Condemning All Forms of Anti-Asian Sentiment As Related to Covid-19
Floor Speech
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1107, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 908) condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment as related to COVID-19, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
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Mr. NADLER. Res. 908.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 908, a resolution condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment as related to COVID-19.
Among other things, the resolution, introduced by my colleague from New York, Representative Grace Meng, calls upon all public officials to condemn and denounce anti-Asian sentiment, and it calls on Federal law enforcement officials to investigate and document all credible reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans, to collect data on the rise of hate crimes incidents due to COVID-19, and to hold perpetrators accountable.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing crisis for our country. Over 6.6 million Americans have been infected, and almost 200,000 have died from COVID-19. It has upended the lives of almost every American in some way, and it will continue to do so for some time as we brace for a potential second wave of infections.
On top of bearing the burdens that the pandemic has imposed on all Americans, Asian Americans have been forced to carry the added anxiety of confronting racial prejudice, including racially motivated harassment and violence stemming from the stigma that has unfairly associated them with COVID-19 because of the virus' origin in China, a stigma that has been reinforced by rhetoric suggesting such a link.
According to the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, since March 19, there have been almost 2,600 cases of anti-Asian discrimination related to COVID-19.
According to the resolution, at the pandemic's earliest stage in this country, between February 9 and March 7, there were over 400 such incidents. These include the stabbings of an Asian-American father and two young children, ages 2 and 6, in Texas.
Public health entities, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have recognized that labeling a virus by geographic or ethnic terms unfairly stigmatizes certain communities and ultimately harms public health. For this reason, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar rightly condemned the use of the phrase ``Chinese virus'' in testimony before the Ways and Means Committee, stating that: ``Ethnicity it is not what causes the novel coronavirus.''
It is incumbent on all public figures, including elected officials like us, to publicly condemn bigotry and the stigmatization of racial or ethnic groups unfairly targeted for blame. We must speak out clearly against such attitudes and acts of hate whenever they occur, but particularly in the face of public panic or fear during a national emergency, when society can be especially vulnerable to racist appeals and prejudices.
While many public figures have admirably sought to end COVID-19- related animosity, some, unfortunately, appear not to share the same sense of moral duty. Rather than using their bully pulpits to confront prejudice and racial hatred, they have instead chosen repeatedly to use derogatory and prejudicial phrases and remarks, reinforcing the exclusion and stigmatization of Asian Americans in the face of a national crisis, a tactic that sadly has a long and ugly history in our country.
Left unchecked, this type of rhetoric has, in the past, led to grave injustices like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
In the year 2020, condemning bigotry and racial scapegoating should not be hard for any Member of this House to do. It is long past time to leave the days of yellow peril hysteria and unjustified blame of the other behind.
The House can take an important step in that direction by passing H. Res. 908 unanimously. I urge strong support for this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Krishnamoorthi).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Kim).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Malinowski).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Cisneros).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the import of this resolution could not be more clear. Anti-Asian sentiment will not be tolerated. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated. Discrimination against anyone will not be tolerated.
When language comes consistently from the White House, from other places that stoke anti-Asian sentiment, that stoke racism, this cannot be tolerated. And this House must declare that we will not tolerate it.
This House must be on record against the use of language designed to stoke racism, against the use of language designed to pick out a particular ethnic group--in this case Asians, but it is the same as if it picked out a different ethnic group.
No ethnic group should be the target of such obloquy, of such racism, of such opposition from the White House. None.
It is unconscionable that we have to stand here and oppose the White House stoking anti-Asian sentiment. It is unconscionable that the White House would do such a thing. But if it does such a thing, then it is incumbent on this House to denounce it.
It is incumbent on this House to make sure that the American people know that we do not stand with anyone, whether in the White House or anyplace else, who stokes deliberately anti-Asian sentiment.
We cannot abide, we must not abide, the use of public office, the use of public facilities, the use of the public microphone to stoke anti- Asian sentiment, no more than we would tolerate it if it were stoking anti-Black sentiment or anti-Semitic sentiment.
None of this is tolerable. We must not permit this.
So, I say again, it cannot be allowed that, on the floor of this House, we do not denounce the use of public resources, the use of the White House, the use of public resources to stoke anti-Asian sentiment.
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Mr. NADLER. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio for a question.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
They learned their lesson. They stopped using such terms. They learned their lesson.
They understood what this House should understand. They understood that the use of such terms stokes racism, stokes anti-Asian sentiment, and they stopped using the term because they learned the lesson.
All we are saying is the White House should learn the same lesson, and they should stop using the term. And for that matter, Members of this House should stop using the term because it deliberately stokes anti-Asian sentiment.
The Washington Post learned that lesson and ceased using such terms. The Washington Post learned the lesson.
We are not saying that everyone knew this initially, but it is clear. It is now clear.
The Washington Post learned its lesson and stopped using such terms. The New York Times learned its lesson when they realized that it was stoking anti-Asian sentiment and stopped using this term.
We are saying that the White House and Members of this House and anyone else should learn the same lesson and not stoke anti-Asian sentiment by continuing the use of terms that we know stoke anti-Asian sentiment.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Bera).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank our distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, and I thank and applaud the gentlewoman from New York for her outstanding leadership and championing the rights of all Americans.
Madam Speaker, from the unwarranted, unwanted allegations of hysterectomies in immigrant women around the Nation in detention centers, to the President of the United States taking to the bully pit to be able to call COVID-19 and the coronavirus the ``China virus,'' we are finding ourselves in the midst of confusion that is hurting the American people--hurting them in two ways:
One, over 6 million COVID-19 infections in the United States, and now, predictions of upwards of 250,000 dead. Every one of them we, as Members of the United States Congress, should mourn because families, sadly, are having to bury family members having not seen them in their last days.
What good is it to use that word--the ``Wuhan'' virus? That is not the scientific term. And out of that, we have created a hostile situation for our Asian-American friends, for Asian Americans who have been at the front lines fighting on behalf of this Nation.
The use of anti-Asian terminology and rhetoric related to COVID-19, such as the Chinese virus, Wuhan virus, kung flu have perpetrated anti- Asian stigma and is reminiscent of dark and shameful chapters in America's past where Asian Americans were labeled as the ``yellow peril'' and interned in relocation camps.
Madam Speaker, more than 23 million Asian American and Pacific Islanders account for 7 percent of the Nation's population in the United States, but over 2 million Asian American and Pacific Islanders are working on the front lines of this COVID-19 pandemic in healthcare, law enforcement, first responders, transportation, supermarkets, and other service industries. They feel threatened.
For example, in March 2020, an Asian woman wearing a mask was kicked and punched at a New York City subway station by individuals; two children and two adults were stabbed at a wholesale grocery store. This was anti-Asian rhetoric. Finally, let me say, my own constituent, Coco Ma, in Houston, was afraid to go into a grocery store.
Madam Speaker, include an article describing her concern. [From houstonchronical.com, Apr. 17, 2020]
In Houston's New Normal, a Different Curve Emerges: Outward Racism Toward Asian Americans (By Olivia P. Tallet)
Coco Ma knows it's risky to leave her house amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of Houston area confirmed cases increases and the peak is yet to come.
The Rice University MBA student, however, doesn't even do the occasional run to the supermarket because, for her, the risk comes not only with battling against the virus but also against the vitriol aimed at Asian Americans like her, stereotyped as culprits of the pandemic.
``I have that fear . . . I ask my husband, who is white, to pick up the food we order. I'm afraid to go inside myself,'' said Ma, aware of the scapegoating impacting Chinese Americans and Asians in general who are mistaken as people from China, where the COVID-19 pandemic was first detected.
Almost 1,500 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. have been reported to the STOP AAPI HATE initiative since it began tracking incidents March 19.
``We know that (that) number is only a drop in the bucket. We know that this is really ubiquitous now,'' said lawyer Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and founder of the tracking hate initiative, headquartered in California.
Although the tracking isn't well known around the country, it has already received reports of incidents in 46 states, including Texas, said Kulkarni. The majority of the attacks are verbal, but some are also physical. To report incidents
Hate and racist incidents against Asian Americans related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be reported to: Hate is Contagious: racismiscontagious.com; Stop AAPI Hate: asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org/stop-aapi-hate.
In West Texas, a man stabbed and cut members of a family from Burma, at a supermarket in Midland on March 14. The father and one of his two small children were severely wounded before a store employee subdued the attacker. The man allegedly said he did it because he thought the family was from China and infecting people with the virus. Local media outlets reported that the FBI is investigating the case as a hate crime.
In Houston, a city known for its diversity and tolerance, a woman verbally attacked the owner of the Vietnamese restaurant Vietopia earlier this month in a parking lot in front of the business, screaming expletives and, ``You, get out of our country.''
``I felt unwanted here. We were very offended,'' said Sammi Tran, co-owner and wife of the victim, who videotaped the incident. ``My husband was born here in America. We don't harm anybody, but this is happening now. I've never felt like this before.''
``We go to the supermarket and they look at us as if we were ugly people,'' Tran said.
`Racism Is Contagious'
At over half a million people, Asians make up 8 percent of the population in the Houston metro area. Residents with Chinese heritage represent the third largest subgroup after Indian and Vietnamese. Roughly 70 percent of Asians in the city are U.S. born or naturalized citizens, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Statewide, about 1.5 million residents identify as Asians, or 5.2 percent of the population.
In Houston's Chinatown, the novel coronavirus hit businesses hard in January, well before residents were ordered to stay at home. Rumors spread on social media falsely claiming that an Asian supermarket in the area was shut down by the government due to coronavirus infections.
Although there wasn't a single COVID-19 case in the state at the time, the rumors quickly propelled a fear of contagion and customers avoided the area, driving losses that reached 70 percent overnight for many Asian American businesses.
Not long afterward, President Donald Trump called the agent of the pandemic ``the Chinese virus,'' stirring outrage and concern among Asian Americans.
``The community feels under siege. There is a genuine, palpable sense of fear in the Asian American community, they feel that they're being targeted,'' said Texas Representative Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston. ``And this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. I've heard this from Democratic and Republican'' Asians.
Trump recently said he was not going to use ``Chinese virus'' anymore, but some of his supporters do.
``China poisoned our people. President Trump has the courage to call it as it is: The Chinese Virus,'' the narrator's voice says over a sinister music clip in a campaign ad currently running on local television stations for Kathaleen Wall, who is in the GOP runoff for the 22nd District of Texas, representing the Sugar Land area.
Asked if she didn't consider that her ad could negatively impact Asian Americans, she answered in an email: ``Leave it to Texas Democrats like Sri Preston Kulkarni to defend the Chinese Communist Party while ten thousand Americans have died because of the Coronavirus.'' Kulkarni is the Democratic candidate running in the November general election for District 22.
Wea H. Lee, chairman of the Asian Southern News Group and the business organization International Trade Center in Houston, said attempts to diminish Asian people and their cultures overlook their success and integration in the country, such as having higher levels of income and education than the U.S. population overall.
``These politicians, the people making this kind of statement, it's so stupid, they are so nave that they don't see really what our community looks like,' said Lee.
The Anti Defamation League warns that online forums and posts, some from white supremacist groups, are ridiculing Chinese people in relation to COVID-19 and portraying them as a dirty culture.
A national campaign called ``Racism Is Contagious'' is using data to raise awareness about the issue and collect reports of abuses. It shows photos of Asians wearing a mask with the message ``I am not a Virus,'' which has become a viral hashtag. Invisible stories
For many Chinese Americans, the real story buried under the vitriolic noise is that their network of connections with China, Asian doctors and business people is precisely what has helped them help others during the coronavirus crisis.
The North Houston Chinese American community, for example, acquired part of its donation of masks and medical supplies to local healthcare providers via their connections in China, said Yanbo Wang, one of the organizers. They raised over $14,000 in donations from 98 families and have helped seven nonprofit health providers and organizations.
``We paid for shipments to bring masks that people in China donated to us,'' said Wang. The shipment arrived right when those supplies were difficult to find.
Similarly, The Pearland Chinese Association collected and donated masks and other products from many Asian Americans who bought them earlier in the year. Hearing from their families in China about the epidemic gave them an edge to prepare and acquire products before the pandemic was well known in America.
Jie Wu, a board member of the association, said many Asian Americans who work in the Texas Medical Center also let them know early about concerns with medical supplies. She said they mobilized and raised thousands of dollars plus masks, gloves and protective gowns, in what the organization calls ``The Love for the Community Initiative.''
Masks were collected among school parents, many of whom worry that the stigma can hurt Asian American children born in the U.S. Some reports nationwide have already pointed to hateful incidents against minors.
Coco Ma, the co-founder of #SnacksForMedStaff initiative, is also concerned about the stereotyping.
``But I also want people to understand that I wanted to start the campaign not to prove who I am (and that) people should not get mad at me'' as an Asian person, said Ma. ``We Asians are doing this because we care.''
The idea of sending food to medical teams working in hospitals with COVID-19 cases came to Ma while talking on the phone with her mother, who is an administrator at a hospital in China dealing with the pandemic. Initially, she sent snacks to a few healthcare providers, but the initiative grew with people sending her money for a GoFundMe campaign.
Ma, a Houston resident, and her classmate and program partner Kathleen Harcourt, who is Asian American, have now created a website to make all the #SnacksForMedStaff activities transparent to donors. They have raised around $12,000 of a $20,000 goal and have sent food packages to hospital teams in Texas and other four states among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
``We are getting very good feedback from doctors,'' Ma said. ``They feel appreciated.''
As the coronavirus is soon expected to peak locally, adding pressure to medical teams, Ma said her initiative will raise the funding goal and provide more packages.
``People are so polarized,'' said Ma. ``Forget about politics, especially during this pandemic. Forget about race. Focus on what is the problem and coming up with a solution. This is about humanity first.''
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I support this legislation because we have to stand to cure, to fix COVID-19, not to stigmatize and destroy the opportunity of saving America and doing the right thing by science.
Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, and the Budget Committee, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 908, which condemns anti-Asian sentiment in all its forms and manifestations, from whatever quarter, and from whomever, from the ordinary citizen up to and including the President of the United States.
Since January 2020, there has been a dramatic increase in reports of hate crimes and incidents against those of Asian descent and the danger accelerates as the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, which currently stands at 197,000, continues to increase and is expected to exceed 250,000 by Election Day on November 3, 2020. The use of anti- Asian terminology and rhetoric related to COVID-19, such as the ``Chinese Virus'', ``Wuhan Virus'', and ``Kung-flu'' have perpetuated anti-Asian stigma and is reminiscent of dark and shameful chapters in America's past where Asian-Americans were escaped as the ``yellow peril'' and interned in relocation camps.
Madam Speaker, more than 23,000,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders account for 7 percent of the Nation's population in the United States and over 2,000,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are working on the frontlines of this COVID-19 pandemic in health care, law enforcement, first responders, transportation, supermarkets, and other service industries. Madam Speaker, there are approximately 2 million Asian American owned businesses that generate over $700 billion in annual revenue and employ nearly 4.5 million workers.
According to a recent study, there were over 400 cases related to COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination just between February 9, 2020, and March 7, 2020 with Asian Americans being harassed, assaulted, and scapegoated for the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in March 2020, anti-Asian woman wearing a mask was kicked and punched at a New York City subway station; two children and two adults were stabbed at a wholesale grocery in Midland, Texas; a couple was assaulted and robbed by a group of attackers in Philadelphia; and a 16-year-old boy was sent to the hospital after being attacked by bullies in Los Angeles, California.
According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, during this pandemic a different curve has emerged in the Harris County metroplex, one of outward racism toward Asian Americans, where the increased use of anti- Asian rhetoric has also resulted in Asian-American businesses being targeted for vandalism.
Madam Speaker, the Secretary General of the United Nations called for international solidarity and an end to any ill-founded discrimination of the outbreak's victims. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counsels against that naming COVID-19 by its geographic location or linking it to a specific ethnicity because such linkage perpetuates stigma. For this reason, in 2015, the WHO issued guidance calling on media outlets, scientists, and national authorities to avoid naming infectious diseases for locations.
On February 27, 2020, the Secretary of Health and Human Services stated ``ethnicity is not what causes the novel coronavirus'' and that it is inappropriate and inaccurate to call COVID-19 the ``Chinese virus.'' On February 28, 2020, Dr. Mitch Wolfe, the Chief Medical Officer of the CDC said, ``Stigma is the enemy of public health'' and on March 10, 2020, Dr. Robert Redfield, the Director of the CDC, testified that use of the term ``Chinese coronavirus'' is wrong and inappropriate.
So, I am proud to be an original cosponsor and to strongly support H. Res. 908 introduced by my friend, the gentlelady from New York, Congresswoman Meng. The resolution calls on all public officials to condemn and denounce any and all anti-Asian sentiment in any form and recognizes that the health and safety of all Americans, no matter their background, must be of utmost priority. The resolution condemns all manifestations of expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Asian sentiment, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious intolerance and calls on Federal law enforcement officials, working with State and local officials to expeditiously investigate and document all credible reports of hate crimes and incidents and threats against the Asian- American community in the United States.
The resolution also calls upon federal, state, and local authorities to so, collect data to document the rise of incidences of hate crimes due to COVID-19; and to take action whenever appropriate to hold the perpetrators of those crimes, incidents, or threats accountable and bring such perpetrators to justice. Finally, and importantly, H. Res. 908 recommits United States leadership in building more inclusive, diverse, and tolerant communities and combatting misinformation and discrimination that put Asian Americans at risk.
I urge all Members to join me in voting for H. Res. 908 and I thank Congresswoman Meng for introducing this important resolution.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger).
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, this is an important resolution that will put the House firmly on record against the insidious form of racism and racial scapegoating that we have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
It is completely unacceptable to use derogatory and prejudicial terms, like ``Chinese virus'' or ``Wuhan virus,'' as if they merely describe the factual reality of where the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 originated.
First, this logic does nothing to justify the use of the term ``kung flu,'' another term often used by some to describe COVID-19, a term clearly designed to mock Asians and to associate them unfairly with this disease.
Madam Speaker, the need for this legislation is clear. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.
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