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☆ Nevada is 1 of 5 states with over 10% Asian Americans. Both parties courted vote, but Dems won out.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

In the highly competitive swing state of Nevada, both parties aggressively courted Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders ahead of last week's midterm elections, but Democrats managed to clinch the group's vote. Koo said both parties made significant efforts to appeal to Asian Americans, particularly in comparison to elections past. “The main industry there is service and hospitality, and there’s a lot of Asian Americans that are employed by that industry,” Wong said. Democratic candidates in Nevada, who are often more moderate than those on the coasts, may naturally align more with the Asian American community. “We’re starting to see with younger Asian American voters, climate is a huge conversation that everyone is having.

☆ Senate passes bill to include Native Hawaiian sexual violence survivors in funding
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

While services allocated to specifically help Native Hawaiian survivors of gender-based violence were previously inadvertently excluded from that funding, the legislation would rectify that. As it stood, the legislation allocated money for native women but not, specifically, Native Hawaiian women due to language and drafting errors. “The people who suffer the worst of that are Native Hawaiian women," she added. Barriers to addressing violence against Native Hawaiian women can also be traced back to American colonization, Kanaʻiaupuni said. “And of course the majority of trafficked people are Native Hawaiian women and children.

☆ After being falsely accused of spying for China, Sherry Chen wins significant settlement
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

An Asian American scientist who was wrongfully accused of spying for China is speaking out after reaching a lucrative settlement with the U.S. government last week. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which backed Chen, the hydrologist will receive $550,000 from the Commerce Department and an annuity over 10 years valued at $1.25 million. Neither the Commerce Department nor the DOJ commented further on Chen’s ordeal. However, the Commerce Department appealed the decision and placed her on administrative leave. As part of the settlement, Chen is retiring from the NWS, her lawyers said.

☆ GOP Rep. Michelle Steel wins re-election in contentious House race between 2 Asian Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

After a contentious race in Orange County, California, Republican incumbent Michelle Steel will represent the redrawn 45th Congressional District. Steel defeated Democrat Jay Chen in a rare matchup between two Asian American candidates. Prior to serving in Congress, Steel was a supervisor and chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The political shift has been driven by the growth of the Asian American and Pacific Islander population in the area. On Monday, dozens of Asian American organizations, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC and the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, condemned candidates “using sinophobia, a fear or dislike of China” in a letter.

☆ Asian Americans favored Democratic candidates in midterms, exit polls say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

She’s among the many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who showed up at the ballot box on Tuesday. Surveys show that Asian Americans favored Democrats during the midterm elections, according to election night exit polls. According to that poll, 64% of Asian Americans voted Democrat in House races, while 32% voted Republican. Roughly three-quarters of Asian American voters in Pennsylvania, for example, favored Democratic candidates for governor, Senate and House. Roughly two-thirds of Asian Americans also favored the Democratic candidate in the House and Senate races.

☆ 'Blockbuster' star Randall Park reflects on what video rental stores meant to his immigrant family
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Randall Park’s new show, which centers around the last remaining video rental Blockbuster store, is — in many ways — a perfect project for the actor. There are also small nods to the way in which certain demographics would see the rental stores. / NetflixPark said the moment harkens back to memories of his own immigrant parents frequenting small video rental stores in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. The cultural safe space that the rental stores provided were significant, he said. “I do feel like video rental was definitely a part of our lives well after it stopped being mainstream,” he remembered.

☆ Behind the vocal Asian American minority railing against affirmative action
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

As the Supreme Court weighs two high-profile cases challenging affirmative action, a vocal minority of Asian Americans continues to impact public debate. Among Chinese Americans, support for affirmative action is at 59%, the lowest within the Asian American community. This also means that they themselves haven’t experienced the benefits of affirmative action or education equity policies, Niu said. Top American universities, however, use a “holistic” admissions process in which affirmative action policies allow them to take race into account. Asian Americans do face discrimination in our society, in our education systems, but they’re not the result of race-conscious policies like affirmative action,” Chen said.

☆ In California, two Asian Americans fight for a seat in the House — and with each other
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

As the midterms loom, one key House race in California is drawing significant attention both to Asian Americans in the district, and from them. The race features a rare matchup between two Asian Americans, and the result hinges on Asian Americans, who make up about a third of the district’s voters. “I think here, we’re seeing a wake-up call,” Connie Chung Joe, chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, told NBC News. Within the electorate, almost half are of Vietnamese descent, one of the few Asian American groups that tends to lean right. It’s something, Joe said, that white candidates, for example, can “take for granted.”But Wong added that accusing another Asian American candidate of being disloyal “hurts the whole Asian American community.”As fiery as the race has been, it’s also reflective of a political maturation within the Asian American community, experts say.

☆ 'Rings of Power' series reveals another underdiscussed aspect of representation
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Polynesian scholars are pointing out “Lord of the Rings” productions have traditionally been filmed on their land, but with Pacific Islander actors relegated to the background. The new prequel on Amazon Prime did slightly better with representation, but experts stopped short of declaring it true progress. Na'puti pointed out that the Māori community experienced significant land loss, now holding just roughly 5% of all land there. McCartney also said that indigenous, Polynesian representation means incorporating the culture into the writing, given the Māori displacement in the country. And so if you’re on it, you have a responsibility.”Ultimately, Young questioned the necessity to continuously adapt the work of Tolkien, who wrote the “Lord of The Rings” series in the early 1900s.

