Tag: Asian

Categories
Entertainment

Asian Composers Replicate on Careers in Western Classical Music

Asian Composers Reflect on Careers in Western Classical Music

Asian composers who write in Western classical musical forms, like symphonies and operas, tend to have a few things in common. Many learned European styles from an early age, and finished their studies at conservatories there or in the United States. And many later found themselves relegated to programming ghettos like Lunar New Year concerts. (One recent study found that works by Asian composers make up only about 2 percent of American orchestral performances planned for the coming season.)

At times, the music of Asian composers has been misunderstood or exoticized; they have been subjected to simple errors such as, in the case of Huang Ruo, who was born in China, repeated misspellings of his name.

For all their shared experiences, each of these artists has a unique story. Here, five of them provide a small sampling of the lessons, struggles and triumphs of composers who were born in Asia and made a career for themselves in Western classical music. These are edited excerpts from interviews with them.

Music is my language. To me “West” and “East” are just ways of talking — or like ways of cooking. I’m a chef, and sometimes I find my recipe is like my orchestrations. It would be so boring if you asked me to cook in one style. Eastern and Western, then, have for me become a unique recipe in which one plus one equals one.

I am in a very special zone historically. I’m 63, and part of the first generation of Eastern composers after the Cultural Revolution to deal with Western forms. But it’s just like rosemary, butter and vegetables. You can cook this way, that way — and that’s why the same orchestras sound so different, from Debussy to Stravinsky to myself.

I’m lucky. When I came to the United States as a student, my teachers and classmates gave me enormous encouragement to discover myself. And I learned so much from John Cage. After this, it felt so easy to compose. And when people approach me for commissions, I re-approach them about what I’m thinking about. I remember when Kurt Masur asked me to write something for the New York Philharmonic — the Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra — I said, “Can I write something for water?” He said, “As long as you don’t flood our orchestra.”

Yes, we often are misunderstood. It’s like when you cook beautiful black bean with chili sauce and chocolate. They may say, “Hey, this is a little strange.” But you explain why, and that can be very interesting. Thank God I love to talk. And there has been progress for us. I am the first Eastern composer to be the dean of a Western conservatory, at Bard. That’s like a Chinese chef becoming the chef of an Italian restaurant. That’s the future: a different way of approaching color, boundary-less, a unity of the soul.

One thing about composers like Tan Dun: They came out of the Cultural Revolution, after a door had closed for so many years. So there was so much focus on what China was doing, a lot of curiosity — curiosity rather than active racism. Our generation — I’m 44 — is so different.

We learn Western music with such rigorous systems. And we do not close our ears to different traditions or styles; that attitude determines early on that you don’t have that kind of boundary, or ownership. But you still hear those conversation topics about “East meets West.” It’s so tiring. East has been meeting West for thousands of years; if we’re always still just meeting, that’s a problem.

Programming Chinese composers around Lunar New Year is in general very problematic. Do we need to celebrate the culture? Yes. Do we need to celebrate the tradition? Absolutely. But it can be part of the main subscription series, or a yearlong series. Then you can really tell stories, not just group people by a country.

My name does not give me ownership of Chinese culture. There are so many things I don’t know. There are so many burdens and fights — as the woman, the woman of color, the Chinese woman — that I decided to fight nothing and just create my own stuff. I told myself that if I had a great body of work, that would speak to what a Chinese woman can do.

I never wanted to be pigeonholed, to be a reduced representation. I wanted to always open that Pandora’s box of messiness — and I encourage others to celebrate messiness, the unclean narrative of your life. Every immigrant has her own path; your work should absolutely be reflective of that. So if I’m a spokesperson, it’s for my own voice. And through that particular voice, I hope there is something that resonates.

When I left China, it was a time of economic and cultural reform. I’m glad I came to the United States, but I do have a little bit of guilt. I probably could have done more there. At the time, my ambition was to try to learn Western music and become the best composer, pianist and conductor I could be. I was fortunate to work with many fantastic musicians and meet Leonard Bernstein, who took me under his wing for five years. Now, at 65, when someone asks me if I consider myself a Chinese or American composer, I say, in the most humble way, “100 percent both.” I feel well-versed in both cultures.

Occasionally, there has been racism and misunderstanding, but that is inevitable. Would that be different if there were more Asian people running orchestras? Maybe. My response has just been to try to produce the best music I can. I wrote an opera for San Francisco Opera — “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which they’re reviving. It’s based on a very popular Chinese story, and when I worked on it with David Henry Hwang, we asked ourselves: “Is this for a Western audience or Asian audience?” We decided first and foremost it should just be good, and it had to be touching. Good art should transcend.

Years ago, I wrote an orchestral piece, “H’un (Lacerations),” which premiered at the 92nd Street Y in New York. It is about my recollections growing up during the Cultural Revolution, and is thus sonically harsh and dramatic, with no melody. My mother was there, and she said it brought back a lot of painful memories. I was also sitting next to an old Jewish woman, and after I took a bow onstage, she leaned over and said, “If you changed the title to ‘Auschwitz,’ this would be just as appropriate.” That was the highest compliment.

The Korea of my childhood and adolescence was a very different place from what it is today. In the 1960s, it was an impoverished developing country, devastated by colonialism and by the Korean War, and until the late 1980s, there was a military dictatorship in place. In order to develop as a composer, one had to go abroad, as there didn’t exist an infrastructure for new music. Now 60, and having lived for 35 years in Europe, it remains important for me to contribute to the contemporary music scene in Asia.

When I moved to Germany, there was a tendency to put composers in certain boxes, with all the aesthetic turf wars back then. Since I was neither interested in joining any camp or fashionable avant-garde or other trends, fulfilling exotic expectations, or assumptions of how a woman should or should not compose, I had to start a career in other countries while still living in Germany. Prejudices such as viewing an Asian composer or performing musician only through “sociological” lenses are still relatively common in various countries, but times are changing. Of course, there exist prejudices and complacency in the whole world, including in Asia. Perhaps the only remedy to this apparently, and sadly, all-too-human impulse is try to retain a sense of wonder and attempt to find distance to oneself.

I have worked in different countries for decades, and have felt a need to stay curious about different musical cultures, traditions and genres. I believe in multiple identities and think that without curiosity, any musical style or culture atrophies and risks becoming a museum: Art has always thrived when there has been cross-fertilization.

At the same time, one should be wary of the danger of exoticism and superficial cultural appropriation. I think that a contemporary composer needs to study different cultures, traditions and genres, but make use of those influences in a selective, historically conscious and self-critical manner.

When people heard I came from China, they would often say, “Does your music sound like Tan Dun?” I don’t think they meant any harm, but it shows a certain ignorance. I tried to explain that China is a big country, and we all speak with our own voice.

I started as an instrumental composer, and a lot of those works got programmed at Asian-themed or Lunar New Year concerts. I didn’t notice at first, but you begin to see patterns. I don’t feel my work has any less quality than my other colleagues who are not minority composers, but for conductors, programmers and artistic directors, it doesn’t seem to come to their mind that you can naturally program an Asian composer’s work next to Beethoven or Tchaikovsky.

That’s one of the reasons I turned to opera. I thought, there must be no opera company having a themed season devoted to Asian composers. So finally, I got to be programmed next to “Fidelio” and “Madama Butterfly.” That was my revenge. Also, I’ve wanted to write on subjects that reflect Asian or Asian American topics, to really share these stories. In this case it is actually me making the choice.

Someone once told me I speak English with an accent. I said, “Otherwise, how would you know that’s me speaking?” I feel the same way as a composer. I want to have my own originality, to speak with my own accent — with my love of Western musical styles, but also this heritage I carry of Chinese culture.

Without coming to the United States, I would be a different composer. If I went to Europe instead, I would also be very different. But I feel I made the right decision, and at 44 I fully embrace who I am today, and where I am as well.

Categories
World News

Why Asian People on Wall Avenue are breaking their silence

Why Asian Americans on Wall Street are breaking their silence

Alex Chi, Goldman Sachs

Source: Goldman Sachs

A year after the pandemic began in New York City, something snapped in Alex Chi.

The 48-year-old Goldman Sachs banker had been inundated with articles and video clips of horrifying, seemingly random attacks on Asian Americans in his home town. Then, in late March, eight people were gunned down in the Atlanta area — most of them immigrants from Korea and China — and Chi could stand it no longer.

The barrage of attacks forced a change in Chi, a partner and 27-year Goldman veteran. He became an in-house agitator of sorts, attending protests and rallying his colleagues around a simple idea: Silence is no longer an option.

“The message I’ve clearly put out to other Asian Americans is this: You have to start speaking up for yourselves,” Chi said in a recent interview. “We have to use this moment as an opportunity to finally make ourselves heard and change the narrative around Asian Americans in this country.”

This isn’t just the story of the political awakening of a single New York banker. It’s the story of thousands of Wall Street employees who are, many for the first time in their lives, connecting with co-workers in virtual chatrooms, over Zoom and in person to commiserate about being Asian in finance, and in America.

While Asian Americans make up one of the biggest minority groups in finance, comprising roughly 15% of the employees at the six biggest U.S. banks, few have made it to the operating committees of these institutions. Just one, former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, has led a top-tier bank.

Chi, who became a Goldman partner a decade ago, reaching one of Wall Street’s loftiest ranks, says he is one of the first Korean Americans to do so at the 151-year-old institution.

He believes Asian Americans at Goldman and beyond are now pushing back against the stereotype —rooted in a common cultural upbringing that stresses modesty and conflict avoidance and reinforced at times by workplace discrimination — that they are quiet, docile worker bees.

For the broader community, some 23 million people, the past few months have been the first time Asian American issues have reached the national stage in decades. The last time this has happened was probably in the early 1980s, when the beating death of Vincent Chin galvanized an earlier generation to form affinity groups, according to historians.

‘China virus’

The arrival of the coronavirus last year brought a surge in bias crimes against Asian Americans, especially in New York and California. Many of the assaults have been against senior citizens and women. The violence has shattered the sense of security for many in the group, according to the Pew Research Center.

But a silver lining to the racial scapegoating that accompanied Covid-19 has been that it has unified many Americans of Asian descent, the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. They make up a significant portion of the corporate workforce in industries including finance, technology and health care, and are an emerging force in politics.

“There’s so many differences within Asians, but you’re treated as one group,” said Joyce Chang, chair of global research at JPMorgan Chase. “Now, being targeted for hate crimes, people are saying, we are being treated like a monolith, we may as well get organized.”

Lillie Chin, mother of Vincent Chin who was clubbed to death by two white men in June 1982, breaks down as a relative (L), helps her walk while leaving Detroit’s City County Building in April, 1983.

Bettmann | Getty Images

Chang says she studied the history of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. while at Columbia University in the 1980s, including the vicious 1982 killing of Chin by two bat-wielding Detroit autoworkers who mistakenly assumed he was Japanese. The killers, who blamed Japan for the decline of the U.S. auto industry, were fined $3,000 and avoided prison.

Chang said the current period reminds her of that time. Both for the larger issues — in the 1980s, anxiety over Japanese economic might was common, while today the emergence of China as a global superpower has policymakers worried — as well as the response.

The first use of the phrase “China virus” by former President Donald Trump on Twitter in March 2020 led directly to an increase in online and offline anti-Asian abuse, according to a recent report in the American Journal of Public Health. Trump had nearly 90 million followers before getting booted from the platform.

A close-up of President Donald Trump’s notes shows where Corona was crossed out and replaced with Chinese Virus as he speaks during a White House briefing, March 19, 2020.

Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Now, people are forming pan-Asian affinity groups to help keep track of the bias attacks and boost philanthropy. One such nonprofit, the Asian American Foundation, launched this month and said it has already raised $125 million for AAPI causes over the next five years. It, along with JPMorgan and other organizations, have given money to Stop AAPI Hate, a new group that began tracking bias attacks in January 2020 after a rash of incidents in California.

Initially, it was journalists in New York and San Francisco who chronicled the attacks, which began in the early days of the pandemic and ramped up this year, occurring on a daily basis at times. Then Asian American celebrities including actors and athletes amplified the coverage. Posts on social media brought home the idea that even being famous and powerful didn’t insulate people from feeling vulnerable.

The movement has extended to the finance realm. At JPMorgan, Chang says that after the Atlanta shootings, attendance at an internal forum for Asian Americans had 6,100 participants, about 10 times larger than the typical attendance before the pandemic.

The sentiment of many of those I spoke with was something akin to shock. Several had had superlative careers on Wall Street, and yet here they were, reliving some of the same trauma from their childhoods they had believed was a thing of the past.

A demonstrator during a rally in Seattle on March 13, 2021.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

Tom Lee, co-founder of research boutique Fundstrat and a regular CNBC on-air guest, said he faced “merciless anti-Asian attacks” growing up in a small town 25 miles from Detroit. That tough childhood helped him chart his own course as one of the best-known market prognosticators in the country, he said, because he had learned to tune out noise.

“It’s been easy to feel like Asians have a bit of a bull’s-eye on their backs,” Lee said in an interview.

Mike Karp, CEO of Options Group, a recruiting firm that has placed thousands of traders and salespeople on Wall Street in the past three decades, put it a different way.

“They thought they were part of the mainstream until this ‘Chinese virus’ stuff,” Karp, who is Indian American, said of his AAPI clients. “Now there’s a building resentment that people have, and they aren’t taking it anymore.”

West Coast bias

Distress over the violence she was seeing in San Francisco and the initial lack of national media attention moved Cynthia Sugiyama, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo, to publish a highly personal piece in March.

Sugiyama says she has been overwhelmed by the response to her column, published in the San Francisco Chronicle and LinkedIn, from colleagues and others who related to her experiences being harassed as a child, and her resolve to respond to the current moment.

“I’ve never before felt this sense of community as much as now,” Sugiyama said. “What makes this moment pivotal is that the surge in anti-Asian sentiment on one side has been met with a powerful swell on the other side from Asian Americans who are finding their voices.”

Cynthia Sugiyama, head of HR communications for Wells Fargo.

Source: Cynthia Sugiyama

Sugiyama, who manages human resources communications for a company of 264,513 employees, said that Asian American employees have flocked to internal forums to share their feelings and experiences.

According to employees at some of the biggest banks, one of the main topics being discussed is the difficulty Asian Americans have climbing the corporate ladder.

Wall Street hierarchy

The Wall Street model is to take in thousands of college graduates a year, placing them on the bottom of a hierarchy where analysts and associates grind out long hours in support of merger deals or trading activity. By design, few junior bankers make it to the vice president or director level, where annual compensation typically reaches several hundred thousand dollars. Fewer still make it to managing director, where pay packages often total more than $1 million a year.

For instance, at JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, about 25,000 employees identify themselves as Asian. While roughly 1 in 4 of the bank’s professional workers are Asian, just 10% are senior managers. At the very top of the organization, the bank’s 18-person operating committee led by CEO Jamie Dimon includes just one Asian person, Sanoke Viswanathan.

Park Ji-Hwan | AFP | Getty Images

Some have had the realization that the playbook used by Asian Americans to reach a certain level of workplace achievement isn’t enough anymore.

“Every bank is happy to hire a young Asian who will work double hard and is good at math and analysis,” said a Morgan Stanley employee who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. “As time goes on however, I noticed how most of the people I knew in Wall Street never really progressed past VP level, and many were laid off when cost-cutting rounds came.”

His explanation for this phenomenon is two-fold: Parents of Asian Americans drilled a set of principles into their children — study, work hard — that gets you past the first few hurdles at an investment bank, but that doesn’t necessarily help people advance beyond that. Further, little emphasis is given to so-called soft skills like public speaking and finding mentors, things needed at higher levels, he said.

Some corners of Wall Street are friendlier for Asian Americans than others, he said.

When it comes to stock research, people only care if an analyst makes them money, he said. With mergers advice, however, the client is always right, and sometimes owners of mid-sized and small companies didn’t want to work with nonwhite bankers, he said. In wealth management, Asian Americans often don’t have the social connections to help them succeed.

And, just as with Black and Latinx employees, Asian Americans are hindered because managers are more likely to support and promote people who look like themselves, he said.

‘A bit of bragging’

Lee, the Fundstrat co-founder, said that in his 24 years on Wall Street before striking out on his own, he often saw the careers of Asian Americans stall. What hampers them from progressing is an aversion to drawing attention to themselves and the clubby nature of banking at higher levels, he said.

“I’ve seen that the most successful people are the ones who do a bit of bragging,” Lee said. “Asians aren’t really good at that, and I think that hurts us, because it’s easy to not realize someone has a lot to offer if they aren’t bragging about it.”

Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Despite the general success of the cohort in the corporate setting, Lee says, Asian Americans haven’t been involved enough in other areas of civic life, especially politics.

That may be changing, however. Kamala Harris, who is of Indian-Jamaican heritage, became the first Asian American, Black and female vice president, and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is a front-runner for New York mayor. Asian American voters were a key constituency in the last presidential election, casting a record number of votes in states where President Joe Biden eked out narrow victories.

Still, some of the Asian Americans interviewed for this story said they felt invisible at work. Or worse, given the spike in harassment and violence, some felt like permanent foreigners despite having lived in the U.S. for decades. Most Americans can’t name a single prominent living Asian American, according to a recent survey.

A big umbrella

Part of what has hamstrung an Asian American political movement is that the construct itself has always been an imperfect solution, a term created in the late 1960s to consolidate smaller cohorts to gain leverage amid the wider Civil Rights movement.

