>> Northwest Now is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

>> Instead of working with each other, vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans, who've been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.

At this very moment, so many of them, our fellow Americans, they're on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives.

And still -- still -- they're forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America.

It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop.

>> The attacks are sickening, but this problem isn't new.

It's part of a long, horrible history of abuse, murder, and expulsion that rears its ugly head during times of economic or social trouble.

I've said it many times: COVID has the power to make all of our problems that much worse, and now the violence of people against Asian descent is no exception.

That's the discussion next on Northwest Now.

[ Music ] When Donald Trump called COVID "the China virus," critics say the table was set for the ignorant to lash out against the Asian diaspora in America, be they naturalized Asian Americans or people on student, work, tourism, or business visas.

The point is that, sadly, no matter their status, people of Asian descent are vulnerable on America's mean streets.

KBTC's documentary Of Race and Reconciliation details the 1885 expulsion of Chinese immigrants from Tacoma, and we've discussed Japanese internment during World War II as well.

But this latest expression is all about COVID.

While the FBI says there are still questions about a possible racial motivation in the murder of eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian American women, stopaapihate.org reports there have been at least 4,000 brutal, racially-motivated attacks all across the country in the year ending February 28th.

And that's just the ones that get reported.

The Seattle police report racially-motivated bias crimes steadily increasing over the past five years, with 2020's total coming in at 500, an 80% increase over the previous year.

In recent weeks, the situation here in western Washington has deteriorated to the point that the governor felt he had to address it.

>> We need to recognize this is a scourge.

It is not just in other states.

Unfortunately, it is in our state as well.

And we all have to wrap our arms in the embrace of our neighbors and community members who are Asian-American to stand against this.

>> A Pew Center analysis shows that the country's 20 million Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group, with population estimates of up to 23 million in the new census.

But that's not translating to acceptance.

After years of decreases, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino reports a 149% increase in anti-Asian violence in the nation's 16 largest cities.

Joining us now are Connie So, the president of the OCA Asian Pacific Advocates of Greater Seattle and a teaching professor at UW Seattle, and Kendall Kosai, the associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of the Pacific Northwest.

Why is this happening right now?

>> There's always been violence against Asian Americans.

Not to this point that it is right now, and we know a lot of it does have to do with the rhetoric used by the former administration, right.

So if your national leader is encouraging it and at least not coming down against those who would espouse it, then of course we may expect that this may happen more.

But I would say that -- and the US Commission on Civil Rights, back in 1992, they had a report after Vincent Chin.

And a lot of the increase that had been occurring, especially in the 90s and 2000s, it's a lot about move-in violence.

Many people of color are moving into different neighborhoods.

And so when that occurs, you do actually see a lot what we call the move-in violence.

And then it's -- number two is always the racial hatred by some organized groups, but usually most leaders are opposed to them.

Usually they're condemned.

And we found that this time, a lot of that rhetoric wasn't -- was online, but it wasn't condemned by the last administration the way it had been in the past.

And the, you know, FBI and other organizations used to take a pretty good watch on this.

That didn't happen.

The other ones are pretty obvious.

They're just ethnic competition nationally, and also, if the economy's going bad, then people start blaming things.

And, of course, with COVID-19, there's been very bad economies right now.

And what can we say?

It's insensitive media coverage.

Whenever a crime is done by someone who's Muslim, they say Muslim person did this or that, but when a Christian does it, they don't make that kind of association.

They don't make -- they don't provide that type of adjective, right, to describe the person.

And also, when someone is a person of color that commits a crime, that's identified much more.

And lately, all we hear is this anti-North Korea, anti-China, and before that, anti-Japan.

And so that happens as well.

So it's definitely the ethnic competition, insensitive media coverage.

And then finally, I would just say, and I think you see it right now, it's just really poor police response.

I mean, you give up after a while when you tell people something has happened.

I hear this from a lot of my students.

They're reporting someone is stalking them, and this seems to be because they're Asian American women.

And they're always told -- and this is a big problem for women in general, but they're told that until something happens to them physically, it's not a hate crime, they're not being stalked.

And so it's a multitude of a lot of different problems that we have.

>> Why, in your assessment, is this happening?

