A Georgia man who scammed hotel rooms and luxury limos by claiming to be with the Wu-Tang Clan has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Walker Washington, 53, was sentenced by a federal judge Thursday, and in addition to the 100 months, he was ordered to pay almost $299,900 in restitution, according to court documents.
The scheme by Washington and Aaron Barnes-Burpo, 29, went on for at least two months in 2019.
During that time, the men falsely said they were affiliated with Roc Nation and the Wu-Tang Clan, the famed rap group known for many hits including "C.R.E.A.M.," and " Protect Ya Neck," prosecutors said.
They also used stolen credit card information to book hotels and rent limos, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said.
“These two flim-flam artists and their phony entourage lived large for several weeks by scamming hospitality providers,” Acting U.S. Attorney David H. Estes said in a statement.
"We commend the skeptical hotel clerk who saw through the scam and alerted law enforcement, bringing this scheme to a halt," he said.
The scheme was foiled after an attempted Nov. 21 booking at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Augusta with a request for 10 rooms, according to a criminal complaint. The guest information was given as "Rocnation/WuTangClan".
The staff thought it was a scam, and it was. The FBI was contacted, and Roc Nation confirmed the group was not affiliated and said the company had received calls from other hotels, the complaint says.
Some hotels said they lost up to $40,000. A limo company hired for two vehicles, including a Phantom Rolls Royce, was out more than $59,000, according to the criminal complaint.
Washington and Barnes-Burpo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October. Barnes-Burpo was sentenced to seven years in prison in March.
An attorney listed as representing Washington did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
Washington told an FBI agent in February 2020 that he was essentially homeless and he planned the scheme with Barnes-Burpo while he was in jail, according to the criminal complaint.
"He said when he got out, they got started and it just got out of hand," the FBI agent wrote in the document.
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More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law that designated May 1990 as the first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, much of Asian American history remains unknown to many Americans—including many Asian Americans themselves.
To many, the resulting lack of awareness was highlighted after the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings that left six women of Asian descent dead. The killings fit into a larger trend of violence against Asians failing to be seen or charged as a hate crime, even as leaders lamented that “racist attacks [are]…not who we are” as Americans. But in fact, while the shootings represented the peak of more than a year of increased reports of anti-Asian harassment and discrimination, the tragedy was also part of a more than 150-year-old history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.
“Students can go through their whole educational life, not hearing a single fact or historical reference to Asians in America. We need to teach how Asian Americans experience life and race in America, and how Asian Americans have stood up not just for other Asians, but for all Americans to fight against racism,” Helen Zia, a Chinese American activist and former journalist, tells TIME. “This kind of learning is essential for all of us to see the humanity of each other.”
To help fill the knowledge gap, TIME asked historians and experts on Asian American history nationwide to pick one milestone from this history that they believe should be taught in K-12 schools, and to explain how it provides context for where America is today. Here are the moments they chose.
1765: The first Filipino Americans settle in Louisiana
As early as the year 1765 and through the 1800s, Filipino sailors, known as “Manilamen,” who worked as crew or indentured servants aboard Spanish galleons, jumped ship in the Gulf of Mexico and established the first Filipino American communities in what is now known as the continental United States of America. According to historian Marina Espina, author of Filipinos in Louisiana, by the 1880s, the Manilamen set up eight villages in the bayous of Louisiana. The Manilamen fought alongside the U.S. in the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, built houses on stilts similar to the nipa huts of the Philippines, became fishermen who caught and “danced the shrimp” on drying platforms, established ethnic organizations, and intermarried with local Cajun and Creole families, now spanning eight to ten generations of Filipino Americans.
1854: People v. Hall determines that Chinese people cannot testify against white defendants
With hate crimes against Asian Americans skyrocketing during the pandemic, many choose the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act as a historic marker for how they are treated in the U.S. Rather, it is the notorious 1854 California Supreme Court case of People v Hall. George Hall had been convicted of murder through the testimony of three Chinese eyewitnesses. On appeal, the court disqualified the testimony. California banned specific groups (“Negros, blacks, Indians, and mullatoes”) from testifying against whites, but “Chinese” was not included. This judge became legislator by interpreting, through his convoluted logic, that the Chinese were “Indian” and/or “Black.” The opinion spewed vile racism citing the eminent threat that if Chinese people can testify against whites, they would become full equal citizens. This marks the beginning of how discrimination against Asians became the norm.
Hall got away with murder.
—Andrew Leong, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Legal Studies, Latinx and Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston
Feb. 19, 1862: President Lincoln makes California’s ‘coolie trade’ ban national
The federal “Act to prohibit the ‘Coolie Trade’ by American Citizens in American Vessels” put the exclusion of Chinese immigrants at the center of debates about race, slavery, immigration and freedom at the close of the Civil War. The so-called “coolie trade” began in the 19th century and became a global system by the 1830s to circulate indentured Asian workers to plantations that enslaved Black Africans had previously labored upon. Coolies were thought of as suitable replacements to enslaved labor as the Atlantic slave trade was being dismantled. While the indenture system claimed the legitimacy of consent through a labor contract, these formalities concealed the brutal and deadly nature of trafficking workers to dangerous sites like the guano islands of Peru or exploitation in Cuba’s sugar cane plantations. The same reckless and cruel disregard for human life that characterized the Atlantic slave trade was also common in the Pacific coolie trade.
Because of this practice, racist perceptions of Asian immigration were fused with the notion of cheap, foreign, disposable labor. President Lincoln’s passage of the anti-coolie legislation codified this racist idea about Asians, even as it condemned any form of unfree labor, as would be declared in the Emancipation Proclamation in the following year.
