Thread by @AAAJ_AAJC

Our president and executive director @johncyangdc testifying now to the House Committee on violence & discrimination against Asian Americans: judiciary.house.gov/calendar/event…

In 2020, nearly one in three Asian Americans reported experiencing racial slurs or jokes since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. pewresearch.org/social-trends/…

@StopAAPIHate documented almost 3,800 incidents against the Asian American community since March 2020, ranging from violent attacks to verbal harassment: secureservercdn.net/104.238.69.231…

Asian Americans have the highest intragroup income inequality in the United States with the top 10% of earners in Asian American community had 10.7 times the income of the bottom 10% compared to the national average of 8.7%: mckinsey.com/industries/pub…

"On the flip side of that 'perpetual foreigner' stereotype is the so-called model minority myth, which suggests that Asian Americans are help up as a good people of color when it is convenient to plant seeds of division within our communities of color." -@johncyangdc

This violence and discrimination exacerbate the loss and trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—even as the Asian and Asian American community play a significant role on the frontlines of fighting the disease.

2 million essential workers are Asian American and they make up a disproportionately high percentage of America’s frontline workers—accounting for more than 20% of physicians, 9.8% of therapists, 9.8% of registered nurses, and 7.7% of healthcare technologists and technicians.

Filipino Nurses make up only 4% of the nursing population of the United States, yet comprise nearly a third of nurses who have died of COVID-19. cnn.com/2020/11/24/hea…

It's important to remember: These events did not occur in a vacuum. America has a dark history of vilifying minorities, including targeting the Asian American community, and using federal law to enable this discrimination and violence.

In 1871, seventeen Chinese immigrants were lynched by a mob of 500 in Los Angeles. In 1885, a mob of five hundred armed white men forcibly expelled 700 Chinese residents from Tacoma, WA, and a few months later, a mob of 1500 gathered to force all Chinese residents out of Seattle.

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first federal law to bar an entire group of people from immigrating purely based on race. By the 1930s, Japanese, Korean, South Asians, and Filipinos were also barred from entering the country and from becoming naturalized.

On September 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh gas station owner in Arizona, was murdered by a man who blamed him for 9/11. Check out this thread for more events to read up on:

https://twitter.com/AAAJ_AAJC/status/1369087795877343238?s=20

Words and history matter. In its first hearing on discrimination and violence against Asian Americans since 1987, Congress has an opportunity to reevaluate the criminal and civil enforcement mechanisms in place so we can better protect our fellow citizens. #WhoWeAre

For @RepJayapal, anti-Asian hate hits close to home. She made the connection between what we see today to post-9/11 hate against AMEMSA communities. "I hope my colleagues understand that words matter. We need everyone's help to fight back against racist attacks." #StopAsianHate

Rep. @JacksonLeeTX18: We don’t want [even just] one life to be taken in the name of discrimination. #StopAsianHate