Sacramento’s anti-Asian hate resolution + Teacher uses slant eyes: Your AAPI newsletter

It is Thursday, March 4, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter.

Here’s a recap of the stories I’ve covered and ones I’m following:

Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang announced in a Tuesday morning news conference she would introduce a resolution to the City Council condemning anti-Asian hate and laying out strategies to keep Asian American and Pacific Islander residents safe.

“I want to affirm to our Asian American community, our businesses, our families, our elders, that you are not alone,” Vang said. “We are not alone, and we are here together to say we will not be targets of any form of hate.”

Joining Vang outside Mad Butcher Meat Company on Florin Perkins Road were Mayor Darrell Steinberg, City Councilmen Eric Guerra and Rick Jennings, Sacramento API Regional Network co-director Lee Lo and Pastor Les Simmons. Vang will introduce the resolution during tonight’s City Council meeting for a vote at next Tuesday’s meeting.

In addition to the resolution, Vang also called for the city to partner with the AAPI community for culturally appropriate data collection, to acknowledge the specific experiences of AAPI residents and how systemic barriers can discourage reporting anti-Asian discrimination and to invest in community-based intervention to keep people safe.

“When you have a society that don’t acknowledge the harm and trauma of Asian American experience, then what ends up happening is that you create a climate that excuses hateful acts,” Vang said.

A Grant High School teacher was recorded using slant eyes — an offensive racist stereotype of Asians — to depict Chinese and Japanese people during a lesson last Thursday.

In a video obtained by The Sacramento Bee, the teacher, identified by multiple sources as Nicole Burkett, stretches her fingers to pull her eyes up and down during a Zoom lesson. Burkett is a Spanish teacher and class of 2022 student advisor.

“If your eyes go up, you’re Chinese,” Burkett said, stretching her eyes out and upwards. “If they go down, they’re Japanese. If they’re just straight, you don’t know.”

Twin Rivers Unified School District spokesperson Zenobia Gerald said in a statement that the video was “shocking” and “disappointing.” The district has opened an investigation into the incident.

“The video ... does not represent the values held by Twin Rivers and the community,” Gerald said in the statement. “An investigation was immediately launched when we were notified about the video. Please know that Twin Rivers is committed to providing all students with a safe and civil learning environment in which all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate any form of racism from any member of our school community.”

Burkett declined to comment. A response from an email address associated with Burkett said: “I have been advised to not make any statements until my union representative gets back to me.”

A mutilated cat left in a box outside a Sacramento butcher shop on Feb. 22 is being investigated by police as a hate crime.

Surveillance footage captured a man pulling a box from his truck outside Mad Butcher Meat Company in South Sacramento before dropping the box on the ground and driving away. The box later discovered by a customer contained the dead cat.

Mad Butcher Meat Company is run by store founders Michael, Diana and daughter Kelly Shum, who are of Chinese descent.

“It is impossible for us to fully discuss this incident without feeling an overwhelming amount of emotion,” store owners stated on social media Tuesday. “Especially with the rise of attacks on Asian-Americans recently, we are shaken and especially disappointed.”

In a statement, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Karl Chan confirmed that detectives are investigating the incident as a bias or hate-related crime, and urged anyone with further information to contact police.

In other news

• Victims of anti-Asian attacks reflect a year into pandemic (The Sacramento Bee)
• Column: How did a home built for Japanese American seniors become the state’s deadliest nursing facility? (Los Angeles Times)

• An Asian American family in O.C. was being harassed. Now their neighbors stand guard (Los Angeles Times)

• ‘Minari’ wins best foreign language film at Golden Globes. Yes, it’s American (Los Angeles Times)
• Why “I love you” is so elusive for Asian immigrant families like mine (Mic)
• Violence against Asian Americans and why ‘hate crime’ should be used carefully (NBC News)
• The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence (The New Yorker)
• New Oakland Chinatown Foot Patrol Forms to Protect Asian American Community (NBC Bay Area)
• He Came From Thailand to Care For Family. Then Came a Brutal Attack. (The New York Times)
• Opinion: Racists are increasingly targeting Asians in Sacramento. It’s time to talk about it (The Sacramento Bee)

This week

This Friday, Sacramento State will be hosting its third annual Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Day, a day to provide AAPI students with encouragement to pursue higher education and provide resources to help them succeed even after college.

The virtual event operates as a series of workshops that start at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. You’re welcome to pick and choose the ones you’d like to attend, which range from info sessions about college scholarships and the application process to career workshops and presentations from job recruiters.

“It is more important than ever for the University to demonstrate its commitment to APIDA students and their families,” said Chao Vang, founder of Project HMONG at Sacramento State and one of the APIDA Day organizers. “We recognize the significant educational disparities that continue to exist in these communities, especially among Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders. This is one way to help APIDA students to feel welcomed when they transition from high school to college.”

More than 800 people attended APIDA Day last year. The keynote speaker this year is Wenda Fong, a Sacramento native and founder of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, one of the biggest organizations for AAPIs working in the entertainment industry.

Fong, who is of Chinese descent, will discuss her academic and career paths, the prejudice she and her family have faced and how she overcame those obstacles to find success.

Other scheduled speakers include Pat Fong Kushida, president and CEO of the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce. You’ll also see an appearance from yours truly at 3 p.m. I’ll be talking to former Sacramento Bee editor Jeannie Wong about how I got into journalism, what being an Asian American in journalism can be like and the importance of telling our own stories.

Registration for the Zoom links and a full schedule can be found on the APIDA Day website.

Got a story suggestion? Please reach out to me at awong@sacbee.com.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

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