Breaking a habit of Asian hate

By Debra Adams Simmons, HISTORY Executive Editor

On March 16, a gunman killed eight people in a series of shootings at spas across Atlanta. Six of his victims Asian women. The slayings—of Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Daoyou Feng, Soon C. Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, and Yong A. Yue—have reopened debate that was already fresh after a year of racist attacks against Asian American communities.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, the United States has a long history of scapegoating Asian people, Nina Strochlic writes for Nat Geo. And since the coronavirus pandemic began, there’s been a new tension to daily life for these communities in America, who found themselves the targets of a politically motivated campaign.

This became reality for Danny Satow (pictured above with her grandparents), a Japanese American physician assistant, last April. She was walking around her neighborhood outside Seattle when she heard a racial slur yelled from a passing car and a full liter water bottle hit her in the chest. Satow, whose grandmother was interned during World War II and whose grandfather fought with a unit of Japanese American soldiers, burst into tears. “I felt pretty ashamed that I was crying and running home, because my experience was so small compared to my grandparents’ experiences,” Satow says.

She’s not alone. Block watches have begun in New York’s Chinatown (pictured above) and other Asian American neighborhoods. From March 2020 until this February, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council has collected 3,795 U.S. incidents of harassment and assault against Asian people. The only way to combat this hatred is through education and public policy, says Manjusha Kulkarni, the group’s executive director.

“When you have some of these components that are in the soil, do you ever get them out completely?” she asks. “No. You have to constantly till the land. You have to constantly cultivate something better.”

Do you get this daily? If not, sign up here or forward this to a friend.

TODAY IN A MINUTE

Dead Sea Scrolls discovery: An effort to thwart looters in the Judean Desert has led to the first find of Dead Sea Scroll fragments in more than a half-century, Nat Geo’s Kristin Romey reports. The Israeli Antiquities Authority also announced that it has found what is possibly the world’s oldest intact basket.

Go local: Trust local doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, who already have the trust of local people. This helps illustrate why West Virginia has been so successful in distributing the COVID-19 vaccine, Oliver Whang writes. “We know we don’t have a lot of resources, so we ... need to rally together,” says Carrie Brainard, from the state’s only regional health department. (Above, Clay County High School staff member Alicia Johnson draws a vaccine dose in the school’s gymnasium.)

Before Amelia disappeared: Prior to setting off on her last journey, famed aviator Amelia Earhart served at Purdue as the first women’s career counselor in the nation. It was an effort to expand ladies’ education beyond the standard home economics regimen, Indianapolis Monthly reports. Unlike other Purdue women students, Earhart was allowed to wear pants—and she spent part of her time aloft in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra. Purdue helped fund Earhart’s planned round-the-world flight in 1937, which ended over the Pacific. (Read more about the 2019 expedition to search for Amelia Earhart, supported by the National Geographic Society.)

Tribute: The mother of Maya Lin, the famed architect of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., fled her homeland for the United States to attend Smith College. Carrying her Smith acceptance letter and two $10 bills, Julia Lin escaped wartime China on a fishing boat. Now, Maya Lin, who is also a Nat Geo Storytelling Fellow, has just designed something of beauty for her mother’s alma mater, the New York Times reports.

In their own words: They are among the 182 former death-row prisoners who were exonerated. In this extraordinary video, one of them, Sabrina Smith, says she is free, but her former imprisonment, albeit on false changes, hangs over her in job interviews and in casual conversations. “Nobody cares about the explanation,” she tells Nat Geo.

Read: Justice gone wrong

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Dance dance dance: Modern, Cuban, and African styles combined in “A Piece of White Cloth,” performed by the Alayo Dance Company in San Francisco. This image by Brian Lanker was part of a 2006 National Geographic magazine story celebrating different forms of dance across the United States.

Pas de deux: How dance connects people to escape isolation

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

Aretha’s start: Where did Aretha Franklin, subject of a new Nat Geo Channel series, develop her voice and style? She was a quiet kid, picking up ideas in the pews and the choir of Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church, from which her father preached. The church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places last month, is just one of the Motor City’s sites for fans of Franklin and those interested in the city’s contributions to civil rights, Carole Rosenblat writes for Nat Geo. As a girl, Franklin also would sing and play piano at home, where she would perform for her father’s friends and acquaintances, DeNeen L. Brown writes. (Above, a proof sheet showing Franklin singing a version of “The Weight.")

READ ON 

IN A FEW WORDS

DID A FRIEND FORWARD THIS TO YOU?

This Tuesday, George Stone writes on travel. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to also get Victoria Jaggard on science, Rachael Bale on animal news, and Whitney Johnson on photography.

LAST GLIMPSE

Empress of Rome: She knew how to lead. Her brother was Caligula. Her husband was Claudius. When Agrippina (portrayed above in marble) ascended to rule more than 2,000 years ago, Romans deferred to her, and she imposed order and moderation in the courts. She successfully maneuvered to get her teenage son, Nero, on the throne, but that led to her undoing. Nat Geo’s History magazine says Agrippina’s legacy is being re-examined favorably these days, in light of the sexism and misogyny of previous historians.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE