[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1922-S1923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, on March 29, Vilma Kari was walking to
church near Times Square in Manhattan when a man pushed her to the
ground and violently assaulted her in broad daylight.
A silent video of the incident captured by a security camera inside a
luxury apartment building showed the attack in vivid detail. In it, we
can clearly see the assailant pushing Ms. Kari to the ground and
kicking her repeatedly in the head and torso before leaving the scene.
This video, which has gone viral, is disturbing enough to watch, but it
doesn't capture the full picture of what happened. Witnesses to the
attack recounted the assailant's repeatedly yelling ``You don't belong
here'' to Ms. Kari--an immigrant from the Philippines who has lived in
our country for decades.
Now recovering from multiple injuries, including a broken pelvis,
Vilma Kari has become one of the latest victims in a surging wave of
hate crimes targeting the Asian-American, Pacific Islander community
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last year, we have seen businesses defaced with anti-Asian
graffiti, elders verbally accosted on the street, women assaulted, and
eight people murdered in cold blood at Asian-owned businesses in
Georgia during unprovoked attacks. All told, people of Asian descent
have reported more than 3,800 hate incidents across all 50 States and
the District of Columbia.
These attacks are disturbing and horrifying, but they are, in many
ways, a predictable and foreseeable outgrowth of the use of racist and
inflammatory language, like ``Chinese virus,'' ``Wuhan virus,'' and
``Kung flu,'' to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, as some
political leaders, including the former President, started using this
language, the FBI warned of a potential surge in hate crime incidents
targeting people of Asian descent.
At the same time, public health experts warned of the danger of
singling out the Asian-American community as being responsible for the
virus. These warnings proved prophetic. A study recently published by
the American Journal of Public Health found there was a dramatic
increase in tweets using anti-Asian phrases after the first time the
former President tweeted using the hashtag ``China virus'' on March 16,
2020.
This rise in hate crimes targeting AAPIs over the past year has shown
the extent to which this inflammatory rhetoric has normalized racist
attitudes toward and the stigmatization of Asian Americans with
devastating consequences. The Center for the Study of Hate and
Extremism, for example, assessed that, in 16 of the Nation's largest
cities, hate crimes targeting AAPIs spiked nearly 150 percent during
the pandemic.
The current dramatic rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans
might be a recent development, but we all know that racism is never far
below the surface in our country, sadly. Asian Americans have always
been targeted as the ``other'' in our country--considered the perpetual
``foreigner.'' It is what drove the passage of the Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882 and is what led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese
Americans during World War II. It is also what drove two Detroit
autoworkers, during the height of hysteria about Japan's growing
economic strength, to murder a Chinese-American man named Vincent Chin
in 1982 because they thought he was Japanese. Outrageously, neither of
Vincent's killers received prison time. Nearly 40 years later, we can
see clear parallels between the racism that motivated Vincent Chin's
murder and the ongoing surge in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. We
can also see the parallels in the wave of activism both unleashed.
Today, the AAPI community is uniting, once again, to confront this
epidemic of racism, discrimination, and hate. We are marching, speaking
out, and demanding action in cities and States across the country. As
part of our activism, we are working to dispel the model minority myth
that all Asians are successful and integrated in society. This racist
and discriminatory stereotype devalues the struggles and experiences of
an extraordinarily diverse community. The AAPI community is comprised
of people from more than 48 distinct ethnic groups who speak over 300
languages. Some of these groups have been in this country for over 100
years. Others have grown in size through waves of immigration in recent
decades.
Like other communities of color, elements of the AAPI community have
traditionally suffered from a variety of health, economic, and other
disparities for years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made them
worse. AAPIs are contracting and dying from COVID-19 at much higher
rates than White Americans and at comparable rates with Black and
Hispanic Americans.
Our community has suffered too much over the past year from the two
epidemics of racism and COVID, and confronting both will continue to
present challenges, but it has been a relief to have a President
capable of demonstrating care and empathy and who shares our sense of
urgency in confronting this wave of hate.
In his first week as President, Joe Biden issued an executive
memorandum that condemned racism, xenophobia, and intolerance targeting
the AAPI community and directed the Federal Government to actively
combat it. In recent weeks, following the brutal murder of eight
people, including six Asian women in Georgia, President Biden took
additional action. He announced new investments for research into anti-
Asian xenophobia through the National Science Foundation, directed $50
million in support for victims of hate crimes, and established a COVID-
19 equity task force to combat anti-Asian hate.
Members of President Biden's administration have followed his lead.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, for example, pledged to prioritize
hate crimes enforcement during his confirmation hearing and has taken
additional steps to help local law enforcement agencies investigate
bias crimes.
Under President Biden's leadership, the executive branch is doing its
part. Now it is time for us--it is time for Congress to act.
I am encouraged that in just a few minutes, the Senate will vote to
proceed to the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act on a strong bipartisan vote.
This is not a controversial bill. It would focus Federal leadership to
investigate and report hateful acts of violence and provide resources
for our communities to come together to take a stand against
intolerance and hate.
The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act directs the Attorney General to
designate a person whose responsibility it will be to expedite review
of anti-Asian hate crimes and report them. It also instructs DOJ to
issue guidance to State and local law enforcement on culturally
appropriate public education campaigns and on the collection of data on
hate crimes or incidents. Such culturally-sensitive, in-language
outreach is an important element for strengthening trust and awareness
in impacted communities, and it will help overcome established
hesitancy to report hate crimes or incidents to law enforcement.
At a time when the AAPI community is under siege, this bill is an
important signal that Congress is taking anti-Asian racism and hatred
seriously. Significantly, Democrats and Republicans are working
together in good faith to come to consensus to pass this bill. For
example, I wholeheartedly support a bipartisan amendment from Senators
Blumenthal and Moran to attach their NO HATE Act to this bill. Their
amendment improves the data collection and reporting of all hate crimes
so that we can better understand their prevalence and implement
effective policies to prevent them. Senator Collins and I are also
working on additional language to broaden support for the bill.
The ongoing wave of anti-Asian violence and hate crimes has touched
virtually every single member of the AAPI community. We are talking
about millions of people in the AAPI community. Many of us are changing
our daily routines. Until recently, I usually have my earbuds in,
listening to an audio book whenever I leave my apartment to go for a
walk. I don't do that now.
[[Page S1923]]
An attack on one group in our country is truly an attack on all of
us. By passing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, we can come together on a
bipartisan basis to show that the U.S. Senate will not be a bystander
to the wave of racist, anti-Asian violence in our country. So let's get
it done together.
I yield the floor.