They Call Us Bruce 101: They Call Us Adoptees

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

On this episode, we welcome Asian American adoptees Dan Matthews and Grace Newton to share their stories, discuss recent adoption-related controversies in the news, and complicate the narrative around issues of international and transracial adoption.

A Cartoonist Looks Inward Regarding Anti-Black Racism

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



'Black Lives Matter' to Me Because...
In the wake of protests over the murder of George Floyd, cartoonist Connie Sun has been looking inward and reckoning with her personal role in the context of anti-black racism as an Asian American. Recalling a painful memory from childhood, she drew this comic to start a dialogue. Read the rest of the comic here.

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EVERYONE I HAD BLACK LIVES MATTER WRITTEN ON MY BACK WINDSHIELD. THIS MAN CAME TO THE HOUSE AND PROCEEDED SO SCREAM ALL OF THIS RACIST SHIT. IM FUCKING TERRIFIED. WAY TO GO SCV. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/eWOKgKhgpq

— johnnie (@janaisevilla) June 4, 2020

"EVERYONE I HAD BLACK LIVES MATTER WRITTEN ON MY BACK WINDSHIELD."
Imagine being someone so offended by the sentiment that Black lives matter. This person caught an interaction with a neighbor who came knocking, incensed, because she had "Black Lives Matter" written on the back windshield of her car. Props to the friend who holds her ground. And no props to the asshole neighbor.

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BAY RIDGE DOES NOT WELCOME RACISTS
You know those racist flyers that recently popped up in Brooklyn? The neighborhood has clapped back. After flyers declaring "CHINESE ARE DESTROYING BAY RIDGE" showed up on lamp posts in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, someone started posting flyers declaring equally emphatic capitalization, "BAY BRIDGE DOES NOT WELCOME RACISTS. BAY RIDGE LOVES ALL OF OUR NEIGHBORS."

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Investigation Launched Into Welfare of YouTuber's Adopted Son
Authorities launched an investigation into the welfare of Myka Stauffer's adopted son, Huxley, after the YouTuber announced that she and her husband, James Stauffer, had placed him with another family. "The Delaware County Sheriff's Office has received several inquiries regarding the welfare of a local 5-year-old child, who was recently given up for adoption. This child is not missing," the Ohio-based sheriff's office said in a press release. "Our primary concern is for the well-being of this child, as well as the other children in the household." Thankfully, the kid is not missing -- and hopefully, with a better family than with these crooks.

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Wu-Tang’s RZA on the Influence of Bruce Lee
In celebration of the new 30 for 30 documentary Be Water premiering on ESPN, Wu-Tang Clan's RZA dropped a new track, "Be Like Water" -- his tribute to martial arts icon Bruce Lee.

Meet the Guy Who Sheltered Protestors From Police

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



Meet Rahul Dubey, the Hero Sheltering D.C. BLM Protesters
On Monday night, when protesters were driven into a D.C. neighborhood after curfew, one local hero opened his home to 75 strangers for a night-long standoff with DC police. Meet Rahul Dubey, the "legend" who provided a home -- and pizza -- to those who needed it.

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Hmong Family Whose Son Was Shot by Police Speaking Out in Solidarity
"Youa Vang doesn't know George Floyd's family, but she does know their pain. Both lost loved ones at the hands of Minneapolis police: Vang in 2006 when an officer fatally shot her 19-year-old son, Fong Lee; the Floyds, just last week when a white officer used his knee to pin George Floyd down for almost nine minutes after taking him into custody. That shared grief has pushed Vang, a refugee from Laos who immigrated to America in 1988, to stand in solidarity with the black community to fight for justice for Floyd -- and to encourage Asian Americans, who have been divided in support of movements like Black Lives Matter, to do the same."

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Armed Man Arrested for Posing as National Guard in Downtown LA
Asians behaving badly... fake National Guard edition. Police say a 31-year-old man dressed in a uniform, carried an assault rifle and tried to fall in line with National Guard troops on Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles. Gregory Wong, who apparently took an Uber downtown while carrying a rifle, was arrested when actual National Guard troops noticed him getting into formation. Wong -- reportedly a former member of the National Guard -- was arrested for manufacturing or distribution of an assault weapon. Yeah, don't be this guy.

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​'Tell Me Who My Mother Is': A Korean Adoptee Seeks Her Roots
Armed with DNA test results, Korean American adoptee Kara Bos is asking a South Korean court to rule that an 85-year-old man in Seoul is her biological father as part of her quest to meet him and ask why she was abandoned and who her mother was. Her paternity lawsuit could set a precedent for overseas adoptees.

