Asian Americans ‘screaming out for help’ as abuse surges: congressional hearing
Pix for representational purpose only. -GettyImages/AFP
WASHINGTON: U.S. lawmakers, professors and actor Daniel Dae Kim said the Asian-American community was reeling from a year of heightened anti-Asian attacks in a congressional hearing held just days after the killing of six Asian women in Georgia.
Thursday’s hearing, which was scheduled before the attack, aimed to examine a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans, which rose by 149% in 2020 in 16 major cities compared with 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
“Our community is bleeding, we are in pain and for the last year we’ve been screaming out for help,” Democratic Representative Grace Meng told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Experts have linked the surge to the Covid-19 pandemic, which originated in China, after some Americans, including Republican former President Donald Trump, started calling the coronavirus the “China virus,” “the China plague” and even “kung flu.”
A 21-year-old white man has been charged with killing eight people, six of them Asian women, at three spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday. Police are investigating motives and have not ruled out the possibility that the attacks were provoked, at least in part, by anti-immigrant or anti-Asian sentiments.
The spike in anti-Asian American incidents in the past year included people being slashed with a box cutter, lit on fire and verbal harassment, said Steve Cohen, the subcommittee’s Democratic chair.
“All the pandemic did was exacerbate latent anti-Asian prejudices that have a long, long and ugly history in America,” said Cohen.
Kim, best known for starring in the television series “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-0,” called on lawmakers to pass legislation to fund groups that provide counseling to victims of hate crimes and improve data collection for hate crime reporting.
“What happens right now and over the course of the coming months will send a message for generations to come as to whether we matter, as to whether the country we call home chooses to erase us or include us,” said Kim.
In the closely divided House, the hearing quickly lapsed into partisan politics.
In a sprawling opening speech, Republican lawmaker Chip Roy said the subject matter was important, but then moved on to attacking China’s treatment of its Uighur community and handling of the coronavirus.
He added he hoped the hearing would address how affirmative action policies by U.S. universities hurt Asian Americans.
Repeatedly, Democratic lawmakers referred to Roy’s comments in their own statements.
“Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s eye on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids,” said Meng.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. President Joe Biden, who will be meeting with Asian-American leaders on Friday in Atlanta, was determined to be “part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
Thursday’s hearing, which was scheduled before the attack, aimed to examine a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans, which rose by 149% in 2020 in 16 major cities compared with 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
“Our community is bleeding, we are in pain and for the last year we’ve been screaming out for help,” Democratic Representative Grace Meng told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Experts have linked the surge to the Covid-19 pandemic, which originated in China, after some Americans, including Republican former President Donald Trump, started calling the coronavirus the “China virus,” “the China plague” and even “kung flu.”
A 21-year-old white man has been charged with killing eight people, six of them Asian women, at three spas in the Atlanta area on Tuesday. Police are investigating motives and have not ruled out the possibility that the attacks were provoked, at least in part, by anti-immigrant or anti-Asian sentiments.
The spike in anti-Asian American incidents in the past year included people being slashed with a box cutter, lit on fire and verbal harassment, said Steve Cohen, the subcommittee’s Democratic chair.
“All the pandemic did was exacerbate latent anti-Asian prejudices that have a long, long and ugly history in America,” said Cohen.
Kim, best known for starring in the television series “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-0,” called on lawmakers to pass legislation to fund groups that provide counseling to victims of hate crimes and improve data collection for hate crime reporting.
“What happens right now and over the course of the coming months will send a message for generations to come as to whether we matter, as to whether the country we call home chooses to erase us or include us,” said Kim.
In the closely divided House, the hearing quickly lapsed into partisan politics.
In a sprawling opening speech, Republican lawmaker Chip Roy said the subject matter was important, but then moved on to attacking China’s treatment of its Uighur community and handling of the coronavirus.
He added he hoped the hearing would address how affirmative action policies by U.S. universities hurt Asian Americans.
