i'm dennis anderson here's what's coming up on almanac north there has been a sharp rise in asian hate crimes across the country since the pandemic began tonight we will learn more about what local asian americans have experienced we'll talk with members of the twin ports api d.a collective and find out what they are doing to help combat this racism and our lessons from covet 19 series continues as we meet a hibbing family and find out how the pandemic changed their lives these stories and voices of the region coming up on almanac north [Music] hello and welcome to almanac north thank you very much for watching i'm dennis anderson julie is off this week as we continue to maintain social distancing here in the studio duluth's american indian community housing organization has received a major award from the mcknight foundation aco's arts program was recognized as a regional cultural treasure and received a half million dollar grant from the foundation the award is part of a new 12.6 million dollar initiative of the mcknight foundation at a news conference monday the grassroots group duluth community safety initiative proposed several changes to the city's policing practices the group is calling for more community involvement and oversight of police and has proposed some alternative methods of law enforcement you can find more information about these proposals at their website leanduluth.org superior mayor jim payne will give his state of the city address next week payne will deliver his speech at the cedar lounge earth rider brewery outdoor space at 7 pm thursday payne was first elected mayor back in 2017 and previously served on the douglas county board and in a sign that we are returning to normal two major duluth tourist attractions are opening up the north shore scenic railroad began running its regular summer schedule of trips today from the duluth depot and the ss william a urban open for the 2021 season the floating museum will be open friday saturday and sundays for now anti-asian hate crime in large cities in america has increased 145 percent in 2020 according to a study at california state university the study found the spike began in march of 2020 as covent cases grew and there was negative stereotyping of asians related to the campaign or to the pandemic recently we spoke with kim nordeen who was born in south korea and grew up in duluth about the rise of asian heat seoul is the city in south korea where i was born i was adopted when i was eight months old and i came here to duluth and i've never left being a woman and being a woman of color in duluth i think well there's just so many layers to that growing up in duluth i i know what it's like to be the only person of color and the school i went to i remember being one of the very few asian people and just people of color in general and that's been pretty much my entire life and being adopted into a white family i really haven't had that opportunity to even embrace my own culture you know covet and all of the the rise and anti-asian hate crimes when it first started happening basically people were blaming the asian community for covet and that was really scary because in the it's honestly in the for the first time in my life i felt fearful of going out and i remember shortly after that i think it was last march we had some some people come cut down some trees in our yard and i just remember when i went out to meet with them i was looking at them and just really trying to read like are you guys cool with me because i'm asian or i work for an organization that supports rural communities and so i used to travel quite frequently to rural communities and so just thinking about that just all of the anxiety around that that was really hard and scary and i still have that fear and i think the worst part though is just having a son and knowing that he is going to experience the same racism that i experienced when i was a child but on top of that now it's amplified because of everything that's been going on and it's it's impacting him and he's he's saying things like oh i'm i'm ashamed to be asian and he's not turning on his camera for his zoo meetings for school because he's feeling shame of who he is which is just heartbreaking i think that has definitely been the hardest part having him try to process it too it's i can't even process it so it's been really hard to feel afraid for your life and for your safety you can't ever stop hoping that this will get better and there are so many horrible things happening in the world right now for a lot of different people there's also some really great stuff happening and there's so many people that want to help and we're talking with our son and we're learning as much as we can and we're continuing learning as much as we can and the asian community is kind of left out of the conversation and there's just you know the myth of the model minority where asian people are don't experience racism or asian people are smart and they are doctors and lawyers and those generalizations i think are really hurtful and are really such a stereotype and it's just very untrue as a culture asian people tend to be on the more quiet side and we need a seat at the table too and we need people to stand up for our community too on the flip side too asian people like me and others that that own businesses or maybe have a little bit more of a platform to to help get the word out then we really do need to step up and we need to use our voice a local group is working to educate people and put an end to this racism the group calls itself the twin ports asian pacific islander deci americans collective joining us now is julie kim of the twin ports a peta collective and melissa ho is also a member of the collective ladies thank you both for being here and this is going to be an interesting discussion there's so much of this hate that has been shown on television and other news sources that has seemed to have sprung up once the pandemic began melissa tell us why the twin ports peta collective was formed what's it all about well it was it was a very grassroots organically kind of formed group initially it was just a social group for asian american women or just asian women in general it's uh it was a situation in which i think julie was like i didn't know there were other asian women here and i was like well i'm one of the few minori and then as as like the group kind of went out it's like well i know two people i know and so we kind of just had a social group they had potlucks uh little meals kind of telling each other about events going on and then the pandemic hit and uh so then the potlucks and the social gatherings and this outlet that we had getting to know each other kind of we had to find other ways and then there was the violence and then there was the um the be safe out there you know someone said something to me i'm driving around and people are yelling at me now i don't know what's going on and we started being more supportive of each other and a um a uh a letter was written on behalf of a few of our members and a bunch of us put our names on it saying that this is this is something we need to we need to be aware of we want to get in front of it we don't want the twin ports