Policy and litigation updates from Advancing Justice | AAJC

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Continuing the March for Our Rights

As Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC turned the page and began a new month — with new anniversaries to commemorate — we were reminded of how important it continues to be to celebrate wins of the past in addition to uplifting struggles of the present.

56 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) to protect our freedom to vote, the fight for our rights continue as discriminatory voting changes and voter suppression bills move through state legislatures. In response, Advancing Justice | AAJC joined the chorus of civil rights organizations advocating for restoring and modernizing the VRA through the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4), which successfully passed the House.

On the anniversary of the devastating Oak Creek shooting that took the lives of six Sikh community members nine years ago, our President and Executive Director John C. Yang joined other AANHPI civil rights leaders to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House, and ensure our communities are being protected.

John also had the opportunity to join Emily Chi, our assistant director of Telecommunications, Technology, and Media, for a special cross-generation conversation with Twitter Together on how advocacy has evolved over the years. Finally, as we wrapped up the month, our team joined thousands on August 28 at the National Mall in remembrance of the historic March on Washington and in anticipation of the work yet to come.

Keep scrolling to read more about Advancing Justice | AAJC's current initiatives and how you can get involved.

JOIN OUR TEAM!

We are looking to immediately hire a full-time Assistant Director/Director of Immigration Policy to develop and provide public policy research, strategies, analysis and education on immigration and immigrant rights initiatives. Learn more about the position and how to apply here.

We are also still accepting applications for our Anti-Hate Communications Coordinator (Two-Year Fellowship) position. Learn more about the position and how to apply here.

ADVANCING JUSTICE | AAJC IN THE NEWS

Following the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing racial-justice movement, President and Executive Director John C. Yang told The Washington Post that he saw a renewed desire to build deeper understanding, empathy, and solidarity across communities of color.

“I do see the Asian Americans really confronted this in a different way last summer, in a good way. It forced us to have difficult conversations that allowed us to acknowledge and move past historic tensions between the Black and Asian American communities," he said.

This month, John also testified at a U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for the hearing, "Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremism: Examining the Threat of Racially, Ethnically, Religiously, and Politically Motivated Attacks."

"If domestic terrorism is understood to be creating fear within a community, such that a community may be coerced, intimidated, or silenced, what has happened to the Asian American community must be properly viewed as terrorism," he said.

Advocacy and Policy

Advancing Justice – AAJC Applauds House Vote on John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

On August 24, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4). The passage of H.R. 4 is the first step to counter discriminatory voting laws – a move that was made previously more difficult last month by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brnovich v. DNC. Advancing Justice | AAJC applauds the progress and join other civil rights organizations in calling for widespread support of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to now pass the Senate.

Read our full statement here.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Affiliation
Releases Redistricting Guide

Building on new Census data that will significantly impact the way our communities are represented, the Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliation is encouraging Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to get involved with redistricting. Access our redistricting factsheet, which provides an overview of why redistricting matters and how local AAPI communities can ensure our needs are heard and increase our political representation.

Find our full press release on fair districting here.

Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

The Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program provides qualifying families in need for up to $50 ($75 on Tribal lands) of a monthly discount toward internet bills. The EBB program is a temporary $3.2 billion fund launched by the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that low-income families have affordable broadband access during a time when being connected to the Internet is more critical than ever.

Advancing Justice | AAJC's Technology, Telecommunications, and Media team has been working closely with our community and corporate partners to create translated EBB resources in numerous Asian languages.

Visit our EBB Resource Page for an FAQ sheet, an eligibility verification chart, as well as translated factsheets and social media graphics in English, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), and Burmese. More translations to come.

Value Our Families Month of Action

Throughout August, Advancing Justice | AAJC has continued working as a part of the Value Our Families coalition to mentor community partners in setting up meetings with their Congressional representatives and fighting to get family immigration into the budget reconciliation bills. On August 26, VOF hosted a Digital Day of Action targeting key Congressional leaders and asking them to commit to recapturing unused visas and rolling over thousands of visas.

Access a toolkit of re-usable graphics, captions, and multimedia stories here.

Asian American Civil Rights Organizations Calls Passage of Senate Budget Resolution a Historic Step for Immigrant Rights

On August 11, the Senate budget resolution passed and included increased funding for education, climate change, healthcare, childcare, economic aid for families, and a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants. It now moves to the House to take up the budget resolution.

In a joint statement, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, calls on the House to swiftly pass the resolution.

Read the full press release here.

U.S. Government Decides to Retry University of Tennessee Professor Unjustly Prosecuted Under "China Initiative"

On July 30, the U.S. Government announced their decision to retry the case against University of Tennessee (UT) Engineering Professor Anming Hu despite the first trial resulting in a mistrial after serious concerns of FBI misconduct left the jury deadlocked. Dr. Hu’s case was the first to go to trial under the controversial “China Initiative.” Advancing Justice | AAJC denounces this decision, as the "China Initiative" prosecutions are unjust racial scapegoating of Asian Americans and immigrants.

Read the statement issued by John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC here.

On September 9, a federal judge from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee acquitted Dr. Hu of all charges. Read our statement here.

Groundbreaking Analysis of Hate Crime Laws Finds Limitations and Opportunities in the Face of Rising Hate Violence

With a rise in hate violence across the country, a new report from the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and 16 leading civil rights organizations, including Advancing Justice | AAJC, provides a groundbreaking analysis of state and federal hate crime laws. The report provides a comprehensive look at both the opportunities and limitations of hate crime laws as a means of preventing and addressing hate violence.

Access the report here. Read the full press release here.

On-going Resources

The Anti-Racial Profiling Project offers resources and legal referrals for those impacted by the U.S. government’s increased efforts to target and profile Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists and researchers, particularly of Chinese descent. If you believe you are being racially targeted by the government and you are looking for attorney referrals, please contact 202-935-6014 using the Signal app and a staff member will reach out to you directly with support available in English and Mandarin/普通话.

Our community engagement team has been working with community partners to pull together state-specific and national anti-hate resources for the AAPI community. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to access, share, and add to the crowd-sourced document at any point.

Blog Highlights

Expanding the Great American Tapestry: Reforming Our Immigrant Visa System

For the Milan family, visa application acceptances are now 35 years overdue. In this blog, Policy and Programs Summer Law Clerk Jaeho Lee engages with their personal story to shine light on the pressing issue of visa backlogs and the urgent need to reform our immigrant visa system.

Advancing Justice | AAJC and Hollaback! Workshops

Throughout August, we continued to host trainings with Hollaback! and have now trained over 120,000 people to safely intervene as a bystander to stop non-violent incidents of anti-Asian hate since the beginning of our partnership in April 2020.

Bystander Intervention Training

Learn about the basics of intervention and the spectrum of disrespect experienced by Asians/Asian Americans. Then, put what you’ve learned into practice. Register Here

Conflict De-Escalation Training (Bystander Intervention 2.0)

Take your intervention skills a step further by using patience, empathy, and a willingness to listen to directly de-escalate conflict with a harasser. Register Here

Workshop for People Experiencing Anti-Asian/American Harassment

This training is for Asians and Asian Americans to learn how to trust their instincts, reclaim their space, and practice resilience following an act of hate. Register Here

Stand Against Hatred was created by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliation in January 2017 to capture information about the increase in hate we observed in the months before and following the 2016 election. Since COVID-19 began, however, we have received many new testimonials of anti-Asian/Asian American incidents of hate and harassment.

As we state on the site, "By sharing what you experienced or witnessed, you can educate the public, empower others, show service providers where help is needed, and strengthen advocacy efforts for hate crimes response and prevention." We know that sharing these experiences can be painful, which is why we're so grateful for the brave individuals who continue to trust us with their testimonials.

If you or someone you know would like to share your experience, please visit StandAgainstHatred.org today.

Asian American Education Project Teacher Workshops

Asian American and Pacific Islander history is American history, but is often left out of curriculums in K-12 schools. Advancing Justice | AAJC, fiscal sponsor of The Asian American Education Project, launched a series of free workshops for K-12 teachers designed to promote the inclusion of historically and culturally competent curriculum about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) nationwide.

In this series of virtual K-12 Asian American Curriculum Teacher Training Workshops, The Asian American Education Project showcases curriculum on the AAPI experience. It is divided into themes to make it easier for educators to adapt the whole or part of the curriculum into their own practice.

Learn more and sign up for an upcoming workshop here.

Partnerships

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