Time - USA (2021-03-01)

14 TIME March 1/March 8, 2021

TheBrief News

WHEN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AMANDA
Nguyen saw the video, she was horrifi ed.
In the Jan. 28 security footage, 84-year-old
Vicha Ratanapakdee was brutally pushed to
the ground while on a morning walk in San
Francisco. Two days later, he died.
In response, Nguyen shared an Instagram
video imploring her followers to
speak out about Ratanapakdee’s
death, as well as other incidents
targeting Asian-American
elders early this year— including
a 64-year-old Vietnamese
grandmother who was violently
robbed in San Jose, Calif., and
a 61-year-old Filipino man
whose face was slashed with a
box cutter on the New York City
subway.
Nguyen’s video went viral,
drawing attention to the surge in violence
against the Asian-American community
during the COVID-19 pandemic. An initiative
documenting incidents against Asian
Americans and Pacifi c Islanders, Stop AAPI
Hate, received more than 2,800 reports of
racism and discrimination from March 19 to
Dec. 31. The surge has continued into 2021,
and on Jan. 26 President Joe Biden signed
an Executive Order denouncing anti-Asian
discrimination.
“There is a stereotype that Asian

Americans have class privilege [and] have

‘succeeded’ in this country,” says racial-

justice educator Bianca Mabute-Louie.

That creates a fallacy that Asian Americans

don’t experience struggle, she says, and

“erases these experiences of violence and

discrimination.”

AMID THE RISE in racist violence, some in

the AAPI community have called for more

policing. But others disagree, saying keeping

their elders and others safe should not be

at odds with the national reckoning over

systemic police brutality and its

disproportionate harm toward

Black and brown communities.

That view is informed by a

long, complex history between

Asian and Black communities in

the U.S.

Russell Jeung, a co-founder

of Stop AAPI Hate and a profes-

sor of Asian-American studies at

San Francisco State University, is

helping organize strolls through

Chinatown, in which locals ac-

company merchants and senior citizens to

provide a sense of security. He says local ef-

forts and solidarity are the only ways to stop

racist attacks. “This is an issue that aff ects

all our communities,” Jeung says. “And we’re

calling not necessarily for more punitive

measures but [for] restorative-justice mod-

els that break the cycle of violence, ethnic

studies to teach people about racial solidar-

ity, community mediation eff orts to not only

hold people accountable but to work together

to resolve issues.” —CADY LANG

GOOD QUESTION

What’s being done to

combat violence against

Asian Americans?

‘We’re calling

for restorative-

justice models

that break

the cycle of

violence.’

RUSSELL JEUNG,

co-founder of

Stop AAPI Hate

FOOD AND DRINK

Ancient alcohol

On Feb. 13, archaeologists in Egypt announced the discovery of a large-

scale beer brewery, believed to be around 5,000 years old and likely used

for royal burial rituals. Here, other intoxicating antiquities. —Billy Perrigo

PREHISTORIC PINTS
Researchers
found 13,000-
year-old beer residue
in a cave in Haifa,
Israel, in 2018,
the oldest example
of man-made
alcohol known
to science. The
traces were found
in a hunter-gatherer
burial site.

WHEN IN ROME

In December 2020,

archaeologists

unearthed a wine

and hot-food

bar in Pompeii,

the Roman city

destroyed by a

volcanic eruption in

A.D. 79. Authorities

hope the site will be

open to the public

later this year.

VINTAGE VINO

The country of

Georgia received

a Guinness World

Rec ord in 2017 for

“oldest wine” after

chemical evidence of

tartaric acid, found in

wine, was identifi ed

on 8,000-year-old

pottery excavated

from two Neolithic

settlements.

NEWS

TICKER

British LGBTQ

veterans can

restore medals

Former military

personnel in the U.K.

who were dismissed

because of their

sexuality can now

reclaim lost medals

under a new Ministry

of Defense plan that

aims to address the

“historical wrong.”

Until 2000, up to 250

offi cers were fi red

annually in anti-gay

decisions and often

stripped of their

medals.

‘Central Park

Karen’ has

charge dropped

Amy Cooper, a white

woman who was fi lmed

last May calling the

police on a Black bird

watcher in New York

City’s Central Park

and accusing him of

threatening her, had a

misdemeanor charge

of falsely reporting an

incident dismissed

on Feb. 16 after

completing a program

on racial bias.

Olympics chief

out over sexist

comments

Yoshiro Mori, head

of the Tokyo Olympic

Organizing Committee,

resigned on Feb. 

amid international

backlash over remarks

he made about

women talking too

much in meetings.

“My inappropriate

comments caused big

trouble,” Mori said.

“I’m sorry.”