Houston Rockets GM confirms what we already knew re: Jeremy Lin

Opinion

As an Asian American man, I can relate to Jeremy Lin, who at one point was the only Asian American player in the National Basketball Association.

No, I couldn't dunk or execute a pick and roll. My game was journalism. Except for my time at the San Francisco-based Philippine News and at the Bob Maynard-owned Oakland Tribune, I was often the only Asian American in the newsroom.

As I worked my way up the food chain, eventually becoming an editorial writer, I wa able to influence news coverage - especially when it came to covering minority communities. I know if I wasn't there, if I hadn't spoken up, if I hadn't assigned an angle to a story, those stories and perspectives would never have been written.

So, it wasn't surprising to hear an NBA executive admit what Asian Americans already knew -- Lin was often overlooked and underappreciated because he was of Asian descent.

The Houston Rockets and general manager Daryl Morey already had a good idea of what Jeremy Lin was capable of before Lin entered the 2010 NBA draft after starring on the Harvard basketball team.

Morey opened up about their scouting report on Lin on Michael Lewis’ 2016 book titled “The Undoing Project.” On the book, Morey claimed their model told them that Lin belongs in the top 15 of the draft. However, during this time, Morey still didn’t trust their model completely and passed on him, via Reddit (u/shoot_your_shot).

Here’s an excerpt from Lewis' book on Morey's evaluation of Lin:

“He lit up our model,” said Morey. “Our model said take him with, like, the 15th pick in the draft.” The objective measurement of Jeremy Lin didn’t square with what the experts saw when they watched him play; a not terribly athletic Asian kid. Morey hadn’t completely trusted his model - and so had chickened out and not drafted Lin. 

A year after the Houston Rockets failed to draft Jeremy Lin, they began to measure the speed of a player’s first two steps: Jeremy Lin had the quickest first move of any player measured. He was explosive and was able to change direction far more quickly than most NBA players. 

“He’s incredibly athletic,” said Morey. “But the reality is that every **** person, including me, thought he was unathletic. And I can’t think of any reason for it other than he was Asian.”

To his credit, Lin accepted the unasked for role of "representing" Asian Americans and often spoke out about the racial slights he experiences in the league and civil rights abuses that have grown in the US.

In a sense, Lin suffered as the "model minority" in a sport dominated by African American athletes. He was a "smart" "team-first" player; he wasn't athletic enough, fast enough or tough enough; he was seen as a novelty whose position was "given" to him, not an athlete who "earned" his accolades.

"And still, Lin’s stats have been healthier than most would guess," writes Kyle Wagner for the Daily News. "In his healthy seasons, he shoots around 60 percent at the rim, and his true shooting percentage — the gold standard for an “efficient” player — has flirted with very good to elite levels. He has been an undeniably useful guard."

Over the weekend, sadly told a church audience in Taiwan, “Free agency has been tough because I feel like in some ways the NBA has kind of given up on me.” 

That's too bad. Lin is not a great player, but he's a good player and at 30 years of age, better than many other guards who have signed multi-million dollar contracts.

Linsanity is a distant memory, but Lin's story chipped away at old stereotypes and biases that Morey's admission proves are difficult to undo -- and, we're not talking just about the NBA.

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Texas man convicted of trying to steal industrial secrets

A Texas man was convicted Monday (July 29) by a federal jury in Washington D.C. of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets.

Following a nine-day trial, Shan Shi, 54, of Houston, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets. 

Shi was originally indicted in June 2017 for conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, and a superseding indictment containing one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering charges issued in April 2018. Shi was acquitted on the other charges.

“The jury’s verdict makes clear that Shan Shi conspired to steal trade secrets by poaching employees from a U.S. company and enticing them to bring technical data to his company,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “He did this against the backdrop of China’s strategic plan to close the gap between China and United States in buoyancy technology and with the benefit of millions of dollars of funding from China."

Evidence introduced at trial established that Shi conspired with others to steal trade secrets from a Houston-based company, Trelleborg Offshore, relating to syntactic foam, a strong, lightweight material with commercial and military uses that is essential for deep-sea oil and gas drilling. 

In public statements of its national priorities, China has made clear its desire to develop this technology. Shi sought to obtain information about syntactic foam for the benefit of CBM-Future New Material Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (CBMF), a Chinese company based in Taizhou, and for the ultimate benefit of the People’s Republic of China. 

