California governor signs state budget that includes $157 million to fight anti Asian bias

California is taking historic steps to address the recent rise in hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a $262.6 billion budget that includes $156.5 million to support victims of anti-Asian hate incidents, data collection and media outreach. 

The API Equity Budget sponsored by the API Legislative Caucus is among the most significant actions ever taken in response to the surge in anti-AAPI hate and violence over the past year and addresses racial inequities that have harmed AAPI communities since the 1800s.

“This funding is essential in addressing both the pandemic-related hate our community is facing and the racial inequities that have too long shaped the lives of California’s AAPI community," said state Senator Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, Chair of the API Legislative Caucus. 

“This sends a message to the API community that the State of California sees them and that we matter."

The majority of the funds, $110 million, will go to community groups who have been engaged in fighting the racist attacks and assisting the victims. Since the start of the pandemic, xenophobia and bigotry against the AAPI community have escalated to unprecedented levels. 

Stop AAPI Hate, a community organizing collecting reports of anti-Asian incidents  has received more than 6,600 reports of hate incidents since March 2020. Almost half of those incidents were reported in California, and these racist attacks have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable members of the community, including elders, young people, and AAPI women who report hate incidents two times as often as AAPI men.

The API Equity Budget is a small line item in the $260 billion-plus state budget  signed by Newsom. The budget can still be amended before the Legislature adjourns in September, but the API caucus is calling on Newsom to keep the fAPI Equity Budget intact in the final version.

“For decades, API communities have been longing to be seen and heard. The pandemic amplified the need to do more amid rising hate against Asian Americans. The state’s remarkable investment acknowledges this struggle by ensuring that victims have access to culturally competent services and resources," said said Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. 

"It also shores up research and data collection, so we can look at ways to prevent such attacks from happening in the first place. Every person has the right to shop, go to school and enjoy our neighborhoods safely without fear of being attacked. It is my hope that with this historic investment our communities feel safe once again.”

Following is a summary of where the funds will go:

• $10 million will provide support to Stop AAPI Hate to track, respond, and prevent incidents of racial bias and harm;
• $10 million will go to the AAPI Data project to increase accurate data collection and data equity on AAPI needs, challenges, and barriers;
• $10 million will go to anti-bias block grant to provide funding to schools to create restorative justice programs to address hate and macroaggressions early;
• $5 million will support a peer social media network project addressing bullying and mental health for children and youth;
• $1.5 million will go towards a workgroup to address education attainment for low income first generation AAPI college students, and support the Commission on Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs as it coordinates these programs; and
• $10 million will go to ethnic media outlets to reach AAPI and other underserved communities in California.

“Our communities have been vital to California since its founding in 1850,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, Chair of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. “These investments are unprecedented in the state’s history, and will go a long way to ensure that our state remains deeply inclusive and is able to harness the talents and contributions of everyone who calls California home.”

As the sponsor of this effort, the API Legislative Caucus built a strong partnership with the California Commission on APIA Affairs and the Stop AAPI Hate Coalition, and together mobilized and joined forces with over 150 AAPI and ally organizations to champion this historic bill.

“The challenge to root out systemic racism will not be completed overnight, but we now have the tools to expand services, invest in the hardest-hit neighborhoods, increase anti-bias education, and better track and prevent these cowardly attacks,”  said Assemblymember Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, who serves as Vice Chair of the API Legislative Caucus.

The $263 billion-plus state budget can still be amended before the Legislature adjourns in September, but the API caucus is calling on Newsom to keep the fAPI Equity Budget intact in the final version.

“This is a really historic proposal because it's really a flashpoint for our community to stand up and to ask to be seen, but also ask to be heard,” said Ting.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

California AAPI legislators proposed $210 million to fight impacts of AAPI hate

The California State Capitol in Sacramento.

Editor's Note: Updated 12 p.m., June 15 to provide links to documents.

California AAPI lawmakers are proposing appropriating $210 million in the state budget to help victims of anti-Asian hate crimes and to assist those Asian communities and businesses that have been greatly impacted by the pandemic.

Among the budget items being requested is $10 million for the establishment of an Office of Racial Equity.

“This is a really historic proposal because it's really a flashpoint for our community to stand up and to ask to be seen, but also ask to be heard,”  Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, told LAist.

The API Equity Budget, part of the state's 2021-2022 budget that was approved by the state legislature Monday, is being pushed by the API Legislative Caucus to address the rising number of racist attacks against AAPI.

"The California Asian Pacific Islander population has faced increased attacks against members of their community since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than one year ago," states a letter by scores of AAPI organizations. According to Stop AAPI Hate, over 1600 hate incidents occurred in California in the past year.

"California must take a strong stance against this violence and provide community support, services, prevention against these attacks, and cultural and economic development for the community. This proposal requests $210 million over a three-year period to address hate incidents against the AAPI community."

There are over 6 million Asian Americans in California; 15.5% of the state's population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

The budget proposal would provide funds to organizations combatting the hate incidents and the following:

• An Office of Racial Equity, including staffing
• The collection of disaggregated data
• Anti-hate programs in schools
• A racial bias task force
• An Interpreters' Corps
• Ethnic media outreach 
  

“Collecting the data and reporting on the data and getting in front of the media and other folks was really important,” state Senator Richard Pan, who chairs the API  Caucus, said of the coalition’s work. “Without that collaboration, without that effort, I’m sure we would have individual stories, but they would not have highlighted this challenge that we’re seeing.”

The state Senate passed their placeholder budget 30-8 and the Assembly 57-15 after about an hour of discussion in each chamber.

Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a $267 billion budget for 2021-2022 in May but the legislature added on to his budget Monday. The governor and legislature have until July 1 to arrive at a compromise budget and the back-and-forth negotiations will likely extend into the summer.

“California’s economy is coming roaring back," said Newsom after the legislature passed their proposal. "With the largest surplus in California history, we’re using this once-in-a-generation opportunity to create an economic recovery that will leave nobody behind – with money going directly back to Californians, the nation’s largest small business relief programs, and unprecedented investments to address California’s most persistent challenges such as homelessness, climate change and equity in our education system".

Anti-vaxxers use racist imagery against Asian American lawmaker

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

California Sen. Richard Pan speaks in behalf of his bill.

ASAM NEWS

Asian and Pacific Island legislators in California Tuesday (Sept. 10) denounced racist imagery directed at California State Sen. Richard Pan.

Opponents of a bill authored by Pan (D-Sacramento) and just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted photos of the Senator along with an image of Chairman Mao Zedong against a rising sun.

The tweet included three Asian American elected officials from other states who also support measures cracking down on doctors who grant medical exemptions for vaccinations.

In another tweet, actor and anti-vaxxer Rob Schneider wrote, “My Congratulations to the People’s Republic of Chinafornia Chairman Mao Jr. @DrPanMD…” Ironically, Schneider’s mother is half Filipino.

California’s SB 276, along with another bill (SB 714), give the state Department of Public Health authority to review medical exemptions to vaccinations issued by doctors. The bills were authored in an attempt to curb the number of unnecessary vaccination exemptions given by doctors.

The California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, which advocates for the interests of the diverse API communities throughout California, condemned the racist remarks made against Senator Pan.

“Racist rhetoric and imagery targeted at Senator Richard Pan and other Asian American leaders is dangerous and cannot be tolerated,” Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, said. “For too long, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been seen as perpetual foreigners and generations of contributions from our communities have been ignored. We call on SB 276 opponents to publicly condemn the racism expressed by members of the anti-vaccination movement.”

Pan’s bill has drawn the ire of many anti-vaxxers. Within in the past week, several anti-vax protesters have descended on the capitol building in Sacramento to voice their concerns.

Much of the outrage has been aimed at Pan himself. A few weeks ago, according to Capitol Weekly, an anti-vaxxer shoved Pan when confronting him about vaccines.

California governor saves Asian refugees from deportation

KQED / HOPE McKENNEDY

Assemblyman Rob Bonta  announces the drive by the API Legislative Caucus and Advancing Justice Asian Law Caucus to ask for pardons by Gov. Jerry Brown

ASAM NEWS

THE ASIAN PACIFIC Islander Legislative Caucus in California is lauding Governor Jerry Brown’s decision to pardon three Southeast Asian Americans.
They are three of about 20 Southeast Asian immigrants who are seeking pardons from Brown in his last weeks in office, according to The Marshall Project.

All are facing deportation for crimes they committed in their youth.

“As families come together for the holiday season, we have another reason to be thankful. Governor Brown has helped prevent the separation of families by pardoning deserving Southeast Asian Americans,” the API Legislative Caucus said in a statement to AsAmNews.

The three men who received pardons are Truong (Jay) Quang Ly, Tung Thanh Nguyen and Hai Trong Nguyen.

Hai Trong Nguyen came to the United States as a refugee at the age of two from Vietnam.

He served nearly 16 years and two years of probation for robbery and attempted robbery and use of a firearm-crimes he committed at the age of 16.

“He has shown since his release from custody (in 2017), he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen,” Brown wrote in his pardon. “Mr. Nguyen helped found Asian and Pacific Islanders Re-entry of Orange County and has volunteered with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition.”

In 1994, Tung Thanh Nguyen was sentence for murder and robbery. He acted as a lookout while his crime partners stabbed the victim.

“Mr Nguyen has become a tireless advocate for juvenile justice reform, and was actively involved in efforts to pass Senate Bill 260 (2013), which established a separate parole hearing process for individuals who committed crimes as juveniles,” wrote Brown. He has received numerous awards for founding the Asian and Pacific Islanders Re-entry of Orange County.

Truong Jay Quang Ly served more than nine years for voluntary manslaughter. A passenger of a car Ly was driving shot and killed the driver of another car. he has been out of prison since 2009 and now owns seven restaurants. He is a current board member of API-RISE which is devoted to criminal justice reform and helps current and former Asian Pacific Islander Inmates.

“One supporter wrote that Mr Ly is the exact type of person who merits protection from deportation and should be allowed to remain in the country that he now gives back to in such a meaningful way,” said Brown.

Brown issued some 30 pardons on last week and commuted the sentences of 70 more, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Many Southeast Asian Americans are survivors of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge Genocide. They were part of the largest refugee resettlement in our country’s history and were placed in poverty-ridden neighborhoods with significant crime rates. Some of these refugees were infants and children when they arrived throughout the 1980s and made mistakes in their youth resulting in prison sentences for their transgressions. Today, they have fulfilled their sentences and are now working to make positive contributions to their communities,” the API Legislative Caucus said.

"California immigrants are under full frontal assault from the federal administration. Period," said Assembly member Rob Bonta, chair of the API Legislative Caucus at an earlier San Francisco press conference. "We believe — the API Caucus and our California Legislature — that we should do, and must do, everything in our power to stand up for, defend and protect our immigrants."

A new law, Assembly Bill 2845, authored by the Filipino American lawmaker, will make the pardon and commutation process more transparent and allows the process to be expedited when an urgent issue, such as a pending deportation, requires immediate action. It is due to go into effect in January 1, 2019.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.

_______________________________________________________________________________