Today, the term Asian American includes people from more than 20 countries across East and South Asia, each with their own languages, food and culture. People who have familial roots in China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea and Japan make up about 85% of all Asian Americans.

In fact, the presence of most Asians in the U.S. can be traced to the Civil Rights movement, which established that a race-based system of laws was unjust.

After an initial wave of immigration to the continental U.S. in the 1850s, Asians were seen as a “yellow peril” and explicitly excluded from coming to the U.S. for nearly a century by laws including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

That changed after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened up migration from Asia, Southern Europe and Africa, instead of solely favoring Western and Northern Europeans. The law would forever change the complexion of the country and happened only after the Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the liberalized U.S. Immigration bill into law. Attending the ceremony on Liberty Island, (L-R) are: Vice President Hubert Humphrey; first lady Lady Bird Johnson; Mrs. Mike Mansfield (wife of the Senate Majority Leader); Muriel Humphrey; Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, on October 4, 1965.

Bettmann | Getty Images

When Johnson signed the landmark immigration legislation in 1965, he was quoted as saying that the previous system “violated the basic principle of American democracy, the principle that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit.”

Seminal moment

Back at Goldman Sachs, Chi realized he had a part to play after the horror of the Atlanta shootings, at least within the confines of his 40,300-person firm. Some managers hadn’t been aware of the violence against Asian Americans, particularly in public areas like subway platforms.

Now, amid the company’s push to encourage more employees to return to Goldman’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, workers were speaking up, telling managers that they didn’t feel safe. Employees got permission to expense rideshares for their commute, and the bank invited public safety experts to offer advice, Chi said.

“In the past, they would’ve just sucked it up and done what they needed to do,” Chi said. “Now, our Asian American community here is speaking up, and they’re going to their managers and saying, ‘I’m not comfortable. Have you seen what’s going on?'”

CEO David Solomon meets with Asian partners and senior leaders of Goldman Sachs’ Asian Network

David Solomon | Goldman Sachs

Chi also reached out directly to CEO David Solomon, who quickly set up a roundtable meeting where he listened to senior Asian American executives air their concerns. When Solomon shared a photo of the event on social media and the bank’s internal homepage, it opened up the firm to many more discussions where managers acknowledged they hadn’t known what their Asian American employees were going through, Chi said.

“When I walked out of that room with one of my partners, we turned to each other and said, ‘Wow, this is a seminal moment, because here we are with our CEO, talking very openly about Asian American issues,’ ” Chi said. “That’s never happened before.”

Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro. 
Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. 
Sign up to start a free trial today.

Categories
Entertainment

Stereotypes Are Rife Amongst Asian and Pacific Islander Movie Roles, Research Finds

Stereotypes Are Rife Among Asian and Pacific Islander Film Roles, Study Finds

Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007 to 2019, only 44 starred an Asian or Pacific Islander – and a third of the roles went to a single actor, Dwayne Johnson, a study found.

In 2019 in particular, by the end of the film, more than a quarter of Asian or Pacific islanders had died, and more than 41 percent had “experienced a degradation.” Two-thirds of Asian or Pacific islanders mirrored stereotypes, and nearly 20 percent spoke either a non-English language or English with a non-American accent, according to a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, funded by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation.

Analysis of the 1,300 films released Tuesday also found that only 3.4 percent of the films featured Asian or Pacific islanders in leading or coleading roles. (In relation to the US population, 7.1 percent identify themselves in this category.)

Other sobering statistics: Of 51,159 people speaking, only 5.9 percent were Asian, Asian-American, or Hawaiian or Pacific islanders. 39 percent of the films did not include a single Asian or Pacific islander.

The study also broke the statistics by gender: four Asian or Pacific islanders were cast in six lead roles, compared to 336 unique white male actors over the same period – a ratio of 84 white male actors per Asian or Pacific islander actress.

Only 13 percent of the roles of Asian or Pacific islanders in 2019 films were classified as “fully human.” The study’s authors defined that they have a full spectrum of relationships and don’t take on any role as a foreigner, buddy, or villain. (Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone character in “Jumanji: The Next Level” or Constance Wu’s character Destiny in “Hustlers” were considered good examples.)

The study, led by Nancy Wang Yuen, professor at Biola University, and Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California at Annenberg, also found that of the 600 highest-grossing films released from 2014 to 2019, only 15 were Asian and Pacific Islander characters abstained from identifying themselves as LGBTQ and only 26 Asian and Pacific islanders were shown with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability in the 500 films released from 2015 to 2019 with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability.

The researchers also looked at representation among filmmakers, finding that of the 1,447 credited directors in the sample, only 3.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders – and only three were women. (Jennifer Yuh Nelson won two awards for the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Loveleen Tandan for Slumdog Millionaire.) No Asian or Pacific Islander was the sole director of any of the 1,300 films in the study. (The research period ended before the publication of “Nomadland”, whose director Chloé Zhao won the Oscar for best director this year as the first woman of color, first Chinese woman and second woman.) Among the producers, 2.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders , as do 3.3 percent of casting directors.

The results of the study are due to the increasing hostility and violence against Asians in the United States. The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate announced in March that nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported over the course of a year during the pandemic, mostly against women.

“Whether through the lack of API characters or through stereotypical representations, entertainment can be a means of perpetuating inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals of the API community,” the report concludes.

Categories
Politics

Senate passes invoice to fight hate crimes in opposition to Asian Individuals

Senate passes bill to combat hate crimes against Asian Americans

The Senate passed a bill Thursday aimed at curbing an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.

The chamber approved the measure 94-1, with Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri being the only Senator to oppose it. Legislation will go into the democratically held house. Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Endorsed the bill, and President Joe Biden has signaled that he will legally sign it.

The proposal would direct the Department of Justice to expedite the review of hate crimes related to Covid-19. It would also allocate more resources to state and local law enforcement agencies to follow up the incidents and send guidance on eliminating discriminatory languages ​​describing the pandemic.

