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 [email protected] and support our work by making a donation.
— Edited by Shawna Chen
Here’s what is happening across America…
❤️🩹 Colorado’s Amache National Historic Site became the country’s newest national park this week, NBC Asian America’s Emi Tran writes. Camp Amache was a Japanese American incarceration site that was established in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack and imprisoned over 10,000 Japanese Americans.
- “Amache’s addition to the National Park System is a reminder that a complete account of the nation’s history must include our dark chapters of injustice,” National Park Service director Chuck Sams said in a statement.
📚 A bipartisan bill to mandate Asian American history in public school curriculum is currently stalled in Wisconsin’s state legislature, Wisconsin State Journal’s Alexander Shur writes.
🚔 Dominic Choi has made history by becoming the first Asian American chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Stefanie Dazio reports for the Associated Press. Choi will lead a department of nearly 9,000 total officers during his tenure as interim chief.
🏠 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a final rule to facilitate more affordable housing opportunities and rent relief for Native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Housing Block Grant Program.
- In their words: “We are committed to supporting Hawaiian communities with quality, affordable housing, especially low-income Native Hawaiian families who reside on the Hawaiian Home Lands and often face significant housing challenges,” Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement.
🏈 AAPIs in the National Football League are reclaiming their identities in their own ways—from wearing Samoan cultural attire to demanding accurate pronunciations of their names, Terry Tang writes for the Associated Press.
- By the numbers: Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders comprise 1.8% of all NFL players, while Asian players make up around 0.1%, according to a 2023 report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport.
💼 The White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders will host a federal leadership development conference in March in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Transportation.
- The event is designed to address workplace challenges and help foster leadership skills through tailored sessions for federal employees at all stages of their careers.
🎾 Japanese American Naomi Osaka moved more than 400 spots up in the Women's Tennis Association’s rankings, NextShark’s Carl Samson writes. After falling behind for six months due to maternity leave, Osaka advanced to quarterfinals at the Qatar Open and now ranks just below 300.
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