Meet actually helps prevent that. 

“The pairing is already one of the most common in the city. Naming it plainly and screening for intent is how people get met as individuals rather than as a type,” the site states. 

San Francisco is a hotbed of interracial relationships, but the white male-Asian female pairing is a very visible and joked-about trope in the Bay Area dating scene. A Pew survey in 2017 found that 26 percent of respondents in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area were intermarried, 10 percentage points more than the national average. In the Bay Area, significantly more white people in the survey were married to non-white partners — 22 percent versus 10 percent of white people in the national average. 

The WMAF pairing has also been the subject of an online culture war that has often dipped into prejudice and misogyny. The phrase “Oxford Study” went viral in 2024, born from social media comments that wrongly suggest that the phenomenon of Asian women being attracted to white men has some scientific backing, or otherwise needs to be studied. The viral moment stirred up discourse that criticized fetishes, systemic racism, and the historical emasculation of Asian men in America. However, the debate also devolved into blame from men’s rights-focused Asian men on platforms like Reddit and TikTok, who shared anecdotes of being rejected romantically by Asian women who prefer white men. 

The complicated intersection of race, sex, and romance is why Jennifer Noble, a Los Angeles-based psychologist who specializes in interracial relationships and mixed-race families, told Gazetteer that she has some serious concerns about the framework of WMAF Meet. 

The limitations on who can join and the hyperfocus on one racial and gender configuration can lead to problems like fetishization and exploitative behavior, Noble said. She pointed to a history of white America sexualizing Asian women as exotic, submissive beings, and acknowledged that some communities of color “glorify” a relationship with a white man as a sign of upward mobility and assimilation, Noble said. 

“I think being drawn to something is different than a conscious intentional preference, and I don’t know that everyone can distinguish the two. The thing that worries me most, from my expertise, is the children that come from these partnerships,” Noble said, adding that people who select a partner based on race can still believe in racist tropes and incite conflicts about identity in the family. 

This isn’t to say that interracial relationships always have problems, Noble stressed, but rather that the context and risks in these relationships are worth knowing. Many WMAF pairings are fulfilling and positive, she said, with a caveat: “I feel like those relationships grow more organically than it would for someone who purposely goes on a site to look for a race.” 

WMAF Meet did not respond to Gazetteer’s questions — about their operations, how human employees weed out “fetishistic applicants,” how AI is used in matchmaking, the future cost of joining the site, and who the founders are — by press time. We will update the story if we receive a reply.

I want to preface this by saying this is absolutely not a troll post. It happened, and I'm genuinely conflicted. Please read through the post before reacting or voting.

I was recently at a community/political event where one of the speakers was introducing herself and talking about her background and family.

At one point, she mentioned that she and her husband come from different ethnic backgrounds and then said that the combination “makes for beautiful children.” For context, she is seeking local elected office and is Asian descent, and her husband is northern European of Scandinavian origin because she explained the origin of her married name. She is in her late 50's/early 60's.

People laughed, she moved on, and there wasn't any confrontation. It was basically one awkward sentence in a much longer introduction at the beginning. But the comment has stuck with me since it was out of place and the city's is roughly 70,000 residents also, and also overwhelming at least 70% Asian per the federal census.

Even if I assume the most charitable interpretation - that she loves her husband and kids, thinks her kids are beautiful, and was making a harmless joke about her family.

At the same time, at campaign event of well over 60 people and in a public setting, something about explicitly connecting the racial/ethnic combination of the parents to how attractive their children are rubbed me the wrong way. There are already complicated cultural conversations about mixed-race children, colorism, White/Caucasian/Eurocentric beauty standards, and documented Waisan social events blocking others from social participation, treating particular interracial combinations as especially desirable and has generated considerable criticisms.

I also wondered whether I'm reading way too much into an awkward joke that everyone else apparently forgot five seconds later or pretended she didn't say it. So I'm curious how people who aren't involved in the local politics hear it.

AITA for thinking “our ethnic combination makes for beautiful children” is a tone-deaf thing for a public-facing community figure to say, even if she was obviously talking affectionately about her own family?

Would you have thought anything of the comment if you'd heard it in the room, or would you have just laughed and moved on?

Given the public nature of the comment, even though it was done in a legislative meeting, I am considering filing a complaint with the city.

Thoughts?

TLDR: Support a local high school graduate in her quest to compete for a $10,000 scholarship.

Duck Brand Voting Process is open here ⬇️ https://www.duckbrand.com/stuck-at-prom/vote/dress

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By Ebunoluwa Ogunrinola

KTVU FOX 2

Published July 2, 2026 5:12 PM PDT

The Brief

- Sophie Chai, 17, of Union City created a prom dress out of duct tape and is a finalist for "Best Dress" in the Duck Tape Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest.

