Young activists create Asian American history lesson to fight racism - The Washington Post

“Education is so important to creating change and fighting racism,” said Mina Fedor, who is 14 years old. “But there’s so little [taught] in schools about AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] history and the contributions of Asian Americans.”

An organization Mina founded last year called AAPI Youth Rising aims to correct that. She and several other middle-schoolers in Oakland, California, created the group “to take small actions to make positive change in our communities.” Those who belong — AAPI youths and their allies across the United States — have been involved in speaking out, supporting legislative action, art activism — and most recently, a program of free lessons on AAPI history.

Mina and three other teens launched the program this month to coincide with Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Since March, they’ve been researching and designing their slide presentation. Their hope is that, over time, more schools nationwide will offer at least one such lesson during the school year.

The debut took place at Chandler School in Pasadena, California. Mina, Siwoo Rhie, Charlee Trenkle and Max Wong traveled from their homes in the San Francisco Bay area to speak to the fifth- and eighth-graders there.

The team talked about the diversity of the Asian American experience, with more than 20 million Asian Americans, representing more than 20 countries, living in the United States. They shared information about early anti-Asian laws and the rise of the AAPI civil rights movement 40 years ago.

“I was a little nervous at first [about the presentation], but I had a great time,” Mina told KidsPost by phone from Pasadena.

“The students seemed really interested,” Max said.

Calling out prejudice

The past two years have seen a spike in attacks on Asian Americans.

This is connected to the coronavirus pandemic. Some people falsely blame China, the site of the first cases, for the pandemic, and some have reacted by lashing out at anyone of Asian descent. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism reported that 369 anti-Asian hate crimes occurred in 21 major U.S. cities in 2021. That was an increase of 224 percent from 2020.

Even when anti-Asian actions aren’t criminal, they can be hurtful. Mina and Max have experienced bullying, including mean jokes aimed at whether they had covid-19 or ate certain animals. Mina was also disturbed early last year by a racist gesture directed at her mother, who is Korean.

To speak out against hostility and violence, Mina planned a rally in Berkeley, California, in March 2021 that drew more than 1,200 people. Young activists carried signs that read “I am not a disease” and “Stop Asian Hate.” AAPI Youth Rising was created soon after.

“We wanted to uplift youth voices,” Mina said. “Young people have opinions and ideas, but we weren’t seeing any of that” made public.

Since the rally, the organization has sponsored a diverse-voices youth art exhibit, helped with a mural on Asian American heroes in San Francisco’s Chinatown and spoken to other social-justice groups.

Their work has been widely recognized. Mina recently received the Changemaker of the Year Award from the anti-bullying group Act to Change. In January, American Girl partnered with AAPI Youth Rising when the company announced its doll of the year: a Chinese American doll named Corinne Tan. In February, Mina was named a finalist for Time’s 2022 Kid of the Year.

Plans for AAPI history video

Mina doesn’t focus on awards, though, but on next steps. Schools have signed up for the AAPI history lesson, which will be offered virtually and in-person till the end of the school year. This summer, the team plans to adapt their lesson to a video format. It will be available on the organization’s website.

“That way we can reach more schools because we won’t have to be there” to present, Mina said.

The team’s lesson in Pasadena is prompting greater understanding and change, according to Jill Bergeron, director of Chandler’s middle school.

“By raising awareness, [Mina and her team] are helping to curb bias in our communities,” she said. “Our students see that people their age are doing work often attributed to adults, and they are getting a sense of what’s possible and how they might be involved.”

If you’re interested

To become involved, kids and teens can contact AAPI Youth Rising through aapiyouthrising.org. There are chapters in California, Maine and Michigan.

To schedule an AAPI history lesson for grades 4 through 12, teachers can contact aapiyouthrising.org. It’s free.

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Elvis reimagined as an Asian American icon - CNN

Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

In Snap, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.

In a photograph by Tommy Kha, the artist, dressed as Elvis Presley in a bedazzled low-cut white suit, stares at the viewer from behind a table in a retro-looking bright teal kitchen. There's a sense of the uncanny valley with his blank, unbreaking gaze, and the harsh light flattening his figure.

But there's a good reason for this lack of depth -- Kha is not actually present in the photograph. Instead it's a cardboard cutout of a portrait of himself, propped up between the metal-edged table and blue leather chairs. The image was taken by chance -- Kha was towing around the cutout of himself, titled "Me as Andy Kaufman as Elvis Minus the Singing," when he was in a Miami prop rental studio; he saw the kitchen set and placed it there, finding the scene to be serendipitous.

"A lot of my work is in between staging and improvising," he explained on a call from Brooklyn, New York, where he is based.

As a Chinese American artist who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, Kha's work often ruminates on how queer Asian men have been represented in photographs. But he also picks apart how identity is crafted and performed, and whether or not the defining markers of a person can be substituted. He has spent many years taking self-portraits without being physically in the frame, replicating his face through cardboard images, 3D-printed sculptures, puzzles and masks which he places in front of the camera. Can printed copies of a person tell the viewer something about who they are? Can doppelgangers -- for which he occasionally holds casting calls -- do the same?

"How does one arrive (at) their own representation? I am searching for that answer from both sides of the camera," he said in an interview with Aperture in 2019. "How do I arrive at myself?"

When Kha photographed himself as Presley (or more accurately, as the comedian Kaufman imitating Presley), he had already been photographing people who have spent years slipping the King of Rock & Roll's identity on and off. He was drawn to the "tribute artists" -- more commonly known as impersonators -- for their kinship with his own practice.

