New Jersey soon followed, and at least nine other states are considering the same. In January, Illinois became the first state to require that Asian American history be taught in public schools. Long-term, many agree that the answer lies in education. Among other actions, the initiative will improve data collection methods that have left Asian people underrepresented in government statistics, and by extension, the resulting programs and policies. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty ImagesĪfter the Atlanta-area shooting deaths of eight people, six of them Asian women, by a white gunman in March 2021, President Joe Biden announced a set of actions to respond to anti-Asian violence and xenophobia, and in May, further established the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, “to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for AA and NHPI communities”. People rally calling for action and awareness on rising incidents of hate crime against Asian Americans in Times Square in New York City on 16 March.
From the local through federal level, community advocates and other leaders have been organizing, debating, and building support, aimed at combating the ongoing epidemic of anti-Asian hate. Meanwhile, academic research on implicit and unconscious bias, improvements in data collection, and social movements like Black Lives Matter have contributed to greater understanding about racism and bias, and the ways that can translate into hate speech and violence. Today Asian Americans, the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the US, are finally in a position to do more than stock up on pepper spray and hope for the best. They were merely fined $3,000 each for the killing. In the 1980s, Zia helped bring about the first federal civil rights case involving an Asian American: Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man was beaten to death by two white auto-workers who took him for Japanese and blamed Japan for the car industry’s struggles. “All of those are conditions that have led at other times to terrible anti-Asian violence,” says author and activist Helen Zia.īut what’s different this time, says Zia, is that more people recognize the problem.
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