And why does it seem to happen during times of national stress and crisis?

And, you know, Connie referred to this.

You know, we've seen this movie before.

What's your take on it?

>> Oh, absolutely.

I completely agree with Connie and her statement about how rhetoric over the last year, in particular anti-China sentiment, anti-China rhetoric, has certainly played a part in the rise of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

You know, when you have individuals in -- who hold the highest office in the land or congressional leaders using rhetoric like, you know, "China virus," "kung flu," things like that, it's completely inappropriate and it does have consequences in the real world.

It's not some hypothetical.

We've seen in the past how rhetoric has fueled the flames of hate across our country.

I would say that, you know, here in Washington State in particular, hate is just on the rise in general.

Washington has the second-highest number of hate crimes per capita in the entire country.

And when we think about hate crime and think about Washington, we can think of it as a very inclusive, diverse, safe place for communities.

It is not.

It's the third-highest number, gross total number, of hate crimes across the entire country.

And so when we talk about hate crimes, we don't think about Washington.

We -- what we should be thinking about is, how are we addressing some of these gaps in our laws?

How are we addressing ensuring that law enforcement has the tools to recognize hate crimes when they actually happen, that they're trained properly to make sure that communities are properly resourced?

All these things are coming to a larger holistic approach that we need to take in addressing the rise of hate here in the Pacific Northwest.

>> Yeah.

And I think, Kendall, your point's a good one about the Pacific Northwest.

And I think if people remember their history a little bit, you know, Washington State, Idaho are long-time centers of far-right-wing Christian Identity movements and others.

So I think people are only surprised about that who don't remember burning Robert Matthews out of his compound on Whidbey Island.

So, you know, there is a history there.

Here's -- now that was the easy question.

Here is the hard question.

People are certainly making a mistake, Connie, conflating COVID with Asian people.

They have nothing to do with each other.

I will also say people are making a mistake by conflating legitimately questioning the Chinese Communist Party and being called a racist.

I'm suggesting that maybe we shouldn't have these conversations together.

Chinese policy's one thing.

Beating up Asian Americans is another.

Let's fix this one locally.

It's within our power.

That's my take on it.

I'm not the guest.

What's your take?

>> Well, you know, I know for OCA Asian-Pacific Americans, because we try to avoid talking about the international politics.

We focus domestically, although you can't really separate things.

And part of that is, you know, a lot of us, as Asian Americans, we also feel that, yes, you can go ahead and talk about China, but come on.

[Laughing] Russia was doing a lot more, right?

Why aren't you doing that?

And even the whole rhetoric about things that are made in China and how, you know, they're -- you got to question it.

Well, there are a lot of questionable things made by Americans, and there are a lot of questionable things made by Europeans and others.

But people seem to be -- it seems that the coverage is much more exaggerated sometimes -- not always, right -- when it comes to products made in China.

And I can't help but think about what happened with the Mariners when Nintendo was going to be a big stakeholder in it, and all these people saying that Japan has taken over America.

But yet you have Montreal Expos.

You have Vancouver Canucks.

And so to me, it's not so clearly -- I mean, there are differences, but even to me, the way that people talk about Asian countries sometimes and other countries, they made it and you can't get away from the -- historically, the colonization, imperialism, the put-downs of a lot of countries of color, continents of color.

And so that's why I'm saying that, yes, maybe you shouldn't have a complaint to give, but it's impossible, because I think about World War II.

I think about Vietnam War and all these other wars, right.

People put them together, and so even -- and part of it is -- okay.

I'll go talk about it for Asian-American women.

I know when I was -- came -- first came back to UW and I was going to find a film on Olongapo City.

And that was where we had the RNRs of the Philippines before Mount Pinatubo exploded.

I went down to the UW libraries, and I just said, "I want this film on Olongapo City."

There's this white male.

He goes, "Oh, yeah, Olongapo City."

He goes, "Oh, yeah, the women there really, really like me."

And he went on and on.

He kind of gave me this eye, and of course I was much younger than him.

And I thought, "Ridiculous.

I'm just picking up a movie, and yet you can't separate it."

And that's why I'm saying it's not.

People bring back their fantasies.