—Jason Chang, Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut and author of Asian America: A Primary Source Reader.
March 28, 1898: The Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship in United States vs. Wong Kim Ark
Portrait of Wong Kim Ark, 1904.
Getty Images
Wong Kim Ark is a Chinese American born in San Francisco to Chinese parents in 1873. When he returns from a visit to China in 1895, immigration authorities deny his re-entry, citing Chinese exclusion laws that barred Asians from both immigration and U.S. citizenship. Wong, however, asserted his right as a U.S. citizen to be permitted back into his country. Birthright citizenship is a product of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that’s passed right after the Civil War. Originally, birthright citizenship was meant to benefit persons of African descent, and formerly enslaved African Americans in particular. But the question is whether that principle applies to all people regardless of race—and the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court. In a landmark decision in 1898, the court rules that Wong acquired citizenship at birth and therefore should be allowed entry into the U.S., since the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act doesn’t apply to him. With the Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court upholds the principle of birthright citizenship and affirms the universality of American national identity—the idea that anyone born on U.S. soil can be American regardless of race. For Asian Americans this is particularly important because it allowed for US-born Asian Americans—the children and grandchildren of immigrants—to have U.S. citizenship during a time when foreign-born Asians were barred from naturalization on racial grounds. This would not change until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 abolished racial restrictions on U.S. citizenship once and for all.
—Jane Hong, Associate Professor of History at Occidental College and author of Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion
1905-1906: Chinese businesspeople boycott American goods
In 1905, businesspeople in Shanghai and Guangzhou organized a boycott of U.S. products. At the time, the racist Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States, but American immigration officials often turned back even those Chinese whom the law allowed in: merchants, students and diplomats. Inspired by growing Chinese nationalism, the boycott sought to change this frustrating situation.
The boycott did prompt some improvements in the treatment of Chinese immigrants but eventually fizzled in 1906. By then, however, it had inspired a wide range of young Chinese American citizens, who saw in the movement an empowering response to the racism and discrimination they faced in almost every aspect of their lives. Many now began to consider traveling to China to contribute to its future, and hundreds even enrolled in universities for advanced training in fields they saw as crucial to China’s modernization. By the 1930s, close to half of all second-generation Chinese Americans had moved to China—though most eventually returned to the United States because of World War II.
—Charlotte Brooks, author of American Exodus: Second-Generation Chinese Americans in China, 1901–1949 and professor of history at Baruch College, CUNY.
Sept. 4, 1907: The Bellingham Riots
Spurred on by the inflammatory rhetoric of the nativist Asiatic Exclusion League, hundreds of white workers swept through the coastal town of Bellingham, Wash., at night, looking for Indian immigrants. The Indians, who were laborers in Bellingham’s lumber mills, were predominantly Sikh men from Punjab. The rioters pulled Indian workers out of their bunks, set their bunkhouses on fire, stole their possessions and beat them. Some Sikh men were beaten so badly they had to be hospitalized. Local police rounded up groups of Indians as they escaped the violence, placing them in Bellingham’s City Hall and jail. The next day, the entire population of Indian immigrant lumber workers left for their own safety, walking northward across the border into Canada. This is the first known incidence of large-scale, organized anti-South Asian violence in the United States, and was part of a wave of attacks against Asian immigrants that occurred up and down the U.S. and Canadian West Coast in the early part of the 20th century. The Asiatic Exclusion League and other allied organizations, politicians and labor leaders ultimately succeeded in convincing Congress to pass the 1917 Immigration Act, banning the entry of labor migrants from Asia.
—Vivek Bald, historian and filmmaker; author of Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America
1913: California passes the Alien Land Act
In spring 1913, the California state assembly passed a bill that prohibited “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning agricultural land and limited their lease term to three years. Although this racial category—“aliens ineligible to citizenship”—applied to all immigrants from Asia, the architects of this bill specifically had the Japanese in mind. They worried that Japanese immigrants were achieving upwards social mobility and wished to prevent them from becoming independent land owners, a status that many California politicians wished to preserve for the future of the white working class. The passage of this bill led to a diplomatic conflict between Japan and the United States, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson attempted to prevent the governor of California from signing the bill into law. But California decided to implement the Alien Land Act, and various Western states including Washington, Oregon and Arizona followed its lead. Japanese immigrants and their white allies contested these acts in the courts, but the Supreme Court upheld these laws in 1923. It was not until after World War II that the Supreme Court and California reversed their decisions.
—Chris Suh, Assistant Professor of History at Emory University
January 1943: The first War Relocation Authority field office opens in Chicago
Most students will learn something of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, when 112,000 people were removed from homes; lost careers, income, and savings; were confined in desolate inland camps managed by the War Relocation Authority (WRA); and suffered multigenerational trauma that lingers to this day, despite decades of community care and activism.
Less well known is the program to resettle Japanese Americans out of camps and off the West Coast during and after the war. Fumbling to reconcile the blatantly undemocratic incarceration with a war waged for democracy, officials promoted the resettlement of the incarcerated as benevolent, government-led assimilation. Despite its many ironies and hypocrisies, this interpretation motivated officials to smooth the transition for resettling Japanese American citizens and noncitizens alike. The Chicago WRA field office (one of the dozens eventually established) shows this process on the ground. Staffers waged a PR campaign to convince Chicagoans of Japanese American innocuousness; they connected resettlers to housing and jobs pre-screened for citizenship, language and racial barriers as well as skills or training. Resettlers in turn shaped the process as they themselves joined the staff and boards of these local social welfare, municipal, and funding agencies, reshaping Chicago’s social services to accommodate their specific needs. Resettlement demonstrates a paradoxical model of inclusion, useful as our country struggles for an understanding of our obligations towards resident noncitizens, detained migrants, religious minorities and others.
