Why Some People in Chinatown Oppose a Museum Dedicated to Their Culture
The New York Times
In Manhattan’s Chinatown, anti-gentrification protesters are furious over funding granted to a museum that they say doesn’t represent their community.
Twice a week, Li Zhen Tan, a former dim sum server, plants herself in front of the Museum of Chinese in America in Chinatown and joins the fervent chants of dozens of others like her who have congregated there. “Bloodsuckers! Sellout!” she yelled recently, using a handkerchief to dab sweat from her face as the sun beat down. A man nearby shouted into a megaphone, alternating between English and Cantonese: “They think that because they speak better English, that they graduated from Ivy League schools, that they are better than us.” The invectives were aimed at a museum that has struggled to survive since it was founded in 1980 to preserve and exhibit the history of Chinese Americans. It received a big boost when the city awarded the institution $35 million out of $50 million distributed to local community projects in Chinatown in return for the expansion of a jail there.
Five years later, the coronavirus pandemic may seem far away and foggy, or as visceral as yesterday. Here are some stories of those enduring changes.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched downtown while a spokeswoman for President Trump said the president had the authority to detain Mahmoud Khalil.
The former congresswoman is the most prominent candidate so far to start a campaign in the 2026 contest. But the race could be upended if former Vice President Kamala Harris decides to run.
With few signs of progress on a proposed redevelopment project, one group is hoping to move the famous arena.
The administration’s warning came just after it pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from Columbia University.
Instead of speaking out on the hot-button debates of the day, more schools are making it a policy to stay silent as political pressure mounts against higher education.
In his second term, President Trump is cultivating warm relationships with G.O.P. lawmakers — and using the implicit threat of ruining them if they stray — to keep them in line behind his agenda.
Federal agencies are removing topsoil from burned areas but will not test it for contaminants. So scientists and residents are testing fire-affected properties themselves.
President Trump is planning to gut the work force while trying to turn the I.R.S. into a more political agency.
Three mayoral candidates have been accused of sexual misconduct. They deny wrongdoing. Will it be a deciding issue for Democratic voters?
President Trump has made clear he wants to keep both men and their allies within his movement, but the tensions are growing.
The authorities said there were no initial reports of damage from the quake, which struck in the hills west of Malibu.
The state and the correctional officers’ union agreed that officers should return to work Monday and that some provisions of a solitary confinement law would be put on pause.