“The AAPI community is focused on hate crimes and other incidents, and Congress needs to stand up to condemn these types of actions,” Senator Mazie Hirono, a Hawaiian Democrat and co-author of the law, told CNBC on Wednesday in his passage.

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

The law was passed almost unanimously in the democratically led Senate after the cross-party amendments were approved.

Legislation is the most tangible measure Congress has taken to respond to the increase in violence and harassment against Asian Americans since the pandemic began last year. This was followed by an increase in racist rhetoric against China about the origins of the virus – including from former President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill.

Anti-Asian hate crimes rose about 150% in 16 of the largest US cities over the past year, according to a study published last month by the California State University’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in San Bernardino.

Hirono, who wrote the bill with Rep. Grace Meng, DN.Y., spoke about her own fear of violence. Earlier this month, she said she was uncomfortable walking while listening to an audiobook on her headphones.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Categories
Politics

Biden urges Congress to cross hate crime laws over violence in opposition to Asian Individuals

Biden urges Congress to pass hate crime legislation over violence against Asian Americans

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

“Although we don’t yet understand the motive, as I said last week, we strongly condemn the ongoing crisis of gender-based and anti-Asian violence that has long plagued our nation,” Biden said in a statement.

It was also approved the day after a Congressional hearing on violence against Asian Americans, the first in 34 years.

Biden and several lawmakers and activists at Thursday’s hearing urged Congress to pass the hate crime law introduced earlier this month by Rep. Grace Meng, DN.Y., and Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii.

Senator Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is seen during the Senate Justice Committee confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, who has been appointed Attorney General, on Monday, February 22, 2021.

Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

A study by the Stop AAPI Hate advocacy group published on Tuesday recorded 3,795 reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans and islanders in the Pacific between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021.

Incidents include verbal abuse, physical assault, workplace discrimination, and online harassment, among others. Many of the incidents were reported retrospectively from 2020.

The group stresses that the record represents only a fraction of the number of hate incidents Asian Americans have experienced across the country.

Some political leaders and supporters noted during the congressional hearing that hate crime legislation does not necessarily affect all forms of hatred that Asian Americans experience.

At a press conference in Atlanta Thursday morning, Georgian MP Bee Nguyen said: “Laws against hate crimes are not preventive. They will subsequently be used as a law enforcement tool.”

Prosecuting hate crimes requires law enforcement to find evidence that incidents are racially motivated.

“While many of the recent anti-Asian incidents may not fit the legal definition of a hate crime, these attacks nonetheless create an unacceptable environment of fear and terror in Asian American communities,” said Rep Steve Cohen, D-Tenn House Hearing.

Categories
Politics

Biden calls on U.S. to unite towards hate concentrating on Asian People

Biden calls on U.S. to unite against hate targeting Asian Americans

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called on the US to unite against hatred and speak out against violence against Asian Americans in a speech in Atlanta on Friday.

“Harm to one of us is harm to all of us,” said Harris, the country’s first Asian-American vice president.

The public statements came after the President and Vice President met with Asian American leaders in Georgia after the Atlanta area rampage that killed eight people, including six Asian women.

While law enforcement was still investigating the suspect’s motive, both Biden and Harris realized: the shootings are taking place amid mounting discrimination and violence against Asians and Asian Americans, and the country must work together to address the problem.

“Hate and violence are often hidden in public. There is often silence,” said Biden. “Our silence is complicit. We cannot be complicit. We have to express ourselves. We have to act.”

“It is up to all of us, all of us together, to stop it,” said the president, emphasizing that “words have consequences”.

Biden called on Congress to pass hate crime law to combat the rise in violence against Asian Americans during the Covid pandemic and the law against violence against women.

“I believe with every fiber in my being there are simply some core values ​​and beliefs that should bring us together as Americans, and one of them stands together against hatred, against racism – the ugly poison that has long plagued our nation . ” Said Biden.

President Joe Biden speaks after meeting executives from the Georgian Asian-American and Pacific islander communities at Emory University in Atlanta on Friday, March 19, 2021 while Vice President Kamala Harris listens.

Patrick Semansky | AP

The president, who himself mourned the loss of family members, offered words of comfort to the families of those who lost their lives in the shootings.

“I assure you the one you lost will always be with you,” said Biden. “The day will come when her memory will bring a smile to your face before it brings a tear to your eye, incredible as this is. It will be a while. And I promise you it will come. When it does doing that, it’s the day you know you will make it. “

The meeting with Asian American lawmakers and community advocates was held at Emory University, where Biden and Harris later made their comments.

The Atlanta visit, Biden and Harris’ first trip together since taking office, was originally part of a national tour that announced the passage of the $ 1.9 trillion Covid aid package. The White House announced Thursday that it would postpone the planned political event after the deadly shootings and focus on increasing discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.

The President and Vice-President will also meet with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for information on the Covid pandemic.

Biden and Harris also planned to meet with proxy and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams during their visit to Atlanta, a White House official told NBC News.

The official said Abrams “played a leading role in accessing voting and protecting voters, and she will be an important partner in taking important action in this important area in the future.”

Abrams is widely credited for her years of electoral mobilization efforts that fueled Georgia’s democratic victories in the November presidential runoff and January Senate runoff.

The President and Vice President meeting with Abrams comes as civil rights activists in Georgia roll back voting restrictions proposed by Republican lawmakers. The activists are calling on Biden and Congress to pass federal voting rights, such as the For the People Act introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.

Categories
World News

VP Harris responds to surge in violent assaults in opposition to Asian Individuals

VP Harris responds to surge in violent attacks against Asian Americans

US Vice President Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Delaware.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Vice President Kamala Harris responded on Friday to the recent spike in violent attacks against Asian Americans.

“We must continue to fight against racism and discrimination,” said Harris on Twitter.

Videos of recent attacks on elderly Asian Americans in California’s Bay Area have spread on social media over the past week.