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Warner Bros. Offers Free Rentals of 'Just Mercy'
In response to current events, Just Mercy, the 2019 film about the work of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, has been made available for free rental on digital platforms during the month of June from Warner Bros. Pictures. Directed by Destin Daniel Crettin, the film stars Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson, who defends Walter McMillian in order to fight a wrongful murder conviction. Check out the film, and to learn more about Bryan Stevenson and his work at the Equal Justice Initiative please visit EJI.org.

Why Don't They Just Call it Chinese Exclusion Act II?

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



GOP Senators Introduce Bill to Deny Chinese Nationals Student Visas
What a great way to close out AAPI Heritage Month! On Wednesday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) unveiled the Secure Campus Act, incredibly xenophobic, destructive legislation that would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields. The bill would also place restrictions on participants in Chinese foreign talent-recruitment programs. Do I have remind folks that student visas are how so many Asian American families' immigration stories began?

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A YouTuber Placed Her Autistic Adopted Son From China With A New Family — After Making Content With Him For Years
This is beyond fucked. A YouTuber with hundreds of thousands of followers who has shared her family's experience of adopting a toddler from China recently announced that she and her husband had permanently placed their child with another family after unspecified behavioral issues. This kid, who had absolutely no say in being a prop in an "influencer's" content stream, has been re-homed like a difficult puppy.

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He was part of Amazon’s coronavirus hiring spree. Two weeks later he was dead.
"Thousands of businesses have had to close and more than 38 million Americans have lost their jobs since the lockdowns began. But Amazon is hiring. The company has put new measures in place to make its warehouses safer for employees, but the number of cases at its facilities keeps rising. As consumers continue to minimize their own risk by shopping from their couches, workers have to decide: Is working for Amazon a lifeline, or a life-threatening risk?"

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Be Water
Check it. Here's the official trailer for ESPN's Be Water, a 30 for 30 documentary that intimately chronicles Bruce Lee's life and complex journey, directed by Bao Nguyen. The film premieres June 7 on ESPN.

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Spelling the Dream
The new documentary Spelling the Dream explores Indian Americans' decades-long success at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, chronicling of the ups and downs of four students as they compete to realize their dream of winning the iconic tournament. The film premieres June 3 on Netflix.

Korean American adoptee faces unjust deportation

Guest Post by Jenny Wills



Earlier this week, an immigration judge ruled that Korean American adoptee, Adam Crapser, will not be granted relief from pending deportation to South Korea. Crapser, who is married and has three small children, was adopted by an American couple at the age of three and is alienated from his birth country and culture.

According to the Associated Press, Crapser survived years of childhood abuse and neglect. Seven years after he and his older sister were brought to the U.S. as transnational adoptees, their adoptive parents relinquished them, leaving them vulnerable to a foster care system that immediately separated the siblings.

While under the guardianship of Thomas and Dolly Crapser, the couple was arrested on charges of physical child abuse, sexual abuse, and rape. Although both denied the charges, Thomas Crapser served ninety days in jail; Dolly Crapser received three years of probation. One of the events that led to Adam Crapser being threatened with deportation was an arrest when he broke into the Crapsers' home to retrieve the few items that came with him from the Korean orphanage: a pair of shoes and a Korean bible.

An Open Letter: Why Co-opting "Transracial" in the Case of Rachel Dolezal is Problematic

Please direct all media inquiries to Kimberly McKee, PhD at mckee.kimberly@gmail.com.



This past weekend the world took to social media to dissect the events surrounding Rachel Dolezal, the former president of Spokane's NAACP chapter who came under heavy scrutiny for falsely representing herself as black. As part of this real-time discussion, the term transracial is being co-opted to describe Dolezal identifying as black despite being born white.

As members of the adoption community -- particularly those of us who identify as transracial adoptees -- we are deeply alarmed by the gross mischaracterization of this term. We find the misuse of "transracial," describing the phenomenon of a white woman assuming perceived markers of "blackness" in order to pass as "black," to be erroneous, ahistorical, and dangerous.

Pending Deportation of Korean American Adoptee Highlights Major Loophole in Immigration Law

By Jenn Fang. Cross-posted from Reappropriate.


Adam Crasper as a child. (Photo via Gazillion Strong)

By his own admission, Adam Thomas Crasper has had a difficult journey; but through it all, he has worked hard to create what he calls a "a semblance of a ‘normal' life."

In 1979, Adam arrived in the United States with his older sister as a transnational and transracial Korean American adoptee. Through most of his childhood — and through two placements — Adam was forced to endure unspeakable physical and emotional abuse. In 1991, Adam's adoptive parents, Thomas Francis Crasper and Dolly-Jean Crasper, were arrested, charged and ultimately plead guilty to multiple counts of child rape, child sex abuse, and child abuse. Adam is a survivor of the Craspers' violence.

