AUGUST 31, 2022

Hello, everyone!

A combined lawsuit from Asian American, Black and Latino plaintiffs against Texas for discrimination against minority voters through redistricting will be heard in Austin’s federal court next month.

The plaintiffs, Deborah Chen, Amatullah Contractor and Niloufar Hafizi, along with civil rights organizations like the ACLU Foundation of Texas, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), are arguing that the state deliberately divided up minority communities that were rising in populations.

Jerry Vattamala, director of the Democracy Program at AALDEF, explained that this lawsuit was necessary because of the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires certain states that historically practiced racial discrimination through voting to obtain federal preclearance before making changes to electoral maps. Additionally, Rise AAPI, an Asian American advocacy group, had several individuals from the Black, Latino and Asian American community “come together and draw” unity maps together to conjure the fairest lines and borders between different districts.

While the decision from this case will not affect current disadvantages in electoral districts with impending midterms elections, the plaintiffs are hoping that this case will demonstrate that inter-ethnic and inter-racial solidarity continues to fight despite that effort being ignored by local and state authorities.

Spotlight 💡

Brooklyn-based artist Dana Davenport is creating art to reflect her Black and Korean heritage through her braided hair sculptures and performance art. She also owns Dana’s Beauty Supply Shop.

When Davenport and her family lived in Korea, she had a heightened exposure to Korean beauty stores and culture, and since moving back to the U.S., her awareness of the intersection between beauty, self-care and hair care in Korean and Black communities has only increased. In fact, after reading a recent study that detailed how over 70% of beauty stores that sell Black hair products were owned by Korean owners only confirmed that her work, which articulates the relations of Black-Korean experiences in the U.S., spoke directly to the division and unity between her cultures.

Her sculptures, made from readily available braids and other materials, take about three to four months to create. When finished, they hold a linguistic nuance, especially when she titles pieces in Korean that do not carry an English equivalent.

Davenport has always been “thinking about the tensions between Black and Asian people in terms of my art career for the whole time.” Her theory on why these tensions continue to fester is rooted in the way that “American society [has] branded Asian people and Black people as opposites,” and thus her “artwork became an outlet” for her to explore and express these feelings within.

Race in America 🌎

The Carolina Asia Center at the University of North Carolina recently received a $900,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to further develop their programming on Southeast Asian studies.

The University plans to expand their language instruction, beginning with bolstering their Vietnamese courses, as well as establishing Southeast Asian studies as an official minor in students’ course selections. With East Asian countries often dominating Asian studies conversations, the Luce Foundation wanted to expand those funding opportunities to other regions of study.

Christian Lentz, an associate professor of geography at UNC, explained that the University’s decision to prioritize Southeast Asian studies is also because they hope to “bring Southeast Asia home to North Carolina so that students here, or heritage students, or who are curious about that region, can start to build those connections more explicitly with that world region.”
 

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New data from the National Partnership for Women & Families has shown that 31% of low-income Asian women of reproductive age currently live in states that have banned or are planning to ban abortions – making reproductive healthcare even more inaccessible.

In the past, concrete data that showcases the experiences of Asian American’s receiving an abortion are largely undocumented and unclear. However, figures from most recent studies were drawn from several AAPI groups and showed that Vietnamese, Pakistani, Hmong, Indian and Burmese women are most at risk. There is still an express need for research and further documentation of reproductive healthcare within the diverse Asian community.

In Other Asian News 🗞

Lee Bul, a contemporary artist whose latest series “Perdu” will be shown at the upcoming Frieze Seoul fair, answered a few questions regarding her work, the international art market and her takes on gender, life and beauty.

Lee rose to fame in the 80s through her performance art protesting the abortion ban in South Korea when she dangled herself naked and upside down from the ceiling of an arts center in Seoul. Then, in the 90s and early 2000s, she experimented with sculptures of cyborgs and futuristic chandeliers, crafted carefully and thoughtfully to showcase sci-fi dystopias and human bodies.

When asked about her choice of materials, she explained that when she depicts futuristic scenes or objects, she wishes to maintain a balance between the new and old, which inspires her to use old techniques and materials from Korean traditions.

President Biden is planning to ask Congress to approve a $1.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

While the sale is in its early stages, the initial plans for the package include: 60 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II missiles which cost around $335 million, a surveillance radar contract extension that costs $655.4 million, and more.

When the administration formalizes the package, the deal will require approval from the foreign affairs committees of Congress.

Film and TV 📺

Michelle Yeoh is slated to receive the inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11.

TIFF’s CEO, Cameron Bailey, said, “Michelle Yeoh is the definition of groundbreaking. Her screen work has spanned continents, genres and decades. This year she delivered a performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once that shows her limitless abilities. We’re so proud to honor her with the Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award.”
 

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Sandra Oh is in the running to be the first Asian lead female winner for an Emmy.

She is nominated for Best Drama Actress for her role in the fourth and final season of “Killing Eve.” For consideration, Oh submitted the show’s penultimate episode, “Making Dead Things Look Nice.”

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

• Two of India’s tallest buildings were demolished over the weekend in a victory for activists fighting a years-long legal battle against real estate developer Supertech Limited over illegal construction.  

• Three people are hospitalized with injuries from a shooting at the Sikh Gurdwara Sahib temple in Stockton, California.  

• Tennis star Wu Yibing is now the first Chinese man to win a match at the majors since 1959, beating Georgian player Nikoloz Basilashvili at the U.S. Open.

• A court in North Dakota has rejected a bid from the Chinese Fufeng Group for a $700 million corn-milling facility in Grand Forks. 

• Political chaos erupted in Iraq after notable Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his political retirement, causing 12 of his followers to be shot and killed by government security forces during protests in the capital of Baghdad.