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🤦🏻♀️ Before we get to the news, we have to apologize for a mistake in yesterday’s newsletter. The story on Asian American gun ownership had a factual error - Asian Americans were not 43% of first-time gun owners, but rather, Asian American gun sales rose by 43%. We are so very sorry for the mistake, we’ll definitely be more careful moving forward and always be as honest as we can.
Sincerely, Mya and Daniel
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AUGUST 18, 2022
Hello, everyone!
Former Minneapolis police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd have declined a guilty plea deal and are moving forward to trial. According to Hennepin County Court, their colleague, Thomas Lane, accepted a plea deal similar to theirs.
Had they accepted the deal, Tou Thao, 36, and J. Alexander Kueng, 28, would have received a three year sentence in prison, which they could have served concurrently with their federal convictions, which were determined by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson back in July.
Currently, both Thao and Kueng face two counts of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter. Their trials begin on October 24.
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Spotlight 💡
Kayleigh and Kaylynne Truong, twin Vietnamese American college basketball stars, are fighting to prove their potential and their skills on the court.
The sisters, who play for Gonzaga University, remember the times when their abilities and skills were overlooked and doubted due to their race and gender. Kaylynne recalls when she spoke with a referee about her college plans, they only spoke of D2 and D3 opportunities. When she told them she wanted to aim for D1, the referee looked at her, “smirked, shook his head, and then walked away without saying anything else to me.”
Growing up, the sisters were always neglected in the sport, from being the only Asian girl on the team to always being “left to be the last pick.” Kaylynne explained that it felt like, “it did not really matter how hard and how much” she practiced, the team captain and team members always assumed they were unathletic and unable to contribute to the team.
Today, they are key players on Gonzaga’s team, winning two West Coast Conference regular-season titles and a pair of tournament titles. The sisters also signed a name, image and likeness deal with deodorant company Degree, who signed on many women athletes like the Truongs to empower young athletes.
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Race in America 🌎
In Minneapolis, one district’s teachers union struck a collective bargaining agreement with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) to restructure how the district recruits and retains educators of color.
The deal states that starting in Spring of 2023, regular policy which stipulates that educators who are subject to potential job layoffs or relocations based on seniority will apply an additional measure to educators that are “a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the District,” allowing for the district to lay off or relocate teachers “outside of seniority order.” This makes Minneapolis one of the only school districts in the nation with a “seniority-disrupting” policy.
MPS continued to comment on the importance of remembering demographic differences within the district and historical events within the state, explaining that “Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) mutually agreed to contract language that aims to support the recruitment and retention of teachers from underrepresented groups as compared to the labor market and to the community served by the school district.”
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The local Muslim community in Albuquerque, New Mexico are refusing to label the recent string of murders as part of Shi’ite-Sunni tensions where the four victims were Shia and the suspect in custody, Muhammad Syed, is Sunni.
While investigators and a couple of national Muslim organizations are theorizing and condemning the killings as targeted anti-Shia hatred. However, Muslim residents are reluctant to label it as sectarian violence. Muslim leaders in the area hope to create unity rather than fuel divisive rhetoric among the many Shia and Sunni communities that pray and take part in religious services together.
Samia Assed, a Palestinian-American human rights activist, also described authorities who are calling it sectarian violence as “reckless.” Mazin Kadhim, the Shi’ite case worker for Syed, refers to the homicides as “extremism” rather than Sunni- or Shia-targeted violence.
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In Other Asian News 🗞
In New Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party is investing in and revitalizing the Indian public school system, helping children and students learn in cleaner, well-furnished and well-funded environments.
Party leader Arvind Kejriwal became Delhi’s Chief Minister in 2015, and started a “revamp” campaign to improve public schooling so that even India’s ministers would feel comfortable sending their kids to attend those institutions. Under his leadership, the school system partnered with experts and universities to design a new curriculum and made sure to work with parents on day-to-day operations to better their children’s educational experience.
Kejriwal committed billions of dollars into initiatives including sanitation within school buildings and hiring “estate managers” to work on repairs. His department also commissioned new classrooms, laboratories, running tracks and created a new board of education, which allowed for school administration to focus on academic work instead of worrying about infrastructure.
This campaign not only made education a national priority, but also transformed the reputation of his party. Although there is more work to be done, his program has already yielded positive results with almost 100% of Delhi students passing their high school exams, compared to 2012 where only 87% passed.
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Recently in India, 11 convicted men in an anti-Muslim gangrape case from 2002 were freed.
In 2002, after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire and killed 59 people, a Muslim pogrom erupted within the state of Gujarat, resulting in retaliatory violence that lasted days. In those few days, nearly 2,000 people were shot, raped, hacked and burned to death. Among them was Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, and her 3-year-old daughter. While Bano was gangraped, her daughter was killed when her head was smashed on the ground during a riot.
After special investigations, 11 of the 13 men involved in her rape were convicted and jailed on life sentences. However, today, they walk free because their applications for remission were reconsidered after they fulfilled 14 years in jail. (In India, life sentences carry jail terms of only 14 years.)
Many were horrified and condemned the local government’s decision to free these men, with the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) expressing that this will embolden rapists and their followers.
“The conviction of communal killers and rapists is, after all, an aberration in India, not the rule. Does the remission intend to restore the rule of impunity for communal killers and rapists?”
Bano is appealing to the government to undo their decision so that she and her family remain safe.
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Film and Food 📺
K-pop solo artist Eric Nam will make his acting debut in the psychological thriller “Transplant.”
Nam will play the character of Jonah Yoon, a proficient surgical resident at an esteemed hospital. The character will be mentored by Dr. Edward Harmon, a perfection-seeking heart transplant surgeon.
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In a time of political tension between Taiwan and China, Taiwanese American chefs and their cuisine are offering a lens on the complexity of their history and story.
L.A.-based chef Vivian Ku of the acclaimed restaurant Pine and Crane says, “I always tell our team that Taiwanese food is a representation of so many styles, on an island of so many people clustered together. Yes, it can get complicated — can you call it Taiwanese, where is it from originally? — but when it hits Taiwan, it’s different. And it’s different here, too.”
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Netflix’s popular K-drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” is confirmed for a season two and will be getting a musical adaptation too.
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What else is on our minds? 🧠
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