Kicking Ass: St. Paul City Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim (AKA Where Do You People Think You Are?)

 

Thanks to some great repoting and photojournalism (the picture of St. Paul City Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim by Aaron Nesheim) by Sahan Journal (reporting for immigrants and communities of color)--you can see how this unfolded, and how easy it is for law enforcement at all levels, to get out of hand.  

But that's why they were there in the first place--the community--because it's already corrupt.

Create the chaos and then blame it on protesters and activists but they forget where they were and who they're deadling with.

At all levels. 

Community and leaders who won't stand for more abuses of power.

From Mamdani To Her, And The Voters Who Backed Them, There Was A Lot Of Asian Goodness This Past Election Day

At the end of the day we just cleaned up. 

There was Zohran Mamdani as New York's first Asian American, South Asian, and Muslim mayor. The youngest mayor at age 34 to hold the title in a hundred years. This is exactly the change Democrats, and the younger voting block needed to see win.

Mamdani Shows Up And Vibes

In Saint Paul, MN, Kaohly Vang Her defeated two-term incumbent mayor Melvin Carter, the city's first African American mayor, who Her was also policy director for in his first term. She will be the first woman, Asian American, and Hmong American, to hold the office and lead the city.

3HMONGTV NEWS | Recorded on 11-05-2025 Kaohly Vang Her wins St. Paul Mayoral race.

Aftab Karma Singh Pureval, the city's first Asian American mayor was reelected in Cincinnati, winning over Cory Bowman, a Republican who also happens to be JD Vance’s half-brother. A win-win if there was one.

Aftab Pureval celebrates reelection in Cincinnati mayoral race

Ghazala F. Hashmi, born in Hyderabad, India and raised in Georgia, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. She became the first Muslim American woman elected to statewide office in the U.S.

Trump's unpopular, harmful policies fueled Democratic wins, says Virginia's Ghazala Hashmi

And then there were the voters (us).

From the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Asian American Federation (AAF) exit poll:

Asian American Voters Favored Mamdani for Mayor, including 20% of 2024 Trump Voters

About half (49.1%) of Asian American voters who participated in the exit poll voted for Mamdani and roughly one-third (33.8%) voted for Cuomo. Notably, an overwhelming 87.2% of South Asian voters cast their ballots for Mamdani, while 9.6% voted for Cuomo.

According to the NBC exit poll this was as high as 62% of Asian Americans.A story down at Documented on why young Asian Americans voted for Mamdani:

But Mamdani’s focus on affordability and housing wasn’t the only thing that resonated with young Asian-American voters. They also wanted to feel hope again about issues that affect people on a larger scale.

“A lot of young people that I’ve talked to, either in schools, at the doors, or in the neighborhood, really want things to change,” Situ said. “But they’ve also lived through two Trump presidencies, and are watching a genocide happen on their phones, so they’re battling a lot of pessimism, whether through conversations with their friends or what they see on the news.”

Nice work if you can get it.

Photographers To Know: Jon SooHoo

From the video: "Jon SooHoo is it his 41st year as the Dodgers photographer and he has spent nearly half a century capturing the iconic historic sports moments in Los Angeles. An L.A. native, SooHoo is also the grandson of the founder of Chinatown in DTLA, Peter SooHoo. Hear how his unique experiences framed his one-of-a-kind perspective on capturing the greatest photographs in modern Los Angeles history."

From Wiki:

"Jon SooHoo is the official photographer for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the first Asian American to hold the position in Major League Baseball. He's documented the team for nearly four decades, capturing iconic moments like their last two championships. SooHoo's work extends beyond the field, capturing everyone from fans and ushers to front office executives and clubhouse attendants. He's also covered the World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, and Daytona 500"

They Pushed Back Against Trump And Won x Keep Your Head Up (Or Down...However You Roll) x Kimmel Time?

All I know is that while this is not unprecedented, we are in dark territory. When you can't criticize your government for fear of losing your job, when the First Amendment is blatantly being shoved aside and run over, days later, run over again and set on fire--we are not the America that made us truly great.

There's a piece of me that feels I'm being told that I must conform to this one thing where it just feels like I'm stuck in a box where everyone looks and has to feel the same, regardless of anything individually. It's that suffocating on both a macro and personal level. 

Seeing companies bend the knee is not comforting. Watching a pay to play government doesn't send warm fuzzies up and down my neck. The fact that I can get taken by people in masks, shoved away into a dark hole waiting for due process, which may take months, maybe even years, while not actually having done anything wrong--I can't say that doesn't scare me a little. Because it does.

Regular people, not named Kimmel, are losing their jobs because they pushed back on the Charlie Kirk narrative exalting him from his racist and homophobic views (from what I've heard from reputable people). 

It's almost as if I find myself sent via a time machine to the 80's with the Moral Majority. 

Censorship and moral guardians.

What's next. Nancy Reagan just saying no? 

How are we moving backwards and becoming less progressive? Less open to more ideas and different thoughts? And why does this always involve someone who's more than just a little racist?

I don't know what Kimmel will do. I hope he fights. He's got the resources to do it and I think because of how it happened he can win.  

In the meantime--here are some companies and organizations who pushed back and either won, or gained a lot of ground in the right direction--and that's important to remember: that you get to stand up for yourself. 

From the interwebs, search machines, and ai hyperbrains:

• Harvard University: A federal judge ruled against a Trump administration attempt to cut federal grants to Harvard, ordering the administration to restore more than $2 billion in frozen funding. Separately, another federal judge sided with Harvard and blocked an effort to rescind the school's right to host international students.
  
  
• University of California (UCLA): A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore some of the $584 million in funding it had frozen for UCLA. However, the University of California system and its unions have filed new lawsuits to fight further funding cuts and alleged financial coercion by the administration.
  
  
• Perkins Coie LLP, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey: These four firms challenged Trump administration executive orders that targeted them for their work, winning favorable rulings from federal judges. The courts found that the executive orders were unconstitutional and likely violated First Amendment protections for speech and due process. The administration is appealing some of these decisions.
  
  
• AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) and other unions are part of a lawsuit AFGE v. Trump (2025) in which they challenged massive workforce reductions / layoffs (“reduction-in‐force”) ordered by the administration. They won a restraining order from the district court that temporarily blocked the action. The Ninth Circuit rejected the government’s request to stay that injunction. But later the Supreme Court stayed (i.e., paused) the preliminary injunction. 

• A coalition including AFT Massachusetts, other labor unions, school districts etc. got a preliminary injunction against the Education Dept’s efforts to fire many staff via reductions in force.

• American Bar Association lawsuit over Trump’s “Law Firm Intimidation Policy” — targeting law firms via sanctions, loss of contracts, security clearances, as retaliation for representing clients the government dislikes. Some of the individual law firms sued and won in court (judges have temporarily or permanently barred many of those orders). The ABA’s lawsuit is more recent (filed June 2025) and is seeking relief on behalf of all its members; outcome still developing.

• V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. Challenged “Liberation Day” tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), arguing the administration lacked authority to impose them. The Court of International Trade permanently enjoined enforcement of those tariffs; the plaintiffs succeeded in showing overreach under IEEPA. In appeal by Trump government.

• E. Jean Carroll: The writer successfully sued Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. A jury awarded her $5 million in the first trial and $83.3 million in the second trial.

• The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) successfully sued to block a February 2025 directive from the Department of Education that sought to ban race-based programming at colleges.

Asian American Action Fund + Representative Derek Tran

From the Asian American Action Fund

Ryan Coogler, Sinners, Grace, And That Moment

There's been a lot of talk about Sinners - an awesome movie - and the character Grace (as well as the Asian American representation). Here's a clip with Coogler himself talking about Grace and "that moment" (spoilers).

