Latest news with #anti-Asian
Vancouver Sun
6 days ago
- Vancouver Sun
Opinion: Paying the price of hate: Government security funding should be made permanent
One year ago, Vancouver's Jewish community awoke to shocking news: An individual had poured an accelerant on the front doors of Congregation Schara Tzedeck, the oldest synagogue in the city, and set them ablaze. Thankfully, no one was harmed. And we were grateful that the Vancouver Police Department and elected leaders condemned the attacks and stepped up to support our community. But here we are, a year later. No suspect has been identified and the threats to our community institutions persist. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Incidents like this have become far too common. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, Jewish-owned businesses, homes, schools, and synagogues across Canada have been vandalized, defaced with antisemitic graffiti and, in the most shocking cases, targeted with gunfire. To the public, these may just be dramatic headlines, but for the Jewish community, each incident is a terrifying reminder that the places where our children gather and where our most vulnerable community members access services could be next. This has taken an emotional toll. According to a Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver survey, 93 per cent of respondents feel 'less secure' now than they did before Oct. 7 and, alarmingly, 61 per cent reported struggling with their mental health. There are also significant financial costs to this new reality. Over the past 19 months, the total security costs for Jewish institutions across Metro Vancouver have risen to more than $100,000 a month — an increase of more than 1,300 per cent. That means vital funding no longer goes toward feeding our community's most food-insecure, providing services to seniors, or giving children from families living in poverty a chance to participate in extracurricular activities like sports or summer camps. In Canada, communities should not have to pay to gather safely, yet those targeted by hate are often forced to shoulder these costs. In 2023, the provincial Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General announced a one-time anti-hate community support fund, offering $10,000 grants to organizations representing groups at risk of being targeted by hateful acts. The funding supported 'security equipment, graffiti removal and repairs to damaged property as part of community efforts to respond to hate-motivated crimes.' A further $200,000 in funding to address the rise in security costs for the Jewish community was provided in 2024. These programs have now ended, but the security needs of the community remain. As we saw with the explosion of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic — and now with Oct. 7 and our community — it is inevitable that global events lead to the targeting of local diasporas. Programs like the anti-hate community support fund provide crucial resources that allow vulnerable communities to secure and rebuild their institutions. Notably, this program is funded through civil forfeiture, meaning it does not come at a cost to taxpayers — an important consideration in today's challenging fiscal climate. As the shock of last year's arson fades with time, the threats to our community remain unchanged. That's why the provincial government must make the anti-hate community support fund permanent. Nico Slobinsky is the vice-president, Pacific region, of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ probes top Virginia high school over alleged anti-Asian discrimination in admissions
[Source] The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia over allegations that its Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) discriminated against Asian American students in its admissions process. Driving the news The probe follows a referral from Virginia Atty. Gen. Jason Miyares, who announced on Wednesday that his office found reasonable cause that FCPS violated the Virginia Human Rights Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Internal communications allegedly show school board members acknowledging that its admissions policy overhaul was designed to decrease Asian American admissions, with one writing 'there has been an anti-Asian feel underlying some of this' and another saying the proposal would 'whiten our schools and kick ou[t] Asians.' DOJ Civil Rights Division Chief Harmeet Dhillon confirmed her office will investigate the matter, while the Department of Education separately launched its own Title VI investigation based on Miyares' referral. Trending on NextShark: Catch up In 2020, FCPS replaced TJ's merit-based system that included standardized testing and a $100 application fee with a holistic review process that considers 'experience factors' like special education status, socioeconomic background and English proficiency. Additionally, evaluators were unable to access information about the applicants' race. While the new policy boosted Black and Hispanic enrollment, it saw a sharp decline — from 73% to 54% — in Asian enrollment in just one year. TJ also dropped from the top national ranking to No. 14, with National Merit semifinalists falling from 165 to 81 for the first class admitted under the revised process. Trending on NextShark: Parent group Coalition for TJ sued the school board in January 2022, alleging racial discrimination against Asian American students. A federal judge subsequently found the revised process to be racially discriminatory, but an appeals court reversed that decision, noting that the policy did not disparately impact Asian Americans. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case last year. What the FCPS is saying FCPS defended its policy in response to the latest probe. 'This matter has already been fully litigated. A federal appellate court determined there was no merit to arguments that the admissions policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology discriminates against any group of students,' the school district said, promising a more detailed response in the coming days. Trending on NextShark: This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Trending on NextShark: Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘System collapse:' Trump budget cuts threaten AAPI nonprofits in Bay Area
Growing up low-income in the Mission District in the 2000s, Gina Gutierrez never felt going to college was an option. But in her junior year, Gutierrez met a college adviser from the Japanese Community Youth Council who made her believe she could become the first in her family to attend college. He helped her secure a full ride to San Francisco State, where she graduated in 2011. 'I don't think I would have gone to college if it wasn't for my JCYC adviser intentionally supporting me,' said Gutierrez, now the program director for JCYC's college access programs. But that program — along with many services run by Asian American organizations in the Bay Area — could be eliminated now that federal funds that pay for it are at risk. The Trump administration has aggressively pursued federal budget downsizing. Millions of dollars in federal funds awarded in grants and contracts to Asian American nonprofits in the Bay Area have been cut already or are at risk. Money to help older Asian American adults learn to use digital technology, combat anti-Asian hate and advise low-income tenants facing eviction funding are just some of the funds being slashed. At least five AAPI-serving organizations based in San Francisco have already been notified of at least $5.6 million in federal grant terminations or slated cuts based on Trump's proposed budget. That includes a $2 million grant that the Department of Justice terminated last month for Stop AAPI Hate, the nonprofit formed in the aftermath of the pandemic, which comprised a third of its 2026-27 budget, said Rose Lee, a spokesperson for the group. Lee called the termination a 'direct attack on our ability to fight anti-AAPI hate and serve our communities.' Trump boasted in a White House press release that his proposed budget, released May 2, reduced non-defense discretionary spending by 23% from 2025, while increasing the Department of Homeland Security's budget by 65% for 'repelling the invasion of our border.' Congress decides on discretionary spending each year while mandatory spending is dictated by laws and includes outlays for Social Security and Medicare programs. Trump administration officials justified the cuts as saving taxpayer money through defunding 'the harmful, woke Marxist agenda.' 'For decades, the biggest complaint about the Federal Budget was wasteful spending and bloated bureaucracy,' said Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. 'But over the last four years, Government spending aggressively turned against the American people and trillions of our dollars were used to fund cultural Marxism, radical Green New Scams, and even our own invasion.' But nonprofits that have relied on federal grants and funding to maintain a social safety net said the federal government is cutting essential services. Cally Wong, executive director of the API Council, a 57-member coalition of nonprofit organizations in San Francisco, said the situation is 'scary,' and she is taking stock of how many members have already experienced cuts or are expecting cuts given the congressional budget proposals. 'I think you're going to see a system that's going to collapse,' she said. California Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla both said they are 'using every tool' to fight back against the Trump administration's proposed reduction in services. 'Unfortunately, the Trump administration has prioritized funding cuts across federal agencies specifically meant to uplift historically marginalized groups like the AAPI community,' Padilla said. Democrats have argued that Trump's budget cuts are funding tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while Trump said it would reduce taxes for all Americans. Malcolm Yeung, executive director of Chinatown Community Development Center, which owns and manages about 3,600 units of affordable housing for 6,000 people across the city, said the federal government has withheld about $85,000 of what's called 'continuum of care' HUD funding to support services for formerly homeless people at one building. To get the funding, San Francisco must agree to federal demands on immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion. City Attorney David Chiu has filed a lawsuit to challenge the move, which he called 'illegal' demands. Yeung said the nonprofit is drawing from its financial reserves to make up for the cuts