Tag Archives: California

Age, Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | People of Asian Descent

Recent anti-Asian violence in U.S. extends pandemic trend

  • Metro areas from coast to coast have seen an explosion in anti-Asian hate incidents since the beginning of the pandemic, including cities such as Oakland, San Jose, and New York.
  • Between 1,800 and 2,500 incidents of anti-Asian harassment, discrimination, and violence were reported through August 2020, ranging from vandalism and verbal abuse to physical attacks and homicide.
  • President Joe Biden recently signed a memorandum condemning anti-Asian bias and discrimination, pledging support from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and other executive agencies.

Read

“String of attacks against older Asians leaves big city Chinatowns on edge” (NBC News | February 2021)

“The US Is Seeing a Massive Spike in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes” (The Cut | February 2021)

“Anti-Asian hate crime jumps 1,900 percent” (Queens Chronicle | September 2020)

Study

Stop AAPI Hate Reports

Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States (The White House | January 2021)

U.N. document on anti-Asian incidents in the U.S. (August 2020)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. Feature | Hispanic/Latinx

L.A.’s “Brownout” in Hollywood Depictions

Despite comprising half of the population of Angelenos, Hispanics have been largely absent from the center of Hollywood narratives using the City of Angels as its backdrop. The Guardian examines the reception of the depictions that have managed to make it to the big screen, a brief history of Hispanic actors’ relationship to Hollywood, and the tales of bigotry encountered in an industry whose whitewashed screens have often drained the nation’s most vibrant and multicultural cities of color and complexity, further distancing those at the margins from the idea of “Americanness.”

Read:
“Hollywood’s hidden Hispanics: why LA’s Latinos are invisible on screen” (The Guardian)

Religion + Belief

U.S. News | Sikhs

Assailants face hate crime charges following attack on Sikh man in California
  • The attackers had thrown beer cans at Maan Singh Khalsa‘s car in Richmond, California, and then physically attacked him, including knocking off his turban, forcing his head down, and cutting more than 10 inches of his hair.
  • Unshorn hair is a religious mandate for observant Sikhs, and the specific targeting of his hair led to the hate crime designation.
  • The attack follows years of similar targeting of Sikhs in the U.S., with many mistaken for Muslims and subject to violence because of their religious wear.

Read more:
“2 Face Hate Crime Charges in Attack on Sikh Man in California” (The New York Times)
“Two men charged with hate crime in attack on Sikh in California” (Reuters)
“Sikhs under attack” (CNN)

(Image Credit: The Sikh Coalition, via The New York Times)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Syrian Refugees

U.S. meets target of 10,000 Syrian refugee admissions
  • The White House announced that the 10,000th Syrian refugee had been scheduled for arrival a month before the end of the fiscal year, with Michigan and California topping the list of most popular destinations for arrivals.
  • The number of admissions is expected to be capped at 10,000 again for 2017, though plans have been announced to increase the number by a few thousand each year thereafter.
  • The number of admissions will be contingent upon the outcome of the 2016 national elections, with refugee admissions and immigration more broadly a controversial topic in the presidential campaigns.

Read more:
“U.S. to meet target of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees: White House” (Reuters)
“US meets goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees ahead of schedule” (The Guardian)
“Top Destinations for Syrian Refugees: Michigan and California” (NBC News)

(Image Credit: David Ryder/Reuters)

Age, Class + Socioeconomics

U.S. Feature | Homeless Seniors

The Changing Face of American Homelessness

A bulge of homeless baby-boomers has been making its way through the nation’s aging pipeline, with more than 300,000 homeless people in the U.S. now over the age of 50. From the recessions and zero-tolerance drug policies of the ’70s and ’80s to contemporary wage stagnation and affordable housing shortages exacerbated by unchecked urban gentrification, many who came of age during the social tumult of the ’60s and ’70s have struggled to maintain their footing in the nation’s rapidly evolving cities. For many, chronic illness and disability have led to homelessness or struck as a result of it, prematurely introducing aging issues into an already vulnerable population. As a result, homeless seniors have found themselves at the center of an epidemic that is increasingly understood to intersect with other national problems, including weak safety nets for seniors, people with disabilities, and the poor.

As national conversations framed through the lens of personal responsibility, urban threat, and moral failings compound the shame many experience in precarious situations, the aging homeless community has found itself not only marginalized on the streets, but within the discourse of homelessness in general, framed as it too often is in terms of workforce reintegration and social re-engagement. With the elderly homeless population expected to more than double by 2050, The New York Times recently examined the structural problems facing the aging homeless population and challenges affecting the development of effective long-term solutions.

Read:
“Old and on the Street: The Graying of America’s Homeless” (The New York Times)

Additional coverage:
“Fast-aging homeless population may lead to public health crisis” (The San Francisco Chronicle, March 2016)
“Solving The Growing Health Needs Of America’s Elderly Homeless” (ThinkProgress, February 2016)
“‘We Shouldn’t Have To Live Like This’” (NPR, March 2013)

Reports:
Aging and Housing Instability: Homelessness among Older and Elderly Adults (National HCH Council, September 2013)
Homelessness Among Elderly Persons (National Coalition for the Homeless, September 2009)

Connect:
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Health Care for the Homeless Council

(Image Credit: Monica Almeida/The New York Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. Research | Black

The Ongoing Arrest Disparity in Marijuana-Legal States

A recent study conducted by YouthFacts analyzing FBI Criminal Justice Information Services data has found that although arrests in states that have legalized marijuana possession have dropped dramatically, a disproportionate number of black people continue to be arrested relative to non-black peers. While arrests for marijuana in both marijuana-legal and marijuana-illegal states have been trending downward, the ongoing post-reform disparity continues to point to enforcement- rather than law-based problems in the U.S. criminal justice system.

877.8 (2008) vs. 57.2 (2014)

Black arrest rate in Washington (per 100,000)

390.5 (2008) vs. 27.3 (2014)

Non-black arrest rate in Washington (per 100,000)

601.3 (2008) vs. 242.2 (2014)

Black arrest rate in Colorado (per 100,000)

293.3 (2008) vs. 103.8 (2014)

Non-black arrest rate in Colorado (per 100,000)

2.7 (marijuana-legal) vs. 3.0 (marijuana-legal)

Disparity in arrest rates across states

-76% (marijuana-legal) vs. -15% (marijuana-illegal)

Decrease in arrest rates across states from 2008 to 2014

Marijuana-legal states included: Colorado, Washington
Marijuana-illegal states included: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts

Read more:
“Are Young People and African Americans Better Off under Marijuana Reform?“ (YouthFacts)
“Pot legalization hasn’t done anything to shrink the racial gap in drug arrests” (The Washington Post)
“Black People Twice As Likely To Be Arrested For Pot In Colorado And Washington — Where It’s Legal” (ThinkProgress)

Other, Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | Transgender

California grants first gender reassignment surgery to trans inmate
  • Following extensive medical review and testimony, the state agreed to pay for the surgery for trans woman Shiloh Quine, who will be transferred after surgery to a women’s prison.
  • However, the decision did not resolve the question of whether such surgeries are constitutionally guaranteed for prisoners, including the 400 in California alone who are receiving hormonal treatments.
  • In April, another prisoner, Michelle Norsworthy, won a court order to undergo reassignment surgery but was paroled before the procedure was carried out.

“Sex reassignment surgery is medically necessary to prevent Ms. Quine from suffering significant illness or disability, and to alleviate severe pain caused by her gender dysphoria.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times.

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Latinos

Latino students outpace white counterparts in admissions for second year in a row in the University of California system
  • This year, 30% of the 92,324 students admitted into the nine-school system were Latino, while 25% were white, 36% were Asian, and 4% were black.
  • Latino students comprise over 50% of K-12 public school students in California.
  • The Irvine, Merced, and Riverside campuses–already the schools with the highest Latino enrollment–added more Latino students this year, while enrollment fell across other campuses.

“As a majority-minority state, where one in two children under the age of 18 is Latino, we simply cannot meet our economic or workforce needs without ensuring significantly more Latino and black students are admitted to the UC, including flagship institutions like UCLA and UC Berkeley.”

Read the full story at Fox News Latino.

(Image Credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, via Fox News)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Immigrants

Majority of California counties now extend healthcare coverage to undocumented population
  • The County Medical Services Program, which pools resources for health service provision in California’s rural and sparsely populated areas, announced the agreement, which affects 35 counties throughout the state.
  • Officials hope that extending the coverage, which includes doctor visits and up to $1,000 in prescription drugs, will deter the spread of communicable diseases and limit the use of emergency facilities for routine healthcare.
  • 47 of California’s 58 counties now extend coverage to the state’s 2.7 million undocumented immigrants, including L.A. County.

“Frankly, it’s just the right thing to do. … For us to have an underclass that is left out is unconscionable.”

Read the full AP story at CBS Los Angeles.

Nationality + Migration
Ireland mourns the victims of a deadly balcony collapse in California as the public lashes out against negative attention to the visa program in which the students participated
  • A memorial service was held on the campus of the University of California, Davis, for the six Irish students who died in Berkeley, while another seven remain injured.
  • Outrage has mounted as the construction company responsible for the structure was revealed to have settled a lawsuit for improper balcony construction two years ago.
  • There has been significant backlash against a New York Times piece run following the tragedy drawing attention to negative incidents involving Irish students visiting the U.S. under the J-1, a visa for cultural exchange programs.

“The reaction to the tragedy showed the solidarity of Irish people when adverse events occurred. …We’ve always had this in Ireland; people understand adversity, they understand death, they understand people being taken away.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Niall Carson/PA, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity
Juan Felipe Herrera named U.S. poet laureate, the first Latino in history to receive the honor
  • Herrera’s family immigrated to California from Mexico in the early 20th century, becoming migrant farm laborers.
  • He went on to study at UCLA and Stanford before taking up roles as a writer and educator in a variety of contexts throughout California, and he hopes to continue the work of broadening poetry’s audience as national poet laureate.
  • His work includes poetry, novels in verse, and children’s books, and his success earned him the honor of being appointed California’s first Latino poet laureate prior to his national appointment.

“This is a mega-honor for me … for my family and my parents who came up north before and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 — the honor is bigger than me.”

More on this story at NPR.

(Image Credit: Blue Flower Arts, via NPR)

Nationality + Migration

Despite its Hispanic-rich population, Escondido, California, sees a flurry of anti-immigrant legislation and sentiment within its city limits. More from BuzzFeed.