More than 10,000 incidents of harassment and violence against members of the Asian and Pacific Islander American communities were reported from March 2020 to December of last year. Jeanie Chang, a marriage and family therapist as well as an AAPI mental health expert, and Cynthia Choi, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, joined Cheddar to discuss how the communities are fighting back against the bias crimes, mental health challenges of attacks, and the hateful rhetoric that have given license to commit assaults. "When you have elected officials use racist rhetoric, of course, that gives license to everyday people to scapegoat, to blame, and to racially profile members of our community," said Choi.

Between Bells

Addressing Rhetoric Behind Anti-Asian Hate During AAPI Heritage Month

attacks against asian americans have continued across the country. That's according to the nonprofit Stop Aapi. I hate more than 10,000 incidents against the Api community were reported from March 2022 december of last year. Now despite those figures, more and more people in the community are standing up and demanding real solutions to this growing issue, joining us now to discuss our genie chang marriage and family therapist and api mental health expert and Cynthia chaco, executive director of chinese for affirmative action and co founder of Stop Aapi I hate ladies welcome to the show. We so appreciate your time on this important day this important month, Cynthia let me start with you Stop Aapi I hate released the national report. It found that women make up a large number of those reporting these incidents. What are they experiencing and why do you think they're being targeted the most here? Well, thank you for having me on your show today and for covering this issue as we kick off a pam asian pacific american heritage month. So since we started tracking incidents of hate of March of 2020, we had noticed high rates of incidents targeting our community and that women reported at much higher rate than men. And this was not surprising to myself and others who helped to found Stop Aapi hate because we know that women and other vulnerable communities are often subjected to street harassment. Um, we saw that racialized sexualized comments were being made to women and girls and that this is a serious issue that as a society we have failed to really systematically address. It's just heartbreaking. Like I mentioned earlier to Megan Jeannie, let's talk about you and what your clients are experiencing. How are these attacks impacting their mental health, What are they telling you here? Thank you for that question. I'm also glad to be here to highlight also, of course may being national mental health awareness month. It has been, I would say across the board, yes, hearing a lot from women, but also women are more apt to share openly and express. And we're talking, we're talking asians, it's difficult for other populations like the elderly or even men to express openly because of the culture and and I will find that across the board, I'm finding a lot of anxiety and fear that was already escalated to the to the pandemic, right? So then you add on not feeling physically safe and then also questioning their own identity of what's happening for the first time, maybe in their lives, things are coming to the forefront that that that that we and all of us kept suppressed because we've experienced this for many years. It's just that it's coming to the forefront of being part of the narrative. Now, that's also difficult for us to handle. So there's that that distress the identity distress, but also of of course anti asian hate. And lastly of racism, it is a mental health crisis. So you have all these intersectionality is happening all at once johnny, I'm so glad you mentioned that Cynthia. I do want to talk about what Jeannie just alluded to because a large majority of these attacks are happening due to the aftermath of Covid or has this always been an issue? Or are we seeing it a lot more since some of the wording that our our politicians have used in the past? Well, I think first and foremost we have to recognize that this isn't new. Um in fact, it defines our experience where we had elected officials exploit times of uncertainty, whether it's economic or public health and in this instance and also us foreign policy with asian countries. Um this was the Tribeca in terms of what led to the unprecedented levels of hate that our community experience. So when you have elected official um used racist rhetoric of course, that gives license to everyday people to um scapegoat to blame and to racially profile members of our community. And so fortunately what we are seeing is that our communities are speaking out and have reported, which has allowed us to advocate for meaningful change, jeanie, can you walk us through the different types of trauma that these attacks can cause for people within the community? Sure, I've never had to educate so much on trauma before, but it's super important that we name what we're experiencing so that anxiety is being navigated through trauma. Secondary trauma is what I've seen the most. Uh so you don't directly have to experience someone saying a racist comment or even a hate crime directly to feel the traumatic effects. Secondary trauma comes from watching media because we all want to be, we're feeling that empathetic engagement, what's going on, what's happening in our community, reading the news, reading twitter feeds, all of that. I'll never say don't be on social media because I think it's super important to stay engaged. It's been a great way of having that sense of belonging, but it's all about boundaries, right? So secondary trauma, indirect trauma and vicarious trauma, which is, I would say the trauma over time that accumulates. I'm seeing that quite a bit journalists, particularly healthcare professionals, but all of us just feeling like the two years is a short amount of time, a blip in our lifetime, but a long time when the trauma has been ongoing repeatedly in that two year period. So those are the two main traumas that I've been seeing this question is for both of you. Cynthia, how can people be more effective allies here? Well, it is true. I mean, this is one of the most challenging periods that I can recall in my lifetime. And yet it's really important to stay engaged and to really believe that change is possible. What I've been inspired by Is the collective speaking out we had close to 11,000 people say. I want to be a part of naming that this is an issue, it's systemic, it's pervasive and I also want to be a part of the change that needs to happen. So be engaged, be committed to being anti racist and wherever you can keep this conversation going so that we can take action. Thank you for that genie, same question to you at the end of the day, people want to feel validated and seen. So I know there are times when allies want to be like, please give me a solution Jeannie, what can I do? What can I do to help feel better and help folks feel better better or just feel like we want to be with them in solidarity. There's not much needed, honestly, just hearing them out, asking questions, tell me more what's going on. I don't understand. I would love to know more about your experience. Those are pretty powerful just to find out our experiences, we want to share those stories and we need to elevate those stories and just hear more from, you know, you just said it were very diverse of a community and folks don't, aren't quite aware of that. Right? So an ally just means being curious. Um and as Cynthia said, engaged wanting to know more and even learn more ladies, it's such a pleasure talking to you, Thank you so much for your insight, jenni chang, marriage and family therapist and api mental health expert and Cynthia chaco executive director of chinese for affirmative action and co founder of Stop Aapi, I hate Ladies again, Thank you so much.