Categories
Anti-Asian Violence Uncategorized

Investigate the Wintersburg Church in Huntington Beach Fire as a Possible Hate Crime

From Neighborhood Safety Companions:


Historic Wintersburgh Press Conference March 19, 2022
https://safetywalks.org/investigate-wintersburg/

On February 25, 2022, fire destroyed 2 of the 6 buildings at Historic Wintersburg, and is now under investigation for possible arson. Republic Services, owners of the property, demolished both buildings several hours after the fire, destroying evidence for the investigation. They previously applied to demolish all 6 historic buildings so they can develop or sell. In the lead up to the fire, Historic Wintersburg volunteers have been attacked by racists on social media, stalked, photographed, and been subjected to other acts of intimidation against the preservation project.

 

Mary Urashima, organizer for the project, has requested that organizations and individuals write letters to the Huntington Beach mayor and city council demanding:

 

  • An arson investigation. 
  • That Republic Services cooperate with government agencies to help preserve the buildings.
  • To bring Republic Services to the bargaining table to arrange a purchase of the property by preservationists. 

 

The addresses to email are Mayor Barbara Delgleize, [email protected]. City Council, [email protected]. (Urashima)

Commenters on social media have demanded independent state and federal level investigations, which have been done before, to investigate the Fountain Valley PD in the 1980s and 1990s. (Hayashida, NSC)

 

This fire happened as hate incidents have skyrocketed across the country. A recent report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism said hate incidents, which include hate crimes, have increased 339% from 2020 through 2021. (Yam)

 

Attacks against Asian Places of Worship in 2020 and 2021, locally, have been numerous and dramatic.

 

  • Six Buddhist temples in Orange County were vandalized, and people were verbally harassed, in November and December of 2020. (Introvigne, Kandil)
  • Higashi Honganji in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo was vandalized, and arson attempted. (Peralta)
  • Konko Church, a Shinto shrine in Boyle Heights, was attacked by arsonists twice. (Yamamoto)
  • An old Japanese American church in Sacramento was vandalized. (CBS Sacramento, CAIR)
  • Two Seattle, WA churches were vandalized with graffiti including “China, you will pay,” “go home” and “f–k China,” even though only 5% of the congregation was Chinese. (Chen, Esteban)
  • Three statues were destroyed at Wat Lao Santitham, a Buddhist temple in the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. (Stills)
  • In Calgary, Canada, a Vietnamese Canadian church was burned. (CBC News)

 

Other sources report additional incidents at temples, mosques, video conference church meetings. (Kandil, ACLU, Borja)

 

Vandalism against ethnic churches should be understood intersectionality, as not only an attack against a place of worship, and not only as an attack against a specific minority, but an attack against the intersection of the two. 

 

Racists, typically white Christians, have attacked Black Christian churches and other houses of worship since they originated, because the serve as community political centers to defend Black people, and increase Black power. (Boddie)  Japanese American faith organizations have similar functions: popular mobilization, protection, and power. 

 

Causes for anti-Asian violence and vandalism are numerous, but it’s often irrational, where general anger from one situation results in violence against an Asian person or Asian institution completely unrelated to that situation.

 

  • China is blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic, and Asian people in western countries experience rising rates of violence. (Yam)
  • The infamous murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was by autoworkers angry about international competition from cars made in Japan. (Guillermo)
  • In 2016, when North Korea was in the news for nuclear missile testing, a Korean American church in Buena Park was vandalized with swastikas. (Ryan)
  • In 1984 three Vietnam war veterans burned a Tibetan Buddhist temple after dissatisfaction with Veterans Affairs, a US government agency. (Kandil)

 

The fire at this historic site is happening at the same time that reactionaries are mounting an attack on “Critical Race Theory”, or CRT, in the state legislatures. CRT is a legal theory, but their use of CRT is a code word for Ethnic Studies and accurate U.S. history. It’s a push back against teaching minority histories in the schools. (Sawchuck) 

 

It’s against this ambient and legislative attack on history education that we must consider this fire could have been arson, motivated by hatred or anger at a racial minority.