Adam's life bears the scars of that torture and what it took to survive; but, Adam has emerged today as a married father of three, with a fourth child due in May. He is, by all accounts, living that "normal" American life.

Yet, that's not how the federal government sees it. In January of this year, the Department of Homeland Security served Adam with deportation papers. In just one month, Adam will face a hearing regarding deportation to a country he has never known.

The Kindred Foundation presents Family Has No Boundary

Inaugural Fundraiser on Tuesday, March 3 at The Sofitel Hotel Beverly Hills



Kindred: The Foundation for Adoption is an American foundation created by adoptees Samantha Futerman and Jenna Ushkowitz. Kindred's initiative is to provide international and domestic adoptees and their families (both adoptive and biological) with services such as travel, translation, and support for those who wish to reunite; easily accessible hotlines; introduction to art and encouragement of artistic expression; and programs set in native countries to aid orphans living within the foster care and government systems.

If you're in Los Angeles next week, you're invited to attend Family Has No Boundary, the inaugural event for The Kindred Foundation, raising funds to provide worldwide aid to adoptees and their families. The evening will include food, drinks, a silent auction, and special musical performances by Jenna Ushkowitz, Sarah Hyland and Alex Newell. It's happening Tuesday, March 3 at the Sofitel Hotel Beverly Hills.

Here are some more details about the event:

They assumed their adopted son was Chinese. They were wrong.

Parents raised their adopted son to appreciate his Chinese roots, only to realize the kid is Korean.



This Reddit post has been making the rounds and getting people rather riled up... TIFU stands for "Today, I Fucked Up," a subreddit under which people profess ways in which they have really really messed up. If this post is to be believed, it's definitely one epic mistake.

It's Reddit, so take this with a grain of salt, but basically: A white couple adopts a baby boy from an Asian American family and raises him to embrace his Chinese roots and identity. Great. Seventeen years later, the father takes a belated moment to look at the kid's adoption records and discovers his son is actually Korean.

If this is real, then what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Here's the confession, posted by the father:

Separated @ Birth: A True Love Story of Twin Sisters Reunited

New book tells the amazing story of "Twinsters" Anaïs Bordier and Samantha Futerman



Imagine one day opening Facebook and reading a message from a stranger that says, "I think we might be twins... don't freak out..." This is the amazing true story of Anaïs Bordier and Samantha Futerman, identical twin sisters who were born in South Korea, separated at birth, raised on different continents, but re-connected and reunited twenty-five years later through the power of the internet.

It's an incredible, heartfelt story we've been following her for a while, and now the "Twinsters" are telling their tale in a new book, Separated @ Birth: A True Love Story of Twin Sisters Reunited.

Samantha and Anaïs were back on ABC's Good Morning America on Thursday to talk about the new book and their amazing international separated-at-birth story. Check it out:

Music Video: DANakaDAN wonders "Is There Anybody Out There?"

From the album 'Stuntman,' inspired by his Korean American adoption story



Just wanted to make sure I shared this latest music video from my friend Dan Matthews, aka DANakaDAN: "Is There Anybody Out There" featuring Clara C. The track, from his album Stuntman, is inspired by Dan's personal journey as a Korean American adoptee, searching to find a connection with his birth family.

Check it out:

Filmmaker shares adoptee experience in 'American Seoul'

YouTube vlog series on growing up as a Korean American adoptee



Zeke Anders is a Southern California-based filmmaker who recently launched a five-part YouTube vlog series "American Seoul," sharing about his experience growing up as a Korean American adoptee in a white, middle-class family in the Detroit area. It's an insightful personal piece about identity and belonging.

Check it out:

An adoptee reunites with his birth family in 'aka DAN'

Documentary webseries and music album chronicles Dan Matthews' return to Korea



Last summer, musician Dan Matthews embarked on a journey that changed his life. Dan, a Korean American adoptee who grew up in California, went on a search for his birth parents... and found them. He not only tracked down his biological family in South Korea, where he traveled to meet them for the first time, Dan also discovered that he also has a twin brother. Needless to say, it was an identity-altering trip.

And the cameras were rolling. aka Dan is a documentary webseries following Dan's journey to Korea to attend the International Korean Adoptee Association, performing his first live concert in Korea, and of course, his reunion with his birth family. The first episode has dropped on ISAtv. First, here's the trailer:

Ignorant sh*t you shouldn't say to an adopted child

Mom creates photo project using the racist comments people have said to her daughters



Quick, name all the thoughtless, insensitive things you can say to an adopted child. Kim Kelley-Wagner's daughters, who were adopted from China, have heard it all over the years, on a daily basis, from the well-intentioned to the downright hateful. In response to the barrage of rude and ignorant comments, Kelley-Wegner created a photo project, starring her daughters, to show the power of these words.

