AHA Statement on Violence against Asians and Asian Americans

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the only immigration restriction in US history based solely on a specific racial group (as the Chinese were considered at the time), remained on the books until 1943. [...] These moments of crisis punctuated the continued targeting of Asian Americans on the grounds of local business competition and allegations of employment displacement. [...] The racialized misogyny explicit in the Atlanta killings is the product of generations-long stereotyping and cultural denigration against Asian American women in particular. [...] A study conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, has concluded that hate crimes in the United States declined overall by 7 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. [...] For months, high-level federal officials in the United States referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus” and the “Kung Flu.” This baseless and irresponsible scapegoating evokes the assaults in San Francisco 121 years ago, when members of the Chinese community were blamed for an outbreak of an epidemic, their property seized and homes destroyed.