6.04.2020

An Open Letter Project on Anti-Blackness

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America



Letters for Black Lives
Letters for Black Lives is a set of crowdsourced, multilingual, and culturally-aware resources aimed at creating a space for open and honest conversations about racial justice, police violence, and anti-Blackness in our families and communities. It started as a group of Asian Americans and Canadians writing an intergenerational letter to voice their concerns and support for the Black community. They've since grown to include other immigrant groups and communities of color. The goal is to listen, support, and amplify the message of Black Lives Matter within our communities.

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CHINESE ARE DESTROYING BAY RIDGE
This racist flyer, proclaiming "CHINESE ARE DESTROYING BAY RIDGE," was spotted in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights neighborhoods this week. The flyers claim, among other things, that Chinese locals are driving away white homeowners, blame Chinese residents for spreading COVID-19, and describe Chinese-owned restaurants as "dirty." By the way, this is a hate crime. Imagine being the hateful, bored asshole designing this bullshit, printing it out on your little inkjet, and taping it up around your neighborhood -- thinking someone's actually going to listen to you. You are sad.

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Omaha Mayor Calls Korean Woman a 'Troll Who Hides Behind symbols'
The mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, has apologized for calling a Korean American woman "a Facebook troll" and "a coward" because she displayed her name in Korean on social media. The woman, Soyeon Sohn, commented on Facebook this week after the city imposed a curfew in response to protests over the death of George Floyd. She used the symbols of the Korean alphabet for her name, prompting the racially insensitive response from Mayor Jean Stothert, who said, "A Facebook troll who hides behind symbols and doesn’t list their name, is a coward." She later apologized, saying she did not recognize the Korean alphabet.

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The Winners Of The NPR Student Podcast Challenge
Meet the grand prize winners of the 2020 NPR Student Podcast Challenge! In the Grades 5-8 category: "Masked Kids" by sixth-graders Leo Yu, Angelo Chen, Becky Liu, Si Chen Xu, Joyce Jiang, Zoe Jiang, Nicole Zheng and Amanda Chen of PS 126/Manhattan Academy of Technology in New York City. In their podcast, the students interviewed high schoolers about the harassment they felt as the coronavirus hit New York City. Along the way, the students taught listeners relevant words such as mask, sneeze and face in Mandarin.

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Wish Dragon
Check out the trailer for Wish Dragon, the upcoming animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation. Described as "a genie-in-a-bottle retelling set in contemporary China," the film is a modern-day fairy tale about "the moral challenges that emerge from the encounter between a boy and a dragon who is able to make wishes come true." Directed by Chris Appelhans, Wish Dragon features the voices of Jackie Chan, Constance Wu, John Cho, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Will Yun Lee, Jimmy Wong, and Bobby Lee.


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