'Blues Clue's & You' gets a second season and a Filipino 'lola'

Filipina Caandian entertainer will join the cast of Blue's Clues & You.

Blue's Clues & You host Josh Dela Cruz will be introducing his grandmother (Lola) in the second season of the popular children's series.
Dela Cruz began his tenure as the host of the reboot of the popular Nickelodeon children's show last November. The network has already ordered a second season.

The second season will follow host Josh (Josh Dela Cruz) and puppy Blue on new adventures with friends old and new. The new season will feature appearances by two former hosts, Steve (Steve Burns) and Joe (Donovan Patton).

Carolyn Fe, who has been cast as the new Filipina character Lola, is a veteran actress but is better known in Canada for her singing in the genre's of jazz and rhythm & blues.

Before succumbing to her first love of singing, Fe has had a busy and varied career. 

From the Philippines to Canada is a long way both culturally as well as geographically. Fe made that journey with her parents at a very young age and has absorbed the best of those worlds and throughout her extensive and varied career has used them to bring a wonderful diversity to all she has touched. She has been a professional dancer, choreographing for her own professional dance company and even owned and operated a dance school offering classical ballet, tap, jazz and aerobics tuition.

Josh Dela Fuente hosts 'Blue's Clues & You.'

Carolyn also made many acting appearances and has her own theatre production company too.

She recently had a couple of projects that brought her back to her Filipino roots. She had a role in Hilot Means Healer, a Toronto production of the play by Jo SiMalaya Alcampo; and in 2019 she released a blues album, "Sukot Ko" (tagalog for "My Wound").

There's no further description of her role as Lola on Blue's Clue but if Fe's character is anything like the lola's I've known, she will be speak her mind, give no-holds-barred advice and feed Josh a lot of food. Just having a Filipino grandmother on TV is historic and reason enough to tune in.

Blue's Clues & You airs on Nickelodeon or viewed here.

Commentary: Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders at-risk of being unseen

By Jake Ryann C Sumibcay, MPH

Courtesy of AsAm News

Moving forward in a new year and decade, we are not just two months away from the upcoming Census on April 1, 2020. Mandated by the Constitution, the US Census Bureau is required to do a complete count of the population in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) have historically been undercounted, diminishing the cultural richness and numerous contributions that Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have made to American society. APIs had been grouped together under a single governmental classification until 1997 when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established separate categories, namely, “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHPI)” thereby “improving” the collection of accurate federal statistics and reporting as well as preserving the unique identities of both groups.

Prior to this change, the paucity and lack of disaggregated data generally masked the identity and needs of both Asian and Pacific Islander groups and severely hindered progress on vital issues regarding immigration, health access, public health outcomes, funding for social services, and related policies. Unfortunately, disaggregated health data for NHPIs are still limited and highlight a population at high risk for health disparities.

NHPIs refer to indigenous peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia and compared to most other ethnic groups, they have disproportionately high rates of smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.

HHS reported that the leading causes of death among NHPIs include heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and accidental injuries. Moreover, a 2015 Income and Poverty report by the U.S. Census found that almost 20 percent of NHPIs live at or below the poverty threshold and over 16 percent lack health coverage.

From 2000 to 2010, the NHPI population grew by 40 percent to 1.2 million or 0.4 percent of the U.S. population. With a new count approaching, the NHPI population is expected to follow growth trends. An accurate count is vital to NHPIs as they have traditionally been undercounted, leading to data underrepresentation and federal funding to serve community needs.

NHPIs have endured adverse experiences due to Western and U.S. influences. The death rates of Native Hawaiians accelerated after their first encounter with the Europeans in the late 1770s due to imported diseases such as smallpox, measles, and other epidemics. In 1983, the U.S. overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom which marginalized the Native Hawaiians in their homelands and forcibly denounced Hawaiian language, customs and cultural practices. 

In the Marshall Islands, the U.S. military conducted nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958 which caused devastating and lingering health issues in the Marshallese people and nuclear contamination to the environment. The U.S. still maintains a strong military presence across the Pacific such as in Guam and American Samoa, two U.S. Territories.

