While GOP presidential contenders duked it out Wednesday in Miami over who would be more anti-China, Chinatowns across the US are fighting for their survival. The Sing Tao Daily reports that activists and residents gathered this week in New York for a screening of the film, “Big Fight in Little Chinatown,” which documents the struggle to preserve these historic neighborhoods in cities across North America. Threats include the development of a sporting arena in Philadelphia and plans for the world’s “tallest prison” in New York’s Chinatown, among others. Rising costs alongside the lingering effects of the pandemic, the rise in anti-Asian hate, and an aging community are all putting pressure on neighborhoods popular with locals and tourists alike. And yet, as one man tells filmmakers, “Chinatown is not a museum. We live here.”
The ‘invisible diaspora’
An impressive two-part investigative reporting project from Spanish-language La Prensa looks at the near total invisibility of Puerto Ricans currently behind bars in the United States mainland, home to more Puerto Ricans than Puerto Rico itself. According to the article, Puerto Rican inmates often disappear behind the Department of Corrections’ broad-brush racial/ethnic categorizations for the prison population, White, Black, Latino, Other. Many Puerto Ricans identify as either White or Black, and not necessarily as Latino, La Prensa notes. The lack of concrete data makes it impossible to determine the rates at which Puerto Ricans are arrested and imprisoned compared to their overall population.
Fault lines deepen over Israel-Hamas war
In San Francisco, a mural calling attention to Israel’s bombing of Gaza has roiled tempers in one neighborhood, reports the Jewish News of Northern California, reflecting the bitter divides now tearing at the social and political fabric of communities and nations worldwide in the wake of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rafael Mandalman, whose Board of Supervisors district includes the Noe Valley neighborhood, told the paper that as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, “I have my own feelings” about the mural, though he acknowledges that the area is “home to people with relatives on all sides of this conflict.” Five billboards, meanwhile, put up by the group JewBelong that call attention to antisemitism have been defaced in the Bay Area this year.
Across the Bay in Richmond, a resolution condemning Israel has the city’s Jewish residents worried for their safety, reports the Richmond Pulse. This is going to drive Jews out of Richmond,” Rabbi Jill Zimmerman told the paper. “I’m locking my doors, more than before. I’m not kidding.” Richmond’s City Council passed the resolution on Oct. 25 condemning Israel for what it called the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in the territory.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders turned out en masse in Washington DC this past weekend to voice support for Palestinians, reports AsAm News. Tens of thousands took to the streets carrying banners in a number of languages, including Korean, Chinese, Tagalog and Hindi. “The images and videos of military destruction activate the intergenerational trauma in our refugee community,” read a statement from one of the march’s organizers, VietLead. “We think about our parents who have survived war in improvised refugee camps, of our lands and people suffering from the lasting impact of mass bombings and chemical warfare, of Khmer families and elders who had to live through genocide.”
Running for Black maternal health
Black women in America are four times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women. That alarming statistic and her own personal experience are what drove Brooklyn resident Tricia Quartey-Sagaille, 42, to run last week’s NYC Marathon and to dedicate her race to turning those numbers around. “What I’m running for is that awareness, because I was petrified,” Quartey-Sagaille told Amsterdam News of her own pregnancy. “I know that socioeconomic status doesn’t matter and me being a doctor doesn’t matter. So yeah, I was afraid.”
More Indians plan to retire in India
A growing number of Indians say they plan to invest and retire in India, according to India Currents. After settling in countries including the US, Australia, Canada or the UK for work or educational opportunities, a new poll finds that a majority plan to return to India for their golden years. That’s a shift from previous decades. Many city the lower cost of living along with social and family connections as major factors.
Honoring a disability rights champion
Finally, from the Korea Daily, a story about Stacey Park Milbern, a queer disability activist who advocated for people of color and queer and trans people to be included in the broader disability rights movement. Park Milbern died in 2020 from health complications. To honor her legacy, she will be among five women to appear on the reverse side of the US quarter in 2025, part of the US Mint’s American Women Quarters Program. Park Milbern is the first Korean American to be featured on US currency.
