Since its official launch on March 19, 2020, the STOP AAPI HATE reporting center has received more than 1,700 reports of coronavirus-related verbal harassment, shunning and physical assault against Asian Americans. Manjusha Kulkarni, Esq., executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, along with D&I Global Chair John Iino and D&I Advisor Iveliz Crespo, present a brief history of discriminatory laws against Asian Americans, discuss the impacts of discrimination against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, and conclude with thoughts on how we can support each other during these times.
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Transcript:
Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions, and challenges, past and present, all with a goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included.
John: Hi everyone, and welcome to the podcast. Today's podcast will be simultaneously recorded as a webinar. I'm John Iino, and I'm the Chief Diversity Officer of Reed Smith. My pronouns are he and his really privileged to host this webinar and moderate this webinar today. Want to introduce first my co-moderator, Iveliz Crespo, who is the global diversity inclusion advisor here at Reed Smith. But also I want to introduce our honored guest and speaker today. My friend, Manju Kulkarni, is the executive director of A3PCON, which is the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council here in Los Angeles. Manju also serves as a lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA. She received her JD from the Boston University School of Law. So like many of us as a lawyer in April, 2014, president Obama awarded her with the White House Champions of Change Award for dedication to improving healthcare access for Asian Americans around the country. So with that, let me just turn it over to Manju to talk a little bit about A3PCON.
Manjusha: Thank you so much, John, for the warm introduction and to you and to Iveliz for inviting me to join you today. And I also want to thank Reed Smith for highlighting this important issue. It's so critical that our national and international law firms lead the way on combating xenophobia and racism today. In terms of A3PCON, we are a coalition of over 40 community-based organizations that serve and represent the 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the greater Los Angeles area. We were formed in 1976 as an effort of a number of executive directors to work on policy solutions at local, state and federal levels. We've also been bridging communities of color in Los Angeles, serving as a conduit during the LA uprising between African-American and Korean-American communities. Obviously there was a lot of strife after the uprising and we really sought to bring the communities together. Right now we are serving as the lead on the 2020 census here in Los Angeles for the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
John: So Manju, I know you taught classes at UCLA and other places on the history of laws discriminating in our country against peoples of 18 descent. Can you walk us through some of that history?
Manjusha: Yes. So unfortunately Asian American racism has been with us for over a hundred years. Bias in the form of the yellow peril led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was followed in short order by the Gear Act and here in California the Alien Land Act. So together these not only extended the exclusion of Asian Americans and specifically Chinese for a number of years, it required those populations to have specific papers that they carried with them. And so we saw that from yellow Apparel and we also saw the executive order 9066, which was implemented by President Roosevelt in February of 1942 and led to a hundred thousand individuals of Japanese American ancestry being interned in camps across the country. And 60% of those individuals were actually US citizens. In addition to the yellow Apparel, folks may not be aware of the fact that there is also a phenomenon called the dusky peril.
And so in terms of the dusky peril, we basically saw that fears around individuals such as myself who are South Asian American, led to policies such as the Asia Barred Zone Act and the Immigration Act of 1924. And what later then came more recently is of course Islamophobia across the country. We saw after nine 11 there was a significant backlash against our communities that is Muslim, Sikh Arab, as well as other South Asians that led to not only hate incidents across the country for more than 10 years, but also to NSA surveillance policies and also racial profiling.
John: Yeah, just a long, long history and thank you for taking us through that Manju. So now let's fast forward to 2020 and the Covid crisis. I know your organization is doing a lot around that. Whatcha seeing in terms of Covid related hate?
Manjusha: Over the past four months, we have seen a significant emergence of COVID-19 related hate against Asian American communities across the country. I wanted to share with you six examples that are emblematic of what we're seeing. So essentially we have a case of grandparents who are taking their grandchild on a walk who are verbally harassed by individuals who came up in their car and made racial epithets against them. Additionally, we've seen a case of an individual at the airport who was refused service by a ride hailing company and a professor at a local university who referred to COVID-19 as the Wuhan virus. These are a few of the cases. Additionally, we have cases in which there was a physical attack against a senior citizen where he was thrown out of a store, literally picked up and thrown out by a white or Caucasian gentleman. Also have seen where a physician was as she was even serving on the front lines and treated and treating COVID-19 patients was verbally attacked and berated by one of her patients who was African-American. And then finally we have the case of a child who was attacked on the school yard. He was verbally assaulted, accused of having COVID-19 because he was Asian American and punched in the head when he said he was not Chinese over 20 times again in the school yard, sadly in front of school administrators and teachers. And what's important about this particular incident is that it took place before there was a single confirmed case of COVID-19 here in Los Angeles. So we know that oftentimes hate actually precedes any time of fears that may be rational or measured.