There is a need for disaggregated data to address the specific health needs 

of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

The historical impacts are one of the many factors to why many NHPIs today experience poor health outcomes. To truly understand the underlying causes and consequence of health disparities faced by NHPIs, we need to improve the collection of data. NHPIs remain to be a largely understudied and underserved population. 

Often times, NHPI health data are still grouped with Asian Americans, who tend to be healthier masking the true differences in health status, behaviors and health disparities. Without high-quality and representative data, NHPIs are omitted from research agendas and further worsens the disparities.

As a budding public health researcher working with NHPI communities, it is frustrating and concerning that relatively little is known about these populations. We rely on accurate data to inform policy decisions and resource allocation. It is critical to increase attention and bring visibility to NHPI populations. 

Genuine efforts with considerations to cultural and policy barriers are needed to accurately count them in the upcoming 2020 Census and advocate for accurate and increased health data at the state and federal levels. We should strive to provide Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders the representation they deserve and make them count.

(About the author: Jake Ryann Sumibcay is a doctoral student in Public Health at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. His training and concentration focus on driving effective health engagement through ethnographic strategies among the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) adolescent and young adult population. He is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar, where he applies his research to promote health equity by empowering people of color to find value in personalized health and health within communities)

RIP Leila Janah, who uplifted people from poverty

FACEBOOK

LEILA JANAH, 1983-2020

For those who work in the world of nonprofits, Leila Janah's story is well known and a source of inspiration.She gave thousands of people a way to change their lives for the better.

Samasource, the company she founded, announced late last month that their 37-year-old CEO Leila Janah has died of epithelioid sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, reports CNN.

“Her commitment to creating a better world was unparalleled and the ripple effects of her work will be felt for generations. We will miss her every day,” said the statement.

The company she founded, Samasource, announced her death late last month. In 2008 she founded her artificial intelligence company in Kenya with the mission of improving the lives of the poor.

“Her commitment to creating a better world was unparalleled,” said a statement issued by Samasource. “The ripple effects of her work will be felt for generations. We are all committed to continuing Leila’s work, and to ensuring her legacy and vision is carried out for years to come.”

“I strongly believe you can combine the highest quality of service with the core mission of altruism,” she said in a recent interview with Tech Crunch.

“A big part of our values is offering living wages and creating dignified technology work for people. We hire people from low-income backgrounds and offer them training in AI and machine learning. And our teams achieve above the industry standard.”

Janah, a child of Indian immigrants, was born in upstate New York, and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles. She attended the California Academy of Mathematics and Science where, during her senior year, she was awarded a six month scholarship to teach English in Ghana. There she witnessed what would become the singular motivation of her life’s work: the tragedy of talented and hard-working people struggling in poverty solely due to geographical isolation from well-paying jobs.

This experience inspired Janah to create her own degree in African Development Studies at Harvard University. Upon graduating, she joined Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.) as a management consultant. While on one of her first professional assignments, working as a manager for a call center in Mumbai, she learned that one of her employees commuted to work from his home in the slums every day by rickshaw. “I thought, ‘What if we could locate the call center in the slums?’” she told The Christian Science Monitor in 2014, crediting this moment with sparking the idea for Samasource.

“I founded Samasource because I was frustrated by traditional approaches to poverty alleviation,” she wrote in 2012. “Even those approaches focused on jobs often equip poor people with skills for which there is little market demand.”

Samasource, which in 2019 raised a $14.8 million in funding, now hires people from East Africa and India, trains them in data skills for AI and broader digital work, then offers solutions that combine human judgment with technology to a host of global companies including Microsoft, Walmart, and others encompassing 25% of the Fortune 100. In a piece on Janah’s passing, TechCrunch noted that “Janah and her company were well ahead of their time, as issues related to bias in [Machine Learning] models have become top-of-mind for many product leaders in Silicon Valley today.”

Since its founding, Samasource has impacted the lives of over 50,000 people in developing countries around the world by providing them the tools to become competitive laborers in the digital age. Leila’s book, "Give Work: Reversing Poverty One Job at a Time," was released in 2017.

Janah’s efforts were motivated by the same guiding principle - that in providing dignity through work, we can eliminate world poverty - and over the years she found new ways to fulfill that mandate. 