—Meredith Oda, Associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno, and author of The Gateway to the Pacific: Japanese Americans and the Remaking of San Francisco
1965-1970: Filipino Farmworkers lead the Delano Grape Strike
From left to right: United Farm Workers (UFW) officer Julio Hernandez, UFW director Larry Itliong, and Cesar Chavez at the 1966 Huelga Day march in San Francisco.
Gerald L. French—Corbis/Getty Images
Successive anti-Asian immigration laws that began in the late 1800s resulted in a massive labor shortage in Hawaii and on the West Coast. However, Filipinas/os/xes could enter freely because their colonial status marked them as United States “nationals,” not aliens. Labor recruiters from the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association flocked to the poorest parts of the Philippines for cheap labor. By the 1920s, thousands of Filipinas/os were arriving annually at West Coast ports. Many of them hoped to attend universities and bring their families out of poverty. However, the vast majority of these immigrants found that the only jobs open to them were in cannery and farm work. They were barred from citizenship, owning land, living in white neighborhoods and marrying white women.
From the 1920s-1940s, Filipino farm and cannery workers formed unions and went on strike throughout the United States. One of the leaders who came out of that movement was Larry Itliong. On Sept. 7, 1965, he led members of the Agriculture Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a predominantly Filipino union, to go on strike against Delano grape growers. Larry had the foresight and vision to realize that justice for farm workers could never be realized unless the two biggest groups of farm workers, Filipinas/os and Mexicans, could unify. One week later, Larry called Cesar Chavez to ask him if his organization, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), an association made up of Mexican American farmworker families, would join AWOC in the strike. This led to the joining of the two organizations, which ultimately created the United Farm Workers (UFW). The strike, which was supposed to be a short-lived worker’s action of several days, turned bloody and agonizing when the growers refused to budge. The UFW was relentless and didn’t give up. After five years, the global campaign of the Delano Grape Strike was won, and new contracts were signed in 1970.
—Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Associate Professor, History, San Francisco State University; Gayle Romasanta, Founder and Writer, Bridge and Delta Publishing; Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Professor, Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University
June 19, 1982: The killing of Vincent Chin
In the late 1970s and early ’80s there was a global oil crisis that drove the U.S. economy into a recession and led to the collapse of the auto industry. The American manufacturing sector blamed Japan for that. In this climate of anti-Asian hate—one that is eerily similar to today—a Chinese American named Vincent Chin was killed in Detroit because he looked Japanese. This is part of a historical pattern in which Asian Americans are attacked whenever there is a crisis in America.
His killers, who are white, never spent a day in jail. The judge said, “These are not the kind of men you sent to jail.” But Vincent’s family was denied the right to speak up and say he was a good man who had a whole life ahead of him and was about to celebrate his wedding. In fact, he was killed on the night of his bachelor party. Anybody who was Asian knew that they could be killed like Vincent Chin, and their killers would be let off scot-free. When the killers of Vincent Chin were given probation, Asian Americans across the country came together in a national civil rights movement with Detroit as its unlikely center. Prior to that, there was no mass movement uniting Americans of East Asian, South Asian or South East Asian descent.
This movement contributed to the passing of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act that eventually expanded the notion of who is protected by federal civil rights law, and the idea that all people in America should be protected against hate violence. It not only brought Asian Americans together to fight for justice. The Vincent Chin case was a landmark moment where people of all different Asian backgrounds came together with other Americans from other races to fight racism, to stand up for justice and to make an impact that affects all Americans.
March 28, 1983: Chol Soo Lee’s release from San Quentin’s Death Row
Supporters of Chol Soo Lee at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on Aug. 9, 1982.
Jerry Telfer—San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
In June 1974, Chol Soo Lee, a young Korean immigrant, was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for a San Francisco Chinatown murder. While serving his life sentence in state prison, Lee was convicted and sentenced to death in May 1979 on a first-degree murder charge for defending himself during an armed prison-yard assault by an Aryan Brotherhood gang member. Two years earlier in 1977, Sacramento Union investigative reporter K.W. Lee began to shed light on a problematic police investigation and subsequent trial for the San Francisco Chinatown murder. His investigative series generated widespread support for a remarkable grassroots social movement, known as the Free Chol Soo Lee movement, which brought together diverse groups of immigrant and American-born Asians in a common cause of justice and freedom for Lee. The efforts of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement eventually led to a retrial of the San Francisco Chinatown murder case, in which a jury acquitted Lee in September 1982. Despite this acquittal, Lee remained on Death Row in San Quentin due to his first-degree murder conviction for the prison-yard killing, which was also set for a retrial. However, faced with the prospect of high legal expenses and the uncertainty of yet another trial, Lee agreed to a downgraded second-degree murder charge without admission of guilt in the deadly prison-yard altercation and was released from San Quentin’s Death Row on March 28, 1983, based on time served.
There are many reasons why this pivotal movement has been largely forgotten, but one is that the life of Chol Soo Lee, who unexpectedly passed away in 2014, problematizes idealized norms of moral virtue often expected of those who are symbols of racial justice movements, especially as Lee continued to experience significant trauma after serving nearly ten years in state prison. Yet, the Free Chol Soo Lee movement also highlights the politicization and empowerment of young people who formed the backbone of this incredible pan-Asian movement. Many of these young activists went on to distinguished public service careers guided by an enduring vision of social change and justice. The history of the Free Chol Soo Lee movement thus provides us with valuable lessons in imagining new and different possibilities for our present and future, particularly in relation to contemporary social movements, coalition building, and the criminal justice system in the United States.