They bring back what they've seen in the media and all these other places and the history textbooks and they place it upon a lot of us.

And so, you know, and then also you're asked, "What are you?

Where are you from?"

and all these other things.

So that's why we don't really have the luxury of totally separating, because a lot of us are always seen as perpetual foreigners as well and treated that way.

I mean, the question I think all Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans go through is "What are you?

Where are you from?

Where are you really from?"

Now in my case, I'm from Hong Kong.

I'm proud of that but, you know, I've been here since I was four years old.

I'm almost 60 now, right.

[Laughing] So Seattle is where I'm from.

And again, I don't -- I understand curiosity, but I always tell them, "If you're so curious, why don't you ask the white male next to me?

Why don't you ask the white female next to me, right?

But you're only asking me."

And that's why I'm saying that, you know, the conversations should be separate.

We say that.

But on the other hand, it's impossible to separate for a lot of us because people keep throwing it on me, and they keep throwing it on Kendall.

[Laughing] They keep throwing it on all Asian Americans.

And, you know, I could even go on about elementary school, when you're asked, if they [inaudible] from Hong Kong, "Tell us all about China," as if we would have it in our DNA to know all about this.

So I think the sensitivity is a big point, you know, so.

>> Yeah.

And Kendall, I want to pose that same question to you.

Can you legitimately question a foreign power like the Chinese Communist Party and not be a racist and also say, "Listen, we should not be abusing people of color in this country.

They're separate issues"?

I just sometimes bristle a little bit about the idea of people asking questions about human rights, about the Uyghur communities, about Hong Kong, about the trade war, about the cyber war being labeled racists themselves when I'm not sure that that's the case.

How do you -- how do you view that question, Kendall?

>> I think it's nuanced.

I believe that Connie is correct, right.

We're -- Asian American and Pacific Islanders, we're seen as this perpetual foreigner that we're never going to be accepted as American.

We're never physically seen as American here in the United States, and we've seen what being a perpetual foreigner in the United States has resulted in over time.

You know, ADL is historically a Jewish organization, right, or it was.

You know, it has historical roots in the Jewish community, but we secure justice and fair treatment for everyone.

And when we talk about the Jewish community in particular, there's this notion of dual loyalty oftentimes that's perpetuated in conspiracy theories that there's this like dual loyalty to Israel rather than, yeah, you know, Jews living in the United States, right.

But this conspiracy theory is so -- it has created so much harm in the community and creating distrust against the Jewish community in creating conspiracy theories that have, you know, manifested itself in a violent manner.

I think the Asian-American community sees a lot of itself in that kind of situation right now, right.

Seen as this dual loyalty to China and being part of this, you know, foreign government.

We're Americans.

That is our narrative, and we've always been excluded from the conversation because of the way that we look or our historical immigration status or whatever it might be.

But the issue is we have to be able to see Asian Americans as Americans.

And I think for too long, we have not been able to provide that context in our story in itself.

>> So here's the question.

I want both of you to answer, too.

Connie, we'll start with you.

What can advocates do who aren't maybe Asian but want to support Asians?

What does that conversation need to be?

And frankly, telling people, "Hey, don't beat people up on the street" seems too elementary to me.

[Laughter] It doesn't seem sufficient.

What do Asian people want out of non-Asian people in this?

>> Well, you know, going back to your other question and this question, here's what I see similar -- is that you can talk to me about a lot of international, national issues just as conversation, right, but I find that people come up to me and they start asking me only things about Asia.

So it's not like a general conversation.

The reason they're thinking about it is because they see me as Asian American.

But I would also say, as Kendall said, it depends on who's talking to me.

If it's Kendall, you know, I know him and we belong to similar organizations and such.

I know if he's talking about it, it's because he goes through the same experience I've gone through where we both get mistaken and all this dual loyalty and all this other stuff.

So when people come up to me -- I hear Joseph Biden and others saying that you should go ask your Asian American friends how you are and so forth, right.

And a lot of people I know get mad about that, too.

And someone asked me recently about how do I feel about it, and I said it depends on who the person asking me is, right.

If it's someone I'm already a friend with and they know I'm getting stressed, they've always had a conversation with me.

So if they ask me, I think they're generally concerned for me.