Repeatedly, Democratic lawmakers referred to Roy’s comments in their own statements.
“Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to do it by putting a bull’s eye on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids,” said Meng.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. President Joe Biden, who will be meeting with Asian-American leaders on Friday in Atlanta, was determined to be “part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
-Reuters
Wonder whether those Hongkies who "escaped" to the USA have been walloped kaukau by Trump's White right wingers?
Asians, especially ethnic Chinese have succeeded tremendously in the USA, especially in the fields of Science, Engineering, Mathematics Finance and Medicine.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding incidents of violence.
The fortunate Hong Kongers who managed to secure US residence would have found a land wide open to opportunities, very little systemic discrimination, and a largely safe country.
hongkies no problem, they love ameruca, the 6% ccplandick migrant not sure, they live in america but love ccp.
ReplyDeleteKatak cloaking to their chorus while watching that corona high above that fart filled well of their hive!
DeleteDon't just fart!
Follow yr own advice - go there & experience but dreamed utopia lah.
Where were the Asian Chinese voice when the Muslims in America and Europe were harassed and subjected to terrorism by the White supremacists? They were similarly silent when the Blacks were abused.
ReplyDeleteWhen the whiteface bully ogre beat up and abused their 'children' in turns...first the blacks who were enslaved working without pay for hundreds of years, and then the Chinese who were mocked, spitted on and killed with impunity in the Exclusion Act ( remember "Dogs and Chinese are not allowed" signages plastered all over ? )....did the other minorities come out in droves to voice support ? Dumbass XUMMO...pandai la tu....when have the abused have to the strength to voice out anything but was only hopping their turns to be 'walloped' don't come too often in this land of AmeriKKKa - a shining city, konon nya, upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom loving people everywhere? wa ka ka ka, nothing beats these whiteface hypocrisy.
DeleteDumbAss XUMNNO...have you seen the flood of videos showing the blacks and the hispanics in the great US of AmeriKKKa accosting without a shred of mercy the Asian Americans recently ? For once, these brute minorities are 'aligned' with the whiteface thugs and bullies. These minorities are not silent at all, hehe
DeleteEh....I thot Roiters is not trustworthy newswire on this blog because Jewish or something...?
ReplyDeleteSo if Roiters can CNN can oso lah...nah...here is evidence of mis-treatment of Uigurs....so zalim this Bullyland, now 500yo Bully-Biden must slap 5,000yo Bully-Xi and teach him a lesson.....
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/18/china/xinjiang-uyghur-families-china-amnesty-report-exclusive-dst-intl-hnk/index.html
Only whitecock suckers will even bother to read a single word of CNN-Liar News, hehe. The Tipu one, The Batty one, The M-Bigot one will fall for these lies, because these lies fit nicely into their brainwashed minds, wa ka ka ka. Such harder, OK ? hehe
DeleteSuck harder...
DeleteSome people so eager to fight the Palestinian cause for a homeland but not the Uighurs, or the Kurds. Very pelik.
ReplyDeleteThe pelik ones are the likes of you Bananas OCBC. Black is white to you pelik ones, hehe
DeleteAustralia's "Stolen Generation" all over again, when Aboriginal children were taken away from their families and put in white-run orphanages or placed with white families, to eradicate their culture and language. Now Han Bullyland doing the same with Uighurs.....
ReplyDeleteQUOTE
China sending children of exiled Uighur parents to orphanages, says Amnesty
China has forcibly separated Uighur families by taking young children into state orphanages, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
In a new report, Amnesty has called on China to release all Uighur children being held in orphanages without the consent of their families.
The charity spoke to parents who left children with relatives in China when they were forced to flee the country.
Rights groups say China has detained more than a million Uighurs.
The Chinese government has also faced allegations of a wide range of human rights abuses against the Uighur people and other Muslim minorities, including forced labour, forced sterilisation, sexual abuse and rape.
