Congresswoman Discusses Ongoing Violence against Asian Community

Congresswoman Grace Meng speaks to the more than 50 members of the Browning community, April 27, 2021. Browning’s Asian Affinity Group held an open conversation with Congresswoman Meng, who represents New York's 6th congressional district, to offer insight into what we can do as a community to support Asian Americans in New York.

The Asian Affinity group recently hosted an open meeting for the School’s community with Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York about the recent spike of violence against Asian Americans in the United States. 

The main purpose of this meeting was to spread awareness about the violence against Asian-Americans, and show people how they can be allies to Asian-Americans. Congresswoman Meng went as far as to say that “Asian-Americans are battling two viruses, Covid-19 and bigotry.” She added that this violence and discrimination is not new, but merely went unnoticed until the attacks on the elderly and the Atlanta shooting.  

The first question posed to Congresswoman Meng was what got her into politics. She said that she did not see herself going into politics at first, but later went into politics as a tool that can help many people. When asked about who her mentors were, she said that “there is a teacher in anyone.” 

She then talked about her bill, House Resolution 151, which condemns and denounces anti-Asian sentiment. Not all of the bullying that Asian-Americans face is physical, and a lot of harassment they face happens virtually. 

“Anonymity breeds hate and that social media companies need to take responsibility for the harassment people face on their platforms,” she said. 

According to Congresswoman Meng, a lot of Asian-Americans don’t want to admit that they are at a disadvantage. She also says that one reason people do not know about the racism Asian-Americans face is because the crime statistics against them are underreported. 

“The central message of standing in solidarity to combat racism resonated so deeply with me. The topic of the rise of Anti-Asian sentiment is a topic that affects a lot of people in the school, and having a space to talk about it with other people of different identities was very uplifting,” Dr. Melodie Ting, one of the affinity club’s faculty advisors, said.