- With nine other finalists out of 160 entries, they are competing and collecting votes for a $10,000 scholarship.

- Her dress took about 35 rolls of purchased duct tape and more than 250 hours of work over a five-month period.

UNION CITY, Calif. - Sophie Chai, 17, of Union City didn't wear the usual prom attire this time around. The rising San Jose State freshman ditched the sequins, sparkles and satin and instead picked up rolls of duct tape to create her gown.

Her viral dress has made her one of five in the "Duck Tape Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest: Best Dress" category.

The prize? A $10,000 scholarship.

"My dress was inspired by my experience growing up as a girl and struggling with beauty standards and expectations of femininity," Chai said.

Sophie Chai's viral dress

What we know:

Chai was searching for scholarships to apply to back in January, and she discovered this creative and unique opportunity from Duck Brand.

"I immediately told my mom, I was like, 'I'm gonna apply to this scholarship, let's go to Michael's and buy some duct tape,' my mom was like, okay!" she said. That's where this dress journey started.

From sketching, to building, to photographing her project, Chai created a strawberry shortcake-inspired prom dress.

She made a metal wire petticoat to make the shape of the dress, and covered huge sheets of fabric that had pink and white duct tape stuck to them to lay on top of the petticoat.

"I shaped many bows, and I had to make the icing one by one, and I also made like a duct tape core set for the dress, and I attached that onto my dress as well," Chai explained.

She said to complete the outfit she also made a headband, heels and a fork.

Her dress took 35 rolls of duct tape and more than 250 hours of work over a five-month period. The inspiration behind the dress stemmed from her growing up as a girl and struggling with beauty standards and the expectations of femininity.

"I chose the strawberry cake theme because I was trying to represent the pressure that many girls feel to fit into society's expectation for a woman to be pretty, polished and decorated like a strawberry cake," she said. "I also created the fork to represent how consuming those expectations may feel to girls, like they feel like, oh, I have to be pretty, I have to dress a certain way or look a certain way in order to feel feminine enough."

Chai has received significant social media attention, amassing more than 139,000 likes on TikTok and 40,000 on Instagram. She feels flattered and proud to see that people are excited about what she created, especially from her parents,

"I just feel so nice reading all the comments on social media and seeing all the support that I've got for my dress. And my parents are really proud of me as well," Chai said. "They're like, ‘oh my gosh, I told my co-workers to vote for you today. My boss said that your dress is really cool!’"

It wasn't easy, however, as she faced the challenge of transporting the dress to her photography session.

"It wouldn't fit out of my door, so I had to, like, I had to kind of deconstruct it, and then ship it out, and then put it on my dad's van and then to transport it to the park." she explained.

California has two of the ten finalists out of the 160 entries that were considered.

The other finalists this year are students from Texas, Washington, Idaho, Alabama, Michigan. Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Chai graduated from James Logan High School in May. As a Bay Area student, she’s proud to represent the community in this national competition.

"And as I grew up, I realized that femininity can be something I define for myself, and I can feel girly without trying to fit into this mold," she said.

Duct tape prom attire

Dig deeper:

The contest, now more than 20 years old, asks participants to create and wear original prom attire made out of Duck Brand duct tape or crafting tape that they have to buy themselves. The design is completely up to their own imagination.

The "best dress and tux" categories have a prize of a $10,000 scholarship, and the four runners-up in both categories will receive a $1,000 scholarship and a branded prize bundle.

There's also special category awards given to three of the remaining eight runner-ups in the shape of a $1,000 scholarship.

Lastly, the four top scoring entries based on the most patriotic, based on certain criteria, will be awarded a $250 prize.

The company encourages competitors to reach out using social media, news, and community connections to get attention in the hope of getting more votes.

Voting open

What you can do:

People are available to vote on the Duck Brand website after registering with their email until July 13.

The winners will be announced on or around July 20.

"I created this outfit to try to represent that pressure that I would feel growing up as a girl, and that fork would represent how, how that felt to me, and I just wanted to represent that," she said.

TLDR: Current Building Inspection Commissioner Judy Lee submits formal sexual harassment complaint against her employer SF Chinese Chamber of Commerce. CoC President Donald Luu steps down. Secret workplace recordings is pretty crazy work if true.

https://www.sf.gov/judy-lee

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A sexual harassment allegation and lawsuits spur controversy at the century-old San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

By Max Harrison-Caldwell and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

Published Jun. 30, 2026 at 5:11pm

An allegation of sexual harassment at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce has spurred multiple lawsuits and driven board president Donald Luu to resign. 

Judy Lee, the chamber’s program director and a member of the city’s Building Inspection Commission, has “filed a formal complaint” alleging harassment and retaliation, according to a statement from her lawyer, Kathleen Alparce. 