One video showed a 91-year-old man being pushed from behind and ending up face down on the street in the Chinatown neighborhood of Oakland, Harris’ hometown.

Another video showed 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee who was forcibly knocked to the ground in San Francisco. He later died, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Harris’ comments come on the New Year celebrations as the Covid pandemic and fear of violence dampened the Christmas festivities.

Other politicians have taken note of the problem.

“Especially in the days leading up to the New Year celebrations, a time of cultural pride and celebration for millions of Asian Americans, the rise in attacks in Chinatowns has particularly shaken our community,” said Judy Chu, D-Calif., Chairman of the Caucus im Asia-Pacific Congress said in a statement Thursday.

Hate incidents and violence against Asian Americans have increased during the Covid pandemic. Proponents say anti-Asian sentiments were fueled by the actions of leaders such as former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly referred to the coronavirus with terms like “Chinese virus” and “kung flu”.

“There were more than 2,500 reports of hate incidents against Asia related to COVID-19 across the country between March and September 2020,” a recent study by the Asian American Bar Association of New York and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP found.

“And that number underestimates the real number of hate incidents against Asia, as most of the incidents go unreported,” the study said.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president condemned discrimination against Asian Americans when asked about President Joe Biden’s reaction to recent violent attacks against Asian Americans during a briefing at the White House on Monday.

“He has spoken out and made it clear that attacks – verbal attacks, attacks of any kind – are unacceptable and we must work together to address them,” said Psaki.

Biden signed an executive order against xenophobia against Asian Americans on January 26th.

“We applaud President Biden’s executive order, which calls for greater protection for the government [Asian and Pacific Islander] Community as a result of racism and xenophobia related to the pandemic, and we thank those who show solidarity with the API community, “the Legislative Caucus of California Islanders in the Asia-Pacific region said in a statement Thursday.

“But it is not enough to simply reject racism, xenophobia and violence. We have to draw attention to these injustices and protect one another,” said the caucus.

Categories
Politics

Biden DOJ drops swimsuit alleging discrimination in opposition to White, Asian candidates

Biden DOJ drops suit alleging discrimination against White, Asian applicants

Students walk on the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

The Justice Department on Wednesday dropped a case against Yale University alleging the Ivy League institution discriminated against white and Asian applicants in its admissions process.

The decision, announced in a filing with the Connecticut Federal District Court, marks a reversal of the stance of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump, whose administration spoke out against educational policies geared towards increasing racial diversity. President Joe Biden had made racial justice a top priority in his administration.

Yale had denied allegations that its licensing practices were discriminatory. In a statement, spokeswoman Karen Peart said the school was “satisfied” with the DOJ’s decision.

“Our admissions process has enabled Yale College to bring together an unprecedented student body characterized by academic excellence and diversity,” said Peart.

The Trump Justice Department targeted higher education institutions for admissions practices that took into account applicants’ race and country of origin.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld racial licensing practices, despite setting limits on how important a factor racing can be.

The Justice Department announced in August that a two-year investigation found that Yale’s practices were unlawful.

“Although the Supreme Court ruled that colleges receiving federal funding may, in certain circumstances, consider the race of applicants as one of several factors, the Justice Department found that Yale’s use of the breed is far from limited,” the department said in a press release at the time.

The department said Yale used the race “in several steps of its eligibility process, resulting in a multiplied effect of the race on an applicant’s likelihood of eligibility, and Yale racially equalizes its classes.”

Including racing in admissions processes is common among US universities, but remains controversial.

In November, the U.S. First Appeals Court dismissed a separate lawsuit challenging Harvard University’s use of the breed in admissions because the school discriminated against Asians.

The Justice Department sided with Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the lawsuit, in one case by a court friend.

Edward Blum, the Conservative strategist who founded Students for Fair Admissions, said it was likely his faction would appeal to the Supreme Court, where a new Conservative majority of 6-3 is more suited to positive action than previous courts.

In recent years, the Supreme Court’s challenges to positive action have been fiercely fought.

The last time the Supreme Court reviewed the practice in 2016, it narrowly upheld it as it was being used at the University of Texas at Austin. The court ruling on this case was 4-3 and was drafted by Judge Anthony Kennedy, a frequent swing vote.

Since the decision known as Fisher v University of Texas was made, Kennedy has retired and Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also in the majority, has died. In addition, three other Conservative judges have joined the bank, making it more likely that the court could rule against positive action in the future.

Subscribe to CNBC Pro for the live TV stream, deep insights and analysis of how to invest during the next president’s term.

Categories
Politics

Asian American Christians could possibly be key to victory

Asian American Christians could be key to victory

Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock (R) and Jon Ossoff (L) clash their elbows during a “It’s Time to Vote” drive-in rally on December 28, 2020 in Stonecrest, Georgia.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

When Helen Ho founded Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta in 2010, she made public relations a central part of the organization’s civic engagement.

Growing up in Korean-American churches in South Carolina and Georgia, she understood the importance of religious groups to Asian Americans and Pacific islanders.

“When I was growing up, the Church was literally the only nonprofit that my parents gave money to,” said Ho, former executive director of the Georgia bipartisan advocacy group.

In American politics, the most prominent religious voter blocs have historically been Christians: white Evangelical voters, who were largely a Republican stronghold, and black Protestant voters, who mostly joined the Democrats.

Religious Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders or AAPIs in Georgia and across the country are not a monolith. Their beliefs include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other traditions. Amid a black and white political and religious divide, Asian American Christian communities represent untapped voter networks for political parties.

In the Georgia Senate runoff election, Democrats increased the reach of AAPI voters overall in hopes of resuming the high turnout that helped turn the state blue in November. Incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will run a runoff against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock on January 5th to determine which party controls the Senate.

Faith was at the top of the runoff elections. Warnock is the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Ossoff talks about his Jewish upbringing on the campaign. Perdue is a Methodist and Loeffler is a Catholic; The two have addressed conservative Christian voters.

