‘We have to change the culture’: Sacramento leaders propose solutions for anti-Asian hate
More than 200 of Sacramento’s residents tuned into a town hall with local and state leaders Thursday evening to hear what officials are doing to combat anti-Asian discrimination and hate.
Hosted virtually by OCA Sacramento, speakers included Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang, Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. Open to all AAPI residents, residents asked a wide range of questions such as what specific policies leaders were enacting to address anti-Asian racism and how law enforcement distinguishes between a hate crime and a hate incident.
“We will no longer accept statements. We want accountability and actions to combat anti-Asian hate,” OCA Sacramento President Jinky Dolar said.
Local leaders outlined strategies and legislation in the works such as state Sen. Richard Pan’s SB 17 to declare racism a public health crisis, Assemblyman Rob Bonta’s recent AB 886 to help victims of hate crimes access services and Pan’s push to create a state office for racial equity. Steinberg said he is building a city office that will hire community leaders such as social workers to deescalate non-criminal situations, rather than resort to law enforcement.
Vang also vowed to improve language accessibility in local government, push for more disaggregated data on Sacramento’s AAPI community and create a racial equity initiative that would ensure the city’s budgets center the needs of marginalized communities.
“There have been incidents in this city where Asian lives have not been seen with a sense of urgency,” Vang said. “What I’m asking is making sure we have victim-centered approaches (to policy and change).”
Leaders also emphasized the importance of hiring people from a diverse range of communities to their agencies, as well as having more direct conversations with the AAPI community to give them more decision-making power and hear their ideas for solutions. Steinberg also called for more Asian Americans to seek out positions of power, whether that’s in elected office or community organizing.
Sacramento’s Asian American community was shaken by the shootings in Atlanta last week that killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent. Several attendees asked Sacramento police what they were doing to address hate crimes and build trust with an AAPI community that can be skeptical of law enforcement and be reticent to report hate crimes.
“The more we ensure that law enforcement … takes these things seriously, the more people will feel comfortable in reporting,” Hahn said, adding that Sacramento’s hate crimes task force employs a victim advocate. “Part of our outreach has been to the massage establishments in our city.”
When panelists were asked whether they considered the shootings in Atlanta to be a hate crime, Hahn said that he didn’t know, but believed the shootings warranted an investigation for hate as a possible motive.
The Sacramento area has faced its own anti-Asian incidents, including a mutilated cat left in the parking lot of a Chinese-owned butcher shop and anonymous hate messages sent to Asian American high schoolers in Rocklin. Not every hate incident is a hate crime, Schubert said, the main difference being that incidents are statements while hate crimes combine hate with criminal conduct such as attempted robbery.
To combat those hate incidents that don’t rise to the level of hate crimes, Vang called for more education for young people about the history of Asian Americans, the painful history of anti-Asian discrimination in the U.S. and their contributions to the country’s success. Investing in education like this is part of a preventative approach to fighting hate crimes, Vang said.
“We have to change the culture of American society,” Vang said. “No one entity can do this alone. We need to change the consciousness of how folks view Asians and Asian Americans.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.