YOUR VOICE
JUNE 5 – JUNE 11, 2021
asianweekly northwest
■ EDITORIAL Parking discrimination?
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It felt like a step toward normalcy in a post-pandemic world. Visitors swarmed the Chinatown-International District (ID) over the Memorial Day weekend, bringing crowds that have been missing for a better part of a year, since COVID-19 arrived in Washington state and the U.S. Those crowds—a welcome sight for local businesses that have been struggling to stay afloat—were spared the hike in on-street parking rates—which increased on June 1. The ID has the most expensive rate at $2.50 per hour in the afternoon, higher than any other neighborhood in the city. Despite the Seattle Department of Transportation saying that parking prices will remain below prepandemic levels, this feels discriminatory.
The communities in the ID have been historically marginalized and excluded by discriminative laws, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and Japanese incarceration. ID businesses saw a dramatic drop in business as early as last January, even before the first coronavirus case was documented here. Business owners were fighting not just fear, but anti-Asian sentiment. Then came last summer’s police protests that spilled into the ID and splinter groups causing more damage, and there’s the ongoing issue of encampments and visitors having to navigate their way through trash, needles, and human waste, if they want to patronize a business here. We are a vital part of the Seattle community and the City should reconsider the parking rates for our district. Since the pandemic, we appreciate that SDOT has
designated several spots for restaurant and retail curbside pick-up. Ethan Bergerson, a spokesperson for SDOT, told The Seattle Times that ideally, parking should be expensive enough so that there are one to two open spots on every block, but not so expensive that nearby businesses are hurt. Businesses in the ID will be hurt. People who want to visit the ID will be turned off by the parking fees— which are higher than all of Seattle. We need all the help we can get and we urge the City to re-think its policies. We need thoughtful planning, programs, and budgeting to reduce disparities and achieve equitable outcomes for all populations—especially marginalized populations like the ID.
A-POP from 7
In a few interesting ways, you’d think that voice acting would be a good industry for BIPOC performing artists to get into because in voice acting, the artistry and work is concentrated in the voice, which means there doesn’t need to be racist conversations about an actor’s mainstream appeal or marketability to American audiences. However, notable animated voice roles nearly always get taken by bigger name white actors, even when the characters are not white. “As far as we can tell, it’s not moving anymore product,” Yu told IndieWire. “No one went to go see ‘Ponyo’ because Miley Cyrus’ little sister was in it.” “I have my foot in the door now,” Gann said. “[But] it’s still a hard push to make myself a permanent fixture amongst that group. … You just have to earn that trust and a lot of the time it’s harder for BIPOCs and women to make that leap.” It’s sad. It sounds like this arena is also rife with the same ol’ BS that permeates just about all other industries.
Johnson, who is Samoan American and also Black. Fourteen! That’s nearly a third of all the movies! “There just aren’t enough roles for [Pacific Islanders] and Asian actors in general,” Yuen told NBC News. “And that’s why we see The Rock so many times. We don’t see anyone else, because it’s coming from behind the scenes. It’s the storytellers, the people who are greenlighting the
of people, it’s still very much alive. And while I understand and I love it, I have moved on.” Instead of coming back to “Grey’s,” Oh is starring in stuff like “The Chair,” an upcoming Netflix comedy series airing Aug. 27. It’s about a Korean American professor who becomes the first woman and person of color appointed to be chair of the English department. And obvs she’s going to deal with some real white shit in her new job, with hilarious aplomb. (That’s not in any synopsis I read, I’m just extrapolating like a wizard who can see into the future.) About her new work, Oh has this to say about it: “Please come with me to ‘Killing Eve’ and on to ‘The Chair’ and on to the other projects. Come see the characters that I’m playing that are much more deeply integrated in … the Asian American experience.” You heard her! Go with her!
Why are white people still voicing all the anime? Ingrained societal racism! That’s why! This might shock you, but did you know that white people are still taking everything? Even stuff that’s originally made by Asians? IndieWire ran a really interesting interview with Emi Lo, Apphia Yu, and Shawn Gann—three voice actors who work for Funimation, an anime entertainment company who dubs and distributes media from East Asia.
TAITUNG R E S TA U R A N T
Established in 1935
• Catering • Cocktails • Valet parking • Banquet facilities Hours Sun.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.
655 S. King St. Seattle 206-622-7714 or 622-7372
OMG, can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need to see less of all-around amazing person Dwayne Johnson Okay, two smart people, Nancy Wang Yuen and Stacy L. Smith, did a study that showed that only 3.4% of Hollywood movies feature an Asian American or Pacific Islander lead over a 13-year span—that’s 44 movies. And Yuen and Smith said that of those 44 movies, a whopping 14 of them starred Dwayne “The Rock”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
projects.” When Yeun says it’s coming from behind the scenes, she means that only 3.5% of directors from the past 13 years were AAPI—and of that, only three were women. Additionally, only 2.5% percent of producers were AAPI and only 3.3% of casting directors were AAPI. That’s bleak. But also, we can kind of comfort ourselves with the fact that Hollywood movies hemorrhaged money in 2020 because of a pandemic and also because it’s just an old fossil—and that more and more often, young people are grabbing their entertainment and media from social media and smaller streaming outfits, places where we are seeing more diversity in representation. Stacy Nguyen can be reached at stacy@nwasianweekly.com.