But candidates on both sides of the aisle have largely overlooked the role of religion for Asian-American voters in helping them decide what is likely to be a thin line election.

Belief among Asian Americans

Asian American voters made up only about 3% of the Georgian electorate in 2019, but a historic surge in AAPI voters helped lead President-elect Joe Biden to victory in the state, according to Democratic data firm TargetSmart.

A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center found that a large number of Asian Americans in the US, approximately 42%, identify as Christians. The proportion of Christians among Koreans rises to 71% and among Filipino Americans to 89%.

Churches provide community centers and support networks for Asian Americans. Faith institutions are embedded in the growing AAPI communities in Georgia, and particularly in the Atlanta metropolitan area, said Helen Jin Kim, professor of religious history at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, who also partners with local faith leaders and Asian-American advocacy groups.

“These church common rooms are really important when it comes to voting behavior, but they are often overlooked,” Kim said. “AAPIs are part of a diverse group of religious communities and it is important to be able to connect with these spaces as well.”

James Woo, communications manager and Korean outreach director for Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said AAPI churches are “the go-to place for us to share news with a larger community,” about impartial voter registration and voting efforts.

“Particularly for Asian immigrants and first-generation refugees who may not be part of the ‘mainstream’ or English-language press, they can get information about their society either through their faith group or through their home language press,” Ho said.

Political organization

During the 2018 midterm elections, Ho helped organize an early election campaign between Korean-American churches in the Atlanta area, inspired by the tradition of the black churches in the south.

However, there was less contact with AAPI communities from political groups through a religious appeal.

Ivanka Trump and Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA) wave to the crowd at a campaign rally on December 21, 2020 in Milton, Georgia.

Elijah Nouvelage | Getty Images

Unlike other groups of Christian voters, Asian-American Christians have not consolidated under either party, said Janelle Wong, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and author of Immigrants, Evangelicals and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change.

This is in contrast to the political affiliations of white Protestant voters and black Protestant voters. Before the 2020 presidential election, 78% of white registered voters supported GOP President Donald Trump, while 90% of black registered voters supported Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, the Pew Research Center found.

Wong’s research found that AAPI Christian voters are more conservative than Asian Americans, who do not identify as evangelical but are more liberal than their white evangelical counterparts. Asian-American evangelicals often join the Republican Party on some social issues such as abortion, but the Democrats on issues such as immigration, health care, and race.

Political and social views also vary between different communities because the Asian-American identity encompasses a wide range of races, cultures, and experiences.

“For Democrats, in a way, there’s more thematic focus, but there’s not much mobilization,” Wong said. “Until recently, there hasn’t been the same concentrated effort among the Democrats for Asian Americans with religious backgrounds or Asian Americans as a whole.”

The Georgia Senate is expiring

The Perdue Campaign, Warnock Campaign, and Georgia Democratic Party did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comments to contact Asian American Christian communities. The Loeffler campaign referred CNBC to the Georgia GOP, which released a press release on their updated Asia-Pacific-American advisory board but did not provide details on how to contact AAPI Christian communities.

The Ossoff Campaign has hosted dozens of AAPI faith events over the year, including targeted contacts with Ismaili communities, visits to mosques, and virtual events and meetings with AAPI faith leaders.

Cam Ashling, Osoff’s AAPI constituency director, “has made engaging AAPI voters in Georgia a key element of the campaign to mobilize AAPI voters across the state,” the campaign said.

Ashling hosted a call with Korean-American pastors in Augusta and, according to the campaign, partnered with a coalition called AAPI Christians for Biden.

AAPI Christians for Biden said it had a press conference scheduled for December 17 with Korean-American pastors from Atlanta to support the Democratic Senate candidates ahead of the runoff elections. According to one of the organizers, the Ossoff campaign said it couldn’t participate while on a bus tour and showed an interest in doing something in the near future.

The Warnock campaign worked with the coalition ahead of the scheduled press conference, the organizers said, but the event failed the day before. The Warnock campaign announced in an email that there was a planning conflict.

Rev. Byeong Han, a pastor with the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, was one of the speakers scheduled for the press conference. There are certain restrictions on the partisan activity of the churches in order to maintain their tax exemption status. However, these restrictions do not apply to impartiality or religious leaders acting in their personal capacity.

Han said that while some of his pastors in Korean and Asia-American ministries are concerned about discussing politics, he firmly believes that civic engagement is important for AAPI Christians.

“Ever since I came to this church, I have been encouraging my ward to do their voter registration and vote,” Han said. “I usually tell my members that this is not about politics. This is about the rights and responsibilities of citizens.”

Han hopes that more Asian American Christian communities will continue to participate in the political process.

“Asian Americans are very important in this election and beyond,” Han said. “So let’s step up, don’t step back.”

Categories
Politics

Democrats goal Asian American, Latino voters

Democrats target Asian American, Latino voters

U.S. Senate Democratic nominees Jon Ossoff (R) and Raphael Warnock (L) wave at supporters during a rally in Marietta, Georgia on November 15, 2020.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

James Woo grew up in Georgia and was never contacted by political campaigns. His house rarely received flyers or mailers for candidates. There was only one ethnic market where you could buy cultural foods. He could count all the other Asian American kids in his middle school class in Gwinnett County.

Today, Gwinnett is one of the most racially diverse counties in Georgia, with significant populations of islanders and Latinos in Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific – groups that are growing in metropolitan Atlanta and across the state.

Ahead of the crucial January 5 Senate runoff election that will rule over control of the upper chamber, Democrats hope to harness the growing political power of AAPI and Latino voters across Georgia to win over incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and defeat Kelly Loeffler and choose the challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Woo is the communications manager and Korean outreach director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a nonprofit that has worked for years to mobilize AAPI voters in Georgia. Advancing Justice-Atlanta and other color community advocacy groups have reached out to voters who have been overlooked by many political campaigns in the past.