 

References

Categories
Uncategorized

Asian Justice Rally: A National Day of Remembrance & Action

https://youtu.be/lT3FsZ3xLRc

6 Cities and 1 National Stream is all happening at once. You can view and find the other streams on the Asian Justice Rally website: https://www.asianjusticerally.org

 

Most of the events featured politicians and administrators, which is no doubt, a positive thing, but please join and support the event featuring activists from the grassroots level on February 16 in Los Angeles: https://safetywalks.org/feb16

 

 


 

Categories
Healthcare Uncategorized

PANA Members Lobby CA Assembly Committee on Appropriations Chair to Support AB 1400

Following the victorious 11-3 vote in the CA Assembly Committee on Health on January 11, AB 1400 now advances to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, to be heard in a non-public session on Thursday, January 20, 2022.

In preparation for the Appropriations hearing, PANA member Steven Gibson initiated a meeting with the staff  of Appropriations Chair, Chris Holden (AD 41).  Holden was “not able to attend the meeting” but constituents from AD 41 and a diverse group of community representatives shared various reasons for why AB 1400 should be supported by the committee and advanced to a floor vote by January 31. 

The constituents and community advocates spoke passionately about various reasons for Holden to support AB 1400:

Teachers and mothers described how kids in Pasadena will directly benefit as a result of this bill.

It was pointed out how Asian immigrants and especially elderly Asians and Pacific Islanders will benefit since they have high percentages of seniors and bilingual needs.

Healthcare organizers described how the nurses and healthcare workers in major local hospitals around Pasadena are strong supporters of AB 1400 since their union is one of the initiators of the bill. About 2,500 nurses at Huntington Memorial, Arcadia Methodist, and San Gabriel Valley Med. Center are represented or affiliated with the CA Nurses Association.

220114-MtgWithChrisHoldenStaff

  • Steven Gibson, Democrats of Foothill Pasadena, Progressive Asian Network for Action – Coordinating Committee, 41st AD delegate.
  • David Monkawa, Save Our Seniors Network, Progressive Asian Network for Action, Past Organizing Dir. with the CA Nurses Assoc. directed union organizing drives at Pasadena’s
  • Huntington Memorial and built citywide healthcare coalition.
  • Tina Fredericks, Former teacher and activist with Pasadena Unified School District, and Democratic Party delegate with 41st AD.
  • Max Cottrell, CA Nurses Assoc. Organizer, the CA Nurses Assoc. represents about 2,500 nurses and healthcare workers who work in AD 41.
  • Julie McKune, retired teacher Pasadena Unified Scholl District, League of Women Voters – Assembly Delegate with 41st AD
  • Mindy Pfeiffer, retired teacher, Assembly Delegate for 41st AD.
  • Kevin Mulligan, Chief of Staff, Assemblyperson Chris Holden, 41st Assembly District

Send a letter of support for AB 1400:


Send a letter to the Appropriations Committee

Send a letter to your Assemblymember:


Send a letter to your Assemblymember

Categories
Healthcare Uncategorized

AB 1400 Would Finance Expanded Patient Care Rather than Corporate CEO Salaries

Capital Extraction CEO Salaries

The current private-insurer-controlled healthcare system is one of capital extraction.
The rising premiums and deductibles we pay finance political corruption to the demise of patient care.

This is why it has been a challenge to win healthcare-for-all even in a Democratic Party Supermajority state like California and why we must build increased grassroots power.

Instead of public financing of exorbitant CEO salaries, AB 1400 would help redirect this capital into local economy health infrastructure development and direct our monies towards patient-centric healthcare services, including multilingual and culturally-appropriate care in our communities.

In addition, (nationally) the current system drains $228-280 BILLION into wasteful, bureaucratic administrative costs to take away healthcare decisions from doctors, putting this power into the hands of private insurers. The multi-payer system is overly complex and wasteful by design.  It needs a complete overhaul if we are to win the healthcare that other modern countries provide with single-payer systems.

Today, patient care in the United States is one of capital extraction, not one that is centered on the well-being and health of people. It views disease and illness as a source of profits and for the most part, it opposes preventative care. Pharmaceutical unregulated price-gouging that also contributes to great financial stress for working-class families, and contributes to medical debt remaining one of the top reasons for personal bankruptcy.

This is why Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA) supports the fight to win a single-payer, Medicare-for-All healthcare system and legislative reform such as AB 1400 in California. Of particular note, it is the first healthcare reform bill that acknowledges the need for linguistically and culturally appropriate healthcare.  Until the loopholes that give control over the government to the private corporate interests are closed, we will continue to have millions in the U.S. face unnecessary suffering both in terms of poor health outcomes and financial stress.


