A vigil in Washington, DC for eight victims in Atlanta spa shootings (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have called for a firm stand over violence against Asian Americans, “We cannot be complicit.”
Biden and Harris visited Atlanta, Georgia on Friday to express grief over the eight people — six of them Asian American women — killed by a gunman on Tuesday.
After a meeting with leaders of Atlanta’s Asian-American community, Biden said, “They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed” during the Coronavirus pandemic. “It’s been a year of living in fear for their lives.”
He continued, “Because our silence is complicity. We cannot be complicit. We have to speak out. We have to act.”
The President called on Congress to pass the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would “expedite the federal government’s response to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic”.
The Act, sponsored by Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Rep. Grace Meng of New York, both Democrats, enables people to report hate crimes linked to the pandemic. It sets up online threat-reporting systems, and directs Administration officials to review existing federal, state and local hate crime laws
“Racism is Real in America”
Harris, the first Asian American Vice President, said, “Racism is real in America, and it has always been. Xenophobia is real in America, and always has been. Sexism, too.”
The Vice President’s mother Shyamala Gopalan, a prominent breast cancer researcher, was born in southern India and emigrated to the US to study at the University of California Berkeley.
Harris noted 3,800 reports in the past 12 months of violence against Asian Americans, 2/3rds of them committed against women. She pointed to a history of discrimination and the effect of the language of Donald Trump and his inner circle, “For the last year, we’ve had people in positions of incredible power scapegoating Asian-Americans. People with the biggest pulpits spreading this kind of hate.”
This is about how we treat people with dignity and respect. Everyone has the right to go to work, to go to school, to walk down the street and be safe, and also the right to be recognized as an American — not as “the other”, not as “them”, but as us.
Just after his inauguration on January 20, Biden signed an executive order directing Government efforts against “anti-Asian bias, xenophobia and harassment”.
On Friday, the President concluded by addressing the relatives of the slain:
I know they feel like there’s a black hole in their chest they’re being sucked into, and things will never get better. But our prayers are with you. And I assure you, the one you lost will always be with you, always be with you.
