Monday, March 22, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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The alarming rise in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States is an infuriating example of history repeating itself. In several times of economic turmoil, war and other crises in our nation’s history, members of the AAPI community have been scapegoated and persecuted by majority whites.
Las Vegas, a community that celebrates diversity and welcomes people of all ethnicities, must do its part to end this disgusting cycle and support our vibrant AAPI community amid this alarming trend of bigotry.
To its credit, the Clark County Commission on Tuesday directed staff to draft a resolution condemning racism against AAPI individuals and expressing solidarity in combating the problem. Once the resolution is written, it likely will be voted on next month. Passing it will be a meaningful symbolic step, sending a message to the community that bias won’t be tolerated.
However, the responsibility of addressing the problem falls on everyone in the community to be watchful for signs of discrimination, to speak out against racism anytime it arises and to report white supremacist activities to authorities.
The problem we face is severe. In a study of 16 of the nation’s largest cities, not including Las Vegas, the California-based Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism found that hate crimes targeting the AAPI community skyrocketed 149% in 2020. Further, Stop AAPI Hate also logged more than 3,000 reports of verbal and physical assaults since it began tracking incidents in March 2020.
While police say Las Vegas hasn’t experienced a significant increase in anti-AAPI crimes, our community has definitely been affected. AAPI community members here have reported being targeted with racist slurs and worse from people unfairly accusing them of spreading COVID-19.
This simply must stop. Such bigotry has no place in Las Vegas, in the U.S. or in any other civilized society in the 21st century.
Violence against Asian Americans is a deep stain on our nation’s history, particularly in the West. Here, our heritage includes attacks on 19th-century Chinese immigrants who helped build much of the infrastructure that supported the nation’s westward expansion but later were driven out amid economic downturns and disease outbreaks. Anti-Asian discrimination fueled the 1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which imposed a 10-year ban on the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S. Similar racist fears later prompted America’s disgraceful internment of Asian Americans during World War II.
Another ugly chapter occurred in the Sierra Nevada town of Truckee, Calif., just west of the Nevada border.
There, an economic crisis led to attacks against hundreds of Chinese rail workers who had settled in the town after the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. Those workers had established a large and peaceful presence in the town, but their fortunes took a turn when the nearby Comstock mines began to play out in the 1880s and whites who had worked in the mines found themselves in need of the jobs held by the immigrants.
To force out those workers, whites boycotted Truckee businesses that were owned by Chinese residents or employed them. Chinese residents who resisted the ouster attempts were targeted for violence: attackers burned homes and destroyed a water tank that served the Chinese community, among other crimes.
Today’s upswing in crimes targeting AAPI individuals echoes those dark days of white supremacy. For that, no small amount of blame goes to the previous presidential administration and extremist Republicans who adopted the racist names “Wuhan flu,” “China flu” or “Kung flu” for the coronavirus.
Fortunately, President Joe Biden’s administration is responding responsibly to the situation. Biden condemned anti-Asian bias and discrimination in an executive order that also directed federal agencies to collect and report incidents of bias as part of a larger effort to eliminate discrimination in the government. Biden also went a step further by celebrating the role that AAPI community members in health fields have played in combating the pandemic.
In Las Vegas, we can’t state this loudly or proudly enough: Our AAPI community has played a vital role in making us the great city we have become, and the continued growth and prosperity of that community will only make us stronger. Discrimination toward these individuals or any minorities is an affront to our community’s values and a detriment to our future. It cannot be tolerated.