John: Just horrifying examples. I'm sure many of us have heard others as well. I know your organization is tracking a number of these and trying to get all the information we can. So maybe you can talk a little bit about that project.
Manjusha: Sure. So on March 19th, A3PCON with Chinese for affirmative action and San Francisco State University, obviously both in the Bay Area led an to track the incidents of hate to gather data and provide analysis on that. It's called Stop AAPI Hate. It's available in multiple Asian languages in addition to English. And what we also did is we performed significant outreach to LEP that is limited English proficient communities and also immigrant communities across the country. And with 150 years of experience, we were seen as a trusted source in our communities in terms of reporting. Additionally, our reports have been made available on our website, which is info, which is, sorry, www.a3pcon.org. And you can see these reports on our website.
Iveliz: Thank you. Are you able to discuss with us some of the international data?
Manjusha: So yes, I can share with you the data that we have from Stop AAPI hate. So in a six week period, we received over 1700 incident reports. I want to emphasize that most of the reports involve hate incidents and not hate crimes. I know there has been a rush by a number of lawmakers to put in place additional hate crimes laws, and I want to say that a small fraction of what we are seeing on our website are actually hate crimes. Additionally, incidents are coming and are being reported from 45 states as well as the District of Columbia. About 60% come from California and New York. Women are reporting at two and a half times the rate of men and 9% of the respondents are seniors. That is individuals over the age of 60. So what does that tell us? Basically, we know from this data that the problem is widespread, but we are seeing more incidents where there are significant populations of AAPIs. It's not surprising, for example, that 40% of the incidents overall are reported from California because 30% of all Asian Americans in the United States live in California. Similarly number come from New York state. That's roughly about 18% as well as other states with high populations. Additionally, we know that while no one is immune, individuals who are seen as vulnerable are being targeted, and those are women and older adults. I wanted to add also to that some additional data, which is that 93% of the incidents involve verbal harassment and shunning. So what this is, again, are mostly comments that involve hate speech interactions at grocery stores, at pharmacies, at big box retail, about 9% or so involve civil rights violations, which are workplace discrimination, refusal of service, and about 9% involve physical assault. These are not always incidents that involve battery, but actually just attempts sometimes to harm people physically, including the throwing of bottles and cans. There was even one incident where an individual threw a softball at a woman who is Asian American here in Los Angeles. So what we're seeing is that even with shelter in place, that a significant number of incidents are taking place across the country, and sadly, they're taking place in the only venues that we're allowed to go to right now, which are the grocery stores, the pharmacies, big box retail, and again, sadly in people's neighborhoods. And next I just want to share one other slide in terms of the data, which is the ethnicity and also the site of discrimination. So you'll see that we know from our data that Chinese individuals have been disproportionately targeted. That's not, I think in some ways surprising given comments that have been made by a number of elected officials and efforts to specifically blame Asian Americans. Additionally, we know that other individuals who are perceived as being Asian American have also been targeted. That includes Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, et cetera. And also we know in terms of the site of discrimination, almost 50% of these take place at private businesses. So there seems to be quite an opportunity here to work with local and corporate stores because of the high rate of incidents in those locales. And about 30% of incidents are taking place in the public. So public streets, public parks, public transit. One other thing I want to say before we move off the data is that all of the data that we have collected tracks very closely with two recent polls. The Ipsos poll found that 30% of all Americans have witnessed someone blaming COVID-19 on Asian Americans. Additionally, the Ipsos poll found that 60% of Asian Americans have witnessed someone blaming them or their community members for COVID-19. We know of course, they've done nothing to cause it like all others. They're Americans and part of really integral to our communities and to our country. And secondly, there was a Harris poll that came out last week that found that 75% of Asian Americans are actually worried that they will to become targets of racist attacks or discrimination.
Iveliz: Now Manju, before we move on, would you be able to, for our audience members who may not be as familiar with these terms, would you be able to describe the difference between a hate incident and a hate crime?
Manjusha: Sure. So a hate crime is really those things that involve an underlying crime. So you can think of, for example, crimes that range from vandalism. So painting, spraying something on an individual's garage or a car all the way to acts of battery, as I mentioned, or even homicide. If they have a racial or racist component to them, then it is defined as a hate crime. When we look at hate incidents, these are often things that in many ways are protected as free speech. So these are often the cases that involve verbal harassment. There is of course a line where harassment can become a form of assault and can become criminal, but again, oftentimes with comments that are made that may not be the case. We also have with hate incidents, civil actions, which I'll talk about in a minute, that can be taken. So just because something is not a crime does not mean that it is not actionable.
