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Cover for "Behind Closed Doors: How Communities Move Forward Towards Dismantling the Relationship Between Political Manipulation and Racism

Behind Closed Doors | Part 4

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 fourth and last 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. 

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 School

Panelists:

  • Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Los Angeles City Councilmember – District 1
  • Lian Cheun, Executive Director, Khmer Girls in Action
  • Peggy Moore, Principal & Co-Owner at Hope Action Change Consulting
A cover reading "Behind Closed Doors: Redistricting - Does it Really have to be Zero-Sum Politics? How Multi-Racial Coalitions Have Worked Together to Build Political Power for All"

Behind Closed Doors | Part 3

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 three 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:

Amy Dominguez-Arms Philanthropic/Nonprofit Consultant

Panelists:

  • Pablo Rodriguez Executive Director, Communities for a New California Hector Sanchez Deputy Political Director, Community Coalition
  • Cha Vang Deputy Director, AAPIs for Civic Empowerment
  • James Woodson Executive Director, California Black Power Network
A screenshot of a webpage with text reading: "hey there! welcome to the qtbipoc resource guide"

NCAAT | Mental Health Resources

As a part of North Carolina Asian American Together‘s intern program, their summer intern Ollie created this resource guide because they had previously been unable to find mental health, AANHPI, and other resources geared specifically towards queer and trans BIPOC.

Resources, ranging from organizations focusing on mental health to therapist directories to mental health websites and tools, are separated into the following categories:

  • QTBIPOC (Queer POC and/or LGBTQIA+ resources)
  • AANHPI
  • Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander
  • Southeast Asian
  • South Asian

Visit the Resource Guide at this link.

A flyer for UTOPIA Washington's Talanoa International Food Sovereignty Day including an event description and images of the four speakers.

UTOPIA WA | Indigenous Food Sovereignty

On October 16, 2023, UTOPIA Washington hosted a Talanoa webinar connecting Pacific Islander culture, international food sovereignty, climate change, and trade agreements. This work is integral to UTOPIA’s mission of weaving ecosystems of care, including running a community food pantry and cultivating farmland to grow organic, culturally appropriate produce.

Voices Unheard: Uncovering the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian American Youth; floral painted background.

SEARAC and EPIC | Report on COVID-19’s Impact on NHPI/SAA Youth Mental Health

This report was written in collaboration with researches from Illinois and Maryland whose work focuses on racially marginalized groups and the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition Helping Achieve Racial and Gender Equality (AAPI CHARGE), which includes AAPI Civic Engagement Fund grantees Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) and Khmer Girls in Action.

Voices Unheard highlights the experiences of more than 200 respondents and focuses on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) and Southeast Asian American (SEAA) youth. The report touches on the pandemic’s effect on mental wellness, the importance of culturally appropriate mental health support, and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center’s (SEARAC) recommendations to reduce barriers to mental healthcare in California.

In addition, EPIC and SEARAC also launched fact sheets highlighting mental health research on Southeast Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander youth. These are available in eight languages including English, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Mien, Samoan, Tongan, and Vietnamese.

A cover reading "Behind Closed Doors: White Supremacy and the Roots of Anti-Blackness Among Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities"

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
A cover image reading: Behind Closed Doors: How the Los Angeles City Council Recording is a Case Study in the Exercise of Political Power through Racism in the U.S.

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

A Safe Place to Heal, Tiare Lefotu. Three young faces appear ghost-like in the horizon, looking down onto land rising out of the sea.

EPIC | Pasifika Art Gallery: Reflection, Revival, (R)evolution

Pasifika Art: Reflection, Revival, (R)evolution is a multimedia project grounded in the Samoan cultural practices of talanoa and teu le vā, meaning talk story and to care for the space that connects us. EPIC understands the critical role that art plays in articulating the realities of our communities while also creating space for dreaming of radically different futures

Reflection has a duality that speaks to the need for PI’s to be seen and be in critical dialogue about our roles in social justice movements. Revival speaks to healing and the renewed energy that elders and youth are feeling in response to the pandemic and racial justice uprisings. (R)evolution is both a call to action and a meditation on the changes our communities have undergone due to colonization as well as the conscious decisions younger generations are making about what parts of culture to preserve and evolve. 

What We Heard 

The EPIC team crowdsourced responses to prompts issued through Instagram asking: Can you envision a world without police/prisons? Who or what makes you feel safe? 

WE TAKE CARE OF US. When asked what makes them feel safe, respondents told us about sisters, siblings, prayer circles, parents, friends, and family. Hundreds of times they named people and not systems. It’s clear that the abolition we want will require deep relationships that center community and connection. 

THE FUTURE WE WANT IS POSSIBLE. Though a strong majority of our respondents want abolition, the current state of the world has made it feel unattainable. We want to illustrate that it’s not only possible, in many ways it is already here. 

TOGETHER, WE HAVE THE POWER. This message and framework comes directly from Culture Surge’s The Storytellers’ Guide to Changing Our World. We disrupt traditional notions of power that are exploitative and instead inspire movement building towards a collective power because we know that liberation will require all of us. 

Click here to view the Art Gallery, including film screenings, commissioned artists, and an art contest.

AAPCHO COVID-19 Resource Hub

VISIT THE RESOURCE HUB HERE!

Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) is continuously monitoring (COVID-19) alerts and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and other health agencies across the United States and its territories.

This page will be updated frequently with tailored resources for community health centers covering the COVID-19 vaccines, multilingual and culturally appropriate materials for Asian American (AA), Native Hawaiian (NH), and Pacific Islander (PI) communities, resources to address anti-Asian racism, public health considerations, and other public health considerations.

Resources Include: COVID-19 Vaccine, Multilingual and Culturally Appropriate Materials, Resources for Health Centers, Addressing Anti-Asian Racism, Cultural Humility, and Public Health Considerations

If you have questions, would you like to contribute resources to this page, and/or require technical assistance, please email [email protected].

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