VOL 39 NO 20 | MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA

VOL 39 NO 20 MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020 FREE 38 YEARS YOUR VOICE

New Health Directive: Wear face coverings in public

By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY SEATTLE — Seattle & King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin, along with King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan, announced a new Health Officer Directive via an online news conference on May 11, strongly urging people to wear face coverings in all indoor public places, as well as outside settings where maintaining six feet of social distancing is difficult.

This directive will go into effect on May 18 and remain in effect until rescinded by Duchin.

“As we begin to get back to work, the threat of increasing COVID-19 transmission is serious,” said Duchin. “By wearing a face mask, we protect others from COVID-19 infection

and show that we care. Your mask protects me and my mask protects you.”

While data on the effectiveness of face masks is inconclusive, Duchin said there are studies that show a face covering can help prevent the spread of infection to others by blocking droplets when someone coughs, sneezes, or speaks.

“I’d much rather see people lock down their mouths and noses, than lock down their neighborhoods,” said Duchin.

The Directive applies to both workers and patrons of grocery stores, pharmacies, big box stores, and other essential establishments, including pet supplies, auto repairs, and home improvement stores.

Uwajimaya announced its own requirement, starting on May 11, see MASKS on 10

Trump tells Chinese American reporter to “Ask China” in response to a question

By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY David Chan of Everett asked, “When can an Asian American reporter not be treated like a foreigner?”

Chan emailed the Northwest Asian Weekly, pointing out President Donald Trump’s combative exchange on May 11 with CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang during a White House news briefing.

Jiang had asked Trump why he was putting so much emphasis on the amount of coronavirus tests that have been conducted in the United States.

Just walking down the street, Joshua Lee felt rejected. People would move backwards or out of the way—even more than the standard six feet called for by social distancing. But standing see RACISM on 12

Port of Seattle denounces racism against Asians and Asian Americans

The Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area (CIDBIA) announced on May 7 that the annual Dragon Festival scheduled for June 27 is cancelled.

“This was not an easy decision, but one that is necessary,” it said in an email to the Northwest Asian Weekly.

For decades, Dragon Fest has remained one of Seattle’s largest cultural celebrations, with weekends filled with multicultural performances, small craft

In a unanimous vote, the Port of Seattle Commission passed a proclamation on May 12 rejecting racism against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

“The fact is that Asian Americans are professional foreigners,” said Commissioner Sam Cho. “We are perceived by the public as professional foreigners. The reality is that for some reason, Asians are never American enough.”

May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month, but the AAPI community has very little to celebrate. The COVID-19 outbreak has claimed the lives of thousands of AAPIs and left millions more without a job. The origin of the COVID-19 virus has led to an increase in discrimination and racism against AAPIs. “The Port of Seattle Commission hereby proclaims that racism against Asians and Asian Americans shall not be tolerated in any form, AND we stand in support of individuals and communities targeted by association with COVID-19, AND we urge everyone to interrupt instances of racisms and intolerance by speaking up in support of equity, justice, and inclusion.”

see DRAGON FEST on 11

see PROCLAMATION on 4

d e l l e c n a c t s e F n o g Dra Photo by George Liu

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

By Alexander Chan NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

see TRUMP on 3

■

How to disarm a racist onslaught

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

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asianweekly northwest

38 YEARS

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

■ NAMES IN THE NEWS SCWC Chinese American Youth Scholarship winners

Analise Song-Xue Chiu

Jason Li

Cynthia C. Yu

The Seattle Chinese Women’s Club announced recipients of its youth scholarship program on May 9.

The program was established to promote outstanding Chinese American youth living in King county who actively participate in public affairs and community activities, and excel academically.

The three winners this year are Analise Song-Xue Chiu from Mount Si High School, Jason Li of Eastlake High School, and Cynthia C. Yu of Bellevue High School.

Chiu will be attending California Polytechnic State University in the fall and loves to play the trumpet; Li loves to swimming, filmmaking and lifting weights, and he also volunteered over 1,200 hours at his high school; and Yu served as an English volunteer teacher and ambassador in the 2019 Assisting Individuals with Disadvantages program in Taiwan. 

Buddhist organizations help health care workers

Buddhist organizations have come together for the first time to raise over $600,000 to purchase FDA-approved class 2 surgical masks from China, to help health care workers in North American hospitals.

So far, Project Dharma Relief has sent 13 boxes containing 26,000 masks to 10 hospitals in Washington, including University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Overlake Medical

WhidbeyHealth Medical Center staff with donations from Project Dharma Relief. (Photo by Harry Hawn)

Center, and St. Anthony’s Hospital.

Overall, Project Dharma Relief has sent 596,000 masks to 173 hospitals across 34 states across North America, including Canada and Puerto Rico. 

Kin On thanks City of Seattle, organizations for donations

Lunch donation from Kau Kau

PPE donation from Sheng Yen Lu Foundation

As of press time, Kin On said it had received a total of 26,840 surgical or disposable masks, 675 handmade cloth masks, 500 gloves, 25 protective suits, 102 goggles, and 200 “save your ear” clips.

CEO Nigel Lo said, “We deeply appreciate the [Seattle] Mayor’s Office and the community for sending PPE to Kin On ... The people on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis have been doing heroic work, and it’s our responsibility to protect them while they protect the vulnerable.”

In addition to the City, donors include Guangdong Shenpu Technology Co., Ltd, Seattle Chinese Alliance Church, and Sheng Yen Lu Foundation.

DIY Tea Lab, Kau Kau and Rainier Restaurants, Wah Luk, and Young Tea have also donated food and drinks to Kin On staff and residents. 

Lifelong Recreation Seattle Parks and Recreation

Arts, Fitness and Social Opportunities for Ages 50+ We are Seattle Parks and Recreation, programs for ages 50+ offering arts, fitness and social opportunities for older adults in 26 Seattle Community Centers. Due to the COVID-19 virus, our in-person programs are suspended at this time, but we are offering online fitness classes featuring some of our great instructors, virtual field trips and more.

Please visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LifelongRecreationSPR/, search Lifelong Recreation on www.seattle.gov or watch our videos on The Seattle Channel.

We look forward to meeting you in person when the circumstances allow! For more information or to request to be added to our e-newsletter call Anne at 206-310-8163.

310-8163 Call 206-684-7484 Scholarships Available! www.seattle.gov/parks/find/ lifelong-recreation

YOUR VOICE

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

asianweekly northwest

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By Kamna Shastri for Real Change REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

“America doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to Asian Americans,” said Ben Sung Henry, former executive director of APACE.

One mid-April afternoon, three masked men made their way through the Chinatown-International District, their faces fully covered with cloth and dark glasses. They left stickers plastered to buildings and telephone poles in their

TRUMP from 1 “Why does that matter?” Jiang asked.

“Why is this a global competition to you if everyday Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?”

Trump replied, “Well, they’re losing their lives everywhere in the world. And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me; ask China that question, OK?” He called for another question, and there was no immediate response.

“Sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically?” Jiang asked. Jiang, who has worked for CBS News since 2015, was born in Xiamen, China, and immigrated to the United States with her family at age 2.

Trump said he would say that to “anyone who asks a nasty question.”

“It’s not a nasty question,” Jiang said.

“Why does that matter?” Shortly after that, Trump ended the news conference abruptly and walked away from the podium.

Chan wondered as well, why that’s relevant.

“When Connie Chung became an anchor for CBS Evening News in 1993, I thought America finally had accepted everyone. Americans of Asian descent would no longer be perpetual foreigners,” he wrote. “Now in 2020, the president of the United States still sees America as only for whites, along with most of his supporters. People of color rarely appear in his administration...

America is going backward.”

In a statement, the Asian American Journalists Association said it stands by Jiang and her fellow press corps members “in their fearless pursuit of answers, as they have consistently demonstrated in

wake. “Better dead than red,” one said.

Others read “America First.” All of the stickers listed a group called Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Later that same weekend, someone took the time to remove the stickers, but the incident is still under investigation by the Seattle Police Department.

The incident is one example of hundreds of racially motivated actions targeting Asian American communities nationwide. As reports of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China, began to spread in January and February, restaurants in the Chinatown-International District started seeing a decline in business. By the time the first case in an Eastside Seattle nursing home was reported in February, business had declined by 50 percent. When the pandemic progressed into a stay-at-home order and a shuttering of the city, the Asian American neighborhood started to see more anti-Asian aggression; racial insults were hurled at people in Hing Hay Park.

Advocacy groups have been reporting and tracking a rise in racist slurs and physical aggression targeting people of Asian descent around the country. Stand Against Hatred, a national website created

by Asian Americans Advancing Justice to track bias incidents and hate crimes, has collected pages worth of incidents

White House coronavirus briefings. An independent and inclusive press corps is vital, from the White House to city halls.”

On May 12, Trump tweeted that Asian Americans were “VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World,” appearing to refer to the Chinese government’s history of concealing the early stages of the coronavirus that eventually evolved into a pandemic.

“Chinese Americans are the most angry of all,” Trump tweeted. “I don’t blame them!”

Asian Americans in Congress disputed Trump’s characterization of their support for his administration.

Rep. Grace Meng of New York said to Trump, “We are very angry at you.

You use racism to disguise your lack of responsiveness and responsibility.

American lives of all backgrounds have been lost.”

Jiang’s exchange with Trump on May 11 wasn’t her first run-in with the president. On April 19, she asked Trump if his response to the coronavirus had been delayed.

Trump responded by asking “Who are you with?” several times before responding that he had cut off China.

When Jiang clarified that he had barred Chinese nationals but not Americans, Trump responded by saying, “Nice and easy, nice and easy, just relax.”

Moments later, when Jiang asked him to acknowledge that he didn’t think the virus would spread, he told her, “Keep your voice down, please.”

On March 17, Jiang tweeted that a White House staffer referred to the virus as the “Kung flu” to her face. “Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back,” she tweeted. 

Photo by Clem Alber

COVID-19 brings a dialogue of reckoning what it means to be Asian American

Newcomers move into Manzanar, a California internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

cataloging everything from being told to “step away” from food at an Eastside Costco to people being spat on and called “disgusting” by strangers in New York. By the beginning of April, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council had received over 1,100 reports of discrimination against

Asian Americans across the country.

Racism: an age-old mold

The racism Asian Americans are facing is a permutation of a centuries-old pattern. see RACISM NARRATIVE on 9

KING COUNTY NOTICE TO PROPOSERS Proposals will be received for E00670E20, Engineering Services for 2020 Levee Breach Analysis Mapping and Risk Assessment Project; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, via email at procurement.submittals@ kingcounty.gov, until 12:00 PM on 6/4/2020 This contract includes development and submittal of an Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Innovation Plan. The ESJ Innovation Plan details the approach, strategies, and actionable steps that will be taken to maximize the participation of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women Business Enterprise (WBE) firms. Both MBE and WBE firms must be certified by the State of Washington Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises.

Total Estimated Price: $4,215,888.00 All solicitation documents are published at: https:// procurement.kingcounty.gov/procurement_ovr/login. aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fprocurement_ovr%2fdefault.aspx Contact: Taylor Lee, talee@kingcounty.gov, 206-263-3173

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■ LETTER

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

38 YEARS

Open letter to Seattle’s mayor about King St. encampment Dear Mayor Durkan, The Chong Wa Benevolent Association is the umbrella organization for 21 traditional Chinatown associations.

We’re happy to be a partner during this COVID-19 emergency. Since March, we’ve been working with other agencies in the Chinatown-International District (ID), and city and county departments, to translate and pass on critical health and safety information to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers in the community, as well as connecting and assisting business owners with small business resources.

Being the first state with a reported COVID-19 case, we applaud your leadership and collaboration with state and county officials to providing a proactive, sciencebased response to flatten the curve and local stabilization resources to protect our region’s health and livelihood.

We are reaching out to you today regarding a serious safety problem that we need the city to act on. There is a growing encampment under the I-5 freeway on King Street that took two years (2015–17) of community effort to have it removed.

The encampment poses a threat to our fragile neighborhood on many levels. Due to COVID-19 antiChinese stigma, the economy of the area was devastated long before restaurant “delivery and takeout only" began.

Chinatown is extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 due to its density and high number of senior housing units.

With this encampment, we’re experiencing the seenbefore effects of hypodermic needles, campers sleeping

PROCLAMATION from 1 Rep. Pramila Jayapal testified at the hearing in support of the proclamation.

“Some in our community and across the country are using this moment to scapegoat our AAPI community.

Stigma is the enemy of public health. The virus does not discriminate and neither should we.”

Cho said the Port had considered issuing a similar proclamation in March, but wanted its passage to coincide with Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

“The purpose of the proclamation was to address the unfair backlash that the AAPI community has received during the COVID-19 crisis.” Cho noted that businesses in the International District began to struggle even before the COVID-19 outbreak due to misplaced racism.

The Port pledged to avoid repeating previous instances of mass discrimination like the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The proclamation referenced the Port of

on our front steps blocking doorways, piles of garbage, and break-ins. However, this encampment presents an increased level of physical danger to the public. There have been two recent shootings, one occurring at 10th and Weller within a block of the encampment, and one in the encampment at 8th and King which resulted in a fatality.

The encampment residents are clustered closely together without proper facilities for frequent hand washing and sanitation, putting them at high risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 and hepatitis A. Despite social disparities that placed unfair burdens on Chinese, forced to live in dirty industrial-adjacent areas of town in sub-standard quarters deprived of basic services, historically Chinese and Chinatowns in the United States

Seattle’s creation of an office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to address institutional and structural racism.

It also called for residents of King County to report incidents of racism and intolerance to the Washington State Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

Research from Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, found over 1,000 media reports documenting xenophobia against Asian Americans between Jan. 28 and Feb. 24. The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and its affiliates, has received almost 1,500 reports of verbal harassment, shunning, and physical assaults of AAPIs related to the COVID-19 outbreak since March 19.

COVID-19 adversely impacted the health and financial wellbeing of the AAPI community. Around 3,000 Asian Americans have died in the United States from contracting the COVID-19 virus. The mortality rate for Asian Americans is slightly above their population share in Washington

have been blamed for epidemics. Today, when it comes to fending off COVID-19, we still have the extra burden of proving we are not a virus. Of all places, there cannot be a COVID-19 or hepatitis A outbreak in Chinatown. If an outbreak occurs, regardless if it is spurred by the unfair burden of this encampment, it will reflect negatively on Chinatown. Organizations and volunteers have been working tirelessly, putting themselves on the front lines every day in the ID, to prevent an outbreak and ensure wellbeing. This growing encampment is an affront to all the efforts, past and present, to keep the ID safe and healthy. We implore you to not let history repeat itself.

We’ve heard that there have been discussions about providing trash service, portable toilets, and wash stations to remedy the situation. That is not a solution. As other camps around the city are relocated, this camp grows larger each day. The encampment needs to be removed immediately before another fatal shooting or an outbreak of COVID-19 and/or hepatitis A occurs.

If you have any questions, I can be reached at 206-679-5507. I look forward to hearing from you.  Sincerely, Mei-Jui Lin President, Chong Wa Benevolent Association and Education Society and 20+ organizations.

state. The national Asian American unemployment rate increased from 4.1% in March to 14.5% in April due to the forced closure of industries that employ a large percentage of AAPIs, such as casinos, hair and nail salons, and restaurants.

Cho indicated that the challenges faced by the API community are not new, but are more pronounced because of the pandemic.

The Port announced that starting on May 18, travelers, visitors, and employees of the airport will need to wear a face covering. When asked “why now,” Cho said the Port had been vetting this proposal for several weeks with airline companies and the airport’s tenants to determine whether it had the legal authority to impose a face covering rule. No Port employee has died from contracting COVID-19, but 15 employees and seven contractors have been monitored or quarantined.  Alexander can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

View the solution on page 10

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Account Executives

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The only weekly English-language newspaper serving Washington’s Asian community. The NW Asian Weekly has one simple goal: “To empower the Asian community.”

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any advertisement, letter or article.

Subscriptions cost $40 for 52 weeks of the NW Asian Weekly and $30 for 52 weeks of the Seattle Chinese Post. The NW Asian Weekly owns the copyright for all its content. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reprinted without permission.

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

YOUR VOICE

■ PICTORIAL

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

northwest

SOCIAL DISTANCING Keep it moving at Discovery Park.

(Photo by Becky Chan)

Margaret Keefe (left), a teacher, and Nell Elliott (right), software developer, practice social distancing and their music in the Wallingford neighborhood.

(Photo by Becky Chan)

asianweekly

WE’D LOVE TO SEE HOW YOU PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR PHOTO(S) WITH A CAPTION TO EDITOR@ NWASIANWEEKLY.COM.

There were 20 contestants in the May 9 APIs Can Sing Quarantine Karaoke Contest and Cynthia Thurmon won that preliminary round.

The next round is on May 16.

(Photo by John Chen)

Students in China returned to school wearing wide, winged hats to practice social distancing.

(Photo courtesy: Zhejiang Daily)

CHANNELING SEATTLE

People Politics Arts SEATTLECHANNEL.ORG Photos © Seattle Channel

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38 YEARS

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

■ PUBLISHER’S BLOG

Lessons from the coronavirus pandemic — Part III — Can you make money during a pandemic? Are you bored staying at home? Why making someone smile could actually help you... Read on.

Fighting bad moods

My friend Jane Nishita reminded me what Nobel prize winner and peace activist Dalai Lama said, “The three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.”

The coronavirus has made many depressed, scared, and anxious. Rather than longing for what we miss and feeling alone at home, we need to remind ourselves and others especially when we are feeling lousy—the Tibetan spiritual leader’s advice on “increasing happiness.”

devoted her time to baking during the lockdown. Knowing I love hats, she made me a beautiful cake with an edible “hat” for Mother’s Day. She has also created fancy cakes for kids’ birthdays.

What beats putting a smile on a child?

COVID-19 has supplied us with endless stories and ideas. Since March, every single one of my blogs is related, directly or indirectly, to the pandemic.

A couple of community organizations have done successful virtual fundraising events, including Neighborhood House Make good use of every and Denise Louie Childhood Education situation Center. The organizations might not have The coronavirus pandemic actually raised as much money as they wanted, creates opportunities for some but a virtual event does have its merits— businesses. A German company, Melitta, lower cost and less labor-intensive. that manufactures coffee filters, now is making masks as well, because “the filter Save, save, save fits exactly over the mouth, nose, and chin,” according to a New York Times story. Since it already has the knowhow and equipment, Melitta beats its competition with speed.

Photo by Assunta Ng

By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Most Americans don’t have savings.

A Federal Reserve report said half of Americans don’t have an emergency fund A few days before Mother’s Day, I of $400, including households earning see BLOG on 12 received a surprise—flowers and a card $100,000. That’s terrible and shocking! from the University of Washington’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership (MAP) board. It made my day. Board member Sumona Gupta thought of sending flowers to 24 MAP supporters and donors. Some donors were so moved by the gesture that they instantly committed again to donating to the MAP scholarship this year.

M A Y 1 3 - 1 9, 2 0 2 0 The board also ordered the flowers from Hmong farmers who are normally busy selling their flowers at Pike Place Market, and now hurting like most businesses. Wow, doing good by killing two birds with one stone!

Unexpectedly, the coronavirus pandemic can yield some benefits.

Imuraya (6 pk) “The virus has made me more tech ICE BARS Painted Hills Sweet Azuki (Red Bean) or Green Tea competent,” said Naomi Minegishi, FLANK STEAK with Red Bean a retiree. “I am engaged with civic lb organizations through Zoom meetings.”

Zoom has allowed me to accomplish much more at home. This week, my editor called while I was in a Zoom group meeting. I went to another room and talked to her briefly. Afterwards, I washed my laundry, did the dishes, and lifted weights, while listening to Niko Niko (3 pk) the discussion and turning off Zoom’s Fresh!

CHA SHU BOW SABA FILLET camera and microphone. I can’t believe I Steam bun with BBQ pork RENKON Cleaned and ready to Lotus Root filling. In our deli cooler cook. Previously frozen got so much done without leaving home.

Not everything discussed at meetings is lb lb important. In a face-to-face meeting, you have no choice, but to sit still and listen to all the nonsense.

“At home, there’s a lot I can do,” said Kelly Liao, managing editor of Seattle Chinese Post. “I can support my family more and understand them more. I can send greetings and blessings to relatives Momoya (3.88 oz) Tomomasu (10.14 oz) Morinaga (1.76 oz) through the internet.”

CHILI OIL with ASSORTED HI-CHEW During the pandemic, many Assorted Flavors FRIED GARLIC JAPANESE SODA publications’ print and online community *Seattle Store: Sugar Tax Applies calendars, including the Northwest Asian Weekly’s, vanished due to the stay-atTo see all of our weekly specials, visit uwajimaya.com home order. What are we going to do to seattle • bellevue • renton • beaverton • uwajimaya.com fill the space?

Photo by Tracy Luu

Flowers from UW MAP board

Mother’s Day cake in the shape of an hat.

Everything on the cake is edible.

“Make someone smile” is also what many ministers and rabbis have suggested. Reach out and make people feel good about themselves and their life through your compassion and deeds.

Weekly Specials

Photo by Lien Ngu

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“Frozen” cake

Photo by John Liu

This is a good time to search or fulfill your passions. Besides working fulltime, my daughter-in-law Tracy has

“Lego Ninjago” cake for Benjamin’s birthday

When the coronavirus hit, many lost their jobs, and they are simply stuck without any financial cushion.

“Everybody needs to save some money,” said Pei Lei, local news editor of Seattle Chinese Post. “A lot of American families are getting into an unprecedented financial crisis simply because they never save any money. Most people overdraft their credit cards and never get a chance to learn this lesson until this pandemic.

Most importantly, these people eagerly want our economy to be reopened, despite the danger we are facing.”

My husband and I lived frugally when we first got married. We frequently ate inexpensive meals, such as rice and a whole chicken—enough to feed the both of us. A side dish such as vegetables was considered a luxury.

Our occasional splurge was dining in a nearby restaurant for its $1 Sunday special breakfast, with an egg, sausage, toast, and coffee. We waited for four years until we were financially sound to start a family. And we were happy even then without many material things. My credit card was, and still is, for emergencies only. The payoff was—after two years of saving, my teaching salary was enough to buy our first house. When the pandemic is over, you still have to plan for future

3.99

3.79

2.99

5.99

1.59

2/$1

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YOUR VOICE

■ AT THE MOVIES

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

asianweekly northwest

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“Driveways” Three still figures, running deep

By Andrew Hamlin NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY The most effective scenes in “Driveways” come quietly, which filmmaker Andrew Ahn understood, because he made most of the scenes come quietly. A crucial interchange consists of almost nothing at all—on the surface.

A young mother, Kathy (played by Hong Chau) drives along with her young son Cody (Lucas Jaye), and an old man they’ve just met, Del (Brian Dennehy). The mother and son will drop Del off at the VFW. “What’s the VFW?” asks the precocious boy.

And in the semi darkness of the car, the old man has to decide how to answer. Should he admit that VFW stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars? Should he admit that he’s a veteran himself? Should he admit that he might well have been sent by his superiors to hunt and kill Asians, people who look quite a bit like the mother and child?

He takes a deep breath.

“It’s where I play bingo,” is all he says.

Ahn, marking his second feature film with “Driveways,” grew up in the South Bay region of Los Angeles.

“I felt a strong connection to my Asian American identity from early on because of the community that existed around me,” he remembered.

“During the summers, my parents would bring me up to Koreatown where they worked. Some of my earliest memories are eating Korean pastries and shaved ice inside Koreatown malls. I feel like these

FOR TRANSIT CHOICES

positive associations to these places have served as inspirations for my storytelling as a filmmaker.”

He loved movies from an early age, but began to think about them seriously only after he made it to Brown University and decided against becoming a doctor. He claims humanist filmmakers, such as Yasujiro Ozu from Japan and John Cassavetes from America, as his primary influences, and the standards that inspire him.

Those filmmakers, he elaborated, ask the questions, “How do you capture human behavior? How do you articulate emotion?

These will be questions I ask myself for the rest of my career.”

He came to “Driveways” having shot two short films, and working as an editor on other directors’ projects. He also wrote and directed a feature film, “Spa Night,” about a young Korean man coming of age, and coming out, over the course of working at a Korean spa.

“As a gay, Korean American man, I will always feel like an outsider, but I don’t say that in a negative way,” Ahn said. “In fact, I think my position allows me a certain perspective that makes me a better filmmaker, more observant and sensitive to the world around me.”

For his second feature film, Ahn made use of a screenplay from the writing team of Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, who blended some of their formative experiences to create the “Driveways” story.

Kathy and Cody drive in from out of town, charged with emptying out and selling the see DRIVEWAYS on 10

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asianweekly northwest

38 YEARS

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

■ SPORTS

The Layup Drill

By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. This month, we take a look at the country’s best high school basketball player skipping college, a UCLA women’s collegiate speaking out, and a NASCAR driver suspension.

Green opts for G-League

The top high school basketball player in the United States decided that he is going to the NBA’s G-League instead playing in college. Jalen Green is the first person to take advantage of the NBA’s professional pathway program, which allows Jalen Green individuals the chance to enter the NBA’s developmental league instead of going to college. The NBA requires that any player entering the league spend at least one year removed from high school.

The program could pay elite prospects like Green $500,000-plus and provide a one-year development program outside of the minor league’s traditional structure.

Previously, high school basketball players not wanting to go to college have opted to play basketball overseas for a year, and then enter their name into the NBA Draft.

Green, whose mother is Filipino, was a highly-recruited guard from Fresno, California. Green fell in love with basketball at an early age and by the time he was in sixth grade, he was practicing 5 hours a day. The 6-foot-5-inch, 180-pound shooting guard has taken home honors in high school and on the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit. Before he was 15 years old, he received offers to play basketball at all of the top college programs. NBA stars Dwayne Wade and LeBron James have commented with praise at his highlight videos. He trains with NBA players such as Stephen Curry in the summer and even won an informal shooting contest with Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks. Even without playing post-high school basketball, he is projected to be the number 1 player drafted

in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Green’s mother left her position as a nurse and began doing online medical coding so that the family could move from Fresno to Napa where a basketball academy, Prolific Prep, is located. The school teams up with a local high school for academics, while providing the enrollees of mainly top college basketball recruits.

Basketball skills run in the family—Green’s mother played college basketball at Merced College.

After Green decided to enter the G-League, it was reported that he would command a shoe deal from a company that would top seven figures per yield, in addition to his pay from the professional pathway program. Shoe deals from Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour in the seven figures are scarce nowadays, especially for unproven rookies. The estimated and anticipated shoe deals reflect the belief that Green will succeed in the NBA.

UCLA women’s basketball star takes stand

Natalie Chou, a 6-foot-1, 22-yearold Chinese American offered up her experiences in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chou, a Dallas-native, originally signed on to play with Baylor. But after two years, she transferred to UCLA. Natalie Chou In an ESPN article, she detailed how she was afraid to leave her Dallas-area home due to the stigma of being singled-out because of COVID-19. She believed that she was being looked at and judged because of the portrayal that Chinese Americans somehow brought the coronavirus to America.

She even admitted to wearing clothing with UCLA on it so that it would ease fears that she was a basketball player and “not just a Chinese person [that others] need to stay away from. She stated that the slang term “Chinese virus” was “disrespectful and ultimately racist” and created “xenophobia for people who look like me.”

Citing a need to speak up for others and inspire young Asian girls, she decided to come out publicly, which seemed out of the ordinary for Chou. Raised in a Chinese American household, she learned to be reserved and not

share her personal problems with others. But, with Black teammates, Chou knows the prejudice they face on a daily basis. She wrote in the ESPN article that “[t]hrough them, I’ve learned how to be strong. How to be resilient. How to be courageous. And most of all, how to really love myself.”

Unfortunately, Chou’s comments came with mixed reviews. Some wrote in their support, while others chastised her for speaking out, noting that the location of the origination of the virus was accurate and that there is no racist intent. In fact, she noted someone she knew joking about the “Hong Kong virus.”

NASCAR suspends Kyle Larson

Last month, Kyle Larson was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR and dropped from his racing team after he was overheard calling someone the n-word during a live stream iRacing event on April Kyle Larson 13. Larson, who is half Japanese, expressed remorse and regret for the use of the racist language, although it was clear he did not know that he was being heard by the general public.

The iRacing event is a racing simulation online video game being aired in place of live racing due to the shutdown of events caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Larson was a participant in the event and thought he had lost communication with his team. “You can’t hear me?

Hey n----r.”

Sponsors acted swiftly to distance themselves from Larson. He lost deals with McDonald’s, Credit One Bank, and Chevrolet. He then was dropped by his racing team, Chip Ganassi Racing.

“NASCAR has made diversity and inclusion a priority and will not tolerate the type of language used by Kyle Larson,” NASCAR said in a statement.

Larson is completing sensitivity training to be reinstated.

In the meantime, he re-emerged at a World of Outlaws race event on May 10 to compete.  Jason can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The new baseball season began in South Korea on May 5 with the crack of the bat and the sound of the ball smacking into the catcher’s mitt echoing around empty stadiums.

After a weeks-long delay because of the coronavirus pandemic, umpires wore protective masks and cheerleaders danced beneath rows of unoccupied seats as professional baseball got back on the field.

There were many faces in the stands in at least one stadium, but they were pictures instead of real people because fans aren’t allowed into the venues — at least for now.

As one of the world’s first major professional sports competitions to return to action amid the pandemic, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has employed various preventive measures aimed at creating safe playing environments.

Players and coaches will go through fever screenings before

AP Photo/Lee Jin-man

Baseball in full swing in Korea, Taiwan, even in empty stadiums

Spectators' seats are covered with pictures of fans before the start of a regular season baseball game between Hanwha Eagles and SK Wyverns in Incheon, South Korea on May 5.

entering stadiums, while umpires and first- and third-base coaches must wear masks during games.

Players are prohibited from signing autographs or high-fiving teammates with bare hands.

Also, chewing tobacco was banned to prevent spitting, while masks and latex gloves will be required at training facilities.

Fans will be barred from games until the KBO is convinced the

risk of infection has been minimized. If any member of a team tests positive for the coronavirus at any point of the season, the league will be shut down for at least three weeks.

It was a similar scene late last month at a Taiwan ballpark where about 150 placards were placed upright on the seats for a game between Chinatrust Brothers and Fubon Guardians.

Taiwan’sChinese Professional Baseball League is barring spectators over concerns of spreading the coronavirus in a crowded space. But Taiwan has relatively few cases of COVID-19, so the league decided it was safe to let in players, coaches, cheerleaders, costumed mascots, face mask-wearing batboys and the media.

League officials delayed the

season twice from its originally scheduled opening day on March 14, and only started competition after close consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. They’re ready to allow all 240 regular games in empty parks through the season’s end in mid-November, if needed.

To keep fans watching on their phones, PCs and TVs, the league is encouraging teams to give their stadiums a realistic, lively feel. That’s where the placards and cheerleaders come in. Online game commentary is being broadcast in English as well as Chinese this year in case fans overseas want to watch a live season.

“Because there is so much room up there in the stands, it leaves space for creativity and each team can be creative as it wishes,” league commissioner Wu Chih-yang said.

Teams are still making some money from broadcast games, he added. The league charges a subscription fee for online viewers. 

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

YOUR VOICE

■ EDITORIAL

asianweekly northwest

9

Quarantine ≠ incarceration

During discussions on May 5 over the validity of Wisconsin’s ‘safer at home’ plan, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley referred to the order as “tyranny” and compared it to the incarceration of Japanese Americans in camps during World War II. Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) called the Wisconsin Supreme comparison “an insult to Court Justice Rebecca Bradley Japanese Americans who suffered the unconstitutional injustices of incarceration.”

JACL Wisconsin Chapter President Ron Kuramoto —whose parents were forced out of their home and

RACISM NARRATIVE from 3 “America doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to Asian Americans,” said Ben Sung Henry, an independent consultant and a former executive director of APACE, a civic engagement organization.

First, there was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred anyone from China entering the United States. Then, during World War II, Japanese Americans were demonized and put in internment camps regardless of their citizenship and immigration status in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Even after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened U.S. borders to all immigrants, Asian Americans quietly bore the brunt of white America’s frustrations with the war in Vietnam. In 1982, a white man in Detroit, angry about car factory jobs moving to Japan, beat and murdered 28-year-old Vincent Chin.

South Asian and Arab Americans were victims of hate crimes and reactionary surveillance measures after 9/11. Now, there’s COVID-19.

“This is in our history—this has happened,” Henry said. “How do we know it’s not going to happen again?”

Like many immigrants and minority groups in the U.S., Asian Americans may very well find their race used as a bargaining chip. Activists, community leaders and artists are bringing light to the fact that Asian Americans lie at the center of a paradox, regarded as the “forever foreigner” while simultaneously being christened a “model minority.”

Shane Baguyo, a racial equity coach for SEA Center for Racial Equity, said he has always been acutely aware of the duality between these two stereotypes. They “put us in a precarious socio-political, economic position in America. Both stereotypes shut us out from being welcome and supported in all groups in general, just because of how we look.”

That nebulous “model minority” term was coined by sociology professor William Peterson of University of California, Berkeley. In a 1966 New York Times article, he extolled how Japanese Americans had “risen above even prejudiced criticism” only 20 years after being interned. He went on to write that they were superior to all other races—including nativeborn whites—and succeeded in an “almost totally unaided effort.” He also wrote, “Every attempt to hamper their progress resulted only in enhancing their

imprisoned—said Bradley’s hyperbole denigrates his parent’s suffering and endurance.

JACL has previously called for caution in the invocation of historical comparisons to COVID-19 response.

Kuramoto said, “To ask all Wisconsin residents to shelter in their homes for a short, defined period of weeks, as a response to a public health crisis like a pandemic, bears no relation to the intentional, legally unjustifiable thinking that imprisoned my family indefinitely, and forced them to sell—not suspend—their businesses.”

Seriously, being asked to stay at home for the greater good is not the same as being ripped from your home and taken to a concentration camp and imprisoned i.e. you’re not allowed to leave.

As Wisconsin activist Callen Harty wrote in an open letter to Bradley, “Being furloughed due to the tough

determination to succeed.”

Peterson glossed over the numerous institutional barriers Japanese Americans were up against. As a result of this racial stereotyping, the model-minority gimmick continuously glossed over the intricate complexity of being Asian American.

The term actually comprises dozens of countries and languages and countless historical and current experiences branded under a monolithic idea of what it means to be Asian.

The myth gets its power from society’s unceasing separators and groupings, like 2017 statistics from the esteemed Pew Research Center comparing the median annual income for Asian households ($73,060) with all U.S. households ($53,600) as of 2017.

Numbers like this are often simplified and the disparity between and within Asian groups becomes invisible to the public. For example, the PRC reports that in 2015 Indian households on average made over $100,000 a year while Burmese households made $36,000. The myth’s cocktail gets stronger with stereotypes that portray Asians as nerds, good at math, quiet and, like Peterson wrote, imbued with an in-born propensity to succeed.

“That is certainly not the case for most Asian Americans,” Henry said. “Within the Asian American community, we struggle.

We have butted heads with the more privileged factions of our community.”

Henry said the dynamics of oppression and privilege play out even more starkly in crisis. “In a similar way that inequities are amplified in this crisis overall, so too does it amplify inequalities within the Asian American communities,” he said.

Henry provided this example: Asian Americans who work in the tech industry can work from home while those who work as frontline workers do not have that luxury. Being in public, they are more susceptible to becoming targets.

Authors Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin write that the model minority myth creates “a racial middle status between whites and other people of color.” In their book “The Myth of the Model Minority,” they elaborate: “This protects the white position at the top by diffusing hostility towards them and sets up Asian Americans to be a scapegoat during times of crisis.”

That is exactly what is happening now.

An April 16 report from The Center for Public Integrity examined how the Trump administration’s response to the xenophobia that has come out of COVID-19 lacks the kind of supportive

economy brought about by COVID-19 is not the same as losing your house and all your possessions. Not being allowed to shop or dine out for a while is not the same as being incarcerated because you are perceived to be an enemy combatant because of your heritage. Having to hear a court case over video while protecting yourself at home is not the same as losing your freedom and rights as a citizen because people are scared of your last name. Your ignorance of history and your privilege are showing and it is not pretty.”

We can’t believe this actually needs to be said. But Justice Bradley: a quarantine is not the same thing as incarceration and stripped of your basic civil rights.

Your comments have exposed the fact that you don’t have a clue what people of color have experienced— especially immigrants, workers, or other groups who are truly vulnerable during these difficult times. 

messaging former President George W. Bush employed after September 11, 2001, to deter Islamophobic hate crimes. The Trump administration’s use of language, such as the “Chinese” virus, further bolsters the image that being Chinese—or Asian at all—is inherently connected to the virus. “That action directly results in more acts of discrimination and even potential acts of violence. It’s troubling,” Henry said.

Invigorated interest in engagement

Figuring out how to mobilize against racism while the whole world is facing a severe public health threat is a challenge.

Henry says that, as always, speaking up is important. “Name it. We need to expose it as it happens,” he said.

Racial Equity Coach Baguyo says that the disparities and discrimination unearthed by COVID-19 need to be seen as an opportunity: “It kind of casts a light; we have major issues we have to fix.

But we can only change if we talk about actions moving forward,” he said. Baguyo explained that racial equity is recognizing difference and disparity to see how they play out. The gaps are in plain view at the moment and that presents a choice to move toward racial justice, which he characterizes as driving actions that work to dismantle those disparities.

Jamie Lee, the director of community initiatives for the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, promotes catharsis and modes of change, similar to Henry and Baguyo. “It’s important that we tell our story,” Lee said. She also emphasized the breadth of experiences within the Asian American community and recognizing a spectrum of oppression.

The kind of fear Asian Americans are feeling currently is a daily reality for Black and Brown people. We need to “remember that and hold that as true,” Lee said.

Lee said it is important to mobilize both inside and outside the community simultaneously. “There are many of our community—immigrants, elders—that don’t understand what hate crimes are,” she said. Lee is currently part of a group working with King County Equity and Social Justice to organize better bias crime reporting, which is itself a complicated issue. There is a current effort to educate non-English-speaking community members about what constitutes a hate crime.

A week after Gov. Jay Inslee implemented a stay-at-home order for Washington,

Henry Liu went to Uwajimaya and purchased 15 bags worth of fresh fruits, vegetables and buns—at about $12 a bag.

He then delivered each bag to elders in lowincome housing units. He documented the entire process and posted it on a Facebook group named Support the ID. What was first just a one-person effort with Liu—who is a community organizer for InterIm Community Development Association—accrued first three staff members, then six and then grew to include volunteers who now deliver groceries to hundreds of elders in the community. Liu says he hasn’t seen any incidents of racism and hasn’t had neighborhood residents raise concerns about it. But he feels a shift in the air. The neighborhood’s attitudes towards civic engagement feel like they are changing.

Before the pandemic, most store owners and community residents who were not in social justice circles simply focused on their own survival, on making money to support themselves and family. “That attitude really shifted after the pandemic.