Four of Shi’s codefendants—some of whom worked at Trelleborg—had pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal trade secrets, and two testified as cooperating witnesses at trial. From 2014 to 2017, CBMF sent Shi’s company in Houston approximately $3.1 million from China in order to promote Shi’s activity in the United States. 

“We take very seriously the theft of intellectual property that was developed in the United States through long years of research, development, and innovation,” said U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia. “Shi chose to steal the secrets of a U.S. company rather than do the hard work necessary to succeed honestly in the free market. He is now being held accountable for that choice.”

Sentencing has been set for Oct. 25, 2019.

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Korean American pastor admits to spying for US while in North Korea

SCREEN CAPTURE

Kim Dong-chul returns to the US as First Lady Melania Trump watches his response.

ASAM NEWS

US citizen Kim Dong-chul, whose release from North Korean prison was secured by Trump last year, said he had been spying for Seoul and Washington, NK News reported on Monday.

The Korean American pastor was arrested in the northeastern city of Rason in October 2015. He was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of espionage and subversive acts against Pyongyang, according to The Korea Herald.

The North Korean state media at the time said Kim confessed to collecting Workers’ Party, government, and military secrets, and handing them over to South Korean intelligence.

Kim told NK News that what he said during the press conference was mostly true; he claims he had also cooperated with the US Central Intelligence Agency to procure “very significant” information on issues of interest to US intelligence.

Kim was one of three US citizens released in a 2018 amnesty secured in negotiations between the Trump administration and Kim Jong Un’s regime, a month ahead of the first summit between the two leaders in June last year, according to Newsweek.

“I filmed footage with a watch (equipped with a camera) and used electromagnetic wave wiretapping equipment,” he said earlier this month, according to NK News.

He claims US intelligence asked him to work as an “antenna” in North Korea and provide detailed information on the North Korean military and nuclear program, tasking him with recruiting double agents across the nation. He said he spied for the CIA for about six years before he was caught and sent to a labor camp.

“The CIA detected a suspicious vessel at the Rajin port through satellite imagery … and asked me to take very close-up photos of it and figured out what it was being used for … I delivered that information just before (my arrest).”

North Korean authorities said Kim was found with a USB stick containing military and nuclear secrets when he was detained in Rason, according to BBC News.

“I became a traitor overnight and was locked up in a forced labor camp,” said Kim. “I hit rock bottom.”

Kim said that in prison he was subjected to beatings by guards and other forms of torture that left parts of his body paralyzed. He also said he made a few attempts to commit suicide. “I could not die,” he recalled.

NK News said the US State Department, the CIA, and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service did not respond to requests for comments in response to Kim’s statements.

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Analysis: AAPI POTUS candidates will be more aggressive in second Democratic debate

Could this be the last debate for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard?

ANALYSIS

Fireworks are expected at the debate tonight and tomorrow by the Democratic Party's presidential hopefuls. It looks like the 20 or so candidates are ready to take off the gloves in order for some of them to score points and distinguish themselves from their rivals.

The second of the Democratic party's 2020 primary presidential primary debates are at 8 p.m. ET July 30-31 in Detroit. The July debates will be hosted by CNN and CNN en Español. CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, "The Lead" anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper and "CNN Tonight" anchor Don Lemon will moderate both debate nights.

The first debate in the two-night event, will be on Tuesday, July 30, where Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wil be the focus because they are drawing their support from the same pool of progressive voters.

Joining them on the debate stage that has been dubbed White Night, will be Marianne Williamson Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

The second night of the debate will likely produce the most fireworks. The candidates appearing on July 31 will feature all the candidates of color. However, much of the focus will be on a potential rematch between former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

The other candidates of color are:

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Andrew Yang and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. They will be joined by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

After scoring points in the first debate, Sen. Kamala Harris will have to watch for attacks from other candidates.

Harris will likely continue try to position herself as the most aggressive and most able to confront Donald Trump by contesting Biden, who according to various polls, is the frontrunner among the Democrat hopefuls. However Biden will be better prepared in this round of debates because if he unable to counter any attacks from Harris or the other candidates, it would weaken his position as the frontrunner.

But Harris, who most pundits say won the debate on the second night of the June debate, temporarily rose to second in some polls. However, in the past week, her poll numbers have gone down. She needs to land some more haymakers to regain her momentum. 

At the same time, Harris must watch her flank for possible attacks from Gabbard, who since the first set of debates, has attacked Harris as being unfit to be commander-in-chief.

