Asian leaders unite to tackle hate crimes
Virtual conference sets goals including public safety initiatives, awareness campaign in response to uptick in violence
Asian American leaders from major Texas cities gathered virtually Tuesday to denounce the surge in hate crimes targeting their communities and announce steps to combat the violence.
Hate incidents and crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander population have surged in the last year, with nearly 3,800 incidents reported across the country, according to Stop AAPI Hate. The community has five goals to tackle the problem, said Channy Soeur, owner of an Austin engineering firm and past president of the Network of Asian-American Organizations.
These include calling on local and state governments to create public safety initiatives; launching a public awareness campaign to combat anti-Asian American sentiment; encouraging people to donate or volunteer with Asian American Pacific Islander groups to empower them; pushing for historical discrimination to be taught in schools; and requesting Gov. Greg Abbott establish a special commission to prevent and combat hate crimes in Texas.
“The only way that we can eliminate this type of environment, this type of hate, is for all of us to get together,” said Jimmy Ferguson of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce.
While Asian-owned businesses have shuttered because of the pandemic, some are struggling because their employees are frightened to come to work due to the rise in hateful acts, Ferguson said.
Sydney Dao of the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Houston said the local business community condemns the hateful acts and shares in the grief and anger stemming from the deaths in Atlanta. She thanked Houston officials for elevating the police presence in concerned neighborhoods and encouraged people to support Asian-owned businesses.
Though Houston has recorded no uptick in hate crimes against Asian Americans, law enforcement agencies said they will step up patrols in neighborhoods where residents are fearful for their safety following last week’s mass shooting in Atlanta. Police and community leaders are organizing a town hall meeting.
Regardless of a lack of reported violence, stories of racial harassment and verbal assaults against AAPI Houstonians are abundant.
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, alongside Reps. Hubert Vo, DHouston, and Angie Chen Button R-Dallas County, introduced a legislative resolution that would strongly condemn racism against the AAPI population and call on law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute hate crimes targeting the community.
National policy efforts are underway too. President Joe Biden last week encouraged legislators to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill first introduced last summer by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, DNew York.
Texas ranked fourth in the number of reported hate incidents, according to Stop AAPI Hate.
Last March, a 19-year-old stabbed a father and his two young children at Sam’s Club in Midland because he thought they were Chinese and spreading the novel coronavirus, according to news reports. The incident ignited fear among the Texas AAPI community, and was followed by violent attacks against Asian American elders in New York and California.
Last week, a gunman in Atlanta killed eight people at three spas, six of them Asian women, in a mass shooting that reignited widespread concern and launched efforts to combat the crisis.
Also last week, vandals defaced a ramen noodle shop in San Antonio, scrawling a death threat and ethnic slurs on the property in red spray paint. The assailants targeted Noodle Tree days after the shop’s Vietnamese owner spoke out against the state’s rollback of pandemic precautions.
An Asian-owned bakery in Austin was harassed after the shop was featured in a viral article, said Robert Lee, a real estate CEO and member of the Austin Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce.
The recent hate incidents bring up painful memories of his middle school years in Alabama during the movement to integrate schools, Lee said. His parents, Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, cautioned him to stay silent, not cause trouble and speak only English, he said.
“This story spans generations,” Lee said. “Hopefully breaking this silence and coming forth with our shared experience, we can present and forge a new beginning.”