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Ong on Uncertain Future of Korean Dry Cleaners

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Research by Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, is highlighted in a Los Angeles Times article focusing on COVID-19’s impact on Korean families involved in the dry cleaning businesses, which has struggled amid the pandemic. In 2015, Ong co-authored a paper that investigated ethnic mobilization among Korean dry cleaners in the United States. Starting in the 1970s, Korean immigrants welcomed one another into the dry cleaning business with loans, moral support and training. “The children are quite often at the business … it’s a way of supervising them in terms of their education,” the researchers wrote. During the pandemic, dry cleaners lost revenue because many customers moved to virtual work, and at least a quarter of these family-oriented businesses have closed because of the pandemic, according to a representative of the Korean Dry Cleaners & Laundry Assn. of Southern California. 

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Diaz on Engaging Voters of Color in Recall Election

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Sonja Diaz, director of UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, authored an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times about the importance of the upcoming recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Despite starting as a political distraction, the election is a valuable “opportunity for Democrats to build lasting relationships with the state’s nonwhite electorate,” Diaz argued. There has been a significant increase in registered Latino and Asian American voters, who will play a critical role in the 2022 midterms. While voter turnout is generally much lower in midterm years, the recall election in September will be an opportunity to build and maintain engagement with voters. Diaz recommended developing field campaigns and on-the-ground outreach to mobilize communities of color to vote “no” on the recall and keep Newsom in office. “If successfully engaged in the state’s political process, those voters will support future candidates committed to inclusive and progressive policies to help all Californians,” she wrote.

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Keum on Asian American Masculinity and Mental Health

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In a Washington Post article, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Brian Keum discussed the mental health and body image of Asian American men who face stigma and stereotyping. While there has been a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Keum noted that “the constant invalidation of being overlooked and ignored” is a more subtle everyday violence that affects Asian Americans professionally, politically and socially. Keum explained that Asian American men are aware of “the stereotype of being emasculated, effeminate, less attractive, less manly, falling short of the white hegemonic masculinity ideal in the United States,” which negatively affects their psyche and body image. Without healthy outlets, Asian American men cope with shame on their own, sometimes through substance abuse, suicidal ideation, aggression or risky behavior, he said. An emerging network of Asian-focused mental health support programs aims to address stigma and promote mental health and well-being among Asian American men.

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Ong’s Research on the Asian American Experience Highlighted

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Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Director Paul Ong was featured in an Equitable Growth article about the economic experiences of Asian Americans. As a part of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, the article highlighted scholars doing economic research on AANHPI populations and their experiences in the United States. Ong’s research focuses on people of color and immigrants in the the U.S. labor market, sustainability and equity, the racial wealth gap, and the role of urban structures in the reproduction of inequality. More recently, he has focused on the disproportionate economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian Americans, as well as the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. “The virus’s Asian origin may affect Asian Americans to a greater degree as racial and xenophobic tensions mount,” he explained. “The increase in discrimination against Asian Americans has manifested financially and commercially as customers, employers and co-workers base their economic behavior on discrimination.”

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Ong, Umemoto on Shortcomings of ‘Asian American’ Label

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Research Professor Paul Ong and Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto spoke to Vox about concerns that the broadness of the term “Asian American” erases and flattens many of the cultures it encompasses. Asian Americans comprise 50 ethnic groups with more than 100 languages, but using the label “Asian American” fuels the myth that the group is monolithic. Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, explained that “Pacific Islanders were too small of a group in the mind of key decision-makers to report separately,” which led to their initial grouping as Asian Americans. Umemoto, director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, added, “There has long been a problem of lumping all of the groups together, which makes Asian Americans look well-off by some measures when averaged out as a sociopolitical group. But we’re a bifurcated community, with wide differences in well-being within and across ethnic groups.”

