The moment seems rich with opportunity. What\u2019s to be done with this solidarity? For Asian American community leaders and activists, the answers range from\u00a0creating better ballot access and greater political representation, expanding Asian American history instruction in schools and\u00a0emboldening activist participation from untapped groups such as youth and the greater religious community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important and meaningful that we have had such widespread support from all over the country,\u201d Meng said. \u201cAs an Asian American born and raised here, I have never felt that in my entire life. We need to make the most of this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Members and supporters of the Asian-American community attend a "rally against hate" at Columbus Park in New York City on March 21, 2021. Three massage parlors around Atlanta were targeted March 16, 2021, and a 21-year-old suspect was arrested. Robert Aaron Long faces eight counts of murder and one charge of aggravated assault. (Photo: ED JONES, AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Anti-Asian sentiment has grown significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with\u00a0many in the community citing\u00a0the disparaging rhetoric of the Trump administration as a factor. San Francisco-based Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tallied nearly 3,800 such incidents from March 2020 through February 2021.<\/p>\n More recently, results ofan annual survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League showed that Asian Americans had suffered the largest spike in severe incidents of hate and harassment online.<\/p>\n Throughout the United States\u00a0and in Canada this weekend, #StopAsianHate marches were scheduled as a response to such sentiments in places like Princeton, New Jersey; Buffalo, New York; Portland, Maine; and Calgary, Alberta.<\/p>\n The activism extends beyond the streets. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth\u00a0threatened Tuesday to vote against white nominees to President Joe Biden\u2019s administration until more Asian Americans were appointed to high-ranking roles, then withdrew that threat after she received assurances the White House would do better. While Vice President Kamala Harris is of Indian descent, there are no Cabinet secretaries of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent in Biden’s administration despite the president’s pledge to reflect the nation’s diversity.<\/p>\n This weekend, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was set to host a virtual conversation\u00a0for the public on anti-Asian discrimination and violence with Meng and U.S. Rep.\u00a0Judy Chu\u00a0of California. The event will be broadcast on Zoom and on Johnson’s Facebook page.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the interesting things I\u2019ve been hearing is that this is the first time that Asian Americans have\u00a0being asked to share their stories in their workplaces,\u201d said Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, a national legal advocacy group. \u201cAnd people are often surprised to hear the racism that their colleagues have faced. So I’m\u00a0seeing a much broader recognition of the racism that has been aimed at our community.\u201d<\/p>\n A rally in Washington, D.C., to protest hate crimes against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities on March 21, 2021. (Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Frank Wu, president of Queens College, City University of New York,\u00a0compares the moment to the mood following the 1982 killing\u00a0in Detroit of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American mistaken for Japanese by two struggling auto workers who beat him to death with a baseball bat. The two were eventually fined $3,000 and sentenced to probation.<\/p>\n The resulting outrage and subsequent sense of solidarity, Wu\u00a0said, crossed lines of ethnicity, generation, language and class and prompted renewed Asian American civil-rights activism. But like all movements, it eventually lost momentum.<\/p>\n So while many Black, Latino and Jewish leaders and colleagues have reached out to him\u00a0in unprecedented partnership since the Atlanta killings, it\u2019s crucial, Wu\u00a0said, to capitalize on that unity\u00a0while it lasts.<\/p>\n \u201cOut of this tragedy,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is something I always hoped for but hadn\u2019t seen until now: Real bridge-building intentions. We just need to follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n Asian Americans have been victims of increased violence and harassment since the coronavirus pandemic began, but recent attacks have prompted some to "hunker down" again.<\/p>\n USA TODAY<\/span><\/p>\n Making the most of the current energy was the thinking behind a\u00a0\u201cNational Day of Action and Healing,\u201d a virtual conversation conducted by Chu Friday with fellow legislators, activists and victims of anti-Asian attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to give people a tool to share with their co-workers, their bosses, their neighbors,\u201d Meng said. \u201cWe\u2019re hopeful it can be a spark for creating long-term partnerships. That\u2019s the immediate next step \u2013 to have this continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the long-term solutions Meng said she\u2019d like to see is for Americans to better understand each others\u2019 histories and contributions \u2013 with public education being one way to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cThink about what we learned in school about the contributions of Asian Americans to American history,\u201d she said. \u201cJust a paragraph. I think we can make the most of this moment to expand the curriculum we\u2019re teaching our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n People march during the "We Are Not Silent" rally against anti-Asian hate in response to recent anti-Asian crime in the Chinatown-International District of Seattle on March 13, 2021. (Photo: JASON REDMOND, AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n Stop AAPI Hate has likewise advocated for ethnic studies curricula\u00a0as a means to curtail bullying, as well as community-based violence protection programs to protect the elderly and the expansion of civil rights protections to end harassment in business.<\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to seeing this movement continue to grow,\u201d said Russell Jeung, the group\u2019s co-founder and professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.<\/p>\n Chu is also among those pushing two hate-related bills for Congressional approval, the No Hate Act and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, both meant to improve tracking of hate crimes.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are things that should have been improved a long time ago,\u201d Chu said, noting that the FBI relies on individual states to submit their hate-crime data, \u201cwhich means that many don\u2019t report anything. Eighteen states don\u2019t have a mandate, and three states don\u2019t even have a hate crime statute. We need to have change there on a national basis.\u201d<\/p>\n In Atlanta, where the slayings took place, the disconnect between the Asian American community and police became strikingly clear in the aftermath, said executive director Stephanie Cho of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. Law enforcement said the shootings were not race-driven.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople keep wondering, \u2018How come people don\u2019t trust the police?