The government denies it is holding Uighurs in detention camps in the Xinjiang region in north-western China. It says the camps are "re-education" facilities being used to combat terrorism.
Because access to Xinjiang is heavily restricted by the Chinese, Amnesty spoke to Uighurs who were able to flee Xinjiang before the repression of the Uighur people intensified in 2017.
Mihriban Kader and Ablikim Memtinin fled from Xinjiang to Italy in 2016 after being harassed by police and pressured to give up their passports, Amnesty said. They left four children in the temporary care of grandparents, but the grandmother was taken to a detention camp while the grandfather was interrogated by police, the charity said.
"Our other relatives didn't dare to look after my children after what had happened to my parents," Mihriban told Amnesty. "They were afraid that they would be sent to camps, too."
In November 2019, Mihriban and Ablikim received a permit from the Italian government to bring their children to join them, but the children were seized by Chinese police on the way and sent to a state-run orphanage, Amnesty said.
"Now my children are in the hands of the Chinese government and I am not sure I will be able to meet them again in my lifetime," Mihriban said.
UNQUOTE
Reading up on fairy tales again ? wa ka ka ka
DeleteAfter the PR of the 2008 Beijing Olympics there was a concerted effort to eradicate Tibetian culture and language, and this will be repeated in Xinjiang....BULLY....TIPU....RAMPAS....
ReplyDelete1.4 billion Han Chinese vs 6.5 million Tibetians.....no contest...
QUOTE
Tibet could be 'swamped' by mass Chinese settlement after Olympics, says Dalai Lama
· Buddhist leader fears attempt to dilute identity
Dalai Lama interviewed in London.
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
The Guardian
Sat 24 May 2008
The Dalai Lama claimed yesterday that Beijing was planning the mass settlement of 1 million ethnic Chinese people in Tibet after the Olympics with the aim of diluting Tibetan culture and identity.
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader also claimed that some of Asia's most important rivers which flow from the Tibetan plateau are being polluted and diminished by careless industrialisation and unplanned irrigation...
...The Dalai Lama said he feared the Chinese authorities could take a tougher line on Tibet after the Olympics, and possibly flood it with Han Chinese, the world's largest ethnic group.
The Dalai Lama said he had been informed by Tibetan residents that large areas of empty land had been marked out, as if for construction, in the past two years. "Then last year we received information - after the Olympics 1 million Chinese are going to settle in the autonomous region of Tibet," he said, adding the information came from a "military source" in Tibet.
"There is every danger Tibet becomes a truly Han Chinese land and Tibetans become an insignificant minority. Then the very basis of the idea of autonomy becomes meaningless."
There has been an increasing influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet in recent years as transport has improved, but the exact figures are a matter of dispute. According to an official census in 2000, there were 2.4 million Tibetans in the region and 159,000 Han Chinese. The government in exile says there are many more Chinese if migrant workers and soldiers are counted. The Dalai Lama has said there is a Han majority in Lhasa, the regional capital.
China has denied carrying out any deliberate settlement policy aimed at the dilution of Tibetan culture and points instead to the benefits brought to the region by economic development and investment.
UNQUOTE
Actor Daniel Dae Kim knocked Republican lawmakers at a House hearing recently for voting AGAINST a resolution that condemned anti-Asian racism.
ReplyDelete" I was disheartened to find that for a bill that required no money or resources.....but 164 members of Congress, all Republicans, voted against it " Kim said.
This is the fucking great democracy of AmeriKKKa, preaching human rights and freedom round the world while in their own country, millions of the disenfranchised minorities couldn't get their voice heard.
In this fucking US of AmeriKKKa, they play word games in order to deny all allegations. Therefore they can say without batting an eyelid : in the US there is no racism, by calling it, racial inequality. There are no concentration camps, by calling it, native American reservation camps. Martin Luther King is a civil rights activist, not a human rights activist. So in the US there is no racism, concentration camps and human rights activists.
CCP Fanboy who had obviously never stepped foot in the USA just parroting CCP bullshit.
DeleteI have been in a Native American Nation. The "concentration camp" ran a very profitable casino in a State that banned gambling. Due to their legal status as an autonomous Nation, they had the right to issue their own Casino license.
The profits from the casino funded the Tribe's excellent health care and education system.
Yes, the Black's and the Natives in the USA have far superior rights to Tibetans and Uyghurs under the CCP.
Wakakakakaka…. No need to tell u about my travelling tales in USofA lah. No comparison mah.
DeleteSo u only have been to Yankee native nations that built for showcasing!
Let me put u to the latest current scene about these showpiece casinos. What happen NOW with the covid pandemic restrictions piling horror stories on all gaming related industries?
Look closer to home at Genting highland now.
Besides, u see the spurious profit churning sides, where majority of the profit is been syphoned off by the gaming operators, who r those usual American whites in the names of wynn & adelson.
Those gaming nations elites r just living like those melayu atasan of bolihland - free manna from heaven.
BTW, what happened to the social ills hiding behind these spurious 'excellent health care and education systemz u farted about?
Why r the education rate of the native Americans still way way below standard American average? Ditto with their life expectancy too?
Ooop… u forget about those native American tribes who have no autonomy nation status bcoz they r still fighting with the fed/state for their native land rights.
R they living the lives as u have described?
Can compare with the current far superior rights/living conditions of the Tibetans and Uyghurs under the CCP?
But but u have never been travelled to Tibet or Xinjiang! What u have known r just western blackened white lies fabricated by those demoNcratic cesspool press!
U have NEVER been 'through' to any true nation American nations. U r just a loopie searching for a syiok-sendiri ego trip!
Arrogant old cocksucker MonstrousBigot will run away with tail tucked in as usual, unable to make any reasonable rebuttal. Oh btw, I have more than stepped foot in the US of AmeriKKKa, I have stayed there on and off for months, so even on this small petty issue, you are off mark too, hehe. Just stick to local politics like your TipuOCBC troll....less embarrassing this way, LOL
Deletechinese dream is everywhere, usa, europe, japan, india, now myanmar, australia n later indonesia, malaysia. the hatred will become a norm. our hope is liaoning carrier can sail that far to fetch us balik china.
ReplyDeleteWhat a f*cked wish from a nonchinese, dreaming about its escape route via its pet hatred's help!
DeleteBe very care, yr only hope is to genuflect & grovel before yr ketuanan pals under their don't-spook-the-melayu-sensitivities fart!
Fetch u back?
To where?
That fart filled well of nowhere!
to tiongkok, so that i can restart sun struggle, revolution is not successful, comrade still hv to work hard.
Deletewhat abt u? die die must stay? rather let the white sodomise than go back?
To tingkok?
ReplyDeleteAin't that the name that yr dangdut pals keep calling to that f*cked Formosa!
Yaloh, then u can co-opt yr 蔡妹妹 & her equally dickheaded 台毒 morons to restart sun (yat sen) struggle. Otherwise, very soon that name would be lost from the pages of the formosa-ised his-story!
I'm the citizen of the world. I go where the sopo circumstances suit my chosen path. Thus, China, Colombia, m'sia etc etc. Soon I will be back to Lanzhou to pick up what I gave left off many moons ago. There r more opportunities there than before I left!
Colombia is a lost cause. Financing is hard to come by with the marauding covid pandemic. People r bending to the hard lives to worry about future, especially with that invisible US iron grip on all sectors of activities within.
Wakakakakaka…
Ain't sodomising the best pastime activities of yr dangdut pals? U have had no enough of them that now u want to let the white thrashes to work on u? t
Talk about diex2 want to stay. Ain't that what u r doing with
1) no other place to go
2) game on yr habitual 后庭花
Enjoy it while it lasts, 犬养mfer. Otherwise what Formosa revolution r u farting about?