#2021 Atlanta spa shootings

[panicinthestudio]

“Rising Against Asian Hate:” Son of Atlanta Spa Shooting Victim Speaks Out, October 18, 2022

The horrific spa shootings that rocked Atlanta in 2021 left eight people dead -- including six Asian women -- and an Asian American community shrouded in grief and fear. A new documentary on PBS.org, "Rising Against Asian Hate," explores the story in searing detail. Executive producer Gina Kim and Robert Peterson -- whose mother was killed in the shootings -- join Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the tragedy and its aftermath.

Amanpour and Company

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.16 (after 1970)

1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War. 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors. 1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73. 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time. 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war. 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity. 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991. 1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people. 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded. 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865. 2001 – A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China kill 108 people and injure 38 others, the biggest mass murder in China in decades. 2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home. 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control. 2010 – The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed in a fire. 2012 – Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket. 2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia. 2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30. 2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18. 2020 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%. 2021 – Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day. 2022 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

[ethn11winter24]

The Silent Struggles of Asian American Women

By: Emily Diamante

Intro

Intersectionality is when two social identities intersect, making unique situations for an individual. Women in America are faced with various difficulties ranging from the wage gap to sexual harassment. Asians in America experience discrimination, stereotyping, etc. Asian American women in this country experience all of these dangers simultaneously. My name is Emily Diamante and this blog post will briefly cover examples in history where Asian women were stereotyped and discriminated against for being both a woman and Asian. 

Starting from the Beginning

In 1875, the Page Act was passed. This act restricted Asian women from immigrating to the U.S for prositutional purposes. This was one of the first instances of heavy stereotyping on Asian women. With the passing of this act, this wrongly profiles Asian women as prostitutes, dehumanizing them to an object. In addition, this act prevented Asian couples from starting families. It is important to note that the fourteenth amendment states, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”. So due to the Page Act, the exclusion of Asian women in the country prevented these couples from starting a family. This stereotype was further portrayed when it came to the idea of a “military man”. The identity of a military man was just this macho, super masculine guy. So masculine that being called anything related to feminists was considered an insult. The stereotypical Asian woman at that time is the perfect opposite of a military man. Asian women are seen as submissive, seductive, only capable of serving men. 

Covid

With the COVID-19 pandemic, harmful acts of hate towards the Asian community has increased by 339% in some of the largest cities in the U.S. It is clear it is because of people’s fear, scapegoating, and misinformation that caused Asian hate to grow so much in such a short amount of time. It is also no coincidence that when President Donald Trump used phrases such as “Kung- Flu” or “China Virus” that the blame on Asian Americans got even worse. The AAPI have documented about 4,000 instances of hate with Asian women being targeted 2.3 times more than men. Asian American women have stated that they have experienced some of these situations: being called racial slurs, comments about racial stereotypes, being followed via car, accused of being dirty, and being accused of having the “China Virus”. Because of these experiences, it is no doubt that Asian Americans have felt hopeless and frustrated during this pandemic. They are disappointed with the American government for how they are being treated. Asian women fear their treatment so much to go as far as to shop in only Asian stores. 

Atlanta Shooting 

March 16, 2021. Robert Aaron Long attacks a massage parlor and two spas in Atlanta, Georgia. He shoots and kills eight people. All eight victims were Asian women. This tragic, targeted attack was a symbol that highlighted the intersection of racism and sexism. This act of violence represented the ongoing struggles of the objectification, fetishization, and dehumanizing experience of Asian women in America. This attack sheds light on urgent issues that need to be addressed.

Below I provide a variety of links that talk more on this issue if you were interested: 

https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-119

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.993396/full

https://www.asianwomenunited.org/ 

Works Cited

Lang, Cady, and Paulina Cachero. “How History Puts Asian Women in America at Risk.” Time, Time, 7 Apr. 2021, time.com/5952819/history-anti-asian-racism-misogyny/. 

