Biden says hate crimes against Asian Americans are 'un-American' and that they 'must stop'

[AZProgressive]

President Joe Biden condemned the violence Asian Americans have endured throughout the coronavirus pandemic in his first national prime-time address Thursday night.

Biden, whose speech marked one year after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, said that "too often, we've turned against one another." He said that Americans should be working together but that, instead, there have been "vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who've been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated."

"At this very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, are on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives and still — still are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America," he said. "It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop."

Biden signed a memorandum in January that denounced discrimination directed at the Asian American and Pacific Islander community throughout the pandemic. Lawmakers announced Thursday that they would build on the executive action, reintroducing a bill that would boost support for law enforcement agencies to address hate crimes related to the pandemic.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/biden-calls-hate-crimes-against-asian-americans-wrong-it-s-n1260753

[FlyingPiggy]

1. I am so glad he addressed this! More needs to be done.

[DSandra]

2. I was assaulted by a homeless man outside a Chinese restaurant that called me a "disease"

I happened to be waiting for an order and the doors of the restaurant were locked. Hame came out of nowhere and seemed to be angry at me for no reason and honestly it’s hard to remember what exactly he did to me besides pushing me, I was scared for my life and I’m half Chinese. This was sometime in summer of last year. Because he called me a disease, and because of how I looked and that I was outside a Chinese restaurant, I suspect it was a racially motivated attack. I’m so thankful that Joe Biden took the time to address this.