Political Quotes

“I rise today to condemn violence and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) that has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 2020, Stop AAPI Hate has received nearly 3,800 reports of discrimination and hate incidents nationwide. Unfortunately, the recent surge in xenophobia and hate specifically targeted against AAPIs is not new. More than 180 years ago, when the first Asian immigrants came to the United States, members of the AAPI community experienced prejudice and legalized discrimination. Xenophobic policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Federal government's incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, were born from fear, ignorance, and anti-immigrant hostility. More recently, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian Americans faced a wave of hate incidents and blame similar to what AAPI individuals are experiencing today. As George Santayana said, ``Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' The former president espoused and amplified virulent intolerance using slurs such as the ``China virus'' and ``kung flu'' to characterize the COVID-19 virus, putting the lives of 23,000,000 AAPIs at risk, including more than 2,000,000 AAPI frontline workers.…”