“Prof. Hahm & Colleagues Share First-Hand Experiences of Asian American Women Survivors of Discrimination during COVID-19.” School of Social Work Prof Hahm Colleagues Share FirstHand Experiences of Asian American Women Survivors of Discrimination During COVID19 Comments, 1 Oct. 1969, www.bu.edu/ssw/prof-hahm-colleagues-share-first-hand-experiences-asian-american-women-survivors-discrimination-during-covid-19/. 

Where Sexism and Racism Meet: The Danger of Existing as an Asian ..., www.law.georgetown.edu/gender-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/I.-Oishi_Where-racism-and-sexism-meet.pdf. Accessed 19 Jan. 2024.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Thomas Chatterton Williams

Published: Feb 1, 2023

On Friday, Memphis police released body- and street-cam video of five officers beating Tyre Nichols, an unarmed civilian who later died of his injuries. Unlike many recent notorious examples of police brutality, in this instance the victim and perpetrators were all Black, leading to confusion and distress. The basketball star LeBron James tweeted, “WE ARE OUR OWN WORSE ENEMY!” This kind of self-directed criticism is familiar to anyone who has had their hair trimmed in a Black barbershop. What is novel today is the amount of anger and the specific form of critique that James’s tweet, for one prominent example, engendered. One of the more polite and re-printable responses: “i’d say white supremacy was our worse enemy but okay lebron.”

White supremacy used to refer to the belief, encoded in both custom and law, that white people sit at the top of a biological racial hierarchy and that they must remain there. But in the past decade or so, it has become a much vaguer and more totalizing concept, denoting invisible structures, latent beliefs, and even innocuous practices, such as punctuality, that supposedly maintain the comparative advantage of white people at the expense of everyone else. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the period of racial reckoning that followed, all manner of experience was probed for evidence of “white supremacy.” Some on the left have adopted the term as a sort of shorthand for the the invisible hand of all American social and political life.

This understanding of white supremacy has led progressive journalists and activists to bring attention to (some might say obsess over) racial background in lethal encounters involving white and nonwhite people. George Zimmerman, who killed Trayvon Martin, was a white Hispanic. Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown, was not merely an agent of the state but specifically a white police officer. Derek Chauvin, a white man in a multiracial group of officers responding to the scene, was the one to kneel on George Floyd. When Robert Aaron Long, a white man, murdered eight mostly Asian workers in three massage parlors in Atlanta in 2021, he said he was a sex addict and suggested he was driven by shame. But some community leaders insisted that anti-Asian animus was the X factor. According to one media narrative, repeating Long’s professed motive amounted to making “excuses” for “white male murderers.”

For some on the left, whiteness and white supremacy retain their explanatory power even when white people are nowhere to be seen. The same year as the spa shootings, when Americans were bristling against school and business shutdowns and crime rates were spiking, nationwide hate crimes against Asian Americans surged by 339 percent. Anti-Asian violence in America has always been “a diverse and majority-minority affair,” as Wilfred Reilly wrote in 2021. “The 2019 Bureau of Justice Statistics report [found] that 27.5 percent of violent criminals targeting an Asian victim are black and only 24.1 percent are white.” Yet as video and anecdotal evidence emerged of vicious Black-on-Asian assaults and homicides, progressives wouldn’t let go of their hobbyhorse.

“Ultimately, there is a failure to remember what got America to this place of racial hierarchies and lingering Black-Asian tensions: white supremacy,” a 2021 Vox article explains. “White supremacy is what created segregation, policing, and scarcity of resources in low-income neighborhoods, as well as the creation of the ‘model minority’ myth—all of which has driven a wedge between Black and Asian communities. In fact, it is white Christian nationalism, more than any other ideology, that has shaped xenophobic and racist views around Covid-19.”

* * *

Like everyone I have spoken with, I was sickened and saddened by the killing of Tyre Nichols. When the videos were released, I was visiting my parents, and the footage was all any of us could talk about. Any attempt to make sense of the atrocity felt insufficient. My mother, an observant Christian, pointed to the existence of evil. My father, a sociologist by training, noted how power dynamics can affect, or corrupt, encounters between strangers. I stressed the role of ego and general incompetence—these officers were young, granted far too much authority, and grossly inexperienced.