—Richard S. Kim, Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis
As an antiracist institution, St. John’s University has redoubled its efforts to curtail racism of every kind, most notably through the ongoing Racial Justice Conversations series.
The dramatic increases in violent incidents against Asian Americans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than one year ago compelled series organizers to invite a panel on April 21 to focus on examining the history and legacy of the Asian American community. The panel also explored the effects that discrimination, violence, and crime have on the social and health implications that this group faces.
“First and foremost, we have to stand up and speak out. We have to stand in solidarity with other minority groups to fight against racism and hate crimes.”
“Hate crimes have a broader effect than most other kinds of crimes,” she added. “Hate crimes victimize not only the immediate target, but also their families, communities, and, at times, the entire nation.”
Asian Americans are often invisible in US society when it comes to being regarded as victims of racism. “Most of the representation of Asians in the media is that they are model minorities, which is a myth that claims they do not experience discrimination. This representation causes many people to mistakenly believe that most Asians have achieved economic parity with Whites and therefore don’t really count as minorities at all,” said panelist Elda Tsou, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of English.
She explained that many Asians, including those from Southeast Asia, who arrived in America as refugees following the Vietnam War, have yet to achieve economic parity with White people. “Instead, they are one of the highest poverty groups in the US, much higher than Whites,” Dr. Tsou said.
Additionally, discrimination and racism toward Asian Americans have historically been institutionalized in the US, according to fellow panelist Susie J. Pak, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History. “It is very clear that the idea of the Asian as a perpetual foreigner, as excluded from and separate from America, was created through laws, policies, various institutions, through violence against them, and that it has occurred throughout history,” she said.
Dr. Pak referred to various examples of institutionalized racism affecting the freedom of Asian Americans, including the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese Americans from becoming naturalized US citizens, and the executive order enacted during World War II to intern 120,000 Japanese Americans.
Such actions contributed to the rise of the Asian American movement in the mid-20th century. The term Asian American was invented during the 1960s by student activists as a conscious effort to push back against the entire racist legacy of those of Asian descent “being framed as an alien, as an Oriental, but also in some sense to claim their American-ness,” Dr. Tsou said.
But the Asian-American movement was not operating in isolation, she noted. “It was working together with the civil rights, Black student, Mexican American, and Filipino student movements.”
“What they share in common is this desire to represent themselves, rather than be represented,” said Dr. Tsou. “They also shared a history of struggle against White supremacy and US imperialism. Those two things are the resounding anchors that tie all of these racial minorities together.”
According to Dr. Zhuo, “It is essential to join together to publicly oppose hate crimes, not only to show support and get help for the victims, but also to send a clear message that as a community, we will not tolerate this kind of crime. Reporting hate crimes allows communities and law enforcement to fully understand the scope of the problem and to put resources toward preventing and addressing it.”
Home Start, a nonprofit organization dedicated to child abuse prevention and providing evidence-based family strengthening services, will host its annual “Blue Ribbon” event virtually this year. The event is titled “Blue Ribbon Broadcast for Bright Futures – It’s a Family Affair” and will be held on Saturday, May 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. via Zoom.
The theme for this year will play on the important family-bonding time that historically happens when families are gathered around a television enjoying famous shows. This event will pay homage to everybody’s favorite television families while simultaneously bringing awareness to Home Start’s mission of strengthening families and communities around San Diego.
Attendees can expect an exciting night of games, chances to win prizes, a “fun box” and a catered dinner delivered to their homes ahead of the virtual event. Previous and current Home Start clients will also be sharing their powerful testimonials with guests, discussing how they were positively impacted by the organization and its life-changing programs. The event will also feature a live photo booth and a live auction taking place during the program, highlighting amazing travel packages from Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. An additional silent auction will open one week prior to the main event and close the following Monday (May 1 – May 10).
“This past year has been extra challenging for the families and children in Home Start’s care,” said Laura Tancredi-Baese, CEO of Home Start. “Our Blue Ribbon Broadcast Planning committee has prepared a meaningful, fun, and interactive program to enjoy. Your participation and support will help San Diego children thrive. We look forward to ‘seeing you’ on May 8!”
Tickets are on sale now for “Blue Ribbon Broadcast for Bright Futures – It’s a Family Affair.” There are various options available for the dinner boxes: the “Happy Days” box is for one adult, the “Good Times” box is for two adults, and the “Modern Family” box features meals for six adults. There is also an option to add on the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” pizza box as a kids’ meal package. For more information about the event and to purchase your tickets, visit https://ift.tt/3e5vzpm.
This May, during Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we recognize the history and achievements of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) across our Nation. In the midst of a difficult year of pain and fear, we reflect on the tradition of leadership, resilience, and courage shown by AANHPI communities, and recommit to the struggle for AANHPI equity.
Asian Americans, and Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders make our Nation more vibrant through diversity of cultures, languages, and religions. There is no single story of the AANHPI experience, but rather a diversity of contributions that enrich America’s culture and society and strengthen the United States’ role as a global leader. The American story as we know it would be impossible without the strength, contributions, and legacies of AANHPIs who have helped build and unite this country in each successive generation. From laying railroad tracks, tilling fields, and starting businesses, to caring for our loved ones and honorably serving our Nation in uniform, AANHPI communities are deeply rooted in the history of the United States.
We also celebrate and honor the invaluable contributions the AANHPI communities have made to our Nation’s culture and the arts, law, science and technology, sports and public service — including the courageous AANHPIs who have served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic as health care providers, first responders, teachers, and other essential workers.