“Ms. Lee voiced her complaints numerous times directly to the Chinese Chamber before taking this step, yet the organization’s leadership took no action to stop the abuse,” Alparce said. “Instead, Ms. Lee was forced to endure years of unwelcome advances and retaliatory behavior, as well as the Chinese Chamber’s refusal to properly investigate or remediate the misconduct.”

Alparce confirmed that Lee has not filed a lawsuit “at this time.”

The public accusation of misconduct comes after Luu announced earlier this month that he was stepping down as president of the chamber. He remains an active board member. 

Luu, 57, said he resigned to “focus on my family and not allow an employee’s false allegations against me to distract from the essential work of the Chamber.” Luu filed a defamation lawsuit against Lee in early June.

Meanwhile, three employees of the organization — Lainar Chan, Mavis Ngo, and Christine Hui — on June 5 filed a lawsuit against the chamber alleging negligence and invasion of privacy.

The plaintiffs allege that Lee installed a covert recording device in the chamber’s office. When they brought it to their employer’s attention, the chamber failed to investigate, according to the complaint.

Multiple sources suspect Lee was using the device to collect evidence of her alleged harassment.

The lawsuit alleges the chamber “negligently allowed Judy Lee to continue approaching Plaintiffs to request internal organizational information” after they reported the device April 25.

Chamber board member Robert Chiang confirmed he has been named as acting president and said a third party has been engaged to investigate the claims

Luu was elected president of the chamber — a nearly century-old organization that hosts the annual Chinese New Year Parade — in 2022. He was a protégé of Rose Pak, the legendary Chinatown power broker who died in 2016.

The chamber has been embroiled in controversy before. Two former board members, Walter Wong and Florence Kong, were ensnared in a high-profile City Hall bribery investigation in 2020. Both pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

When he was first elected in 2022, Luu was asked about that scandal and his role in moving the organization forward.

“People make mistakes,” he told The Standard at the time. “They make wrong decisions. The chamber will move on from this.”

TLDR: The Matea Esperanza murder case from 2009 reached a resolution today as the mother and killer was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

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Mom sentenced to 6 years for killing newborn, leaving body in Union City dumpster

By KTVU Staff

KTVU FOX 2

Published June 30, 2026 5:47 PM PDT

UNION CITY, Calif. - A mother was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting she killed her newborn daughter and dumped the baby's body in a trash bin outside a Union City apartment complex, according to prosecutors.

Angela Beth Onduto, 47, pleaded no contest in April to voluntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of the infant, who was originally identified as Baby Jane Doe. Police later gave the child the name Matea Esperanza.

Onduto was sentenced this week.

Prosecutors said Onduto drowned the newborn in a bathtub before placing her body in a dumpster at the Parkside Apartments on Decoto Road.

The baby's body was discovered May 18, 2009, by a man searching through the dumpster for recyclables.

An autopsy determined the infant died by drowning and had been in the dumpster for less than 24 hours, authorities said.

DNA technology breaks cold case

What we know:

The case remained unsolved for 16 years until investigators used advanced DNA testing to identify the child's parents last year.

Authorities identified the mother as Onduto, who had been living in Colorado. She was arrested in Denver in May 2025 on what would have been Matea's 16th birthday.

The East Bay Times reported Onduto was working as a physical therapist assistant in Colorado at the time of her arrest.

Defense cited alcohol use, divorce

What they're saying:

According to the East Bay Times, Onduto's attorneys said in a court filing that she had been drinking heavily in 2009 following a divorce while also coping with an unexpected pregnancy.

The filing said Onduto went into labor alone at her apartment, gave birth in the bathroom and drowned the baby shortly after delivery before placing the infant's body in a dumpster outside the apartment complex.

Subject line says it all. Power is out as of 12:45am. Be safe! 🔌💡

TLDR: Article basically confirms the core problem - Las Palmas is officially classified by the City as a community park serving a broader population, yet a small but organized group of adjacent NIMBY Karen residents (some Las Palmas residents even currently serve on the City's various commissions) is trying to frame it as their private neighborhood greenbelt by fast-tracking their complaints and pressuring Councilmember Linda Sell (who is running for reelection) and Mayor Larry Klein (in his last term) in a privately-organized meeting without, once again, gathering input from the larger community the park serves.

That is precisely the problem, and with Sell and Klein agreeing to meet on April 25, the discussion continues to occur off record. Meanwhile, the same article acknowledges that the park already draws regional volleyball, soccer, softball, cricket, tennis, and picnic use today.

By upgrading the residents' status to allow them to cherrypick what amenities go into Las Palmas, the City's current behavior is tantamont to allowing de facto privatization of the park. This is unacceptable.