Writing at CNN on Friday, Van Jones offered another explanation under the headline “The police who killed Tyre Nichols were Black. But they might still have been driven by racism.” It is certainly possible that the five young, dark-skinned men who beat Nichols so mercilessly had each internalized a poisonous self-hatred. (On Monday, the Memphis police department revealed that two other officers had been disciplined as part of the investigation, at least one of whom is white.) And there is also a serious argument to be made that racism does not require interpersonal malice but may be understood as the limited and limiting system in which individuals make free but constrained decisions. In the latter telling, the institution of American policing is foundationally derived from southern slave patrols and now operates as a disciplining force to protect capital and hold the poor and marginalized in place—all of which makes it an inherently anti-Black enterprise, regardless of the racial or ethnic makeup of the individual officers in its employ.

I am, to a degree, sympathetic to these views. I will never forget the day my brother had his front teeth separated from his mouth by the cold flashlight of a cop whose skin was darker than his own. But I am deeply skeptical of the reflex to attribute all violence and misconduct to structural racism, to impose that smooth framework on every atrocity no matter its jagged grain. I tweeted in response to Jones’s headline that we ought to at least consider the possibility that these five officers’ reprehensible actions fall on them alone.

By the next morning, that tweet had gone viral. I attempted to extend the thought further, writing, “Twitter is an amazing prism because you can watch fringe epistemologies congeal into orthodoxy in real time. A view that still strikes most as an enormous stretch—that white supremacist racism explains bad actions of non-whites even where no whites are present—is one example.”

This statement drew support as well as ire. The writer Joyce Carol Oates quoted it with a rebuttal: “yours is a somewhat disingenuous interpretation of a simple theory: that the race of the victim may determine the punishment, regardless of the race of the perpetrators. (in which case, if the victim had been white, the Black officers might have treated him less brutally.)” That tweet went viral, too, generating millions of views. Soon, my notifications were flooded with responses making a similar point, many of them quoting a specific passage from James Baldwin’s 1985 book, The Evidence of Things Not Seen:

Black policemen were another matter. We used to say, “If you just must call a policeman”—for we hardly ever did—“for God’s sake, try to make sure it’s a White one.” A Black policeman could completely demolish you. He knew far more about you than a White policeman could and you were without defenses before this Black brother in uniform whose entire reason for breathing seemed to be his hope to offer proof that, though he was Black, he was not Black like you.

Baldwin made this point with psychological acuity throughout his career. In his 1955 debut, Notes of a Native Son, he writes—eerily, in light of Memphis—“There were, incidentally, according to my brother, five Negro policemen in Atlanta at this time, who, though they were not allowed to arrest whites, would, of course, be willing, indeed, in their position, anxious, to arrest any Negro who seemed to need it. In Harlem, Negro policemen are feared even more than whites, for they have more to prove and fewer ways to prove it.”

Those were Baldwin’s insights some 40 and nearly 80 years ago, respectively, and they say something historically true with ramifications for the present. I erred on Twitter in dismissing as merely “fringe” this position—that even nonwhite actors can buy into notions of their own personal or group inferiority, and also contribute to their own structural disadvantage. And yet, is even Baldwin’s exquisite articulation really the last or even the most compelling word on what is happening between and within groups in 2023?

Americans hardly have a monopoly on brutality, or state-sanctioned brutality, such that only peculiarities of American history can explain violence in the present. We have spent the past year observing groups of white-skinned Russian men do unspeakable things to the white-skinned Ukrainians at their mercy—things most of these same men would never do by themselves—simply because they were together and they could. Strength is provocative; weakness is too. I believe that this is what my father means when he invokes power dynamics (it may also be what my mother means by evil), and it cuts across every ethnic line.

In the case of Tyre Nichols, in particular, the offending officers are Black, but so is the city’s chief of police, the majority of the force she oversees, and the community at large. The notion that the most likely explanation for this specific horror in this specific locality at this specific time ought to be reduced to a permanent, invisible, and unfalsifiable force called white supremacy veers dangerously close to determinism. Perversely, this infantilizing logic can’t help but absolve the five officers of responsibility for a heinous crime that most people and most police officers of any background do not commit.