A historic surge in voters in Asia, America, and Latin America has helped turn the state blue for President-elect Joe Biden, according to Democratic data firm TargetSmart. Compared to 2016, the AAPI voter turnout increased 91% while the Latino voter turnout increased 72%.

“That kind of turnout didn’t really happen overnight,” said Woo. “We have worked with other black, brown, and immigrant communities and organizations to get them to vote.”

AAPI and Latino advocacy leaders say more investment and grassroots organizations are needed for Democrats to win in January and beyond.

Georgia’s changing political landscape

“Partisan politics in Georgia have long been characterized by black-and-white racial segregation, and Asian-Americans and Latinos obviously don’t fit in properly,” said Bernard Fraga, political scientist at Emory University.

“They’re more convincing than whites or African-Americans, so they’re more of a swing constituency,” said Fraga. “But Asian Americans and Latinos are much closer to being a democratic constituency in the state than even white suburban voters.”

According to NBC News polls, 88% of Georgia’s black voters supported Biden, while 69% of white voters in the state supported incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, 62% of Georgian Latino voters supported Biden and 63% of AAPI voters across the country supported Biden. (AAPI data were not available for Georgia.)

Fraga said the November election results in Georgia represent a “long-term model for Democrats” that does not rely on shrinking white votes, but instead looks at the turnout rates of Latinos and Asians, and that boosts Americans . “

Asian American and Latin American voters made up about 3% and 5%, respectively, of the Georgian electorate in 2019, but are by far the fastest growing segments of US voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

“People are realizing for the first time that AAPI and Latinx voters are that growing group of people who have the ability to swing a state one way or another,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia.

Preparation for January 5th

In the highly competitive Senate runoff competitions that are expected to get to the point, increasing the turnout among AAPI and Latino voters will be key for Democrats hoping to maximize electoral margins.

Georgia electoral rules required runoffs if no candidate exceeded 50% of the vote in both races during the November 3 election.

After the general election, according to a campaign spokesman, the Ossoff campaign hired constituency directors who focused on public relations for the AAPI and Latino. The Warnock campaign hired an AAPI community coordinator to do political outreach in the summer of 2020 and also has a Latinx voting director and New Americans coordinator on the team, the campaign told CNBC.

The Perdue campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Loeffler campaign was not available for comment before this story was published.

Historically, turnout in runoff elections in Asia, America and Latin America has declined compared to black and white voters. By December 24, more than 2 million people had voted in the Senate runoff elections. The pace of black voter turnout in the runoff elections is at or above the pace of voter turnout during the November 3 election, while the pace of whites turnout is slightly slower, according to Fraga’s analysis of the early voting data. The fall in voter turnout by Latino and AAPI in the runoff elections is the lowest of the racial groups and is between 80% and 90% of the general election turnout rate.

The campaigns, the Democratic Party and advocacy groups are all working to increase the turnout of AAPI and Latino voters as January 5th approaches. Before the voter registration deadline, they helped register new voters. Voto Latino, a national voter registration organization, said it had registered 12,000 new voters in Georgia for the runoff election, in addition to the nearly 36,000 voters the organization had registered for the general election.

“We know this turnout will be the biggest problem,” said María Teresa Kumar, President and CEO of Voto Latino. “That’s why we started again to register voters.”

Of the nearly 76,000 new voters registered in Georgia since the November election, Latin American and Asian American voters made up more than their total share of the electorate, the Atlanta Journal’s Constitution reported.

Language barriers and gaps in civic education are challenges that particularly affect Asian American and Latin American voters, many of whom are first-time voters, young people, or naturalized citizens. AAPI and Latino advocacy leaders say the misinformation can spread quickly in their communities, particularly on group messaging platforms like WeChat, WhatsApp, and KakaoTalk, and sometimes through ethnic media. Asian-American and Latin American voters are not monoliths either; They encompass different races, languages ​​and experiences between different communities.

The groups hope to address these challenges through multilingual and multicultural public relations: door-to-door advertising, literature drop-outs, telephone and text banking, advertisements and press in ethnic media – together with the aim of reaching out to hundreds of thousands of voters. During the early voting period and on January 5th, stakeholders also organize election protection work and multilingual voter hotlines.

Beyond the runoff

In recent history, the work of mobilizing voters for these color communities has mainly been done by local units. Asian-American and Latin American organizers cite the work of black organizers to pave the way, particularly leaders like suffrage activist and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has worked with AAPI and Latino groups for years.

“We’ve really built our churches in ways that haven’t really been there in the past. So when we talk about why Georgia turned blue this year, it is in large part because of the organization that has been organized in color communities in recent years, “said Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, a grassroots progressive group focused on AAPIs in Georgia. “In recent years it has been clear that Georgia would require an investment in color communities to move forward.”

While Georgians can self-identify their race when registering to vote, making it easier for organizations to use electoral rolls to contact key constituencies, reaching out to eligible voters who may not yet have a voting history can be difficult. Stakeholder leaders say it can be more time-consuming and costly to advertise in AAPI and Latino neighborhoods, as the high percentage of immigrants means there is typically a lower proportion of eligible voters compared to black and white neighborhoods .

To continue the momentum in mobilizing Asian American and Latin American voters, organizers need to keep contacting and building relationships, organizers say. The investment is especially important for the Democratic Party to make AAPI and Latino voters a core part of its base.

Jen Rafanan, AAPI media director for the Georgia Democratic Party, said in a statement, “We don’t take anything for granted.” Rafanan and Karla Alvarado, Latinx media director for the Georgia Democrats, said the party was determined to engage and mobilize the AAPI and Latino communities in the state beyond the runoff elections.

“We struggle to get investment every year,” said Pedraza of Latino Community Fund Georgia. “Now everyone’s watching, which is great … but can you commit for the next five years?”

“Because Georgia might not be sexy next year and it will be sexy again for gubernatorial elections in 2022, but by then it will be too late,” Pedraza said. “We have to keep building next year so that we are ready for 2022.”