Umemoto Is Recognized for Multilingual COVID-19 Information

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The Little Tokyo-based newspaper Rafu Shimpo cited Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto‘s leadership in making COVID-19 information available in different languages. Umemoto is director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, which launched the COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Hub to make critical information about COVID-19 accessible to immigrant and non-English speaking populations in 40 languages. The website offers basic information about wearing a mask, washing hands and maintaining physical distance with others, as well as guides to protesting during the pandemic and links to resources for reporting hate incidents targeting the Asian community. “The Asian American Studies Center has a legacy of serving the community,” Umemoto said. “When we were told in March that UCLA was shutting down in light of stay-at-home orders, we made a pivot to mobilize the center’s talents and resources to work with fellow faculty in Public Health to create this service to the public.”

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Covington Predicts Black Exodus Will Continue in California

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Public Policy senior lecturer Kenya Covington was featured in a CalMatters article about the exodus of Black Californians from high-cost coastal cities for other states or more suburban cities. Some Black renters have been disproportionately forced out of cities as costs and evictions have climbed, while others have chosen to relocate in pursuit of homeownership, safety and better schools. The Black population has decreased 45% in Compton, 43% in San Francisco and 40% in Oakland in recent years. In 2018, Covington led a survey in Los Angeles’ Council District 8, which includes Crenshaw, Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills, to better understand the 42% drop in that area’s Black population. She found that 30% of the 250 respondents didn’t expect to be living there in another five years. “We’re probably not going to see that trend slow,” Covington said. “It’s probably going to intensify.”

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