This sets the stage for President Biden to sign the bill in the month of May, a month set aside as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. This year’s celebrations come in the midst of an upward trend in incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes nationwide.
Experts and victims believe the spike in anti-Asian crime and abuse is the result of politicians falsely blaming China for the global health crisis. Since then, people across the country have been verbally and physically attacked, and even killed when an armed white man went on a rampage in Georgia in March. He killed six Asian women.
But incidents of AAPI hate are part of a long history of racism, scholars note. Dr. Terumi Rafferty-Osaki is a History Professor and Director of the Office of Competitive Fellowship at Florida Gulf Coast University. He said in order to understand the AAPI community and what they’re dealing with, we must understand the cultural differences first.
“At first, there were 3,800 hate crimes reported against the AAPI community,” Dr. Terumi said. “But 70%” of the incidents involved verbal attacks, so members of the community, including myself, brushed it off as historical racism.”
Dr. Terumi said dismissing verbal attacks is similar to dismissing microaggressions like the ubiquitous “where are you really from?”
According to a March 2021 survey by AAPI Data (a publisher of demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) about one in four Asian Americans (27%) and Pacific Islanders (24%) indicate prior experiences with hate incidents, compared to the national average of 22 percent.
Even microaggressions, like having someone ask the seemingly innocuous question, “where are you from?" and assuming it’s not from the U.S. happens more often to AAPI folks than others: 64% of Asian Americans and 51% of Pacific Islanders report being badgered about their heritage, while the national average is only 20 percent.
“The real issue is when slippery slopes from hate speech turn into physical assaults, which are up by 9%,” Dr. Terumi said. “Beyond the 3,800 incidents initially reported the intersection of racism and sexism is alarming as well, as women are 2.3% more likely to be assaulted than men culminating in the Atlanta shootings.”
Stop AAPI Hate is a coalition that tracks cases of harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. In the past year, they’ve reported nearly 3,800 incidents of discrimination. That number could be much higher, as many may be going unreported.
“There’s a Japanese cultural value term called “Gaman,” or 'strive through,' which embodies some of the Japanese American community members,” Dr. Terumi said. “In other words, inner strength is found in silence and still succeeding."
This new legislation calls for the Department of Justice to designate a point person to speed the review of hate crimes related to COVID-19.
The bill, passed by both houses of congress, would also expand efforts to make reporting hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels, including providing online reporting resources in multiple languages.
