Why is violence against Asian-Americans on the rise?

 

Calls for hate-crime charges after women of Asian descent killed in gun attack.

Asian-Americans are demanding action on what they are calling a “pandemic of racism”.

Six women of Asian descent were among eight people shot dead this week in a mass shooting at massage parlours near the city of Atlanta.

How the coronavirus pandemic fuels racism | COVID-19 Special

"The virus does not discriminate." - It's a line many have used to describe the fact that anyone can catch COVID-19. But when it comes to human behaviour, discrimination has reigned supreme in this pandemic. Around the world, various groups have been maligned and accused of spreading the virus.

I Was Poised to be the First Black Astronaut. I Never Made it to Space.

This is the story of Ed Dwight Jr., who was invited by his country to train to be the first African-American astronaut. Back in 1963, it was hot news. But the United States never sent Dwight to space. For decades, he has maintained that he was discriminated against during his time at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, a prerequisite to NASA run by the legendary pilot Chuck Yeager.

Is India's proposed citizenship law anti-Muslim?

Why Foreigners Have Difficulty Renting in Japan

In a recent survey by the Japanese Ministry of Justice, it was found that 4 out of 10 foreign residents in Japan have been refused tenancy because they were a foreigner. In this video, we explore why it's so hard for foreigners to rent in Japan.

What we get wrong about affirmative action

An alleged discrimination case against Harvard has put the affirmative action debate in the spotlight again — this time with Asian Americans being used to make the case against it. But the problem is, the way we talk about race in college admissions hasn’t changed for years…and it’s often wrong. While we may think of affirmative action as a policy that boosts college applicants of color to help undo the effects of historical discrimination — the Supreme Court has actually narrowed the use of affirmative action over decades of rulings. And now, armed with an allegation that Harvard is using race in college admissions to discriminate against Asian applicants — conservative opponents of affirmative action may put the issue back in the hands of a majority-conservative Supreme Court.

Inside North Korea's bubble in Japan

For this episode I found myself embeded with a small community in Japan. They were born there, they speak the language. But they're not Japanese citizens, or even ethnically Japanese - they're North Korean. There's about 150,000 of them living in Japan today, and they've been there for over a century. This community has close ties with the regime in Pyongyang, which supports them financially (and vice-versa). But more importantly, Pyongyang offers them an identity, a heritage, and cultural legitimacy - things that some elements of Japanese society work to deny them.

Can Multiculturalism Work In South Korea?

South Korea like Japan is very homogenous with 3% of the population being of foreign origin.  Foreigners can, like in places face obstacles they wouldn't otherwise encounter  like racism and discrimination.   Because there are no laws to deal with these types of behaviour discrimination and racism can be open and blatant.  That said because Korea like Japan is facing declining birthrates the government has instituted policies which are meant to encourage immigrants to settle in the country.  While it won't be easy and there will be moments of discouragement Korea could become a multicultural society.

It's happening most notably in a place called Wongok Village outside the city of Ansan, an hour's drive south of Seoul. At Ansan West Elementary School, the students represent dozens of countries — China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and several more. Most of them have managed to pick up the Korean language quickly, but for those who don't, the school is one of few public schools in the country to offer remedial Korean classes.

The elementary school is in the heart of Wongok, which is billed as a "borderless village" in which two-thirds of the 17,000 residents are non-Korean. Industrial work requiring cheaper migrant labor and Ansan city's efforts to provide services for non-Koreans led to a fourfold jump in Wongok's immigrant population from 2002 to 2010.

     "There is real immigration going on that is supported, facilitated, advocated by the South Korean government," says Katharine Moon, the SK Korea Chair at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on the impact of a changing Korean population.

What Japanese Think of Whitewashing (Ghost in the Shell, Death Note, Interview)

Burma's general election: Everything you need to know (video)

This weekend, Burma will hold one of its most significant elections in recent history.

In the last open election held in Burma Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament which prompted the military dictatorship governing the country at that time to nullify the election results. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest following the overturning of the elections for 15 years and is barred from holding the presidency of Burma. That said she hasn't acquitted herself over the issue of Muslim's running or voting in the election which is scheduled for this Sunday.



Myanmar's 'Muslim-free' election

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi "purged" opposition of Muslims ahead of election, senior party member tells Al Jazeera.

Myanmar's main opposition party, led by the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, deliberately bypassed Muslim candidates ahead of the November election, a senior party member told Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said Suu Kyi ordered an "Islamic purge" in the National League for Democracy (NLD) to appease growing anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by hardline Buddhist nationalists.


Not one of the NLD's 1,151 candidates standing for regional and national elections is Muslim, despite there being around five million Muslims - or between 4 and 10 percent of the population - in the country.

There are also no Muslim candidates in the military-backed, governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) running in what has been billed as the country's first free and fair general election in 25 years.