Such moral reasoning has become conventional wisdom, embraced vocally by white liberals, among others. But white and nonwhite people alike should be wary of forfeiting their agency so easily. We should always remain skeptical of systems-level thinking that reduces the complexity and unpredictability of human action to a simple formula.

Why did those officers kill Tyre Nichols? I don’t know, and I’m wary of anyone who says they do.

[ Via: https://archive.vn/eVOYu ]

==

Presupposing the motivation for a social phenomenon is no better than academics starting with their conclusion and working backwards, or Xians and Muslims scouring their scripture for verses they can interpret as scientific "proof" of their god.

"Faith is pretending to know things you don't know."

-- Peter Boghossian

[wearevillaneve]

Explore the fight against Asian American hate following the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta. Examine how this critical moment of racial reckoning sheds light on the struggles, triumphs and achievements of AAPI communities. The film is narrated by Sandra Oh with music by Jon Batiste and Cory Wong.

[beardedmrbean]

A New York City man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a hate crime in the 2021 killing of a Chinese immigrant has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, authorities said.

Jarrod Powell's attack on c, 61, in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood was one of a spate of attacks targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the United States.

Ma was in a coma for eight months before he died. Police surveillance video of the April 2021 attack showed Ma being knocked down from behind and kicked in the head multiple times by a lone man.

Powell pleaded guilty in January to manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said in a statement announcing that the 51-year-old had been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

"Mr. Ma's death was the result of a despicable racially motivated attack," Bragg said. "(No) one should have to fear that they may be in danger because of their background."

Ma was a pastry chef who came to the U.S. with his wife two years before the attack, U.S. media have reported.

Bragg's office said Powell admitted in his plea that he targeted Ma due to his Asian heritage. The office said it currently has 39 open cases related to anti-Asian hate crimes.

The attack on Ma came a month after a shooting spree at three Atlanta spas left eight people dead, including six Asian women.

About one-third of Asian Americans say they have changed their daily routines due to concerns over threats and attacks, according to a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center. The FBI says there were 305 U.S. hate crimes against Asians in 2021.

[jack35434]

What Happened to Stop Asian Hate

What Happened to Stop Asian Hate: A Movement for Change

Introduction In recent years, the Stop Asian Hate movement has emerged as a significant force advocating against the rise of anti-Asian violence and discrimination. This movement gained momentum following a series of high-profile incidents that highlighted the pervasive nature of racism and xenophobia targeting Asian communities in the United States and around the world. This story delves into the origins, impact, and ongoing efforts of the Stop Asian Hate movement.

Origins of the Movement The roots of the Stop Asian Hate movement can be traced back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus spread globally, misinformation and xenophobic rhetoric fueled a surge in anti-Asian sentiment. Asians and Asian Americans were scapegoated and wrongly blamed for the pandemic, leading to a dramatic increase in hate crimes and discriminatory behavior.

One of the most galvanizing incidents occurred in March 2021, when a series of shootings at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia, resulted in the deaths of eight people, six of whom were Asian women. This tragedy shocked the nation and brought the issue of anti-Asian violence to the forefront of public consciousness. Vigils, protests, and rallies were organized across the country, calling for justice for the victims and an end to the violence.

Impact of the Movement The Stop Asian Hate movement has had a profound impact on raising awareness about the discrimination and violence faced by Asian communities. Advocacy groups, community leaders, and celebrities have used their platforms to highlight personal stories of suffering and resilience, humanizing the statistics and fostering empathy.

Social media played a crucial role in amplifying the movement. Hashtags like #StopAsianHate and #ProtectAsianLives trended globally, encouraging people to share their experiences and stand in solidarity with the Asian community. This digital activism translated into tangible actions, such as increased donations to Asian advocacy organizations and greater representation of Asian voices in media and politics.

