Our Roots Newsletter

On Tuesday, Bridgett highlighted Asian American and Pacific Islander Month and organ donation awareness.

The number of people of both Latino and Asian American or Pacific Islander heritage has more than doubled in the last 20 years yet it remains an often ignored demographic, according to a new analysis.

President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain the four countries’ economic circumstances and contrasted them with the U.S. on immigration.

The White House has a new curator and Donna Hayashi Smith is the first Asian American to hold the post.

Events honoring Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as the “Star Wars” franchise and more, are set for May within the Orange County Library System.

This weekend one of the largest festivals celebrating the Lunar New Year in Orlando takes place at the Central Florida Fairgrounds.

This weekend is your last chance to visit a new Asian-inspired art exhibition.

After 17 years, cartoonist Gene Luen Yang is seeing his American dream come true.

Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens’ first sunset event of 2023 will celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander culture and heritage.

A weekend celebration at a Southern California dance ballroom was hailed by organizers as the latest sign of healing within the Asian American community following the Lunar New Year shooting that killed 11 people at a nearby dance studio.

Our Roots newsletter

The Orange County Library System is honoring Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a free film festival.

In addition to its grand opening, Sampaguita is featuring special flavors and hosting some events leading up to Saturday to celebrate Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Six months after she was immortalized with a U.S. quarter, Asian American Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong has received another accolade affirming her icon status — her own Barbie.

The Florida House unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would require schools to teach Asian American and Pacific Islander history in K-12 classrooms.

President Joe Biden’s nomination for the next labor secretary, Julie Su, has advanced through a Senate committee.

State Sen. Linda Stewart has announced a bill that would require instruction of Asian American culture and history.

President Joe Biden says the nation's prayers are with two California cities where 18 people were killed in separate mass shootings over the last week.

This year, every single lantern in Central Florida’s Asian Lantern Festival is brand-new.

MSNBC says that journalist Alex Wagner will take over Rachel Maddow's prime-time slot four nights a week, beginning in August.

The Asian American Chamber of Commerce in Central Florida helps advocate, empower and grow both current and future Asian American business leaders in the area.

The Supreme Court has turned away a plea from parents to block a new admissions policy at a prestigious high school in northern Virginia that a lower court had found discriminates against Asian American students.

More than 150 people came together to remember the victims of the mass shooting at several Atlanta area massage businesses that happened nearly one year ago.

The conservative-dominated Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the consideration of race in college admissions, adding affirmative action to major cases on abortion, guns, religion and COVID-19 already on the agenda.

About 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect Monday and thousands of city firefighters have called out sick in an apparent protest over the requirement.

Northrop Grumman is making another supply run to the International Space Station.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrates the contributions of one of the fastest growing groups living in the U.S.

Two elderly Asian women were stabbed without warning as they waited for a bus in downtown San Francisco in the latest in a series of attacks against Asian Americans nationwide since the start of the pandemic.

This image taken from surveillance video provided by the New York City Police Department shows a person of interest in connection with an assault of an Asian American woman, Monday, March 29, 2021, in New York. (Courtesy of New York Police Department via AP)NEW YORK – A parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago was arrested on assault and hate crime charges in an attack on an Asian American woman in New York City, police said Wednesday. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the attack “absolutely disgusting and outrageous” and said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that witnesses didn’t help the woman. Two lobby workers, described by their union as doormen, were seen on video witnessing the attack but failing to help Kari. This year in New York City, there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim as of Sunday, police said.

On Friday, in the same neighborhood as Monday's attack, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was accosted by a man waving an unknown object and shouting anti-Asian insults. He is not suspected in Monday's attack. Andrew Cuomo called Monday's attack “horrifying and repugnant" and he ordered a state police hate crimes task force to offer its assistance to the NYPD. The neighborhood where Monday's attack occurred, Hell's Kitchen, is predominantly white, with an Asian population of less than 20%, according to city demographic data. Shea called Monday's attack “disgusting," telling TV station NY1: “I don’t know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that."

