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Economic Summit highlights need for an inclusive economic development strategy

More than 400 leaders in business, public policy, housing and education joined us online yesterday for the 11th Annual Southern California Economic Summit. This year’s program took a serious look at the strategies needed for building back a strong, inclusive Southern California economy and featured forecasts from the region’s top economists. The panel session –...
By OC-Breeze |
The exterior of an Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Resisting Amazon is not Futile

Amazon represents the pinnacle challenge to union organizers and socialists throughout the country. Are we in a 1919 moment, still a generation of failures away from breakthrough success? Or closer to 1935, approaching the tipping point of winning real worker power? It seems eons ago, the youth-led climate strike of September 20, 2019 that brought...
By Jonathan Rosenblum, Jacobin |
Image of the book cover of "The Cost of Free Shipping..."

CSULB Professor Publishes "The Cost Of Free Shipping: Amazon In The Global Economy"

A new book by CSULB professor Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and UC Riverside professor Ellen Reese attempts to put the unprecedented wonders – and challenges – of the Amazon economy into critical focus. In "The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy," the authors examine the residual, often negative effects that rapid, exponential growth has...
By Press Release Desk, Patch |

Political Organization At An All-Time High In Austin’s Asian American Community

Eligible Asian American voters in Texas are more politically organized than ever before and are poised to make an impact this election. Rapid growth in this population, policies of the current government and the 2020 Census may have contributed to the group’s active participation in this election cycle and possibly continued political dialog after Nov...
By Sumaiya Malik |
Socially distanced supporters attend a rally for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Nov. 19 in Jonesboro, Ga. The two will face off against Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, in the state’s Jan. 5 runoff. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Record Asian American turnout helped Biden win Georgia. Can it help flip the Senate?

In Gwinnett County outside Atlanta, which has the state’s largest AAPI population, more than 30,000 AAPI voters cast their ballots early this year compared with 9,500 in 2016. Of those who voted early this year, 43 percent had not voted in 2012, 2016 or 2018, according to Cho’s group. That affected more than just the...
By Amy B. Wang, The Washington Post |

IE Black Equity Fund launches Black Friday Giving Campaign

The IE Black Equity Fund is launching an online giving campaign Friday, Nov. 27, that will run until Tuesday, Dec. 1, which is Giving Tuesday. Money raised will benefit more than 40 organizations that are addressing inequities in the Inland Empire. These organizations focus on issues including higher education, youth empowerment, criminal justice reform and...
By REBECCA K. O'CONNOR |

The challenge of combating fake news in Asian American communities

Less than a week after Election Day, a spreadsheet titled “Battling Asian American Misinformation” began circulating in progressive Asian American social media circles, primarily among those of Vietnamese and Chinese descent. The most popular YouTube channels flagged on the spreadsheet accumulated hundreds of thousands of subscribers, in which pundits discussed misleading claims about election fraud...
By Terry Nguyen |
Political signs outside the home of Cam Ashling, a Democratic activist in Georgia.

A New Political Force Emerges in Georgia: Asian-American Voters

The Asian-American population in the state has doubled in two decades, and many live in the Atlanta suburbs, which voted for Joseph R. Biden Jr. by large margins. The emergence in Georgia of Asian-American voters is a potential bright spot for a Democratic Party counting on demographic changes to bring political wins across the country...
By Sabrina Tavernise, The NY Times |

Asian American unemployment is surging during the pandemic

The economic impact of the pandemic on Asian Americans is unusual because historically their unemployment rates have been very low—even lower than those of white Americans. In December 2019, when the overall unemployment rate was 3.5%, Asian American unemployment hovered at just 2.5%. “It’s especially notable because among Asian Americans, the average unemployment rate was...
By PAVITHRA MOHAN |
"Register to vote" buttons in eight languages are seen during the Asian American and Pacific Islander Puppies and Boba event in Las Vegas on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020. (Jeff Scheid/The Nevada Independent)

Growing progressive force in the electorate, AAPI voters turn out at higher rates than 2016

In Nevada, where the AAPI community is the fastest-growing population in the state, AAPI voters make up about an 11 percent share of the electorate and represent an estimated 209,384 eligible voters. AAPI voters in the Silver State increased their turnout compared to 2016 more than any other racial demographic. The term AAPI covers a...
By Tabitha Mueller and Savannah Strott, The Nevada Independent |

Leaders, Researchers Discuss Outreach, Advocacy Of AAPI Electorate Beyond 2020

In other words, a majority of people were motivated to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, not because they support his specific promises and policies, but because they were more inclined to get Trump out of office, according to Karthick Ramakrishnan, public policy and political science professor at UC Riverside and founder of the research...
By KLARIZE MEDENILLA |

How Chinese-American activism helped Georgia turn blue

Asian-American voters, who tend to lean toward the Democratic Party, have made up an increasing share of Georgia’s electorate. Over a six year period starting in 2012, AAPI Data reported a 47% growth of eligible AAPI voters in the state of Georgia. The 2010 census showed ethnic Chinese as the third-largest group in the category...
By Zijia Song |
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Our Communities Don't Need To Prove Our Worth To White Supremacists

With a South Asian American at the top of the Democratic Party ticket this election cycle, two party conventions where the issue of South Asian American identity was front and center, both a South and East Asian American featuring prominently in the crowded Democratic primary field and several dozen Asian Americans vying for spots in...
By Kiran Misra, Wear Your Voice |
Image of empty Santa Clara City Council Chambers

Political Scientists Look at Santa Clara's Landmark 2020 City Council Election

Santa Clara’s two-year journey to a City Council that mirrors the City’s multi-ethnic population is historic and follows Santa Clara’s change to single-member City Council districts, after the City lost a California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). It’s a safe bet that the historic change will be part of future studies of the impact of the...
By Carolyn Schuk, The Silicon Valley Voice |

Political Scientists Look At Santa Clara’s Landmark 2020 City Council Election

Santa Clara’s experience in its first by-district election is typical, although the number of minority representatives in Santa Clara isn’t, according to Loren Collingwood, UC Riverside Associate Professor of Political Science. Collingwood is the co-author of the first statistical study specifically of CVRA impacts, “ Can States Promote Minority Representation? Assessing The Effects Of The...
By Carolyn Schuk |

Sacramento health chief calls Asians ‘yellow’ + CAPIAA hires Hmong director: Your AAPI newsletter

It is Thursday, Nov. 19, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter. Here’s a recap of the stories I’ve covered and ones I’m following: Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson used the term “yellow folks,” considered a racial slur, to refer to Asians during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday declaring racism...
By Ashley Wong |

Hmong organizer sworn in as California APIA Affairs Commission’s first executive director

Longtime Sacramento community organizer Nkauj Iab Yang was sworn in Monday as the first executive director of the California Commission on Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs. Born in Del Paso Heights to Hmong refugee parents, Yang has more than 10 years of experience in community organizing and policy advocacy for Sacramento’s AAPI community. Yang most...
By ASHLEY WONG |

Making history: Three Korean American women, two representing California, win seats in Congress

National exit polls showed that Asian Americans backed Joe Biden over President Trump. Political analysts say there are lessons in the wins by Steel and Kim, which came even though Biden beat Trump in Orange County, and after years of outreach by local Republicans to Asian communities. “It looked like they were taking Asian votes...
By ANH DO |

What we know about who Asian American voters supported in the election

Asian Americans — one of the deciding groups in key battleground states this cycle — voted predominately for President-elect Joe Biden, according to early exit polls. In a CNN survey, 61 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters backed Biden compared to 34 percent who supported President Donald Trump. In the critical swing...
By Li Zhou |
Diedre Nguyen, left, and Janet Nguyen.Courtesy Diedre Nguyen, Janet Nguyen

Nguyen vs. Nguyen race in Calif. highlights rise of Vietnamese American electorate

The Little Saigon contest for a California Assembly seat shows the strength — and the growing diversity — of the community. While the outcome of the race for California's 72nd Assembly District is still up in the air, one thing is certain: a woman with the surname "Nguyen" will prevail. Taking place in an area...
By Claire Wang, NBC News |