More than a dozen senators, led by Sens. Hirono and Booker, urged the CDC and Justice Dept. to take tangible steps to address the surge in coronavirus-related acts of racism aimed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The senators also pressed DOJ to designate an official to coordinate a review of the pandemic-related hate attacks and discrimination as well as a subsequent interagency response. They demanded that the Justice Department produce monthly reports, detailing the number of hate incidents and breaking them down by race, ethnicity and gender.
Hirono noted that in the past, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division set forth a three-part plan after the 9/11 attacks that included outreach to the affected communities, including Sikhs, Muslims, South Asians and other Americans who were targeted by discrimination, as well as coordination of civil rights enforcement across agencies. And in 2003, after the SARS outbreak, the CDC launched a 14-member community outreach team the week the agency reported the first five confirmed cases of the illness.
The condemnation of racism and hate violence should not divide public officials along party lines, Hirono said. Then-President George W. Bush, a Republican, delivered a speech after the 9/11 attacks urging compassion toward Muslim Americans.
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