March 18, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kate Coscarelli
732-937-7548
STATEMENT OF NJSBA PRESIDENT KIMBERLY A. YONTA CONDEMNING
ACTS OF HATE AND VIOLENCE AGAINST ASIAN AMERICANS
The New Jersey State Bar Association condemns acts of hate, bias and violence against Asian Americans.
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the United States and New Jersey have seen an alarming surge in reports of anti-Asian incidents of bias, racism and xenophobia, including this week's shooting in Atlanta that left six women of Asian descent dead.
There were nearly 3,800 incidents of discrimination reported to Stop APPI Hate between last March and February, according to its latest report. In New Jersey, there were 59 incidents directed against Asian Americans, the eighth most of any state. And a Pew Research Center survey found that three in 10 Asian Americans reported having experienced racial slurs or racist jokes since the beginning of the pandemic. This rise in attacks on Asian Americans comes at a time when the nation has seen an overall decline in hate crimes, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.
History has shown how the scourges of racism and xenophobia have inflicted harm upon communities of color, as well as other marginalized populations and society as a whole, resulting in structural inequalities and the advancement of oppression and violence.
We join with our colleagues in the legal community and numerous other organizations in their calls for unity and support to end acts of bias, discrimination and violence against Asian Americans.