In 2013, Jamah launched Samaschool, a nonprofit focused on reskilling for the new economy. The aim was to bridge the digital divide in the United States by raising the level of technological know-how in underserved local communities. “She flipped the equation,” Maria Konnikova wrote in Pacific Standard. “Rather than teach specific skills geared at concrete jobs, she would train potential workers in basic computer and digital literacy skills that could then be translated into any number of jobs online.”

In 2019, Janah turned Samasource ainto a for-profit tech company, with Sama, the original nonprofit, as the company’s largest shareholder. The shift provides Samasource with access to the external capital required for scale while ensuring that social impact remains embedded in the core DNA of the business. Samasource COO Wendy Gonzalez, who has spent five years working closely alongside Jamah to build the firm’s vision and strategy, is now at the helm as the company’s interim CEO. Janah leaves behind her family — her husband Tassilo Festetic, her stepdaughter Mia, her godchildren.

If you would like to make a donation to honor Janah's legacy and support her mission to Give Work, visit givework.org.

ASAM NEWS contributed to this report.

Artifacts may be salvageble after fire at the Museum of Chinese in American

COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA

Some of items in storage that might have been damaged in the recent fire.

ASAM NEWS

Fear has turned to optimism at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York City.

One week after a fire gutted a five story building in New York’s Chinatown MOCA has recovered 150 boxes, reported Atlas Obscura.

The museum’s president, Nancy Yao Maasbach says parts of the collection “are very much salvageable.”

“We are so excited to share that it looks like everything we took out of the building this morning is very much salvageable. Very much salvageable,” said Maasbach at a press conference attended by AsAmNews on Wednesday. “So we had about 25 boxes get immediately sent to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they will be immediately (put in freezers), stabilized and then freeze-dried.” The fire did not reach the archival rooms, but Maasbach had said she was most worried about water damage and mold.

Some of the boxes were found in good condition and only need to be reboxed.

The building also housed the Chen Dance Center, a senior center and other community groups. The building which was owned by the city will be rebuilt, according to Mayor Bill DeBlasio. Others, however, are less optimistic.

“There is some severe and significant fire damage to the building,” Department of Building Assistant Commissioner Yegal Shamash said at the press conference, according to Gothamist. “The structural stability of the building right now is not in jeopardy. But overall we do have concerns with the stability of the building long term.”

A little peek at the diversity of the Iowa Caucuses

NBC GRAPHIC

The results of the Iowa Caucuses held Monday were still not known due to technological glitches in gathering the vote count.

The first primary leading up to this summer's conventions used a brand new app to assist in the vote count but caucus managers had difficulty using the app delaying the results.

The state Democratic Party denied any issues with the app, pinning delays instead on "inconsistencies" in precinct reporting. Democratic candidates, competing for 41 pledged delegates in nearly 1,700 caucus locations across the state, began to address the delays late Monday.

Candidates gave their speeches to their supporters without knowing the final outcome because they had to leave the state to move to the next battleground state, New Hampshire, which will hold its primary Feb. 11. 

Bernie Sanders leads in the latest New Hampshire survey with 32% of the expected vote. Elizabeth Warren is next with 13%, according to the 7 News/ Emerson College Polling tracking poll.

Although Iowa is 91% white, the state's demographics are experiencing a change, reflecting a nationwide trend. According to MSNBC, surveys show that of the caucus goers, 3% were African American, 4% were Latino and 2% were "Other." The photos below from Instagram posts, indicate that Iowa population shift towards more diversity.

At a church being used as a polling place, Burmese Americans filled the pews.

Candidate Andrew Yang rallied his supporters before they went out to encourage voters to take part in the caucuses.

A mosque was used as a satellite caucus site by the Democrats.

New Disney animated series features a South Asian cast

Leela Ladnier will voice Mira in the new Disney animated series. 

Wow! if you put the voice actors who worked in the new animated series, Mira, Royal Detective, and put them in a live-action movie, it would be promoted as a star-studded blockbuster.

Disney is so confident of the success of the new series of 11-minute episodes that the studio has already ordered a second season before the first season premieres in March of this year.

"Mira, Royal Detective hasn't even premiered yet and we have already seen the excitement building for this series featuring a brave and empowered young girl who will stop at nothing to solve a case,” said Joe D'Ambrosia, senior vice president, original programming, and general manager, Disney Junior. “To ensure that we have plenty of new mysteries ahead for Mira, we are thrilled to begin production on a second season and can't wait to introduce her to the world in 2020."

