• Our purpose: We hope to make the case for the need to interrupt the cycle of government discrimination against Asians Americans and to reform national security through racial equity policies and practices. National security is a community that is led predominantly by white men. It also lacks transparency and inclusion yet wields a powerful and influential impact over all Americans. 
• What to expect: Each briefing will unpack the problem of racial targeting, piece by piece. We’ll share the latest updates on our advocacy work, spotlight key changemakers, and amplify op-eds. By creating an informed community that can learn together, we can more effectively support each other in the future. We look forward to sharing this journey together with you.

— Aryani Ong and Michael Nguyen

• As diplomats, they have difficulty getting hired, promoted, or assigned to diplomatic posts in countries from where their families immigrated.
• As employees, they are scrutinized more closely and lose their jobs.
• As scholarship winners, they are told to pay back their tuition.
• As contractors, they are denied contracts at higher rates.
• As military service personnel, they are pulled off assignments or denied ranks.
• And as grantees, they are placed under investigation for international collaborations. 

• A closed culture, the federal government is not a place where people can easily speak out. Some Asian American tell their stories, but incognito. Asian Americans whom we talk to fear losing their security clearances, jobs, careers. Data is scarce. Yet, the impact is no less traumatizing. The affected parties need support from the community—stories, funds, advocacy.  

• To do this, we need allies. Together, let’s reimagine national security: a time where people of all backgrounds, particularly immigrants, are not automatically regarded as threats, but as assets. Where Asian Americans are at the table when sweeping decisions are being made that affect our community. Where we challenge the exclusion of loyal Americans based on the majority’s perception of “foreignness.” Where we can strengthen America from within.  

• The results: Although 48% of respondents disagreed with the statement that Asian Americans as a group “are more loyal to their countries of origin than to the U.S.,” roughly 1 in 5 Americans agreed with it.
• Why this matters: This national survey was the first in two decades to assess public attitudes toward Asian Americans, according to NBC News, and shows our communities are continually seen as perpetual foreigners.

• Minami served as lead attorney defending Korematsu before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1984, seeking to overturn Korematsu’s conviction for defying an order to report to an incarceration camp.
• Context: Over 120,000 Japanese Americans—two-thirds of them U.S. citizens—were incarcerated during World War II based on their ethnic background alone by the U.S. government.  
• The U.S. Supreme Court, which heard Korematsu’s case in 1944, upheld the conviction in a landmark court ruling that has since been denounced.

• Last month, he participated in a webinar called “Asian Americans and Loyalty: What Can We Learn from the Japanese American Incarceration Experience?” 🎧 Watch it now.

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