to have an incident where there's going to be something like that and immediately afterwards the atlanta shooting happened and so some of our members got together and created a candlelight vigil and we just went from there so julie what are the goals of the group the goals of the group are more especially support for asian americans that live in this community but also really wanting education about asian different asian ethnicities and cultures as well looking at in the school system as well as just educating people in general also to reduce and eliminate stereotypes about asian people i think is very significant because i think a lot of the hate crimes have stemmed from history long stereotypes that have occurred the president has now signed an anti-hate bill into law so it's now the law of the land or will be soon how is that going to help if at all well i i think it'll help because now it's it's a recognition it's it's the first step it's a recognition that you know we do matter in this country as well we there needs to be a recognition that doing something to somebody just based on color just based on innuendo based on stereotypes is wrong and to be included into that conversation is something that a lot of asian americans have been wanting for a while we're kind of described as the the quiet ones or the invisible people and and even even though asian americans have added so much to the american diaspora like we have been a part of american history since pretty much the beginning and the success of america has also been due to a lot of asians and asian americans we're never recognized for that and so that's the first step and that's the first step in a long step of saying yes you are american also so julie how can community members help your organization what can they do to support you people one of the one of the things that the vigil we it was very planned and organized within a few hours and then when we actually had the vigil over 100 participants came really so that was really significant for us because we it was so heartwarming as well to think that there's all of these people out there that came on such short notice to be there for us i think the other thing is is that to be bystanders to violence you know some people say well there's no reports of asians being physically harmed in duluth well asians are being harmed in duluth in microaggressions glares um people that tell people tell us to go back to our own getting knocked down and beaten or kicked exactly it's the verbal threats the the um asian slurs so melissa are there any minnesota laws that specifically prevent or or address the issue of of hatred hate crimes in general i'm not familiar but there's definitely none that specifically target for asian americans or or people of minority status i don't believe that there is anything very specific although that is not something i looked into what should someone do if they witness a hate incident they need to step in and do something i think you know a recent story in new york with a woman of uh filipino descent was attacked and people didn't do anything in fact one of the people you know in a apartment lobby just shut the door yeah they closed the door on here and this was security guards yeah and so i mean it's it's like if somebody's being harmed you need to help people and so we don't feel like we're so isolated because walking around now um is very fearful and just not sure what people if people are looking at you or just being more hyper aware of our surroundings and we've actually been um we there are a few of us who have attended bystander training there's actually a lot of videos out there short little youtube videos that tell you how to do some very non-invasive type of ways to help encourage protection with a bystander so for instance if you see someone being very aggressive with a person of minority descent or an elderly person or anything like that there are other ways like you create familiarity standing by them just very very small subtle things to show that this person is not alone and that this person does have support those are some of the like the very first step type of deals we actually immediately with the wake of all of this we started a facebook page that and and through this entire month of the asian pacific can you give us the address for that page oh yeah it's it's the uh t-pac it's the twin ports um ap yeah it's just tpac i see okay the general public can plug into it and take a look yeah and you can take a look there and actually this entire month we've actually had a posting for every day that talks about asian americans in history and then right now we're actually highlighting minnesota and asian americans of note and so visit there but we actually we have a very very good link that talks about it's a short video that tells you about bystander training and things that you can do more so okay so like whether it's a you know asian american i wish we had a lot more time we don't we run out of time already ballista holy julie kim thank you both for being here tonight thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's time now for voices of the region each week we hear from an area journalist with more on the stories they are covering this week wisconsin public radio reporter danielle kaden is our guest superior decided to lift its mask resolution that it had in place during the public health emergency and this is following the updated guidance from the centers for disease control and prevention you know last thursday they came out and said that fully vaccinated people can um not wear masks um and avoid physically distancing as long as they've been vaccinated it was pretty much um broad consensus that this was a good time now to be lifting this mandate um counselor keith kern was one of the first counselors to jump in uh to rescind this mask resolution and as a business owner he has you know opposed the use or requiring the use of face coverings saying that people can make those decisions for themselves or use their own best judgment um and that business owners really have every intention of protecting the public it's in their best interest to do that health officials on madeline island estimate that they've reached around 80 percent of their residents who have been vaccinated you know there were i think roughly 200 out of 300 residents who have been vaccinated at the la pointe community clinic on madeline island and then a number of residents have also gone off the island to receive the vaccine from either ashland county or other local drug stores and so you know this is a little bit of a feat because if you think about it madeline island it's in it's an island on lake superior and so in order to get the vaccine to the island you know those shipments had to be brought across by ferry and then when the ferry running they would go over to bayfield and pick up the vaccine with the tourism season likely picking back up you know madeline island is a tourist hot spot for people in the midwest and so um when visitors come to the island you know hopefully their residents will be a little bit better protected we're seeing multiple legal challenges in both minnesota and michigan regarding enbridge pipelines and in michigan with line five there's a real big concern that that aging pipeline both of which both of these lines which are more than 60 years old um that there is an increased risk of an oil spill and in particularly in the great lakes where they're concerned that this could have the potential to impact a wide region you know the the great lakes you know communities along the shoreline and also just the water in general and so this is a very big concern for michigan governor gretchen whitmer and also communities around the lakes and enbridge has said you know with line five that they have never had a pipeline or that their line has never spilled in the great lakes but the national wildlife federation has found that there have been at least a roughly 30 spills that have occurred on land with this pipeline synovus energy which is another canadian oil company uh bought husky in a sale i believe it was a multi-billion dollar sale at the beginning of it that closed at the beginning of this year and so that was due in part to the kova 19 pandemic and the reduced fuel demand that we saw across the country as coven 19 shutdowns took place and people weren't traveling um and just reduced demand in general and so um now that husky has been acquired by sunovis energy you know everything is still moving forward as planned i believe the timelines and the amount of money that they're planning to spend on this rebuild has ticked up slightly just because of some of the delays that we've seen if i'm not mistaken i believe the cost of the project has now increased to 950 million dollars to rebuild that refinery and that they're hoping to maybe have it back in operation um in the first quarter of 2023 [Music] our lessons from covet 19 series continues now with a look at how the pandemic impacted a hibbing family the cder family had to make some big changes when hibbing public schools switched to distance learning it was all to ensure a smooth transition for their fourth second and first grade children well i kind of like both like staying at home and at school yeah me too basically i'm brittany cedar and this is my husband chuck cedar jr and we are the parents of braxton western king flexibility is the big lesson i think one thing that came out of it is is they were able to work more at their own pace someone who falls off their roof and then they lose their memory my whole world changed in basically overnight i stopped working so i was able to stay home with the kids so that was a huge transition and then when the kids finally did go back to school in january it was actually a little bit bittersweet because who knew if that would ever happen again one day the seesaw app had crashed when we first transitioned to the distance learning because i think it was just overloaded so that would have been a chat one of the challenges that i would say we faced just because you couldn't get the assignments turned in i know even at one point there was a teacher that was having issues that was trying to do a google meetup from her home and she sent out a message and just said we're going to have to cancel today because she wasn't getting any connectivity sometimes you wouldn't have connectivity or you'd be in the middle of your your meeting and you would drop out part of it was we had we had so many electronic devices all connected to the router and using broad or bandwidth that uh it was causing some problems so upgrading kind of helped that if you live you know out of town a little further you don't have that sometimes ability to have the fast internet so i think that could be a a problem for some families i like the uh you know when we started doing the distance learning you got a little more familiar with the teachers it allowed the communication to develop uh between between the two and that's continued i think that's been a nice a nice feature of the or byproduct of the distance learning i think in school we had more communication with each other yeah me too we tried to keep the schedule um similar right yeah so a lot of times we would wake up at six yep matter whether in school or distance learning six or five forty-five i mean it was a really neat insight into the education and i actually liked seeing the lessons and being here with the kids and seeing what they're learning and how they were thriving and what they know and how you know what they can do moving forward braxton your teacher did a whole for for around christmas time i think did a whole art project with the students uh you know she recorded it and had all the instructions in the paper and kind of did it with her but you did it at home yeah and what did you make then weston your teacher he had a project that he did with the students he said what for 20 some years every year and he didn't want to miss it so he's sent home we picked up this from the from the lincoln school he made what did you make it's a snowflake our teacher told us what beads to put on first and where to put them on got to see an insight into the teacher because sometimes they were doing their distance learning or their their meeting from their own home two and one let it explode and you got to see into the other kids students homes kids were bringing pets here's my pet dog or here's my we have chickens today or it was that was kind of really fun to see i think for the teachers as well and for us to get to know the the teachers um you know that's one thing i missed when the kids transition from like the preschool environment where you're in the school talking to the teacher every day during drop off and pick up and things like that and you kind of lost that a little bit when you get into the the normal school setting but this has brought some of that interaction between the teacher and the parents back you're kind of re-evaluating where you were pre-pandemic versus during the pandemic and thinking about slowing down spending time as a family you weren't really going anywhere for any significant amount of time and sports were canceled so we did have that time at home time at the lake time to just like we said when distance learning was done for the day the kids would play in the backyard and have that together time which was really nice next week our special series lessons from cobit 19 continues with a look at how local residents stepped up during the pandemic we will hear from folks who lent a helping hand to our neighbors neighbors in need during this unprecedented time my hope is that when we start having our bigger events again that people will pause and think before they maybe get a little bit snarky you know there's a lot of angst and people have anxiety and stress due to coved for numerous reasons but as we're moving forward let's move forward on being a little kinder being a little more thoughtful being thankful for what we have and for the latest updates follow almanac north on social media you'll find us on facebook and twitter the wdse website is the place to go for program updates news about the station and our upcoming events and download the pbs video app for on-demand viewing of your favorite programs thanks to our guests and the crew here in the studio i'm dennis anderson stay healthy everyone and be kind [Music] you