latimes--2020-02-03--Parents often don't know what their college kids are going through. CSU is changing that

It wasn ’ t a weekend concert or sports event that brought Vilma and David Martinez to the Cal State L.A. campus on a recent Saturday morning .
Instead , they attended college for a day to learn about ways to encourage their son ’ s success at a university where only about half of incoming freshmen finish within six years .
They and 160 others who showed up for this “ Parent Academy ” are part of an effort to improve graduation rates , especially among students who are the first in their family to attend college .
Parents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ university in supporting these young adults when they encounter emotional , bureaucratic , financial or academic obstacles .
Most colleges and universities these days offer summer informational sessions for parents and increasingly conduct Spanish-language versions , according to Amy Swank , who is president of Family Engagement in Higher Education , a national organization of 540 schools that provides parent programs .
Many now have a parent relations office or parent webinars .
The Cal State L.A. Parent Academy , part of the widening parent involvement trend , began about six years ago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school year on a campus whose students mainly commute from home .
The university deliberately schedules the five-hour sessions well into the school year when student crises may occur and simultaneously conducts them in English or Spanish in separate rooms .
The workshops are seen as especially beneficial for the growing number of California students whose parents did not attend college .
“ The transition from high school to university is a big change , ” said Los Angeles resident David Martinez , whose son David is a Cal State L.A. freshman and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a university .
“ Even though he is an adult and is capable of coming here and doing OK , it ’ s easier for him to make those changes with us behind him.
” A carpenter who was trained through his labor union at community college but who did not earn a bachelor ’ s degree , the elder Martinez said he attended the Saturday academy because “ there ’ s a lot of dropouts , and we don ’ t want that to happen to our son.
” Such worries can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State University system , nearly 2 of every 10 freshmen don ’ t come back for sophomore year .
Only 28 percent of students who start as freshmen graduate in four years , although almost two-thirds graduate in six years .
The numbers at Cal State L.A. are even more challenging : only 11 percent finish in four years and 52 percent in six .
Aware of these challenges , some parents attended even though they are veterans of sending children to college .
Among them attending the Spanish sessions were William and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ son Elliott is a Cal State L.A. freshman .
Two older children have finished college .
“ We had some knowledge already , but it is always good to learn more , ” said William Lacayo , a painting contractor who attended several years of college in Nicaragua before his education was interrupted by civil war .
Damarys Lacayo , who runs a skin-care business , said that she wanted to be a sounding board for her son : “ With all the stress they have in the new environment at the university @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most important thing is just to listen , don ’ t criticize and be more patient.
” In other cases , officials have to urge so-called helicopter parents not to hover so closely after high school .
Christopher Johnson , the university ’ s director of new student and parent programs , said the seminars try to let such parents know that they can still help but that they should “ walk away a little and allow the students to be advocates for themselves.
” Still , some parents remain shocked that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their children ’ s college academic and health records even though they often are financially supporting them .
No detailed study has tracked the college success of students whose parents participate in these types of programs around California and the nation , but experts say they think such sessions help , particularly in reducing risky behavior .
At Cal State Dominguez Hills , where more than half of the students are among the first in their families to attend college , eight parental sessions were scheduled last summer in both English and Spanish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , are transitioning , ” said Doris Lee , associate director of outreach and school relations .
They mainly want to know where a student can turn for help if needed , she said .
That is true “ whether a parent never attended college or attended college 25 years ago and so much has changed that they need a refresher.
” Larry Gordon , a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times , is a staff writer for , a nonprofit journalism website covering education issues in California .

It wasn’t a weekend concert or sports event that brought Vilma and David Martinez to the Cal State L.A. campus on a recent Saturday morning. Instead, they attended college for a day to learn about ways to encourage their son’s success at a university where only about half of incoming freshmen finish within six years.
They and 160 others who showed up for this “Parent Academy” are part of an effort to improve graduation rates, especially among students who are the first in their family to attend college. Parents increasingly are seen as partners with the university in supporting these young adults when they encounter emotional, bureaucratic, financial or academic obstacles.
Most colleges and universities these days offer summer informational sessions for parents and increasingly conduct Spanish-language versions, according to Amy Swank, who is president of Family Engagement in Higher Education, a national organization of 540 schools that provides parent programs. Many now have a parent relations office or parent webinars.
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The Cal State L.A. Parent Academy, part of the widening parent involvement trend, began about six years ago and is offered three times during the school year on a campus whose students mainly commute from home. The university deliberately schedules the five-hour sessions well into the school year when student crises may occur and simultaneously conducts them in English or Spanish in separate rooms.
The workshops are seen as especially beneficial for the growing number of California students whose parents did not attend college.
“The transition from high school to university is a big change,” said Los Angeles resident David Martinez, whose son David is a Cal State L.A. freshman and the first in the family to attend a university. “Even though he is an adult and is capable of coming here and doing OK, it’s easier for him to make those changes with us behind him.”
A carpenter who was trained through his labor union at community college but who did not earn a bachelor’s degree, the elder Martinez said he attended the Saturday academy because “there’s a lot of dropouts, and we don’t want that to happen to our son.”
Such worries can be justified.
David and Vilma Martinez attend the Parent Academy at Cal State L.A. (Larry Gordon / For the Times)
Across the 23-campus California State University system, nearly 2 of every 10 freshmen don’t come back for sophomore year. Only 28% of students who start as freshmen graduate in four years, although almost two-thirds graduate in six years. The numbers at Cal State L.A. are even more challenging: Only 11% finish in four years and 52% in six.
Aware of these challenges, some parents attended even though they are veterans of sending children to college. Among them attending the Spanish sessions were William and Damarys Lacayo, immigrants from Nicaragua whose son Elliott is a Cal State L.A. freshman. Two older children have finished college.
“We had some knowledge already, but it is always good to learn more,” said William Lacayo, a painting contractor who attended several years of college in Nicaragua before his education was interrupted by civil war.
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Damarys Lacayo, who runs a skincare business, said that she wanted to be a sounding board for her son: “With all the stress they have in the new environment at the university, how can we help? Sometimes the most important thing is just to listen, don’t criticize and be more patient.”
In other cases, officials have to urge so-called helicopter parents not to hover so closely after high school.
Christopher Johnson, the university’s director of new student and parent programs, said the seminars try to let such parents know that they can still help but that they should “walk away a little and allow the students to be advocates for themselves.”
Still, some parents remain shocked that they no longer have automatic access to their children’s college academic and health records even though they often are financially supporting them.
No detailed study has tracked the college success of students whose parents participate in these types of programs around California and the nation, but experts say they think such sessions help, particularly in reducing risky behavior.
At Cal State Dominguez Hills, where more than half of the students are among the first in their families to attend college, eight parental sessions were scheduled last summer in both English and Spanish.
“Parents, like the freshmen, are transitioning,” said Doris Lee, associate director of outreach and school relations. They mainly want to know where a student can turn for help if needed, she said.
That is true “whether a parent never attended college or attended college 25 years ago and so much has changed that they need a refresher.”
Larry Gordon, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, is a staff writer for EdSource, a nonprofit journalism website covering education issues in California.


latimes--2020-02-03--This election is off-limits to voters. But the results will matter a lot to L.A. school families

