2 — Tuesday, April 7, 2020
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during
the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is
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DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
A worker welds materials in preparation for a field hospital at the TCF Center in Detroit Monday afternoon. Governor Gretchen Whitmer designated
the center as an “alternate care facility” and it’s largely being built by Michigan National Guard soldiers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In honor of Asian/Pacific Islander
American Heritage Month, the Multi-
Ethnic Student Affairs held a virtual
event on Monday with feminist
blogger Jenn Fang titled “Speaking
Up and Speaking Out: Why the AAPI
Community
Must
Be
Politically
Engaged.”
Forty-three
viewers
tuned into the event, during which
Fang discussed the history of A/PIA
activism and the anti-Asian racism
in light of the ongoing coronavirus
pandemic.
Fang is the founder, editor and
primary blogger of Reappropriate,
one of the oldest and most popular
A/PIA race advocacy and feminism
blogs. Her writing has been featured
in NBC News, Teen Vogue and The
Washington Post.
Fang began the event by discussing
her
personal
background
with
activism, which she said started when
she was an undergraduate at Cornell
University and took a class in Asian
American studies. In this class, Fang
said she learned material beyond what
she was taught in high school history
classes.
In high school, Fang said she
learned about the Chinese American
Exclusion Act, an immigration law
that prevented Chinese laborers from
coming to the United States. She said
she was also taught that many Chinese
immigrants were crucial to the
construction of the Transcontinental
Railroad, the first railroad to connect
both coasts of the U.S., despite
dangerous conditions and widespread
discrimination.
In college, Fang said she learned
more about the indentured servitude
of Asian American laborers on West
Coast sugar plantations. Fang noted
these
Chinese,
Japanese,
Korean
and Filipino agricultural workers
partially helped inspire America’s
labor movement.
She also highlighted the importance
of Michigan as the home of one of her
role models, Grace Lee Boggs.
“Michigan is an especially integral
point for Asian American activism, as
Troy was home to Grace Lee Boggs, a
community activist, scholar and my
personal hero,” Fang said. “She taught
me that our work is founded upon
the assertion that Asian and Pacific
Islander Americans are, for better
or for worse, part of this country’s
national and political fabric.”
Fang used the murder of Vincent
Chin to continue her discussion
of
Asian
American
history
and
oppression in the state of Michigan.
In 1982, autoworkers Ronald Ebens
and
Michael
Nitz
brutally
beat
and murdered Chin at his bachelor
party in Highland Park days before
his wedding date. They blamed the
Japanese automotive companies for
losing their jobs and mistook Chin as
a Japanese man.
Despite their role in Chin’s murder,
the judge stated, “these weren’t the
kind of men you sent to jail.” The two
men were only sentenced to three
years of probation and a $3,000 fine.
Taking this history into account,
Fang emphasized the need for the
awareness
of
anti-Asian
racism
more than ever due to the ongoing
coronavirus pandemic. The virus has
been deemed by some — including
President Donald Trump — as the
“Chinese Virus.”
According
to
Fang,
calling
coronavirus
the
“Chinese
Virus”
is
representative
of
the
racial
microaggressions,
assaults
and
widespread systemic stigmatization
of Asian people during the SARS
epidemic 20 years ago.
Feminist blogger discusses
value of political engagement
Multi Ethnic Student Affairs hosts virtual meeting featuring Jenn Fang
in celebration of Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month
CHERYN HONG
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
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