Mom's Photo Series Spotlights Racist Comments Directed at Daughters

The photos series, posted publicly on Facebook and entitled "Things said to or about my adopted daughters," feature 13-year-old Liliana and 7-year-old Meika holding signs bearing actual phrases people have said to them or their mother regarding their adopted identity. The girls actually sat down and made a list of the stupid, inconsiderate and misguided remarks they've endured:

Man charged with murder of 3-year-old adopted son

Prosecutors say Madoc Hyunsu O'Callaghan was beaten to death

Disturbed by this terrible story out of the DC area... In Maryland, a veteran and high-ranking NSA agent is accused of brutally beating his adopted 3-year-old son from South Korea to death.

Montgomery County Man Charged With Murdering 3-Year-Old Adopted Son

36-year-old Brian Patrick O'Callaghan was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in the death of Madoc Hyunsu O'Callaghan, who was adopted months earlier from Korea. According to authorities, the child suffered a fracture at the base of his skull, bruises to the forehead, bleeding in the brain and other wounds.

O'Callaghan claims that the boy fell and was injured in the shower:

Separated at birth! Twinsters on Good Morning America

Reunited twins Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordier share their story on ABC



Aaahhhhhhh. Twinsters Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordier -- twin sisters, separated at birth, raised on different continents, reconnected 25 years later through social media -- are making a documentary about their amazing, wonderful journey. With their story continuing to pick up publicity (including getting highlighted as part of Facebook's 10th anniversary), they were interviewed today on ABC's Good Morning America.

Twins Separated at Birth Find Each Other On Different Continents

A DNA test confirmed that the two are indeed twin sisters. (I think that was pretty obvious, but why not make it official?) The first time Sam and Anaïs chatted via Skype, they talked for three hours. The first time they met face to face in London, Anaïs poked Sam's head to make sure she was real. Check it out:

Fund This: Post-production for Twinsters

A documentary about twins, separated at birth, reconnected through social media



If you're like me, you were fascinated to learn about the story of Korean American adoptee Samantha Futerman, a working Hollywood actress, who heard from a stranger across the internet and discovered she had a long lost twin sister: Anaïs, a French fashion design student living in London. Whaaaaat.

Here's Anaïs' first Facebook message to Samantha. Imagine this showing up in your inbox:

'aka DAN' Documentary Screening & 'Stuntman' Album Premiere

Saturday, February 1 at the Japanese American National Museum



My friend Dan has one hell of a story to tell. If you're in Los Angeles, it is my honor and pleasure to invite you to the world premiere party for the documentary series aka DAN and the companion hip hop album Stuntman, chronicling adoptee musician Dan Matthews' amazing journey to find and reunite with his Korean birth family.

Perhaps you followed along with the unfolding saga last summer when Dan launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund this documentary/album project, which would follow his trip to Korea, where he would meet his biological family -- including the twin brother he never knew he had -- for the first time. Crazy! And all of it became a documentary series, aka DAN, as well as a full-length music album inspired by his experiences.

The party will feature a screening of the documentary -- I'll be hosting the Q&A afterwards -- and performances by DANakaDAN, Priska, Chucky Kim, Abraham Kim, Sam Kang, Paul Dateh, Travis Graham, and much more. It's going down on Saturday, February 1 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Here are some more details about the event:

Call for Session Proposals: Boston Korean Adoptees Anniversary Conference

Save the Date: August 14-17, 2014 #BKA14



This call out is waaaay last minute, but I'm catching up on old emails and want to make sure the right folks get the chance to take part in this... Boston Korean Adoptees, Inc. (BKA) is hosting an international conference for Korean adoptees in Boston, August 14-17, in celebration of BKA's 10th anniversary.

They're currently looking for artists, poets, scholars and others to submit workshops, panels and presentation proposals for the conference. But the deadline is this Sunday, December 1, so you'll have to hustle a little.

Here's some more information on what they're looking for:

Fund This: An adoptee reunites with his birth family in aka Dan

Dan Matthews, a Korean American adoptee, meets his birth family -- and his twin brother -- for the first time.



If you read his awesome guest post from a couple of weeks ago, you know that my good friend Dan Matthews, a musician and generally cool guy, has been in Korea this summer on the journey of his life.

Dan, a Korean American adoptee who grew up in California, recently went on a search for this birth parents... and found them. He not only has a biological family in South Korea, where he traveled to meet them for the first time, Dan also has a twin brother. Whaaaaat. Needless to say, this has been an identity-altering trip.

And the cameras have been rolling. aka Dan is a documentary project following Dan's journey to Korea for the International Korean Adoptee Association, performing his first live concert in Korea, and of course, his reunion with his birth family. The project will also include a full-length music album inspired by his experiences.

Here's Dan in a nationally-televised interview for Korea's Arirang Today: