Sacramento coronavirus forum on facts and discrimination + Grant aids census outreach: Your AAPI Newsletter
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It is Wednesday, March 4, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter.
Here’s a recap on the stories I recently covered and issues I’m following:
A community forum to discuss facts on the coronavirus and to help prevent unwarranted discrimination toward the Asian community regarding COVID-19 will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Sacramento State University Ballroom. Speakers include Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, Department of Health Services director Peter Beilenson and other health experts.
A group of doctors, physicians and engineers called the Medical Urgency Alliance in the Sacramento Area voluntarily work together to inform the Chinese community in Northern California about public health issues on Chinese social media WeChat.
The doctors began offering the Chinese community the information about the virus and prevention measures through a newsletter – written in Chinese using plainspoken, straightforward language – based on the CDC guidelines.
That was how the first Sacramento County patient, who was diagnosed earlier this month two weeks after returning from a trip to China and contacted a local doctor for assistance, screening and testing.
A grant for census outreach in the Asian Pacific Islander communities in Sacramento announced its winners last week.
The grant, called the APIs Rise Fund, is a local group that aims “to increase the capacity and impact of Asian Pacific Islander philanthropic giving” in the Sacramento region. The money was raised via crowdfunding. Those who contributed can vote for grant winners. As of 2014, about $140,000 has been raised through community efforts, said Christine Tien, the fund’s co-chair. Here’s how the four winning organizations plan to do their outreach with the grants.
In other news
Asians make up 43 percent of immigrant eligible voters in California, the highest of any racial or ethnic group, as compared to Latinos making up the higher share nationwide. [Pew Research Center]
Dianne Feinstein warns of “a rise in racism” against Asian-Americans due to coronavirus [The Sacramento Bee]
Sacramento Chinese restaurant owners worry coronavirus fear is hurting business [The Sacramento Bee]
Fear grows as the Trump administration moves to deport Laotian refugees and the government is already funding a reintegration program to assist people who have been deported to Laos in recent years [The Fresno Bee]
Suicide was the top cause of death among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders aged 15 to 24 in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the highest among all ethnicities. [South China Morning Post]
There is no option for Taiwanese Americans to identify their race in the 2020 census, only an “other box.” A campaign says it’s not enough [The Hill]
For things to do in Sacramento and beyond, check out a temporary exhibition that chronicles the life and work of Los Angeles-based photographer Toyo Miyatake, who was incarcerated at Manzanar. His works documented the life of Japanese Americans during World War II behind barbed wire. The exhibition will be held at the California Museum through April 5.
The Iu-Mien student conference for high school students is going to be held March 11 at Sacramento State, where there will be food, as well as cultural and educational workshops.
What stories would you like to read about? Send your story to me at tyu@sacbee.com.
That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading!