"Kamala Harris is not qualified to serve as commander in chief and I can say this from a personal perspective as a soldier," Gabbard said on Fox Sports Radio. "She has no background or experience in foreign policy and she lacks the temperament that is necessary for commander in chief."

Gabbard said that Harris' lack of military experience would continue a "dangerous" cycle that would exacerbate the US "military industrial complex."

"I have seen the cost of war first hand and experienced the consequences of what happens when we have presidents from both political parties in the White House who lack experience and lack that foreign policy understanding," said Gabbard, who has emphasized her military service throughout her campaign, "who therefore fall under the influence of the foreign policy establishments and military industrial complex."

The stakes are high for Gabbard, who has nothing to lose by attacking her rival for the Indian American and Hindu American vote. Although she performed well in the Miami debate, the Hawaii congresswoman has been unable to rise out of single digits in the polls and suffered several strategic setbacks in her campaign.

Gabbard filed a $50 million lawsuit on  against Google, accusing the platform of “silencing” her by suspending her Google Ads account shortly after the first Democratic debate.

Gabbard last week filed the suit in federal court in Los Angeles, accusing Google of violating her First Amendment rights and her free speech rights under the California constitution. 

According to the complaint, Gabbard’s Google Ads account was suspended for several hours on June 28, as people were searching for her name after the first debate in June. She also claims that Gmail designates her campaign’s emails as spam at a higher rate than other candidates’ communications, according to Variety.

The same day Gabbard filed suit, Google issued a statement saying that Gabbard’s acccount was briefly suspended due to “unusual activity,” and denied that it had anything to do with Gabbard’s political views.

While Gabbard's presidential campaign has been attracting donations, her committee for her Congressional seat is essentially penniless. Her congressional committee raised just $11 in the second quarter of 2019. That number does not factor in a $31 contribution refund, which means her campaign committee ended in the red during that three month period. 

If Gabbard doesn't do well Wednesday night, she will have to decide whether her long-shot campaign will be sustainable. The door to decide whether or not to run for her Congressional seat is rapidly closing. If Gabbard should decide to drop her presidential ambitions, she would find it difficult to mount a campaign to regain her seat.

In addition, as a guest on The View, cohost Joy Behar questioned why she is an attractive candidate the extreme right. "They like you," Behar told Gabbard. "David Duke, the klans-guy, he likes you."

“I think that first of all, we shouldn't give David Duke any oxygen at all,” Gabbard replied, before pointing out that her message appeals to a wide swath of voters that just happens to include unapologetic racists. 

“What I have seen and what I have heard as we have been going through this campaign both in big cities and in small towns is we have got Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, people from across the political spectrum, coming together, coming to our town halls, coming to our events,” Gabbard said before pivoting back to her military service.

“We can disagree on a number of issues, but this issue of the cost of war and the experience that I bring to this most important responsibility that the president has as commander in chief and ending these wasteful regime change wars.”

Andrew Yang's sartorial choice of no-tie got more write-ups than what he was saying in the first Democratic debate.

Yang, meanwhile, continues to surprise everyone beyond his decision not to wear a tie in Miami. He announced to his supporters, the Yang Gang, that he's in the race for the long haul. Early Tuesday, he also said he had qualified for the September debate but an email from the Democratic National Committee told him that one of the polls that Yang cited that gave him 2% of the polled could not be counted. He needs four polls to give him 2% and has until the end of August to get another poll to qualify him for the debate.

Yang vows to perform better than the first debate where he had the fewest minutes of air time, answering only two questions and ignored by moderators when the candidates began speaking over each other. Yang claims the reason he was unheard was because his microphone was off during part of the debate.

In a Fox News interview, Yang said: "In terms of making the big jump to catch up to Joe Biden and the other leaders, most Americans are just tuning in to who's running in 2020. I'm still introducing myself to the American people. It's going to be a very, very fluid race over the weeks and months to come. I'm very confident I'm just going to keep on climbing the polls and start catching up to the leaders very soon."

The second Democratic Party's debate starts at 5 p.m. EDT, July 30 and 31 on CNN.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier version sof this report said that Yang had already qualified for the September Democratic debate.

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PBS plans documentary series on Asian Americans for 2020

A mural, created by seven Filipino artists and donated to the Philippine-Louisiana Historical Society, depicts the lives of Louisiana's Manilamen, the Filipino settlers who founded the first permanent Asian American settlement in the New World probably in the late 1500s.

ASAM NEWS

PBS and WETA announced Monday a new five-part documentary series on Asian Americans, scheduled to broadcast in May 2020 for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

According to press materials, as welcome as the project will be, it apparently will be skipping the opening chapters of Asian American history.

