This Week in Asian Pacific Islander American News
This week, we appreciate Michelle Ye Hee Lee’s interview with Robert Peterson, son of Yong Ae Yue who was killed in the Atlanta spa shootings in spring 2021. The details captured so much of what a mother’s love feel (and smells) like: “She loved to cook Korean food for her family. When she visited Robert at his freshman dormitory at Morehouse College, a historically Black all-male school in Atlanta, she brought so much kimchi that the hallway smelled like it after she left, he recalled.”
“She knew who we were, and our identity, and the duality of our identities. She loved both sides of that for us,” he said of his mother. “And to see us embraced by these different communities, for her, she would have loved that.”
“It was like the first time I’m coming home, every single time,” Elliott said, recalling “her seeing me as a young child still, her baby.”
Read the full Philadelphia Tribune article here. Check out urbanitymag.com for current news by, for and about APIAs.
Politics
Asian Journal: AAPI Leaders Meet Biden, Harris At White House To Discuss Hate Crimes, Voting Rights (August 7) “UNITED States President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, August 5 met with Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) leaders to discuss key issues affecting the fastest-growing electorate in the country.”
The Guardian: Texas senate passes voting restrictions bill after 15-hour filibuster by Democrat (August 11) “The Texas senate has passed a bill that would impose voting restrictions in the state, shortly after a Democratic legislator concluded a 15-hour filibuster of the proposal.”
Ideastream: Stop Asian Hate Movement Gets Attention At Cleveland Mayoral Debate (August 11) “One of the topics put to candidates in Tuesday night’s Cleveland Mayoral Debate was racial equity in the city. A specific question about hate against Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) prompted the seven candidates to discuss the nationwide Stop Asian Hate movement.”
Social Justice
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Racial justice movement’s impact reaches Pittsburgh-area classrooms (August 9) “Dakota Castro-Jarrett, 17, missed school in the days following George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 to attend protests demanding racial justice. When he returned to Allderdice High School, where he was in the 11th grade and a leader of the school’s Black Student Union, he brought the passion he poured onto Pittsburgh’s streets back into his classes.”
NBC: Northern California water restrictions prompt accusations of racial profiling of Hmong farmers (August 10) “Activists say the policies have escalated tension between the Hmong community and officials, pointing to an incident in June, when authorities shot and killed farmer Soobleej Kaub Hawj.”
The Philadelphia Tribunal: Atlanta shooting victim’s biracial sons seek to unite Black, Asian communities in shared fight against hate (August 10) “In the months after his mother was shot and killed at an Atlanta-area spa, Robert Peterson was contacted by Young Bae, a celebrity tattoo artist whose son, like Peterson and his brother, is half-Black and half-Korean. She offered him a free tattoo to memorialize his mom.”
Art, Culture, and Media
The Economist: The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco reassesses its past (August 6) “A different approach to curation, as well as new exhibition spaces, will bring ,the museum into the 21st century’.”
SF Chronicle: Artist Hung Liu, subject of current de Young Museum exhibition, dies at 73 (August 10) “Chinese-born American artist Hung Liu, an Oakland-based painter internationally recognized for her work exploring notions of identity, immigration and the Maoist culture she grew up in, has died just as her latest exhibit went on display at San Francisco’s de Young Museum.”
Covid-19
LAist: Asian Households Are More Likely To Report Food Shortages Because Residents Fear Going Out (August 11) “During the pandemic, food insecurity worsened in many homes and across racial groups. But an analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates fears about leaving home to get enough food were a more prevalent factor for Asian households.”
The Diplomat: COVID-19 Breaches Last Southeast Asian Bastions (August 11) “Brunei breaks its 15-month coronavirus-free streak, while Timor-Leste reports the arrival of the contagious Delta variant.”
