With the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes throughout the country, the White House recently announced their new plans in order to address these unlawful crimes.
In light of what has been occurring over the past few weeks, there was a horrible shooting in Atlanta that involved eight individuals and their death — six who were of Asian descent. Recently, elderly Asians have been targeted and beat up, kicked around, and even slashed against their skin just for their ethnicity. Police have not confirmed whether these crimes are truly against their race, but the community says otherwise.
Asian American lawmakers and activists are pushing forward to progress in this country, battling against the physical hatred being enacted against the Asian American community. They have gathered at a congressional hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee.
Voices such as Judy Chu and Grace Meng mention that Donald Trump’s narrative had already fueled these racist acts to be incited — CBS reports that they are against people of Asian descent.
Claims of former president Donald Trump had a “bulls eyes on the back of Asian Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids,” states Grace Meng, Congresswoman of New York. A bill had been reintroduced in February to address the Asian-American hate.
Adding on, Senator Tammy Duckworth says that “Blaming the AAPI community for a public health crisis [COVID19] is racist and wrong.”
Joe Biden tells the press that “Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake.
They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated, and harassed. They’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed…” and more is said in his acknowledgment of the rising crimes.
Based on a fact sheet that was released by the White House, the Biden administration is trying their best to fight against the violence, trying to “advance safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island communities.”
This plan will include a $49.5 million bill from the American Rescue Plan at the Department of Health and Human Services to fund programs helping AAPI survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, establish an angency-wide initiative to address anti-Asian violence, partnering with organizations to increase awareness, more than 100 grants that cost over $33 million dollars to research that will address the racism, contributions and resources to learn about the history of discrimination, and more.