AUGUST 5, 2022

Hello, everyone!

As the lawsuit against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina advances, supporters of the affirmative action policy are piling on.

Over the past few weeks, there have been official endorsements and amicus briefs from companies, universities and organizations like Georgetown University, Boston College, Notre Dame, Apple, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Shell, Mastercard and even the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps to preserve policies protecting racial diversity within universities. Currently, over 100 universities and 70 companies support Harvard’s case of retaining affirmative action procedures.

Although the Students for Fair Admissions (SFAA) lawsuit claims to represent the Asian American students discriminated against by the affirmative action policy, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) released a statement reiterating that “removing race from the admissions process would, in fact, penalize those applicants and make college campuses less diverse.”

As part of AALDEF’s amicus brief, the organization stated that they believe SFAA’s lawsuit uses Asian American struggles to deploy “harmful stereotypes of the Asian American community in service of eliminating policies that benefit Asian Americans and proposes a ‘race-neutral’ admissions policy that ultimately benefits white applicants.”

Spotlight 💡

Have you met the Cambodian cowboy, Chad Phuong? (FYI, he’s also a famous pitmaster.)

Chef Phuong currently lives and works in Long Beach, California bringing Cambodian flavors and influences to various cuts of American meat inspired by his ethnic heritage and childhood memories from the epicenter of meat culture, the American South. Living between the U.S., Mexico and carrying traditions from an ocean away, he combines a multitude of techniques from his life experiences from using dry rub with Cambodian spices to Mexican salsas and tortillas.

Phuong’s family, Cambodian refugees that fled the Khmer Rouge regime, act as an anchor for his culinary inspiration as he roots himself in his family history of cooking, farming and resilience. Simultaneously, Phuong still wrestles with PTSD from experiencing war and violence early on in his most formative years.

Race in America 🌎

In Charlotte, North Carolina, the first Asian American woman to serve on the City Council was reelected by popular vote.

Indian American Dimple Ajmera immigrated with her family from Gurajat, India when she was just 16 years old, speaking little to no English.

In her most recent race, she won with 16.55% of the total votes, beating her Democratic opponent, Braxton Winston, in her local race on July 17. Previously, she held the position in 2017-18, but lost it one year in 2019. This month, she was able to come out of the race victorious and ready to serve another term.
 

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on Border Patrol to stop requiring or forcibly removing Sikh men’s turbans from their heads. Wearing turbans has been a long-held tradition of the Sikh faith, signifying a radical act of equality against a discriminatory caste system.

Instead of humiliating Sikh refugees seeking asylum, U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBP) should treat individuals with respect. ACLU Arizona communications director Marcela Taracena condemned the CBP’s actions as “dehumanizing” and a violation of migrant’s right to religious freedom in a recent letter that highlighted around 50 instances of forced removal.

While the CBP has not issued an official comment, ​​Commissioner Chris Magnus has explained that he is taking the allegations seriously and will be conducting an internal investigation.

In Other Asian News 🗞

In Malaysia, mothers cannot pass on their citizenship to their children. The nation remains one of the 28 countries in the world to continue this practice of gender-based discrimination through legal citizenship laws in their constitution.

Even if those children were raised in Malaysia for years, women cannot legally pass on their citizenship to their children if their fathers aren’t Malaysian citizens themselves. Despite passing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995 and enshrining gender equality in the national constitution in 2001, government officials are reluctant to discuss amending nationality laws for women and their children. Currently, an additional appeal has been filed with a High Court ruling in favor of mothers who challenged the constitutionality of the clause.

To this day, many Malaysian mothers have relied on Article 15(2) of the constitution that allows adults aged 21 to apply for Malaysian citizenship – but that too comes with its own consequences. The application is not a guarantee of citizenship, unlike Article 14(1)(b) for fathers submitting applications.
 

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In India, the data protection and privacy bill that brought huge concern to companies like Meta in 2019 is now being withdrawn and revised.

The initial bill planned to install strict protocols for tech and media companies on cross-border data flows and proposed to allow the Indian government to seek user data to safeguard Indian residents. However, a recent government notice explained that after a parliamentary meeting that highlighted and suggested numerous amendments, the government will now “present a new bill” after addressing the need for a new “comprehensive legal framework.”

Government officials aim to have a new bill approved and passed by early 2023.

Film 📺

The biggest film over this past weekend was a Chinese film called “Moon Man” that grossed $129 million, beating out DC’s “League of Super Pets” by nearly five times. As the title suggests, “Moon Man” is about an astronaut who is stranded alone on the moon after Earth’s destruction.

China achieved the biggest box office in the world in 2020 through 2021 as U.S. theaters were shuttered dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, North America shows signs of taking back its top spot at the box office as China’s box office has been sluggish while Hollywood has not.

Indian filmmaking duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK have entered a multi-year partnership with Netflix. The duo will create and distribute several projects through their D2R production flagship. They have worked with Netflix before as producers of the 2021 Telugu-language film “Cinema Bandi.”

One upcoming project behind the creators and online streaming platform is the comedy-crime-thriller series “Guns & Gulaabs” described as “a story of love and innocence in a world of crime, a nostalgic tale of all kinds of firsts, from first love to first kill.”  

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

• Ten years ago, U.S. scientists created a new battery the size of a fridge that could have charged homes for decades to come, but the U.S. Department of Energy gave the technology to China.   

• A growing number of Buddhist women are defying male-centric Thailand traditions and becoming monks through women-led ordination ceremonies.  

• Malaysia owes about $15 billion to the heirs of a sultan off the remote Philippine region of Sulu from a colonial-era land deal, and the descendants have come to collect.   

• An analysis from the New York Times on why the U.S.’ attempt to ban Chinese technology didn’t stick the way they were hoping. 

• A 700-year-old “groom market” in India held their annual event of male guardians of brides selecting publicly displayed grooms for marriage. 

• Muslim women in India are struggling to be hired for jobs due to alleged bias because of religious practices such as wearing a hijab, among several others.