In an exclusive by EW, the cast for the animated series reflects Disney's goal to introduce more racial diversity in its productions.

The new mystery-adventure animated series is inspired by the cultures and customs of India. Set in the fictional land of Jalpur, it follows Mira, a commoner who is appointed to the role of royal detective by the queen herself.

Newcomer 16-year-old newcomer Leela Ladnier will do the voicee of Mira. The cast surrounding her are well-known Indian American actors.

Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) wil provide the voice of Queen Shanti.

Jameela Jamil of 'The Good Place' will voice Auntie Pushpa.

Kal Penn of 'House' and 'Designated Survivor' voices Mikka the mongoose sidekick.

Utkarsh Ambudkar of 'The Mindy Project' voices Chikku, a fellow mongoose.

Hannah Simone from 'New Girl' will give voice to Pinky, a commoner.

Iowans kick off primary season tonight, Yang exudes confidence

IOWA DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Iowa's voters go to their caucuses Monday night as they did in 2016.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang told a gathering in Des Moines, Iowa that he will “shock” the nation with his performance in Monday night’s caucuses.

Yang is depending that he will be able to attract Republicans who are disappointed in Donald Trump even though they gave him their vote in 2016. In Iowa's caucus system, voters can switch parties the night of the caucus.
Tonight, Iowa voters kick off the primary election season by attending an evening caucus.

They'll try to convince their fellow voters to side with their favored candidates, count heads and decide which candidate will be awarded their delegates.

Unfortunately, people who work in the evening won't be able to take part in this particular democratic exercise. The state doesn't mandate employers to allow their workers to leave work in order to take part in the caucus. Parents who can't find childcare or if extreme weather prevents attendance or disabled voters can't access the caucus location are also barriers to participating in the Democratic process. As a result, in 2016 only about 18.5% of the state's eligible voters were able to take part.

Loud and effective speakers who can dominate the conversations have an undue influence on the voters to join their particular "cluster" to indicate their preference. A candidate must have at least 15% of the caucus goers in order to win a delegate. Those caucus goers whose candidates can't muster the 15%, must go to their second or third choice among the candidates who were able to reach that 15%.

Iowa is also one of the least ethnically diverse states in the country. And because it holds caucus meetings, not a primary election, its electorate is even less diverse because many poorer voters often do not have the free time to participate. In 2016, Iowa's Democratic caucus electorate was 91% non-Hispanic white. The Republicans was 97% non-Hispanic white..

It doesn't necessarily mean that Iowa voters won't vote for a candidate of color; they backed Obama in 2008 and 2012.

PEW reports that white adults account for a much larger share of Iowa’s population than is the case for the U.S. as a whole. Among Iowa’s 18-and-older population, 91.6% are white, versus 73.8% of all 18-and-older Americans, according to 2018 Census data. Black Americans make up 12.4% of the 18-and-older population but just 3.2% in Iowa; Hispanics, who can be of any race, are 16.2% of the U.S. 18-and-older population but only 4.8% in Iowa.

Despite increasing by more than 50% between 2009 and 2017, Asians make up only about 2% of the electorate.

Democrats have instituted some changes to increase participation, especially among minority voters.

"For the first time in a caucus cycle, we have a full-time AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] and Latinx outreach director, and accessibility outreach director to help make sure all Iowans have the resources they need to caucus, including translation services at the caucuses," said Iowa Democratic Party communications director Mandy McClure in a statement that pointed out a number of other changes. "Expanding participation has been at the heart of all of these changes, and we will continue to work to look for ways to increase accessibility on caucus night."

Despite Yang's confidence, in the latest poll from Monmouth University, the first-time politician lagged far behind the frontrunners of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The poll says Yang had support from 3% of likely caucus goers in Iowa and 4% of those Iowans indicated that he’d be their second choice.

* * *

Editor's Note: 01/3/2020 11 a.m. Earlier versions of this post contained some editing errors. My apologies!

