The Big Story
DEEP DIVE—AAPI GROUPS URGE ACTION ON GUNS AS FRESNO ATTACK LEAVES HMONG COMMUNITY IN SHOCK: Asian American Pacific Islander (APPI) groups are renewing calls for federal action on gun violence after a mass shooting rocked the heart of California’s tight-knit Hmong community. Here are the details…
- What happened: On Nov. 17, two assailants armed with semi-automatic handguns opened fire on a small crowd that had gathered to watch football in the backyard of a Hmong household, according to law enforcement officials. Among the four killed were 23-year-old singer Xy Lee, 31-year-old Phia Vang, 40-year-old Kalaxang Thao and 38-year-old Kou Xiong.
- “This was not a random act. It was a targeted act of violence,” Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall told reporters, adding that no suspects have been identified and a motive has not been determined. Roughly 300,000 people of Hmong descent are living in the U.S., according to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis, and the Hmong are the largest Southeast Asian ethnic group in Fresno, making up 4.9% of the city’s population.
- “Unfortunately, the heartbreak of gun violence is not new to our communities nor are we immune to the terror it inflicts on our families and our neighborhoods on a daily basis,” the grassroots civic group Hmong Innovating Politics said in a statement. “We believe that family gatherings and all gatherings should be safe and that our families should be allowed to thrive and not live in fear.”
- The political reaction: The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) described the Fresno shooting as “yet another example of how gun violence is an epidemic that our country can no longer ignore.” And in a tweet, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus wrote that “it falls to us to pass #HR8 and ensure we have finally common sense gun legislation.” H.R. 8, or the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, passed in the House in February but has been stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
- Why this matters: Asian Americans have been consistent in their overwhelming support for stricter gun control laws, according to the 2018 Asian American Voter Survey by APIAVote and AAPI Data, as well as a recent exit poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Louisiana.
- What’s next: Fresno leaders are hoping to raise $500,000 to help affected families pay for medical expenses and funeral costs, the Los Angeles Times reports, and Hmong Innovating Politics has been holding “healing sessions” for the community.
On the Agenda
‘DARK MONEY’ AAPI GROUP POWERS ILLINOIS CANNABIS OPT-OUT PUSH: The nonprofit Asian American Advocacy is behind recent protests in the Chicago area aimed at convincing local officials to prohibit marijuana sales, the Chicago Tribune reports. Read more.
- The details: Crowds of protesters wearing identical “Opt Out” shirts, many of them Chinese Americans organized using WeChat, have packed city council meetings to rally against pot shops ahead of the statewide legalization of recreational marijuana in January 2020.
- Critics say that the movement consists of “the same group of protesters going from town to town,” though organizers with Asian American Advocacy maintain that they are mainly residents of each municipality.
- Some context: Asian American Advocacy has been an active force in Illinois politics since its formation in 2018, The Daily Line’s Hannah Meisel reports. Last year, the “dark money” group funneled nearly $155,000 to seven political action committees to elect Asian American Republicans and drum up GOP support among Asian American voters in the state.
- Why this matters: Illinois’ Asian American population has grown 64% in the last two decades, and AAPI voters have been historically divided on the issue of marijuana legalization, according to AAPI Data. The state also has a history of Asian American charitable organizations funneling dark money to political action committees, and several Asian American GOP committees were shut down for conflicts of interest last summer.
MAKING MOVES—WONG ANNOUNCES RUN FOR CONGRESS: University of California, San Diego Professor Tom Wong has joined the race to succeed Rep. Susan Davis (D-California) in the state’s 53rd congressional district and aims to become the first formerly undocumented AAPI member of Congress, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Wong previously served as an adviser to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama administration. Read more.
ANOTHER AAPI CIVIL RIGHTS ORG IN TURMOIL: More than half of the staff at the Korean Resource Center, the leading advocate for low-income and immigrant Koreans in Los Angeles, have resigned in protest over “retaliatory union-busting tactics” from the organization’s Board of Directors and the conduct of embattled board President D.J. Yoon, LAist’s Josie Huang reports. Read more.
MAUNA KEA PROTESTS INSPIRE MORE NATIVE HAWAIIAN ACTIVISM: Protesters in Oahu, Hawaii’s most populous island, are borrowing the civil disobedience methods of demonstrators rallying against a $1.4 billion telescope at Mauna Kea to block wind farm construction and the redevelopment of a beach park, Associated Press reports. Read more.
MENG BLASTS NYC SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR OVER SHSAT LAW: Rep. Grace Meng (D-New York) is slamming New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for his claim that only millionaires have been challenging his controversial push to change admission requirements for the city’s specialized high schools. Read more.
NY AG TO PROBE REPORTS OF LONG ISLAND HOUSING DISCRIMINATION: New York Attorney General Letitia James says she will investigate claims of unequal treatment of minority prospective home buyers by real estate agents after a Newsday investigation found that Asians in Long Island “experienced evidence of disparate treatment 19% of the time.” Read more.
