In a virtual city hall of NBC News on Wednesday, US lawyers, journalists and celebrities in Asia will discuss the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, prejudice incidents and racism since the beginning of the pandemic.
City Hall “The Racism Virus” airs Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET on NBC News Now. Judy Chu, D-California, chairwoman of the Congress-Asian Pacific American-American caucus, will be presented. basketball player Jeremy Lin; actress Olivia Munn; Russell Jeung, an American professor of Asian studies at San Francisco State University; Nobel Laureate and Activist Amanda Nguyen; comedian Margaret Cho; actor Brian Tee; Kimmy Yam, reporter for NBC Asian America, and more.
NBC News’ investigative and consumer correspondent Vicky Nguyen will be moderate. The event is hosted by NBC Asian America and NBC News Now.
The conversation will discuss how the Asian American community handled the stigma of being associated with the coronavirus, which not only claimed an economic and personal toll, but also led to violent attacks.
In a teaser shared in the ‘TODAY’ program, Lin talked about how someone called him ‘coronavirus’ during a game.
“I wrestled with the question of whether I should talk about it, whether I should bring it and stuff like that,” Lin said. “It’s verbal and it’s something that happened to me in court, but I think what I’m trying to do is raise awareness of what’s going on outside of court, for people, for the elderly, for important people we love. is and in which we hold. our community. “
Anti-Asian violence has increased since the coronavirus pandemic began. A recent analysis of hate crimes in America’s largest cities revealed that although hate crimes generally decreased by 7 percent, hate crimes against Asian Americans increased by 150 percent last year.
Vicky Nguyen said she saw a silver lining while watching video attacks was painful.
“We’re talking about this in a way that I feel like we haven’t had it yet, so it’s quite a moment,” she said on ‘TODAY’.
“I’m just very excited because we have so many interesting people from across the country who are going to join this conversation.”
Read more about anti-racism resources to support the Asian American and Pacific communities here.
Victims can report prejudice incidents via the online reporting tool Stop AAPI Hate, AAPI Emergency Response Network – a non-profit source led by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans – or Asian Americans promoting justice hate crime tracker.
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