Today’s announcement builds on President Joe Biden’s executive order aimed at combatting racism, xenophobia, and violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community that he signed on January 26, 2021.
As part of this latest initiative, four objectives have been announced and include:
2. Creating a Department of Justice cross-agency initiative devoted to addressing anti-Asian violence
2. Establishing a COVID-19 Equity Task Force committee to address and end xenophobia against Asian Americans
3. Allocating $49.5 million from the American Rescue Plan for AAPI survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault
4. Restarting the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which will initially focus on anti-Asian violence and bias
“Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake,” Biden said at a speech at Emory University on March 19 in the wake of a deadly series of shootings that killed eight, including six Asian women.
“They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated, and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed. The latest assault on an Asian-American took place near New York City’s Times Square on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
A surveillance video shows a lone assailant kicking the 65-year-old woman in the stomach, knocking her to the ground, and stomping on her face, all as police say he shouted anti-Asian slurs at her. After the attack, the man casually walked away. According to video footage of the New York City assault, the two people who appeared to be security guards walked into the frame and one of them closed the building door as the woman was on the ground.
The rise in anti-Asian violence comes after former President Donald Trump’s verbal assaults on the Chinese – blaming them for the “China virus.” Many Asian American organizations say Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened people to express anti-Asian or anti-immigrant views.
Nearly 3,800 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Asian American Pacific Islanders, and its partner groups, since March 2020, according to NY1.com.
Additionally, in a recently released study, the use of anti-Asian hashtags skyrocketed on Twitter last year in the days after then-President Donald Trump used the term “Chinese virus” for the first time in a tweet.
