The hearing quickly became another example of the political fights that have erupted this week over whether the Atlanta shooting constitutes a hate crime.
California Republican Tom McClintock said he was “deeply saddened” by what he characterised Democrats using the hearing to divide Americans and portray the United States as a racist country.
“If America was such hate filled, discriminatory, racist society filled with animus against Asian Americans, how do you explain the remarkable success of Asian Americans in our country?” he asked, asserting that the community faced the fewest prejudice-driven attacks and made the most income of any ethnic group.
Community members gather for a vigil to mourn and confront the rising violence against Asian Americans in Philadelphia, after the attacks in Atlanta.Credit:Camden Courier-Post/AP
“Any racist sentiments, speech or act needs to be vigorously condemned,” he continued, “but to attack our society as systemically racist, a society that has produced the most prosperous and most harmonious racial society in human history, well that’s an insult and it’s flat out wrong.”
Many Democrats say a steady rise in attacks focused on Asian Americans during the pandemic has been due in part to divisive rhetoric from Republicans, including Trump’s descriptions of the coronavirus as the “China virus” and “kung flu”. In a Fox News interview on the same night of the Atlanta shootings, the former president complained that the “China virus” had tanked the US economy.
Stanford Law School professor Shirin Sinnar testified that Trump’s “racist dog whistles” repeatedly retweeted by millions created “ripple effects across society at large” that have affected the Asian American community.
California Democrat Ted Lieu pushing back on Roy’s claims of censorship, said there were catastrophic consequences of using racist language targeting a specific community.
‘I am not a virus’: Democrat congressman Ted Lieu.Credit:SenateTV/AP
“It’s not about policing speech. I served in active duty, so you can say whatever you want on the First Amendment,” Lieu, who served in the Air Force, said. “You can say racist, stupid stuff if you want. But I’m asking you to please stop using racist terms like ‘kung flu’ or ‘Wuhan virus’ or other ethnic identifiers and describe them as a virus. I am not a virus.”
Two Asian American Republicans from California, Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel, focused on the rise in violence directed at members of their community.
“This should not have to be said, but I want to be very clear: No American of any race or ethnic group is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kim said. “The virus does not discriminate.”
While no Republican on the committee defended Trump’s specific language to characterise the coronavirus during the hearing, some congressional Republicans do continue to use phrases like “China virus,” a term Trump took credit for during the Fox News interview. Republicans said Democrats urging them to stop criticising China for failing to contain the coronavirus is part of broader liberal attempts to “cancel” their opinions from being heard.
Chinese-Japanese American student Kara Chu, 18, prepares for the rally “Love Our Communities: Build Collective Power” to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence in Los Angeles, last week.Credit:AP
Erika Lee, who teaches history and Asian American studies at the University of Minnesota, testified that conflating Asian Americans with foreign governments, like targeting Japanese Americans as the enemy during World War II, “has been an age-old way” of denigrating the community that leads to a rise of racist attacks. “This is one of the ways American racism works,” she said.
John Yang, president executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said using ethnic identifiers to describe the virus has “no medical benefit” and only dehumanises a community.
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“We have no free speech right to yell fire in a crowded theatre, and what is happening is that the Asian Americans are in a crowded theatre where we are being endangered,” he said. “Regardless of free speech, all of us as leaders have an obligation to model behaviour that we want our community to follow.”
Democrats said they are working on introducing legislation that would create an office in the Justice Department to specifically focus on Asian American discrimination. Rep. Judy Chu, R-Calif., became emotional, her voice shaking as she urged Congress to pass the measure.
“It is time that we continue to push back against xenophobia every time it rears its ugly head,” she said. “Asian Americans must not be used as scapegoats in times of crisis. Lives are at stake.”
The Washington Post