So I want to move on to what we are doing with the data. As I've mentioned, of course, a key component is the reporting center. And what's important about our reporting center is two things, is one, that it allows individuals to share their stories to know that they are not living in isolation, that they should not be living in shame, that what they're experiencing is part of a widespread phenomenon today, which is hate and discrimination against our communities. Number two is of course, sharing that data, providing the in-depth analysis that we are on a regular basis, which we're sharing not only with the public, but also with government entities. These are local governments as well as state and our federal actors as well. In terms of resources, we are seeking to offer tips on what individuals can do if they've experienced hate or if they are witnessing hate. Additionally, we hope to have know your rights materials and others available on our website and available in multiple languages. We also want to provide assistance through legal clinics, perhaps also mental health service referrals. So we're looking at a lot of different opportunities. And lastly, there's advocacy. And this is a key component of our work. And when you think of advocacy, of course there's so many opportunities. Some of that of course is to work with law enforcement. Some of it also is to work with human relations commissions. We've had a chance to work with a human relations commission here in Los Angeles as well as the New York City Commission on Human Rights. We've also worked with various attorney generals across the country as well as with state legislators, not only in California, but also those in Iowa, Nebraska, Texas. So really all throughout the state, the states.
John: Manju, you had mentioned the other day that you also recently what testified with Congress or you had some at the federal level communications.
Manjusha: Yes, we did. Just yesterday, I had an opportunity to debrief kpac, which is a congressional Asian Pacific American caucus. I shared some of the same data that I'm sharing with you, and they are looking at opportunities to address these issues on a federal level.
John: So maybe let's shift to some specific things that both people that are experiencing hate incidents can do as well as what others as upstanders supporters can do.
Manjusha: Yeah, so on our website, we've included materials on five things to consider when experiencing hate. So obviously the most important is that individuals consider their safety first and foremost. So folks should trust their instincts and only do what they feel comfortable doing. They should try to remain calm. Of course, that's easier said than done. If they feel that it's safe to speak out, we encourage them to do that, that if it is in a private business, they can talk to the employee or if it's an incident involving an employee, speak with a manager. We also encourage them to seek immediate support to ensure that they're getting the help that they need from individuals who've witnessed the incident and can provide that support. And finally, we encourage individuals to seek emotional support. This is something that weighs heavily on folks. I will tell you, I was on a panel for a local congress member and one of the constituents shared their story at a corporate store where they were actually accosted not once, but twice by another customer, and told to go back to their country. Racial epithets were made, and it was so jarring that the individual could not go back to that store to pick up prescriptions for her parents.
Iveliz: Absolutely. I love these tips, Manju. I think these are incredibly important for us to keep in mind the vicarious trauma, racial trauma that people are experiencing right now. Even people who aren't victims of these crimes but are bystanders that trauma can really impact people's lives, like you say, preventing someone from going to an establishment they frequently established. And so it's really important for us to keep these things in mind when we're trying to figure out how to best provide support to these communities.
Manjusha: Yes, and so I think too, when you are witnessing hate, we encourage a couple key actions actively listening to the individual who's been targeted, seeing what that person's needs are. Mostly we encourage folks to ignore the attacker. We don't want the situation to escalate in any way that puts people in harm's way. We also encourage those folks who we'll call upstanders to accompany the individual, whether it be outside to their cars, making sure that they're safe, making sure that they get the help that they need, and also, again, offering emotional support. I think it's so important to validate what they've gone through, not to in any way minimize it, but to make sure that they're doing okay and if appropriate, they feel they can contact local government or law enforcement.
Iveliz: I love that. I think these tips really touch on the basics of what it means to be an ally. You check in with the people who are being impacted the most, and then you take action when necessary. And I think there's some things to keep in mind when we're approaching folks that are engaging in these kinds of behaviors and the situations depending on the relationships that you have, if they're preexisting relationships, there are definitely tools and strategies people can use to engage with people acting these, whether crimes or engaging in this bias behavior. So I just want to share some of those, right? We can use humor to diffuse the situation. We can ask clarifying questions depending on the relationship. Can you please elaborate on what you mean by that? Because I think you think you're bringing this point across. I'm not sure if that's exactly what you mean, educate people, because a lot of this hate is based off of misinformation. So educating people when you hear this misinformation being spread. And also if you have preexisting relationships, build on those. So if you hear someone that personally engaging in this kind of behavior, talk to them, say, I'm really surprised based off of our relationship that you would have these feelings or you would say these things. I know that you're better than this. Encouraging building on those relationships and encouraging people to engage in educating themselves and preventing them from spreading hate.