All these businesses are closing down— the whole picture of the neighborhood that people knew is no longer there,” Liu said. “If that community is gone, is there really going to be more of this community afterward?”

That question lingers as businesses board up, and Liu says it’s a catalyst to engage.

He has heard of restaurant employees and owners who were previously not registered to vote but feel an inclination now to be civically engaged after witnessing dedicated staff lose jobs.

He has also seen increased participation by the Seattle Police Department in the neighborhood. Liu personally reached out to SPD four times to help distribute groceries to elders in the area. They showed up every time.

The Pacific Northwest has seen a growing Asian American population in the last 20 years. But even prior to that, the region has had a legacy of Asian American advocacy and activism— organizations like Asian Counseling and Referral Services and APACE and the very presence of the Chinatown-International District is testament to that.

“Our community does have a voice,” Henry said. “The more numbers behind that voice, the more powerful it is.”

Baguyo said, “Our voices really need to be heard during this because we are part of the fabric of America. This is our America, too.” 

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asianweekly northwest

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

MASKS from 1 that all of its customers wear a face mask or face covering.

The store posted on its website that “all guests over the age of 3 must be wearing a mask or equivalent face covering to enter our stores.”

When asked if private businesses can refuse entrance to customers who won’t wear a mask, Constantine said yes.

Under the Directive, restaurants with carry-out and food delivery must comply as well. Face coverings do not need to be worn outside unless appropriate social distancing cannot be practiced, such as at farmers markets.

Exceptions to the Directive include children, people with disabilities, deaf individuals who use facial movements as part of communication, and others. There is no penalty for not wearing a face covering.

Constantine also announced that operators and riders on King County Metro will be required to wear face coverings, though operators will not prevent passengers without face

38 YEARS

coverings from boarding.

Both King County and the City of Seattle are distributing 115,000 and 45,000 face coverings, respectively, through community-based organizations to vulnerable communities, including people experiencing homelessness, older adults, and staff at food banks.

“Now that face coverings and masks are a part of our new normal, we have to educate our community on how to wear them properly to be safe,” said Michelle Merriweather, president and CEO of Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. “In addition, we have to educate people with power to not see Black and Brown people, especially Black men, as a threat for wearing a face covering in public to protect themselves and those they love.”

Also starting on May 18, the Port of Seattle will require all passengers, visitors, and Port employees to wear cloth face coverings in the public areas of Sea-Tac Airport.

The requirement will not apply to certain groups, such as those who cannot medically tolerate facial coverings and

Dennehy died suddenly on April 15, and “Driveways” is one of his last credits. When Ahn got the word, he house of Kathy’s sister, who recently died. They discover called his screenwriters and his producers, in shock.

Ahn vows to keep making intimate, bold, and daring Del, leading a brave but lonely existence around that same block, and over time, the boy and the old man films. But he’ll miss the big, warm fellow who helped anchor “Driveways.” develop an unlikely, but necessary, friendship.

“I loved seeing Lucas and Brian pal around, their In terms of Kathy and Del, Ahn explained, he felt “no other options” in casting other than Chau and Dennehy. friendship was really special. Brian was so kind and generous.

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A King County news release on the Health Directive stated, “Because face masks such as N95 respirators continue to be reserved for health care workers, residents should use fabric coverings such as cloth masks, scarves, or bandanas.”

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YOUR VOICE

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asianweekly northwest

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Predictions and advice for the week of May 16–May 22, 2020

By Sun Lee Chang Rat — Leave as much of your baggage as you can at the door, and bring in only what is essential.

Dragon — A marked departure from an old way of doing things could open up some new opportunities.

Monkey — Hiding from the truth is not productive.

Once you accept it, the sooner you can begin a course correction.

Ox — You have the tools to build a solid foundation and much more, but you have to initiate the process.

Snake — Rather than adding more embellishments, recognize that there is also beauty in simplicity.

Rooster — A period of inward reflection results in a firmer resolve about what you think you need versus what you want.

Tiger — Are you waiting for someone else to show you the way? Get in the habit of doing your own legwork.

Horse — Despite your initial displeasure, you will soon be pleased when you stumble upon a promising discovery.

Dog — Avoid losing sight of the main issue, as various distractions emerge during the week ahead.

Rabbit — Beware of one who continually stifles your enthusiasm. They may not have your best interest at heart.

Goat — Reluctant to step outside your comfort zone? You have much to gain, but only if you take a chance.

Pig — If presented with an attractive alternative, consider what you would be leaving behind if you take it.

WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN? RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 RABBIT 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 DRAGON 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 SNAKE 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 HORSE 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 GOAT 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 MONKEY 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 ROOSTER 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 DOG 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

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DRAGON FEST from 1 artists, and tasty dishes that span across Asia. Families gather to watch lion dances, taiko drumming, and traditional performances while children partake in arts and crafts activities.

However, due to ongoing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the CIDBIA said it has to take steps to ensure the safety of neighborhood businesses, exhibitors, and attendees of the event by cancelling.

Over the past few months, businesses in the ChinatownInternational District have seen unprecedented downturns in sales and are pushing through hardships of business closures, break-ins, and other prejudices. The CIDBIA said it continues to support neighborhood businesses by working collaboratively with other community organizations and loyal patrons to uplift businesses. 

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38 YEARS

MAY 16 – MAY 22, 2020

BLOG from 6 emergencies, including a rainy day fund, updating your will, and power of attorney. It’s for self-preservation. And if you get stuck, who will be your saviors?

Prepare them ahead of time in case you might need their help in times of crisis.

Goals or no goals?

spontaneous in your schedule.

“I started out with a list of things I wanted to accomplish, learning Russian on Duolingo,” said Minegishi. “As the days wore on, my resolve disintegrated and I have ended up with a routine that I am truly happy with and grateful for.

I learned to keep busy, but busy with no real commitments, obligations, and goals.”

Creativity surges

During the pandemic, you can design the kind of life you want, set goals or no goals. For those who have suffered mentally with social distancing, perhaps you need to have goals every day.

If your hobby is none other than reading or watching television, you need to develop more interests and meaningful ways to spend time by yourself. Never have I appreciated YouTube so much.

If I am curious to learn about drawing cartoons, boxing and exercising, or cooking French food, I turn to YouTube, which instantly showcases many teachers in diverse fields. No, I don’t want to be a cartoonist. But understanding the process cartoonists go through to transform their ideas into artwork is appealing to me. This is the best time to learn something new.

Even without goals, you can achieve a relaxed attitude by improvising and being

During this presidential election year, many media had big plans, including live programs to feature forums, town halls, and dialogues with presidential candidates in major U.S. cities to engage viewers and readers. Unfortunately, COVID-19 ended all that.

But the virus has also inspired journalists, artists, museums, and other professionals and entities to be creative in attracting audiences. The Washington State Historical Society has added a new project on the COVID-19 impact on Washingtonians, and is collecting material. Prestigious local, national, and international museums have opened up their valuable collections to virtual viewers for free. Harvard and Yale Universities are offering free online courses. New York Broadway stars and many orchestras, including the Seattle

Symphony Orchestra, are performing online. The San Diego Zoo has organized a fundraising program through a naming contest for one of its newborn animals.

NBC launched a kids edition of its Nightly News. The New York Times recently published two full pages worth of mini word puzzles for shelteringin readers. I’ve saved that copy to take with me for my next trip when I need something to do.

For survival purposes, all of us can create something for the wellbeing of individuals and the community.

The office is gone

It took a pandemic for companies to realize that they don’t really need an office to produce good work. An office produces supervision, structure, and routine for workers. However, it also institutes a rigid workplace, especially for parents who have young children, and those who have to commute to work. One of my staff members, who has kids, is now less stressed, and enjoying working at home. Amazingly, she has met early deadlines set by her co-workers.

Why your part is essential Mini word puzzles in The New York Times

RACISM from 1 in line at the supermarket was worse.

“As an Asian guy with allergies, it’s been super stressful. You feel so weird coughing or sneezing, all the heads snap at you,” said Lee, 27, a Korean American law student at the University of Washington (UW). “If someone else coughs, it’s no big deal, but if an Asian coughs, it’s a really big deal.”

But after seeing a video at the law school about racism, he felt relieved and better able to endure the countless aggressions aimed at Asians and Asian Americans that have been increasing in Seattle and the rest of the country during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Just understanding that they’re not necessarily attacking me personally, that they’re just trying to have control over this situation, has made a huge difference,” he said.

The video, “Disarming Racism,” suggests that people become racist when faced with an “ambiguity” of information about a threat.

“Psychologically, when there’s little information about something as dangerous as a virus, people feel out of control, unable to identify it, and not really knowing the course of the virus,” said Talee Vang, a psychologist who made the video. “In situations like these, humans will seek to find ways to control the situation or at least to try to feel like they are more in control.”

“Throughout history, it has been common practice for humans to find those that are different from them in order to unload all of their fears onto those identified persons,” Vang added.

The video, which also suggested practical strategies for escaping from dangerous situations, is one of many techniques being offered by psychologists, educators, and administrators to cope with racist aggression.

Such strategies have proven useful for another student at the UW law school, a 29-year-old Chinese woman who was shaken when her friend, a Korean American classmate, was verbally attacked in the underground parking garage at the UW. “She was wearing a mask and some guys drove up and yelled, ‘That’s not going to work, bitch!’” said Kay, who asked that only her English name be used.

After that, Kay decided not to wear a mask in public,

People are protesting social distancing for different reasons, including liberty, jobs, and mobility. I sympathize with

for fear she would stand out as an Asian woman—and be subject to the same kind of attack. But after she saw the video, she understood the power dynamics behind such attacks and it reassured her.

“One thing that the video said is that when people feel they are out of control, they are looking for someone to blame, they need a scapegoat and Chinese people are to blame,” she said.

But she still doesn’t wear a mask, “unless it is in a crowded place,” Kay said.

What to do if you are attacked Sometimes, simply enduring racism is not enough to procure safety. In her video, Vang gives specific tips for escaping from dangerous situations.

Foremost among them is recognizing the “bystander effect,” a paralysis that grips crowds or groups of people when no one has a pre-assigned role, and countering it by asking a specific person for help. The bystander effect was named for a situation in which a young woman was murdered outside her apartment while several people looked on.

To overcome this, Vang exhorts anyone subject to a racist attack to call on someone in the vicinity for help.

She painted the scenario of someone being caught in a grocery store while a person verbally attacks him or her. The person under attack should immediately point to another person, describe how unsafe he or she feels, and then ask for a safe escort out of the store.

“Look for someone, point to them, and say, ‘Excuse me, I don’t feel safe right now, this person is threatening me, can you please’—and this is the part where you get to have an ask—you say to that person, ‘Will you please walk me to the cashier? Will you please walk me to my car?’” said Vang.

Psychologically, the person asked would feel “compelled” to help, said Vang.

But even if that person doesn’t respond immediately, by involving a third party, the targeted person has already disrupted the power dynamic, and can now simply walk away.

Bearing witness

those who need to work, and can’t.

I wish that those protesting for civil liberties understand that more human contact means the continued spread of COVID-19.

Social isolation can cause mental distress. Unfortunately, the unpredictability of the virus doesn’t give you many choices to stop the spread, except social distancing. The virus has mutated to be stronger and more vicious compared to the original strain in China.

Earlier, health experts said the young would be spared. But it didn’t. Some have died anyway, and now children are being infected with a strange skin disease and heart failure. Also, they predicted that the summer heat would drive the virus away, except now we still see the number of deaths and infections rising. Please don’t blame them because there is still a lot about COVID-19 we don’t know.

“We don’t live in a perfect world,” said Liao. “So there are unexpected events.

We have to accept changes. You can complain all you want. But it doesn’t do you any good, and it’s not solving problems at all.”  Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

It is equally as important to provide support to those who have been targeted.

“If you are someone who’s out and about and you see a racist act, maybe you hear someone refer to Asians in a derogatory way, interject yourself, say something.

You can say something as simple as, ‘Excuse me, that is really rude and hurtful. You need to stop being racist.’

Call them out. Then walk away,” said Vang.

Such an act will provide comfort to the targeted person.

Still, not everyone might feel comfortable confronting an aggressor, said Lee and Kay, who both saw the video in a class for peer counselors.

They found another strategy perhaps easier to implement—recognizing the hurt experienced by the person targeted.

“Another thing you can do as a bystander or as an ally is you can go up to the person that was targeted and you can say, ‘Hey, I saw that person was really rude to you.’

Being seen, being heard can do amazing things for the person that was just being targeted,” said Vang.

Lee said this was the technique that he liked the best.

“Even if you see something, even if you couldn’t stop it, just going up to the person afterwards and saying, ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that’—that has stayed in my mind,” he said.

A final technique for disarming racism involves cultivating and nurturing relationships—both with friends and strangers.

“We humans want to connect, we crave relationships.

And during times like this, in times of uncertainty and fear and anger, suspicion, it is incredibly important that we connect with one another, find ways in which we are similar and build relationships, build bonds,” said Vang.

She counsels people to practice even making the simplest of gestures as waving “hi” at someone.

“Be warm and be kind,” she said. “These simple gestures can go a long way.”  To view the video, “Disarming Racism,” go to youtube. com/watch?v=O1q1hPLGq24&feature=youtu.be.

Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.