Legislative and Community Responses In response to the movement, lawmakers and local governments took steps to address the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes. In May 2021, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act was signed into law in the United States. This legislation aims to expedite the review of hate crimes related to the pandemic and provides support for state and local governments to improve hate crime reporting.

Community initiatives also flourished. Grassroots organizations provided support to victims, offered self-defense workshops, and created safe spaces for dialogue and healing. Educational programs were developed to combat ignorance and foster a better understanding of Asian cultures and histories.

Challenges and the Way Forward Despite the progress made, challenges remain. Hate crimes and discriminatory incidents continue to occur, and there is still much work to be done to dismantle systemic racism and promote true equality. The Stop Asian Hate movement emphasizes the importance of allyship and solidarity with other marginalized communities, recognizing that the fight against hate and discrimination is interconnected.

Conclusion The Stop Asian Hate movement has brought to light the urgent need to address anti-Asian violence and discrimination. Through advocacy, education, and community support, it has inspired a collective effort to create a more inclusive and just society. While the journey is far from over, the movement has laid a strong foundation for lasting change, reminding us all of the power of unity and resilience in the face of adversity.

[thebearcathideout]

What “Mission Impossible 7” Reveals About Asian Women Stereotypes

A tiny part of a movie that I think matters more than credit is given to.

Paris as she appears in the new “Mission Impossible” movie. (Paramount Pictures)

Hi there! This blog post will be structured a bit different than my usual formula. While I’ll start by giving my personal experiences, the second half will be my opinions on current events, particularly this movie.

Yesterday, I watched Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One with my family. (I actually tried to watch Barbenheimer, but they didn’t buy tickets for it.) Anyways, spoilers up ahead if you haven’t watched the latest Mission Impossible movie, but it was pretty fun — you could tell from the beginning that this movie was going to exist for the sake of having fun, as all the buttons inside the submarine were there for no other reason than to look cool. Overall, it was a decent action experience.

Me at the movie theater!

There was just one a small part of the movie that made me uneasy throughout the movie. And I thought it would go away, but I think it got worse as it continued. That’s the character of Paris, and her use as a sexual plot device.

Paris is an East-Asian-looking character that supposed to be one of the main antagonists of Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. I was thinking it was too on-the-nose to call her “sexual,” but then when Tom Cruise- sorry, “Ethan Hunt” was trapped in an alleyway with her, she tried to strangle him by putting her thighs around her, and he could see her midriff.

Who does this appeal to? Maybe this movie wasn’t trying to be racist, but when it tries to create a sexually suggestive character, it says something if they accidentally selected an Asian actress for the role. This tied back to something I learned recently about the intersection of Asian Americans and being female.

The stereotype in America that Asian women are hot may go back to Chinese immigrants. In the 1860s, over 90% of Chinese women were prostitutes. This was significant enough that when the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings happened, the perpetrator tried to say he wasn’t doing it for a racist reason but out of “sexual frustration.”

And to those that say “But Pom Klementieff is a Quebecois Korean” — racial stereotyping happens based off your appearance. They probably can’t tell the difference in categories.

(also, if you're reading this now, this is a rough copy I'll try and fix it out later.)

[technsavi]

What Does It Take to Put Inclusive Curriculum Legislation Into Practice?

In the wake of the Atlanta Spa shootings and a surge in violence against Asian Americans throughout the pandemic, Illinois made history by becoming the first state to mandate that Asian American history be taught in public K-12 schools beginning in the 2022-23 school year. The Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act was signed into law in July 2021 with wide bipartisan…

[rityl2]

Chapter 5. (Fieldwork)

Racialization: the textbook defines racialization as, The process of categorizing, differentiating, and attributing a particular racial character to a person or group of people.

For example, the media paints the African American male to be a savage by their overrepresentation of violent crime. Because of this, many people who aren't black (and even some who are) become uneasy around African Americans because they think they could pop off and go feral at any second. The overrepresentation of violent crime committed by African Americans is not only destructive to those being held responsible, but for the entire community as well; Stereotypes can not only be created, but also enforced by this negative aspect of media.

