Just one week after the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution "condemning and combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders" tragedy struck in Atlanta on March 16, when a white gunman shot and killed 8 people at multiple locations, 6 of whom were Asian American.
Sacramento community members met on Wednesday evening March 17 at City Hall to hold a Community Healing Vigil both in memory of the Atlanta area victims, as well as to offer one another support while grappling with shock and grief. The vigil underscored how critically necessary the recently passed resolution against anti-Asian hate and discrimination is.
As cited in the resolution, anti-Asian hate crime events have risen sharply in 2020:
Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition aimed at addressing anti-Asian discrimination amid the pandemic and founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department, documented over 2,800 hate incidents targeting AAPIs in the United States in 2020 since it began to document incidents in March of that year. From March to June 2020, Stop AAPI Hate received reports of over 800 hate incidents in California against AAPIs related to the COVID19 pandemic, the highest in the country.
But as Councilmember Mai Vang has shared when proposing and addressing the need for this resolution, anti-Asian hate and discrimination has a centuries' long history in America. Learn more about the Sacramento City Resolution and the city council vote at the links above.
Click here to learn more about the history of anti-Asian hate and related acts of violence in America.
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