A unique aspect of the limited series is that Asian Americans will be looking at the significant role of Asians Americans in shaping US history and identity from the first wave of Asian immigrants in the 1850s, according to a press release.

“These are American stories: stories of resilience in the face of racism, of overcoming challenges as refugees from war and strife, of making contributions in all sectors of society: business, technology, military service, and the arts," said Stephen Gong, Executive Director of the Center for Asian American Media. 

The series is helmed by a team of Asian American filmmakers, including the Academy Award-nominated series producer Renee Tajima-Peña (Who Killed Vincent Chin?). 

“As America’s home for documentaries, PBS is committed to telling stories that illuminate and celebrate the rich diversity of our country,” said Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO. “We are proud to share this important series with our audiences, and to deepen understanding about the extraordinary impact of Asian Americans on our national identity.”

Unfortunately, by apparently focusing on East Asian migration, the series would omit any mention of the first  documented arrival of Asians setting foot in the New World off the California coast in 1587, or the founding of the first permanent settlement in the Louisiana bayous in the late 1500s by Filipino seamen who escaped their forced service on the Spanish galleons.

PBS is making this a Multiplatform initiative that will consider what it means to be a US citizen. Sharon Percy Rockefeller, President and CEO of WETA, said, “Following our previous series, The Jewish Americans, The Italian Americans and Latino Americans, WETA remains committed to revealing the significant stories of the entire American people.”

“We are proud to support the Center for Asian American Media for the important work they do bringing programs about the Asian American experience to public media and audiences across the country,” said Pat Harrison, CPB president and CEO.

Executive producers are Jeff Bieber and Dalton Delan for WETA; Stephen Gong and Donald Young for CAAM; Sally Jo Fifer for ITVS; and Jean Tsien. 

“We are proud to have WETA as a partner on this milestone series, which weaves the histories of many Asian American communities within the broad sweep of American history,” said Gong.

"These Asian American experiences and voices provide a vital foundation for a future fast approaching, in which no single ethnic or racial group defines America, in which shared principles will define who we are as Americans.”

VIEWS FROM THE EDGE contributed to this report.

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Asian American journalists convene in Atlanta, Aug. 1-3

From left: George Takei, Rep. John Lewis, and Maria Ressa.

After three days of panels, workshops and networking, the Asian American Journalists 2019 national convention will culminate in its 30th annual Gala Scholarship & Awards Banquet featuring a civil rights leader and politician, an actor known for his civil and equal rights advocacy and a journalist fighting for press freedom.
The AAJA Gala on Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Loews Atlanta Hotel will feature two armchair interviews with Congressman John Lewis and actor George Takei followed by the closing speaker, Maria Ressa, a Filipino American who founded Rappler, an online newsite in the Philippines under attack by the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

The first conversation with Rep. Lewis, moderated by CBSN Anchor Elaine Quijano, will discuss, among other topics: the 50-year anniversary of the death of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.; the current civil-rights struggles of present day; Congressman Lewis’ experiences in the movement; the role that the media played in the tide of the civil rights movement; and the role of journalists in ensuring fair and accurate portrayals of all communities of color in media coverage.

The second conversation with Takei, moderated by ABC News “Nightline” Co-Anchor Juju Chang, will discuss, among other topics: his family’s experiences in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII and how they shaped his life, his career, and his storytelling; the importance of diverse perspectives in news and history; and his insights for current generations of journalists and storytellers when confronted with difficult and divisive themes.

Veteran journalist and Rappler CEO and Executive Editor Maria Ressa will be the convention's closing speaker, offering perspectives on the challenges to journalism in a time of disinformation. Ressa has been a leading voice in the defense of press freedom in the Philippines and around the world and was among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People and a recipient of awards from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Columbia Journalism School.

CONVENTION INFO:

Online registration is now closed. Onsite registrations begin on Wednesday, July 31.

For any convention-related questions, please email support@aaja.org.
Note: All registrations excluding the Day Passes include a ticket to the 2019 Gala Scholarships & Award Banquet on August 3. You may purchase a gala ticket below if you do not wish to attend the full convention.

To buy a standalone ticket to the gala banquet, click here. 

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Dethroned beauty queen joins Trump campaign

Kathy Zhu, shows her support for Donald Trump.

