Name: DUMPLINGS FOR UNITY: Asian-American Organizers Promote Racial Unity Through Virtual Cooking Class Amid Violent Attacks | Carlos Hernandez | NewsBreak Original
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DUMPLINGS FOR UNITY: Asian-American Organizers Promote Racial Unity Through Virtual Cooking Class Amid Violent Attacks | Carlos Hernandez | NewsBreak Original

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NewsBreak ContributorI am a writer who covers a number of topics from food to politics and everything in between.Contact: carloshernandesu@gmail.comTampa, FL1105 followers2021-02-12 On Saturday, February 20th, 2021, Asian American Folk Traditions will host a dumpling cooking class called “Dumplings For Unity: A Lunar New Year X Black History Month Fundraiser” from 12:00PM to 1:30PM PST. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Good Good Eatz, an Oakland, California-based organization working to keep residents of Oakland Chinatown nourished and safe amidst two pandemics: COVID-19 and systemic racism. Recently, there has been outcry over violent attacks on elderly Asian community members and Asian-Americans in general. Things hit a fever pitch this weekend after a father and DoorDash driver, Jeffrey Fang, was carjacked in San Francisco with his children in the backseat. Not even two weeks before, an elderly Asian man was pushed to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown. This led to a push by Asian celebrities and politicians that has separated activists from elected officials who are seeking to blame Black Lives Matter for the attacks. Activists have criticized the attempts to separate Black and Asian communities.Opponents of restorative justice have taken advantage of the situation and for those on the right politically, it has galvanized them to criticize Black Lives Matter and also California, two of their favorite things to attack.This viral video spread awareness of the violence that is happening nationwide: According to Newsweek, “The Black Bay Area, a group focused on retaining a space for the Black population in San Francisco, has raised almost $15,000 to be donated between the Asian Health Center in Oakland and the Vietnamese Health Center in San Francisco.”Journalists have documented a rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, especially since COVID-19 began. When former President Trump attacked China and named COVID-19 the “China virus”, he fanned the flames of racism that have led to an uptick in attacks on Asian-Americans. CBS reporter, Weijia Jiang, famously sparred with the former President over this.San Francisco-based Dion Lim at ABC7 has sought answers on the violence and shared numerous videos of violent attacks on Asian-Americans with increasing frequency through the pandemic. Good Good Eatz seeks to “create a bridge between ethnic communities, particularly Asian and Black communities, across Oakland districts by supporting local restaurants and businesses and providing access to food to their community members who otherwise are without resources”. Adrian Chang, Co-Founder of American American Folk Traditions, will teach participants in real-time how to make meat-based and vegan fillings for dumplings and a variety of dumpling folding techniques based on his Grandma Jean’s recipe for Jiaozi. Chang will also teach how to steam and boil dumplings. Chang and Co-Founder, Erin Wilkins, invites participants to chime in on the conversation so they can share Lunar New Year memories, talk about food, and the importance of standing together in the face of division and racism.Chang shares, “In light of the recent surge of attacks on our Asian elderly across the Bay Area AND the interracial tension which ensues from that-particularly between the Black and Asian communities - my friend Erin Wilkins and I decided we needed to do something. In January this year, Erin and I launched a virtual workshop series called Asian-American Folk Traditions. We are both based out of Sonoma County, myself on Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok Native territory (Occidental). The series focuses on honoring and sharing Asian herbalism and culinary ancestral traditions through an Asian-American lens. While our course material is primarily based on our respective East-Asian heritages and respective studies, we also find it equally as important- if not more- to create a space for our greater Asian-American community to gather together to share our diverse perspectives on the topics of wellness, traditional medicine, food, and culture. We threw a Lunar New Year pre-celebration cooking class on February 6 in which I taught a traditional celebratory dish called Tang Yuan and we sold out very quickly. We sold 60+ tickets for an event originally intended for 25 people and even had a waiting list. When our event ended, the mainstream media was only just starting to catch up with what has been happening to our elders. And on social media, a Asian vs Black war was already raging. We were unbelievably pissed that our elders were being harmed with very little acknowledgement from the media and deeply saddened that further divide was growing between Black and Asian communities. We thought ‘We’ve already got our followers asking us to do another Lunar New Year event and we’ve got to do something so...let’s do it and make it a 100% charity event to help fight this’. The question was, which organizations out there are actively doing the work to specifically keep our Elders safe, but also working to unite Asian &amp; Black communities in those areas? In fact, there are a number of grassroots and large organizations