(https://www.americanprogress.org/article/dangerous-racialization-crime-u-s-news-media/)

White Privilege: White privilege is essentially the unfair advantage that white American citizens hold all other ethnic groups, simply because of the color of their skin.

White privilege is still alive to this day despite the claims of many white people arguing that it doesn't, and never existed. One criterion where white privilege is abundantly clear lies within police interaction. In the past decade we've seen countless times in the news how unarmed black men have been shot, tazed, and choked to death for misdemeanor and minor felony offences. Last year in July (2022) a 25 year old unarmed black man later identified to be Jayland Walker was shot dead by 8 police officers after fleeing. Bodycam footage displayed Walker running away from a traffic stop, obviously unarmed, before all 8 officers discharged their firearms into his back killing him on the scene. Just a year prior to this event, a white man named Robert Aaron Long went on a murder spree in Atlanta Georgia, targeting and killing people of Asian descent. Long was apprehended, given a fair trial, and sentenced to life without parole with an additional 35 years. In the end, Long's life was taken from him in a sense that he had to spend the rest of it behind bars, whereas Walker didn't get the opportunity to be tried in a courtroom. Excessive force and malice is seldom used against a white suspect even if all fingers point to them committing the crime.

(https://www.npr.org/2021/09/28/1041137210/atlanta-spa-shooting-suspect-pleads-not-guilty-robert-aaron-long)

(https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-man-unarmed-ohio-officers-opened-fire-family/story?id=86149929)

Microaggression: refer to common everyday verbal or behavioral indignities and slights that communicate hostile derogatory and negative messaged about someone's race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

Prior to the 2021 election, Joe Biden made a few questionable statements, some of which regarding the race and racial identity of African Americans. In one instance, Biden is being interviewed by Charlamagne and says, "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, the you ain't black". This statement stirred up a lot of controversy due to the fact that it offended many individuals who are black and unsure of who to vote for. Although the statement was not made to be intentionally offensive, Biden was under fire nonetheless.

Racism: individuals thoughts and actions, as well as institutional patterns and policies, that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities based on imagined differences among groups

After the abolition of slavery and the riddance of Jim Crow laws, racism remains to linger in the United States. In 2020, a black man was bird watching in New York City's Central Park when he confronted a women walking her dog. Christian Cooper (bird watcher) asks Amy Cooper (dog walker) [no relation] to follow park rules and leash her dog. Amy cooper then calls the Police and tells them that there is an African American male threatening her life; Christian cooper records the interaction. While Amy Cooper's intentions were not clear, it can be inferred from the video that she was using the police as a weapon against Christian. The video was uploaded on May 27th 2020, 2 days after George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis.

[flowerwebs]

hey, in light of the hate crimes in atlanta, i decided to make a thread about my experiences about what i’ve faced as an asian woman in america. https://twitter.com/petaisbough/status/1372286490978492423?s=21 pls boost and share; asian voices deserve to be heard and listened to during this time. our community in the states is constantly under attack, especially because of misinformation and stereotyping this year.

here are some charities you can donate to help us:

• red canary song — a transnational grassroots organization that works to help migrant asian sex workers

• asian immigrant women advocates — works with low income immigrant youth and workers in the san francisco bay area, seeks to empower them through education, leadership development, and collective action

• womankind — a charity that provides resources for immigrant asian woman who are survivors of domestic abuse

• asian american journalism organization — nonprofit working to ensure fair coverage of asians and asian issues in news media, as well as bring more asian diversity into newsrooms

• asian americans advancing justice — an advocacy/rights group for asian diaspora in the states, currently have an atlanta chapter

• butterfly asian and migrant sex workers support network — advocates for the rights of asian immigrant sex workers, based in toronto

[portiaadams]

People are defending Baker and why what he said wasn’t that bad.

Let’s be clear. It was.

And is anyone shocked he’s shared anti-Asian racist nonsense? I didn’t think so.