but that solution is 'not sustainable if the cuts scale up.' Under Trump's proposed budget, the nonprofit is also expecting to lose about $530,000 in community development block grants, which paid for youth job readiness training, services for single-room occupancy hotel residents and tenants at Chinatown's Ping Yuen public housing complex as well as housing counselling to help tenants facing eviction or hazardous housing conditions. Trump officials justified a $3.3 billion reduction in block grant funding by saying it is 'poorly targeted' and 'used for a variety of projects that the Federal Government should not be funding, such as improvement projects at a brewery, a plaza for concerts, and skateboard parks,' according to a budget document. Yeung is most concerned about potentially losing a significant chunk of the $35 million it receives annually in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rental housing operating subsidies. 'I think we're in a bigger moment of change than is being discussed,' Yeung said. 'For real people out there, they built their lives around a form of federal government invested in social safety nets that help people to live.' Chinese Culture Center, a legacy institution in San Francisco Chinatown, was notified in April that the National Endowment for the Humanities was terminating a $115,000 grant to document Chinatown's cultural heritage, executive director Jenny Leung said. Leung said the project would have recorded Chinatown's intangible cultural assets, such as local Cantonese opera groups, hobby artists, and oral storytelling, that often aren't preserved in formal archives. The termination letter said that the project 'no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities,' Leung said. The nonprofit also was told that an almost $200,000 Institute of Museum and Library Services grant for training workers and a $50,000 grant for an Artists in Residence program were being revoked, the result of a Trump executive order to reduce federal bureaucracy that Trump 'deems unnecessary.' Twenty one states sued over the order. Although the grants were technically reinstated due to a preliminary injunction this week, the Trump administration is appealing and Leung said she isn't counting on the funds being actually disbursed. Leung said she is adjusting to a new reality where federal grants — which comprised up to 30% of the nonprofit's funding — may be gone. 'I'm anticipating half of the nonprofits in the next three to five years will not be there,' she said. 'I think it'll have a very devastating effect on the API community.' Winnie Yu, chief programs officer at the nonprofit Self Help for the Elderly, said she thinks the federal government has signaled it does not prioritize funding services for older adults. 'What we fear is that more cuts are coming,' Yu said. Her nonprofit, which is about 22% federally funded, already lost a grant for $200,000 annually for four years to help low-income Asian American older adults learn to use digital technology. Japanese Community Youth Council will lose $2.6 million in funding from the Department of Education under President Trump's current proposed budget. That money funds about 30 staff who provide college advising and preparation services for about 3,000 San Francisco public school students annually, a majority of whom are low-income youth who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Gutierrez, the program director for JCYC's college access programs, said that the program she now runs made her success possible. Right as she was starting her junior year in high school, her mom died. One of her brothers was in prison and the other was suffering from bipolar disorder. She was taken in by an aunt. She imagined she'd have to start work right out of high school. Instead, she went to college thanks to the help she got in writing her scholarship application essay. 'We really do change students' lives,' Gutierrez said. 'Programs like these are truly valuable. They are a force to be reckoned with and if we lose something like that, it's going to drastically affect the community, students and possibly generations ahead.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stop AAPI Hate calls $2 million grant termination by DOJ an 'authoritarian overreach'
[Source] The Department of Justice has terminated a $2 million grant to Stop AAPI Hate alongside funding for 33 other community organizations as part of a sweeping cutback of federal justice programs under the Trump administration. 'Lifeline' lost: In a statement on May 9, Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks anti-Asian hate incidents, condemned the termination as 'an act of authoritarian overreach' that is 'unconstitutional, unjust and targeted.' The nonprofit noted the timing during AAPI Heritage Month, connecting the decision to Trump as 'the same figure who, five years ago, ignited an unprecedented wave of anti-Asian hate and violence with his racist rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic.' The group emphasized that the canceled funding was 'not a luxury,' but a 'lifeline' for communities facing hate. What the group does: Founded in March 2020 by AAPI Equity Alliance, Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University's Asian American Studies Department, Stop AAPI Hate created an online reporting system that went viral