"(They are) possessed in a way. And I kind of love that. (It's) not like it's ghosts or anything like that, but a way to invoke the past...through their performances," he told CNN.

Unexpected controversy

Growing up just a five-minute drive to Graceland, Presley was an inescapable presence in Kha's childhood. Now, each summer, Kha returns to Memphis for Elvis Week, where lookalikes flock to the city to compete in an annual competition. Kha hangs around the venues where they perform and drives around the city looking out for their telltale coiffed black hair.

"It's not just simple copying. These folks learn choreographies and...train their voices," he said. "It's art to me."

Kha has photographed a number of people who emulate Presley over the years, but in this portrait he offers himself as the American icon. It is currently on view at the Memphis International Airport, among the artworks of other Memphis-bred artists, though the airport temporarily removed the work in March following critical social media comments about the work, some of which were "openly racist," according to a statement by the UrbanArt Commission, which facilitated the airport's acquisitions for its collection. Amid backlash over its removal, the airport reinstalled the work three days later.

"I'm quite disappointed as it was one of many artworks selected to hang in the new concourse--an honor that connected me to the place where I grew up...and the opportunity gave me hope that artists like myself could be represented," Kha posted on Instagram after its removal.
In a statement provided to CNN from March, the local airport authority's CEO Scott Brockman maintained that the reason the airport removed the work was because they wished to avoid showing a celebrity or public figure in the collection in light of the "negative feedback."

"There were a small number of comments that included language that referred to Mr. Kha's race, and such comments are completely unacceptable," Brockman said in the statement. "The Airport Authority does not support those comments nor does it form the basis for the Authority's decision regarding the piece."

Since the work was reinstalled, Kha is hoping to shift the focus into support for local artist communities. He has begun hosting a series of events with the Urban Art Commission; the first took place at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art about "the complexities of showing work within public and private spaces," as he described in a recent Instagram post. He'll host professional development workshops through his residency program in Memphis, Crosstown Arts later in the summer. This month, he finally had the opportunity to see the large-scale print in person when he returned back home to Memphis.

As he told CNN, "​​I'm hoping I can use this situation to turn it into something good."

Top image: "Constellations VIII," 2017

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Support Asian-American Sailors | Proceedings - May 2022 Vol. 148/5/1,431 - USNI News

Many watched with a mix of fascination and discomfort as Eileen Gu swept three Gold Medals on behalf of China during the most recent 2022 Winter Olympics. In an era in which China is a fierce and competent adversary, it is not surprising that many Americans viscerally feel a sense of suspicion toward someone like Gu straddling her American and Chinese identities. After all, she was born, raised, and plans to attend university in the United States but represented China in the Olympics.

Like with Eileen Gu, suspicion of the loyalty of Asian Americans—especially of Chinese Americans—has markedly increased as U.S-China tensions have escalated. This sentiment is evident in the rest of the country with a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even active-duty Asian Americans, especially those of Chinese descent, have not been spared from this vicious trend and serve in a Navy in which some question their loyalty. This trend in the ranks is not only viscerally un-American but also severely harms U.S. objectives in ensuring a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. It was less than a hundred years ago when a similar suspicion resulted in the incredible injustices Japanese Americans suffered during World War II.

 In 1941, Executive Order 9066 relegated thousands of innocent Japanese Americans to internment camps. Yet despite the persecution they faced at home, thousands of Japanese Americans volunteered to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Nicknamed “Go For Broke” for their aggression and bravery, these Nissei (second generation) soldiers earned 21 Medals of Honor and 4,000 Purple Hearts during their service in the Italian campaign. Soldiers from the 442nd recall that they felt pressured to fight more aggressively, knowing that their American loyalty was being questioned at home, and believed their bravery on the battlefield would clear any suspicion of disloyalty. Reflecting their bravery, the 442nd recorded among the highest casualty rates among U.S. units in the European Theater of Operations. Frankly, the country did not deserve the bravery and sacrifice of these young Japanese Americans considering the federal government’s treatment of their families stateside. However, they fought hard anyway, exemplifying that despite its many flaws, the American experiment is something worth fighting for.

While the prospect of an entire ethnic group within the United States being persecuted again seems far-fetched, it is nonetheless a real risk. The full consequences of increased political polarization and social network echo chambers are not yet known. Perhaps the United States is one misinformation campaign away from advocating for a renewed Executive Order 9066 to persecute Chinese Americans. As citizens and sailors who serve in a Navy, and pledges “to excellence and the fair treatment of all,” Navy personnel must aspire to lead and avoid making such a mistake again. Deckplates leaders—petty officers, chiefs, and junior officers—are the first line of defense and must ensure Asian American sailors feel respected and empowered to execute their missions. The following are three ideas that sailors and officers can ponder and implement into their daily leadership routines.

Understand the adversary’s rhetoric. China has deflected legitimate questions on its initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, it has labeled criticisms of its handling of COVID-19 as a racist anti-Asian rhetoric. Chinese media outlets paint high-profile deaths of Asian Americans in the United States as proof that this country is inherently hostile toward Asians, and that China is the champion and protector of ethnic Chinese and even other Asians in the world. Furthermore, various Chinese media outlets brand China as representing the will of Asia, standing against an imperialist, violent West. One only need read the constant stream of articles written by the Chinese Communist Party’s English-language publication Global Times to understand this narrative barrage. Even as public opinion of China in Asian democratic nations rapidly deteriorated over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has doubled down on this East vs West narrative.