ASAM NEWS

The woman who lost her Miss Michigan crown after offensive tweets surfaced from her Twitter account has joined the Trump campaign.
Kathy Zhu, 20, has been named a Women for Trump Coalition Advisory Board member, reports CNN. The Trump campaign called her a “patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown.”

“There’s a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus,” Zhu wrote on Twitter in Feb. 2018. “So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”

“Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix Problems within your own community first before blaming others,” she said in another tweet.

According to the NY Daily News, Miss Michigan World said her “social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content that violate the organization’s rules and conditions.”

Zhu accused the pageant of punishing her for her conservative views saying it’s harder to be conservative than to come out as gay.

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Jeremy Lin finds himself at 'rock bottom' in his baseketball career

Jeremy Lin being interviewed on Taiwanese television.

Disappointed that no NBA team has sought him for their rosters, free agent Jeremy Lin said he has hit "rock bottom" in his professional basketball career.

"Every year it gets harder,"Lin said during an emotional interview in Taiwan. "There's a saying, and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up, but rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me."

"So, free agency has been tough," said the 30-year old. "Because I feel like, in some ways, the NBA has kind of given up on me."

After getting signed by the Toronto Raptors mid-season, Line became the first Asian American player to win an NBA title when the Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in the championship series last June.

In earlier interviews in Taiwan, Lin expressed an openness to playing in Asia. His “greatest dream,” he said, is to play on a team with his younger brother, Joseph, a star on the Fubon Braves of the Super Basketball League in Taiwan. 

If he does play in Asia, he already has a huge fan base. After the legendary Yao Ming, who played for the Houston Rockets, Lin is the most popular basketball player in China.

Throughout his career, most of it as the only Asian American NBA player, Lin has had to constantly prove himself by breaking stereotypes and withstanding racist slights and taunts. Lin often finds himself speaking out about Asian masculinity, cultural appropriation and social justice.

Lin has more Twitter followers than All-Star starters Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard combined, and on Weibo (a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook in China) alone, he has 5.85 million followers, more than any other active player and second overall to only Kobe Bryant, according to NextShark.

After being drafted by the Warriors, Lin has bounced around the league riddled with injuries to his knees. The high point of Lin's nine-year career was during a 12-game stretch with the New York Knicks -- which gave birth to the media-driven Linsanity -- when he averaged 22.5 points and 8.7 assists.

With the Raptors, Lin mostly played off the bench. In the 2018019 playoffs, Lin averaged about 3.4 minutes and only played one minute during the NBA Finals.

It is not the first time Lin has traveled to Asia. In an interview for the podcast, “At Large With Alex Wong, ” Lin said his experiences in Asia fueled a deeper appreciation for his roots, he said, noting that he’s further comprehended why he values familial piety and politeness ― concepts deeply ingrained in the culture.

“As I pick up more and more of the intricacies of Chinese culture even now, we’re doing a lot of business, and we’re doing a lot of different things ... being in those situations, I get a deeper understanding of my roots and also why I am the way I am, why I think the way I think,” he told Wong.

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Wife of man imprisoned in Vietnam tells Congress about her husband's plight

Helen Nguyen testifies in front of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.

ASAM NEWS

The wife of an American serving a 12 year prison sentence in Vietnam on charges of attempting to overthrow the government longs for him to come home

Helen Nguyen testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia this week pleading for assistance to win freedom for her husband, Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, reports the OC Register.

“Over a year ago, I said goodbye to my husband and I wished him a great vacation in Hong Kong and Vietnam. I expected to greet him on his flight home three weeks later,” she said.

“I didn’t expect that our initial goodbye would be the final one.”

Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen is escorted to court in Vietnam.

The Mercury News reported earlier this month that the government convicted Nguyen after a four hour trial, alleging he recruited protesters to occupy government buildings.

His family says he has never been involved in political activity. They say he went to Vietnam to visit friends. The Mercury News says he has bipartisan support from more than two dozen lawmakers.

“We all stand with you, shoulder to shoulder, as we fight for Michael’s release,” Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) said earlier this week to his wife, according to the Register.

We’re not going to give up,” Rep Alan Lowenthal (D-CA) added.

Michael is currently appealing the length of his sentence, which could put him in jeopardy for an even longer sentence.

Sunday Read: Women of color may decide the 2020 presidential outcome

There's probably nothing more frightening to a Trump-supporting white nationalist than a woman of color -- specifically, a woman of color asserting herself.
A recent study demonstrates that women of color voters are overwhelmingly concerned about the state of the country (75%) and believed that the stakes were too high not to vote in the 2018 election (88%). Importantly, a majority of women of color are paying close attention to the actions of their elected officials and want to see progress made on the issues they care about – including access to clean water, access to affordable health care, and ending racial discrimination.