During this year’s Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, our Nation celebrates the achievements of Vice President Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold the Office of the Vice President. Vice President Harris has blazed a trail and set an example for young people across the country to aspire to follow, including members of AANHPI communities and AANHPI women in particular.
In spite of the strength shown and successes achieved, the American dream remains out of reach for far too many AANHPI families. AANHPI communities face systemic barriers to economic justice, health equity, educational attainment, and personal safety. These challenges are compounded by stark gaps in Federal data, which too often fails to reflect the diversity of AANHPI communities and the particular barriers that Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Southeast Asian, and South Asian communities in the United States continue to face.
My Administration also recognizes the heightened fear felt by many Asian American communities in the wake of increasing rates of anti-Asian harassment and violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasingly observable layers of hate now directed toward women and elders of Asian descent in particular. Our Nation continues to grieve the senseless killings of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta, and the unconscionable acts of violence victimizing our beloved Asian American seniors in cities across the country.
Acts of anti-Asian bias are wrong, they are un-American, and they must stop. My Administration will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with AANHPI communities in condemning, denouncing, and preventing these acts of violence. We will continue to look for opportunities to heal together and fight against the racism and xenophobia that still exists in this country.
Present-day inequities faced by AANHPI communities are rooted in our Nation’s history of exclusion, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia against Asian Americans. Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have endured a long history of injustice — including the Page Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the incarceration of Japanese American citizens during World War II, the murder of Vincent Chin, the mass shooting of Southeast Asian refugee children in 1989, and the targeting of South Asian Americans, especially those who are Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh, after the national tragedy of 9/11. It is long past time for Federal leadership to advance inclusion, belonging, and acceptance for all AANHPI communities. My Administration is committed to a whole-of-government effort to advance equity, root out racial injustices in our Federal institutions, and finally deliver the promise of America for all Americans.
Vice President Harris and I affirm that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders make our Nation stronger. I urge my fellow Americans to join us this month in celebrating AANHPI history, people, and cultures.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2021 as Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I call upon the people of the United States to learn more about the history of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
Asian-American business and community leaders, including billionaire Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, have quietly lined up what they aim to be the largest private investment in Asian American and Pacific Islander causes in U.S. history following a rise in anti-Asian bigotry.
The Asian American Foundation, which is set to announce its initial fundraising commitments on Monday, is among dozens of AAPI groups seeking to harness a flood of resources that has accelerated since a gunman killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area day spas in March.
The foundation will fill in funding gaps for a wide array of AAPI organizations that have been under-financed for years. Part of its role will be to serve as the AAPI counterpart to other national civil rights bulwarks, such as the Anti-Defamation League or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which advocate for the Jewish and Black communities, respectively.
The influx of money has also boosted political groups aiming to sustain voter engagement after a record surge in AAPI turnout in last year's presidential election.
Asian Americans are the country's fastest growing ethnic group, yet have long been overlooked in national discussions about diversity and racial equity. In interviews with Reuters, more than a dozen advocates, activists and donors said the rush of funds and political interest show that the AAPI community has reached a seminal moment as a cultural and political force.
"The Asian-American population is becoming an electorate to be contended with," said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the advocacy group National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. "The challenge is that people have not wanted to make a deep investment in the AAPI community."
Choimorrow's group has sometimes struggled to gain attention from grant-making foundations. Now her calls are getting returned. A fundraiser featuring Hillary Clinton brought in $300,000, more than seven times the annual event's usual haul.
In March, Hans Tung of GGV Capital, a top tech investor, tweeted that the firm would match $100,000 in donations to combat anti-Asian hate. Others joined in: Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners and Eric Kim of Goodwater Capital offered their own matches, and Zoom Technologies Inc founder Eric Yuan pledged $1 million.
Within days, the campaign raised $5 million for groups such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Another crowd-sourced effort backed by a coalition of AAPI activists has raised nearly $6 million to date.
In the political sphere, the liberal AAPI Victory Alliance saw as many small-dollar donations in the four weeks after the Atlanta attack as it did in the group's first 3-1/2 years.
The alliance recently secured its largest-ever foundation grant, equal to its yearly budget, Executive Director Varun Nikore said. It has announced the country's first think tank dedicated solely to Asian-American issues.
"It's hard to say whether we can keep up these gains in the future," Nikore said of last year's increased voter turnout. "But I can say this: it will absolutely not occur if there is not massive investment – tens of millions of dollars or more – in keeping these folks engaged."
TURNOUT SURGE
Historically, AAPI turnout has been poor, and political campaigns' investment reflected that reality. AAPI Victory Fund estimates only 0.1% of the $14 billion spent on the 2020 U.S. elections targeted AAPI voters, who are mostly first-generation immigrants and speak many languages, requiring time- and money-intensive outreach.
An analysis by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy found just 0.2% of all foundation funding goes to AAPI communities.
But AAPI voter turnout in last year's presidential election was up 45.8% from 2016, according to voting analytics firm TargetSmart, nearly four times the increase among all other voters.
U.S. President Joe Biden earned 64% of the Asian-American vote over Republican Donald Trump, according to the Reuters/Ipsos election day poll.
Biden's running mate Kamala Harris, an Indian American, was the first-ever AAPI vice presidential nominee. Several advocates said her historic campaign undoubtedly drove interest among Asian-American voters, particularly of South Asian descent.
Nikore said Trump's divisive rhetoric, including referring to the coronavirus as "Kung Flu," made him the "greatest motivating force" for AAPI voters.
"He accelerated the political engagement of the AAPI community by likely a decade or so," Nikore said.