amid rising COVID-19-related racism. Today, the coalition continues its work as the country's largest reporting center tracking anti-AAPI hate acts while advocating for 'comprehensive solutions that tackle the root causes of race-based hate.' The big picture: The terminated grant was part of a broader purge affecting 373 DOJ grants initially valued at approximately $820 million, with an estimated $500 million in remaining balances rescinded. The cuts reportedly began in April and span 37 states, affecting both blue and red ones. The DOJ, for its part, has justified the terminations, stating the work 'no longer effectuates Department priorities,' which now focus on 'combatting violent crime, protecting American children and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault.' Trending on NextShark: Despite the funding loss, Stop AAPI Hate says it remains committed to its mission and 'more determined than ever to fight for our communities and our democracy.' This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Trending on NextShark: Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Trending on NextShark: Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Expert reveals how companies are rebranding 'toxic' DEI policies to skirt Trump-era bans: 'New wrapper'
EXCLUSIVE: As the Trump administration and Republicans across the country push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies across the board, the executive director of a top consumer advocacy group spoke to Fox News Digital about what companies and institutions are doing to skirt those efforts. "Over the last few months, we've sort of seen a phase shift in the ways that they're trying to keep this DEI grift going," Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital about companies, organizations, hospitals and other entities that are attempting to rebrand DEI and environmental, social and governance in the Trump era. "At first, they just pushed back on, tried to defend DEI itself, but when that became so obvious that what DEI really was was anti-White, anti-Asian, sometimes anti-Jewish discrimination in hiring and promotion, they abandoned that," Hild said. "Now what they're trying to do is simply change the terminology that has become so toxic to their brand. So we're seeing a lot of companies move from having departments of DEI, for example, to 'departments of belonging' or 'departments of inclusivity.'" Several major companies have publicly distanced themselves from DEI in recent months as the new administration signs executive orders eliminating the practice while making the argument that meritocracy should be the focus. Red State Treasurer Reveals Why State Financial Officers Have 'Obligation' To Combat Esg, Dei However, FOX Business exclusively reported in April on Consumers' Research warning that some businesses appear to be rebranding the same efforts rather than eliminating them. Read On The Fox News App "It is the exact same toxic nonsense under a new wrapper, and they're just hoping to extend the grift because a lot of these people, I would say most of the people working in DEI are useless," Hild told Fox News Digital. Key Biden Agency Dropped $60K On Overseas Conference With Dei Workshop: 'Should Never Happen' "They are mediocrities who have managed to get very high-level positions that they're not qualified for by running this DEI grift, and they're desperate," he continued. "They can't just move into running logistics for Amazon because that takes actual competence and intelligence and if you're in a DEI department, you probably don't have either of those things. So they are desperate to keep this grift going so they can justify their own existence. So they're changing it into a new wrapper." Hild, who spoke to Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida, also explained some of the other issues Consumers' Research is focused on going forward, including fighting "woke" hospitals in three different areas. "One is net zero pledges and activities that raise costs for consumers, patients having to pay more because these hospitals are investing millions, sometimes tens of millions of dollars, into green boondoggle projects that have nothing to do with the treatment of patients and the improvement of their health, but they do raise prices," Hild said. Secondly, Hild said that his group is concerned about DEI quotas at hospitals. Hild explained that the third and "worst" issue is transgender surgeries and procedures being forced onto children. "Pushing of radical left transgender ideology onto kids, and not just pushing it ideologically and rhetorically, but pushing it physically, and what I mean by that is the injection of damaging, lifelong damaging hormones into children to, quote, unquote, change their sex, which is impossible, and even worse, the actual surgical application, removal and mutilation of their genitals, which is a grotesque violation of the Hippocratic Oath," Hild said. Consumers' Research has been actively involved in launching advertising campaigns against hospitals across the United States, including a recent campaign against Henry Ford Health in Michigan, calling out what it says are situations where hospitals are putting "politics over patients."Original article source: Expert reveals how companies are rebranding 'toxic' DEI policies to skirt Trump-era bans: 'New wrapper'