The fact that  Donald Trump attacked the four freshman congresswomen known as The Squad, made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., four women of color, is no accident.

Instead of apologizing for his racist taunts, Trump doubled down as his supporters rallied to his call to send them back where they came from even though they are all US citizens, three of whom were born in this country.

It's apparent that the Trump-controlled GOP has chosen to ignore women of color despite  the presence of Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao in Trump's Cabinet, as Mark Short, Vice President Pence's Chief of Staff, pointed out as evidence of Trump's priority of diversity.

Black women have long been acknowledged as one of the most loyal and powerful voting blocs in the country, usually voting for Democrats. But women from other minority groups, including Asian American and Pacific Islanders, are just as influential and the Republicans and Democrats should not ignore them or take them for granted.

New  polling data demonstrates the growing power of Black, Latina, Asian American and Pacific Islander women voters. The research follows the 2018 midterm election where women of color voted at historic levels and helped vote in the most diverse Congress ever inculding a record number of women.

The study was commissioned by Intersections of Our Lives, a collaborative of three Reproductive Justice organizations: National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health; In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda; and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

“We thought it was critical to understand what motivated this powerful voting bloc to turn out and why,” said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. “What we found is that there is an intersectionality to our beliefs and that our collective experiences motivate us to demand that our elected officials act now for justice and equity for our communities.”

Conducted in English, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese — the most-spoken languages in the country — the poll found that the 10 issues that respondents believe are most important for Congress to address include: 

• Ending racial/ethnic/cultural discrimination (62%)
• Ensuring people with pre-existing conditions can still access health insurance (62 %)
• Ensuring access to clean water (62%)
• Ensuring everyone has access to affordable health care (60%)
• 84% of women of color voters believe candidates should support women making their own decisions about their reproductive health.
• 62%of women of color voters say they will be watching their elected officials in Congress more closely compared to previous elections.Last Spring, the leaders of the three organizations met with lawmakers and their staff members in D.C. to advocate for policies that shatter the road blocks that impact the lives of women of color, who today number 63 million.

“We’ve begun briefing congressional offices about the findings in the report and the issues women of color want to see progress on,” said Choimorrow. “Specifically, Intersections of our Lives is focused on advocating for policies that ensure women can continue to have abortion access and affordability; advance sexual and reproductive health equity; end violence against women of color; protect Immigrant rights and health; ensure economic and environmental justice for women of color; and expand the right to vote to ensure women of color can have their say in our democracy.”

There are 63 million women of color living in the US today and over the next four decades the community is expected to almost double. This growing population is becoming an increasingly strong voice in the electorate, with post-election data demonstrating women of color voting at higher rates in the 2018 election than in past midterm elections. 

The key findings from the nationwide poll include:

What Motivated Women of Color to Vote

• 88% of women of color voters said the stakes in the 2018 midterm election were too high not to vote.
• 75% expressed serious concerns about the trajectory of the country, noting they were angry, disgusted, scared, sad or nervous.
• 74% of women of color voters doubt that the country will be safe for the next generation, with Black women having the strongest concerns.

Women of Color Were Concerned Their Vote Didn’t Count 

• 23% of women of color voters do not think their vote was counted accurately.
• 33% of women of color voters experienced an issue voting, such as being asked to show an ID to an election official.

How Women of Color Voted and What They Thought About the Candidates

• Three-quarters of women of color voters supported the Democratic candidates in statewide and federal races.
• One-in-five women of color voters supported Republican candidates in statewide and federal races.
• Women of color said that they voted for candidates because they felt a need for change and because the candidates reflected their values.
• 37% of women of color who voted for a Democratic member of Congress said their vote represented a need for change.
• 28% of women of color who voted for a Republican member of Congress did so to reflect their values.
• 74% of the women of color who voted for Democrats said Democratic candidates earned their vote. They did not vote for the Democrat as a reaction to or a rejection of the alternative.
• 71% of women of color voters felt satisfied with the candidates they had to choose from in the 2018 election. Yet they would prefer to see more women of color candidates and candidates acknowledging the issues they care about.

Although the poll is intended to inform elected leaders, the results are also valuable to funders of organizations that work with women, said Choimorrow. 