Defying China’s narrative are thousands of dedicated Asian-American service members that have or are currently serving across all Department of Defense branches. If China’s narrative was true, then Asian Americans in the Navy should feel marginalized, persecuted, and disadvantaged. But the truth is that Asian Americans are celebrated and treated as valuable members of the team, and the Navy must do everything in its power to uphold this standard. Evidence of the contrary would constitute a massive self-inflicted PRC propaganda victory and degrade U.S. credibility with numerous Asian partner nations. How could an Asian partner nation rely on a visibly bigoted U.S. Navy to uphold an Open and Free Indo-Pacific?

Understand the sailor’s cultural needs. Most Asian-American sailors, especially those foreign born, must navigate a dizzying amount of cultural dysphoria and feel a need to culturally “Americanize” while maintaining a link to their rich cultural heritage. When the sailors have direct family in foreign countries, for example Hong Kong and China, this task becomes even more complex. 

This balancing act is often difficult and at times draws unintended attention with negative professional consequences. A Chinese American sailor speaking to his or her family in Mandarin in the berthing area around colleagues may draw suspicion. A Korean American chief may draw scrutiny missing several crucial chief initiation events because his or her family is celebrating Korean Thanksgiving Chuseok, typically conducted in the middle of chief initiation season. In such cases, a leading petty officer who reminds the division that time-zone differences make it impossible for the sailor to speak to family after work, or a master chief who reminds the chief’s mess the importance of Chuseok can significantly ease this balancing act.

Furthermore, deckplate leaders must be able to empathize with sailors that have additional familial stress and guilt because they cannot regularly connect with and support family abroad. While sailors are no strangers to missing significant family milestones because of operational commitments, those with family abroad face an additional hurdle of having to coordinate foreign travel to spend time with them. Recently, with COVID-19 related international travel restrictions, many have simply foregone spending time with family. I have not seen my parents for more than two years and carry guilt for missing years’ worth of family events and seeing them visibly age over Facetime, instead of in person. While country-specific travel restrictions and high operational tempos restrict what deckplate leaders can do to accommodate these sailors, something as small as a holiday dinner invitation, special liberty during a cultural holiday, and explicit support in navigating the complex web of foreign travel requirements will go a long way.

Asian-American sailors are linchpins for success. The current strategy in competing with China and ensuring a Free and Open Indo-Pacific relies on working in concert with a network of close allies. On the deckplates, this cooperation means ever-increasing joint exercises with partner armed forces, and more frequent Indo-Pacific deployments. Executing exercises in partner nations is difficult. Translators are often few and at times do not know the jargon required to effectively interpret communication between military organizations. Furthermore, there are intangibles that translators cannot convey. For example, a Korean American Marine Corps captain on a cold-weather exercise walking the lines handing out piping hot cup noodles to Republic of Korea Marines standing sentry duty will strike a cultural chord that is difficult to understand without having grown up in a Korean household. A Japanese American chief overhearing a group of Japan Maritime Self Defense Force sailors complaining about their perception of being talked down to by their U.S. counterparts can quickly mediate and resolve the issue before distrust and dysfunction spreads during joint operations.

Asian American sailors can do much more than serve as effective liaisons while interoperating with partner nations of their cultural heritage. They can more quickly learn and adapt to the language and culture of other Asian partner forces from different cultural backgrounds than their own. For example, sailors who received education in Japan, Korea, or China often have a working knowledge of Chinese characters and share a significant amount of vocabulary and syntax and can quickly learn another East Asian language. For those already leading in the Indo-Pacific or preparing to deploy to the Indo-Pacific, it is crucial to recognize the capabilities of their Asian-American sailors. Effectively using them could mean the difference between struggling and succeeding in a joint exercise or even life or death when in conflict.

Maintaining a Free and Open Indo-Pacific will be one of the Navy’s greatest challenges in the short and medium term. Enabling Asian American sailors not only to serve honorably but also thrive professionally will help the Navy maintain its human resources comparative advantage over adversaries, as well as cooperate with critical regional partners. However, achieving this goal is not a top-down affair. Deckplate leaders must understand that any discrimination can give the adversary a propaganda victory, Asian-American sailors may have unique needs according to their backgrounds, and these sailors can be the linchpin to a successful deployment, exercise, and even high-intensity conflict.

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You're called a 'model minority' as an Asian American — until they decide you aren't - WYPR

Privilege-adjacent. Invisible at times. As an Asian American, that's how I typically used to think of my minority status. Society labels us the "model minority" when it is convenient. Sometimes we're models to be emulated — when we're not on the receiving end of people's fear, anger and suspicion.

Growing up in Little Saigon, an Asian enclave in Orange County, Calif., we were actually the majority. We were so dominant that American grocery stores like Ralphs and Albertsons closed up shop and were replaced by Asian supermarkets. At my high school, where Asians made up roughly 80% of the student body, taking a day off to celebrate Lunar New Year was expected.

In a lot of ways, my family fit this model minority image. As Chinese refugees from the Vietnam War, my parents wanted to assimilate to life in the U.S. and give their children the chance at the American dream. They worked hard, stayed quiet and caused no trouble. My brother and I followed their lead: We studied hard, stayed quiet and caused no trouble (mostly). We were a middle class family living in the suburbs.

But I knew that was not the norm. When I left for college, I moved just an hour north, to Los Angeles. Suddenly, I was no longer living in a majority-minority community. On campus, in a sea of white faces and Abercrombie & Fitch, it was obvious: I didn't fit in. I studied hard anyway, kept quiet and focused on reaching my career goals.

