In his first public address after assuming office in January, US President Joe Biden on Friday, 12 March, condemned the violence Asian Americans have had to endure since the start of the pandemic, stating that “it is wrong, it is un-American and it must stop”.
“At this very moment, they – so many of them our fellow Americans – are on the frontline trying to save lives and still they’re forced to live in fear for their lives while walking down the streets of America,” President Biden said in his address.
Biden issued a memorandum late in January, condemning “inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric” that has put Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) at risk, including references to geographic locations of the virus origins that have stoked “unfounded fears”.
‘Appalled’: Satya Nadella on Hate Against Asian Americans
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that he was “appalled” at the rising acts of hate against Asian Americans, adding that “racism, hate and violence have no place in our society”.
In a statement released on Saturday, 13 March, Microsoft said that it condemns hate, racial discrimination, and violence in all forms, adding that it is “united with the Asian community globally and is committed to taking action to help confront racing injustice”.
Prominent US lawmakers, like Congressman Donald Payne, have also condemned the growing attacks against the AAPI community.
In a public statement released on Friday, California Senator Dianne Feinstein also condemned the hate crimes against the AAPI community. She said the connection between the pandemic and the abuse against the community is a “conspiracy theory with no basis” and is “pure racism”.
Rising Hate Against Asian Americans
A recent research conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at the California State University, San Bernardino, revealed that there was a nearly 150 percent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes across major cities in the US in 2020, while overall hate crimes fell by 7 percent.
According to the research, New York City saw the highest jump, rising from 3 to 28, followed by Boston (from 6 to 14) and Los Angeles (from 7 to 15).
The first spike occurred in March-April 2020 amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and negative stereotyping of Asians relating them to the pandemic.
More than 2,800 of these hate incidents targeting Asian-Americans had been reported in 47 states and the District of Columbia since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a non-profit group formed in 2020.
(With inputs form IANS)
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