3 in 10 Americans Have Witnessed COVID-19 Bias Against Asians

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America



More than 30 Percent of Americans Have Witnessed COVID-19 Bias Against Asians
More than 30 percent of Americans have witnessed someone blaming Asian people for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey conducted for the Center for Public Integrity. Sixty percent of Asian Americans, who made up about 6 percent of the survey's respondents, said they’ve seen the same behavior.

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U.S. Senator Wants to Restrict Chinese Students From Studying Science
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) suggested that Chinese students should not be allowed to live in the U.S. for the purpose of obtaining science-related degrees from American universities. In an interview with Fox News, Cotton said that Chinese students seeking to study at U.S. schools should be limited to studying courses in the Humanities. "If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that's what they need to learn from America," Cotton said. "They don't need to learn quantum computing."

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Nurse Who Fought for More PPE Dies of Coronavirus Days Before Retirement
A nurse who fought for more personal protective equipment (amid the coronavirus epidemic allegedly died of COVID-19 last week, days before her union says she was scheduled to retire. Celia Yap Banago contracted the disease while caring for an infected patient at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, where she worked for 40 years.

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The Goonies Reunited!
This week, the cast of the beloved 1985 movie The Goonies held an epic online reunion -- including Ke Huy Quan, who played the intrepid, inventive Data. He was 14 when The Goonies was released, but has been fairly inactive as an actor in his adult years. However, he shares that thanks to movies like Crazy Rich Asians, there's been recent surge of interest in roles for Asian American actors. Now at age 50, he's gotten back into acting and has roles in the upcoming films Everything Everywhere All at Once and Finding Ohana.

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Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Virtual Showcase
As we head into May, we should have been gearing up for this year's edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications. It was slated to kick off this week. But given the state of the world, that's obviously not happening. But festival's organizers, undeterred by this set back, have announced the LAAPFF Virtual Showcase, a free digital showcase of films and panels to unite with audiences during this unprecedented time. The online showcase will highlight artists whose stories are critical at this moment in dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. This first time event begins May 1st and will run through May 28 as part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. For further information, and to see the full lineup, go here.

California's Proposed Bill to Disaggregate AAPI Data Significantly Weakened in New Amendments

By Jenn Fang. Cross-Posted from Reappropriate.


Attendees at a recent rally in support of AB1726, a data disaggregation scheduled to reach the CA Senate floor soon. (Photo Credit: @DiverseElders / Twitter)
After months of increasingly vitriolic debate that divided the AAPI community, California Assembly Bill 1726 (AB1726) was significantly amended on Friday. In its original version, AB1726 was the culmination of years of lobbying work by California's AAPI advocacy community, and it would have put in place measures to disaggregate healthcare and higher education data to reveal disparities faced by Southeast Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the state. Using the same ethnic options offered by the National Census, AB1726 would have expanded the ethnic self-identification choices offered in demographic studies conducted by state departments related to healthcare and higher education.

Last year, AB1726's predecessor, Assembly Bill 176, passed the California Legislature with near unanimous bipartisan support and the backing of several local California advocacy groups, only to be vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. This cycle's AB1726 was expected to pass the Legislature with similarly minimal resistance, until it faced inexplicably intense backlash from grassroots Chinese American groups that had originally organized around SCA-5 (and protests against Jimmy Kimmel) in the state. What emerged was a vocal, deeply inflammatory, arguably paranoid resistance to AB1726, wherein opponents suggested while the bill was still in Committees that it would create a “backdoor” to reinstitute race-conscius affirmative action in the state.

How a data collection bill designed was supposed to circumvent California state law prohibiting race-conscious affirmative action in higher education remains unclear to me.

Yet, no one can deny this grassroots conservative Chinese American movement's growing clout.

New report examines Asian American & NHPIs in the West

Asian American Advancing Justice releases final report in 'Community of Contrasts' demographic series.



This week, Asian American Advancing Justice released the final report in its A Community of Contrasts demographic report series, examining the growing Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations in the Western U.S., including Arizona, Hawaii, Las Vegas, the Seattle metro area and Oregon.

These demographic reports showcase the contributions and needs of Asian Americans nationwide. The report's disaggregated data illuminates income and educational disparities across Asian ethnicities, highlights Asian American business and economic contributions and underscores the future political power of our rapidly growing demographic. Props to Asian Americans Advancing Justice for always slinging that demographic data.

Here are some highlights from the West report:

Asians projected to become largest U.S. immigrant group

According to a new analysis of census data, Asian immigrants will surpass Latinos by 2055.



Some new immigration data that's got people talking... Asians have become the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. You probably knew this. But in a few decades, Asians are projected to pass Latinos as the largest immigrant group in the country, according to a new analysis of census data.

Asians to surpass Latinos as largest immigrant group in U.S., study finds

According to new demographic projections by the Pew Research Center, Asians are likely to surpass Latinos as the nation's largest immigrant group by 2055, and will make up 38% of the foreign-born population by 2065, as the wave of new arrivals from Latin America slows but trans-Pacific migration continues apace.

Asian American Voters Will Punish Candidates with Anti-Immigrant Views

By Karthick Ramakrishnan. Cross-posted from AAPI Data.



