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#191: 7/3 Meeting; Florida report; National Network; Unity/Allies; Anti-Asian Hate '24; More

In This Issue #191

  • 2023/07/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting

  • Time: Florida Really Just Banned Chinese Immigrants from Owning Property. We're Suing

  • National Media Network - Summary of Inaugural Roundtable

  • Lessons Learned: Building Unity and Allies

  • U.S. Anti-China Land Laws Draw Fear of Asian Hate Ahead of 2024 Vote

  • News and Activities for the Communities


REMINDER.  2023/06/26 Webinar: Perils of Warrantless Surveillance

WHEN: June 26, 2023, 4:00 pm ET/1:00 pm PT

REGISTER TO ATTEND:  https://bit.ly/42AbNIF



2023/07/03 APA Justice Monthly Meeting


The next APA Justice monthly meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, July 3, 2023, starting at 1:55 pm ET.In addition to updates by Nisha Ramachandran, Executive Director, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC); John Yang 杨重远, President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice | AAJC; and Gisela Kusakawa, Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), speakers will include:

  • Al Green, Member of U.S. House of Representatives; Member, Executive Board and Chair of Housing Task Force, CAPAC, on alien land bills and multicultural advocacy coalition

  • Clay Zhu 朱可亮, Partner, DeHeng Law Offices 德恒律师事务所; Founder, Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance 华美维权同盟, on the recent developments of the Florida lawsuit

  • Scott Chang, Senior Counsel, National Fair Housing Alliance, on NFHA and its work on alien land bills

  • Edgar Chen, Special Policy Advisor, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, on NAPABA's work on alien land bills and related activities

  • Cindy Tsai, Interim President and Executive Director, Committee of 100, on the recent roles and activities of C100

The virtual monthly meeting is by invitation only. If you wish to join, either one time or for future meetings, please contact one of the co-organizers of APA Justice - Steven Pei 白先慎Vincent Wang 王文奎, and Jeremy Wu 胡善庆 - or send a message to contact@apajustice.org.



Time: Florida Really Just Banned Chinese Immigrants from Owning Property. We're Suing


According to a Time article authored by Patrick Toomey of ACLU and Clay Zhu of DeHeng Law Offices and CALDA on June 21, 2023, barring people from buying a house because of where they’re from is unconstitutional and unacceptable. And yet that’s exactly what Florida’s new law attempts to do.On May 8, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 264 into law, putting much of Florida off-limits to many Chinese immigrants, including people here lawfully as professors, students, employees, and scientists who are looking to buy a home in the state. The law also unfairly discriminates against many immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But it singles out people from China for especially draconian restrictions and harsher criminal penalties.With geopolitical tensions between the United States and Chinese government rising, we are once again seeing politicians like DeSantis lean into racism, hate, and fear for their own political gain. Florida’s pernicious new law weaponizes false claims of “national security” against Asian immigrants and others.Worryingly, Florida is not alone. Lawmakers across the country are trying to enact similar laws to ban Chinese citizens and other immigrants from owning property, but Florida’s is the first one to pass and go into effect. That’s why the ACLU, the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance, the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, and the law firm Quinn Emanuel—are working to challenge Florida’s unconstitutional law in court and have asked a judge to block the law from going into effect on July 1.The Florida law will not keep Floridians safe. It instead codifies and expands housing discrimination against people of Asian descent—something expressly forbidden by the Fair Housing Act. It will also put a burden of suspicion on anyone with a name that sounds vaguely Asian (not to mention Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian), perpetuating racist stereotypes even more.This is history repeating itself: In the early 20th century, politicians used similar justifications to pass “alien land laws” in California and more than a dozen other states prohibiting Chinese and Japanese immigrants from becoming landowners. 

Discriminatory new land laws in Florida and other states around the country could cause immense harm, too. The plaintiffs in our lawsuit are Chinese immigrants who live, work, study, and raise families in Florida—but they will soon be prohibited from purchasing real estate there. Zhiming Xu, is a Chinese citizen who lives in Florida and came to the U.S. after fleeing political persecution in China. Earlier this year, Xu signed a contract to purchase a new home near Orlando, with a closing date of September 2023. But because of Florida’s law, he will be forced to cancel the contract, putting both his deposit and his dreams for the future in jeopardy.In addition to imposing economic harms on immigrants and their communities, the law fuels discrimination and xenophobia. DeSantis and the Florida legislature have sent a clear message: The state believes home ownership by Chinese citizens is a threat to national security. This view is racist and baseless. Just as there was no actual evidence to justify the alien land laws of an earlier era, there is no evidence of any actual national security harm resulting from real estate ownership by Chinese people in Florida.At a time when one in two Asian Americans report feeling unsafe in the U.S. due to their ethnicity and nearly 80% don’t feel they fully belong or are accepted, Florida’s leaders have a responsibility to the people who live there to do better. Until they do, we’ll see them in court.Read the Time article: https://bit.ly/43QtTHZ



