'We’ve been sounding the alarms... for quite some time now': Stop AAPI Hate Co-Founder

Chinese for Affirmative Action Co-Executive Director Cynthia Choi joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down how racism and the display of Asian American hate has impacted the Asian American community.

Video Transcript

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JEN ROGERS: Welcome to "A Time for Change." I'm Jen Rogers here with Sibile Marcellus, Kristin Myers, and joined today by our colleague Melody Hahm for an important conversation about the alarming rise in anti-Asian attacks and rhetoric.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, we are going to begin with a video of one of those attacks. I want to warn it is graphic and upsetting. It is hard to watch. But it is important for us all to see.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Absolutely. Just last week, a 65-year-old Asian-American woman was attacked in midtown Manhattan in broad daylight, and she was on her way to church. The attacker reportedly yelled an obscenity and said, quote, "You don't belong here." Now a 38-year-old man has been arrested and charged with felony assault as a hate crime.

MELODY HAHM: That video is excruciating, and it's just one of many that are circulating online and drawing attention and ire regarding this problem . To talk about the rise in anti-Asian violence and racism, we are joined now by Cynthia Choi, the co-founder of the nonprofit STOP AAPI Hate. Cynthia, thank you so much for joining us today.

CYNTHIA CHOI: Thanks so much for having me.

MELODY HAHM: So, you know, STOP AAPI Hate has been an instrumental resource, really invaluable during this time to measure and quantify this violence and vitriol we're seeing toward the Asian community. Your latest national report found about 3,800 incidents received during the last year, but that doesn't, of course, include everything that's happened since the Atlanta shooting on March 16. Give us the latest numbers here on what you're seeing and how folks are being able to report during this time.

CYNTHIA CHOI: That's right. We started tracking this last year in March because of what we were seeing in terms of news accounts and social media posts. And we wanted to be able to document the extent, the magnitude of these incidents and where it was happening and to whom so that we could effectively intervene. And what we found is that it was pervasive.

We were getting reports from all over the country while people were living their daily lives and being assaulted, verbally harassed. And we also found that women, in particular, were vulnerable to these types of hate incidents. And so this is something that I think we've been sounding the alarms for for quite some time now.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Cynthia, research has shown that Asian-Americans are the least likely to report hate crimes to law enforcement. What's behind that?

CYNTHIA CHOI: Yeah, so there historically has been an underreporting to government agencies, to law enforcement, because there has been, I think, broken trust within the government. Especially under the last four years, we have seen a very hostile treatment of immigrants, and also just the fact that they've endured racism and discriminatory treatment and at times have felt like, well, nothing could be done about it. Our reporting center allows anyone to report what they've experienced directly or witness regardless of whether it's a crime, because we do need to have interventions that include public education and other efforts as well.

MELODY HAHM: You know, Cynthia, speaking of some of that vitriol and toxicity, over the weekend former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee did tweet that he would now identify as Chinese. The exact tweet says, "Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my values, and I'll probably get shoes from Nike and tickets to MLB games." Of course, folks are saying this is criticizing companies that have spoken out against Georgia's blatantly racist election reform bill. What are your thoughts here? I mean, we heard from [INAUDIBLE] yesterday specifically speaking about how this sort of rhetoric is exactly the fuel, right, the fire that started all that we've seen in 2020 and 2021.

CYNTHIA CHOI: That's right. I mean, this isn't anything new. We have historically had elected officials use their outside platform to vilify, to target, to discriminate against Asians and other communities of color. The fact that that tweet was really speaking about the fact that companies, the public in general are speaking out against any forms of discrimination, whether it's voter suppression or the attacks that Asians are experiencing. And by the way, those attacks are affecting Asian-American voters who came out in record numbers because of this racial reckoning that we're having in Georgia. So I think it's really important that we see the connections and call out this racist rhetoric no matter where it's coming from.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: And the George Floyd trial-- rather the trial of Derek Chauvin is currently underway. It was encouraging and empowering to see so many ethnic groups come together and stand up against injustice after the murder of George Floyd. Is America at a turning point? And what kind of change can we expect from here?

CYNTHIA CHOI: As dark as this time has been, for me, it has been an incredible opportunity for us to really look at structural racism, the historic context in which there has been excessive police abuse, especially in Black and brown communities. Asians have also been victims of excessive police abuse as well. And this has been a racial reckoning for all of us.

We have been affected differently, but it really is calling out systemic racism, whether it's in policing. We have a violence issue in this country. The fact that in the Atlanta area mass shooting that six of the eight victims were Asian and that three Asian businesses were targeted. This is a time for us to come together. And I am very inspired by the fact that so many are asking themselves, what can I do during this period?

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Yes, it's definitely inspiring to see so many groups come together and really try to change America for the better. Cynthia Choi, thanks so much.