Christine Chen, who runs the nonpartisan Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, said the pandemic made clear, especially to immigrants who were previously not politically active, how crucial the role of government can be.
TargetSmart's analysis found the turnout surge was particularly pronounced among older voters: one-third of first-time AAPI voters were over 50, Chief Executive Tom Bonier said.
"So many of my friends had no interest in politics before, but they're worried about their children," said Alice Yi, a grassroots organizer in Austin, Texas. The rise in anti-Asian attacks, many of which targeted the elderly, convinced older residents to get more involved, she added.
Tung, the venture capitalist, made political contributions last year for the first time.
"There are so many more Asian Americans of all types that became more successful in different careers, and yet the stigma and hate hasn't changed," said Tung, a Taiwanese American who came to the United States in 1983. "Success isn't enough anymore. You've got to be more vocal."
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Once again, tiny numbers of Black and Latino students received offers to attend New York City’s elite public high schools.
After a year in which the pandemic shined a harsh spotlight on the stark inequities in New York City’s school system, the city announced Thursday that, once again, only tiny numbers of Black and Latino students had been admitted into top public high schools. The numbers represent the latest signal that efforts to desegregate those schools while maintaining an admissions exam are failing.
Only 9 percent of offers made by elite schools like Stuyvesant High School and Bronx High School of Science went to Black and Latino students this year, down from 11 percent last year. Only eight Black students received offers to Stuyvesant out of 749 spots, and only one Black student was accepted into Staten Island Technical High School, out of 281 freshman seats.
Over half of the 4,262 offers this year went to Asian students. The schools have enormous significance for thousands of low-income Asian-American students who attend them, many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants. Efforts to change the admissions system have been seen by some as disregarding the accomplishments of those vulnerable students. Accusations of bias from Asian-American New Yorkers have made the debate over whether to keep the exam as the sole means of entry into the schools extremely fraught.
Though Black and white students made up the same percentage of test takers — about 18 percent each — less than 4 percent of Black students received offers, compared with nearly 28 percent of white students, a clear sign that having large numbers of Black students take the exam is not leading to more equitable outcomes.
The admissions exam was given earlier this year amid the pandemic, with 4,300 fewer students sitting for the test compared with the previous year.
The numbers are a grim symbol of the entrenched inequality that New Yorkers are confronting as the city begins to emerge from the pandemic. A year of profoundly disrupted learning for the city’s roughly 1 million students may make it even more challenging to address the lack of diversity in the specialized schools, though city officials are just beginning to understand the academic toll of what will be roughly 18 months of remote learning for many city students.
Black and Latino students have chosen remote learning at higher rates than their white classmates, in part because nonwhite New Yorkers have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
The numbers of Black and Latino students at the specialized schools are declining despite enormous focus on this issue over the last several years. Mayor Bill de Blasio has unsuccessfully lobbied the State Legislature to eliminate the admissions exam and replace it with a system that admits top performers at each city middle school.
The disappointing results released on Thursday show just how profoundly segregated the nation’s largest school system still is and will no doubt lead to fresh calls for the state, which controls entry into some of the schools, to get rid of the entrance exam.
Specialized school alumni have expressed dismay at the dwindling number of Black and Latino students. The percentage of Black and Latino enrollment at Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Technical High School has hit its lowest point in the city’s recorded history in the last 10 years, a trend that has accelerated during the last several years in particular.
On Thursday, Dr. Uché Blackstock, a Black Stuyvesant graduate, said on Twitter, “I grieve for my high school. These numbers are abysmal.” She added: “The test has got to go.”
Horace Davis, a Black Brooklyn Tech graduate who is on the board of the school’s alumni organization, which has vigorously opposed changes to the admissions system, said the poor quality of some city schools, rather than the test, was responsible for the latest numbers.
“I’m not sure you’re going to see a change year over year,” he said of the numbers. “The system itself is broken.”
He added: “So much is being placed on the entrance exam, but it should not be viewed as a scapegoat.”
Current specialized school students and recent graduates have said it has been extremely upsetting to absorb the admissions numbers, year after year.
“We are outraged but not surprised at the alarming 2021 results,” Brianna Gallimore, a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College and an organizer at Teens Take Charge, a student-led group that supports eliminating the exam, said in a statement on Thursday. “The exam should not have been administered, especially during a pandemic. It should never be administered again.”
Aside from his effort to overhaul specialized school admissions, Mr. de Blasio has not made school integration of the roughly 1,800 schools he does control a top priority during his two terms as mayor. Disagreements between the mayor and Richard A. Carranza, the former schools chancellor, about how aggressively to pursue desegregation policies helped prompt Mr. Carranza’s resignation earlier this year.
The city’s new chancellor, Meisha Porter, called on the state to eliminate the exam in a statement Thursday. “I know from my 21 years as an educator that far more students could thrive in our specialized high schools, if only given the chance,” she said. “Instead, the continued use of the Specialized High School Admissions Test will produce the same unacceptable results over and over again.”
Brooklyn Tech and the Brooklyn Latin School, both specialized high schools, tend to enroll slightly higher numbers of Black and Latino students than the other six schools, and this year was no exception. Brooklyn Tech made offers to 76 Latino students and 64 Black students, out of a total freshman class of 1,607, by far the largest of any specialized school.
Mr. de Blasio’s push to get rid of the test failed in Albany in 2018, but the pandemic ramped up pressure on the mayor to take some action on desegregation before he leaves office at the end of the year.
Late last year, he announced sweeping changes to how hundreds of academically selective middle and high schools admit students. Standardized testing data and grading information was not available during the pandemic, which made it impossible for many schools to sort through students as they usually do.
City Hall controls admissions to all schools in New York City except for three of the specialized high schools, which are controlled by Albany. Changes to admissions at selective middle and high schools, along with gifted and talented programs for elementary school students, would do much more to actually desegregate the school system than eliminating the specialized school admissions exam, experts have said.
But the paltry numbers of Black and Latino students at places like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, considered the crown jewels of the system, have become a potent symbol of the obstacles many city students face in trying to access top-quality schools.
The latest data also shows clearly how ineffective recent efforts to diversify the specialized schools under the current admissions system have been.
Ronald S. Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics heir, launched a multimillion dollar lobbying and advertising campaign in 2019 to defeat the mayor’s push to eliminate the specialized school exam. As part of that effort, Mr. Lauder and his partner in the initiative, former Citigroup chairman Richard D. Parsons, promised to shower test preparation companies with money to better prepare Black and Latino students for the exam.
Despite over $750,000 spent on test prep over the last two years, most of which was funneled to existing nonprofit programs across the city, their plan has not made a dent in the numbers.
Stone Foltz, a 20-year-old sophomore at the university in Ohio, died on March 7, three days after he had attended an off-campus Pi Kappa Alpha event.
Eight people have been indicted in connection with the death last month of a sophomore at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, days after he had attended an off-campus fraternity event where school officials have said “alleged hazing activity” took place, prosecutors said on Thursday.
A grand jury indicted the men, seven of whom are Bowling Green students, on charges that included involuntary manslaughter and hazing in the death of Stone Foltz, 20, said Paul A. Dobson, the Wood County prosecuting attorney.
Most of the defendants, who range in age from 19 to 23, were also charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to underage people and obstructing official business. Two face charges of reckless homicide, the authorities said.
Mr. Dobson said in a statement that “the multiple counts of hazing and failure to comply with underage alcohol laws reflect the allegation that those defendants participated in providing copious amounts of alcohol to Mr. Foltz and the other new members” of the university’s Pi Kappa Alpha chapter.
On March 4, Mr. Foltz, a business major from Delaware, Ohio, attended a Pi Kappa Alpha event at an off-campus house, according to Mr. Dobson’s office. Their attendance was mandatory, Mr. Dobson said.
The event was part of a “new-member initiation process” where the new members, who were known as “little brothers,” or “littles,” were each given a bottle of “high-alcohol-content liquor,” Mr. Dobson said at a news conference on Thursday. Most of the new members were underage, he said.
“They were told that the tradition of the chapter was that the entire bottle — approximately 750 milliliters, what’s commonly referred to as a fifth — should be consumed by the ‘little’ at the event,” Mr. Dobson said. Mr. Foltz, he said, “consumed all or nearly all” of his bottle.
Mr. Foltz was later found unresponsive in his apartment in Bowling Green by a roommate, prosecutors said.
When paramedics arrived, Mr. Foltz was not breathing, and the roommate was performing CPR, prosecutors said. Mr. Foltz was taken to Wood County Hospital and was then transferred to Toledo Hospital, where he died on March 7.
Stone Foltz was found not breathing after a fraternity event in March.Foltz family
The county coroner ruled that his death was an accident “as the result of a fatal level of alcohol intoxication during a hazing incident,” according to Mr. Dobson’s office.
Mr. Foltz’s blood alcohol level was “over four times the legal limit,” Mr. Dobson said at the news conference.
Earlier this month, the university, which is 20 miles south of Toledo, announced that it had expelled the fraternity after placing it on an interim suspension.
“Bowling Green State University is appreciative of the hard work and diligence done by the prosecutor and a grand jury to seek justice and hold those accountable in the tragic death of student Stone Foltz,” Alex Solis, a university spokesman, said on Thursday.
The university referred inquires about the indictment on Thursday to the Wood County prosecutor’s office.
The fraternity’s parent organization said in a statement on Thursday that “the actions of any individuals found responsible are unacceptable and do not align with Pi Kappa Alpha’s values.”
“The Fraternity’s standards are clear on the conduct expected of members and emphasize treating all people with dignity and respect,” it said.
In a statement issued by their lawyers, Mr. Foltz’s family said that the charges were “one step in the right direction, adding that “swift action also needs to be taken by government officials and university presidents nationwide to abolish fraternity hazing.”
“We are living every parent’s worst nightmare and will not be at peace until fraternity hazing is seen for what it truly is — abuse,” the family statement said.
The first-degree manslaughter charge carries a maximum penalty of 11 years in prison, Mr. Dobson said. Third-degree felony manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, as do “reckless homicide, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice,” Mr. Dobson said.
The prosecutor’s office worked with the Bowling Green Police Division and Bowling Green State University on the investigation.
Wall Street seems to have gone cold on gold exchange-traded funds.
ETF investors investors dumped the most volume of gold since 2013 over the six months through March 31. It was no small quantity. The total sold amounted to a whopping 307.8 metric tons worth $17.5 billion at recent prices, according to a recent report from industry group World Gold Council.
The sales coincided with a drop in the net price for the metal and come after nine half-year periods where ETFs added gold to their holdings. Bullion fetched an average of $1,794 a troy ounce in the first quarter compared to $1,874 in the final quarter of 2020. Recently, you could buy an ounce of the yellow metal for around $1,764. In other words, bullion prices are sliding. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF, which holds bars of solid bullion, performed in a similar manner over the period.
8 Years Since Gold ETF Sales Were Near-As-Large
Stock investors might think the recent sales frenzy is a trivial total in dollar terms. But for the gold market it is a big deal. To find a larger sale over any six month period you you need to go back all the way to period were in 2013, according to my analysis of WGC data. Sales in the half year through September 2013 totaled 520.4 tons.
