Today’s issue opens on the 25 years of suspicion that followed Muslim and Sikh Americans after the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001. The same suspicion can be felt in a White House browser game about deportation, and then in more than $20 million of Texas ads built on Chinese land ownership. The anti-DEI agenda escalates as a Treasury rule seeks to pull tax exemption from private schools that consider race in admissions and other areas.
On to crimes, a homemade guillotine driven to Capitol Hill has left one man facing a misdemeanor, while a Lancaster man has pleaded guilty to killing four people inside a home he set on fire. Finally, in Seoul, an American actor’s Japanese robe at a Korean culture event has sparked controversy.
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25 years after 9/11, Muslim and Sikh Americans are still counting hate
Seventeen minutes passed on Sept. 11, 2001, before Americans understood what they were watching. Confusion gave way to suspicion that morning, and Muslim and Sikh Americans have struggled to live with it since.
Twenty-five years on, Congress has gone from no Muslim members to four, while public opinion has hardened. The Sikh Coalition, for one, said the tally is an undercount and is urging alertness into November.
What else we’re tracking
Trump’s White House mocks immigrants with games about deportation
The White House has launched an online arcade with retro games promoting administration policy. Two center on immigration enforcement, and one of those vanished days later after the company that it borrowed from objected.
Conservative groups make China the message in the crucial Texas Senate race
More than $20 million in conservative advertising has made Chinese land ownership the dominant theme of new ads in the Texas Senate race. Strategists say they target Republican voters, not November. Asian American groups oppose the law behind them.
Trump admin moves to revoke tax exemption of schools over DEI
Proposed Treasury and IRS rules would strip tax-exempt status from private schools that treat students differently by race or ethnicity, and not only in admissions. They could affect up to 18,000 institutions and land unevenly on Asian American students.
A Vietnamese American man found out what happens when you bring a real guillotine to Capitol Hill
A Carlsbad tattoo artist spent about three months building a working guillotine, then drove it to Capitol Hill, where police arrested him. A judge let him go the next day, and the misdemeanor charge could hinge on intent.
California man pleads guilty to killing 4 people, 3 dogs after breakup
A 21-year-old Filipino American man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2024 killings of four people at a Lancaster home he then set on fire. Prosecutors said he broke in looking for someone else.
‘Baby Driver’ actor sparks criticism for wearing a Japanese garment to a Korean culture event
Ansel Elgort arrived in a Japanese yukata at an invitation-only Seoul event centered on Korean culture. Some commenters cite Japan’s colonial rule, but others believe it was a simple wardrobe choice.
Why read Issue #256?
Some in our society have read turbans and beards as threats for 25 years, but they’re often unable to name who they’re mad about. Sadly, the same habit shows up elsewhere. In Texas, conservative ads make a property deed look like a loyalty test, while a White House game turns migrants into figures with counters. The comments over an actor’s choice of clothing in Seoul were having a smaller version of the same argument.
What’s clear to us is that often, outcomes depend on how intentions are read. A proposed Treasury rule would let the government decide when a school’s criteria are really about race, and a Washington court could decide whether a homemade guillotine counts as a weapon. For four grim deaths inside a Lancaster home, however, a guilty plea has already settled what happened.
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