BUFFALO (WBEN) - Although last week's shooting rampage in Atlanta that killed eight people, including six Asian women, has not been classified as a hate crime to this point, the discussion surrounding anti-Asian hate crimes has certainly picked up.
Many are pointing to the pandemic, combined with harmful anti-Asian rhetoric, as the reason for the sharp uptick.
"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 New York Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng to GOP Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, regarding former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders.
"California State University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism reported that anti-Asian hate crimes surged by 149% in 2020," said Dr. Tiffany Karalis Noel is a clinical assistant professor and director of doctoral studies in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo.
According to Karalis Noel, another report indicated nearly 3,800 anti-Asian incidents were recorded between March 19th of 2020 through February 28th of this year.
"The surge in these numbers and understanding that, at least the connections that I've made in my research and looking across the histrical representation of these xenophobic repercussions, it really is coming from xenophobia - that fear of the unknown," she said.
"By tying the names of people, countries, and specific regions and locations to something like a flu or a virus, or something that people are afraid of, then yes, that bullseye and that target is going to perpetuate that fear," said Karalis Noel. "That fear is going to be exacerbated, and it's going to lead to a lot of these surges that are represented by the data."
President Biden is now pushing Congress to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act in the wake of the Atlanta shootings, which he says would expedite the federal government's response to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic.
"I urge Congress to swiftly 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," said Biden. In addition, he said it would support governments at the state and local level "to improve hate crimes reporting, and ensure that hate crimes information is more accessible to Asian American communities."
