AAPI

Monday

Bethany Mandel

Is your kid ready for a phone? AT&T thinks so

What would it do to the credibility of the American Heart Association to accept a sponsorship deal with McDonald’s to give nutritional advice? What about the American Lung Association taking cash from a tobacco company to talk about healthy habits? It sounds far-fetched, but that’s exactly what the American Academy of Pediatrics just did.   Healthy Children, the official parenting website of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has sent out a few tweets that read: “Are you considering a cell phone for your child? What age is the right age? Find out by answering ten short questions.” The link is a co-branded campaign between Healthy Children and the cell phone company AT&T.

phone at&t

Monday

Cockburn

Does your mass shooting suit my worldview?

In the wake of Saturday’s horrific shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in the heavily Asian neighborhood of Monterey Park, California, Democratic lawmakers sprang into action, speculating that the violence may have been racially motivated. Hours later it emerged that the shooter was himself also Asian. The frequency of mass killings in this country is harrowing. But Cockburn finds such tragedies are made all the more gruesome when politicians so often jump ahead of the facts, ascribing motivations or reasons to the violence that are politically beneficial to them or fit their ideological framework. Representative Adam Schiff, for example, pegged “bigotry towards AAPI individuals as a possible motive.

monterey

Monday

Casey Chalk

AAPI, an incoherent identity

May is Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which if you work for the government or for woke capitalists, you probably already knew. It’s a time, we are told, not only to celebrate the achievements of Asian Americans, but as HR departments and Diversity, Inclusion and Equity offices declare, to help us understand the racism Asian Americans face as “persons of color.” One such example of the many trials and tribulations endured by Asian Americans as objects of micro-aggressive racist behavior is what a 2021 New York Times article referred to as “The Cost of Being an ‘Interchangeable Asian.’” This apparently occurs when non-Asians misidentify one Asian for another Asian, typically in the workplace.

aapi

Sunday

Cockburn

Biden’s cynical BTS ploy

President Biden is meeting with the K-Pop band BTS on Tuesday, ostensibly to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes. To Cockburn, who tends to be a bit cynical, it looks more like part of a government trend to appeal to Generation Z in the most blatant way imaginable.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with bringing in celebrities to talk about serious issues (which both Obama and Trump did while in office), it seems suspiciously as if the Biden administration only invites the most popular stars in order to serve its own agenda. Normally presidential puppets would come in the form of fellow politicians, but when dealing with mass-market public figures like TikTokkers or other internet celebrities, the move comes off as shallow and deceitful.

bts