This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, was submitted for publishing minutes before the first reports of the March 16, 2021 mass shootings in Atlanta that killed 8 people, 6 of whom were women of Asian descent, to appear on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated March 19, 2021
A rally was held in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunday, March 14, attended by Senators John Liu and Andrew Gounardes, as well as Assembly Member Peter Abbate. The purpose of the demonstration was to condemn and call attention to the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes. A similar rally was held in Mineola, on Long Island, the same day, as well as in cities from coast to coast, including Los Angles, Seattle, and Boston.
The United States saw a significant increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020, compared to the year before. While hate crimes overall decreased by seven percent, those targeting members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community were up by about 150 percent. Cities like Boston and Los Angles saw their number of total bias attacks aimed at AAPI people at least double, but the rise in New York City was far more drastic.
After recording three such anti-Asian hate crimes in 2019, NYPD statistics reveal that the number spiked to 28 in 2020. As of the recent weekend rallies against bigotry and violence directed at the AAPI community, New York City had already recorded seven anti-Asian hate crimes this year, which is several more than at this time in 2020.
Throughout the first two-plus months of this year, we have not been able to go more than a few days without local media reporting on another instance of bigoty or violence against a member of the AAPI community. One of these crimes is too many, but from harassment to racial slurs to physical attacks, the frequency this year has been disturbing. The physical violence has all too often showed a wanton disregard for human life, as elderly people have been randomly shoved to the ground, and unsuspecting pedestrians have been punched, slashed or stabbed in various attacks.
Some of these crimes have been directly attributed to coronavirus-related discrimination. Former-President Trump and those who followed his lead undoubtedly contributed to this climate. Through incessantly referring to COVID-19 by the racist terms, “the China virus” or “the kung-flu,” they perpetuated the notion that it is okay to be blatantly racist toward Asian people and people of Asian descent. They have furthered a perception that members of the AAPI community have been fighting against for generations, that Asian Americans are forever considered foreigners in this country.
We are better than this or at least we should be – actually, we must be. Just because someone would never, themselves, commit a racist attack against an AAPI person, it does not make it acceptable to use racist terms that otherize an entire race of people, as the widespread use of such language leads others to think their vile actions have justification.
And it is not enough to simply not be racist. Whether it be a public figure or someone you know personally, if they are throwing around racist terms — even ones that are thinly veiled but that still clearly seek to demean an entire group – we all must speak up, speak out, and condemn it. None of us are responsible for being there to prevent bias attacks as they occur, but we can all contribute to changing the climate that is so plainly leading to the alarming surge we have seen.
“Throughout the first two-plus months of this year, we have not been able to go more than a few days without local media reporting on another instance of bigoty or violence against a member of the AAPI community.”
In his first week in office, President Biden issued an executive order condemning and combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against AAPI people. There is only so much any president can do through executive action to address such an issue, but it was a significant change from the actions of his predecessor. The president’s words have weight, and the official condemnation was important, but to directly combat racism and intolerance, Biden’s order directed all federal agencies in specific ways to pursue initiatives and implement policies with a specific focus on ensuring they work against racism and intolerance of AAPI people.
Directives from Washington play a part in this fight, but it is on all of us, as a community, to be active participants in pushing back against this hatred and letting it be known, in no uncertain terms, that we will not tolerate intolerance.
