CAA | Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco “Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco” was released by Chinese for Affirmative Action in partnership with the Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative. This report provides an overview of the fight to win immigrant voting legislation in San Francisco, a law also known as “noncitizen voting,” and the effects noncitizen voting has had on immigrant empowerment. The report shares how the program affected immigrants in San Francisco, the barriers they face in exercising their voting rights, and best practices community organizers have used to try to overcome those barriers. Read the report below, and access the executive summary as well as report appendices in multiple languages including Amharic, Arabic, Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese on their website. 23-CAA-ImmigrationVotingReport-F2
Behind Closed Doors | Part 2 This four-part webinar series took place from December 2022 to March 2023. It was hosted by the USC Price School and its Center for Inclusive Democracy, the California Black Freedom Fund, the Latino Community Foundation, and the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Part two of these moderated sessions explored the entrenchment of racism in U.S. politics, and its impact on political power and representation in communities. Titled “Behind Closed Doors,” these sessions served as a public space for open and challenging conversations examining the nation’s entrenched relationship between racism and politics, a situation recently brought further into the spotlight by the secret recording of a meeting of Los Angeles City Council members making racist remarks. Watch the full video below, or click here to watch the webinar highlights. Moderator: Mindy Romero, Founder and Director, Center for Inclusive Democracy, USC Price Panelists: Claire Jean Kim, Professor, Political Science School of Social Sciences, UCI Gloria Medina, Executive Director, Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) Tracie Stafford, Vice-Chair, Northern California, California Democratic Party Black Caucus Executive Board; Founder and CEO, Stafford Consulting Group, LLC
Behind Closed Doors | Part 1 This four-part webinar series took place from December 2022 to March 2023. It was hosted by the USC Price School and its Center for Inclusive Democracy, the California Black Freedom Fund, the Latino Community Foundation, and the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. The first part of these moderated sessions explored the entrenchment of racism in U.S. politics, and its impact on political power and representation in communities. Titled “Behind Closed Doors,” these sessions served as a public space for open and challenging conversations examining the nation’s entrenched relationship between racism and politics, a situation recently brought further into the spotlight by the secret recording of a meeting of Los Angeles City Council members making racist remarks. “The leaked recording in Los Angeles was just the tip of an ever-present iceberg, providing a very public example of just how deeply rooted racism is in our electoral system and overall power structures,” said CID Director Mindy Romero. “It’s time to have more candid, elevated and open discussions about these realities and what can be done to meaningly address them moving forward.” Watch the full video below, or click here to watch the webinar highlights. Moderator: Mindy Romero, Founder and Director, Center for Inclusive Democracy, USC Price Panelists: Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity and Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change, USC Dornsife Odilia Romero, Executive Director, Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO) Erika D. Smith, Columnist, Los Angeles Times
CMSI | Report on Representation and Documentary Filmmaking The Lens Reflected is an independent research project of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), under the Center’s Documentary Power Research Institute. It specifically examines race, gender, and topics in documentary films between 2014 and 2020. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Caty Borum and Lead Researcher Paula Weissman, the CMSI research team for this study included David Conrad-Pérez, Aras Coskuntuncel, Kimberly Reason, L Cedeño Miller, and Natacha Yazbeckl. CMSI’s Varsha Ramani served as operations director and publication manager. Olivia Klaus created the report design. The study was shaped and facilitated in collaboration with Sonya Childress (Co-Director, Color Congress) and Ani Mercedes (Founder/CEO, Looky Looky Pictures). Read the report below. CMSI_LensReflected_final.12.1-1Download
Define American & USC | Report on Immigrant Representation on Television Define American, with USC Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project, presents the third television impact study: Change the Narrative, Change the World: The Power of Immigrant Representation on Television. Define American looked at the portrayal of immigrant characters on 79 scripted television shows that aired between July 2020 and June 2022 and surveyed viewers on how four immigration storylines shaped their attitudes toward immigrants in the real world. The findings? Immigrant representation on television has shifted in important ways — both positive and negative — since 2020. Read the report here or below. ENT-Report-Final-2022Download
ATJ | The Deciding Margin: How AAPI Voters Will Shape the Future of Texas Recognizing the potential power of AAPI voters – the fastest-growing electorate in the country – Asian Texans for Justice (ATJ) commissioned a polling project, the first of its kind from a Texas-based AAPI organization, designed to better understand AAPI voters’ political views and policy preferences. Given the size of the Texas AAPI population as the third highest nationally, this project is also an opportunity to elevate the profile of AAPI voters across the United States. In summer 2022, 2700 likely Texas voters, of which 660 were AAPI voters, in the November 2022 midterm election were surveyed by Change Research, an organization with the mission to provide polling and strategy to organizations and campaigns that share our vision for a more humane, scientific, and just world. Unless otherwise noted, the findings in this report are based on the polling data from Change Research. The purpose of this report is to provide insights from that poll to better inform political candidates, policymakers, organizers, media sources, and the general public about AAPI voters and the importance they play in Texas policy and politics. The data are clear: AAPI voters in Texas are diverse, younger than the general population, dissatisfied with their current representation, and motivated to vote. Read the report below, and access the one pager, poll topline overview, and crosstabs at this link. ATJ_TheDecidingMargin_FINALDownload