☆ Why Celeste Ng's new book places an Asian American mom in the eye of a social justice movement
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

For the author, it was critical to place Miu, an Asian American mother and fugitive poet, at the forefront of a protest movement in her book. It was, in a way, a nod to the awareness that Asian American women more generally have long had around violence, preceding the rise in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic. Research previously showed that 21% to 55% of Asian women in the U.S. report having experienced intimate physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetimes, according to the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence. “As an Asian American woman, I feel like I’ve been aware of the possibility of violence for most of my life. “In the case of PACT, it’s the idea that there’s a right way to be American,” Ng said.

☆ Majority of Asian Americans in Texas want to vote but haven’t been reached out to
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Sixty-four percent of the state’s Asian American and Pacific Islander electorate is “highly motivated” to vote in the midterm elections, the civil rights nonprofit group Asian Texans for Justice said in a new poll. … We need to be listened to.”Researchers surveyed 2,700 likely voters in Texas, including 660 Asian Americans, in July. The research also finds a large gender divide, with 49% of Asian American and Pacific Islander women identifying as Democrats, nearly twice the proportion of men. Asian American and Pacific Islander men are more likely to identify as Republicans, at 38%, or independents, at 35%. The report found that Asian American voters in Texas are more likely to be immigrants compared to all other races.

☆ Constance Wu’s harassment claims reveal a painful trade-off women of color face
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

But the fact that she did not speak out points to an added layer of hesitation many women of color face when confronted with such harassment, experts say. She had been hoping for a “fresh start.”Advocates and scholars say Wu’s comments reflect a familiar issue that women of color regularly contend with: the pressure to uphold racial solidarity, regardless of the harm they face. In her upcoming book “Making a Scene,” which will be released on Oct. 4, Wu detailed the alleged harassment. The expectation women face to place race before any gender-based misconduct or abuse means that they often do not get to define what being Asian American means, she said. Bringing issues of harassment into the public domain oftentimes forces people to contend with long-ignored problems, she said.

Officials escort Adnan Syed from the courthouse following the completion of the first day of hearings for a retrial in Baltimore on Feb. 3, 2016. “It was a strategy to inflame racial and religious prejudice against a brown Muslim man,” Raju said. “This is something that has been used to justify colonialism going way back … This notion that men of color, men coming from Asian, South Asian cultures, are inherently misogynistic towards their women, which justifies the intervention that needs to occur,” Selod said. California passed the Racial Justice Act in 2020, empowering defenders to challenge racial disparities in arrests, charging and sentences. If mirrored around the country, this law has the potential to protect other young people of color who might have been in the same position as Syed, Raju said.

☆ Lawmakers introduce bill to end deportation of Southeast Asian refugees
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill on Tuesday that aims to keep more Southeast Asian refugee families together, advocates say. The Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act would place limitations on the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to deport refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. The bill could have a significant impact for an estimated 15,000 Southeast Asian refugees, roughly 80% of whom were convicted of a crime and have completed their sentences but have final orders of removal and face deportation. “It is profoundly wrong for us to send refugees where their human rights are not protected and guaranteed.”The legislation would prevent DHS from detaining or deporting Southeast Asian refugees who arrived in the U.S. prior to 2008. And that still threatens their lives every single day through these deportation orders to countries that they fled as refugees,” Dinh said.

☆ A professor falsely accused of spying for China describes the toll it's taken on his family
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

The Department of Justice had accused Xi of sharing schematics for a pocket heater with peers in his research community in China. “It’s also important for the community in general, because of all the Chinese scientists and scientists of Chinese descent — many of them are being falsely charged. His arrest, Xi claimed, was discriminatory. The arrest, Joyce added, altered the family’s lives in unmeasurable ways. Several other scholars who have been falsely accused of spying struggle to recount the emotional toll the incidents took on their families.

☆ Asian American women fall off by 80% at corporate leadership levels, a new report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

“It’s not the responsibility of Asian women to fix all of the issues that affect Asian women,” said Michael Chui, a partner at McKinsey who co-authored the study. Asian American women meet uniquely strong resistance to advancement by being “penalized” for being both people of color and women. According to the research, the share of promotions for Asian women is 1 for every 2 Asian men at the senior manager level, dropping to 1 for every 6 Asian men at the C-suite executive level. Some Asian American women she has spoken to have reported that the “tiger mom” stereotype, which assumes Asian women are strict, demanding and unfeeling caregivers, can harm their advancement in the workplace. … It just works against Asian American women.”Another major issue that affects Asian American women, and the racial group more generally, is the failure to be properly networked in organizations, Chin said.

☆ MIT professor wrongfully accused of spying for China helps make a major discovery
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Months after an MIT professor was cleared of spying for China, he helped make a major scientific discovery. But for me, I’m stopping that research,” Chen, a Chinese immigrant, said. The research, Chen emphasized, is still in its early stages and the material likely years away from commercial use. The failure to report specific work history, for example, had been interpreted by officials as attempts to conceal affiliations with China. “And I decided to stay and actually I’d say I’m very grateful that I got all the opportunities that occurred.

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