Asian Americans denounce expansion of the Muslim ban

SAALT

ASAM NEWS

Both South Asian American and Japanese American groups are condemning Donald Trump’s decision Jan. 31 to expand his Muslim travel ban to six more countries.

“Like each previous version of the Muslim ban, this new ban is rooted in the Trump administration’s bigotry and xenophobia, including the president’s well-known belief that Black immigrants come from “sh*thole countries,” said Mike Ishii, Co-Director of Tsuru for Solidarity, a group of Japanese Americans dedicated to ending detention of refugees and immigrants at detention centers.

The ban now includes Myanmar, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania.

“One thing is clear, the Muslim Ban was this administration’s first family separation policy just days after the presidential inauguration in 2017, and it has served as the foundational policy for targeting communities of color ever since,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, South Asian Americans Leading Together’s Interim Executive Director. “Since then, we have seen attacks on DACA, TPS, diversity lottery, green cards, public benefits, refugees, asylum seekers, pregnant women, and more to institutionalize a white supremacist agenda.”

The issue is one close to the heart of many Japanese Americans.

“We recognize this kind of bigotry; it is what politicians used during World War II to justify rounding up our families and throwing us into American concentration camps,” Ishii explained.

It is apparent that in including Myanmar, formerly Burma, the Trump administration is targeting the Rohingya Muslims fleeing government-approved persecution.

“For decades, the minority Rohingya Muslims of Burma have been exposed to human rights violations. Now, those who reside in the United States are living in fear of being seperateded from their family due to Trump’s expansion of the Muslim ban. Anything that tears apart our families threatens our nation," said Henny Ohr, executive director at Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center in Iowa in a statement.

"That’s why today, immigrant families in Iowa and throughout our nation affirm our belief that having family values means keeping families together no matter their creed or where they were born.” 

SAALT is calling for the passage of the No Ban Act. The Act calls for the immediately rescission of the Muslim Ban and would limit the president’s power to exercise such authority.

"From scapegoating Muslims with the Muslim Ban to now expanding the same restrictions to other immigrant communities of color, the Trump administration continues to weaponize immigration law in order to advance its xenophobic agenda," said Javeria Jamil, a lawyer at the National Security & Civil Rights of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus.

'Trump’s extended un-American travel ban undermines our nation’s core values. It is clearly driven by hate, not security," tweeted California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.

AAPI Data: new planning tool for AAPI from the Census

A mapping tool allows the user to determine the largest AAPI group in individual counties.

Policy makers, journalists and social safety net agencies have a new tool to help them provide services to the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

AAPI communities have been the fastest growing racial groups in the country, and the 2020 Census is expected to show continued rapid population gains. 

At the same time, the Census Bureau’s research has also shown that Asian Americans are the racial group least familiar with the Census, and the ones most reluctant to participate. Given these twin hurdles, it is more essential than ever for philanthropy, government, industry, and academia to go “all in” and ensure a complete and accurate count among AAPI communities.

AAPI Data and AAPIP have released a simple, yet powerful, mapping tool to help journalists, decision-makers, and community organizations better understand the diversity and geographic settlement patterns of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

“We are thrilled to be able to offer this mapping tool, to help the work of policy makers and community organizations alike,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of AAPI Data and professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside. “This work is in line with AAPI Data’s goals of taking a complexity of data and making them as simple and accessible as possible.”


This tool, available at https://aapidata.com/censusmaps/ provides detailed census-tract level maps for the 20 largest metropolitan areas for Asian Americans in the United States. 

For each census tract, users can see which AAPI subgroup lives in the tract, as well as get more information on the population size and share of 21 Asian American and 6 Pacific Islander detailed origin groups.

“This mapping tool helps foundations bring local AAPI communities into sharper focus and to help hone their strategies to ensure that these communities are fully included in the Census efforts and beyond,” said Pat Eng, President & CEO of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). “The tool will spark conversations across the country through AAPIP chapters, engaging philanthropic institutions, giving circles, and community organizations toward a complete count. Let’s see the people while we count!”

AAPIP and AAPI Data hope that the mapping tool will be helpful well beyond the 2020 Census, as communities engage in important conversations with public officials, nonprofit foundations, and businesses to make investments and enact policies that benefit the diverse and rapidly growing community of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Sunny Shao, a political science PhD student at UC Riverside and researcher at AAPI Data, took the lead in developing the mapping tool. “It was a wonderful opportunity for me to hone my mapping skills using ArcGIS, and to help our communities in the process,” Shao noted.