Here is Ryan Coogler himself telling y’all not to misinterpret *that* moment with Grace https://t.co/tJrxxiUCiH pic.twitter.com/zFfyPR17iF

— Kar (@karlogan_) April 30, 2025

First, let's just make sure everyone heard that--the intentions and the reasoning behind what Grace did.

Second, let's just take a moment to listen to it again.

I feel like that should shed A LOT of light on the decision--and it did help move the plot along--but ultimately Grace didn't get anything she really wanted from this--she died.

She died killing her handsome as hell husband Bo. 

She was a mom, and when I think about it, I don't think anyone else there had living children--and she did what she did because of the moment, because it was that maternal instinct. 

From the interview I think Coogler really wanted to show some of the history of Chinese Americans down south which is emblematic in many ways of the roles Asian American played--that middle ground between races at times--and then make Grace a complex character within an already complex set of characters--because they were all, like the title says, Sinners.

Far from perfect and making the right decisions.

That All Being Said...

I do think it's fair to question the fact of having an Asian American character looking to break trust in the community of POC at the juke joint. No matter what the intent, the outcome and the action does get to be discussed, and from an Asian American perspective, I will understand if someone who's from the AAPI community didn't like Grace's representation. 

As Asian Americans who still do not get the parity that exists for others in areas like film and entertainment, we do get that right and that voice.

And in Sinners, Asian Americans were looked at just like the Black community from a vampire's perspective--blood and life.

In some ways too it's contrary to a lot of things from a communal perspective--sacrifice for the community and family. Sometimes we have to let people go or leave them behind so some people can stay alive and keep on living. Just think about the decisions on who had to be taken and who had to be left behind during the war in Vietnam.

You do the hard things so community can live on. 

I will say for me, I understand the character of Grace though doing what she did, because there may be no community for her in the sense of her family dying or possibly begin murdered. 

She was in a no-win situation and while she was being comforted and told by the others they will all help make sure her daughter is safe--it was still after the night. 

She had no guarantees. 

What would you do?

So then...

As I write this I do think it would have been great if someone like an Annie or maybe Pearline, would have coalesced with Grace in solidarity as a woman or mother and would have said the magic words to start the fight right before Grace was about to and then they locked eyes. 

To me it would have handled this situation from that perspective.

But I do believe we get to be complex. We get to be any characters we want to be,

Or at least we should.

But I also know nothing exists inside an Ivory Tower, and the fact that some of this dialogue is happening tells us how far we still need to go.

I also believe that there is some underlying racism when it comes to Grace's character and how it's being used as a talking point to stereotype and "other" Asian Americans as being the "model minority", sell-outs, allies to Whites Only, or just plain prejudiced against the Black community.

It tells you how we're still looked at in some ways. 

-----

No matter what I said here or what you may think of what I said here--go see Sinners. 

And stay till the very very very last end.

Because Somedays You Just Need One Link

And here it is:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/frances-kai-hwa-wang

And yes...you are welcome.

Southern Arizona Asian American Pacific Islander Conference

For all my people out in Arizona, this one's for you:

First Asian American Pacific Islander Conference

Coming up on April 25, 2009, the first (annual?) Southern Arizona Asian American Pacific Islander Conference, will be held here in Tucson at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Road, just east of La Canada. The theme is "Unity Through Diversity: the Asian American/Pacific Islander experience."

Keynote luncheon speaker will be Robert Kiyosaki, well-known author the bestselling book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

This conference will be an all day affair, 8 to 6 p.m., sponsored by the Pan Asian Community Alliance, a local non profit organization which "promotes and develops education and community services of Asian and Pacific Islanders".

For further information, contact Ross Iwamoto at rmiwamoto@comcast.net or Dorothy Lew at dorothylew@aol.com or (520) 512-0144. Please spread the word to the diverse Asian communities in Southern Arizona, as this is an inclusive event, with conference registration set at $40 ahead of time, $50 at the door, $10 for students, and some scholarships.

Read it in full down at the Tucson Citizen.