100 years after his murder by racist gangs in Oregon, M. Y. Lee's great-granddaughter Jeanie Jew was working in DC as a staffer. Inspired by her great-grandfather - and annoyed that the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations omitted all mention of Asian Americans - Jeanie recruited Ruby Moy, a staffer in Rep. Frank Horton's office, to lobby for official recognition of our communities.
One year later, after Horton introduced a House bill with Rep. Norm Mineta - and Senators Daniel Inouye (HI) and Spark Matsunaga (HI) introduced a Senate bill - Jimmy Carter signed APA Heritage Week into law.
Alysa Liu is from the Bay. Specifically, she’s a Chinese American woman from the Town, Oakland, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. And unless you understand what that means - and why it matters - you won’t get why it’s so important.
Here’s a story that can help: the Red Guard Party, a scrappy group of Chinatown kids who, in ‘69, came together inspired by the Panthers’ Marxist revolutionary ethos of serving their community. Often overlooked, their brief tenure fighting for - and often in - San Francisco Chinatown can shed light on exactly what it is that makes the Bay so special.
With numerous allegations surfacing about Cesar Chavez’s SA - including of prominent labor organizer Dolores Huerta - focus has recently been drawn back to the Delano Grape Strike and Chavez’s leadership of the UFW.
It’s a moment where much of labor organizing history as we’ve known it is being reframed. Over the past 50 years, the story of US agricultural unions has been centered on Chavez - often pushing names like Huerta and Larry Itliong to supporting roles.
But make no mistake: from Huerta’s key role in the NFWA to Itliong and the Filipino AWOC’s initiation of the grape strike, these aren’t side characters but powerful leaders in the labor movement. Whatever Chavez may have done, it shouldn’t tarnish their hard-won legacy but cause us to further celebrate & acknowledge those who were there making progress happen for workers around the state and nation.
#labor #organizing #pinoypride #pinoygram
i’m hosting a concert to raise money for families affected by 🧊!! (link in bio to RSVP to the event)
@hateisavirus@asianamericanfutures
BREAK THE ICE
when: friday, april 24th
doors open 7:30 PM
performances start 9:00 PM
location: @thepalmandthepinela in hollywood!
all proceeds will be donated to @calfund LA neighbor support fund and @translatinacoalition !!!
open to the public! please share and get the word out!
#explorepage #viral #LA #immigrant #concert
Last week, Nurul Amin Shah Alam - a legal refugee who entered the U.S. fleeing a Gen——— in Myanmar - was found frozen to death on the street in Buffalo, 6 days after he was supposed to be released to freedom.
His family and attorney later discovered that he had been handed over to Border Patrol, who held him for 4 hours before leaving him on the street outside a closed coffee shop 5 miles from home. Blind and not able to speak English, Mr. Shah Alam wandered the streets of Buffalo for 5 days before being found outside the KeyBank Center.
Thanks to @ipostnews for their ongoing work covering this story.
#lamigra #asianamerican #rohingya #immigrationsupport
In 1869, Frederick Douglass toured the country delivering a speech he called “Our Composite Nationality”. The great orator took aim directly at the anti-Chinese sentiment rising as the trans-continental railroad, now completed, released coolies from their jobs. No longer deemed useful for labor, Chinese quickly found themselves discriminated against by all quarters of society.
150 years later, Douglass’s words are more relevant than ever, proclaiming with conviction that migration and belonging are human rights, and that a nation of diversity - a “composite nationality” in his words - is a better and more prosperous one.
#blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #immigrantrights #immigrantsupport #migrantswelcome
Eileen Gu isn’t the first athelete to ski for a different nation.
But she’s not only an elite athlete. She’s a superstar. And that makes skiing for Team China hit different.
#WhereWereReallyFrom
“We don’t hire Orientals.”
That’s what Grace Lee Boggs heard repeatedly after getting her PhD in the 1940s. Denied jobs because of her gender and ethnicity, she ended up in Chicago, living in a rat-infested basement for free because she couldn’t afford rent on a $10 weekly stipend.
It was there she saw her Black neighbors protesting those same living conditions. It was the moment she realized her struggle wasn’t isolated; it was shared. Grace spent the next seven decades in Detroit alongside her husband, Jimmy Boggs, fighting for Black Power, labor rights, and the idea that “evolutionary revolution” starts in our own backyards.
She taught us that solidarity isn’t just a political buzzword; it’s what happens when you stop looking at statistics and start looking at people.
How are you showing up for your neighbors today?
@hateisavirus@asianamericanfutures
#WhereWereReallyFrom #GraceLeeBoggs #Solidarity #AAPIHistory #MochiMag
Black and Asian American history was built not only side by side. It was built together.
Seattle’s Jazz scene dates to the early 1900s. Black families migrated to the Pacific Northwest fleeing the Jim Crow south. In deeply-segregated Seattle, they joined Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos in the “International District.”
Those transplants built a Jazz scene at spots like the Black & Tan Club, where Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and other legends played for diverse Black, Asian, and White crowds.
It was that very scene that catapulted Pat Suzuki from a detention camp to the cover of Time.
#WhereWereReallyFrom
Yock - short for 一个面, Chinese for “one order of noodles” - is a soul food classic from Tidewater Virginia. Its history is intertwined with the Black families and Chinese restaurant cooks of the area, where everyone calls lo mein yock noodles. From church fundraisers to Asian takeout spots and backyards, yock is beloved all over the region, from VA Beach to Hampton Roads.
Shouts to @southfoodways - and researchers @thenikkihutch and Sara Wood - for their excellent research on Yock, "Yock Is for Lovers: Chinese Soul Food in Tidewater Virginia" & a whole series of oral history interviews on local yock legends including Park F. Wong's Norfolk Noodle Company, Tabernacle Christian Church, and Sing Wong Restaurant!
BREAKING - ICE active in Monterey Park this morning. Grabbed 8 Asians from a house across from Mark Keppel HS.
Asian Americans have been the 2nd most targeted group for detention and deportation next to the Latino community. This follows the d**ths of Parady La, Chaofeng Ge, Huabing Xie, Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, Kaiyin Wong, and Tien Xuan Phan in ICE custody as well as the targeting of Hmong and other Southeast Asian communities in Minnesota and around the nation, including the largest mass ICE raid of 300 Hyundai employees at a plant in Georgia
Stay safe.
H/t @mediocrewallofchina
We’re living through an alarming era of increasing state violence & oppression. @hateisavirus and @collective_rest are hosting an online community care space to process grief and rage, rooting into our shared commitment to collective liberation.
Join us to
-Explore grief & rage as intelligences guiding us towards love, accountability, and action
-Call in support to help us face this moment with courage
-Engage in grief, rage, and rest practices to fortify your nervous system
-Co-regulate through song and connection
Join through the link in our bios or screenshot the QR code to register. Registration is pay what you can, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
