Washington: President Joe Biden signed a memo condemning xenophobia and hate-based violence against Asian Americans, which has dramatically spiked amid the Covid-19 pandemic. "Today, I'm directing federal agencies to combat the resurgence of xenophobia, particularly against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, that we've seen skyrocket during this pandemic. This is unacceptable and it's un-American," said Biden in his remarks at the White House before signing the memo.
“We face deep racial inequities in America and systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, too long,” said the president, amid a package of reforms aimed at promoting racial equity. "I've asked the Department of Justice to strengthen its partnership with the Asian American Pacific Islander community to prevent those hate crimes. I've also asked the Department of Health and Human Services to put out best practices for combating xenophobia in our national response to Covid,” he said.
The memo, states in part: “The Federal Government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the Covid-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin.” “Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons,” read the memo, noting that two million Asian Americans have served on the front lines of the pandemic.
Hate-based violence and discrimination against the AAPI community began a sharp rise as the Covid pandemic took hold in the US last February. The web portal Stop AAPI Hate - an online site to self-report incidents of hate crimes or discrimination in multiple Asian American languages - documented 2,583 incidents of AAPI bias nationwide between 19 March and 5 August. Verbal harassment and name calling made up 70 per cent of the incidents, while 9 per cent of cases reported were physical attacks.
Former president Donald Trump fanned the flames of anti-Asian American xenophobia referring to Covid as “the China virus,” “the China plague,” and “Kung flu,” among other terms. He has repeatedly blamed China for the spread of the virus in the US. Veteran Indian American community activist Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council - which launched the Stop AAPI Hate portal - described some of the reported incidents at an Ethnic Media Services briefing last October: Grandparents were walking their grandchild around a neighborhood as a group of young adults drove by, screaming racist epithets. A middle schooler was physically attacked by a bully who told him to “go back to China.” When he responded that he was not Chinese, he was punched in the head 20 times by the bully. No immediate action was taken by school administration.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice said in a statement: The Biden-Harris Administration took note of our campaign to identify anti-Asian hate as a priority issue and to examine how the federal government collects data and addresses the hate incidents, hate crimes, and harassment our community is experiencing. While it is important to recognize the rise in these incidents and collect data in a robust manner, we must also prioritize community-centered solutions to hate violence - including some restorative justice approaches.”