National Media Network - Summary of Inaugural Roundtable


During the APA Justice monthly meeting on April 3, 2023, Paula Madison proposed a proactive and assertive national media alert network for the Asian American community.  On April 17, 2023, APA Justice hosted a virtual by-invitation-only Inaugural Roundtable for two purposes:

  1. Assertively address immediate xenophobic challenges to our freedoms

  2. Consider longer-term proactive actions to ensure fairness and justice for all, including the AAPI and immigrant communities

The Asian American and immigrant communities are in turbulent times again, facing enormous cross-cutting challenges for many years to come.  The Inaugural Roundtable is intended to be a diverse and inclusive "big tent" with additional participants and observers to build an organic, focused and structured approach.  In essence, our communities lacks an infrastructure to address issues, and we need to build one that is diverse, sustainable, and ready.In addition to APA Justice as the host, 11 organizations were invited to speak at the  Roundtable.  About 100 individuals and representatives of additional groups registered, attended, or spoke during the Q&A session of the online event.Three rounds of questions were asked of each Roundtable member, followed by discussions.  The floor was then opened to all participants and observers.

The discussions covered a wide variety of issues and perspectives such as the historical and current state for the Asian American and immigrant communities including societal racism and bias; the need to combat stereotypes and to accentuate the contributions with education and sustainable actions; the positive and negative roles of the media in addressing recent events; understanding and exercising our constitutional and civil rights; the fundamental divide between the scientific and law enforcement perspectives; the importance of avoiding silos and building bonds and enduring relationships; the potential actions and use of technology to reach out across generational, racial, and industry boundaries; the establishment of strategies, unity, and readiness to change narratives and address immediate and anticipated issues; training and calling for strike teams and a bureau of well-versed speakers ready for action on short notice; and filing lawsuits and taking legal actions to fight injustice.

At the conclusion of the Roundtable, Paula quoted Desmond Tutu, “there is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”  She summarized her observations and suggested follow-up actions that include:

  • Organize and provide media training

  • Reach out and build allies

  • Create a playbook

  • Identify a group of speakers ready to speak

  • Employ playbook and deploy strike teams

APA Justice has created a web page to cover the continuing development of this national media network: https://bit.ly/46iOshL



Lessons Learned: Building Unity and Allies


1.  Vincent Chin and the Asian American Civil Rights Movement

On June 23, 2023, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) members issued a press release to mark the 41st anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese American mistaken to be Japanese who was killed in an act of hate in Detroit.  His killing sparked Asian American communities to rise up for justice.  The Vincent Chin Institute was launched on April 26, 2023, along with a free online Vincent Chin Legacy Guide in multiple languages including English, Arabic, Bengali, and Chinese (traditional and simplified). In May 1984, Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared in San Francisco Chinatown with Vincent Chin's mother, Lily Chin. As he took the stage, he said, "Our hearts are made heavy by a mother who sits here with us, whose son was brutally killed, just because he was. What can we do in the aftermath?" In his speech, he drew parallels between Emmett Till's lynching and Vincent Chin's murder, showing just how similar the struggles of both communities were and the need to "redefine America." Two of the recommendations of the Vincent Chin Legacy Guide authored by Helen Zia are:

  • Be a courageous ally.  Call out anti-Asian hate for what it is: anti-Asian bias, intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, racism, bigotry.  It's not anti-Asian "sentiment."

  • Support solidarity movements of people of color and people of conscience to fight systemic racism and other forms of institutionalized inequity.

Read the Vincent Chin Legacy Guidehttps://bit.ly/3LlhTWy


2.  Inclusion Within The Asian American Community 

According to the Migration Policy Institute on January 12, 2023, the 1965 removal of barriers for non-European immigrants to the U.S. was a game changer for increasing immigration, as were relaxed emigration controls by China in 1978 and improved U.S.-China relations. The number of Chinese immigrants residing in the U.S. nearly doubled from 1980 to 1990, and again by 2000.  Since then, the population has continued growing at a slower but still rapid pace. According to a June 2022 report by AAPIData, the majority of Asians and multi-racial Asian adults and adult citizens in the US is foreign born, with both numbers being above 60% for either group.  About two-thirds of those of Chinese origin were born outside of the U.S.In "A Note To Asian-American Activists About New Arrivals" published by Huffington Post on March 18, 2017, Frank Wu -- Author, Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White and current President of Queens College of City University of New York -- observed a divide: To us [those who are either born in the U.S. or immigrants from many decades ago], they are very Asian. To them [new arrivals in the last 35-40 years], we are very American. But it need not be 'us' versus 'them.'"Wu implored Asian American activists to reach out to the "new arrivals."  “We have to give [new arrivals] space too. We would be hypocrites otherwise,” he wrote.  "It is important to sustain coalitions. We fought for a 'seat at the table.' It would be wrong for us to be any less than wholeheartedly welcoming to those who look like us."

"If Asian Americans want the concept of 'Asian American' to last another generation, we must figure out how to engage with all who belong to an artificial, fragile category. The failure of the movement will be on us. We must come together."


3.  2023/08/26 March on Washington 

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered what would become one of the most influential speeches in history, proclaiming to the world, "I Have a Dream."  More than a quarter million people participated in the event.  According to the Anti-Defamation League, a coalition is organizing an in-person March on Washington on the 60th anniversary of the event.  Read the ADL announcement for the event: https://bit.ly/3pflxug


4. African American History is American History

According to a Zocalo essay by Stacy Braukman, in 1956, Florida’s state legislature established a committee in 1956 to investigate legal infractions by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as any links that the organization might have to subversive groups. The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee was led by state senator Charley Johns first targeted the NAACP.  Spying on and harassing members, the Johns Committee held a series of public hearings in which they tried to show that the organization was breaking the law, that it had been infiltrated by communists, and that social equality (a euphemism for interracial marriage) was its true aim. In an effort to fight the influences it saw transforming society, the Johns Committee would turn into a vehicle for identifying, interrogating, and removing homosexuals from schools and universities, while also attacking other groups it believed were threatening traditional American values.The broad targeting of groups and manipulation of public fear in the face of cultural change emerged as a set of strategies is still in use today.  On June 19, 2023, a podcast by MSNBC's Deja News examined how the NAACP effectively fought back in the 1950s and asked what we can learn as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a new war on wokeness [dictionary definition: a state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality]. 

June 19, Juneteenth Day, is a federal holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.On June 21, 2023, Tampa Bay Times reported on "A protest on wheels: ‘Stay Woke Florida!’ tour makes stop in Tampa."  A statewide bus tour aimed at voter registration and community advocacy rolled into Tampa as organizers worked to combat education initiatives they say are adversely affecting people of color and the LGBTQ+ population.  The “Stay Woke Florida!” bus tour is an effort among several groups.  Key among the issues the groups were protesting: a new law banning the instruction of critical race theory, decisions to remove certain books from school shelves, regulations prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom and the state’s defunding of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.  Read the Tampa Bay Times report: https://bit.ly/42WvdHJ



U.S. Anti-China Land Laws Draw Fear of Asian Hate Ahead of 2024 Vote


On June 24, 2023, Nikkei Asia reported on a wave of legislation in several U.S. states that aims to block real estate purchases by Chinese citizens that has many Chinese Americans dreading next year's presidential campaign cycle, fearing another rise of anti-Asian sentiment and hate crimes against the community.Based on data provided by APA Justice, 11 states have such laws in place as of June.  Positioned as measures to guard against hostile foreign influence, those bills block property or land purchases by citizens from "countries of concern," effectively singling out Chinese citizens. Florida had roughly 100,000 people of Chinese descent living in the state in 2021, of whom 73% are foreign-born immigrants.  The land law will not only heavily impact the Chinese community but also the Asian population in the state.Steven Pei and Jeremy Wu of APA Justice and Robert Sakaniwa of APIAVote were interviewed for the report.


  • Steven Pei said he is not subject to this law but is very concerned about its effects.¶  Major real estate companies have drawn up contracts to reflect the new law. "There were people here with H1-B visas [who] had their agreement with the company canceled, the impact is real," he said, referring to visas for high-skilled college-educated foreign workers.¶  "Because you identified these countries in the bill, you put a target on our back as well," Pei continued.¶  "Most Asian American communities will suffer different degrees of collateral damage," Pei said, predicting anti-China rhetoric on the campaign trail for the 2024 presidential election.


