Last September, when the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Asian prejudice and discrimination, all Democrats voted in favor – accompanied by just 14 Republicans.
Why did this symbolic vote become a party battle?
House Republican Steve Scalise said lawmakers are “wasting time on the measure”, but Democratic sponsor Grace Meng said “people’s lives are at stake”.
The horrific Atlanta shootings plunged the country into acute awareness and a difficult debate about hatred towards this community. And, as with any mass murder or terrorist attack, political accusations were immediately intertwined in this very crude discussion.
If the murder of eight people, six of them Asian American women, in three spas fits the strict legal definition of hate crime, that is a matter for the authorities. President Biden is going to Atlanta today to show his concern for what he called “brutality” against Asian Americans. What is indisputable is that many in the community are understandably scared.
We spent much of last year battling racial injustice after George Floyd’s death, as well as unacceptable violence in the unrest that followed. The media spends enormous amounts of time and energy narrating prejudices and crimes against certain communities: Violence against blacks. Violence against Jews. Violence against Muslims.
Unfortunately, Asian Americans are far below the radar screen.
Despite a long history of discrimination – from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to Japanese internment during World War II – they have been seen in recent decades as a model minority. The image is of people who work hard, do not create problems and whose children get excellent grades.
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They were also stereotyped as quiet and subservient. They do not tend to ascend to the highest political positions and have little visibility in the media. Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother, is an exception, as is Andrew Yang.
Experts say there is no revolting symbol of intolerance, like the noose or the swastika, against Asian descendants. So there are sometimes disputes over whether the theft of a small Asian-American company, for example, is a hate crime.
But when Amara Walker, a Korean-American reporter for CNN, was doing a live scene for Don Lemon, someone drove by and shouted “Virus!”
Which brings us to the new complaints about Donald Trump referring to the “China virus”, as he did again this week, or the “Wuhan virus”, or “Kung flu”, as he did in the past. Liberals and Democrats have long complained that Trump is contributing to a climate of prejudice against Asian Americans.
I hate how the Chinese regime originally covered up and treated the coronavirus poorly, but I also believed that Trump’s use of those terms was an unattractive attempt to score political points.
There is a huge difference between that and linking the former president in some way to the violence in Atlanta.
As with all mass shootings, it all comes down to a madman with a gun. And I say after each tragic case that it is unfair to say that politicians have blood on their hands because some nut has had access to destructive weapons.
The Oklahoma City bombing was not Rush Limbaugh’s fault, as Bill Clinton implied. Gabby Giffords’ shot was not Sarah Palin’s fault. The killing of police officers was not the fault of Barack Obama. Steve Scalise’s shot at a Republican baseball practice was not the fault of the liberals the sniper admired. And Atlanta is not Trump’s fault.
It is good to debate and criticize the rhetoric of a president or ex-president, but going beyond that quickly descends into the feverish swamps of partisanship.
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At a House hearing yesterday, Rep. Doris Matsui, who was born in a Japanese-American internment camp, said that last year, “as I heard, at the highest levels of government, people use racist slanders, like ‘ China’s virus’ to spread xenophobia and blame innocent communities, it was all too familiar. “
But Republican MP Chip Roy, after denouncing Beijing’s manipulation of the virus, said: “My concern with this audience is that it seems to want to venture into policing rhetoric.”
This debate may or may not get ugly, but it should have been done a long time ago.