Hatred of AAPI community has no place here

Last week, we woke up to yet another headline about hate crimes against Asian Americans in our country. This time, it was about the unspeakably brutal murders of eight people — six of whom were Asian-American women — in Atlanta. Last month, it was an elderly Asian man in the Bay Area who was thrown to the ground and robbed. He died of his injuries two days later. And everyday for over the past year, our community has experienced incidents of hatred against us and felt like the scapegoat for others’ displaced fear.

Enough is enough.

The issue of violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities is a national crisis and must be stopped. Across the country, racially motivated attacks against Asian Americans have increased significantly. Since the start of the pandemic, the Stop AAPI Hate coalition has tracked more than 3,800 racially motivated hate incidents in the United States.

Home means Nevada to one of the largest AAPI populations in the country — we are your neighbors, friends, classmates and local business owners, and we are proud to be Nevadans. But with the anti-AAPI rhetoric that spewed from the former occupant of the White House at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Nevada is feeling a little less homey to many of us.

While Metro Police has stated there have not been any confirmed cases of violent hate crimes against Asian Americans here (and we are thankful for that), the lived experiences of people in our community point to a shift in the way we are perceived by some Nevadans.

Since the pandemic began, AAPI Nevadans have shared that they have been verbally abused, harassed and blamed for the pandemic itself. These experiences have been fueled by right-wing elected leaders and demagogues who continue to use terms like “China virus” and “kung flu” when talking about COVID-19 — despite reports that show such language incites attacks on people of Asian descent.

No doubt these racist occurrences have increased in frequency and aggression with the pandemic, but it’s not new that we often must defend our Nevada-ness. We’ve all been asked where we “really come from” or told that we “speak English really well.”

Despite many Asian Americans being born and raised in the United States, these incidents bring into question our identities and perpetuate the idea that we aren’t as American as our neighbors. Our experiences with racism might differ from other minority counterparts, but the issue of unequal treatment and otherness remain the same.

This recent wave of anti-AAPI hatred isn’t new, either. Since the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the spread of the “Yellow Peril” propaganda, to World War II and internment camps, social rifts have been created that have never truly healed. This divide has been magnified since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Here in Carson City, we’re doing something about it. Assemblywoman Selena Torres has introduced Assembly Bill 327, which would require mental health professionals to complete training on cultural competency and diversity. Assemblywoman Brittney Miller is bringing forward legislation that requires schools to develop protocol that combats racial discrimination, hate speech or harassment by students and staff. In a majority-minority state like Nevada, this training helps change the way Nevadans think about and interact with our community.

Furthermore, Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson has brought forward Assembly Bill 177, which would require pharmacies to provide required information on prescription bottles to be in the patient’s preferred language. Considering 70% of Asian Americans in Nevada speak a language other than English, this bill would address gaps in access to health care that many AAPI Nevadans face.

On the national level, the Biden administration publicly condemned racism against Asian Americans during the president’s first week in office and directed the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services to lead the nation’s efforts to stop anti-Asian bias, xenophobia and harassment.

These are steps to stand against anti-AAPI xenophobia and hate but we need to act together to ensure every person in our country can live with safety, dignity and respect.

The effects of this pandemic are far-reaching and we have yet to know how great the impact has been on our health, economy and community. We all have been struck by loss, whether financially, physically or emotionally. For a world already shaken with grief, it is senseless to cause any more pain when we are all suffering. We must hold people accountable for their hurtful actions, and bring each other up during a time when all have experienced loss. It is up to us to make our little piece of our beloved state better and make sure hate has no home in Nevada.

Selena Torres, Brittney Miller, Rochelle Nguyen, and Cecelia Gonzalez are members of Nevada’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.