“This is really a way to speak out and be visible about how we as women of color are leading in terms of voter engagement and the role we’re playing in changing the course of this country, albeit we’re still smaller in numbers, but trajectorially we’re not going to stay that way. And we really believe that this is the moment to invest in women of color leadership,” said Choimorrow. 

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Constance Wu responds to allegations of being a diva

Jennifer Lopez, lef and Constance Wu on the set of 'Hustlers.'

ASAM NEWS

Constance Wu isn’t taking it anymore. She’s denying the latest in a seemingly series of negative reports characterizing her as a diva.

The latest came from Page Six which reported that she insisted that she get top billing over Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B for her upcoming movie, Hustlers.

The studio has reportedly contacted media outlets to make sure that happens.

“Constance is the most hated person on set. She is rude to everybody, but most of all the crew,” said an unnamed source who worked on the set.

“She’s a total piece of work. She thinks it’s OK to treat people badly and say out loud whatever comes to her,” Page Six quoted an anonymous source as saying.

Wu is firing back through a statement from her publicist to ET.

“While Constance’s character in Hustlers is the key protagonist, any reporting that implies or indicates that she demanded or directed this recently reported initiative is patently untrue and a clear manipulation of facts,” her rep says in a statement to ET. “She has always been and remains a proud supporter of all her fellow castmates inclusion in the celebration of this film and telling of this story.”

The negative reports followed Wu’s ill-timed profanity-laced tweets in which she expressed anger at the renewal of season six of Fresh Off the Boat. She later apologized to her fans and fellow cast mates, saying the production of season six would prevent her from taking a project she was really passionate about.

Hustlers is due out September 13.

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STUDY: Schools lack a clear view of AAPI discipline disparities

By David Washburn

REPRINTED BY PERMISSION / EDSOURCE

When examining school discipline disparities, data consistently show that Asian American students, compared to other racial and ethnic groups, have the lowest rates of suspensions and expulsions.

But educators and researchers have long said the numbers don’t paint an accurate picture of what many students who fall within the Asian category experience in school because the classification itself is such a gross generalization of the many ethnicities and nationalities in that category, which makes up nearly half the world’s population.

It is against this backdrop that a team of researchers from UCLA, the University of Washington and Lewis & Clark College in Oregon released findings this month showing that discipline outcomes varied considerably among Asian and Pacific Islander subgroups. Students from Southeast Asian countries, like Vietnam and Cambodia, had suspension and expulsion rates that were 2 to 3 times higher than those from China, Japan and other East Asian countries, according to the study.

The study also found that rates for Pacific Islander subgroups — which include students from Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and other Pacific islands — were significantly higher than any of the Asian subgroups. The research focused on Washington state because it is the only state that requires schools to break out data by Asian and Pacific Islander subgroups. California schools report Pacific Islanders separate from Asians but do not report Pacific Islander subgroups.

Pedro Noguera, one of the study’s co-authors and director of UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools, said the research team was not surprised by the differences. Students from Southeast Asia are far more likely than their East Asian counterparts to come from families who came to the U.S. as refugees and live in low-income communities.

Southeast Asian students “have higher rates of trauma and instability due to the refugee trauma…they live in poor communities and their parents often don’t speak English,” Noguera said. “That is why generalizing about different groups is so unhelpful.”

Today more than 20 million people, including nearly 3 million K-12 students, from 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent call the United States home. And the circumstances that brought them here, as well as the conditions they now live in, are as diverse as the people themselves.

UCLA’s Noguera said he would expect results in California, which is home to nearly a third of all Asians living in the U.S., to be similar to those in Washington. He said families from refugee communities throughout the U.S. suffer from many of the same inequities and struggle to navigate school systems.

However, the research team was surprised that the rates of suspensions and expulsions for Southeast Asians were still lower than they were for whites. These results could be related to what researchers and youth advocates call the “model minority myth,” said the study’s lead author, Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen of Lewis and Clark College.

A long-held stereotype of Asian as well as Pacific Islander students is they are smarter and work harder than whites and other racial and ethnic groups and they are also non-confrontational. This “monolithic” view of Asians and Pacific Islanders is both inaccurate and harmful, the researchers say.

While data show that some Asian and Pacific Islander groups are consistently high-achieving academically, others are far less so. For example, the high school graduation rate among Japanese and Taiwanese students is around 95 percent, the report stated. But it’s below 70 percent for Cambodian and Laotian students.

Yet, these disparities often go unnoticed by school officials and school-based health and mental health providers and the underlying issues that these students face are not addressed, the authors wrote.

