NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The Reverend Al Sharpton on Thursday called on ministers to address the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans in Sunday sermons.
“We cannot let what became accepted in the Trump administration become accepted in the Black community,” Sharpton said. “There is no such thing as the ‘Chinese flu.’”
Former President Donald Trump often blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic and frequently referred to the virus as the “Chinese Flu.”
Sharpton invited mayoral candidates to the stage at the National Action Network, and candidate Shaun Donovan blamed the rise in hate crimes on the media for “normalizing” Trump’s rhetoric.
“Yesterday I was invited to speak to the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and I used that opportunity to call them out for normalizing a president who called COVID-19, the ‘China Virus’ [and] ‘Kung-Flu,’” he said.
Candidate Andrew Yang also spoke, saying Asian prejudice has metastasized, especially after the Georgia massage parlor shooting.
“It is a dehumanization,” he said. “I believe this young man did not see his victims as humans.”
Yang spoke in Times Square on Wednesday to condemn the killings and called for more action to be taken to address the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.
“The people in the Asian American community know that we are being targeted and we need our leaders to step up and recognize the same,” he said.
On Thursday, fellow mayoral candidate Maya Wiley agreed more should be done to address anti-Asian crime and slammed the Atlanta police captain who said the massage parlor shooter was “having a really bad day.”
“Really? Because some people had no day at all, because they were dead,” she said. “And we know, in the Black community, what that feels like.”
The candidates agreed New York City needs to do more to break down communication barriers and build stronger ties with its Asian communities.
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