[wazafam]

By BY JULIANA KIM from U.S. in the New York Times-https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/atlanta-shooting-victims.html?partner=IFTTT Randy and Eric Park’s mother was among eight people killed in the spa shootings. They have been largely left to navigate the world by themselves. ‘She Died Working for Us’: Sons of Atlanta Victim Struggle to Move Forward New York Times

[gehayi]

Names of the Victims in the Atlanta Spa Shootings

Soon Chung Park, 74;

Hyun Jung Grant, 51;

Suncha Kim, 69;

Yong Ae Yue, 63

Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, murdered two days before her 50th birthday;

Daoyou Feng, 44;

Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33;

Paul Andre Michels, 54

Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was injured in the shooting and remained in critical condition as of  March 18, 2021.

(In case someone else cares more about the victims than about yet another racist domestic terrorist.)

[henrykathman]

Every Modern Cinderella Adaptation Ranked!

In this video, I have examined 28 different adaptations of Cinderella produced in the past 25 years, including film, video games, ballets, musicals, and more than a couple of entries into the Cinderella Story franchise. The goal is to examine the ways that this classic fairy tale has evolved in the past quarter of a century to see what it reflects about the changes being made to our society.

Video Credits Below

Written and Produced by Henry Kathman Additional Voices provided by Laura Crone and Aranock Script Editing by Argus Swift Music by Molly Noise Korean Pronunciation Consulting from Pieter de Rooij

Mentioned Videos (In order of appearance)

Emily Clark, The BEST Cinderella (Full Stop) | Cinderella 1997

Dominic Noble, Ella Enchanted | Lost in Adaptation

Cinderella (2006) Full Movie

Drawpinion Dump, Cinderella III is a Transformative Masterpiece

Full Performance of Into the Woods

Princess Weekes, The Magical Negroes of Stephen King

Year of the Fish Addendum Sources:

Jeong, May, and Photography by An Rong Xu. “How the Atlanta Spa Shootings-the Victims, the Survivors-Tell a Story of America.” Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, 14 Mar. 2022

Levine, Judith. “Yes, Blame Christian Fundamentalism for the Atlanta Murders.” The Intercept, First Look Media, 23 Mar. 2021

Putcha, Rumya S. “White Supremacy and the Wellness Industry, or, Why It Matters That This Happened at a ‘Spa.’” Society and Space, SAGE Publications Inc, 22 Mar. 2021

Steadman, Otillia. “Asian Sex Workers Want to Decriminalize Unlicensed Massage Work One Year after Atlanta Shootings.” BuzzFeed News, BuzzFeed, 21 Mar. 2022

Sources

Bamigboye, Baz. “Director of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Doomed West End Musical 'Cinderella' Is ‘Angered’ over Treatment of Cast and Crew on Show.” Deadline, Penske Media Corporation, 3 May 2022.

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[joshualunacreations]

#StopAsianHate is meaningless until we acknowledge white men as the architects of anti-Asian racism, and the blueprints they use to divide the Asian community and sabotage progress.

Understanding anti-Asian racism means connecting its history in the U.S. with its history in Asia, instead of treating them separately. U.S. imperialism, war, and colonization abroad directly informs the racism Asian Americans experience because the goal is the same: divide, conquer, and kill.

White men used war to split Korea and Vietnam in two, and divide AsAms the same way. One blueprint of the U.S.'s domestic anti-Asian strategy is the Mixed Marriage Policy of 1942-1943. Implemented during Japanese Internment, it gave certain Asians special exemptions to leave camp.

Internment was meant to harm Japanese Americans, not white men with Japanese families (whiteness is why few German and Italian Americans were interned). So, the Mixed Marriage Policy let Japanese leave camps if they:

1) married a non-Japanese

2) proved a "Caucasian environment."

The Mixed Marriage Policy had two versions. In 1942, few Asians were eligible—especially monoracial Japanese men. The 1943 version greatly expanded eligibility for monoracial Japanese women and mixed-Japanese adults, but eliminated nearly all eligibility for monoracial Japanese men.

Each eligible case required proving a "Caucasian environment." So while on paper the MMP offered exemptions to non-white mixed-Japanese couples and their kids, they were rarely granted. The MMP's real goal was to benefit white men with Japanese wives and mixed-white Japanese children.

