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? Good morning, and welcome to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing — your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders. Send tips and feedback to editors@theyappie.com and support our work by making a donation.
— Edited by Shawna Chen and Mary Yang
Violence in Asian America
CALIFORNIA — A TRAGEDY IN AMERICA’S FIRST ‘SUBURBAN CHINATOWN’: Eleven people have died after a gunman opened fire in a dance studio in Monterey Park, California late Saturday night amid the city's first Lunar New Year celebration since before the pandemic, The Yappie’s Mary Yang and Shawna Chen report.
- The attack, in a city that is two-thirds Asian American, is the deadliest mass killing in the nation since the Uvalde shooting last May. At least 10 others were injured as of Sunday.
- The suspect, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, remained at large for most of Sunday before he shot and killed himself as police closed in on the van he used to flee. The shooting has prompted other cities across the U.S. to shore up security for local celebrations in anticipation of possible copycats.
- “What should have been a festive night to welcome the first day of the Lunar New Year turned into a tragedy,” Star Ballroom Dance Studio, the site of the Monterey Park shooting, said in a statement Monday. “In this time of healing, we hope that all those who were affected have the space to grieve and process what transpired within the last 24 hours.”
- Police have not identified a clear motive for the attack in Monterey Park but have not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime. Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have become familiar with feelings of apprehension and dread as hate crimes have spiked in the last two years, the New Yorker's Michael Luo reflects in a personal essay.
INDIANA — Last week, a white woman stabbed an Asian Indiana University student seven times in the head on a city bus in Bloomington, Indiana. The suspect, Billie R. Davis, told police she stabbed the victim, an 18-year old woman, because she was “Chinese,” and that it “would be one less person to blow up our country,” reportsNPR’s Juliana Kim.
- Asian American students have since expressed frustration with the response from the university and others outside the Asian community.
- “There’s not really any advocacy group in the community that makes Asian issues very visible. I think the administration should make that more of a priority, just expanding their own diversity and inclusion efforts to the community,” Audrey Lee, a senior at the university, told Kimmy Yam of NBC News.
NEW YORK — The father of Michelle Alyssa Go, a 40-year-old Asian woman who died after she was pushed in front of a New York subway train last January, returned to New York to deal with legal, estate, and criminal issues related to his daughter’s death. Justin Go, who lives in California, called for continued funding for housing, treatment, and other programs to prevent further acts of violence in an op-ed for The New York Times.
- In his words: “I now have experienced seeing my daughter, my family and myself in the news,” writes Go. “Our family holiday photo is in newspapers and on the television newscasts. Our lives have been changed forever.”
The man charged with fatally beating an elderly Chinese immigrant with a rock in Queens, New York has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, The New York Times’ Rebecca Davis O’Brien reports.
- GuiYing Ma, who moved to New York in 2017 with her husband, Zhanxin Gao, sustained repeated bashes to the head and died after spending three months in a hospital. She was 61.
- “We can only hope that the long prison sentence will provide at least some measure of solace to the family of Ms. Ma,” said Queens’ district attorney Melinda Katz.
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Resources
In light of the tragedy in Monterey Park, we’d like to share some resources for our readers.
- The Chinatown Service Center in Los Angeles is offering trauma counseling to community members.
- Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Centers provides multi-disciplinary counseling services in languages including Cambodian, Chinese (Chiu Chow, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese), Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese, and Spanish.
- The Center for the Pacific Asian Family operates a 24-hour helpline—available at 1-800-339-3940—in 繁體中文, 한국어, 日本語, Tagalog, Tiếng Việt, ខ្មរ, हि न्दी, and ไทย.
- Pacific Asian Counseling Services offers treatment in Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, and Spanish.
- Asians for Mental Health maintains a directory of AAPI therapists listed by state.
- Asian Mental Health Collective provides a directory of Asian therapists in the U.S. and Canada, support groups for Asian Americans, and a database of resources and organizations tailored to specific mental health needs.
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California offers a range of services, including legal support and advocacy.
AAPI Nation
? Here's what else is happening across America…
The increased use of the term “Pasifika” to describe Indigenous migrants of the Pacific diaspora underscores an effort to highlight the disproportionate health and economic challenges that Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders face compared to Asian Americans, USA Today’s Mark Ramirez reports.
- “It’s really important for Pacific diasporic communities in the U.S. to take control of their own representation,” said Lana Lopesi, an assistant professor of Indigenous race and ethnic studies at the University of Oregon.
The U.S. Air Force returned 363 acres of leased land on Hawai‘i’s Molokai Island to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, creating the opportunity for Native Hawaiians to move onto the land, the Associated Press’ Audrey McAvoy writes. With rising real estate prices and Hawai‘i’s slow awarding process, there has been an increased need for lots, with more than 28,000 on the waitlist for leases.
The number of Asian or Pacific Islander immigrant characters on TV has doubled since 2020, according to a report from media advocacy nonprofit Define American. But Pacific Islander representation is still lacking and is often erased from broader AAPI discourse.
The average low-income Asian American or Pacific Islander student at a four-year university has unmet financial need $4,000 greater than the average low-income student, The Nation’s Adrija Bhattacharjee and Orlando Cabalo write. Research shows that student loan cancellations could greatly benefit low-income Asian and Pacific Islander students alike.
In Philadelphia, more than 40 Chinatown organizations have announced a coalition opposing the construction of a new 76ers’ arena,Massarah Mikati and Jeff Gammage of The Philadelphia Inquirer report.
- Opponents of the proposed Sixers stadium point to the D.C. Capital One arena, which has pushed out local Chinatown business owners and residents over the past two decades. “We saw what happened there. It’s a disaster,” Philly Chinatown restaurant owner Xu Lin told The Yappie’s Mary Yang. “There’s no Chinatown anymore, not really.”
The city of Las Vegas is honoring Vida Lin, founder and president of the nonprofit Asian Community Development Council, for expanding translation services and resources for navigating citizenship and health care systems for Nevada’s AAPI communities, reports Gabrielle Zabat of KSNV. Jan. 18 was Vida Lin Day.
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