\u2019 or \u2018Why aren\u2019t these incidents being reported?\u2019 And it\u2019s because we aren\u2019t taken seriously,\u201d said Cho, who has been busy juggling funerals and meeting with victims\u2019 families. She also met with President Joe Biden, who she said pledged commitment to the community beyond the crisis during his visit to Atlanta last week.<\/strong><\/p>\n President Biden condemned "vicious" hate crimes against Asian Americans while addressing the nation about the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: USA TODAY)<\/span><\/p>\n Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta called on state and local leaders last week to boost crisis-intervention resources and multilingual support across mental health, legal and employment services, in addition to dealing with the root causes of race-based violence and hate.<\/p>\n Cho hopes the momentum can ultimately be used to persuade state leaders to mandate multilingual election ballots statewide; even as of November\u2019s election, which saw Asian voter participation nearly double over 2016, the group was able to lobby just one county to print ballots in Korean,\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n Raising levels of political involvement and representation is among the goals for national Asian American leaders, too.<\/p>\n \u201cIn light of all the things that have happened, the level of frustration is almost at a boiling point with regard to representation,\u201d said Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, which offers training for those thinking about running for municipal or state office. \u201cWithout representation in public office, we aren\u2019t at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of representation in Biden\u2019s administration has been even more galling, Mielke said, given Georgia\u2019s Asian American turnout in November, an increase that eclipsed Biden\u2019s margin of victory.<\/p>\n Kohli, of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said that while having Asian Americans in political leadership roles is important, those leaders will ultimately be judged on their actions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actual work that our leaders do is what will ultimately create trust in our community,\u201d said Kohli, who counts among her priorities going forward ensuring that the needs of low-income Asian Americans are met. \u201cMany Asian Americans are energized, and we need to leverage that energy into social change.\u201d<\/p>\n Such transformation is already underway, said Russell Leong, former editor of Amerasia Journal.<\/p>\n Younger generations of Asian Americans not affected or unaware of the\u00a0Chin case are taking to the streets \u2013 and in Oakland, San Francisco and New York, they\u2019re helping to provide\u00a0alternatives to heavier law enforcement by accompanying elderly community pedestrians as a safety measure.<\/p>\n Until recent events, Leong said, \u201ca lot of young people saw organizing as posting something on Instagram or Facebook. That was the extent of political organizing. But with the attacks on women and the elderly \u2013 that\u2019s a tangible event, and you have to walk the walk. That\u2019s made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, calls are growing for religious leaders to take a stand against the violence. This week, the Asian American Christian Collaborative issued a strongly worded statement condemning what it described as an \u201cevasion of responsibility\u201d on the part of U.S. churches and denominations that it accused of perpetuating social conditions that have led to \u201cunequal, unjust and ungodly treatment and murders of racial minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n The group\u2019s statement, signed by hundreds of faith leaders, calls on\u00a0church leaders to, among other things, increase representation of Asian Americans in church leadership\u00a0and to commit to educational efforts to eliminate nationalism, misogyny and xenophobia in their congregations.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Sunday, the coalition is organizing simultaneous prayer rallies nationwide in a show of solidarity against hate, including in\u00a0Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, New York, Baltimore and Atlanta.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like we needed to do something,\u201d said Michelle Ami Reyes, the group\u2019s vice president. \u201cThe response of the church as a whole to anti-Asian racism has been anemic.\u201d<\/p>\n At least 700 Oaklanders signed up to help escort older Asian Americans in the community to keep them safe after a slew of harassment around the Bay Area. (Photo: Courtesy of Compassion in Oakland)<\/span><\/p>\n While Black church leaders are climbing on board, she said that larger evangelical denominations, including\u00a0\u00a0the Southern Baptist Convention, or fundamentalists like Los Angeles pastor John MacArthur,\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>have been reluctant to embrace the fight against injustice or to suggest that the issue extends beyond their Asian American congregants.<\/p>\n “They\u00a0say\u00a0that if you as a Christian care about confronting\u00a0systemic injustice and oppression that\u00a0you\u2019re just buying into neo-Marxist ideology, and you\u2019re a danger to the church,” Reyes said.<\/p>\n But it’s not just largely white churches that have shied away from taking a stand, said coalition president Raymond Chang. Many Asian churches, he said, have also refrained from activism, a gesture he called\u00a0at odds with their origins, which saw them as centers of community and advocacy for emerging immigrant populations.<\/p>\n \u201cOur focus is to get Asian American Christians engaged in activism and to see that it is not contrary to the gospel or Christian faith by any means,” Chang said.\u00a0“That\u2019s something we\u2019ve lost and need to recover \u2013 to be engaged with the realities of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n Next month, he said, the coalition will hold a summit in Chicago with local Asian American and Black church leaders to discuss the common issues they face and how to combine forces.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Christian message is one that brings people who are divided together,\u201d Chang said. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole message of reconciliation. But in the U.S., because our churches were established on top of a segregated society shaped by white supremacy, they’ve never found ways to meaningfully interact with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n In calling for systemic change and organizing around public hate crimes and deaths, Asian American leaders said\u00a0they\u2019re taking cues from the Movement for Black Lives\u00a0coalition, as well as from Muslim and Asian activists\u00a0who dealt with Islamophobia after 9\/11 and previous generations of community leaders who sought justice for\u00a0Chin after his killing.<\/p>\n Understanding how other communities have achieved political power is always important, said Mielke, of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/03\/22\/USAT\/cb8da390-9dd5-4965-b815-346c2f705bc0-GTY_1308330171.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
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<\/p>\nStopping Asian hate\u00a0with data and education<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nAsians need more support services, activists say<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nUrging churches to stand up against white supremacy\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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