And I got there. While at my first job, I met Rick (now my husband), a Black man with a whole set of experiences different from my own. With only three things in common, we were literally opposites. While I can laugh off showing my driver's license to prove that I was old enough to get into an R-rated movie, he would make it a point to specifically show his military ID to put people at ease with his presence. The need to constantly combat the perception that he was some sort of a "threat" was both routine and exhausting for him.

He would say with levity, "Stay out of jail so you can bail me out." It was partly a joke, but it also felt like it spoke to an underlying racial truth about our relationship – that because I was part of the model minority, privilege-adjacent, I had to use this status to defend him, should anything happen. And we came close a few times – like when a white woman accused him of assaulting her because she sat in my seat at the movie theater while I was in the restroom. It took the whole theater crowd, other white people, to defend him when a police officer arrived.

That was then. Over the last five or so years, my perception has changed. Not only did I have to worry about Rick, I also had to look out for myself. The whole idea of being privilege-adjacent felt misplaced. Afterall, there didn't seem to be any privilege when inherently racist terms like "China virus" and "kung flu" were used to describe the coronavirus. Or in the nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans counted by the group Stop AAPI Hate between March 2020 and December of last year.

/ Gary Duong

/

Gary Duong

The author, Gary Duong, left, with his husband Rick.

I had gotten used to not always thinking about what it means to have my ethnicity in the spotlight, or even front of mind. Now, I can't avoid it.

It's become clearer to me that the whole idea of the "model minority" is based on a myth – one that is less a celebration of our accomplishments, and more of a convenient tool to mask ongoing discrimination and systemic inequality.

In one glaring example, the conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly seized on the statistic that the median household income for Asian Americans is higher than the overall national median income as an argument against the idea that there is any such thing as white privilege, and that systemic racism against Black and brown people simply does not exist. It's an argument that's been repeated many times over.

But this stat doesn't tell our whole story. The simple truth is, there are key disparities among the more than 22 million people of Asian descent living in the U.S., and we're not all doing as well as perceived. Asian Americans are more likely than other groups to have three or more workers per household, one reason why the averages seem so inflated. We also often tend to live in some of the nation's most expensive cities, so when you factor in those costs, the apparent advantage in household income starts to evaporate.

We're also often brought up in conversations around education — as examples of the heads-down, study-hard students who would be upset by any change to race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The thinking goes that given how hard we work, we should be upset anytime someone else might take our rightful spot. But maybe diversity isn't where the focus of our frustration should be. Maybe it's the system that gives preference to so-called "legacy" students, who are predominantly white, at the expense of minority applicants.

Fitting or blending in is often used to describe us. A recent report from the advocacy group Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change, or LAAUNCH, found that white respondents saw Asians as most similar to themselves. Yet in that same report, one in three people said they agreed with the statement that Asian Americans are "more loyal to their countries of origin than to the U.S." This questioning of our loyalty is a dark echo of a similar sentiment that provided false justification for Japanese internment camps in World War II.

Sadly, some of our progress isn't solely because of what we've done or accomplished. It's because we became less the focus of other people's anger. As a race, we've been victims of this country's history of racial violence, including the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, which left an estimated 28 Chinese miners dead in Wyoming; and the massacre of 20 Chinese Americans in Los Angeles in 1871. According to a 2016 study by Brown University economist Nathaniel Hilger, the real reason Asian Americans were ultimately able to earn more and claim "model minority" status is because after World War II, the American system simply became less racist against us.

Now, the pandemic has put the spotlight back on us. For some, we're the ones to blame for COVID-19 and all its repercussions. Yes, the 2021 Atlanta area spa shootings that left eight people dead – six of Asian descent – shocked and appalled the nation. But it didn't end the hate incidents, or the discrimination we continue to face in ways that are both subtle and overt.

It takes a toll – about a third of Asian Americans say they've changed their daily routines due to ongoing fears over threats and attacks, according to a Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month.

I'm not discounting the progress that we've made through the years, but there's an underlying foundation of bias that we haven't fully overcome. Yes, we're well represented in Silicon Valley, but the "bamboo ceiling" still exists when only 6% of us in the national workforce are executives. Yes, we currently have more representation in Congress than ever, with 18 members in the House and Senate, but we're only 3% of that membership. And yes, people cheered when Kamala Harris became the first Asian American and first Black person to serve as vice president, but that doesn't solve the experience we all face of being mistaken for another [insert Asian person's name here].

I'm a gaysian man married to a Black man. I will always be an other. Despite my name "Gary," literally the most American name my parents could think of, I'll still be a little different. There is something about my black hair, almond-shaped eyes and slightly colored skin that makes some people believe I'm not really American despite my native English tongue, L.A. dress style and my impeccable math skills (OK, that is a stereotype).

We could be your neighbor, your colleague, even your friend. But deep down, we'll never be fully American in everyone's eyes. They'll see our black hair. They'll see our almond-shaped eyes. Whenever it is convenient for them, we won't be a model anything.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Video shows men hold down and beat Asian man in Manhattan subway station - New York Post

A video circulating on social media over the weekend shows a group of people brutally beating an Asian man inside a lower Manhattan subway station.

The video, which appeared to be filmed at the Fulton Street station, showed the man being pummeled by two men as a third holds him up as if a human punching bag.

One of the men rounds up and slaps the man in the face. His body appears to go limp until a second man delivers a round of punches to his head. The group cheers and applauds the beating.

It was not clear Sunday night whether the incident was being investigated as a hate crime against an Asian New Yorker — a persistent problem since the onset of the pandemic, which some politicians labeled the “China Virus.”

Some claimed the attack was a case of vigilante justice. Cops said they are looking into the video.