One ballot this season is off-limits to the public but carries far-reaching ramifications for hundreds of thousands of youths and their families — the election of a new president and other officers for the Los Angeles teachers union .
United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl , who led 30,000 teachers in a strike that gripped Los Angeles last year , is barred by term limits from running for a third three-year term .
His replacement will instantly become a major voice in the nation ’ s second-largest school system and the leader of a union that has long influenced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ winner also will confront internal challenges , including the mobilization of anti-union groups that seek to persuade members to abandon UTLA entirely .
“ The UTLA elections always matter , ” said Tyrone Howard , professor of education at UCLA ’ s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies .
“ They are an important player in the educational landscape in Los Angeles .
They shape board elections , influence policies and have a critical voice in the current and future makeup of Los Angeles.
” Just a year ago , the union @ @ @ @ @ @ @ momentous six-day strike — and won broad sympathy for teachers who rallied public attention to difficult working conditions and their crucial mission to educate Los Angeles ’ most underserved youth .
The union election represents an internal referendum on how all that worked out , whether the gains of the strike justified losing six days of instruction and 3 % of last year ’ s salary .
“ Many members are questioning what they gained , ” said Howard , and the election will determine how the union wields its influence going forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ a critical voice in school reform.
” “ The right leader can hurt or hinder that process , ” he added .
UTLA often has changed the classroom or political equation .
In the 1990s , when the union couldn ’ t win raises , it pushed for greater control over schools and classrooms , winning the right for teachers — not principals — to in many cases choose which grade levels or courses they taught .
The union also won the ability for members to earn lifetime health insurance .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Los Angeles Unified School District , but supporters see that benefit as a valuable recruitment tool .
More recently , UTLA was among the first unions to push back successfully against a nationwide trend to rate teachers based on student standardized test scores .
Teachers unions remain among the most powerful interest groups in California — they played a key role in last year ’ s legislation that could limit the growth of new charter schools .
However , long-term union influence has been threatened by a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that allows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the unions that represent them .
One internal goal of the L.A. strike was to build solidarity and membership .
In an unusual , perhaps unprecedented move , Caputo-Pearl is vying to remain a key part of the leadership team he helped assemble .
He ’ s campaigning for one of four vice president slots , hoping to swap roles with Cecily Myart-Cruz , who is running for president on their Union Power slate , which includes candidates for all seven citywide offices .
Inevitably , the late February results will be viewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Caputo-Pearl and his team , who , as full-time union officers , earn about $ 115,000 a year .
Another sort of reckoning will follow closely .
The March 3 presidential primary ballot will include four of the seven L.A. school board seats .
A shift of even one seat could threaten the current union-friendly majority on the board .
In board elections , the two major financial players have been the teachers union and charter school advocates , each with its favored candidates .
Both spend big , although the charter supporters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union trying to compensate with its ground troops of union members .
The message from union leadership is that last year ’ s strike was triumphant , achieving smaller class sizes , as well as the hiring of more nurses , librarians and counselors — all of whom are among some 32,000 voting members .
Union Power counts some of the biggest gains in nontraditional bargaining areas , such as expanded social services at more schools .
“ Why wouldn ’ t we continue to move forward the powerful work we have all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a 25-year teacher who has risen through union ranks .
“ It would be a mistake to not continue to build off the strike , relationships , movement building and groundbreaking work of the past years.
” Within the union , her platform includes developing future leaders , especially women and people of color .
Within schools , she wants teachers to gain control over teacher training and opposes the sharing of campuses with privately operated charter schools , which compete for students with district-operated schools .
Charter schools , most of which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union elections , although about 900 charter school teachers are also represented by UTLA .
About 1 in 5 L.A. Unified students attend charters , an increase since the last union election .
The Union Power slate is being challenged by candidates with conflicting viewpoints : Some find the incumbents too militant ; others not militant enough .
Soni Lloyd , one of five running for president , criticizes the union for backing school board candidates who fail to aggressively oppose charter schools , saying that as a result , “ LAUSD is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is tempting to look at a few minor changes from the strike and declare a big change , but one has to look at overall trends , ” he said , calling for “ a permanent strike-like climate of public outreach until we have real breakthroughs.
” Marisa Crabtree , a veteran English teacher at Lincoln High School who is running for UTLA president , faults the union leadership for being too engaged in outside politics .
“ It is not my goal to make UTLA a ‘ political powerhouse ’ as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s tenure , ” Crabtree said .
“ It is my job to resource , protect and defend every educator within LAUSD to do what it is we all signed up for — to build an educational powerhouse.
” Also running for president is veteran secondary English teacher Innocent Osunwa , who could not be reached for comment .
Osunwa , who has run previously , calls for better job protections and improved working conditions in his campaign materials .
Candidate Greg Russell , a secondary substitute teacher for 23 years , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with recorded meetings that members could view .
He was especially critical of Caputo-Pearl ’ s effort to remain a citywide officer , calling it a maneuver to remain in control .
Caputo-Pearl said such concerns are misplaced .
“ I want to continue building our momentum , working under Cecily , ” Caputo-Pearl said .
“ Working in L.A. — the epicenter of underfunding and privatization — with UTLA members , is the most important thing to do in the United States in the fight for public education.
” Caputo-Pearl ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who is part of Crabtree ’ s slate , and Wil Page , a veteran union activist and King Middle School technology coach .
Page participated enthusiastically in the strike , but he said union leaders lacked a solid “ strike exit plan ” and have not developed a strong political strategy for electing sympathetic and capable school board members .

A year after L.A. teachers went on strike, union members will vote in an election that is likely to be a referendum on the leadership team that organized the six-day walkout.
One ballot this season is off-limits to the public but carries far-reaching ramifications for hundreds of thousands of youths and their families — the election of a new president and other officers for the Los Angeles teachers union.
United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl, who led 30,000 teachers in a strike that gripped Los Angeles last year, is barred by term limits from running for a third three-year term. His replacement will instantly become a major voice in the nation’s second-largest school system and the leader of a union that has long influenced education policy in Los Angeles. The winner also will confront internal challenges, including the mobilization of anti-union groups that seek to persuade members to abandon UTLA entirely.
“The UTLA elections always matter,” said Tyrone Howard, professor of education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. “They are an important player in the educational landscape in Los Angeles. They shape board elections, influence policies and have a critical voice in the current and future makeup of Los Angeles.”
Just a year ago, the union’s leadership led members in a momentous six-day strike — and won broad sympathy for teachers who rallied public attention to difficult working conditions and their crucial mission to educate Los Angeles’ most underserved youth. The union election represents an internal referendum on how all that worked out, whether the gains of the strike justified losing six days of instruction and 3% of last year’s salary.
“Many members are questioning what they gained,” said Howard, and the election will determine how the union wields its influence going forward and the extent to which it remains “a critical voice in school reform.”
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“The right leader can hurt or hinder that process,” he added.
UTLA often has changed the classroom or political equation. In the 1990s, when the union couldn’t win raises, it pushed for greater control over schools and classrooms, winning the right for teachers — not principals — to in many cases choose which grade levels or courses they taught.
The union also won the ability for members to earn lifetime health insurance. The cost has created financial strains for the Los Angeles Unified School District, but supporters see that benefit as a valuable recruitment tool.
More recently, UTLA was among the first unions to push back successfully against a nationwide trend to rate teachers based on student standardized test scores.
Teachers unions remain among the most powerful interest groups in California — they played a key role in last year’s legislation that could limit the growth of new charter schools. However, long-term union influence has been threatened by a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that allows public employees to stop paying fees to the unions that represent them. One internal goal of the L.A. strike was to build solidarity and membership.
In an unusual, perhaps unprecedented move, Caputo-Pearl is vying to remain a key part of the leadership team he helped assemble. He’s campaigning for one of four vice president slots, hoping to swap roles with Cecily Myart-Cruz, who is running for president on their Union Power slate, which includes candidates for all seven citywide offices.
Inevitably, the late February results will be viewed as a vote either for or against Caputo-Pearl and his team, who, as full-time union officers, earn about $115,000 a year.
Another sort of reckoning will follow closely. The March 3 presidential primary ballot will include four of the seven L.A. school board seats. A shift of even one seat could threaten the current union-friendly majority on the board.
In board elections, the two major financial players have been the teachers union and charter school advocates, each with its favored candidates. Both spend big, although the charter supporters have spent more, with the teachers union trying to compensate with its ground troops of union members.
The message from union leadership is that last year’s strike was triumphant, achieving smaller class sizes, as well as the hiring of more nurses, librarians and counselors — all of whom are among some 32,000 voting members. Union Power counts some of the biggest gains in nontraditional bargaining areas, such as expanded social services at more schools.
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“Why wouldn’t we continue to move forward the powerful work we have all accomplished together?” said Myart-Cruz, a 25-year teacher who has risen through union ranks. “It would be a mistake to not continue to build off the strike, relationships, movement building and groundbreaking work of the past years.”
Within the union, her platform includes developing future leaders, especially women and people of color. Within schools, she wants teachers to gain control over teacher training and opposes the sharing of campuses with privately operated charter schools, which compete for students with district-operated schools.
Charter schools, most of which are nonunion, are typically criticized in union elections, although about 900 charter school teachers are also represented by UTLA. About 1 in 5 L.A. Unified students attend charters, an increase since the last union election.
The Union Power slate is being challenged by candidates with conflicting viewpoints: Some find the incumbents too militant; others not militant enough.
Soni Lloyd, one of five running for president, criticizes the union for backing school board candidates who fail to aggressively oppose charter schools, saying that as a result, “LAUSD is dying a slow death.”
“It is tempting to look at a few minor changes from the strike and declare a big change, but one has to look at overall trends,” he said, calling for “a permanent strike-like climate of public outreach until we have real breakthroughs.”
Marisa Crabtree, a veteran English teacher at Lincoln High School who is running for UTLA president, faults the union leadership for being too engaged in outside politics.
“It is not my goal to make UTLA a ‘political powerhouse’ as it’s been deemed under Caputo-Pearl’s tenure,” Crabtree said. “It is my job to resource, protect and defend every educator within LAUSD to do what it is we all signed up for — to build an educational powerhouse.”
She’s running as part of a slate called Elevated 2020.
Also running for president is veteran secondary English teacher Innocent Osunwa, who could not be reached for comment. Osunwa, who has run previously, calls for better job protections and improved working conditions in his campaign materials.
Candidate Greg Russell, a secondary substitute teacher for 23 years, said he wants a more democratic union, with recorded meetings that members could view. He was especially critical of Caputo-Pearl’s effort to remain a citywide officer, calling it a maneuver to remain in control.
Caputo-Pearl said such concerns are misplaced.
“I want to continue building our momentum, working under Cecily,” Caputo-Pearl said. “Working in L.A. — the epicenter of underfunding and privatization — with UTLA members, is the most important thing to do in the United States in the fight for public education.”
Caputo-Pearl’s opponents for vice president are Gabriel Serrano, who is part of Crabtree’s slate, and Wil Page, a veteran union activist and King Middle School technology coach. Page participated enthusiastically in the strike, but he said union leaders lacked a solid “strike exit plan” and have not developed a strong political strategy for electing sympathetic and capable school board members.


latimes--2020-02-03--Fear of coronavirus fuels racist sentiment targeting Asians

As she walks through campus and sits in class , Rosen Huynh tries extra hard to suppress her coughs .
Fear of the coronavirus , which was first detected in December in China , has spread around the world , and many people like Huynh are suddenly hyperaware of their East Asian roots .
Every cough , every wheeze , the 22-year-old says , seems to elicit furtive glances and odd looks .
“ I don ’ t know if it ’ s just people looking at me coughing or because I ’ m an Asian person coughing , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Huynh , who lives in Monterey Park .
“ I feel like every time I cough , people are going to be uncomfortable with that .
I shouldn ’ t have to feel that way.
” Viruses often spark panic .
But the coronavirus has spread something else besides misinformation and false rumors : xenophobia and anti-China sentiment .
People have fielded vitriolic attacks in public spaces , including suspicious looks and nasty comments ; they ’ ve seen others .
“ Taking Calc 151 with only Asians in the classroom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ catch coronavirus ... thinkin about dropping this class now , ” a student wrote on his Snapchat story .
A doctor in Ontario said her son was cornered at school by children who wanted to “ test ” him for the virus just because he is half-Chinese .
The new coronavirus , which can cause respiratory illness and pneumonia , has infected at least 17,348 people worldwide , killing at least 362 of them as of Sunday night , with only one death outside China .
Eleven cases have been confirmed in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
False health information including warnings to avoid Asian food and Asian-populated areas and videos of Asian people eating bats accompanied by inaccurate speculation about the cause of the virus and dehumanizing comments have A barrage of and derogatory jokes about Chinese people or Asians in general have gathered steam online , drawing on age-old racist tropes associating Chinese people with disease , filth and dirty food , experts say .
Some in California felt their fears of racism around the virus were confirmed last week when UC Berkeley ’ s health services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ normal reaction ” in an informational post on Instagram focused on “ managing fears and anxiety ” about the pneumonia-like sickness .
The campus received a for the post .
“ Feeling good about the light fear people have had of me in public all week , ” campus alum Michelle Lee wrote sarcastically The post was “ blatant and awful ” in its harm to people of color , and remarkable considering more than 40 % of last year ’ s freshman class was Asian , said Angie Chen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ member and recent alum of the university .
“ People can feel nervous , that ’ s valid , ” she said .
“ But grouping in xenophobia with all the other things , like anxiety and helplessness , legitimizes these responses to the virus.
” Amid backlash , the university deleted the post and apologized .
“ We regret any misunderstanding it may have caused and have updated the language in our materials , ” shared by the Tang Center on Friday .
Aida Zhu , 21 , who was about to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Diego , saw an agent with the Transportation Security Administration staring at her as she shuffled through security at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston while wearing a mask .
“ I hope you ’ re not ill , ” he said to her in a disgusted tone .
Zhu said she ’ s been mulling over the incident all week .
She thinks racist sentiment has been latent .
“ The coronavirus is bringing it to the surface.
” Andrew Nguyen , 22 , an employee at Aape , a retail clothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a customer up last week when the man gave him a dirty look .
Nguyen reached into the bag to scan the tag on the mask the man was purchasing — the type of face mask meant to be fashionable , not a medical one — his fingers brushing the cloth .
The man brusquely said , “ Can you get me a new one ?
” It happened when videos of Asian people eating exotic meats were going around , Nguyen said .
“ I felt like maybe he had seen one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on news articles about the virus has taken a toll on 26-year-old Katherine Lu .
She ’ s not worried about experiencing racism in person , however , since she lives in Los Angeles and rarely takes public transit .
“ If I lived in a metropolitan area where trains were essential to my day-to-day life , I would worry that people were worried about sharing the same airspace as me , just based on my face , ” she said .
“ The coronavirus is an opportunity for them to safely express @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be excused.
” On Friday , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised people not to panic about the coronavirus and against stereotyping people .
“ Do not assume that if someone is of Asian descent , they have coronavirus , ” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier , director of the CDC ’ s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases .
But many have panicked ; calls for self-imposed or community-imposed sanctions that are not based on official medical advisory have erupted .
“ Close UCSB temporarily before one of us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student posted , linking to a petition on Change.org , on an informal Facebook page where UC Santa Barbara students sell used items .
“ We have a large number of commuters from China and other people visiting China that have the potential to infect everyone.
” After receiving critical comments , the post was edited to read “ this is not directed towards any particular group of people , ” and later deleted .
The Change.org petition was still online as of Sunday , and has garnered more than 1,100 signatures .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who are sick with entire groups of people , and that ’ s what makes it discriminatory , ” said Gilbert Gee , a professor at UCLA ’ s Fielding School of Public Health .
“ When you single out entire groups of people , that becomes prejudice , ” he said .
Huynh said one of her professors went on a spiel about the virus — unrelated to the subject he teaches — at the beginning of class last week .
He asked that students who had recently traveled to China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks .
His comments made her feel alienated , she said , as one of the few Asian people in the class .
When she tweeted about the incident , writing , “ sir your xenophobia is showing , ” she was slammed by a steady stream of racist replies .
“ Your home nation ’ s garbage quality of life is a product of your own people ’ s negligence , ” one user tweeted at her , using a racial slur and other vulgar language .
Where practical concerns about infection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ xenophobia begin is not always clear , but that the coronavirus should not be top of mind for people in the U.S .
So far , 11 people in the United States have been diagnosed with the coronavirus .
None have died .
By contrast , the flu has killed roughly 10,000 Americans since October .
“ The racialization of coronavirus as this exotic foreign threat has a lot to do with the hysterical response in the West , ” Mark Tseng-Putterman , a graduate student in American studies at Brown University , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decided to break the quarantine on Wuhan and evacuate its diplomatic personnel , “ but you ’ re not going to have people wondering if the white people on the subway or in the store are diplomats who could be spreading the infection , ” he said .
Geopolitical tensions and U.S. political strategy that sees China as , in the words of Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo , the “ central threat ” facing the U.S. may also be fueling some of the xenophobia .
This is clear in conspiracy theories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claiming that photos of heavy machinery clearing land for emergency quarantine hospitals in Wuhan were actually digging mass graves or those that claim the Chinese Communist Party itself created the virus , Tseng-Putterman said .
“ That these cynical rumors are being spread while lives have been lost , millions of Chinese families have had their Spring Festival disrupted , and countless medical workers are putting their lives on the line to contain the virus is quite disappointing , ” he said .
As airlines cancel flights to China and the U.S. issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and China takes its own dramatic measures — quarantining — anti-Chinese sentiment has reverberated globally .
Hundreds of thousands in South Korea and Malaysia signed petitions asking that Chinese nationals be banned from entering their countries .
In Vietnam , restaurants put up signs declaring “ No Chinese.
” Stigma around Chinese people driven by fear of the coronavirus is reminiscent of discrimination that occurred during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome , or SARS , which peaked in 2003 and killed nearly 800 .
Discrimination draws on this idea “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — that Chinese people as a race , no matter where they are , are disease carriers , ” said Erika Lee , professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Minnesota .
“ Yellow peril , ” the strain of thought that maintained all things Asia were a great threat to the white world , can be traced back to Europe in the 19th century .
The idea took a particularly violent and effective turn in the U.S. , where policies were often created based on the idea that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Chinese migrants were subject to invasive and often humiliating medical inspections upon arriving at Angel Island that Europeans arriving through Ellis Island weren ’ t .
When the bubonic plague hit San Francisco at the beginning of the 20th century , Chinatown was forcibly quarantined .
Residents , considered unclean , couldn ’ t go to work , and went hungry , as it was difficult to find food .
Public health fears are easily projected on racial groups or other marginalized communities , said Gee , the UCLA professor .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for HIV was “ gay-related immune deficiency , ” and homophobic stigma around the disease led to the criminalization of living with HIV , perpetuated health vulnerabilities and .
In the early 1930s , Los Angeles County and California public health officials submitted a resolution to Congress recommending a mass deportation of Filipinos .
They argued that high rates of tuberculosis among Filipinos overburdened public health infrastructure .
“ Treat people who exhibit symptoms rather than targeting people for quarantine or barring them from public places simply because of the way that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University of Minnesota professor .
“ It ’ s really about using common sense and not letting fear and panic drive us to revert back to more base fear of foreigners .
”

As she walks through campus and sits in class, Rosen Huynh tries extra hard to suppress her coughs.
Fear of the coronavirus, which was first detected in December in China, has spread around the world, and many people like Huynh are suddenly hyperaware of their East Asian roots. Every cough, every wheeze, the 22-year-old says, seems to elicit furtive glances and odd looks.
“I don’t know if it’s just people looking at me coughing or because I’m an Asian person coughing, they think I might have the coronavirus,” said Huynh, who lives in Monterey Park. “I feel like every time I cough, people are going to be uncomfortable with that. I shouldn’t have to feel that way.”
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Viruses often spark panic. But the coronavirus has spread something else besides misinformation and false rumors: xenophobia and anti-China sentiment. People have fielded vitriolic attacks in public spaces, including suspicious looks and nasty comments; they’ve seen others scrambling to avoid them .
“Taking Calc 151 with only Asians in the classroom ... I hope I don’t catch coronavirus ... thinkin about dropping this class now,” a student wrote on his Snapchat story. A doctor in Ontario said her son was cornered at school by children who wanted to “test” him for the virus just because he is half-Chinese.
The new coronavirus, which can cause respiratory illness and pneumonia, has infected at least 17,348 people worldwide, killing at least 362 of them as of Sunday night, with only one death outside China. Eleven cases have been confirmed in the United States, including six in California.
False health information including warnings to avoid Asian food and Asian-populated areas has circulated, and videos of Asian people eating bats accompanied by inaccurate speculation about the cause of the virus and dehumanizing comments have gone viral. A barrage of vicious discussion and derogatory jokes about Chinese people or Asians in general have gathered steam online, drawing on age-old racist tropes associating Chinese people with disease, filth and dirty food, experts say.
Some in California felt their fears of racism around the virus were confirmed last week when UC Berkeley’s health services center listed xenophobia toward Asian people as a “normal reaction” in an informational post on Instagram focused on “managing fears and anxiety” about the pneumonia-like sickness.
The campus received a flood of criticism for the post.
“Feeling good about the light fear people have had of me in public all week,” campus alum Michelle Lee wrote sarcastically in a tweet.
The post was “blatant and awful” in its harm to people of color, and remarkable considering more than 40% of last year’s freshman class was Asian, said Angie Chen, legislative aide for a Berkeley City Council member and recent alum of the university.
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“People can feel nervous, that’s valid,” she said. “But grouping in xenophobia with all the other things, like anxiety and helplessness, legitimizes these responses to the virus.”
this just in from the number one public university in the world: it’s okay to be xenophobic as long as you also feel sort of guilty about it pic.twitter.com/cvnHnpHTz9 — Angie Chen (@angiechen__) January 30, 2020
Amid backlash, the university deleted the post and apologized. “We regret any misunderstanding it may have caused and have updated the language in our materials,” read a statement shared by the Tang Center on Friday.
Aida Zhu, 21, who was about to board a flight back home to San Diego, saw an agent with the Transportation Security Administration staring at her as she shuffled through security at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston while wearing a mask.
“I hope you’re not ill,” he said to her in a disgusted tone.
Zhu said she’s been mulling over the incident all week. She thinks racist sentiment has been latent. “The coronavirus is bringing it to the surface.”
Andrew Nguyen, 22, an employee at Aape, a retail clothing store in West Hollywood, was ringing a customer up last week when the man gave him a dirty look. Nguyen reached into the bag to scan the tag on the mask the man was purchasing — the type of face mask meant to be fashionable, not a medical one — his fingers brushing the cloth.
The man brusquely said, “Can you get me a new one?”
“Why?” Nguyen shot back.
“Because you touched it,” the man responded.
It happened when videos of Asian people eating exotic meats were going around, Nguyen said. “I felt like maybe he had seen one of those.”
Reading the vitriolic comments on news articles about the virus has taken a toll on 26-year-old Katherine Lu. She’s not worried about experiencing racism in person, however, since she lives in Los Angeles and rarely takes public transit.
“If I lived in a metropolitan area where trains were essential to my day-to-day life, I would worry that people were worried about sharing the same airspace as me, just based on my face,” she said. “The coronavirus is an opportunity for them to safely express their racist thoughts in a way that can be excused.”
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised people not to panic about the coronavirus and against stereotyping people.
“Do not assume that if someone is of Asian descent, they have coronavirus,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
But many have panicked; calls for self-imposed or community-imposed sanctions that are not based on official medical advisory have erupted.
“Close UCSB temporarily before one of us dies from the coronavirus,” one student posted, linking to a petition on Change.org, on an informal Facebook page where UC Santa Barbara students sell used items. “We have a large number of commuters from China and other people visiting China that have the potential to infect everyone.”
After receiving critical comments, the post was edited to read “this is not directed towards any particular group of people,” and later deleted. The Change.org petition was still online as of Sunday, and has garnered more than 1,100 signatures.
“We have this tendency to confuse people who are sick with entire groups of people, and that’s what makes it discriminatory,” said Gilbert Gee, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health. “When you single out entire groups of people, that becomes prejudice,” he said.
Huynh said one of her professors went on a spiel about the virus — unrelated to the subject he teaches — at the beginning of class last week. He asked that students who had recently traveled to China refrain from attending class for a few weeks. His comments made her feel alienated, she said, as one of the few Asian people in the class.
When she tweeted about the incident, writing, “sir your xenophobia is showing,” she was slammed by a steady stream of racist replies.
“Your home nation’s garbage quality of life is a product of your own people’s negligence,” one user tweeted at her, using a racial slur and other vulgar language.
Where practical concerns about infection end and where fear, misinformation and xenophobia begin is not always clear, but medical experts have pointed out that the coronavirus should not be top of mind for people in the U.S. So far, 11 people in the United States have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. None have died. By contrast, the flu has killed roughly 10,000 Americans since October.
“The racialization of coronavirus as this exotic foreign threat has a lot to do with the hysterical response in the West,” Mark Tseng-Putterman, a graduate student in American studies at Brown University, said in an email.
The U.S. decided to break the quarantine on Wuhan and evacuate its diplomatic personnel, “but you’re not going to have people wondering if the white people on the subway or in the store are diplomats who could be spreading the infection,” he said.
Geopolitical tensions and U.S. political strategy that sees China as, in the words of Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, the “central threat” facing the U.S. may also be fueling some of the xenophobia. This is clear in conspiracy theories that have circulated, such as those claiming that photos of heavy machinery clearing land for emergency quarantine hospitals in Wuhan were actually digging mass graves or those that claim the Chinese Communist Party itself created the virus, Tseng-Putterman said.
“That these cynical rumors are being spread while lives have been lost, millions of Chinese families have had their Spring Festival disrupted, and countless medical workers are putting their lives on the line to contain the virus is quite disappointing,” he said.
As airlines cancel flights to China and the U.S. issues a “do not travel” advisory, and China takes its own dramatic measures — quarantining more than 50 million people — anti-Chinese sentiment has reverberated globally. Hundreds of thousands in South Korea and Malaysia signed petitions asking that Chinese nationals be banned from entering their countries. In Vietnam, restaurants put up signs declaring “No Chinese.”
Stigma around Chinese people driven by fear of the coronavirus is reminiscent of discrimination that occurred during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which peaked in 2003 and killed nearly 800.
Discrimination draws on this idea “that is very, very old indeed — that Chinese people as a race, no matter where they are, are disease carriers,” said Erika Lee, professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Minnesota.
“Yellow peril,” the strain of thought that maintained all things Asia were a great threat to the white world, can be traced back to Europe in the 19th century. The idea took a particularly violent and effective turn in the U.S., where policies were often created based on the idea that Asian people were disease-ridden, Lee said.
Chinese migrants were subject to invasive and often humiliating medical inspections upon arriving at Angel Island that Europeans arriving through Ellis Island weren’t. When the bubonic plague hit San Francisco at the beginning of the 20th century, Chinatown was forcibly quarantined. Residents, considered unclean, couldn’t go to work, and went hungry, as it was difficult to find food.
Public health fears are easily projected on racial groups or other marginalized communities, said Gee, the UCLA professor.
For example, one of the earliest names for HIV was “gay-related immune deficiency,” and homophobic stigma perpetuated health vulnerabilities and helped fuel the epidemic . In the early 1930s, Los Angeles County and California public health officials submitted a resolution to Congress recommending a mass deportation of Filipinos. They argued that high rates of tuberculosis among Filipinos overburdened public health infrastructure.
“Treat people who exhibit symptoms rather than targeting people for quarantine or barring them from public places simply because of the way that they look,” said Lee, the University of Minnesota professor. “It’s really about using common sense and not letting fear and panic drive us to revert back to more base fear of foreigners.”


latimes--2020-02-03--Shyong: Coronavirus, the outbreak narrative and how our fear fuels our xenophobia and racism

On Tuesday , around midnight , someone uploaded a video to Twitter showing emergency vehicles responding to an incident at an apartment complex near USC , the Lorenzo , known to be popular with Chinese international students .
The post claimed it was a case of coronavirus , and a screenshot of an email from the Lorenzo ’ s manager , Chance Kidd , seemed to confirm that .
The news that the first reputed coronavirus case in the center of Los Angeles had been detected near USC immediately went viral .
A lot of people tweeted panicked , performative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease .
One poster claimed a friend ’ s roommate ’ s brother ’ s girlfriend had been infected .
The university later clarified that no coronavirus case had been discovered at the Lorenzo .
And despite repeated requests for comment , Kidd and the Lorenzo declined to explain why they had made such a claim .
This is our new normal — a rumor becomes a fact , then turns back into a rumor , with no explanation .
A dangerous event halfway around the world becomes entertainment for a night .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ us , is just another piece of content .
To me this is one of the weirdest effects of social media on society .
Our opinions used to sit safely inside our heads , only occasionally causing trouble at the Thanksgiving dinner table .
Now they war on our feeds every second , colliding and creating social frictions we ’ ve never experienced before .
Most of the time , I think this is good .
Although many lament the loss of some fabled age of civility , I think a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ having to confront and value perspectives as we ’ ve never had to before .
Jokes about minorities aren ’ t as funny when minorities are part of the audience .
Novelists writing about the Mexican border now must confront the fact that they might have readers who ask them to do so accurately .
It ’ s the age-old adage of reading the room — except social media are a room with potentially every kind of person in it .
But it also means that your joking posts about coronavirus — about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re not the “ diseased ” kind of Asian — will probably appear on the feeds of someone with family whose relatives may be suffering or terrified .
And it will probably make them very angry .
They have made me furious .
I have relatives who live near Wuhan , where millions of people are under lockdown amid the declaration of a global health emergency by the World Health Organization .
Let ’ s be clear about this : Your fear does not justify your racism and xenophobia .
Your jokes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not funny .
They are deeply pointless and trivialize something that should be taken seriously .
And they are creating an environment of fear , panic and disinformation that ’ s more dangerous than the disease itself .
In Seattle , a Filipino American family was refused a sample at Costco because an employee was concerned about getting infected .
People are openly wondering if it ’ s safe to eat at Chinese restaurants , as if a virus could be transmitted through flavors .
Chinese people and anyone who could be mistaken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carriers of disease .
This is not to say that you should not try to stay informed and take precautions , or that the coronavirus is not dangerous .
More cases will be discovered in California and the U.S. in the coming weeks .
But the only necessary precautions are the ones that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given , which are no different from the advice your doctor gives you during flu season : Wash your hands .
There are 11 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk of dying from the coronavirus is currently remote for those who do not have existing health conditions , and it ’ s especially remote for someone who lives in the U.S. and can access modern healthcare .
SARS — another coronavirus — killed 774 people in 2002-03 , largely in China and Hong Kong .
But not a single person who contracted the virus in the U.S. died .
During outbreaks of disease , the public expression of fear follows a specific formula .
Panic over infectious disease tends to flow into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settle into familiar narrative grooves , said Duke University English professor Priscilla Wald , who wrote a book about what she called “ the outbreak narrative.
” First , a new infection is discovered .
Then , scientific accounts and media reports discuss the global networks that the virus travels through .
Then the discussion turns to epidemiologists and their efforts to contain the virus .
The narrative is sensationalized by popular culture , producing novels , zombie movies and contagion films .
And our fascination with the outbreak narrative can lead to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infectious disease .
It encourages the stigmatizing of minority identities and behaviors , fueling already existing racist and prejudicial attitudes .
And engaging in prejudicial behavior offers us the comforting fiction that we are helping to fight the disease ’ s spread .
And the narrative persists because it calls on human nature — that part of us that wants to ride roller coasters and see horror movies .
When the virus is stopped , we can all breathe a sigh of relief .
“ In a very simple sense , we love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Wald said .
Last week , on the day the State Department warned against travel to China , I boarded a plane to Taiwan to visit my family for Lunar New Year .
LAX was crowded with people wearing face masks , and I couldn ’ t help but pick up an overpriced bottle of hand sanitizer on the walk to my gate .
When we landed in Taipei , various warnings about infectious diseases played across the seat-back screens , as they have nearly every time I ’ ve visited Taiwan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people not wearing a face mask .
Anyone who coughed was skewered with fearful glares , regardless of ethnicity .
At dinner , we discussed various infectious diseases , how little good face masks actually do and how much disinformation is out there .
My uncle wondered why people in America were so afraid when influenza had killed far more people .
( More than 60,000 people died during the 2018-19 flu season , according to the CDC . )
During dinner , my cousin who works at a news station in Taipei @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face masks because the 10th case of coronavirus in Taiwan had been discovered .
It was a good reminder that coronavirus panic wasn ’ t just about American xenophobia and racism .
Some of the loudest voices calling for an end to the consumption of exotic animals — which epidemiologists have hypothesized as one possible source of coronavirus — have been on mainland Chinese social media .
WeChat groups in the San Gabriel Valley are blowing up with posts about the virus .
At Sichuan Impression , a Chinese restaurant in Tustin , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a temperature check before dining .
I ’ ve heard that Asian American restaurants and grocery stores are taking losses because Asian American customers are staying home .
But the outbreak narrative is dangerous specifically because the threat is real .
A genuine public health concern enables the construction of a societal “ other ” and then justifies the targeting of it .
And the manipulation of public health concerns to justify targeting of minorities has led to some of the biggest stains on American history .
In San Francisco in the 1800s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city officials to create a quarantine and forced vaccination program that targeted only Chinese people in Chinatown .
White people were allowed to leave and then circulate freely through the area , which spread the diseases .
Exaggerated concerns about Chinese hygiene and diseases around the country helped fuel the dehumanizing , xenophobic narratives that led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 .
“ On the one hand , there are public health habits that promote safety and well-being — but these actions often do the insidious work of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggravating them into a public anxiety , ” said Nayan Shah , a USC professor and author of a book about the racial dynamics of public health concerns in San Francisco ’ s Chinatown .
Outbreak panic over the rapid spread of HIV in the 1980s contributed to the criminalization and demonization of LGBTQ people and led to the passage of a system of laws criminalizing various aspects of living with HIV .
Many states passed laws criminalizing the act of exposing someone else to HIV , sexual contact with noninfected partners , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crime .
At least 28 states still have some law criminalizing some aspect of HIV .
And historically , opportunistic politicians have used HIV to fuel fear about immigrants , said Kenyon Farrow , a journalist and senior editor of a website covering news on HIV .
In the 1980s , a Haitian flight attendant was initially falsely blamed as the source of HIV in the U.S. , which led to a ban on Haitian immigration and decades of discrimination against Haitian immigrants .
Trump administration officials are using HIV to justify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Within the course of the last century , we ’ ve seen a relationship between disease outbreaks and projected fears about different kinds of communities , ” Farrow said .
“ It ’ s a part of how people try to make sense of infectious disease.
” National borders will never protect us from disease , no matter how high a wall we build .
But I think that our relationships with the people who cross our borders can make us safer .
Over the last few decades , a globalized world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a cultural hierarchy .
It should be harder to fear and ostracize Chinese people when Chinese Americans are your friends , your lovers and your family .
We can better understand the consequences of Trump ’ s actions in Iran because we have Iranian American friends and colleagues who can give us a human perspective on war .
Experience of the cultures and cuisines of other nations in Los Angeles should make it harder for us to classify them as the dirty , exotic Other .
So last Monday , I decided to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Hawaii Supermarket in San Gabriel .
I went there because , a few years ago , exotic-animal sales in the San Gabriel Valley became a national media controversy simply because someone unfamiliar with Chinese culture had uploaded photographs of a local grocery store ’ s exotic-meats selections to social media .
Hawaii Supermarket sells exotic meats such as armadillo , snake and various exotic birds .
Full disclosure — I ’ m a Taiwanese American guy who was raised in the South , so the sight of shrink-wrapped turtle carcasses did provoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eaten any of that before .
But neither had grocery store manager Andy Ling , nor had meat department manager Timmy Tran .
Only a tiny , superstitious proportion of Chinese people eat exotic animals because they believe in certain health benefits , they said .
It ’ s a percentage of the population roughly equal to , say , the proportion of Angelenos who subscribe to the junk science of Goop .
I talked to them about the coronavirus and the xenophobic comments I saw on social media .
Ling and Tran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just culture .
There are American things that Chinese people won ’ t eat , and Chinese things that Americans don ’ t eat , ” Ling said .
“ That doesn ’ t mean we have to be afraid of each other.
” Our willingness to understand each other is what protects us from fear and its disastrous consequences .
As we face 2020 ’ s menaces — conflict with Iran , Chinese travel bans , the prospect of a border wall with Mexico — I ’ m begging you all to @ @ @

On Tuesday, around midnight, someone uploaded a video to Twitter showing emergency vehicles responding to an incident at an apartment complex near USC, the Lorenzo, known to be popular with Chinese international students.
The post claimed it was a case of coronavirus, and a screenshot of an email from the Lorenzo’s manager, Chance Kidd, seemed to confirm that.
The news that the first reputed coronavirus case in the center of Los Angeles had been detected near USC immediately went viral. A lot of people tweeted panicked, performative posts about hand-washing and the threat of disease. One poster claimed a friend’s roommate’s brother’s girlfriend had been infected.
The university later clarified that no coronavirus case had been discovered at the Lorenzo. And despite repeated requests for comment, Kidd and the Lorenzo declined to explain why they had made such a claim.
This is our new normal — a rumor becomes a fact, then turns back into a rumor, with no explanation. A dangerous event halfway around the world becomes entertainment for a night. The coronavirus, to a lot of us, is just another piece of content.
Advertisement
To me this is one of the weirdest effects of social media on society. Our opinions used to sit safely inside our heads, only occasionally causing trouble at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Now they war on our feeds every second, colliding and creating social frictions we’ve never experienced before.
Most of the time, I think this is good. Although many lament the loss of some fabled age of civility, I think a lot of us are just experiencing the discomfort of having to confront and value perspectives as we’ve never had to before. Jokes about minorities aren’t as funny when minorities are part of the audience. Novelists writing about the Mexican border now must confront the fact that they might have readers who ask them to do so accurately. It’s the age-old adage of reading the room — except social media are a room with potentially every kind of person in it.
But it also means that your joking posts about coronavirus — about frantically washing your hands and how you’re not the “diseased” kind of Asian — will probably appear on the feeds of someone with family whose relatives may be suffering or terrified. And it will probably make them very angry.
They have made me furious. I have relatives who live near Wuhan, where millions of people are under lockdown amid the declaration of a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Let’s be clear about this: Your fear does not justify your racism and xenophobia. Your jokes and performative panic about the coronavirus are not funny. They are deeply pointless and trivialize something that should be taken seriously. And they are creating an environment of fear, panic and disinformation that’s more dangerous than the disease itself.
In Seattle, a Filipino American family was refused a sample at Costco because an employee was concerned about getting infected. People are openly wondering if it’s safe to eat at Chinese restaurants, as if a virus could be transmitted through flavors. Chinese people and anyone who could be mistaken for Chinese are being treated like potential carriers of disease.
This is not to say that you should not try to stay informed and take precautions, or that the coronavirus is not dangerous. More cases will be discovered in California and the U.S. in the coming weeks. But the only necessary precautions are the ones that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given, which are no different from the advice your doctor gives you during flu season: Wash your hands.
There are 11 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as I’m writing this. The risk of dying from the coronavirus is currently remote for those who do not have existing health conditions, and it’s especially remote for someone who lives in the U.S. and can access modern healthcare. SARS — another coronavirus — killed 774 people in 2002-03, largely in China and Hong Kong. But not a single person who contracted the virus in the U.S. died.
Advertisement
During outbreaks of disease, the public expression of fear follows a specific formula. Panic over infectious disease tends to flow into the same channels, which over time settle into familiar narrative grooves, said Duke University English professor Priscilla Wald, who wrote a book about what she called “the outbreak narrative.”
First, a new infection is discovered. Then, scientific accounts and media reports discuss the global networks that the virus travels through. Then the discussion turns to epidemiologists and their efforts to contain the virus.
The narrative is sensationalized by popular culture, producing novels, zombie movies and contagion films. And our fascination with the outbreak narrative can lead to an exaggeration of the threat of an infectious disease. It encourages the stigmatizing of minority identities and behaviors, fueling already existing racist and prejudicial attitudes. And engaging in prejudicial behavior offers us the comforting fiction that we are helping to fight the disease’s spread.
And the narrative persists because it calls on human nature — that part of us that wants to ride roller coasters and see horror movies. When the virus is stopped, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
“In a very simple sense, we love to be afraid and then reassured,” Wald said.
Last week, on the day the State Department warned against travel to China, I boarded a plane to Taiwan to visit my family for Lunar New Year. LAX was crowded with people wearing face masks, and I couldn’t help but pick up an overpriced bottle of hand sanitizer on the walk to my gate.
When we landed in Taipei, various warnings about infectious diseases played across the seat-back screens, as they have nearly every time I’ve visited Taiwan. I was one of the few people not wearing a face mask. Anyone who coughed was skewered with fearful glares, regardless of ethnicity.
At dinner, we discussed various infectious diseases, how little good face masks actually do and how much disinformation is out there. My uncle wondered why people in America were so afraid when influenza had killed far more people. (More than 60,000 people died during the 2018-19 flu season, according to the CDC.) During dinner, my cousin who works at a news station in Taipei texted us to remind us to wear face masks because the 10th case of coronavirus in Taiwan had been discovered.
It was a good reminder that coronavirus panic wasn’t just about American xenophobia and racism.
Some of the loudest voices calling for an end to the consumption of exotic animals — which epidemiologists have hypothesized as one possible source of coronavirus — have been on mainland Chinese social media. WeChat groups in the San Gabriel Valley are blowing up with posts about the virus. At Sichuan Impression, a Chinese restaurant in Tustin, customers were being asked to submit to a temperature check before dining. I’ve heard that Asian American restaurants and grocery stores are taking losses because Asian American customers are staying home.
But the outbreak narrative is dangerous specifically because the threat is real. A genuine public health concern enables the construction of a societal “other” and then justifies the targeting of it. And the manipulation of public health concerns to justify targeting of minorities has led to some of the biggest stains on American history.
In San Francisco in the 1800s, concerns about smallpox and cholera led city officials to create a quarantine and forced vaccination program that targeted only Chinese people in Chinatown. White people were allowed to leave and then circulate freely through the area, which spread the diseases.
Exaggerated concerns about Chinese hygiene and diseases around the country helped fuel the dehumanizing, xenophobic narratives that led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.
“On the one hand, there are public health habits that promote safety and well-being — but these actions often do the insidious work of playing into already existing racial apprehensions and aggravating them into a public anxiety,” said Nayan Shah, a USC professor and author of a book about the racial dynamics of public health concerns in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Outbreak panic over the rapid spread of HIV in the 1980s contributed to the criminalization and demonization of LGBTQ people and led to the passage of a system of laws criminalizing various aspects of living with HIV. Many states passed laws criminalizing the act of exposing someone else to HIV, sexual contact with noninfected partners, and also made not disclosing the disease a crime. At least 28 states still have some law criminalizing some aspect of HIV.
And historically, opportunistic politicians have used HIV to fuel fear about immigrants, said Kenyon Farrow, a journalist and senior editor of a website covering news on HIV. In the 1980s, a Haitian flight attendant was initially falsely blamed as the source of HIV in the U.S., which led to a ban on Haitian immigration and decades of discrimination against Haitian immigrants. Trump administration officials are using HIV to justify family separations at the southern border.
“Within the course of the last century, we’ve seen a relationship between disease outbreaks and projected fears about different kinds of communities,” Farrow said. “It’s a part of how people try to make sense of infectious disease.”
National borders will never protect us from disease, no matter how high a wall we build. But I think that our relationships with the people who cross our borders can make us safer.
Over the last few decades, a globalized world has challenged our notions of nationalism and a cultural hierarchy.
It should be harder to fear and ostracize Chinese people when Chinese Americans are your friends, your lovers and your family. We can better understand the consequences of Trump’s actions in Iran because we have Iranian American friends and colleagues who can give us a human perspective on war. Experience of the cultures and cuisines of other nations in Los Angeles should make it harder for us to classify them as the dirty, exotic Other.
So last Monday, I decided to pay a visit to the exotic-meats freezer of Hawaii Supermarket in San Gabriel.
I went there because, a few years ago, exotic-animal sales in the San Gabriel Valley became a national media controversy simply because someone unfamiliar with Chinese culture had uploaded photographs of a local grocery store’s exotic-meats selections to social media.
Hawaii Supermarket sells exotic meats such as armadillo, snake and various exotic birds. Full disclosure — I’m a Taiwanese American guy who was raised in the South, so the sight of shrink-wrapped turtle carcasses did provoke some alarm. I’ve never eaten any of that before.
But neither had grocery store manager Andy Ling, nor had meat department manager Timmy Tran.
Only a tiny, superstitious proportion of Chinese people eat exotic animals because they believe in certain health benefits, they said. It’s a percentage of the population roughly equal to, say, the proportion of Angelenos who subscribe to the junk science of Goop.
I talked to them about the coronavirus and the xenophobic comments I saw on social media. Ling and Tran just shrugged.
“That’s just culture. There are American things that Chinese people won’t eat, and Chinese things that Americans don’t eat,” Ling said. “That doesn’t mean we have to be afraid of each other.”
Our willingness to understand each other is what protects us from fear and its disastrous consequences. As we face 2020’s menaces — conflict with Iran, Chinese travel bans, the prospect of a border wall with Mexico — I’m begging you all to remember that.


latimes--2020-02-03--Skelton: Suburban sprawl wins again in the battle against California's housing crisis