“The prevalence of the model minority stereotype distorts and renders invisible the experiences of these smaller groups,” the report’s authors wrote. “However, the few studies that are available on these subgroups reveal that they face significant structural barriers that often impede their educational achievement…and, thus, their life circumstances.”

In previous research, Noguera delved into how discipline disparities suffered by African-American, Native American and Latino students might impact their academic achievement. These student groups, especially Native Americans and African-Americans, are disciplined at significantly higher rates than their white classmates.

Noguera and his co-authors concluded that in some respects the discipline gap and the achievement gap — which refers to disparities among racial and ethnic groups in various measures of student success, like standardized tests and graduation rates — are “two sides of the same coin.” The argument being that the same factors that contribute to the achievement gap — high rates of neighborhood poverty and schools with few resources — lead to the discipline gap.

However, they ultimately found that a clear correlation can’t be made without more robust research. It’s even more difficult to gain insight into the relationship when it comes to Asian and Pacific Islander students because of the lack of data and almost non-existent research, the authors of the current study said.

“There are aspects of these broader racial categories that are either misunderstood or entirely invisible,” Nguyen said.

Lailan Huen, the program manager for Oakland Unified’s Asian Pacific Islander Achievement Program, said her experiences with students jibe with the study’s overall hypothesis.

Oakland Unified has just begun to collect discipline data and doesn’t have enough to determine trends among subgroups, she said. However, she added, data the district does have on academic performance among the Asian and Pacific Islander subgroups show that broad model-minority assumptions are usually inaccurate.

For example, she said, Vietnamese student scores can vary widely by school, with scores considerably higher in schools with a strong academic culture. And though many Vietnamese students come from families that are first- or second-generation refugees from the Vietnam War, they tend to have lower rates of trauma than Cambodian students from families that suffered through the Khmer Rouge genocide of the early 1970s.

“You find more families [with significant trauma] who are survivors of that genocide — entire families were murdered or disappeared,” Huen said. “Because what happened was so violent and the trauma was so intense, the ability of some of the elders to even function is in disrepair.”

Huen said a large percentage of Pacific Islander students live in neighborhoods with high poverty and family trauma. “Pacific Islanders are among the least-resourced communities in the Bay Area,” she said. “It’s one of the really overlooked populations.”

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House bill seeks to prevent anti-Chinese racial profiling

Rep. Ed Case, D-HI, successfully added an amendment to a bill to address concerns of stereotyping, targeting and racial profiling of Chinese Americans. 

“IWhile there is no doubt that we must take national security threats from foreign countries seriously, we must reject the flawed narrative that simply being of Chinese descent is grounds for suspicion," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. "Such overly broad stereotyping, targeting and racial profiling is dangerous and runs contrary to the values of our nation.

The amendment  to H.R. 3494, the Damon Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 would require the Director of National Intelligence to submit a report to Congress on how current intelligence policies, procedures, and practices targeting the People’s Republic of China may also impact the privacy and civil liberties of Chinese Americans.

The House passed the bill July 17 with bipartisan support, 397-31.

“Unfortunately, we have seen how certain actions by our government directed at Chinese nationals have impacted U.S. citizens.," continued Chu. 

"We need to look no further than the examples of Sherry Chen and Dr. Xioaxing Xi, two Chinese American scientists who were wrongfully accused of espionage by the FBI only to have their charges dropped with no explanation. We must ensure that what happened to these two innocent Americans does not happen to other U.S. citizens simply because of the way they look. There must be no room for racial prejudice and ethnic targeting in our country’s laws and practices.”

While acknowledging the very real efforts of China to steal industrial secrets and academic research, Case said, “In these recent years of justifiably heightened scrutiny on the intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China, a disproportionate number of Americans of Chinese descent have been investigated and prosecuted for espionage. Those convicted have received disproportionately high sentences and the too many exonerated have had their careers ruined nonetheless.

“No doubt China seeks to recruit Chinese Americans to its goals, and no doubt our government should and must review specific cases of potential espionage by China on specific facts. But have we fallen into the same trap all over again of justifying investigations and other actions toward the end of national security by the means of general profiling and targeting based solely on ethnic identity?" asked Case.

“This amendment is a flashing red light to our intelligence community: stop, look and listen. Take some time to think it through, to be sure you’re staying on the right side of that line, and then report back to Congress that you have done so and have the procedures and mindset in place to assure that we won’t repeat history, with Chinese Americans or any other broad ethnic or interest group,” Case said.

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