AAPI says harassment and discrimination has increased against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the coronavirus pandemic, specifically in California, and the group is pushing for state Gov. Gavin Newsom to step up and make a change, according to the L.A. Times.
Stop AAPI Hate has requested for $1.4 million to be included in California's state budget to fund programs that fight bias. The group is also lobbying for Newsom to add a cultural representative to his COVID-19 task force.
The group says the rhetoric is coming from President Donald Trump and "becoming the norm."
"We seem to have a president that has given the green light to the racists to come out of the woodwork and start attacking Asians," California Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Rolling Hills Estates, told the Times.
There have been 832 documented incidents in California in the past three months, according to Stop AAPI Hate, including this one reported on in the Times:
"You started the corona!" a woman in a car yelled at a family walking in an Oceanside neighborhood.
The woman, a 41-year-old Filipina shot back to the woman her had her child with her: "Why are you targeting us? I'm a nurse and my father fought for this country. You shouldn't be teaching your children racism."
Muratsuchi, fellow California Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, and the founders of STOP AAPI Hate denounced structural racism at a news conference this week.
"Asian Americans need to see concrete actions and we're here to work with the state to ensure that we can live free from racial discrimination and enjoy equal rights and access," Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council Executive Director Manjusha Kulkarni told the Times.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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