FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2020
Priscilla Huang, Asian Americans In Action
ASIAN AMERICAN ORGANIZATION APPLAUDS ORANGE COUNTY ELECTED OFFICIALS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS FOR TAKING ACTION TO CONDEMN ANTI-ASIAN CORONAVIRUS CRIMES
Orange County, CA: As communities around the nation kick off Asian Pacific American Heritage month, Asian Americans in Action commends the cities of Irvine and Garden Grove for unanimously approving resolutions that denounce COVID-19 related hate crimes and incidents against Asian Americans. We also applaud the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Democratic Party of Orange County for passing resolutions condemning such acts.
There has been a marked increase in incidents of racially-motivated rhetoric and hate crimes directed against Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center that tracks corona virus-related discrimination, there have been 34 reported incidents of discrimination against Asian Americans in Orange County between March 19 and April 15, 2020. “When Federal leadership and high-ranking government officials referred to COVID-19 as the “China Virus,” they sanctioned the discriminatory practice of blaming a select group of American citizens for the spread of the virus,” said Co-Chair Naz Hamid of Asian Americans in Action.
On April 22, 2020, Asian Americans in Action presented a letter to the Orange County Board of Supervisors calling on them to pass a resolution denouncing the rising racism and xenophobia leveled against Asian Americans as a result of COVID-19. The letter garnered broad community support with signatures from over 260 elected officials, religious leaders, community leaders, and constituents. “The letter was driven by the need for our local elected leaders to take a strong stand against racism and xenophobia, and to send a clear message to the public that this behavior is wrong and unacceptable,” stated Patty Yoo, Co-Chair of Asian Americans in Action.
Asian Americans in Action urges anyone who experiences a COVID-19 related hate incident or any other hate crime to report it to local authorities and the OC Human Relations reporting site: https://www.splash.ochumanrelations.org/hatecrime/report/
Information and data about these incidents help the county to investigate, categorize, track, and report data related to hate crimes and threats. There are also great resources on how to cope with attacks and tools for support for victims listed on the site.
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Asian Americans in Action, based in Orange County, CA, is a non-profit organization that advocates for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) issues and policies, and elevates the voices and stories of AAPI communities in Orange County. https://www.aaaction.org/