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)ATLANTA – Police said Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in the investigation of the deadly shootings at two Atlanta massage businesses, including whether the slayings were a hate crime. The pair postponed a political event in favor of meeting Friday with Asian American community leaders. “Our investigation is looking at everything, so nothing is off the table,” Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said at a news conference. Investigators believe Long had previously visited two of the Atlanta massage parlors where four of the women were killed, Hampton said. Long’s statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism in the Asian American community, which has increasingly been targeted for violence during the coronavirus pandemic.

(AP Photo/Donald King, file)The U.S. population grew by the smallest rate in at least 120 years from 2019 to 2020, according to figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau — a trend that demographers say provides a glimpse of the coronavirus pandemic’s toll. Population growth in the U.S. already was stagnant over the past several years due to immigration restrictions and a dip in fertility, but coronavirus-related deaths exacerbated that lethargic-growth trend, said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “I think it’s a first glimpse of where we may be heading as far as low population growth," Frey said. Among the states, Idaho had the largest single-year population increase, growing 2.1% to 1.8 million residents. Sixteen states lost population, including California, the nation’s most populous state, which declined 0.18% to 39.3 million residents.

Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi's piece, titled "Floor Frame," is displayed in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, in Washington. Noguchi is the first Asian American artist to be featured in the White House collection, according to the first lady and the White House Historical Association. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)WASHINGTON – The White House Rose Garden has a new addition, but it isn't a floral variety. Noguchi is the first Asian American artist to be featured in the White House collection, according to the first lady and the White House Historical Association. Noguchi's work was installed on the east terrace of the Rose Garden to complement the power symbolized by the Oval Office at the west end of the expanse, the White House said.

MIAMI – Kim Ng started her Major League Baseball career as an intern, and three decades later she's still on the rise while shattering ceilings. Ng became the majors' highest-ranking woman in baseball operations when she was hired Friday as general manager of the Miami Marlins. “After decades of determination, it is the honor of my career to lead the Miami Marlins,” Ng said in a statement. “We look forward to Kim bringing a wealth of knowledge and championship-level experience to the Miami Marlins,” Jeter said in a statement. “All of us at Major League Baseball are thrilled for Kim and the opportunity she has earned with the Marlins,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department sued Yale University on Thursday, weeks after prosecutors found the university was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law. A statement from the university president said Yale will not change its admissions practices as a result of the suit. The action from the Justice Department is the latest by the Trump administration in a long-running effort aimed at rooting out discrimination in the college application process, following complaints from students about the application process at some Ivy League colleges. The Justice Department’s investigation — which stemmed from a 2016 complaint against Yale, Brown and Dartmouth — also found that Yale uses race as a factor in multiple steps of the admissions process and that Yale “racially balances its classes," officials said. Schools also bear the burden of showing why their consideration of race is appropriate.

Black women in particular helped rescue Biden's campaign earlier this year by delivering a resounding victory in the South Carolina primary, powering him to the Democratic nomination. That will hinge on Black voters in battleground states like Michigan to turn out in force in November. But for Black women, the freedom to vote didnt come until much later, part of a historical pattern of being denied justice offered to others. It took an additional 45 years of organizing to secure the rights to vote for Black women and other women of color, Ufot said. It affirms Black women and all we did for this country.

NEW YORK, NY – Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, the Senate's first Asian American woman and only current immigrant, is working on a memoir. Viking announced Tuesday that the book, currently untitled, will come out in 2021. Hirono, 72, will write about emigrating at age 8 to the United States after her mother fled an abusive marriage in Japan. In a statement issued through Viking, Hirono said the book was a tribute to her mother's spirit. "Now, because she can no longer bear witness for herself, I am choosing to bear witness on her behalf by telling the story of the daughter she inspired to live boldly and to fight for the promises of this country."