Officials condemn acts of prejudice
Town hall focuses on Asian American equity
NORRISTOWN >> Conversations surrounding the rise of hate crimes against the Asian American community brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic found its way to Thursday’s Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting.
“Before I make my announcement on a program, I do want to express my solidarity with our Asian American and Pacific Islander community in light of the horrendous shootings in Atlanta, but also the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans across the nation,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr., noting the events earlier this week in Georgia that left eight people dead.
Referencing instances of discrimination, Lawrence spoke of a letter written earlier this month by several area local leaders including Royersford Mayor Jenna Antoniewicz, as well as a coalition of school board candidates and municipal officials. Lawrence aligned with the representatives who swiftly condemned the spike in discriminatory acts.
“There’s no place for it anywhere in America, but there’s no place for it here in Montgomery County,” Lawrence said.
“I would just ask our Montgomery County citizens to reach out to our friends, our neighbors, they’re a crucial part of this community, and right now, they are frightened,” he said.
A Springfield Township resident was the sole
person to offer public comment Thursday morning. On the subject, she expressed similar sentiments as “it’s really a scary time for people who look like me.”
“I’m speaking here on behalf of community members who originally coalesced to address the general uptick in Asian American hate crimes that have increased across the country in the past year,” she said.
She thanked several county officials for their current and prior remarks on the subject and called for more local legislators to advocate.
“Community leaders of all colors and creeds are able to speak out against these abhorrent acts, but also the abhorrent dispositions and harmful, frankly racist narratives that can lead to these terrible outcomes,” she said.
“We urge the county to offer your expertise in public health to direct resources toward addressing the toxic rhetoric that plagues the minds of vulnerable people and to provide mental health services to the victims of such indoctrination,” she later said.
“We share your concerns and stand solidly with you,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh.
The discussion in the early moments of Thursday’s meeting seemed to pick up where Tuesday evening’s COVID-19 Vaccine Virtual Town Hall left off.
Moderated by KYW Newsradio Anchor Denise Nakano, panelists included Arkoosh, state Sen. Maria Collett, D-12th Dist., and Angela K. Shen, a visiting scientist with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who tackled a number of questions relating to the ongoing vaccination rollout.
All three panelists stressed the importance of getting fully vaccinated. Shen praised the efficacy of the three vaccines against Covid death and hospitalizations.
“When it’s your turn you should take the vaccine that’s offered to you,” Shen said Tuesday.
The ongoing obstacles the area’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community face due to the uptick in racially charged words relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the main takeaways of Tuesday’s public forum.
“How can we best support the Asian community during this time particularly in the event of racism due to rhetoric around the pandemic? Is there anything that we can do as it pertains to the vaccine?” Nakano asked the participants during the Tuesday night town hall.
“I think we all have a responsibility to each other and to stand up for all members in our community and call this out when we see it,” Arkoosh said, adding that anyone feeling threatened should call or text 911.
“The virus [is] really agnostic to not only borders; it doesn’t really stop at ... Delaware County or Montgomery County or even Pennsylvania,” Shen said. “So it’s agnostic to geopolitical borders, and so racism, amongst a number of other issues really helps the pandemic, and so I think whether or not it resonates with others or not, the bug doesn’t care what color you are.”
“In addition, AAPI seniors also may be reluctant to note their race information due to the rise in racism against the AAPI community since the pandemic, which is a whole separate and significant issue that we are facing,” said George Choe, president and CEO of the Philip Jaisohn Memorial Foundation, one of the hosts of the Tuesday night town hall.
When making an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Arkoosh noted there is an option to input a person’s race. She stressed that the information is not “mandatory,” and officials “don’t want to deter anyone from making [an] appointment.”
However, Arkoosh said county health officials have found that one in five people are not “sharing [their] race with us and so it’s actually very hard for us to know how we’re doing.”
She added that the information remains within the constructs of the state’s public health system and is confidential.
With respect to the “7.7 percent” of “people” who “identify” as Asian American and Pacific Islander in Montgomery County, Arkoosh said the information is a “tool for us to know if we’re reaching all the people in the community.”
Leaders representing Montgomery County agreed that bringing resources to trusted community mainstays is crucial.
“It’s very important to
us that we make sure that certain particular providers do continue to receive vaccine because everyone needs to be able to trust the provider that they’re going to, and particularly, be able to speak and ask questions in a language with which we’re most comfortable,” Arkoosh said.
As for other obstacles, Arkoosh pointed out that Montgomery County’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic registration website has a Google translate tool, and those who’d rather make an appointment by phone can do so from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 833-875-3967. That number also uses Language Line services with more than 120 languages available.
“It’s critically important that anyone getting a vaccination, or any medical procedure or treatment, is able to ask all the questions that they need to ask and then get an answer back in a way they can fully understand it,” she continued. Collett agreed.
“We want to make sure that we have providers who are bilingual, that are known in the community, that are trusted in the community, that we have them still getting doses so they’re able to continue reaching out,” she said.
At the state level, Collett also noted Pennsylvania General Assembly legislators have a responsibility to their constituents including language, technological and accessibility “barriers” those seniors waiting to get vaccinated in the Asian American Pacific Islander community face.
“We can do things that are going to ease those barriers but we’ve really got to work together to elevate those issues at a bigger level so we can actually make a positive change,” Collett said.
For more information about Montgomery County’s vaccination campaign, visit montcopa.org/covid-19.
“I just want to say clearly that racism is not acceptable here in Montgomery County,” Arkoosh said. “We have spoken about this a number of times throughout the pandemic.”
“We saw some of these similar issues come up early in the pandemic when we first had the virus here, and I just again want to reiterate on behalf of myself, and my colleagues, that that is unacceptable to us here in Montgomery County, and we will always stand with the AAPI community, and absolutely abhor any attacks on the AAPI community.”
“I would just ask our Montgomery County citizens to reach out to our friends, our neighbors, they’re a crucial part of this community, and right now, they are frightened.” — Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr.