March 10, 2021 Let's not let our leaders drive a wedge between us
Director john a. powell published a new piece today addressing anti-Asian violence and bias. The piece offers historical context to frame the recent attacks on Asians widely reported in the media, and cautions against adopting an overly simplistic tale of a racial conflict pitting the Black community against the Asian community. He writes:
"It is very clear that anti-Asian attacks and bias exist today as they have for a long time, and should be widely condemned, no matter who the culprits are. We must also not ignore the reality that there is and can be tension between any two marginalized communities, including Blacks and Asians. ... We need a new story where we all can contribute and co-create, one that acknowledges our respective suffering, and that insists that we all belong not because we agree, but because we care and we are human."
Podcast: The economic case for a $15 minimum wage In the latest episode of our Who Belongs? podcast we hear about the economic benefits of raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour from Michael Reich, a Professor of Economics and Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley. Reich is a leading expert on minimum wage research and has published extensively on the topic, including a recent study on how minimum wage hikes reduce racial wage gaps between Black and white workers. Listen to the interview here.
Join us this Friday, March 12 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET for a panel discussion, titled: "Trumpism and its Discontents," featuring influential UC Berkeley scholars who will offer a deep and crucial examination of the political conditions that led to the rise of Donald Trump and the consequences of his presidency on US society and the world.
Speakers include:
ICYMI: Infecting the COVID-19 Response and Corrupting Democracy
Last week we broadcast our latest installment of our #RiseUp4Justice livestream series, where a panel of organizers and scholars, each from a different region of the country, discussed how the far-right is using the pandemic to exacerbate racial othering and undermine democracy. They included OBI Associate Director Denise Herd; Sky Allen from Inland Empowerment, Art Reyes from We the People Michigan, and moderator Phi Nguyen from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. Watch a recording of the event, and read news coverage of it in the DailyCal.
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