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— Edited by Shawna Chen and Mary Yang
Pulse
?️ ELECTION 2022 — KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM GEORGIA’S SENATE RUN-OFF: 78% of Asian American voters supported Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) compared to 22% who supported Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker (R), according to an Election Day exit poll conducted by the Asian American Legal and Education Defense Fund. Asian Americans make up 4.7% of Georgia’s electorate.
- As in 2020, when Asian American voters helped deliver the Senate to Democrats, they again were the margin of victory for a race that saw new forms of outreach to AAPI communities from both parties—and helped ensure a 51-49 Democratic majority in the upper chamber amid Republican control the House.
- Education, health care, and the economy/jobs were the top three issues influencing Asian Americans’ vote. Asian Americans aged 18-29 in particular overwhelmingly voted for Warnock.
- Data point: Almost 92% of Asian American voters who support abortion access voted for Warnock, while 66% of Asian American voters who oppose abortion access voted for Walker.
City Spotlight
? Our round-up of headlines from metro areas across the U.S.
ATLANTA — Asian American lawmakers in Georgia have created the state’s first formal AAPI Caucus. The bipartisan caucus, comprised of members from Georgia’s House and Senate, will work to boost AAPI representation throughout government and tackle AAPI issues.
- “One thing we’ve heard from many Asian Americans is a dismaying sense of invisibility,” state Sen. Michelle Au (D), a founding member of the caucus, said in a statement. “But times are changing as is the face of Georgia, and this is represented in the historic representation we now see of AAPI lawmakers at the State Capitol.”
LOS ANGELES — Hate crimes in Los Angeles County surged to their highest level in nearly two decades, Rebecca Ellis of the Los Angeles Times writes. In 2021, authorities recorded 786 victims of hate crimes, a 23% increase over 2020, and 77 anti-Asian hate crime victims, the most since 2002, according to a report released this week by the county Commission on Human Relations.
- The perpetrator blamed the victim for the pandemic in almost a quarter of the reported anti-Asian incidents in L.A. County.
PHILADELPHIA — Former Philadelphia Council member Helen Gym (D) has officially joined the race for mayor. In addition to advocating for quality public schools and housing access, Gym has also been a vocal opponent of the 76ers stadium in Chinatown.
- “This is a conversation about what you want Market Street to become. We need something that showcases the diversity of Philadelphia, our walkability, our culture, our small businesses and our families. And that will grow the city,” Gym told City Life’s Victor Fiorillo when asked about the new stadium.
SAN FRANCISCO — A new report from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission finds that the city’s police department has the worst record in the state when it comes to stopping Black and Pacific Islander residents for what’s known as “pretext stops”—wherein an officer pulls over a driver for a minor traffic infraction but uses the stop to conduct an investigation of a perceived crime unrelated to the initial violation.
- Civil rights advocates have said for years that pretext stops allow officers to stop and search based on racial bias. In San Francisco, officers pull over Pacific Islander drivers at over three times the expected rate based on their population.
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Since 1996, the Kauffman Foundation has tracked entrepreneurial data to understand how it has evolved over time.
Important highlights from 2021 data include a notable shift toward older new entrepreneurs and the rise in the share of new Asian entrepreneurs – from 3.4% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2021.
AAPI Nation
? Here's what else is happening across America…
NUMBER OF THE WEEK — 70: That’s the percentage of local TV news stations that lack on-air staff proportional to the AAPI residents in their designated market areas, according to a recently released report by the Asian American Journalists Association.
Only 4 out of the top 20 TV news markets have on-air staff that proportionally reflect their AAPI population: Phoenix, Denver, Miami, and Cleveland.
The eruption of Hawai‘i’s Mauna Loa for the first time in almost four decades holds political and spiritual symbolism for Native Hawaiians and serves as a message to respect Indigenous communities and lands, NBC News’ Kimmy Yam reports. Coinciding with Hawaiian Independence Day, Native Hawaiians are viewing the volcano’s eruption as a rejection of colonial forces encroaching on their land.
- “You don’t have authority to shape our sacred lands,” Kaniela Ing, a former state legislator who co-founded the organization Our Hawaii, told NBC News.
A new lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to follow through on a commitment to pay off 120% of the debt weighing on farmers who have “traditionally suffered racial or ethnic prejudice,” the Associated Press’ Scott McFetridge reports.
- This encompasses over 6,500 farmers who carry extra burdens of federal loan obligations due to the USDA’s refusal to process loans from farmers of color—including Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
As the world enters year four of the pandemic, a little under 15% of Americans have received their bivalent COVID-19 booster, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only 8.7% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have gotten the bivalent booster, compared to 15.9% of Asian Americans and 13.6% of white Americans.
Both AAPI students and parents in New York City say racial diversity is a major consideration when selecting a school, according to a new survey from the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families. The findings counter the belief that Asians oppose integration in education, Gothamist’s Arun Venugopal notes.
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