Last week, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina came under fire for their offensive comments on Asian immigrants. Bush noted in his visit to border city McAllen, TX, that the phenomenon of so-called "anchor babies" was "frankly, more related to Asian people," while Fiorina called in Le Mars, Iowa for the urgent resolution of "festering problems" like the Chinese birth tourism industry in the United States.

This brings up an important question of whether anti-immigrant rhetoric could hurt candidates among Asian American voters. In the 2014 APIAVote & Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC 2014 Voter Survey of registered Asian American voters, for which AAPI Data provided research support, respondents were asked:

"If a political candidate expressed strongly anti-immigrant views, but you agreed with him or her on other issues, would you still vote for that candidate, or would you vote for someone else?"

Asian Birth Tourism, Numbers In Perspective

By Karthick Ramakrishnan. Cross-posted from AAPI Data.


Photo Credit: New York Times
In a recent press conference, Jeb Bush clumsily (and erroneously) said that the phenomenon of so-called "anchor babies" was "frankly, more related to Asian people."

As others have noted, the phenomenon of birth tourism is distinct from most conventional understandings of the offensive term "anchor baby," which tends to imply that people use birthright citizenship from their children to avoid deportation or eventually gain U.S. citizenship for themselves.

There has been a fair amount of sensationalist reporting on birth tourism by Chinese immigrants, with little understanding of the number of estimated "birth tourists," and how they compare to the overall number of Chinese immigrants or visitors to the United States. Below, we provide some numbers in perspective.

White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders launches Data.gov/AAAPI

The most comprehensive hub of government data on AAPIs



Did you know that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the country? AAPIs are expected to more than double to over 47 million by 2060. With such dramatic growth comes the critical need for federal agencies and policymakers to better understand the needs and challenges facing our community, from health care to language access. A lot of it comes down to data.

So... this week, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, in partnership with Data.gov, launched Data.gov/AAPI, the most comprehensive hub of government data on AAPIs.

With approximately 2,000 datasets and reports from nearly 50 federal, state, county and city sources pertaining to Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, these data can help federal agencies, policymakers and the public understand and address disparities in socioeconomic status, educational attainment, health and other areas of importance to our community.

Here's a video with more information:

AAPI Voices: Amplifying the Voices of Asian Pacific America

New data-driven storytelling project from 18 Million Rising and National Asian American Survey



Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. If you haven't checked it out already, I want to point your attention to the hot content coming out of the newly launched AAPI Voices, a collection of curated writing by AAPI journalists, activists, researchers, artists, bloggers, and culture creators.

A collaboration between our friends at 18 Million Rising and National Asian American Survey, each piece featured in the #AAPIVoices project will highlight data related to our communities and experiences. Their aim is to combine the power of compelling data with the brilliance of storytelling to paint a fuller, truer picture of what it means to be AAPI today.

Each week in May, in observance of Heritage Month, posts in AAPI Voices will focus on a different themed topic: Racial Identity and Categorization; Health; Immigration; Age and Generational Differences; and Education. Read it all here, and check back throughout the month for new, fresh content.

Goonies Data Retro Action Figure

Just like the classic Kenner action figures of yesteryear



Nice. Here's another one for your action figure collection. I'm really digging this super cool "ReAction figure" of Data from The Goonies by Funko and Super7. Data, of course, is the loveably brave, haphazardly tech-savvy treasure-hunting hero played Jonathan Ke Quan in the 1985 adventure movie classic.

The 3 3/4-inch figure features five points of articulation and includes a "Pinchers of Peril" chattering teeth accessory. It's not the most detailed Data figure out there -- that would probably be the 7-inch figure from Mezco -- but I love the retro modeling and packaging, like the classic Kenner figures of yesteryear.

#GetCovered: Health Care, Open Enrollment and AAPIs

Why is health care important to you?



Today's the day. As you may have heard, open enrollment for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") begins today. What does this mean for our community?

First, here's a handy infographic, courtesy of our friend Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data, breaking down what the new health reform law means for two million uninsured Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders:

New demographic report: A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California, 2013

Time to drop some demographic data, my friends. The Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Asian Law Caucus just released a major new report on California's fastest growing racial groups: A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California, 2013.

Using the latest data from numerous federal, state, and local agencies, the report outlines pressing challenges faced by Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, including the need for healthcare and humane immigration reform, and the negative impact of the economic crisis.

Some of the report's key findings, according to APALC's press release:

A Community of Contrasts California demographic report launch, February 4 & 5

Do you want to know how many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders live in California? The demographers at the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice know, and they want you to know. They will be presenting data from a new report, A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California, next week. The events will be held on Monday, February 4 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Tuesday, February 5 in San Jose. Here are the details:

Goonies Never Say Die

Oh my goodness. My collection will soon be complete. These are toys I have been waiting for all my life, and I didn't even know it. Yes, my friends. The Goonies action figures.

Mezco Toyz and Warner Brothers Consumer Products present action figures from the classic 1985 adventure movie. The set includes Mikey, Chunk, Mouth, Sloth, and of course, our man Data. I've got to have one. But does it come with retractable Pinchers of Peril?