https://1882foundation.orgwww.youtube.com/watch?v=WYUcCCNbOoo&list=PLoVpxK4FZ1bkFP54JnV1XeY5iLdigbIJJ&index=13
This past November, 1882 Foundation associates Mia and Gabi traveled to New York City to attend the Council of Jewish American Museums (CAJM)’s annual conference, gathering in-person for the first time in several years. The conference was entitled “Re/Imagining: The Future of Culturally Specific Museums” and was produced in partnership with the Association of African American Museums (AAAM). Over the three days, we were able to visit the Jewish Museum, the New York Historical Society, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. On each day, panels addressed key questions and frontiers in the field of culturally-specific museums, including barriers of representation, inclusivity, and justice. Museum field trips through the conference also took us to the Asia Society, el Museo de Barrio, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum at Eldridge Street, illuminating the vast museums network only found in New York City. CAJM’s collaboration with AAAM also emphasized the importance of challenging the term ‘culturally specific’ with regards to a huge range of identities, with representation from Black, Indigenous, Asian American, Latinx and queer museums and museum professionals.
We were grateful to attend this conference on a generous scholarship from CAJM and for the opportunity to meet many peers both in and out of the museums industry.
https://1882foundation.orgwww.youtube.com/watch?v=VWhpVen6OqY&feature=youtu.be
Description: In the second session of 1882 Symposium VIII, panelists discuss ways in which museums and businesses work together to build community and fight for social justice.
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Date: 6/4/2021
Format: MP4
Language: English
Identifier: 2021/01
May 31 marked the first-ever National Day of Solidarity Against AAPI Hate. Thousands gathered in major cities across the country to protest against anti-Asian violence that has swept the nation. A flagship rally was held in Washington, D.C., and featured numerous public figures including singer KHA, who performed her original song, “NO MORE,” as a call for the Asian Pacific American community to unite against racism.
These nationwide rallies were planned for the last day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time dedicated to celebrating this community’s history and contributions to this country. The month commemorates the first Japanese immigrants to arrive in the United States in May 1843, as well as the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in May 1869, for which Chinese immigrants played a major role. Coincidentally, May 18 also marked what would have been the 66th birthday of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man murdered by white autoworkers who blamed the Japanese for stealing jobs.
Asians have lived in North America for almost five centuries, but most public schools do not teach their complex histories. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, many Americans perceive them as perpetual foreigners, inherently different and never truly fitting in. Over time, as Asians increasingly settled in the United States, anti-Asian sentiments spiked in waves, culminating in violence that seems all too familiar today. Over the past year and a half, the reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate has recorded more than 6,600 incidents of hate and discrimination, a number that is predicted to rise as the country opens up and restrictions are lifted.
One of the most egregious attacks happened in March, when a shooter opened fire at three Atlanta spas. Eight were killed, including six Asian women. In a press conference afterwards, the sheriff’s office spokesman seemingly dismissed racial motivation as a cause, describing the shooter as having both a “sex addiction” and “a really bad day.” This racial gaslighting demonstrates the legacy of the United States’ 150-year-old history of hypersexualizing Asian women. It also evokes the broader context of obscured racial tension within this country.
The Atlanta shootings sparked plans for the National Day of Solidarity Against AAPI Hate, which was aptly scheduled to conclude Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Perhaps the month’s activism has encouraged Americans to engage with Asian cultures more thoughtfully. Some suggestions are to dine at Asian-owned restaurants and learn about how anti-immigration laws pressured their growth. Listen to Asian Pacific American music artists and read about the struggles of undocumented immigrants like Tereza Lee, an accomplished pianist who inspired the proposal of the original DREAM Act. Support businesses that employ Asian workers and reflect on the lives lost in the recent Atlanta and Indianapolis shootings.
Asian cultures are not here to be blindly consumed without respecting Asian people. This is our home, and as KHA sang during the rally, “We’re gonna rise up and stand our ground.”
This piece originally appeared in Maryland Matters. The writer is an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Growing up in Potomac, Maryland, I looked forward to the blooming flowers that hail spring in our region. But the Yoshino cherry blossom trees surrounding Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin reached peak bloom earlier than expected this year. Whereas the fourth and fifth stages of the blossom cycle tend to stretch over ten days, the unusually warm weather sped them up to only four.
According to the National Park Service, this is the fastest that the trees have moved through these stages in the last thirty years, matched only in 2015. Peak bloom, which describes when 70% of the cherry blossoms are open, began four days ahead of schedule on March 28th. Kyoto, Japan’s peak bloom began two days prior on March 26th, the earliest in over 1,200 years.
All signs point to global warming as the cause of this early peak. Through a process called the greenhouse effect, carbon and other atmospheric gases naturally warm the earth by absorbing and reflecting heat. Recent human activity has increased carbon emissions, however, causing worldwide temperatures to rise by an average of 1.33°F over the last century. While this shift may seem insignificant, it has had dramatic environmental consequences.
With President Biden in office, Democrats are hopeful that there will be action on climate change. Still, one part of their strategy might be missing. Although some may not initially associate Asian Americans with environmentalism, a 2016 National Asian American Survey poll found that 76% of Asian Americans favor stricter emissions policies to address climate change. This is 12 percentage points above the national average of 64%. Support among individual Asian American ethnic groups such as Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian is even greater, reaching as high as 89%.