|
Race in America 🌎
Racism and its resulting violence continues to lead Asian Americans to stay inside more often than they need to — sometimes at the expense of their health.
Even before the pandemic, Jenny H., a Chinese American woman in her 60s experienced physical violence when she walked outside. From being hit in the face, resulting in chronic eye complications to being shoved in the metro and breaking some bones later in 2020, Jenny has expressed an even higher fear of violence since COVID-19. She does not leave for her medical appointments unless a family member or a volunteer from the Chinatown Volunteer Coalition accompanies her.
Her story is just one of many. Doctors have noticed a significant decrease in visits from their Asian patients ever since the pandemic. And how could they not? In 2021, 11% of Americans believed that Asian Americans were at least partly responsible for COVID-19. That number has risen to 21% in 2022.
Mary Mammon, a boisterous, confident and kindhearted showgirl from the 1930s showed Asian American women a new kind of living.
In the ‘30s, many women, especially Asian women, had little job prospects. They were expected to be demure, quiet, stay-at-home mothers who kept the house clean. Besides cultural expectations, discrimination also limited their opportunties greatly. But after prohibition ended in 1933, new chances for Asian women erupted from bars and nightclubs in California’s Chinatown. Mammon was one of the many women who joined the excitement, showing the world that Asian women could sing, dance and perform.
Despite criticism from their community, confusion from white patrons and underpaid, Mammon and her friends continued and by the ‘40s, they were a national sensation. Mammon died in 2002, but remained a lively volunteer at a local senior center and had a family of her own.
In Other Asian News 🗞
Recently FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr rekindled the conversation on data security, calling out TikTok.
Today, TikTok is reassuring U.S. senators about their agreement with the Biden administration on keeping user data safe. Last month, the company clarified in a letter that they used servers in Singapore for data backup and that Chinese employees “can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team.” Further details tackle and explain why certain measures were used in TikTok’s operations.
While Douyin and TikTok include technology from the Chinese company ByteDance, the letter stated that “TikTok's business logic, algorithm, integration and deployment of systems is specific to the TikTok application and separate from Douyin.”
The impact of the Vietnam war still haunts people today, and “Napalm Girl” is living proof.
After 50 years, Kim Phuc, otherwise known as “Napalm Girl,” is finally receiving her last burn treatment at the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute in Florida. If folks need a refresher from high school U.S. history, Phuc was the young, naked girl in the black and white photograph, running away from being burnt by a napalm bomb in June 1972.
Nick Ut, the photographer who captured the moment, is credited with saving her life, and together they recalled the horrifying moment. At 59 years old, Phuc still recalls seeing the fire on her arm from all those years ago. From her experiences, Phuc hopes that everyone can live with love, hope and forgiveness. With that, she says, “we don’t need war at all.”
|