It ’ s fitting that major legislation to fight urban sprawl by forcing denser housing was killed by lawmakers from Los Angeles County , the nation ’ s sprawl capital .
Particularly fitting is that a leader of the L.A. death squad represents the San Fernando Valley , the epitome of sprawl .
He ’ s Sen. Bob Hertzberg ( D-Van Nuys ) , a native Angeleno who helped whack a bill pushed by a lawmaker from San Francisco , arguably the state ’ s most densely populated city .
OK , perhaps Senate Bill 50 was a bit heavy-handed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much of Californians who love their ranch-house culture .
There were credible arguments against the bill : loss of local control to the state and the prospect of cramming apartment buildings into single-family neighborhoods .
Local lawmakers — such as Sen. Holly Mitchell ( D-Los Angeles ) , who is running for county supervisor — also complained the bill didn ’ t do enough for affordable housing .
But the status quo is unsustainable .
We should be building at least 250,000 housing units a year and we ’ re producing fewer than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prices soar .
Urban housing is increasingly unaffordable for middle-class families , let alone the working poor .
With 40 million people already packed into California , we can ’ t keep shoving homes into the hinterlands , forcing two-hour , freeway-clogging , greenhouse gas-emitting drives to work .
SB 50 , by Sen. Scott Wiener ( D-San Francisco ) , would have forced cities and counties to allow denser housing — such as mid-rise apartments — near major transit stops and job centers , overriding local zoning ordinances .
Fourplexes could have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Any project over 10 units would have carried developer fees to help fund affordable housing or required up to 25 % of the units to be reserved for low-income residents .
Local governments would have had two years to devise their own development plans before the state hammer fell .
The legislation was complex and scary , especially for many local governments .
The L.A. City Council opposed it .
The measure needed 21 Senate votes but failed by three : 18 to 15 , with six abstentions .
Ten L.A. County senators @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ no ” or abstained .
Only one of the county ’ s Democrats — Lena Gonzalez of Long Beach — voted “ yes.
” One refreshing thing : This fight had nothing to do with partisan politics .
It was all about geography and the protection of single-family living from the encroachment of higher-density complexes .
Roughly 75 % of L.A. city is zoned for single-family homes .
During the Senate floor debate , Hertzberg said the bill ’ s premise was that mayors and city council members “ are standing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behest of single-family homeowners.
” “ While there may be some merit to this notion in limited circumstances , this sweeping generalization both oversimplifies the problem and unnecessarily demeans people who have done nothing more than make homes for themselves , raise a family and play by the rules.
” Demeans ?
That ’ s a reach .
How could any single-family homeowner feel demeaned by an effort to build more multifamily housing ?
Upset , perhaps , but not personally demeaned .
Neither Hertzberg nor any opponent of the bill openly defended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ word .
They rallied behind local control , always a popular position .
But it was counties and cities that long ago allowed untenable sprawl , ripping out fruit orchards and planting housing tracts , creating long commutes .
Instead of building upward , they built sideways .
Hertzberg blamed California ’ s tax system for local governments ’ ignoring housing in land use decisions .
He didn ’ t specifically criticize Proposition 13 , the 1978 initiative that greatly reduced property taxes , but noted that the primary source of local revenue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s why local governments “ say yes to auto malls , say yes to big-bucks retail stores , but say no to housing , ” the senator asserted .
“ That is the single biggest reason we are where we are.
” Sen. Steve Glazer ( D-Orinda ) , a former suburban mayor , calls the jumble of urban jobs , unaffordable housing and long commutes “ dysfunctional.
” He voted against the bill .
Glazer says the state should provide financial incentives for businesses to create more jobs in the suburbs where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to commute long distance .
“ In my neck of the woods , ” the senator also says , cities “ are not bad apples .
We ’ ve approved thousands of new housing [ units ] , but it ’ s not being built.
” Dan Dunmoyer , president of the California Building Industry Assn.
, confirms that 550,000 housing units have been approved across the state , but so far they ’ re just vacant lots .
“ The cost to build them is greater than the market , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fees — for sewers , schools , parks — and labor costs .
“ It ’ s not profitable to build right now.
” There ’ s still time to produce a major housing bill this year .
Legislators will be in session until Aug. 31 .
“ In the Legislature , seven months is an eternity , ” Wiener says .
“ But we need to pass something that is actually a housing production bill — not just called that.
” It will be a test of Gov .
Gavin Newsom ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governor can use state budget bucks to strong-arm votes for housing legislation — and later when he begins to sign or veto hundreds of bills .
Senate leader Toni Atkins ( D-San Diego ) chided opponents who offered no alternatives to SB 50 .
“ I want them to tell me what it is they ’ ll support , ” she says .
“ Where are they willing to compromise ?
” Yes , L.A. legislators .
What exactly do you have in mind ?
Hopefully not more sprawl .

An aerial view of homes in California Sen. Bob Hertzberg’s 18th District in Granada Hills, Calif., in May.
It’s fitting that major legislation to fight urban sprawl by forcing denser housing was killed by lawmakers from Los Angeles County, the nation’s sprawl capital.
Particularly fitting is that a leader of the L.A. death squad represents the San Fernando Valley, the epitome of sprawl.
He’s Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), a native Angeleno who helped whack a bill pushed by a lawmaker from San Francisco, arguably the state’s most densely populated city.
OK, perhaps Senate Bill 50 was a bit heavy-handed, utopian and unrealistic, asking too much of Californians who love their ranch-house culture. There were credible arguments against the bill: loss of local control to the state and the prospect of cramming apartment buildings into single-family neighborhoods.
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Local lawmakers — such as Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), who is running for county supervisor — also complained the bill didn’t do enough for affordable housing.
But the status quo is unsustainable. We should be building at least 250,000 housing units a year and we’re producing fewer than 100,000. When demand exceeds supply, prices soar. Urban housing is increasingly unaffordable for middle-class families, let alone the working poor.
With 40 million people already packed into California, we can’t keep shoving homes into the hinterlands, forcing two-hour, freeway-clogging, greenhouse gas-emitting drives to work.
SB 50, by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have forced cities and counties to allow denser housing — such as mid-rise apartments — near major transit stops and job centers, overriding local zoning ordinances.
Fourplexes could have been built in most single-family neighborhoods. Any project over 10 units would have carried developer fees to help fund affordable housing or required up to 25% of the units to be reserved for low-income residents. Local governments would have had two years to devise their own development plans before the state hammer fell.
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The legislation was complex and scary, especially for many local governments. The L.A. City Council opposed it.
The measure needed 21 Senate votes but failed by three: 18 to 15, with six abstentions.
Ten L.A. County senators — nine of them Democrats — voted “no” or abstained. Only one of the county’s Democrats — Lena Gonzalez of Long Beach — voted “yes.”
One refreshing thing: This fight had nothing to do with partisan politics. It was all about geography and the protection of single-family living from the encroachment of higher-density complexes. Roughly 75% of L.A. city is zoned for single-family homes.
During the Senate floor debate, Hertzberg said the bill’s premise was that mayors and city council members “are standing in the way of home building at the behest of single-family homeowners.”
“While there may be some merit to this notion in limited circumstances, this sweeping generalization both oversimplifies the problem and unnecessarily demeans people who have done nothing more than make homes for themselves, raise a family and play by the rules.”
Demeans? That’s a reach. How could any single-family homeowner feel demeaned by an effort to build more multifamily housing? Upset, perhaps, but not personally demeaned.
Neither Hertzberg nor any opponent of the bill openly defended sprawl. That’s a dirty word. They rallied behind local control, always a popular position.
But it was counties and cities that long ago allowed untenable sprawl, ripping out fruit orchards and planting housing tracts, creating long commutes. Instead of building upward, they built sideways.
Hertzberg blamed California’s tax system for local governments’ ignoring housing in land use decisions. He didn’t specifically criticize Proposition 13, the 1978 initiative that greatly reduced property taxes, but noted that the primary source of local revenue became the sales tax.
That’s why local governments “say yes to auto malls, say yes to big-bucks retail stores, but say no to housing,” the senator asserted. “That is the single biggest reason we are where we are.”
Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), a former suburban mayor, calls the jumble of urban jobs, unaffordable housing and long commutes “dysfunctional.” He voted against the bill.
Glazer says the state should provide financial incentives for businesses to create more jobs in the suburbs where people live so they don’t have to commute long distance.
“In my neck of the woods,” the senator also says, cities “are not bad apples. We’ve approved thousands of new housing [units], but it’s not being built.”
Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Assn., confirms that 550,000 housing units have been approved across the state, but so far they’re just vacant lots.
“The cost to build them is greater than the market,” he says. Dunmoyer blames local government fees — for sewers, schools, parks — and labor costs. “It’s not profitable to build right now.”
So it’s complicated.
There’s still time to produce a major housing bill this year. Legislators will be in session until Aug. 31.
“In the Legislature, seven months is an eternity,” Wiener says. “But we need to pass something that is actually a housing production bill — not just called that.”
It will be a test of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership. In June, the governor can use state budget bucks to strong-arm votes for housing legislation — and later when he begins to sign or veto hundreds of bills.
Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) chided opponents who offered no alternatives to SB 50.
“I want them to tell me what it is they’ll support,” she says. “Where are they willing to compromise?”
Yes, L.A. legislators. What exactly do you have in mind? Hopefully not more sprawl.


latimes--2020-02-02--Fans gather at Staples Center for final day of memorials for Lakers legend Kobe Bryant