Sunday Read: Racist's name removed from UC law school

Workmen removed the metallic letters spelling out the name of a racist from the University of California, Berkeley law school Thursday (Jan. 30).

UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, which houses the prestigious law school, is no more. Henceforth, it will be known as The Law Building, one of several structures that make up the UC Berkeley School of Law.

The law school's alumni have been attached to some of the country's famous cases, who have fought for justice in the courts in this country, was ironically named after a man, John Henry Boalt, who was a principal crusader for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Boalt's "principal public legacy is … one of racism and bigotry … John Boalt’s positive contributions to the university do not appear to outweigh this legacy of harm,” concluded a 2018 report by a law school committee tasked by Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

In a 1877 speech Boalt addressing, “The Chinese Question,” he said the white race and the "Mongolian race" were incompatible with each other.

Boalt’s speech came at a time when large numbers of Chinese had begun immigrating to the US seeking their dreams of striking it rich because of the California Gold Rush. Then the Chinese workers began working on large labor projects, including the Transcontinental Railroad and the levees of the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta. Between 1850 and 1880, US Census figures show the number of Chinese grew from about 4,000 to 105,465.

Boalt's racist views became known when in 2017, law lecturer Charles Reichmann found Boalt’s racist writings at the campus’s Bancroft Library while researching the Asian experience in California, according to UC Berkeley.

As Reichmann's discovery became known, a movement began to pick up steam among students and faculty to remove the Boalt name in association with the school. 

Last October, the Building Name Review Committee, backeda recommendation from Chemerinsky to remove the name Boalt from the law school.

“It’s incredibly important to confront racist symbols, like John Boalt’s name on a building, because these symbols act to reinforce the history of white supremacy in our institutions,” said Berkeley professor Paul Fine, co-chair of the Building Name Review Committee. “And, they can make students who learn about this history then feel excluded, like there is an endorsement of that racism by the institution itself.”

Students of color account for 49% of the 2022 J.D. class, according to Berkeley Law’s website.

One of the school's graduates, Dale Minami, praised the efforts of the students and faculty to change the school's name.

Minami helped overturn Korematsu v. US clearing the charges against Fred Korematsu who defied the US government during the WWII internment of Japanese Americans. He was instrumental in gaining the support of Asian American alumni of Berkeley Law.

"One thing exciting to me is the activism of the younger generation," said Minami. "To see this new generation step up and express outrage and act on it -- truly inspiring."

Chemerinsky, the law school dean, said in an announcement to the UC community that the law school will be taking steps in the near future to “ensure that the racism underlying the Chinese Exclusion Act be remembered.”

"John Boalt said racist things, especially about those of Chinese ancestry, and also about African-Americans and Native Americans,” Chemerinsky said in his announcement. “We must remember the racism he expressed as it is part of the history of our country and region and was said by someone whose name we have been associated with for a century.”

Sundance Film Fest: Korean American coming-of-age film Minari wins Grand Jury and Audience Favorite awards

Steven Yeun was praised for his performance in 'Minari.'

The most talked-about film out of Sundance this year is Minari, a coming-of-age story about growing up as an Asian American in rural Nebraska.

The dramatic feature won the both Grand Jury prize and the Audience Award, winning favorable reviews from the judges and the audience.

The film starring The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun is a movie written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung and inspired by his own childhood in the 1980s. 

After the controversy surrounding The Farewell: critics and producers should note that this is an American film telling an American story about Americans.

It's a quiet film that slowly envelopes the audience as they get deeply involved with the family. By the time tragedy strikes, it hits the audience hard as if it struck is their own family.

Since leaving the hit TV drama The Walking Dead, Yeun, 36, has built a solid career and is a star in South Korea as well as in the US. It was his support for Chung's script that convinced Brad Pitt's Plan B to back the film.

“Isaac’s script spoke to me on a deeply human level,” says Yeun, whose father moved from Seoul to Canada when Yeun was a young child. “I think he painted a portrait of a family that is so honest and truthful, so when you get to read things like that you jump at those opportunities. Jacob (portrayed by Yeun) is at once his own individual but encapsulates moments and bits of immigrant Korean men of that time. It was something I wanted to explore.”