But if someone who doesn't really know me and all the sudden comes up to me and asks me this, right, I kind of feel like they're doing it more for themselves to say that they did something like this than it is that they're generally concerned about me.

But again, it depends on the person, depends on what my relationship has been, and so forth.

I mean, right now, I've been stressed for the last two years at least by so many different things going on, COVID being a big part of it and having friends and other people I know, you know, ill, early days, passing away and such.

So I'm just saying that it's nuanced, as Kendall said, not a one message fit all.

It depends.

And why you're doing it -- and again, our suspicion sometimes, right, kind of like the person that says, "I'm curious."

Why are they curious about me and not about others?

Do they really care about me, or they just want to tell someone that they asked an Asian American [laughing] how they are because they want to be a good person and that's why?

What can people do?

I think, like you said, it really should be respect other people.

It should be, you know.

I always greet people I don't know.

I nod and I say hi, you know, or something like that.

That to me is just a normal thing to do, though nowadays, we don't see a lot of people because we're all staying at home.

And I think part of the anger, part of the animosity, part of the mental health issues we're hearing from a lot of perpetrators and such has to do with COVID-19.

I think they're all related to each other, and I remind myself of that -- that probably people may not feel as much hate, but they're probably financially depressed right now.

They're not getting a lot of support.

I'm fortunate.

I have my family with me.

I have a job still.

But many other people don't have that.

And so when I think that way, you know, then you're going to be better about this, right.

But a lot of people aren't going to do this, and this is why I'm saying it's hard to say what people can do to actually make people feel better.

But definitely, I think, stop being so anti-Asian in the rhetoric [laughing] nationally.

Don't consider us to be perpetual foreigners.

And, as you said, it's like don't hit someone, don't bully people.

Those should be obvious.

>> Kendall, I want you to add to that, too.

You have a chance, possibly, here to talk to advocates or people who want to be.

What do you want that conversation to be, and what message would you like to send to them?

>> My message is "Support community."

There are a number of great organizations that are doing great work here in our local community here in Seattle, you know, a number of organizations that support Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through their health needs or their economic needs or whatever it might be.

I encourage individuals to give generously to those organizations and to support community.

I would say to elected leaders, "Stop using anti-China rhetoric that is harmful to our communities, that has inflamed the tensions that we have seen over the last year during COVID-19."

I would say to the general public, "Support our work by advocating for stronger hate crimes laws here in Washington State, ensuring that we're taking a holistic approach in fighting hate through the legislative means, through law enforcement, through community resources."

All this is needed in addressing this larger systemic movement of hate, right.

And so, as the, you know, recommendations made by the attorney general's hate crimes working advisory group, you know, a bill may come out next year or, you know, in subsequent years to really address some of these recommendations.

Support that bill.

Ensure that our communities are protected and resourced to fight back against hate.

>> Connie, I want to ask you a question.

You talked a little bit about resentments.

One of the -- it's interesting.

One of the stereotypes that Asian Americans face is almost coming full circle to having too good of PR, this idea, "Oh, well, the Asians are very successful.

They're very smart.

They're professionals.

I mean, you know, they've done so much for this country.

My goodness."

I've actually heard feedback that too much of a good thing is stereotypical.

And do you think that feeds into resentment a little bit?

Is there -- are there some strings to connect and tie together here?

>> You know, there's a lot to be said about the model minority myth.

And again, Asian Americans, Pacific Island Americans have been disproving it for at least four decades, [laughing] okay.

And again, it's inaccurate.

When people say we're doing too well, sometimes -- I think it was Newsweek or Time, one of those magazines, mainstream magazines, that said it was Asian Americans are out-whiting whites.

As I tell my students, what does it mean to be out-whiting whites?

So if you're a person of color, you're not supposed to be successful?

You're not supposed to be academically gifted?

And again, we can break it down economically that actually, Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, we have a lot of glass ceilings.

We're actually not doing, financially, as well.

We live in standard metropolitan statistical areas that are -- that -- whose incomes always start out higher because cost of living is higher.

And actually, when you compare Asian Americans in Seattle, Asian Americans in San Francisco, in New York City, in the places where Asian Americans tend to live, even if you just take the median family income, they actually don't make more than whites there.

