The news this week is extremely terrible; the shooting spree in Atlanta that ended in the deaths of eight people, six of whom were Asian women, was terrifying and distressing for everyone, but was obviously particularly awful for folks in the Asian community, which was already grappling with a huge jump in hate crimes over the last year. The Cut has a good round-up of ways to help. (In addition to making a financial donation to the Atlanta chapter of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, I am personally taking a free online course on bystander intervention that’s being hosted by Hollaback! and AAAJ, in case that’s something you might be interested in doing as well. They have several sessions available.) As always, we welcome your suggestions for additional ways to help in the comments.
The New York Times has profiled the shooting victims and I encourage you to read about their lives.
This piece is well-worth your time, at the New Yorker: The Atlanta Shooting and the Dehumanizing of Asian Women
This is very good, from Roxane Gay: A White Man’s Bad Day
At the Atlantic: Why This Wave of Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different
Thought-provoking, at Variety: How Hollywood Is Complicit in the Violence Against Asians in America
In this moving and wide-ranging piece, “ELLE turned to 24 powerful AAPI figures from the beauty world for a roundtable discussion about anti-Asian racism in the beauty industry and what steps we can take to right the wrong.”
This story is from earlier in the month, but it’s obviously even more pertinent now: Political Solidarity Is A Solution to Attacks Against Asian Americans [Harper’s Bazaar]
And thanks to a reader who let us know that the Asian American Writers Workshop has a lot of excellent reading material; in particular, their Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities project, which has been ongoing over the last year, has a tremendous amount to explore, like this very timely piece from this summer where “leaders from Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective each reflected on books that have shaped, catalyzed, and transformed their understandings and practices of solidarity.”
I also pulled some links about other topics this week:
This is so beautiful: The new Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland took her oath of office in a traditional Native American skirt, and moccasins [The Hill]
So good: You Can Thank Stacey Plaskett’s College Friends For Her Viral Blue Impeachment Dress. [Elle]
This is VERY fascinating: The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make [BBC]
Really interesting, and alarming: The Virus, the Vaccine, and the Dark Side of Wellness. [Harper’s Bazaar]
Very educational: The Dostoevsky Dash: the Reasons for Dashed Out Information in Literature [Book Riot]
Really interesting, at the LA Times: How the people who serve you survived the last year. (I recognized the bartender from the Tam O’Shanter! That’s one of the best places to go during the holidays in LA and it was really missed this year by a lot of people.)
At The Curvy Fashionista: LOFT Takes The Ax To Plus Sizes; That’s Not Even The First Mistake They Made. I was really surprised to see this from LOFT, both because this decision was announced haphazardly, but also because, anecdotally, LOFT’s plus size stuff always sells pretty well in our analytics and I would have extrapolated that to think it was doing well elsewhere.
This is really interesting: ““Hey, wanna collab?” It’s the social-media version of “You up?” but, as our investigation shows, more insidious—and may be preying upon your desire to create social change.” [Marie Claire]
LOGISTICS: This is a fascinating piece at WaPo about how they’re doing the March Madness bubble.
More logistics, this time about the Oscars. [Variety]
Related: All the locations the Oscars have called home [EW]
I really enjoyed this piece at Lainey about the four-hour long (!!!!!!!!!!) Snyder cut of Justice League despite the fact that (a) I’ve never seen any cut of that movie and (b) probably never will.
One of you sent this in and I laughed. It’s from 2015 but…timeless, actually: 4,000-Year-Old Ancient Babylonian Tablet is Oldest Customer Service Complaint Ever Discovered [Ancient Origins]
Love this, over at Celebitchy: Yara Shahidi is pitching herself for the Marvel universe: ‘I wrote a one sheet’. Can this please happen?
Weird and cool: Senators used to relax in the nearly forgotten marble tubs now hidden in the U.S. Capitol Building’s basement. [Atlas Obscura]
I need to confess that I shrieked a little bit when I read this: Do You Know the Oliver Reed Foot Fetish Movie? [Pajiba]
At GQ: Cocaine Chic: How Mirrors, Glass Bricks, and Conversation Pits Took Over Social Media
This is rad: Meet the Swedish Artist Who Hooked British Rock Royalty on Her Revolutionary Crochet [Collectors Weekly]
OBVIOUSLY I turned to Lainey for all the news about whatever is happening with J.Lo and A.Rod.
This post about favorite cookbooks might be very relevant to your interests. [The Stripe]
Fascinating: The Zombie Billboards of Locked-Down New York [Curbed]
Amen: Long Live Hugs. [The Cut]
In personal news, Heather and I are happy to be In (virtual) Conversation with Kate Quinn about her new novel, The Rose Code, which I loved, this Monday, March 22nd, at 2pm PT/5 pm ET. Join us, if that’s your jam!
We also had a great chat this week about what everyone’s reading, and I rounded up some light jackets for you.
