|
👋 Welcome to AAPI Nation.
What a week. Early exit polls indicate that Asian Americans played a major role in flipping GOP seats across the U.S.—and now a record number of AAPI Democrats are headed to Congress.
A full midterms breakdown is coming your way next Tuesday. In the meantime, follow us on Instagram to see who made history this week.
Photo: U.S. Department of Justice
⚖️ Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, resigned Thursday amid reports of conflicts with other Trump administration officials over legal strategy in the midterm elections, per the New York Times.
The Indian and Sikh American attorney transformed the unit, originally created to fight Jim Crow-era discrimination, into an arm against DEI initiatives, transgender rights, and campus antisemitism.
📈 More than half of the U.S. population under 30 now identifies as a racial or ethnic minority—driven primarily by an increase in Asian American, Latino, and mixed-race youth, according to an analysis from the Brookings Institution.
💬 A revised memo from U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche declares English as the “sole official language” of America and directs federal agencies to “eliminate” language assistance “in favor of English-only operations,” per Bloomberg.
🏗️ A federal judge is expected to issue a ruling on a lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration violated the Endangered Species Act by authorizing a deep sea mining lease sale off American Samoa, though it’s unclear whether it will come before the planned auction on Nov. 19, The Guam Daily Post reports.
🗳️ Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment that bars government agencies from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, CBS News reports. Republicans championed the measure as a way to limit DEI programs.
👣 The populations of several U.S. territories—including American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands—are set to shrink substantially by 2100 due to falling fertility rates and a steady pace of outmigration, new Census Bureau estimates show.
🔎 Newly released investigative reports show that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, an institution dedicated to advancing Native Hawaiian interests, struggled to overcome systemic issues and dysfunction between board chair Kai Kahele and former CEO Stacy Ferreira, the Honolulu Civil Beat reports.
🏛️ Jenifer Chao, a Mien immigrant with 27 years of public service experience, is the new executive director of the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, according to the governor’s office.
🎥 “Settling St. Malo,” a documentary that recently premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival, shines a spotlight on a centuries-old Filipino settlement in Louisiana’s coastal marshes, long before many other Asian immigrants reached the U.S., the Acadiana Advocate reports.
🎨 A new mural at San José State University chronicles pivotal moments in local Filipino American history, including the Filipino farmworkers movement in California.
🏘️ The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands awarded over 800 residential project leases to Native Hawaiian families on Kauai, Island News reports.
📺 Netflix is releasing a new drama series inspired by Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection “Unaccustomed Earth.” The show, which premieres Dec. 17, explores belonging, loyalty, and loss in a tight-knit community of affluent Bengali families in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
💌 Find me at [email protected] to share tips, comments, or questions. And support our work by making a donation.
Like what you’ve read?
Forward this newsletter to a friend or subscribe here. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
Founded in 2018, The Yappie is an independent, nonprofit news organization reporting on Asian American + Pacific Islander power, politics, and influence. Learn more.