doing just that, to varying degrees, with varying focuses but ultimately working to cultivate unity and provide safety. It was hard to choose.Our dear friend Leslie Wiser from Radical Family Farms in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, connected us with Tommy Wong, co-founder of Good Good Eatz in Oakland. Good Good Eatz’s ongoing mission is to create a bridge between ethnic communities across Oakland districts by supporting local food businesses and providing access to food to their community members. They are actively working to keep our Asian elders nourished and safe, having formed the Oakland Chinatown Coalition in alliance with other neighborhood AAPI organizations, and they were already working in tandem with Black organizers, small business owners and leaders to forge unity between the two communities. It was quite obvious to us that Good Good Eatz was the organization we needed to support.”The event has a connection to the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the nation and the planet after George Floyd was filmed being killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota while being arrested by the police. When the George Floyd protests occurred, many communities looked inward at their own relationship with racism. Tommy Wong has focused on a few objectives with Good Good Eatz including Asian Black Unity and supporting a Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) or Akoma Market. They are partnering with the Oakland Chinatown Coalition, Asian Health Services and Asian Pacific Environmental Network to expand an Ambassador Safety Program and are partly responsible for starting several years ago, through a now defunct pilot, called Chinatown Improvement. One goal is to create a program that embraces progressive visions of a Chinatown that is inclusive and community-building oriented. With the current racial disunity at the moment, Wong feels this program could positively impact the situation.Wong has connected the Akoma Market to Lunar Project, an Asian-American effort which aims to channel capital and business funding into the BCZ. They also formed a coordinating cohort with them and the other cultural districts of Eastlake Little Saigon, Fruitvale, and Chinatown. The goal is to "unite the flatlands" by sharing communications, events and efforts, and collaborating cross-district as much as possible.As should be clear, these events and organizers are deeply entrenched in working on racial relations and improvement.Chang also shared, “I posted something on my IG acct @mykitsunecafe after flipping out about the lack of media coverage and it seemed to resonate with people. I think it says everything about how I feel about what is happening and how UNITY is the way forward. Not increased police intervention, not finger pointing and not racial divide. Standing together and calling out the real demon is the only way we all emerge on the other side. I hope this event serves to bring together good folx, doing the good work and that it can help spread some perspective, understanding and happiness to all of us and our communities.”Christine Su, who is part of a group of Asian-Americans connected in the food space, shares, “dumplings for solidarity was a wild idea in June 2020 that we weren’t sure would work! But there’s comfort in coming together in times of pain, telling stories, and making food with your hands, that builds strength and confidence in your ability to carry forward a tradition. And that’s what organizing is about.”Su says this upcoming class was actually planned over Twitter DMs because the organizers already had experience doing it. You can find their previous classes on Instagram by searching . Dumplings For Unity has a suggested donation of $30 to $50. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Please e-mail mykitsunecafe@gmail.com if you are unable to afford the event. Dumplings For Unity aims to honor both the Lunar New Year and Black History Month with this fundraising cooking class.The recipes for the cooking class will be sent by email upon receipt of donation and then again with a zoom link 48 hours in advance and 24 hours before the event. Organizers recommend registering early to make sure you have time to shop for the ingredients.Interested participants can register and donate at herbfolkshop.com/events.Sources: , Photo Credit: @mykitsunecafeExpand See allWhat are your thoughts?PostI am a writer who covers a number of topics from food to politics and everything in between.Contact: carloshernandesu@gmail.comTampa, FL1105 followersMore from Carlos Hernandez2021-09-012021-09-012021-09-012021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-312021-08-292021-08-262021-08-252021-08-192021-08-182021-08-18Write a comment...

NewsBreak ContributorI am a writer who covers a number of topics from food to politics and everything in between.Contact: carloshernandesu@gmail.comTampa, FL1105 followers2021-02-12 On Saturday, February 20th, 2021, Asian American Folk Traditions will host a dumpling cooking class called “Dumplings For Unity: A Lunar New Year X Black History Month Fundraiser” from 12:00PM to 1:30PM PST. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Good Good Eatz, an Oakland, California-based organization working to keep residents of Oakland Chinatown nourished and safe amidst two pandemics: COVID-19 and systemic...

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DUMPLINGS FOR UNITY: Asian-American Organizers Promote Racial Unity Through Virtual Cooking Class Amid Violent Attacks | Carlos Hernandez | NewsBreak Original

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