The footage was shared by the “Asian Crime Report” Twitter account Sunday and retweeted by the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force with a callout for the victim to reach out.

However, the full-length video was posted to another account Friday with the accusation that the man being beaten had tried to sexually assault a girl on the train.

A group of men attacked a man earlier this weekend. Know the victim ? Please have him contact us. https://t.co/WXbIEAnWvX

— Asian Hate Crimes Task Force (@NYPDAsianHCTF) May 29, 2022

In that video, someone can be heard shouting at the man: “You touching girls, you touching girls — little sisters and all that, moms and everything. You filthy, son.”

One of the men who slapped the straphanger can be heard saying that he has a daughter before his hand makes contact with the man’s face.

“I got a daughter,” he said. “If the cops lock me up, I’m paying my own bail.”

Police said late Sunday that they are investigating the incident.

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A tablescape of Hyungi Park's full incense setup.

Photo courtesy of Hyungi Park

Hyungi Park

Hyungi Park grew up with an affinity for the digital space—from computer programming lessons with her mother at age 10 to crafting Powerpoints for school book reports. She took her interest in computers and design and decided to pursue sculpture at VCU Arts, which is where her story of incense and craft making began to bloom.

What started with incense in performances and installations grew into a deep curiosity about its origins. She began shaping incense into flowers or braided sticks, twists on traditional cone incense. “I’m creating my own fusion of traditional-modern-American-Korean-abstract-Frankensteined,” she says.

While developing her work, Hyungi also became fascinated by the ways in which different Asian cultures applied incense—particularly citing how geisha used the burning of incense to indicate the cost of their entertainment and how Chinese working-class families let it be their version of an alarm clock. In a way, incense was a conduit for education, and Hyungi has taken that mode of learning a step further by opening the Baboshop storefront in Los Angeles. The space has become a hub for emerging craftspeople, with workshops that cover some of Hyungi’s latest self-taught forms—which now extend to bookbinding, laser-cutting, and tattooing.

A custom cake inspired by the colors of a Arcmanoro Niles painting.

Courtesy of Amy Yip

Amy Yip

You likely recognize Amy Yip’s cakes from her ever-so-circulated Instagram page, @yip.studio. Between mossy, rocklike green works and lumpy pieces covered in strawberries and bright reds, Amy has created a name for herself when it comes to aesthetically pleasing baking. The New Zealand native comes from baker parents and actually avoided the career path at first, having seen all the physical labor that went into her family’s business. She started off in art school and then worked as a textile designer for six years; but when she eventually “discovered a way of connecting [art and baking],” Amy became fascinated.

Nearly two years later, Amy began her practice. The rock geometry of her cakes is quite intentional, derived from her mom’s enthusiasm for crystals; she also often takes inspiration from the florals present at events where she is the pastry partner. The design of Amy’s cakes is just the start, as the flavor profiles span yuzu shiso, oolong rose and lychee, brown butter and Japanese sweet potato, and more. “I always wanted Asian-inspired cakes for my birthday, [but] it was always hard to find those cakes and textures,” she says.

Not only does Amy’s studio tout the flavoring of her heritage, but Amy shares that she intentionally used her surname for the business. While she was growing up, her parents chose to name their own business after a New Zealand local; in the mid-’90s, she wasn’t as proud or vocal about her identity as 66% Chinese and 33% Vietnamese. “I wanted a different surname, like Smith—I wanted to blend in,” she says. Now, she is happy “to take something that I was embarrassed of and show how proud I am.”

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Painting representation: New mural at high school in honor of Asian American, Pacific Islander students - Verona Press

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Painting representation: New mural at high school in honor of Asian American, Pacific Islander students  Verona Press

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Health Care Disparities Among Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) People - Kaiser Family Foundation

Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) people are a diverse and growing population in the U.S. (Figure 1). Asian people are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States, rising 81% from 10.5 million to 18.9 million between 2000 and 2019. In this data note, we use 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) data to examine how demographic characteristics as well as measures of health coverage and other social and economic factors that drive health and health care vary for Asian and NHOPI people overall and by subgroups. 2020 ACS data were not used since the quality of data was impaired by disruption to data collection in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining experiences among Asian and NHOPI people is important since broad data for Asian and NHOPI people often mask underlying disparities among subgroups of the population. Understanding the experiences of Asian and NHOPI is particularly important at this time given growing levels of racism and discrimination amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including a significant uptick in hate incidents against Asian  people.

Demographics

The majority of Asian and NHOPI people in the U.S. are citizens, adults, and are parents or living in multigenerational households (Figure 2). Asian and NHOPI people include larger shares of noncitizens relative to White people (26% and 15% vs. 2%). Roughly one in five Asian (20%) and White (20%) people are children, while about one in four (25%) NHOPI people are children. Larger shares of Asian and NHOPI people live in households comprised of parents with children or multigenerational households as compared to White people (59% and 66% vs. 45%). However, these demographics vary by subgroup. For example, the share who are noncitizens ranges from between 1% among Native Hawaiian and Guamanian or Chamorro people to 62% among Malaysian people. Similarly, the share who are children ranges from 10% of Japanese people to 44% of Marshallese people. Household composition also varies by group, with the proportion living in households that are comprised of parents with children or multigenerational households ranging from 35% for Japanese people to 87% for Bhutanese people.