The news also comes as the global economy in general, and the U.S. economy in particular rebounds following the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic which kicked off in earnest in early 2020.
Booming Economy, Bust for Gold?
Now the U.S. is expected to grow 6.4% this year and expand a further 3.2% the following year, according to a recent forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
For the richest economy in the world that’s gangbuster growth. Pre-pandemic growth levels for the U.S. economy hovered between 1.5% and 3%, according to data from website Trading Economics.
Those super forecasts get to the center of why investors buy gold. They purchase it when they are worried, not when they are exuberant.
They often use the metal as a hedge when they are uncertain of the future value of financial assets of stocks and bonds. That was certainly the cast during the height of the pandemic.
However, the recent upsurge in the economy means that stocks are now far more attractive compared to metal as corporate earnings keep growing apace.
Other reasons to hold gold in a portfolio are as a hedge against future inflation — and that may be something that triggers significant future buying of the metal. When or if that happens remains to be seen, but when it does, you’ll you’ll get the skinny here.
A COVID-19 vaccine clinic is 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at Highland Lakes Elementary School, 8200 RR 1431 in Granite Shoals. Registration is available online or by calling 830-798-3519.
The free clinic will administer first doses of the two-shot Moderna vaccine to ages 18 and older. Those who receive vaccinations will automatically be scheduled for a second dose on Saturday, May 29.
Officials said the vaccine manufacturer could change, but as of April 28, it is Moderna.
Atkins Pharmacy, Baylor Scott & White Health, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Marble Falls Independent School District are hosting the clinic.
Attacks on Asians in 16 of America's largest cities soared by an unprecedented 150% during the first quarter of 2021, continuing a spike that had been sparked by the coronavirus pandemic last year, police data show.
The dramatic increase follows a similar spike in major U.S. cities last year and comes as the administration of President Joe Biden has taken steps to curb the violence that activists say was partly fueled by former President Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about the virus's China origins. The U.S. House of Representatives is taking up legislation passed by the Senate last week that would create a new Justice Department position dedicated to tackling the problem.
FILE - Protesters march at a rally against Asian hate crimes, near the Los Angeles Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, March 27, 2021.
The 16 cities studied by the center, which include New York and Los Angeles, the country's two most populous, account for about 8% of the U.S. population. In the FBI's latest hate crime data for the United States as a whole, the same 16 cities accounted for more than 21% of all hate crimes in 2019.
"These preliminary data show that in those large cities with the longest history of collecting anti-Asian reports, there are elevated or increasing levels of hate crime extending well into 2021," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. "We already have more hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021 in these cities than in all of pre-pandemic 2019. And in some, more than all of 2020."
New York
New York, which has the highest number of Asian Americans in the country, accounted for nearly half the 2021 incidents, reporting 42 hate crimes through the first quarter — a 223% increase from 13 incidents during the first quarter of last year. The attacks on Asians living in New York have continued into April, with another 24 incidents reported in the first three weeks of the month.
In the latest incident, an unemployed 61-year-old Chinese immigrant collecting bottles in the Harlem neighborhood ended up in a coma last Friday after being severely beaten by an ex-felon on parole. The suspect was arrested this week.
FILE - An Asian American New York City Police officer patrols in the Queens borough of New York, March 30, 2021. Police have stepped up patrols across the city in the wake of increased anti-Asian hate crimes.
New York appears to have had more attacks on Asians during the first quarter of 2021 than during any full year in recent memory, according to Levin.
Last week, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced a new initiative to combat the anti-Asian violence, with plans to deploy teams of undercover officers of Asian descent "to prevent New Yorkers from becoming victims in the first place."
Anti-Asian hate crimes have been steadily rising in recent years, according to the FBI. But attacks spiked during the pandemic, with Asian American activists saying Trump's frequent references to the coronavirus as the "China virus" and "kung-flu" contributed to the hate crime spree.
While Trump has been out of office for more than three months and can no longer tweet about the "China virus," "the damage has already been done," said Stephanie Nguyen, executive director of Asian Resources Inc., a nonprofit.
"I can't erase what he said. None of us cannot hear what he said and block it out of us," Nguyen said.
Other cities
Other cities with large Asian populations also saw double- and triple-digit percentage increases in anti-Asian hate crimes during the first quarter.
In San Francisco, police investigated 12 assaults on Asians, up 140% from five incidents during the first quarter of 2020. Los Angeles had nine anti-Asian hate crimes during the quarter, up 80%, while in Boston, the number of incidents targeting Asians jumped to eight, up 60%.
Lu-In Wang, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and author of the book "Discrimination by Default: How Racism Becomes Routine," said the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in New York and other cities with large Asian populations is surprising because these are cities where "they (Asians) would feel more comfortable, would feel more that they belong."
"But it could be that there is greater resentment of Asians in those cities because they are more visible and more numerous," Wang said in an interview.
FILE - Demonstrators cheer while listening to speakers during a protest against anti-Asian hate crimes at Hing Hay Park in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington, March 13, 2021.
Of the 16 cities surveyed, four — Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami and Tampa, Florida — reported no anti-Asian hate crimes during the quarter.
Washington and San Antonio reported six and five anti-Asian hate crimes, respectively, compared with zero during the first quarter of 2020.
Racially motivated attacks on Asian Americans are not new, said Ngueyn, whose Vietnamese family immigrated to the United States during the 1975 fall of Saigon.
"The difference now is that we're finally speaking out," she said.