No date has been set for Minari's general release.

Besides Steven Yeun, center, 'Minari' also stars Han Ye Ri, left, and Yoon Yeo Jung.

2020 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature winners selected

Asian American and Pacific Islander American librarians announced Jan. 27 five books and their authors and/or illustrators as their top picks for books by AAPI authors and themes.

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association, at the annual gathering of librarians in Philadelphia named the winners of the 2020 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL). 

The annual awards promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and are awarded to titles published from October 2018 to September 2019 based on their literary and artistic merit.

There are five categories for the Awards. Each committee selected a winning title for the category. Here are the winners and honor titles of the 2020 Adult Literature Awards:

Adult Fiction

The APALA Adult Literature Fiction committee selected “The Atlas of Reds and Blues” by Devi Laskar, (pictured above) published by Counterpoint Press as the APALA Adult Fiction winner. The honor title is “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press. 

Adult Non-Fiction

The Adult Non-Fiction winner is “Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad” by Gordon H Chang, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Adult Non-Fiction honor title is “Chop Suey Nation”, by Ann Hui, published by Douglas & McIntyre.

Young Adult Literature

The Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature winner is “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, illustrated by Harmony Becker, published by Top Shelf Productions, an imprint of IDW Publishing. The committee selected one Young Adult Literature Honor title “Frankly in Love” by David Yoon published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Children’s Literature

“Stargazing” by Jen Wang, published by First Second (Roaring Books Press) is the 2020 Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature winner. The committee selected one Children’s Literature Honor title, “I’m Ok” by Patti Kim, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Picture Book

The Picture Book winner is “Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom”, written by Teresa Robeson and illustrated by Rebecca Huang, published by Sterling Children’s Books. The committee selected one Picture Book Honor title “Bilal Cooks Daal”, written by Aisha Saeed and illustrated by Anoosha Syed, published by Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. 

Each award will be named and given a plaque during the annual APALA Literature Award Ceremony during the 2020 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition being held in Chicago,  June 25-30.

For a complete list of Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature including adult fiction and nonfiction titles, visit http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/ .

Church officials charged with running a human trafficking scheme

GOOGLE MAPS

The front of the Van Nuys Kingdom of Jesus Christ church compound.

Three officials of a church based in the Philippines have been arrested in California and Virginia for human trafficking and visa fraud.

“We believe they are bringing people into the United States, from the Philippines with promises of work, legitimate work, in some case musical related work and when they get here, the passports are taken from them," said FBI spokesperson Laura Elmiller.

The three arrested defendants who are described as the main administrators of Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the United States. are:

• Guia Cabactulan, 59, the top KOJC official in the United States who maintained direct communication with KOJC leadership in the Philippines;
• Marissa Duenas, 41, who allegedly handled fraudulent immigration documents for KOJC workers and secured the passports immediately after workers entered the U.S.; and
• Amanda Estopare, 48, who allegedly handled the financial aspects of the KOJC enterprise, including enforcing fundraising quotas for KOJC workers.

No charges have been filed against Apollo Quiboloy— who proclaims himself as the “appointed son of God.” He he founded the church in 1985. His church claims to have six million followers all over the world.

“We will show to you that this is nothing but a grand conspiracy of lies concocted by former members of KOJC who struck an alliance with forces who have an ax to grind against Pastor Quiboloy,” said Israelito Torreon, Quiboloy's spokesperson in Manila.

A federal criminal complaint alleges that representatives of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church obtained visas for church members to enter the U.S. by claiming, for example, they would be performing at musical events. 

But, once the church members arrived in the United States, they were required to surrender their passports and work long hours as “FTWs” (full-time workers, who were also called “miracle workers”), who solicited donations for a church non-profit called the Children’s Joy Foundation USA (CJF), according to the complaint. While the workers raised funds by telling donors their money would benefit impoverished children in the Philippines, the complaint alleges that most or all of the money raised was used to finance KOJC operations and the church leader’s lavish lifestyle.

Cabactulan and Duenas were arrested Jan. 29 at a KOJC compound in Van Nuys, California where they lived. Estopare was arrested in Virginia.