The design consultants, RRM Design Group, should also lose their contract with the City. Those two guys that led the three Community Outreach were clearly not knowledgeable with the City policy, contractual structures, and basically drew a bunch of random stuff and passed off as quality work. They are doing the City and the community a huge disservice, and their contract should be terminated.

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by Maryanne Casas-Perez

May 7, 2026

Sunnyvale residents and people from nearby cities gather at Las Palmas Park to play volleyball and other sports every week. The city is looking to redesign the park to allow for more uses.

Residents near Las Palmas Park in Sunnyvale are pushing back against proposed renovations they say could limit access to the open space they use daily.

The city is exploring whether to redesign the 24.3-acre park to include a multi-use sports field, potential fencing and lighting upgrades. Residents who oppose the changes said fencing the space would restrict access and change the character of the park. City leaders are expected to discuss the plan at the May 20 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting and conduct community outreach before a proposal goes to the City Council for consideration.

“There’s misinformation in the community that this is a dedicated cricket field. It’s not. It’s a multi-use field,” Mayor Larry Klein told San José Spotlight. “Right now there’s a baseball diamond there, and what we’re trying to do is create more active, open space so it can be used for soccer, volleyball, softball and cricket. We’re trying to maximize the amount of usable space within the park.”

The project doesn’t have a finalized construction budget, according to a city staff report, as officials are still developing cost estimates for multiple design options. The city has approved about $1.1 million for the design and planning work so far.

While nearby residents see Las Palmas Park as a neighborhood gathering space, the city classifies it as a community park intended to serve a broader population with multi-use amenities.

The city is considering three redesign options for the park, including plans to create pickleball or tennis courts and reconfigure existing features, such as the pond and walking paths. Some proposals also include fencing around the sports field and adding lighting for extended use in the evening.

Angie Hinson, who leads the Las Palmas Park Green and Serene group along with Protect Las Palmas Park, said the space already supports a wide range of activities without restrictions. Residents have organized around the issue, with about 300 people attending a recent gathering at the park where Klein and District 1 Councilmember Linda Sell spoke to residents who raised concerns about input from people outside the immediate neighborhood.

“This park is used by everyone for volleyball, soccer, cricket and picnics — all at the same time,” Hinson told San José Spotlight. “It works because there’s no fencing. Once you add barriers, you change how people use the space.”

Resident Megan Dunn, who visits the park with her child, said she understands the need for more sports space, but worries about how the changes could affect everyday use.

“I’m torn, I know there aren’t many cricket fields, but we love walking across the grass with a stroller, and the park would feel really different if that changed,” Dunn told San José Spotlight.

Other residents said the proposed changes could significantly limit how many people can use the space at once, shifting the park from an open, shared area to one that could possibly be restricted to one activity at a time if fenced in.

“I don’t like it — it doesn’t appeal to enough people in the community,” Russ Gatsby told San José Spotlight. “The ball field’s been underused, but there are still kids playing softball there. I’d rather see something like a basketball complex that gives more kids an opportunity to play.”

The proposal stems in part from a 2024 city-commissioned outdoor sports assessment, which identified growing demand for sports such as cricket, pickleball and tennis and recommended exploring a cricket field at Las Palmas Park.

Some residents said the upgrades could help meet that demand. Biju Nair, a Sunnyvale resident involved in youth cricket programs, said players often have to travel outside the city to find proper facilities.

“There is a significant and growing youth participation in cricket across the city, but players often have to travel to Fremont, Pleasanton or even Sacramento to access proper facilities,” Nair told San José Spotlight.

City officials said no final decisions have been made and additional community outreach is planned.

“Right now, the city is in the outreach phase — this is the perfect time for residents to be involved and engaged,” Sell told San José Spotlight, speaking in her individual capacity. “Some people think decisions have already been made, but we’re still gathering input and trying to figure out what’s best for the whole community.”

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at maryanne@sanjosespotlight.com or @CasasPerezRed on X.

Vibe Check: If you followed all five previous meetings, how are you feeling about this process now that we're at the end? 🧐

Link below:

https://fremontca.viebit.com/livestream?hash=620ebd58-70c0-4a45-a624-456e63c23289

City of Fremont

Charter Advisory Committee Special Meeting

April 27, 2026 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

City Council Chambers

3300 Capitol Avenue, Building A, Fremont, CA

Agenda Charter

Advisory Committee Members:

Dharminder Dewan

Brad Hatton

Rick Jones

Sue Kwong

Kim Marshall

Sathya Sankaran

Ben Yee

1. Call to Order

2. Salute to the Flag

3. Roll Call

4. Approval of Meeting Minutes

5. Review the Charter Advisory Committee’s Charter Work Plan Recommendations

a. Summary of the Charter Advisory Committee’s Recommendations

b. Public Comment

c. Deliberations and Approval of the Charter Advisory Committee’s Recommendations

6. Adjournment