By Reappropriate Summer Intern: V. Huynh
These Tiny Desk Contestants Set Stories of The Asian-American Experience To Music
“Entrants Julian Saporiti and Erin Aoyama, two doctoral students in American Studies at Brown University, create songs that illuminate the Asian-American experience in their multimedia project No-No Boy. The pair’s Tiny Desk Contest submission “Two Candles In The Dark” tells the story of Aoyama’s grandmother who was incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.”
‘At Least During the Internment …’ Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter
“And yet, in one core, horrifying way this is worse. At least during the internment of Japanese-Americans, I and other children were not stripped from our parents. We were not pulled screaming from our mothers’ arms. We were not left to change the diapers of younger children by ourselves.”
Telling the wrong story about racial discrimination in education
“This sentiment ignores the everyday experiences of both black and Asian-American students. To be black in the US educational system is to live farther from high-quality schools than Asian-Americans, to be referred to gifted-programs at lower rates (even when demonstrating the same levels of achievement), and, because race and income are so highly correlated, to face differential opportunities even within the same schools.”
Chinese citizen arrested, detained at green card interview
“You arrived in January 2000 without a valid entry document and ICE began removal proceedings for him in March of that year. That December, an immigration judge ordered him to be removed from the country. His appeal to that decision was turned down that same month.”
The Forgotten Zine of 1960s Asian-American Radicals
“For Murase and other young Asian-Americans, Vietnam became ammunition for their war against racism. Gidra reflected their anti-war sentiments, including one cover illustration where an Asian-American soldier stands between his white sergeant and a Vietnamese woman holding a rifle and is ordered to, “Kill that gook, you gook!” They reported on Asian-American soldiers killed or wounded in the line of fire by white American soldiers who mistook them for the enemy. “A former member of the 29th Brigade who had been in Vietnam less than a month was killed there May 11,” one Gidra story stated. “He was 20-year-old Specialist Fourth Clifford Taira. The Army said he was killed when hit by gunfire aimed at the yellow-skinned enemy below from an American helicopter…He was the 192nd Hawaii soldier to die in the war.”
Man Who Survived Killing Fields in Cambodia Gets Robbed and Shot in Philadelphia
“Unfortunately, their family spent the next four years — the time of the killing fields — in toil. When that dark period ended in 1979, the family found themselves in a border camp, ready to leave everything behind. There, a famished, 11-year-old Mike had gone missing for a day, returning the next morning with a bag of rice. His family couldn’t be happier. “We were crying, happy to see him with a bag of rice. He’s a survivor,” Thai said.”
Vietnamese American Protester Held in Vietnam Allegedly Forced to Apologize on National TV
“William must be released and he must be released immediately. Our expectation is that the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam and the U.S. government do whatever it can — at the highest levels — to obtain this release.”
Utah High Schools Ban Pacific Islander Students From Wearing Leis
‘“They don’t want us to display our cultural customs or traditions,” Angie Lotulelei said. “It takes away what sets them apart, what makes them special. We do that to celebrate their difference.”’
Scores of South Asia asylum seekers held in Oregon: U.S. senator
“At least 72 South Asian asylum-seekers are being detained at a federal prison in Oregon after getting caught up in the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal border-crossers, a U.S. Senator’s office said on Wednesday.”
Wong Fu: No, We Are Not Sell Outs — Why We Created ‘Yappie’
“I know it’s the summer of Crazy Rich Asians, the big budget major studio film with an Avengers-level cast of Asians (which I’m SO excited for), but I’d like to ask for a few minutes of your time to introduce you to a little self-funded project I’ve been working on the past year with my small and hardworking team at Wong Fu Productions.”
Who Is Dolly Gee? A Look at the Judge Deciding the Fate of Trump’s Executive Order
“If there is one through line to her career, as a lawyer in private practice and then a judge, it is as an advocate for the underdog — immigrants, minorities and the working class.”
The traditional Asian parenting model is, in theory at least, premised on imposing pain now to reap meritocratic rewards later. For much of my life, I accepted this premise and assumed there must be a trade-off between inculcating academic success and happiness.
