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Friend,
A couple of
weeks ago, our boss spoke with Vanity Fair to discuss the
recent surge in anti-Asian attacks, his own experience
with racism, and the impact of the former president’s divisive
rhetoric on the country.
In case you didn’t get
the chance to read the full interview, we’ve attached it below, but we
also wanted to share a few excerpts with Ted’s supporters so that you
can read more about this deeply personal issue in his own
words:
“...when Asian
Americans see the rise in hate crimes, it’s not surprising to us.
Partly because there’s also a history of this. If you look at our
country’s history, we had a whole Yellow Peril hysteria followed by
the Chinese Exclusion Act and then the internment of Japanese
Americans. And then when Japan was rising in the 1980s, you had
additional hate crimes, including the murder of Vincent Chin. And now
you have this pandemic causing a surge in hate crimes. There was a
tendency when our country felt threatened that it would scapegoat
minority groups, and Asian Americans were one of them.”
“It was
very clear to me that when the former president started using racist
phrases like ‘Kung flu’ and other phrases, you saw people repeat that
against me on social media. You saw people telling me to go back to
China. When he went after members of Congress and told them to
essentially go back to their country, you saw people repeat that on
their social media feeds to me.”
“I’m a strong believer in the
First Amendment. I believe people should be able to say stupid racist
stuff. Now, the consequences in a functioning democracy would be that
the voters would vote out representatives that say stupid racist
stuff. And we'll see what happens in
2022.”
Ted has spent his
entire career fighting for the equal rights of all Americans,
regardless of race or ethnicity, and as this fight hits closer to home
for all of us, we need your help. Will
you support Ted’s re-election campaign today so that he can continue
to be the leader we need in
Washington?
Best,
Team
Lieu
Last Tuesday, a gunman shot and
killed eight people at three different spas in the Atlanta area. Six
of the victims were women of Asian descent, yet within hours of
arresting the suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, authorities were
seemingly happy to take his word for it that the killings were not
motivated by racism but a sexual addiction he wanted to “eliminate,”
as though one can’t be a racist and a misogynist simultaneously.
(During the same press conference at which the spokesman for the
Cherokee County sheriff’s office suggested the alleged murders might
not have been motivated by bigotry, he told reporters that Long “was
pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and yesterday
was a really bad day for him, and this is what he did.” That spokesman
was later reportedly found to have shared an anti-Asian post on
Facebook.) All of this happened against the backdrop of a year in
which Donald Trump used his Oval Office perch to refer to COVID-19 as
the “China virus” and “Kung flu,” racist terminology that likely led
to a surge in discrimination against Asian
Americans.
On Friday,
California representative Ted Lieu spoke to the Hive about the Atlanta
tragedy, his own experience with harassment, and the impact of Trump
and other Republicans’ racist rhetoric on the country. This
conversation has been condensed and edited for
clarity.
Vanity Fair: How is it possible that some
people believe targeting and killing six people of Asian descent
doesn’t constitute a hate crime?
Ted Lieu: It wasn’t even that he
targeted three Asian businesses, it’s that he went out of his way to
kill Asian women. He went to one Asian business and shot Asians. He
then drove 27 miles to a second Asian business and shot more Asians.
Then he targeted a third Asian business. So, for law enforcement to
say, the day after the shooting, [it] wasn’t a hate crime, it’s way
too premature.
Why
do you think people are so willing to take the suspect’s word for it
that these murders didn’t have to do with racism? Last time I checked
racist people don’t just come out and say, “Yeah, I’m
racist.”
I’m not
sure many Asian American people [are taking the suspect’s word for
it]. I think many have a different view because of a shared experience
of discrimination. Growing up as a kid, I was called “chink.” Nothing
physically violent happened to us, but eggs would be thrown at our
home. One time, our car’s tires were slashed. People would make funny
sounds to stimulate Chinese language to me. So when Asian Americans
see the rise in hate crimes, it’s not surprising to us. Partly because
there’s also a history of this. If you look at our country’s history,
we had a whole Yellow Peril hysteria followed by the Chinese Exclusion
Act and then the internment of Japanese Americans. And then when Japan
was rising in the 1980s, you had additional hate crimes, including the
murder of Vincent Chin. And now you have this pandemic causing a surge
in hate crimes. There was a tendency when our country felt threatened
that it would scapegoat minority groups, and Asian Americans were one
of them. And that’s coupled with the increasing rhetoric also against
foreign countries and sometimes that bleeds over and hurts the Asian
American community.