Overall, the Mixed Marriage Policy reveals white men's hierarchy of Asians:

1) mixed-white Asian adults

2) monoracial Asian women married to white men and with white-mixed children

3) monoracial Asian men—preferably deported, divorced, detained in an internment camp, or dead.

By explicitly laying out white men's hierarchy of Asians, the MMP is an incredibly revealing anti-Asian document. Which is perhaps why it's so difficult to find—the original documents are at the National Archives and aren't digitized (must pay to see them).

There's good reason for white men wanting to hide the MMP. It's a Rosetta Stone for understanding the motivations of many modern anti-Asian hate crimes like the NYC Hammer killings, Atlanta spa shootings, and Isla Vista massacre. Each can be directly tied to the roadmap MMP provides.

The 2019 NYC hammer killings occurred when a white man saw films vilifying Asian men and wanted to "defend" Asian women. He entered a buffet to hammer random Asian men in the head. They all died slowly: Fufai Pun later that day, Kheong Ng-Thang 3 days later, Tsz Pun a week later.

The 2021 Atlanta spa shootings occurred because a white man blamed Asian women for his "sex addiction." He shot at multiple Asian massage workers and planned on targeting more. Victims include Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue.

The 2014 Isla Vista massacre occurred because a functionally-white, white-mixed Asian hated white women who rejected him & men of color. He assaulted monoracial Asian men several times and murdered three—Cheng Yuan Hong, Weihan Wang, and George Chen—by stabbing them 15, 25, and 94 times.

Many people believe anti-Asian racism started with COVID, but as these examples show, Asians have always suffered violence. The problem is our stories are purposely erased and twisted to double-victimize us and reinforce the lies of the Model Minority Myth. This happens two ways.

The first erasure comes from white people in government, news, education, and more. White men know coverage can humanize—or destroy. That's why the racial component of Isla Vista was removed, the hammer killings were downplayed, and "sex addiction" was used to justify Atlanta.

The second erasure sadly comes from complicit Asians. The MMP's core concept is clear: to be spared fatal anti-Asian racism, you must actively show loyalty to whiteness by proving a "Caucasian environment"—in other words, dodge the bullet by redirecting it to another Asian's head.

Complicit Asians say criticizing their complicity condemns interracial relationships. It doesn't. There were Japanese whose white spouses stood by them—like Arthur Ishigo, whose wife Estelle voluntarily joined his camp. He later died of cancer and she lost her legs to gangrene.

These days complicit Asians aren't restricted by gender or marriage. Anyone can be one (although partnering with white men remains the easiest way to do this). To prove their "Caucasian environment," they must punch down on Asians with equal or greater hate than white men do.

For ex, complicit Asians write articles telling Asian Americans to not label anti-Asian violence as hate crimes until white officials say so, disrespect Asian male Isla Vista victims by blaming their deaths on Asianness, and so on. They're not bringing awareness—they're sabotaging it.

That's by design. White men know in-fighting wastes AsAm energy. So, they recruit complicit Asians, give them a monopoly on AsAm resources, microphones, and platforms—despite being a minority in AsAm spaces—and watch as they perpetuate the status quo rather than dismantle it.

This all comes back to the same violent, imperialist strategies white men have used against Asian countries for centuries: rape and pillage, divide and conquer, install puppet leaders. Drive Asians out of Asia through violence, dangle the "American dream,” then murder us more.

This means the MMP’s relevance is twofold: 1) white men’s hierarchy of Asians endures to this day, and 2) rising hate crimes show how easy it is to bring internment back. Between 2020 and 2021, overall hate crimes dropped by 7%, but anti-Asian hate crimes spiked 149%.

So to #StopAsianHate, it's not enough to talk about the "easy" topics. We must also address the "taboos." This includes the violent ways whiteness recruits Asians so it can Trojan Horse its way into our communities, shut down progress, and endanger us all—exactly as intended.

Thank you to Ashlynn Deu Pree, Paul Spickard, and Adrienne Edgar for their help with points of contact and data. (Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.) If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agenthttps://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304 https://patreon.com/joshualuna https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics