Anti-Asian Racism in the United States Continues to Soar as a Result of Attitudes Over COVID-19; the Myth of ‘Defund the Police’; and More

Pandemic continues to cause soaring levels of anti-Asian racism.

It was only a matter of time: the White House’s constant referral to COVID-19 as the “China Virus” has indeed caused a tidal wave of continuing racism against people of Asian ancestry, according to a new report published in the American Journal of Public Health. Psychiatrist Justin A. Chen, MD, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School compiled the piece after analyzing FBI reports on anti-Asian racism over the summer along with reports of anti-Asian attacks submitted to Stop AAPI Hate (a website set up by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council to monitor racist attacks in the country). “Prior to the pandemic, Asians were often held up as the ‘model minority’ who were always successful and excelled at academics,” Chen said. “But since COVID-19 swept across the world and news spread that the virus had originated in China, stereotyping of Asians has assumed a more negative tone, resulting in increasing racism, suspicion, xenophobia, bullying and even more aggressive behavior.”

 

2021 Budgets from major US cities prove “defunding the police” is a myth.

The popular Republican rallying cry is the epitome of fake news. While the idea of cities defunding their police forces was widely discussed following the horrendous death of George Floyd earlier this year, that idea has not become a reality, Bloomberg Media reports. After analyzing the approved 2021 budgets from 34 of the 50 largest cities in the country, Bloomberg found that while a few major cities like New York and Los Angeles have made large, high profile cuts to their police force funding, more than half of cities actually increased spending or kept it unchanged as a percentage of their discretionary spending. That said, change may still be coming as the combination of COVID-19 plus scheduling of some budgets that was already underway has forced certain cities to push talk of decreasing their policing budgets until the next calendar year.

 

Rochester appoints first Black female police chief following Daniel Prude’s death.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren has named Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, a former lieutenant with the Rochester Police Department as the organization’s new chief, the Philadelphia Tribune reports. Former Police Chief La’Ron Singletary was fired earlier this month after body camera footage of the March 23 incident was released, showing Prude, a Black man who died several days after officers put a hood over his head and pressed his face into the pavement on March 23—a death that caused a new wave of anti-police protests throughout the country. “I am confident that [Herriot-Sullivan] will bring a different perspective and instill a fresh approach to policing, both of which are very much needed in our city, particularly at this difficult time,” Warren said following the announcement.

 

Are you registered to vote? Vote.org provides a number of resources for voters including a state-by-state rundown of important dates and regulations to know, plus information on registering to vote, how to successfully vote by mail and more. For more info, go to vote.org.

 

Related: For more recent diversity and inclusion news, click here

 

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