Manjusha: I think what you have mentioned Iveliz is so important really to sort of disrupt some notions that individuals have. I know a friend of mine who's also an attorney said that she had received a meme from her niece that was racist. And so she asked me, what should I do? I don't want to let this go. And so we formulated a plan and she responded, my friend and her family are Jewish. And so she shared with her niece, how would you feel if somebody said these things about our family or about people from our religious background? And so really trying to humanize it, I think as wide a circle of empathy that we can create is so critical in this time. And I think that's what we're trying to do in so many ways by wearing masks, by practicing a safe physical distance, is that we are trying collectively to find solutions to this crisis. And I think that's where when we look at that collective action, there are opportunities for enforcement of civil statutes and some opportunities in terms of hate crimes enforcement. And so as I come to a close, I want to just mention a few quick things which are looking at public accommodations. Laws are those adequately being enforced? So these are the ones in our businesses, our people experiencing equal treatment as they buy their groceries, as they fill their prescriptions. Number two, in the housing and workplace context, working with fair housing and employment agencies across the country. So at the state level, oftentimes there are opportunities to ensure that these laws are being adequately enforced and that people, again, are not being discriminated based on race. And then also in terms of healthcare settings, we know that we have Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which ensures that there should not be discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or national origin to entities that get federal funds. And as most hospitals do get federal funds, it's very critical that individuals not discriminate against their physicians, that physicians and other healthcare workers do not discriminate or make racist comments against their patients. And sadly, that is something that we've seen. And then in terms of hate crimes enforcement, there are opportunities to do greater outreach to limited English proficient and immigrant communities. Also to enhance the reporting by local law enforcement to departments of justice and ags offices, greater training of personnel within law enforcement and improved prosecutions. We know from a state auditor's report here in California that sadly 50% of hate crimes were not properly identified by local law enforcement. And I can tell you just looking at the incident that happened in Midland, Texas where a family was stabbed, a Burmese family outside of a Sam's wholesale store, the police initially did not look at it as a hate crime, even though the individual perpetrator said he was trying to kill Asian Americans. I don't know what more evidence someone needs than that, but that gives you some example of what challenges we have. Additionally, again, the prosecution element, making sure they're not gaps there and what gets prosecuted and what doesn't, and that it doesn't disproportionately get prosecuted against communities of color. So as I end, I just want to talk a little bit about opportunities to work together as we move forward. And we love if you all would share our website. It's there listed. We actually are moving everything to the stopAAPIhate.org website. You can also just Google it to our incident reporting form. In addition to reporting state and local government collaboratives are an opportunity, as I mentioned before, legal clinics as well as other forms of legal assistance, provision of mental health services and working with those providers and also working with local businesses. We know that they've been hurt by the pandemic. We know specifically that Asian American businesses were hurt even before we went into shelter in place, and now many of them are experiencing that vandalism. And so as I close, I just want to say how important it is that we be prepared. We don't have to look to the 1800s or early 1900s to see what Asian American racism looks like and what its long-term impacts are. We know from 9/11 that there was a significant backlash against our communities for over a decade. And while we lost 3000 individuals the day of 9/11, that backlash impacted South Asian Arab Muslim, and Sikh communities for such a long time, not only in terms of hate incidents, but also in terms of policies that sought to racially profile them and conduct mass surveillance. We are now at a number that is 30 times that, which is a fatality figure of 90,000 deaths because of COVID-19. So our communities are very nervous about what that means, again, not only in terms of hate incidents, but also in terms of policies that seek to scapegoat and target communities of color and Asian American communities specifically. And so with that, just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with all of you. That's my information here, which is my email address is mkulkarni@AAPIEquityAlliance.org. If you all have any questions, we'd be happy to take those now and just hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time. I'm confident that we're going to come out of it, but that takes collective action of all of us, not only in terms of stopping the spread of the disease, but also stopping the spread of the contagion of racism. Thank you.
John: Thank you, Manju. So informative, so important for sharing this with our audience. For those of you who are listening, the website is www.a3pcon.org., a3pcon.org.
Outro: Inclusivity Included is a Reed Smith production. Our producer is Ali McCardell. Available on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, PodBean, reedsmith.com.
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