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Ong Featured in APA Tribute to Groundbreaking Urbanists

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Paul Ong

The American Planning Association (APA) featured the work of UCLA Luskin Research Professor Paul Ong in a tribute to Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders who have shaped the nation’s history and communities. Ong, director of UCLA’s Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, was one of 12 planners, architects, historians and community organizers who have “influenced our built environment, fought for historical and cultural preservation, and championed social justice to help make great communities for all,” the association’s Planning magazine said. Ong joins a list including modernist architect I.M. Pei, statesman Norman Mineta, Vietnam Wall designer Maya Lin and racial justice attorney Manjusha Kulkarni, who co-founded the hate crime reporting center Stop AAPI Hate. As a UCLA researcher and educator, Ong has specialized in urban planning, social welfare and Asian American studies, with a focus on labor, environmental justice and immigration. Over the past year, Ong has examined the direct and indirect impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on people and communities as part of the COVID-19 Equity Research Initiative at the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. The initiative focuses on systemic racial and class inequalities with the goal of developing insights that will lead to a just and fair recovery. The APA said its list of honorees, compiled in consultation with Asian American Studies scholars, is “intended to shine a spotlight on the many ways that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have built careers in service of their communities, especially in the face of adversity.”

Umemoto on Coalitions Emerging From Firestorm of Racism

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Urban Planning Professor Karen Umemoto spoke to the Los Angeles Times and the podcast Then & Now about the dramatic rise in attacks on Asian Americans. Umemoto called the violence a “shadow epidemic,” stoked by former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. “Trump’s role in exacerbating and igniting this firestorm can’t be denied,” she told the L.A. Times. But she also pointed to a new era of coalition-building among communities of color long targeted by a culture steeped in white supremacy. “One of Trump’s legacies is sparking more activism and more acts of solidarity across many groups who became victim of many of his policies and rhetoric,” she told the podcast, produced by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. To tackle structural racism at its roots, Umemoto called for educating schoolchildren about the history and contributions of Asian Americans so that they are no longer considered the “perpetual foreigner.”

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Ong Highlights Economic Obstacles Facing Asian Americans

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Paul Ong, director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, was cited in Los Angeles Times and USA Today articles about economic hardships among Asian Americans in the United States. Many hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and beauty salons were forced to close at the beginning of the pandemic, and a report by Ong found that Asian Americans accounted for one in four workers within those sectors. Now, long-term unemployment levels among Asian Americans have been exacerbated by a surge in anti-Asian sentiment. Among all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, Asians have the largest income gap between the top and bottom 10%, and this trend has been accelerated by the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. Ong explained that Los Angeles’ Chinatown “was hit earlier, even before the lockdowns, and it lost much more business and has recovered much more slowly,” a trend also seen in New York and San Francisco.

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Ong on Increasing Asian American Representation in Biden Administration

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Director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge Paul Ong spoke to NBC News about his hopes for increasing Asian American representation in the Biden administration. The White House announced the creation of a new position, Asian American and Pacific Islander liaison, to ensure that the community’s voice is further represented and heard. Details of the duties and responsibilities of the position have not yet been announced, but Ong said the liaison will be effective only if given direct access to key decision-makers in the administration. In addition, he said, a staff is needed to ensure coverage of vital issues to the AAPI community, including education, civil rights, the economy and housing. “Appointing an AAPI liaison could be one of the much-needed solutions to ensure fair and adequate AAPI participation in the administration, but it is critical that the role is impactful and not window dressing,” he said.

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Diaz on Selection of Filipino American Attorney General

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A Los Angeles Daily News article on the nomination of Assemblyman Rob Bonta as California’s next attorney general included comments from Sonja Diaz, executive director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at UCLA Luskin. Bonta’s nomination completes a trio of high-profile appointments by Gov. Gavin Newsom. He tapped former Secretary of State Alex Padilla as the first California Latino to serve in the U.S. Senate. He picked former Assemblywoman Shirley Weber as the first Black secretary of state. And he selected Bonta as the first Filipino-American to be California’s top law officer. “I applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for making California a model for the country in how to rectify the willful neglect of growing and youthful communities of color who are left out of key decision-making positions across our most fundamental institutions by sending the first Filipino to lead the nation’s second-largest Department of Justice,” Diaz said.

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