Vice President Kamala Harris Condemns Anti-Asian Hate and Efforts to Suppress Voting Rights

Vice President Kamala Devi Harris is urging Asian Americans to come together and mobilize to strengthen the community. Harris was speaking at AAPI Victory Alliance’s Unity Summit’s event —‘From Violence to Victory’ — today, May 19, to commemorate AAPI Heritage Month. The virtual summit highlighted the growing electoral power of the AAPI community amidst a grim uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes and included the biggest names in the AAPI orbit and politics.

 “As we emerge from the pandemic, I believe we are at the start of a new era,” Harris said. “I believe we have a unique opportunity now to shape our nation’s future, to transform how we live, how we work, and how we vote, for the better.” Noting the alarming rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, Harris said that now is the time for us to “shape how we live, how we live together, how we live together as one nation but by many; how we respect one another; and how we see one another.” 

AAPI Victory Alliance works to build Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) political power across the country by providing education on progressive issues; creating and advocating for policies that affect our communities; and building alliances with organizations to help AAPIs exert their power and be the margin of victory at the local, state, and national levels.

Shekar Narasimhan, chairman and founder, AAPI Victory Alliance stressed the importance for the AAPI community to be visible and woke, “at all times, not just before the elections and not just when you are in headlines.” Narasimhan said Harris, “represents all of us.” He continued: “We are particularly proud of her Indian heritage and we lay claim to Madame Vice President as being the first Asian American Vice President in the history of the United States.

Shekar Narasimhan, chairman and founder, AAPI Victory Alliance stressed the importance for the AAPI community to be visible and woke, “at all times, not just before the elections and not just when you are in headlines.” Narasimhan said Harris, “represents all of us.” He continued: “We are particularly proud of her Indian heritage and we lay claim to Madame Vice President as being the first Asian American Vice President in the history of the United States.”

In a statement issued earlier, Varun Nikore, executive director, AAPI Victory Alliance said the group is “thrilled that our favorite daughter, Vice President Kamala Harris,” will deliver the keynote address “for our first-ever unity summit.” Noting that “AAPIs are rising,” he said: “As the fastest growing group in the country, we witnessed a 46 percent increase in turnout from 2016 to 2020 despite a rise of hate and violence against our communities.  It’s time we call our communities together to discuss strategies for engaging and mobilizing in the future.”

Harris highlighted the increase in anti-Asian hate crime as well. Over 6,600 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported since March 2020, Harris said, but added that as the previous attorney general of California, she knows that those numbers are always underreported. “So the numbers I just shared with you are not an accurate reflection necessarily of the number of hate crimes actually occurred.”

Harris spoke about the time in March, when she and President Joe Biden sat down with Asian American leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, “day after the tragic shootings that killed eight people, six of whom we all know were of Asian descent; seven who were women.” She recalled how she spoke about “how Asian Americans have the right to be recognized as American, not as the ‘other,’ not as ‘them,’ but as us. In America, I do believe a harm against any one of us is a harm against one of us and we shall all then recognize that interconnection between each of us.” She applauded the Congress for passing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, “and that is why the president will soon sign this historic bill into law.”

She highlighted the importance of putting Americans to work in good union jobs, and condemned the current slew of GOP-led voting restrictions. “The AAPI community knows the power of the Unions, building on the tradition of the Filipino farm workers who organized in the 1960s to the fact that as of today we know at least 10 percent of AAPI have been represented by Unions,” she said. “And we are working of course to increase that number because it is about making sure that all workers have a voice in a way that we ensure that they are paid for the value of their work and they work in a place that gives them safety and protection.” 

On the issue of voting, she said: “We have the opportunity to make voting easier, not more difficult, to lift up more voices, not fewer, and we must start by fighting against attacks on voting rights and it is happening right before us, in so many instances, in such a blatant way, and in an unapologetic way, so we must fight against those attacks.” Since the start of 2021, more than 360 bills to restrict the right to vote have been introduced in nearly every state in the U.S., she noted, and added: “Many of the states specifically target vote by mail and let’s be clear about this while 64 percent of Asian Americans vote by mail,” she said. “We must see these efforts for what they are. Let’s be clear eyed. They are an attempt to suppress the right to vote.”

Other leaders who spoke at the event were former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sent. Cory Booker and Tammy Duckworth, former U.S. Ambassador to India Rich Verma and actors Tan France and Simu Liu. They discussed the increased anti-Asian hate and attacks, the rising AAPI influence and importance in electoral politics, and where AAPIs go from here to harness this growing influence and scope. Clinton said that seeing the community respond to anti-Asian hate has given her hope. “I’m seeing a real coming-together, not only of the community itself, but the allies — people who are standing up, speaking out, voting on behalf of what should be obvious, which is a fair, just, equal, inclusive America.”