Inspired by kithul treacle (see more here)
We're back from our break! Happy Inauguration and the first official newsletter of 2021! ALSO, WE HAVE A TWITTER now! Follow us @around_thetable for fun facts, news, and random trivia!
Also, thank u for the feedback and wonderful comments 🥺
NEWS
👩🏽🧓🏽 South Asians in Biden's new cabinet
With Biden's cabinet being "the most diverse" in history, we wanted to highlight some of the South Asians among his picks.
Neera Tanden, who leads the think tank Center for American Progress, was nominated as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Dr. Vivek Murthy was nominated for U.S. Surgeon General, a role he had under Obama. Aisha Shah was nominated as partnership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy. Sameera Fazili was nominated for Deputy Director at the U.S. National Economic Council. Sonia Aggarwal was named Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation at the Office of Domestic Climate Policy. Zayn Siddique was named as Senior Advisor to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
Also, Vinay Reddy was Joe Biden's chief speechwriter from 2013-2017 and will again be his speechwriter, making him the first Indian American appointed as the presidential speechwriter.
(Sources: TRTWorld, The Quint)
👩🏾🌾👨🏾🌾 Sikh Americans Protest Alongside Farmers
When Sikh Americans heard about Indian Prime Minister Modi's move to enact three laws to deregulate the agricultural sector, it wasn't a question that they needed to protest on behalf of the millions of farmers whose lives are at stake. In this NBC news piece, young Sikh American activists talk about their roots in farming and their concern for relatives and friends in India (specifically in the Punjab area, known as "India's breadbasket"), who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Naindeep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, said that young folks of the Sikh diaspora are a strong force for change, as they've spent "their whole lives as cultural brokers and are best able to provide fresh perspectives and bring in new groups" of supporters.
Source: Sikh Coalition, via NBC Asian America
🔥 Asian American lawmakers' concerns after Capitol riots
The breach of the Capitol last Wednesday occurred just as members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) were counting Electoral College votes.
Judy Chu, Democrat from California and chair of CAPAC, expressed worry that the rioters "might target AAPIs because of President Trump's ugly rhetoric on the 'Wuhan virus' and 'China virus.'"
While Mark Takano (Democrat from California) was not in the Capitol building at the time of the riots, the incident reminded of what one of his constituents, a Filipina-American, said to him four years ago: "Congressman, we thought we were leaving this behind in the country we came from. We didn't expect to find this here in America."
TIL... AAPI and Labor
Every time we have done a piece on US AAPI demographics or written about groups at large, I've always found it interesting that certain industries have high concentrations of particular ethnic groups. The distribution of AAPIs in different occupations led me to this report by the BLS, which had a bunch of interesting stats:
The line that stood out to me was that while "Asians accounted for 6% of all employed workers", they had significantly higher shares of
miscellaneous personal appearance workers (57 percent)
software developers, applications, and system software (35 percent)
physicians and surgeons (20 percent)
Digging deeper into the data (which you can find in Table 7), there's a more detailed breakdown of occupational percentages, which reveals gender divides. I wish this chart was broken down by ethnicity because there are definite differences within the broader "Asian" category.
That said, this kinda brought me back to a class I took two years ago about business history and got me thinking: in the course of American history, where do AAPIs fit in the broader picture of technological change and labor history?
That topic, of course, is wayyyyy too deep to go in-depth about, but we wanted to highlight some brief moments in history:
1840s-50s - Chinese laborers immigrate to Hawai'i and the continental US, driven by economic turmoil in China and the gold rush. They work in industries like "agriculture, mining, and railroad construction" and are integral to building the Transcontinental Railroad.
1867 - Central Pacific Railroad workers go on strike in California
1875 - Chinese Garment workers protest
Late 1800s - As many of the immigrant workers at the time, Chinese are used as strikebreakers during early organized labor movements. The AFL excludes most minorities from membership
1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act
1924 - The Immigration Act of 1924 limits entry based on nationality quotas
1920s-1930s - After the Philippines is claimed as a US territory, migration to the US increases by 1900%. Many of them become agricultural workers
1938 - "International Ladies’ Garments’ Workers Union (ILGWU) began organizing in San Francisco Chinatowns". Read about this here!
1965 - The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 abolishes nationality quotas, paving the way for high-skilled labor into the US
1965 - Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) join Cesar Chavez and the UFW for the Delano grape strike. Read about this here!
Late 60s and early 70s - historians as part of the Asian American Movement begin re-centering discussions of ASAPI labor history as active participants
1982 - the NY Chinatown strike becomes the largest AA worker strikes as 20,000 garment factory workers march through Lower Manhattan. Read about this here!
Source: reappropriate
1992 - APALA is founded as the first and only national organization of Asian American labor unions
Small Feelings
why did so much happen during the month that we were off?
✨ S P O T L I G H T ✨
Bee Nguyen
Georgia State Representative, D-Atlanta
Thirty-nine-year-old Bee Nguyen calls herself a part of the "New South," a coalition of younger progressives and people of color who have worked to turn Georgia into a battleground state. She became the first Vietnamese American and second Asian American Democrat elected to Georgia's Legislature three years ago in 2017 - she took over Stacey Abrams' seat when Abrams left to campaign for governor.
In her late 20s, Bee Nguyen started non-profit Athena's Warehouse, which gave "used prom dresses to high schoolers from low-income families." From Iowa, she grew up in Augusta, Georgia and went to Georgia State University.
Recently, she became known for her investigation of a list of out-of-state voters compiled by a "Trump-aligned data analyst" during Trump's attempt to overturn Georgia's election results. The video of her confronting this analyst, showing that the list had at least 128 folks who voted in-state legally, was widely shared.
Chef's Specials
🎤 This video of singer/rapper Raja Kumari watching herself perform as part of the AAPI Inaugural Ball last night was 🥺 ("I'm dedicating this song to the Indian American community")
🌶️ Check out this quick 6-min podcast on the unique Chinese-Mexican Cuisine you can only at the U.S./Mexico border. ("have you ever heard of “Baja-style” dishes in a Chinese restaurant?")
🎞️ Several Indian films are in the running for Oscars shorts: "Keith Gomes’ “Shameless,” Tushar Tyagi’s “Saving Chintu” and Shaan Vyas’ “Natkhat” are aiming for nominations in the live-action short category, and Saurav Vishnu’s “Tailing Pond” in the documentary short subject category."