NAL | State of New American Representation: State Legislatures in 2022 This report continues the work first presented in the State of Representation 2020, created by New American Leaders as the first documented research examining immigrant representation in state legislatures by ethnicity, political party, and gender. Following an extensive data review and feedback from New American policy makers, this new report presents five recommendations that will not only help close the representation gap for New Americans and other underrepresented groups, but improve representation and policies for all communities. Read the press release at this link and see the report below: State-of-Representation-2022-New-American-LeadersDownload
SEAFN | Week of Action Communications Toolkit Southeast Asian Freedom Week of Action Communications Toolkit A political education and freedom campaign to end the detention and deportation of Southeast Asian migrants and refugees. Topline messages: The U.S. government is an agent of anti-Asian violence each time it detains and deports Southeast Asian migrants and refugees. Detention and deportation are extensions of U.S. imperialism, whereby our people are continuously displaced from our homes and families by the U.S. government, as we had been in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian migrants and refugees are unconditionally deserving of dignity. The immigration system is bereft of that. Detention and deportation does not create safe communities. In fact, it exacerbates violence and injustice. Southeast Asian liberation is deeply intertwined with the freedom struggles of other migrants and refugees and of the Indigenous nations of the U.S. whose lands were also pillaged by the U.S. Fighting anti-Blackness is a central pillar in ending the oppression of Southeast Asian people internationally. Petition: http://bit.ly/seafreedom Share the toolkit: https://bit.ly/seafreedomtoolkit
SEARAC | #StopSEAADeportation PSAs Video PSA Series on SEAAs and Deportation The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) proudly presents a series of deportation-focused public service announcements (PSAs) featuring the stories of five impacted Southeast Asian American (SEAA) community members and their families. This video series is designed not only to educate the broader Southeast Asian community on the impact of deportations on our families and communities but also to build public support for the need to end deportations. These PSAs come on the 25th anniversary of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), which enables the mass deportation of noncitizens with who have come into contact with the criminal legal system and increases punitive measures against immigrants and refugees. Through this new series of PSA videos, SEARAC seeks to honor the individuals and communities who have been devastated by the heightened deportations of Southeast Asian Americans, a practice that began with the passage of IIRAIRA and continues today. To view any of the videos below, click on their image or their title. You can also find all videos on SEARAC’s YouTube channel.
Freedom, Inc. | Statement on U.S. Treatment of Haitian Refugees View the full statement here Freedom Inc. knows too intimately the struggles and experiences of Hmong, Khmer and Black refugees and immigrant stories. Over the last 20 years in providing services to Hmong and Khmer refugees and organizing Queer, Trans, women, and youth around issues like deportation, domestic, and police violence, we are outraged at the United States’ treatment of Haitian people seeking refuge at our borders. Immigration is a decision that refugees have to make in order to protect themselves and their families. They come here looking for solace and are instead placed in cages by our government. This country has a deep, terrible history of violence against refugees from non-white countries, and particularly toward Black refugees. Why is it that Black people must be put in cages whenever they cross our borders? The right to asylum is a foundational part of this country, but it is constantly denied to people on the basis of their race and nationality. We’ve seen the world be appalled by the horrific photos of Afghan refugees being left behind by U.S. evacuation planes, but that same empathy is missing for the Haitian asylum seekers imprisoned at the border. The unrest that is driving Haitians away from their home is the direct result of Western imperialism, especially the environmental impact of the United States. Just like with our Afghan refugees, they are here because we were there. We are a product of failed refugee resettlement programs. The impacts of this cruelty last for decades, leading to poverty and generational trauma in these communities. These asylum seekers deserve to be let into our country in their pursuit of a better life. They deserve to be treated with compassion and given the foundation for a better life. Freedom Inc. demands the acceptance of any and all refugees, but that acceptance must also come with support and access to life-sustaining resources. We stand with organizations like the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and echo their demands: The US government must allow Haitian asylum seekers across the U.S. border and offer them asylum without detention. Once accepted, these refugees must be given the support and resources necessary for them to build new lives. Finally, all deportations and expulsions of Haitian nationals must cease immediately. Love & Power, Freedom, Inc.