Is it fair to say that Donald Trump’s racist
rhetoric is directly linked to the surge in Asian American
discrimination over the last year?
Did you watch the hearing [on anti-Asian
discrimination]? Professors and expert witnesses cited research that
showed clearly that there is a link between the rhetoric of the former
president and others who use rhetoric like his, and the increase in
hate crimes and hate incidences. One professor made an interesting
comment. He said, “Individuals commit crimes, but they’re done in the
context of society’s influences.” And when the leader of the free
world is using racist statements, that certainly gives people more
permission to attack Asian Americans. People were warning about this
for awhile—the Yale School of Medicine came out basically saying,
“Don’t use ethnic identifiers describing this virus.” As did the World
Health Organization and other organizations for exactly this reason—
that it would lead some people to go after the Asian American
community. All racism is toxic. But the racism that we’re seeing now
is both toxic and just really devoid of any scientific evidence,
because there is no evidence that Asians transmit the virus at any
higher rate than any other ethnic group. You’re much more likely to
get the virus of people who aren’t engaging in safe
practices.
Would
you say he’s emboldened people to be
violent?
He’s
given people more permission to discriminate against the Asian
American community and that can take a variety of forms. It could be
verbal statements, could be physical assaults, but he’s clearly,
through his racist language, given people more permission to harm
Asian Americans.
Do you think people like Rep. Chip Roy should face
any specific consequences for the inflammatory language they use? Roy
spent his time during the hearing on Asian discrimination glorifying
lynchings.
I’m a
strong believer in the First Amendment. I believe people should be
able to say stupid racist stuff. Now, the consequences in a
functioning democracy would be that the voters would vote out
representatives that say stupid racist stuff. And we'll see what
happens in 2022.
Are you worried about the fact that a large part of
the country thinks it’s great that chip Roy speaks like
this?
That is
unfortunately the case as well. But when a member of Congress
repeatedly says racist, stupid stuff, what ends up happening is they
become very ineffective as a member of Congress. You are just going to
see [that] not a lot of members of Congress are going to want to work
with Chip Roy, you’re going to see as he doesn’t get any legislation
through, he doesn’t do anything meaningful in Congress except say
stupid racist stuff.
Have you personally felt a shift in the level of
harassment in this past year?
It was very clear to me that when the former
president started using racist phrases like “Kung flu” and other
phrases, you saw people repeat that against me on social media. You
saw people telling me to go back to China. When he went after members
of Congress and told them to essentially go back to their country, you
saw people repeat that on their social media feeds to me. There are a
certain number of supporters of Trump that simply repeat whatever he
says.
What did you
think when you heard the officer who said Long had had a “bad day” had
also reportedly promoted racist T-shirts?
I thought that the press conference itself was
inappropriate. It was clear to me they hadn’t interviewed all the
witnesses and they were taking the suspect’s words at face value, even
though often times suspects are very biased in the statements they
make. And [the officer] seemed to be suggesting things that he
shouldn’t be suggesting when it’s way too early in the investigation.
His choice of language was inappropriate. Many of us have bad days. We
don’t go to Asian businesses and shoot up Asian
employees.
When [the
T-shirt stuff] was disclosed and then appeared to have been verified,
that it was his Facebook post, it made me not have confidence in the
ability of the Cherokee County sheriff’s department to fairly
investigate this case with respect to the victims. And it’s not just
that [the officer] had this Facebook post; it was up for quite a
while. You would assume his colleagues knew about it or may have heard
about it, or maybe some of them would have those same T-shirts. So the
press conference plus that Facebook disclosure has caused me to not
have confidence in the Cherokee County sheriff’s office. I would hope
federal prosecutors and investigators would do their own independent
investigation. Under the law, there’s a separate federal hate crimes
statute that allows the federal investigators [to] have full
jurisdiction in this case.
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