Last Thursday, 164 House Republicans voted against a solution in order to punish those portraying anti-Asian racism.
Daniel Dae Kim, actor, speaks up on the situation of human rights and testified on a Judiciary Committee subcommittee: “I was disheartened to find that for a bill that required no money or resources, members of Congress voted against it.”
The hearing topic discussed on Thursday displayed the discrimination against Asian Americans, falling two days after the Georgia Spa Shootings widely spread in the news across the nation.
Kim, a sole witness from the testifying on Thursday’s hearing, felt ‘honored and dismayed,’ that racist violence was on the rise yet Congress had failed to acknowledge and act upon it when they have the power.
Touching upon the Georgia Spa incident, which police states the shooter was having a bad day when it occurred, Kim chimes in, “I will tell you just to start when I have a bad day… I don’t think about going out and murdering eight people.point 510 |
” Adding on, he calls attention to similar crimes as the elderly woman, 89, in Brooklyn who had been set on fire.point 100 | 1
Kim had continued to push for legislation to be voted on the House, for example, Representative Grace Meng’s “COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.” Last September, the House passed a resolution against anti-Asian ‘sentiment, racism, discrimination, and religious intolerance related to COVID-19’ yet fail to pass it in the last hearing.
Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy states: “We believe in justice… You know, we take justice very seriously..” before starting to criticize the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s way of handling the pandemic this past year.
This topic had brought out the heat, for people argued for basic human rights and setting examples that individuals can “talk about issues with any other country… but you don’t have to do it by putting a bullseye on the back of Asian Americans across the country.” says Meng on the rise of violence against Asian Americans.
Meng includes in her video a cry for help, standing alongside Daniel Dae Kim for solidarity, “Our community is bleeding. We are in pain.”
Another witness, Democrat and Stanford Law professor Shirin Sinnar, linked former president Trump’s rhetoric alongside the increase of violence.
“When former President Donald Trump used racist dog whistles that are clearly interpreted as an effort to blame one community…. That effects the entire society…. that normalizes stigmatizing a particular community for hate, it does lead to ripple effects to society at large.”
There were less Republicans who attended last Thursday, though they argue that the U.S. is working on its racism problem.
Replaced!