Sacramento City Council to vote on measure condemning anti-Asian hate
On Tuesday, March 9, members of the Sacramento City Council will vote on a resolution from Councilmember Mai Vang denouncing recent acts of anti-Asian bias and hate in Sacramento.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg joined Vang and Councilmembers Eric Guerra and Rick Jennings on March 2 in a press conference to show support for Kelly Shum and her family, who own the Mad Butcher shop on Florin-Perkins Road. On Feb. 22, a dead, mutilated cat was recently found in the parking lot of the shop, and Sacramento police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
Additionally, on February 25, 2021, a video of a Sacramento high school teacher making offensive “slant eye” gestures to depict Asians during class was filmed and circulated on social media.
“Silence is not acceptable,” Mayor Steinberg said at the press conference. We speak up and we speak out.”
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in California in March 2020, harmful and xenophobic rhetoric related to the geographic origins of this disease resulted in a rise in reported hate incidents and crimes against AAPI individuals, communities, and businesses throughout the state.
Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition aimed at addressing anti-Asian discrimination amid the pandemic and founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department, documented over 2,800 hate incidents targeting AAPIs in the United States in 2020 since March 2020. J. From March to June 2020, Stop AAPI Hate received reports of over 800 hate incidents in California against AAPIs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest in the country.
“We need our elected officials to listen; we need change,” said Shum, who has had to hire private security to deal with a rise in anti-Asian harassment.
“Thank you for listening to me and supporting me through this,” she said to those who stood with her at the press conference, a group that also included Faith Lee from state Sen. Richard Pan’s office, community activist Lee Lo and south Sacramento Pastor Les Simmons.
