Over 1000 flights cancelled this weekend because staff are sick.

It's almost like US airlines, with their breathless "yay, no masks!!" failed to learn from the UK... which did exactly the same thing, with exactly the same results. 🙄 Wow. Make that 5000 flights. 😯

Delta is primarily blaming bad weather... But also admitting not having enough staff due to COVID absences.

Hmm, if only there was a way to minimize transmission somewhat. A covering you could put on your face maybe. 🤔

cbsnews.com/news/memorial-…

Let's get a few things straight.

You can be an Asian massage therapist and not a sex worker.*

There is ZERO evidence right now that any of the women who were murdered were sex workers, or that the spas themselves offered sex.

#StopAsianHateCrimes One of the murdered women was the owner of the spa and had worked herself up from being a nail tech. She was a licensed massage therapist. You can see it as the "American Dream" if you want. She worked hard and made good. It ended with an American murder.

People keep assuming the women were sex workers.

At least one was both the owner of the spa and a *licensed massage therapist.*

Your assumptions are racist.

#StopAAPIHate * Because this is Twitter, note that sex workers should be respected and are people who deserve to be treated as such. Full stop.

But there's also a long history of the white gaze sexualizing Asian women, and that's gross and racist.

Here's the thing: This kind of violence and hatred isn't new.

It's escalated (exponentially) thanks to conversatives blaming China for COVID. But American violence against people who look like me has been happening for 200 years.

#StopAsianHateCrimes This country never wanted us. The very first immigration ban was put in place because the US didn't want Chinese people. The entire concept of "legal" vs. "illegal" immigration exists because of American xenophobia toward us.

Anti-miscegenation laws listed us specifically.

Trump's officially nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Amy Coney Barrett was part of the legal team that helped George W. Bush win his recount battle in Florida in 2000. That election was decided by 537 votes. In a state where perhaps 12,000 voters were incorrectly removed from the rolls (no one knows the exact number).

Who else helped Bush win in the courts?

Brett Kavanaugh.

And current Chief Justice John Roberts.

thenation.com/article/archiv…

This is very, very bad.

But here's the thing: It may only take 3.5% of a population to topple a dictator. And we're not quite there yet, though we've gone a long way down that path.

https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/1307784059167227904

Call your reps & never stop making a stink even when the current admin lives down to your already low expectations - people who study autocrats say that autocrats take and keep power bc feckless bureaucrats will support whoever seems to have the upper hand.

Here's why cultural appropriation hurts.

Remember the Spider-Man movie where Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) wore a cheongsam (a tight-fitting Chinese dress with a high collar)? Nicole Kidman wore one to an event. So has Emma Watson, Uma Thurman, & an unending list of celebs. So it should be the height of cool, right? Fashionable, & worn by professionally fashionable people.

I think cheongsams are gorgeous. But I can't wear one without being seen as foreign and Other. I don't get cool, fashionable points.

We launched wars we haven't extricated ourselves from. Still. 19 years later. I know he mentions war later in the thread, but the sentiment for that, even among individuals, came quickly & not out of calm.

The collective post-disaster-together feeling didn't last long.

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1304385740063805440

Everything changed after 9/11 bc of this collective lack of calm, which was fed and exploited by the GOP.

Not just airports. Personal freedoms. Privacy. Immigration. Torture. The Patriot Act did damage.

I have a lot of respect for Krugman, but more changed than he realizes.

You all, Disney didn't invent Mulan. The original poem is 1500 years old and has been adapted countless times.

In the poem, she fights for *10 years.* And it takes her another 2 to make it home after the war. There is no love interest. (There's more to life than men!) And while it's surprisingly subversive about gender & gender roles, it's also ultimately very concerned with filial piety & service to one's rulers.

Mulan doesn't sneak away - she says bye to her parents before serving in the army & happily returns home once her duty is done.

As an immigrant from a colonized, multicultural, & multi-ethnic country (Singapore) who moved at a young age to a blue-collar MI suburb where almost everyone was white, I've always been drawn to fusion styles in art.

Bc what is "authenticity" for someone like me?

#SocialShimmy It certainly doesn't involve the trad art forms of my heritage, which I had to research as an adult. I didn't even know about most Chinese festivals because my parents didn't bring them to the US. & I can't speak Chinese. (I can sing in it with practice though.) #DisaporaProblems

White People: My field needs more diversity. It's so white! How do I make it more diverse?