Health Coverage

As of 2019, among the nonelderly population, 7% of Asian people and 13% of NHOPI people were uninsured (Figure 3). The uninsured rate for Asian people was similar to the rate for White people (8%), while the rate for NHOPI people was higher. Across both groups, uninsured rates were lower for children compared to nonelderly adults. The shares of Asian people covered by private coverage and Medicaid, were similar to the share for White people. In contrast, NHOPI people are less likely to have private coverage and more likely to be covered by Medicaid, with half (50%) of NHOPI children being covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Coverage patterns also vary by state Medicaid expansion status, with Medicaid and CHIP covering larger shares of Asian and NHOPI people in states that have adopted the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion to low-income adults compared to states that have not expanded, contributing to lower uninsured rates for these groups in expansion states. For example, in non-expansion states, over one in five (21%) NHOPI children are uninsured compared to 5% in states that have expanded.

There are wide variations in uninsured rates among Asian and NHOPI people (Figure 4). As of 2019, among the nonelderly, uninsured rates ranged from 4% for Japanese people to 32% for Mongolian people. Uninsured rates further varied by citizenship status, with higher uninsured rates for noncitizens across most groups. Among nonelderly noncitizens, uninsured rates varied from 4% for Japanese people to 42% for Mongolian people.

Socioeconomic Differences

A variety of social and economic factors influence individuals’ access to health coverage, their ability to access health care, and their overall well-being. While Asian people often fare similar to or better than White people across many of these measures, some subgroups fare worse.

Data show wide variations in socioeconomic measures among nonelderly Asian and NHOPI people, which may contribute to the differences in health coverage (Figure 5). There is more than a 70-percentage point difference in the share of people who have received a bachelor’s degree or higher among nonelderly Asian and NHOPI people 25 years of age and older, with 11% of Marshallese people having a bachelor’s degree or higher as compared to 84% of Taiwanese people. The share of households with at least one full-time worker also varies by subgroup. Across groups, at least half of nonelderly people live in a household with at least one full-time worker, but the share ranges from about half (52%) among Tongan people to 89% among Asian Indian people. Similarly, household income among Asian and NHOPI subgroups varies widely. The share of nonelderly people who live in a low-income household (below 200% of the federal poverty level or $42,660 for a family of 3 in 2019), ranged from to 62% for Burmese and Marshallese people to 11% for Asian Indian, Taiwanese, Filipino, and Japanese people. Some of these differences can be explained by citizenship and visa status. For example, those entering the U.S. with work visas likely have higher median household incomes compared to those that entered as asylees and/or refugees. Many Burmese people immigrate to the U.S. as refugees fleeing war in their home country, which could contribute towards their lower household incomes. On the other hand, higher earning groups such as Asian Indians usually immigrate through work visas.

Experiences with Racism and Discrimination

Understanding the experiences of Asian and NHOPI people is of particular importance at this time, given growing levels of racism and discrimination amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including a significant uptick in hate incidents against Asian people. Anti-Asian racism is not new within the United States. However, between 2019 and 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documented a 77% increase in hate crimes against Asian people in the United States with a majority of Asian Americans citing the previous administration and COVID cases being first reported in China as major reasons for this increase in discrimination. During this time many Asian Americans reported deteriorating mental health due to both the pandemic and violence against Asian people. A 2021 KFF survey of Asian community health center patients found that 1 in 3 respondents reported experiencing more discrimination since the COVID-19 pandemic began and that many reported a range of negative experiences due to their race or ethnicity, ranging from receiving poor service to being verbally or physically attacked (Figure 6). Some also reported immigration-related fears, likely reflecting public charge and other policy changes implemented under the Trump Administration. Over four in ten (44%) said they worry a lot of some that a family member could be detained or deported, and one in four (25%) said they or a household family member decided not to apply for or stopped participating in a government program to help pay for health care, food, or housing in the past year due to immigration-related fears.

Looking Ahead

The federal government has taken several actions in response to the rise in Asian hate and anti-Asian violence. Last year, Congress passed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in response to the increase in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic. During that time, the Biden Administration also released Executive Order 14031 “Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” which established the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI). The WHIAANHPI is committed to advancing equity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) by investing in AANHPI communities and responding to the spikes in anti-Asian violence.

The Biden Administration has also charged the government with addressing the systemic lack of disaggregated AANHPI data in federal statistical systems. In addition, the National Science Foundation (NSF) was tasked with funding research that seeks to identify, understand, and prevent discrimination, including against the AANHPI community. The Interagency Working Group on Equitable Data in collaboration with the WHIANHPI is also working to improve research on policy and program outcomes for AANHPI communities.

Enhancing availability and quality of disaggregated data for Asian and NHOPI people will be important for efforts to advance health equity. Asian and NHOPI communities are diverse groups with varying characteristics and experiences that influence their health and health care. The findings presented here illustrate how broad data for Asian and NHOPI people may mask disparities and challenges facing subpopulations in the community. These differences point to the importance of having disaggregated data for Asian and NHOPI groups to identify disparities and direct efforts to address them. In addition to broad data masking disparities among Asian and NHOPI people, data are often missing to identify and address disparities. Moving forward, a deeper understanding of the nuances of experiences for Asian and NHOPI people can help bring to light the experiences of smaller population groups, including Asian immigrants who are often invisible in public data sources. As the federal government implements initiatives and legislation to address these data gaps, centering equity in their efforts will be key to addressing health disparities among these groups.

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8 Asian American and Pacific Islander Creatives on the Relevance of Heritage | Architectural Digest - Architectural Digest

A tablescape of Hyungi Park's full incense setup.

Photo courtesy of Hyungi Park

Hyungi Park

Hyungi Park grew up with an affinity for the digital space—from computer programming lessons with her mother at age 10 to crafting Powerpoints for school book reports. She took her interest in computers and design and decided to pursue sculpture at VCU Arts, which is where her story of incense and craft making began to bloom.