THE LONG READ—JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY REELS AFTER SAUGUS HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING: Rafu Shimpo editor Gwen Muranaka writes that Japanese Americans are not immune to the problems of gun violence after a 16-year-old gunman opened fire at a California high school, killing two students. Read more.
2020 Watch
KHAN ENDORSES BIDEN AS CAMPAIGN PLANS AAPI DAY OF ACTION: Khizr Khan, the father of Muslim American Gold Star soldier Humayun Khan who was killed in Iraq in 2004, has endorsed former vice president Joe Biden, according to an announcement shared with The Yappie.
- Why it matters: Khan, who gained prominence for his scathing criticism of President Donald Trump during the 2016 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, described Biden as an “honorable man” during the campaign’s first AAPI national call on Thursday and recounted a story of how Biden invited him to his home. You can listen to his comments here.
- The Biden campaign is also making preparations for an “AAPI Day of Action” on Dec. 7, National AAPI Director Amit Jani tells The Yappie. Volunteers from Boston, Durham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, and St. Louis are being encouraged to travel to the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to help canvas.
- “We really believe that the AAPI community has an incredible opportunity to make a difference in both the primary election and the general election,” Deputy Political Director John McCarthy says.
YANG LASHES OUT AT MSNBC FOR ‘SYSTEMATIC BIAS’: Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang is publicly accusing MSNBC of “trying to suppress and minimize my campaign” as he escalates claims of unfair treatment by the network, according to an interview with POLITICO published Monday. For months, Yang’s supporters have criticized MSNBC for misidentifying or leaving the Democratic hopeful out of on-air graphics, and campaign aides have spoken with network officials to address complaints about coverage following last week’s debate in Atlanta, POLITICO reports. Read more.
SANDERS CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS BANGLADESHI TENANT UNION IN NEW VIDEO: Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (D-Vermont) campaign has produced a video highlighting the Bangladeshi Tenant Union’s fight for housing justice in Queens, New York, according to an announcement shared with The Yappie. The video, titled “Bangladeshi Tenant Power,” was released on National Housing Day and comes after Sen. Sanders unveiled a “Housing for All” plan that called for a guarantee for “that renters have the right to form tenants unions free from retaliation by landlords or managing agents.” Read more.
WARREN LOOKS TO HIRE NATIONAL AAPI ORGANIZER: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) appears poised to join other Democratic presidential hopefuls in hiring a national Asian American and Pacific Islander community organizer, according to a job listing posted to Greenhouse. Read more.
BUTTIGIEG LANDS TAKEI ENDORSEMENT: George Takei, the prominent LGBT Japanese American actor and activist, has endorsed South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for president, according to an announcement posted to Twitter. Takei had previously donated to Buttigieg’s campaign and was photographed with the candidate at a Brooklyn fundraiser in April. Read more.
On the Hill
CONGRESS PASSES HK BILLS, SETTING UP FRESH CONFRONTATION WITH BEIJING: Congress has passed legislation aimed at supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, in a significant and bipartisan rebuke of China. The measures now head to the White House, though it remains unclear whether President Trump will sign them amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Read more.
- One of the bills, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, would impose various penalties on individuals found to be curtailing Hong Kong’s freedoms and requires the State Department to annually certify whether Hong Kong is autonomous enough to justify its special trade status under U.S. law.
- Congress also approved a bill barring the export of certain crowd control munitions to the Hong Kong Police Force. Demonstrators in Hong Kong have called on lawmakers to move quickly on the bipartisan proposals, which have broad support among AAPI groups such as 18 Million Rising.
UPDATE—AANHPISI FUNDING ADVOCATES DEALT ANOTHER SETBACK: Congressional negotiators have failed to galvanize support for restoring $255 million in critical funding to minority-serving colleges and universities, including approximately $4.5 million in grants to Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), the Washington Post reports. The federal funding, which has been used to strengthen programming for low-income or first-generation AAPI students, expired in September after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) blocked a two-year extension from moving forward in the Senate. Read more.
JACL BLASTS KENNEDY FOR WWII INTERNMENT COMPARISON: Japanese American civil rights groups are slamming Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) after he appeared to compare the House’s impeachment inquiry of President Trump to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, NBC Asian America’sKimmy Yam reports. Read more.
- “This comparison is incredibly inappropriate and offensive,” Japanese American Citizens League Executive Director David Inoue said. Meanwhile, activists with Tsuru for Solidarity lambasted Sen. Kennedy’s comments as “especially offensive given his support for the Trump Administration’s family separation policies and indefinite detention of migrant families.”
AAPI ORGS PUSH FOR ACTION ON PACIFIC ISLANDER HEALTH CARE: Dozens of AAPI community organizations, led by the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, are urging Congress to restore Medicaid eligibility to thousands of Pacific Islanders who reside in the United States under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA), according to a letter sent to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Read more.
CAPAC ‘DEEPLY TROUBLED’ AFTER GOOGLE HIRES EX-DHS OFFICIAL: Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Judy Chu (D-California) has signed onto a letter expressing concern over Google’s hiring of Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security staffer who helped to implement the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy, BuzzFeed News reports. Read more.
Enjoying The Yappie? Forward this briefing to a friend, or subscribe here. You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