  • Jeremy Wu sees the rush of land bills as evidence of volatile times ahead for Chinese Americans.¶  "We are, again, seeing the tension between the U.S. and another Asian country," he said.¶  Wu sees the rush of land bills as evidence of volatile times ahead for Chinese Americans.  "We are, again, seeing the tension between the U.S. and another Asian country."¶  Wu cited a confluence of factors that have contributed to the political headwinds facing the community -- international tension that tends to stoke racism, aggressive prosecution of suspected Chinese spies under the former China Initiative, political polarization, as well as Asian Americans' history of being scapegoated.¶  "I think they all come together and we are facing another peak of turbulent times," he said. "And it may be here for quite a few years."¶  "I am very alarmed by it, I think these issues will hit another peak in 2024 because of the election," said Wu. "But even after 2024, I see the tension continuing [because of] the one-upmanship between the two parties, who is going to be tougher than the other."¶  "National security is important, but it should not dominate or scapegoat groups of people in our society... Some are newer immigrants, some will become naturalized citizens," Wu added.


  • Robert Sakaniwa said, "I think it creates a big dilemma [for the conservative demographic], they will reevaluate and see who is pushing and supporting this type of discriminatory law, who is working with the communities to put a stop to this type of legislation.  I think this issue has risen to a top tier issue because it [concerns] whether a person feels like they belong in this country."¶  "Most voters are driven by health care, education and the economy, but if you're not considered a part of the society in the political process, then you have no voice for all the other issues," Sakaniwa said.


Read the Nikkei Asia report:  https://s.nikkei.com/44hPuJa Do laws preventing Chinese from buying US land even make sense?  According to Responsible Statecraft on June 20, 2023, using competition with — and fear of — China as a justification for legislation that touches on virtually all aspects of American life has become the norm in Washington. The total number of bills in which the word “China” is cited during the current session of Congress is rapidly approaching 400. The trend is alive and well at the state level as well. Florida and North Dakota are among the more than two dozen that have passed or considered legislation restricting Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland in the past few months.  Similar legislation is being taken up in the U.S. Congress.  The explicit goal of this kind of legislation is two-fold. One is food security. The second is couched in national security, citing the alleged threat of Chinese nationals buying farm land near U.S. military bases, which could be used “as a launching pad for espionage.” As Reid Smith, vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, recently put it, these and other similar efforts are often “a solution in search of a problem.” Foreign entities currently own approximately three percent of all privately owned farmland in the country. Of this total, Chinese nationals hold less than one percent, with a total of about 400,000 acres. Advocates for U.S. farmers say that blaming Chinese and other foreign nationals for food insecurity misdiagnoses the true root of the problem, which they say is the rapid increase over the last 15 years in agricultural land ownership by wealthy individuals, pension funds, and multinational corporations. “Our concern is really focused on the corporatization of agricultural land, and the impacts and implications of that for local food systems for farmer livelihoods,” Jordan Treakle, the National Programs and Policy Coordinator at the National Family Farm Coalition, told Responsible Statecraft.  He noted that Bill Gates is the nation’s largest private farmland owner, and the U.S.-based financial services company TIAA is the largest corporate farmland holder. “So it’s been quite disappointing to see this issue of foreign government or foreign person, agricultural land investment be raised in what we see as a pretty xenophobic way.” 


Even if there are some legitimate concerns about foreign ownership of agricultural land, some of the proposed solutions are so sweeping that activists fear that the rhetoric will only fuel growing anti-Asian sentiment in the country, as expressed by the nonprofit Asian Texans for Justice, when a like-minded bill passed in the Texas state senate last month.  “We are disappointed that the Texas Senate has passed SB147 on the Senate floor. Since November, the rhetoric used in discussing this legislation has been rooted in xenophobia and racism. No amendments can undo the harm already caused to the AAPI community in Texas.” 



News and Activities for the Communities


1.  2023/07/06 President's Advisory Commission on AANHPI Public Meeting

The President's Advisory Commission on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) will hold its next meeting, the sixth of a series, on July 6, 2023 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The meeting serves to continue the development of recommendations to promote equity, justice, and opportunity for the AANHPI communities.  It is open to the public and will be live streamed.  The Commission seeks written comments that may be emailed to AANHPICommission@hhs.gov at any time.  Individuals may also submit a request to provide oral public comments.For details, directions, and registration, visithttps://bit.ly/3NqpQMB.DrRobert Underwood, a member of the Commission, also urges all of us to feel free to communicate with him directly at anacletus2010@gmail.com.  Read his remarks at the APA Justice monthly meeting: https://bit.ly/3qogBU1. Watch his remarks at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIrq1hfl4A (video 11:48 to 25:21)


2.  New York City schools to teach AAPI heritage under new curriculum

According to CBS News New York on May 26, 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a new curriculum that teaches students about the history, culture and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  Teachers will use a guide that includes profiles of Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. to launch a pilot program in social studies and literacy units:  https://bit.ly/3XnwNBkRead and watch the CBS News New York reporthttps://cbsn.ws/3Nkmh9z

June 25, 2023

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