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For the first time in more than 30 years, Congress is holding an anti-Asian discrimination hearing in response to the increasingly reported violent attacks on the Asian American community during the coronavirus pandemic, which has culminated in a series of targeted shootings that killed six Asian women and two others on March 16.
The House Judiciary Committee hearing, which was scheduled weeks earlier, was led by Asian American leaders and lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, who warned that America was at a “crisis point.”
Representatives spoke of a deepening fear throughout the Asian American community due to the spike in racial violence and hate crimes stoked by anti-Chinese rhetoric surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in anti-Asian sentiment can be directly tied to racist rhetoric used during the coronavirus pandemic, reported The New York Times.
US Congresswoman Doris Matsui, who was born in a World War II Japanese internment camp, testified on the rise in anti-American rhetoric since 2020.
“Last year,” Representative Matsui, Democrat of California, stated at the hearing, “as I heard, at the highest levels of government, people use racist slurs, like ‘China virus,’ to spread xenophobia and cast blame on innocent communities, it was all too familiar.”
A number of activists and advocacy groups also issued statements for the hearing.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), a civil and human rights advocacy group, pointed out a “sharp increase” in anti-Asian “hate incidents,” citing more than 4,000 incidents recorded by advocacy groups since February of 2020.
“While most of the incidents involve bullying, racial epithets, and verbal abuse and harassment, an increasing number of incidents have involved physical violence,” said the AAJC official statement, which documented the stabbing of a father and two young children in a Texas parking lot, as well as violent and deadly attacks on elderly Asian Americans.
On March 5, the Department of Justice issued a statement on its effort to combat anti-Asian hate crimes.
“No one in America should fear violence because of who they are, what they look like, or what part of the world they or their families came from,” Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin stated. “The Department of Justice and our component agencies are committed to bringing all of our tools to bear in supporting [Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)] communities as we address the horrific rise in hate and bias incidents occurring across the country.”
The timing of this hearing is especially poignant after the Atlanta killings of Asian American women earlier this week. In addition to emotional testimony, tensions rose when Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, reportedly claimed that those testifying were attempting to police free speech. Roy also took a length of time to denounce how the Chinese government handled the COVID-19 outbreak, reports The New York Times.
Representative Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, reportedly objected to Roy’s diatribe.
“Your president,” she said referring to former President Donald Trump, “and your party, and your colleagues, can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s-eye on the back of Asian-Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids.”
The last anti-Asian American discrimination hearing held in Congress was in November 1987 following the murder of Vincent Chin.
As of Feb. 28, 2021, the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center alone has received 3,795 incidents of discrimination, harassment, and/or assault, according to its national report.
Top Class Actions is monitoring this event and others as a part of its wider coverage of racial and social justice – issues that affect all consumers.
If you or a loved one have been a victim of Asian American hate crime, resources are available, and you can safely report incidents at any time.
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