Not that we have to, but a lot of times, we are more educated than the whites in these areas, too.

So there's a lot of different issues, and there's a great variety among the people who make the Asian category.

There's a great variety among the people that make up Pacific Islanders.

And this is why a lot of times, a lot of Asians and a lot of Pacific Islanders don't like the term "Asian American" or "Pacific Islanders," but that's a whole different conversation.

The main thing about us doing so well -- actually, a lot of people say Asians -- you said the old stereotype, like Yellow Peril, the fear that Chinese were taking over by population, the fear that the Japanese would take over by military, and all these other things.

Actually, I think model minority, given how many times we've disproven it, it's another Yellow Peril.

Model minority is saying that Asian Americans are taking over white America.

We're taking over by universities.

We're taking over financially.

It's as if we have no problems.

We've had problems.

We've had a lot of problems.

We are being stereotyped.

And again, to say that we're doing better than somebody else makes it look like "What's wrong with the other people of color?"

And what's wrong with you as an Asian American or Pacific Islander Americans if you're not, quote-unquote, "economically successful."

And even though it's a lot of problems with the census in terms of how they miss the people who are homeless -- they miss a lot of, you know, poor people and such.

Even then, though, when you break it down -- and Asian Americans are having to do it ourselves because it seems like people are not so interested in our communities.

When we break it down for the past four decades, we always find that Asian Americans, our poverty rate is increasing faster than most other communities and there are a host of other issues despite the fact that since 1965, the immigrants out of Asia tend to be the -- and again, we all know mobility coming from one country to another, transportation and such, means a lot of class differences.

We get the better -- so-called financially better off people.

We've also had international students with visas converted and all these other things.

Despite that, Asian Americans overall are not financially better off.

The median family income does not take into account who's in the household, who is contributing, the fact that a lot of Asian American restaurants are open at 9:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the morning, and all these other problems with dry cleaners and so forth.

And again, I guess to me, what I'm saying is there's too many things for me to go through to go and to explain what is wrong with that.

And my exams in my class, we have 15 problems with the model minority stereotype, and I'm just saying that it's disproven.

It's -- but the rhetoric, the insensitive media coverage, this is what we mean by it.

>> Kendall, the last word's going to go to you here.

Generally speaking, what can people do if they want to get involved, they want to learn more, they want to stay in touch with us?

What would your last word be to folks?

>> Absolutely.

I'd say, first of all, educate yourself.

Educate yourself about the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Educate yourself about the Japanese-American incarceration.

Educate yourself about what happened to, you know, South Asian Americans after 9/11.

Educate yourself about Vincent Chin.

And make sure that, you know, you have a great context of what Asian American history here in the United States is like, ensuring that, you know, Asian American history is American history and really supporting community by being an ally, speaking out, being part of the larger narrative to ensure that, you know, justice and equality and equity are all ensured in -- across all communities.

Because again, when we're talking about an attack on one community here in the Asian American Pacific Islander community, it's an attack on all community.

It's a message.

Hate crimes are message crimes.

They're crimes that reverberate across all communities.

And we can see it whenever it happens to one, and Asian Americans need to be there for other communities when things -- acts of hate happen against them as well.

And it's important that we continue to stand up and become allies to each other here in the Pacific Northwest.

>> Connie and Kendall, thanks so much for coming to Northwest Now.

Great to hear both of your perspectives.

Thank you.

>> Thank you for having us.

>> Thank you for having us.

[ Music ] >> Legitimately questioning the actions of the Chinese Communist Party provides no justification or license to abuse people of Asian descent.

In fact, many people of Asian descent in this country deeply resent the dictatorships of Asia far more than the knuckleheads beating them up will ever know.

But if you don't know history or you've never talked to a re-education camp survivor, you wouldn't know anything about that.

The bottom line: People of Asian descent helped build this country and have made a huge ongoing contribution to its success, whether violent racists like that fact or not.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

To watch this program again or to share it with others, Northwest Now can be found on the web at kbtc.org.

And be sure to follow us on Twitter @NorthwestNow.

Thanks for taking a closer look on this edition of Northwest Now.

Until next time, I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.

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