In the wake of anti-Asian hate crimes on the rise across the country and the tragic mass shootings in Georgia that claimed the lives of eight people, including six Asian women, Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng and her colleagues are raising awareness of the upcoming #StopAsianHate Virtual Day of Action and Healing on Friday, March 26.
The lawmakers held a virtual press conference on Monday, March 22, encouraging members of the public, corporations, organizations and other entities to post statements on Friday condemning the rise in hate and violence against Asian Americans that has occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also asking that the public hold a moment of silence in remembrance of the Atlanta victims and their families.
The #StopAsianHate Virtual Action Day is being held on a significant day, as the U.S. enacted its first immigration law on March 26, 1790. The Naturalization Act specified that “any alien, being a free white person,” could apply for citizenship, but it excluded Black people, Asians and Native Americans.
Meng, who serves as the first vice chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the racist attacks against Asian Americans have been “despicable, sickening, unconscionable and disgusting,” resulting in heightened fear in Asian communities, where people are frightened and traumatized by the scapegoating and bigotry that began since the beginning of the pandemic.
“We are asking everyone throughout the country to stand up for Asian Americans during this difficult and challenging time for our community. Everyone must do their part to end these acts of hate — call it out, prevent it, report it. We need every person to step up and stand against it,” Meng said. “Our diversity has always made us stronger. We cannot and must lose sight of this. These senseless attacks must stop and we are better than this.”
Stop AAPI Hate reported that it has received almost 3,800 reports of hate incidents from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021. The Center for the Study of Hate Extremism shows that anti-Asian hate crimes surged by 149 percent in major cities across the U.S., while overall hate crimes dropped by 7 percent. New York City alone saw an increase of reported attacks on the Asian American community, which went from 3 in 2019 to 28 in 2020, an increase of 833 percent.
In Queens, there have been anti-Asian hate crimes that have unfolded, including a recent incident involving a 13-year-old Asian American boy who was attacked by a group of teens on a Flushing basketball court in Bowne Playground on March 16.
The 13-year-old victim was shoved to the ground and three boys took turns throwing a basketball at the young man’s head. One of the attackers said, “Stupid f——g Chinese. Go back to your country,” according to authorities. No arrests have been made and the attack is under investigation by the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
Prior to that attack, an Asian American mother was walking near a Fresh Meadows park with her 2-year-old baby on March 9, when an unidentified man spit in her direction and called her the “Chinese virus.” In a separate incident, an elderly Asian American woman waiting in line outside of a Flushing bakery last month was assaulted by a man, who shoved her to the ground and allegedly yelled a racial slur.
The surge in violent attacks against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) has led to various groups in Queens rallying in support of the community, according to Meng, who gave a passionate and emotional testimony during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on violence against Asian Americans on March 18.
“Over the past few months, so many different communities have rallied in support of the Asian American community — Black, Hispanic, Native Americans — have stood with Asian Americans throughout the past year, and especially in the last few days. Their allyship has been critical in our fight and it has meant a lot to me and our entire Asian community,” said Meng, also recognizing leaders and elected officials on all levels of government showing solidarity to combat discrimination against the community.
The congresswoman has reintroduced the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act as AAPIs experience a wave of physical, verbal and online attacks in Queens and beyond. The legislation seeks to address the ongoing hate and violence toward AAPIs by providing greater assistance with law enforcement response to COVID-19 hate crimes and creating a position at the Department of Justice to facilitate review of such cases.
According to Meng, it’s not just a simple solution of law enforcement presence at the local level, but it’s also providing resources to prevent these incidents from happening in communities.
“Our groups on the ground have been providing resources and help in multilingual ways that our government hasn’t done a good enough job of doing,” Meng said. “They need more resources because they’re literally dealing with everyday Asian Americans on the ground providing them support, whether it’s mental health, rent, and a whole slew of social services networks that are not robust enough in terms of support they get from the government.”
Furthermore, in the long term, Meng says, more education is needed due to misconceptions and stereotypes about the Asian American community.
“We need to do a better job of making sure our communities know and understand these stories and our history that has been largely absent from our textbooks, but we also need to hold our leaders accountable — whether it’s in the world of our media friends, or academic institutions to our corporations — making sure they are doing everything that they can to ensure that the highest levels of positions in their company are represented in a more diverse way,” Meng said.