In conjunction with the arrests, federal agents executed search warrants at the KOJC compound in Van Nuys, the CJF office in Glendale, and three other locations in the Los Angeles area. Searches were also conducted at two locations linked to KOJC in Hawaii, and agents fanned out across the United States to interview witnesses as part of a larger investigation into the organization.

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Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the church of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

The criminal complaint that led to this morning’s arrests charges the three defendants with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. A 42-page affidavit in support of the complaint outlines a years-long scheme to bring FTWs to the United States under false pretenses and to make arrangements for productive fundraisers – known as “Assets” – to remain in the country by forcing them to marry other KOJC members who were US citizens, or to obtain student visas and enroll FTWs in schools with lenient attendance policies. Over the past 20 years, according to immigration records summarized in the affidavit, there were 82 marriages involving KOJC administrators and FTWs.

The affidavit alleges that the immigration fraud scheme provided KOJC with workers to participate in widespread efforts to solicit donations with false claims that donors’ money would be used for the benefit of poor children in the Philippines. KOJC allegedly established daily cash solicitation quotas for FTWs, and if these quotas were not met, workers suffered abuse, according to victims who have fled KOJC and provided information to the FBI.

“[B]ank records show that KOJC accounts received approximately $20 million in cash deposits from 2014 through mid-2019,…[and] most of these funds appear to derive from street-level solicitation,” according to the affidavit, which notes that “little to no money solicited appears to benefit impoverished or in-need children.”

The affidavit summarizes the experiences of a series of victims who fled KOJC and provided information to the FBI over the past several years. Some of the victims described being sent across the US to solicit donations, working long hours to reach their daily quotas, receiving little to no pay for their efforts, and participating in sending large sums of cash back to the Philippines on commercial and private flights.

The FBI has established a toll-free phone number for potential victims or anyone with information about KOJC activities to provide information. The information line is 1-800-CALL FBI (1-800-225-5324), and it will be staffed by English- and Tagalog-speaking personnel. Individuals may also contact the FBI through its website at https://www.fbi.gov/tips.

Day 80 in South Asians' hunger strike in ICE detention

Five South Asians at La Salle Detention Facility have been on hunger strike.

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Five male Indian asylum seekers have reached the 90th day of a hunger strike at the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.
According to American Bazaar, each of the men have formal sponsors in the US who have committed to housing and supporting them while they fight their asylum case. A petition to release the detainees while their asylum cases are processed states that the men have been force-fed and force-hydrated. The petition has garnered over 26,000 signatures.

“I have been visiting them for the past three months and have watched them slowly disappear as the days carry on,” Freedom for Immigrants volunteer Michelle Grafeo said. “ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is prepared to let them die. I, however, am not.”

Grafeo told American Bazaar that she met with two hunger strikers on Sunday and learned that three of the men are being held in isolation as punishment for not drinking Boost. She added that all five men are wheelchair bound and unable to get out of bed without assistance.

Freedom for Immigrants has filed complaints with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on behalf of the detainees, demanding that systemic civil rights violations the men have faced in ICE custody be addressed.

One complaint is that ICE is violating its own policy of giving people in detention the right to independent medical evaluation. According to licensed New Orleans physician Catherine Jones, staff at the LaSalle Detention Facility have denied repeated requests for accurate and updated medical records.

“This makes it impossible for us to have a clear understanding of the hunger strikers’ current medical conditions,” Jones said in a statement, “and completely negates their access to independent evaluations, which is especially crucial as they enter the critical time in their hunger strike when vital organ functioning begins to shut down.”

According to American Bazaar, medical professionals say vital organs may begin to fail after 75 days without adequate nutrition. Many asylum seekers from South Asia have previously resorted to hunger strikes to protest against the inhumane conditions in detention facilities.

A 2019 factsheet from civil rights organization SAALT states that patterns of abuse towards South Asians in American detention facilities include inadequate or non-existent language access, denial of religious accommodations, retaliatory solitary confinement, gross medical neglect, and high bond amounts.

WION reports that the five hunger strikers include four Hindus and one Sikh. According to American Bazaar, the detainees are seeking asylum for a variety of reasons and have differing legal situations.