They came to share a moment together .
A week after Kobe Bryant , his 13-year-old daughter , Gianna , and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas , thousands once again swarmed the streets around Staples Center on Sunday to pay their respects to the legendary Laker .
They scrawled messages of love on large display panels , sidewalks and banners .
Bouquets and votive candles decorated the plaza in front of the arena .
Someone set up a boombox and played “ To Live and Die in L.A. ” Sunday was the last day for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and artwork at one of several makeshift memorials that sprang up around the sports arena , where Bryant made sports history by helping the Lakers win five NBA championships .
Officials said they would begin dismantling the displays after Sunday ’ s Super Bowl .
The city is planning an official memorial event at a later date .
Bryant ’ s wife , Vanessa , will be given some of the items left behind by fans , while perishables will be composted and spread around the Staples Center complex .
“ That made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Linda Mazariegos , 33 , who made the hour-and-a-half trek from Victorville with her mother and left behind a collage of photographs .
The atmosphere Sunday was equal parts memorial , festival and swap meet .
Vendors crowded the sidewalks , selling T-shirts , balloons , elote , churros and hot dogs that one enterprising salesman touted as “ Kobe dogs.
” Metro buses beeped as they drove by , their LED displays flashing “ RIP Kobe.
” Outside the arena , a line of fans waited to photograph themselves in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dolls that Jerry Montero bought at a swap meet .
“ I brought these down here for everybody to love , ” said Montero , 53 , of Lakewood .
Montero headed to Staples Center last Sunday , as soon as he heard news of Bryant ’ s death .
He wanted to catch one more glimpse of the memorials before they were removed .
Like many of those in attendance , he saw Bryant as an inspiration .
“ He encouraged us to believe in ourselves , too , ” Montero said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me love him so much.
” Giovanna Castro , 30 , said that when she was hospitalized with lupus , her brother would continually ask her what he could bring to make her happy .
“ I would be like , ‘ Bring me Kobe Bryant , ’ ” Castro said .
“ And he would just look at me and we would all laugh.
” Watching Bryant play with the Lakers was just about the only thing that could take her mind off her illness , she said .
“ That was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I could be feeling really sick and watch a game and see Kobe and everything he did , it was just — it would make me happy .
And at the time , I was really sick and I needed him right there when I was really bad.
” These days she ’ s feeling better , but she still draws on Bryant ’ s example on the court as a source of strength .
“ It sucks that this happened and everything but his words , still , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us and everything , ” Castro said .
“ Like whatever you want , you got to go get it .
And every day I wake up and I ’ m like , ‘ Let ’ s do this , ’ the same as Kobe.
” Many fans brought their children , pushing them in strollers or boosting them onto their shoulders to get a glimpse at the outpouring of condolences .
They were there to pay tribute not to Bryant the basketball star but to Bryant the father .
“ In Hispanic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a different point of view because it ’ s a family matter , ” said Andrea Orellana Fernandez , 57 , of Orange County .
“ The culture … you take it more personal .
You make them a part of you.
” Delfino Delrio , 51 , of Downey took his son to Lakers playoff games during their championship seasons in the early 2000s .
He was at the memorial with his grandsons , Jacob , 6 , and Jonathan , 8 .
“ I wanted to express to them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that moment with their dad , ” he said .
“ Now I ’ m sharing this moment with them .
It ’ s generation to generation.
” Delrio said he felt as though he watched Bryant grow up , transforming from a young hothead into a mature role model .
“ I ’ ve seen him come a long way , ” he said .
“ I ’ ve seen him be a jerk .
I ’ ve seen him be the hero , the villain .
And then I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ father.
” That ’ s the example he wanted to pass on to his grandchildren .
“ That ’ s what I want them to know , ” he said .
“ You don ’ t have to be a jerk.
” Ruben Montemayor , 45 , of Covina and three of his children — Raylene , 3 , Rayden , 6 , and Roy , 8 — hung a large paper banner that read , “ RIP Kobe & Gigi .
... God ’ s Angels.
” Montemayor said that when his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city of Los Angeles , Bryant personally presented him with a commemorative jersey .
His father passed away in 2014 and left the jersey to him .
“ We ’ re just paying our respects , ” Montemayor said .
He said he believes that Bryant ’ s family will take solace in the sheer number of people who have come out to do so .
“ It seems like it ’ s busier here than a regular basketball game , ” he said .
The displays of mourning were , at times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often , a murmur of “ Kobe , Kobe ” welled up from the crowd and spread until the entire plaza outside Staples Center was chanting his name .
Ryan Rice , 37 , was leading the cheers .
He traveled from Stockton with his daughter Adalynn , 5 , and her mother , Jennifer Villegas , 38 .
“ We ’ re fighters , too , just like the Mamba was , ” Rice said .
At the edge of the memorial , he placed a pair of Nike sneakers signed with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Bryant ’ s numbers , 8 and 24 , as well as Gianna ’ s # 2 and “ forever in our hearts.
” Between sharing hugs and shaking hands with other fans , Rice gestured to the crowd behind him .
“ Look at this , ” he said .
“ It ’ s brought the whole city together .
We ’ re way closer .
And all we ’ re yelling is ‘ Kobe ’ right now .
”

Fans gather at a memorial for Kobe Bryant in front of Staples Center on Sunday.
They came to share a moment together.
Family. Friends. Fans.
A week after Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, thousands once again swarmed the streets around Staples Center on Sunday to pay their respects to the legendary Laker.
They scrawled messages of love on large display panels, sidewalks and banners. Bouquets and votive candles decorated the plaza in front of the arena. Someone set up a boombox and played “To Live and Die in L.A.”
Sunday was the last day for people to leave behind jerseys, flowers and artwork at one of several makeshift memorials that sprang up around the sports arena, where Bryant made sports history by helping the Lakers win five NBA championships.
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Officials said they would begin dismantling the displays after Sunday’s Super Bowl. The city is planning an official memorial event at a later date. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, will be given some of the items left behind by fans, while perishables will be composted and spread around the Staples Center complex.
“That made us want to come even more,” said Linda Mazariegos, 33, who made the hour-and-a-half trek from Victorville with her mother and left behind a collage of photographs.
The atmosphere Sunday was equal parts memorial, festival and swap meet. Vendors crowded the sidewalks, selling T-shirts, balloons, elote, churros and hot dogs that one enterprising salesman touted as “Kobe dogs.”
Metro buses beeped as they drove by, their LED displays flashing “RIP Kobe.” Outside the arena, a line of fans waited to photograph themselves in front of a set of Lakers nesting dolls that Jerry Montero bought at a swap meet.
“I brought these down here for everybody to love,” said Montero, 53, of Lakewood.
Montero headed to Staples Center last Sunday, as soon as he heard news of Bryant’s death. He wanted to catch one more glimpse of the memorials before they were removed.
Like many of those in attendance, he saw Bryant as an inspiration.
“He encouraged us to believe in ourselves, too,” Montero said. “That’s what made me love him so much.”
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Giovanna Castro, 30, said that when she was hospitalized with lupus, her brother would continually ask her what he could bring to make her happy.
“I would be like, ‘Bring me Kobe Bryant,’” Castro said. “And he would just look at me and we would all laugh.”
Watching Bryant play with the Lakers was just about the only thing that could take her mind off her illness, she said.
“That was always my happiness,” she said. “I could be feeling really sick and watch a game and see Kobe and everything he did, it was just — it would make me happy. And at the time, I was really sick and I needed him right there when I was really bad.”
These days she’s feeling better, but she still draws on Bryant’s example on the court as a source of strength.
“It sucks that this happened and everything but his words, still, it’s there, what he would tell us and everything,” Castro said. “Like whatever you want, you got to go get it. And every day I wake up and I’m like, ‘Let’s do this,’ the same as Kobe.”
Many fans brought their children, pushing them in strollers or boosting them onto their shoulders to get a glimpse at the outpouring of condolences.
They were there to pay tribute not to Bryant the basketball star but to Bryant the father.
“In Hispanic culture, deaths, I think it’s a different point of view because it’s a family matter,” said Andrea Orellana Fernandez, 57, of Orange County. “The culture … you take it more personal. You make them a part of you.”
Delfino Delrio, 51, of Downey took his son to Lakers playoff games during their championship seasons in the early 2000s. He was at the memorial with his grandsons, Jacob, 6, and Jonathan, 8.
“I wanted to express to them what that meant to me, sharing that moment with their dad,” he said. “Now I’m sharing this moment with them. It’s generation to generation.”
Delrio said he felt as though he watched Bryant grow up, transforming from a young hothead into a mature role model.
“I’ve seen him come a long way,” he said. “I’ve seen him be a jerk. I’ve seen him be the hero, the villain. And then I’ve seen him be a compassionate, loving father.”
That’s the example he wanted to pass on to his grandchildren.
“That’s what I want them to know,” he said. “You don’t have to be a jerk.”
Ruben Montemayor, 45, of Covina and three of his children — Raylene, 3, Rayden, 6, and Roy, 8 — hung a large paper banner that read, “RIP Kobe & Gigi. ... God’s Angels.”
Montemayor said that when his dad retired as an employee with the city of Los Angeles, Bryant personally presented him with a commemorative jersey. His father passed away in 2014 and left the jersey to him.
“We’re just paying our respects,” Montemayor said. He said he believes that Bryant’s family will take solace in the sheer number of people who have come out to do so.
“It seems like it’s busier here than a regular basketball game,” he said.
The displays of mourning were, at times, loud and public.
Every so often, a murmur of “Kobe, Kobe” welled up from the crowd and spread until the entire plaza outside Staples Center was chanting his name.
Ryan Rice, 37, was leading the cheers. He traveled from Stockton with his daughter Adalynn, 5, and her mother, Jennifer Villegas, 38.
“We’re fighters, too, just like the Mamba was,” Rice said.
At the edge of the memorial, he placed a pair of Nike sneakers signed with his family members’ names and inscribed with Bryant’s numbers, 8 and 24, as well as Gianna’s #2 and “forever in our hearts.”
Between sharing hugs and shaking hands with other fans, Rice gestured to the crowd behind him.
“Look at this,” he said. “It’s brought the whole city together. We’re way closer. And all we’re yelling is ‘Kobe’ right now.”