AB 1400 Benefits
Click HERE for an AB 1400 Fact Sheet PDF

Watch this video to learn more about AB 1400 from Carmen Comsti of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United.  She is the writer of AB 1400 and serves as a commissioner on CA Governor Newsom’s Healthcare Commission:

https://youtu.be/wFVbvin44uk

Please send a letter to your CA Assemblymember to urge them to advance AB 1400, the CalCare Act, which would guarantee healthcare coverage for ALL Californians:  https://bit.ly/calcareletter2asm

Categories
Immigration Uncategorized

PANA Working Platform on Immigration Reform

PANA work-in-progress framework for approaching immigration reform work

March 10, 2019 (v.1f)

• A fair pathway to citizenship and full integration for immigrants, trafficked victims, adoptees, asylum seekers, and refugees while offering them a protected status against criminalization, detention and deportation while they plead their cases.

• We call for an end to re-criminalization and deportation proceedings against all reformed immigrant inmates and support full pardons including a fair pathway to citizenship.

• We demand the repeal of unjust policies that remove due process of for non-citizens.

• We demand reduction of visa backlogs, removal of national origin quotas, and granting a speedy process for family reunification, and increased funding for immigration courts.

• We call for the eradication of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), termination of the immigration-related components of CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection), the demilitarization of all U.S. borders.

• We oppose all policies that enforce, enable, allow, or otherwise support any systems or acts of child abduction, incarceration, or human trafficking.

• We oppose the businesses profiting from for-profit prisons and public financing of entities which engage in human trafficking activities.• We oppose U.S. military, political and economic intervention which brings death and destruction to sovereign nations, giving rise to, and exacerbating climate change and the human refugee crisis.

As Asians are a majority immigrant population in the United States, it only makes sense that an organization dedicated to fighting for full equality and justice for Asian people operate according to basic guidelines specific to the question of immigrant rights.  We welcome any volunteers to help us further develop this position and continue to integrate the addressing of this issue in our work in various arenas including healthcare, education, language justice, etc.

Categories
Housing Uncategorized

Home ownership of AAPIs below national average

A new study conducted by the Asian Real Estate Association of America found a below average rate of home ownership among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders nationwide.

According to Realtor.com, just 60.6% of AAPIs own a home, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s less than the 65.6% nationwide average and the 73.8% home ownership rate of White Americans.

Read the article at AsAmNews:

 

https://asamnews.com/2021/07/02/long-term-unemployment-and-rising-hate-crimes-blamed/

Categories
Political Power Uncategorized

Don’t Sleep on Asian American Voters

Don’t Sleep on Asian American Voters

The bloc’s power is growing fast. That could be bad news for the GOP.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/asian-american-voters-trump-covid/618935

When Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and other prominent Democrats appeared online at a major fundraiser last night, they spotlighted one of the least discussed lessons of the 2020 election: Asian Americans are poised for a major leap in electoral influence.

In Democratic circles, the bloc’s impact on the 2020 election has been largely obscured by the intense focus on understanding how Donald Trump improved his performance among another rapidly growing minority group, Latinos. But the magnitude of the Asian American turnout surge, and its influence on the result, is drawing increased attention as analysts complete more detailed studies on which Americans voted last year.

Categories
Economic Justice Uncategorized

The Model Minority Myth is an Attack on Working-Class Asians and Pacific Islanders

The Model Minority Myth is an Attack on Working-Class Asian and Pacific Islanders

https://youtu.be/_61OK651AsQCNBC:
 
The Asian American Pacific Islander population is extremely diverse, culturally and economically. According to a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center, Asian household incomes range from $44,400 to $120,000. Subgroups at the low end aren’t represented by the median data. Here’s a closer look at the growing income gap among Asian Americans, how it started and what’s next.

CHAPTERS:
0:00
— Introduction
1:30:13 — Immigration
3:56:03 — Barriers
6:26:14 — Aggregated data
8:55:10 — What’s next?

“National datasets look at the community in aggregate, and so when you combine it, it looks like Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are doing well, and often disguises the realities of what those at the lower end of the economic spectrum are experiencing.”


-Seema Agnani

Executive Director, National CAPACD

Categories
Uncategorized

Asian Americans: PBS Documentary Series

Asian Americans is a five-part PBS documentary series that delivers a fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.

https://youtu.be/SiSpna12QBo

Categories
Anti-Asian Violence Uncategorized

March 13, 2021: “Love our Communities/Build Collective Power”

Build Collective Power

CNN Coverage of the event: https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/03/19/gothere-antiasianracism-kyunglah-dpweekend.cnn

ko_KRKorean