BIPOC: We exist! Hire us. Tell your friends abt our work. Share what we post on social. Buy our books/albums/art. Promote us. Invite us to speak. Cite us in your papers. Come to our shows. White People: Maybe I need to start a new project/organization. Why aren't BIPOC interested in our field? It's so white!

Well, we've all been expecting this.

1. No, Trump does not have the power to delay the election on his own.

2. Don't get complacent though, because the GOP has shown itself to be perfectly willing to do everything he wants. 3. Yes, it's a distraction from how poorly he's handled the pandemic.

4. But it also serves to get airtime for the narrative he's been pushing for a while now that mail-in voting is prone to fraud. (It's not.)

And that narrative should absolutely worry you...

This was my sink last night. With 2 dead ducks. Feathers, giant wings, and all. How did we get here?

*record scratch*

A story. @HeyChelseaTroy: "I have recently come into possession of 2 ducks. I don't know how to treat or cook...ducks. Would you like these ducks?"

Me: Confirms the ducks are dead. Takes the ducks.

Chelsea: Brings the ducks over.

You all: Portland isn't the beginning.

A year ago today, the American Immigration Council broke that the current administration was expanding "expedited removal" - in their words, "deportation without hearing, oversight, appeal, or review anywhere in the USA." This is when I started carrying not just digital copies of my passport and naturalization papers, but also a physical copy of my passport pretty much everywhere. Just in case. On the off chance.

We're talking about reopening schools in the US.

Yes, other countries have done it.

But let's look at what Singapore, for example, did with 650,000 students and 42,000 teachers and staff: - They issued face shields to every preschool and elementary school kid in the country.

- They issued face shields to every preschool teacher and staff member.

channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore…

Shein is selling a necklace w/ a swastika. All of these things are true:

1. It's inappropriate.

2. Shein is a Chinese company. The swastika is a 1000-yr-old Buddhist/Hindu symbol. Nazis stole it.

3. White ppl need to realize the West did not create & does not own everything. So yes, Shein needs to learn context. Good Lord. The swastika is NOT a peaceful symbol in the West. It's hate & violence to a lot of people.

But also Shein is a Chinese company selling what to them is basically equivalent to a cross necklace.

It's a cultural competence failure.

“If you’ve ever said anything that might offend the PRC [China] or Hong Kong authorities, stay out of Hong Kong.”

This applies even to citizens of other countries.

This bare analysis of the new Hong Kong security policy hurts to read.

theatlantic.com/international/… Something about being an Asian American from Singapore has always made me feel a kinship with Hong Kong - the two former British colonies share a lot of similarities, even though they'd probably hate to admit it.

You all, Asia hasn't handled COVID well (just) because they "think collectively." You don't get 0 deaths with a 96 million population (Vietnam) by just hoping people will behave well.

Let's take one example from Singapore (26 deaths total, similar population density to NYC). When someone needs to quarantined because of travel or COVID exposure, they use both the proverbial carrot and stick.

The govt provides lodging and food (cash if you're staying at your home). So your immediate needs are met - you don't have to worry if you don't go to work.

Without Google: Can you name 5 Asian American performers?

Can you name 5 who aren't celebrities? Posted this both here and Facebook, and a lot of responses are doing at least one of two things:

1. Naming Asians (sourcelanders) rather than Asian Americans (disapora - this distinction matters)

2. Naming any Asian they can think of, whether or not they're performers.

Watching conversations happening right now, it continues to be clear that Western Christians, particularly white evangelicals, have no framework for dealing with systemic injustice or any form of evil that requires more than "niceness" to solve. Which is ironic, considering the Bible is full of stories about how to deal with injustice, oppression, and evil perpetrated by your own.

Moses didn't continuously take Pharaoh out for coffee to explain why enslaving an entire people was bad.

Hey all. If you want to express solidarity with the Black community, call that out specifically. (This is needed! Say "Black," not just POC, and don't equivocate - i.e. #BlackLivesMatter. Their lives are the most under threat.) If you want to express solidarity with ALL racially marginalized groups though, recognize that the phrase "Black and brown" leaves a lot of us out.

Asian American erasure is a real and longstanding problem, and it happens just as often when people are trying to be inclusive.