What started with incense in performances and installations grew into a deep curiosity about its origins. She began shaping incense into flowers or braided sticks, twists on traditional cone incense. “I’m creating my own fusion of traditional-modern-American-Korean-abstract-Frankensteined,” she says.

While developing her work, Hyungi also became fascinated by the ways in which different Asian cultures applied incense—particularly citing how geisha used the burning of incense to indicate the cost of their entertainment and how Chinese working-class families let it be their version of an alarm clock. In a way, incense was a conduit for education, and Hyungi has taken that mode of learning a step further by opening the Baboshop storefront in Los Angeles. The space has become a hub for emerging craftspeople, with workshops that cover some of Hyungi’s latest self-taught forms—which now extend to bookbinding, laser-cutting, and tattooing.

A custom cake inspired by the colors of a Arcmanoro Niles painting.

Courtesy of Amy Yip

Amy Yip

You likely recognize Amy Yip’s cakes from her ever-so-circulated Instagram page, @yip.studio. Between mossy, rocklike green works and lumpy pieces covered in strawberries and bright reds, Amy has created a name for herself when it comes to aesthetically pleasing baking. The New Zealand native comes from baker parents and actually avoided the career path at first, having seen all the physical labor that went into her family’s business. She started off in art school and then worked as a textile designer for six years; but when she eventually “discovered a way of connecting [art and baking],” Amy became fascinated.

Nearly two years later, Amy began her practice. The rock geometry of her cakes is quite intentional, derived from her mom’s enthusiasm for crystals; she also often takes inspiration from the florals present at events where she is the pastry partner. The design of Amy’s cakes is just the start, as the flavor profiles span yuzu shiso, oolong rose and lychee, brown butter and Japanese sweet potato, and more. “I always wanted Asian-inspired cakes for my birthday, [but] it was always hard to find those cakes and textures,” she says.

Not only does Amy’s studio tout the flavoring of her heritage, but Amy shares that she intentionally used her surname for the business. While she was growing up, her parents chose to name their own business after a New Zealand local; in the mid-’90s, she wasn’t as proud or vocal about her identity as 66% Chinese and 33% Vietnamese. “I wanted a different surname, like Smith—I wanted to blend in,” she says. Now, she is happy “to take something that I was embarrassed of and show how proud I am.”

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NYC schools to pilot Asian American studies curriculum - Chalkbeat New York

New York City is piloting a curriculum on Asian American history this fall, with a wider rollout planned for 2024, officials announced Thursday.

The lessons are part of the city’s roughly $200 million investment in Universal Mosaic, a curriculum under development that aims to provide more culturally representative lessons for the nearly 1 million students in the nation’s largest school system. 

Called “Hidden Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the United States,” the guides will be available to every grade level and will include profiles of influential members of the community, often referred to as AAPI. The education department will provide training for teachers on the lessons and will buy books that reflect the AAPI experience. 

At a press conference at Tweed Courthouse, the education department’s Manhattan headquarters, Chancellor David Banks said the curriculum “honors all that our Asian American and Pacific Islander students and families contribute daily to our school communities and city.”

“We want each child to be heard and seen for who they are, to feel deep in their bones that they are respected and important,” Banks said. 

Many advocates have been calling for schools to incorporate more lessons that better reflect the diversity of the city’s students. That includes Asian Americans, who make up the fastest growing racial group in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams said with the creation of the new curriculum, “we are listening to the people.”

There are also efforts at the state level to introduce more students to the contributions of the Asian community. State Sen. John Liu has proposed legislation to require Asian American studies in schools. The bill is in committee. Advocates are calling for $800,000 to be devoted to the statewide curriculum from a pot of $20 million that has already been approved for APPI causes.

“When I immigrated here at the age of five, I thought I was going to be American. It wasn’t long thereafter that I found that in the schools, as well as in the streets, that I was somehow different,” Liu said. “In order for us to overcome this difference that has been imposed on us, we need to teach our experience.”

Calls for more representative lessons have only grown louder amid a wave of anti-Asian violence. Attacks have swelled since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, including the 2021 spa shootings in Atlanta that left dead six women of Asian descent — though many at the press conference noted that discrimination against Asian Americans has long been intertwined with the country’s history. 

In New York City, students say it has taken a toll, recounting experiences of being afraid for their safety and subjected to racist comments. 

“Growing up, I didn’t see many people like me in the history books or in media. So for a while, I thought that maybe there was just nobody notable, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Mikayla Lin, a student at Stuyvesant High School who spoke at the press conference about her own family tree. “We don’t want to be segregated and separated out with the title of ‘model minority.’ And we are not any less American than anybody else.”

The advocacy group Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) has been working on its own pilot curriculum to use with youth organizations across the city. It centers on healing by allowing young people to explore their own backgrounds and building community across identities, said Kristen Sze-Tu, a program coordinator at CACF who helped create the lessons.

“We have to have a complete understanding of where we’re coming from before we know where we’re heading to,” said Ivy Li, the associate director of mental health at Apex for Youth, a nonprofit that works with the AAPI community. 

CACF is among the organizations involved in creating New York City’s new curriculum along with the Asian American Education Project,  the New York Historical Society, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Yuri Education Project.

Christina Veiga is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on school diversity and preschool. Contact Christina at cveiga@chalkbeat.org.

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BLOG: Why I reject Asian cultural values - Northwest Asian Weekly

By Assunta Ng
Northwest Asian Weekly
Reprinted from May 2013

When you read that headline, you probably thought, “Is she crazy? What is she thinking?”

Within me, I embody 5,000 years of Chinese culture and wisdom. It makes no sense that I am declaring— especially in Asian American Heritage Month—that I don’t endorse Asian cultural values.

But let’s be honest, even Asian cultures have their faults. So what are the dark sides of my Chinese heritage that I distance myself from? What are the Chinese cultural values with which I identify most?

What I like about Asian cultures

From left: Ming Fung, Stephanie Schuessler, Melissa Camp, and Ellen Bjorge at a festive birthday party. The women said they bought their outfits online. (Photo by Assunta Ng)

I love the fact that we are hard workers. Loyalty is in our name, and we would sacrifice everything to support our family. Family is our foundation.

Humility helps us to build character to some extent.

We don’t need financial gurus like Suze Orman in the Asian community because our motto is “save, save, and save.” Americans like to spend and borrow while many of my Asian friends hate to be in debt.

According to the 2010 Census, Asian Americans have the highest income and education level compared to others. We place high priority on education. We might not spend much money on luxurious items, but we are more than willing to pay for our kids’ expensive tuition at Ivy League colleges and private schools.

Hierarchy obstructs progress

Asian culture teaches us to obey authority and elders and to respect hierarchy.

When an elder speaks, we have to not only listen, but to also accept what they say, even though they may be wrong. Only in my 50s did I muster all my courage and tell my parents that they were wrong many times.

However, my sons often tell me, “Mom, you made a mistake.”

They have liked to correct my English pronunciations and point out my ignorance toward technology and popular culture ever since they were kids. No, I don’t mind that my children seem to be smarter than me. They are my best teachers sometimes. The more they grow, the more I treat them as equals. If I said that to my mother, she would feel that I was being disrespectful.

“Face” ruins lives

We worry too much about what others think of us. Saving face is a big cultural burden among Asian immigrants. How many times are we afraid of doing something because of someone’s disapproval or the chance at gossip, even though we know it’s the right thing to do? Is it important to please yourself or to please everyone else?

Some Asians force themselves to buy an expensive house or accept a prestigious job because of “face.”

Getting rid of the “face” burden takes courage, but freeing yourself will be the reward.

Modesty is not the best answer

Asian culture emphasizes modesty. As a result, we shy away from promoting ourselves and speaking the truth even during critical times.

In America, you have an obligation to share your knowledge as it can save your co-workers’ time and your employer’s money.

Yes, it might involve marketing yourself and even drawing attention to yourself, but, to me, sharing your skills and expertise is not bragging. Sometimes, it’s the best thing to do for yourself and your company. After all, how are you going to reach the stars if others don’t know your abilities and contributions? Do you want to break the glass ceiling?

Marketing yourself at the right time and the right place is the key for Asian Americans to rise as leaders.

Make some noise

I was raised to be quiet and obedient, to not make noise or rock the boat. However, not speaking your mind is a mistake.

As publisher, I’ve learned that we have to challenge authority and injustice when it comes up.

Asking questions will change your life. You have a voice, and it’s up to you to use it.

The more you use it, the more powerful it becomes.

Diversity is a gift

Jerry Kirsch and Terry Allen showcase their origami artwork at the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival at Seattle Center recently. (Photo by Assunta Ng)

Had I not come to America, I would probably be racist. My family instilled in me lots of good values, but also instilled were prejudices toward Blacks and other Asian ethnic groups because of what my family had gone through during the Sino-Japanese War. In their minds, all Japanese people are the same.

As community leader Jerry Lee said, “That’s 60 years ago, and those Japanese are dead.”

America has transformed me to be receptive toward new ideas and cultures. I am grateful that I have shared some beautiful friendships with Japanese Americans and other people of color. They have opened my mind and my heart.

To show my commitment toward diversity, I have started diversity machines through the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation. We give out scholarships to whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, and other students based on their work on diversity.

The other diversity project is the Women of Color Empowered lunch series. We bring the most diverse group of women together to learn, share, and support each other. It’s only in America that I could initiate programs like these.

Don’t forget, diversity is a gift.

Failure moves us forward

Failure is hard to accept in Asian cultures. Failure makes individuals feel guilty and shameful.

I have seen divorced women treated as outcasts in China even though their husbands were at fault. Making little money is also considered a failure in Asian cultures, and unhappy young people suffer more than they need to because they believe that they’re completely at fault. If you commit a crime, you would never get a second chance in Asia.

But America believes in redemption. Millions of dollars have been spent to help teenage parents go back to school to get their GED. Former drug addicts and gang members are given a second chance to make a difference in society. They go out and speak to youth, helping them keep their lives on track.

Giving back

A Korean dance group performs during the AAPI Heritage Festival at the Seattle Center on May 1, 2022. (Photo by Assunta Ng)

My biggest disagreement with Asian cultural values is the belief that family should be the only ones we take care of. Each of us has a responsibility toward our community, our city, our state, and our country.

We should extend our generosity to people who don’t have the same last name.

That is what I admire about Americans who always offer help to strangers. After the Haiti earthquake, thousands of Americans went to the island to help rebuild. I have known many white Americans, including Bill Gates through his foundation, who have gone to Africa to develop clean water, work to eradicate polio, malaria, and other diseases, and to improve agricultural systems using their own time, money, and talents.

American culture preaches philanthropy and generosity. Asian Americans are slow to grasp the importance of giving back and embracing charitable causes.

Being both Asian and American has given me a little bit of liberty. It has shown me the freedom I have to be who I am, to choose what I believe, and to live the life I want. Without fear, I celebrate my ability to reject and keep the better of the two worlds.

Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

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