Stop AAPI Hate

March 19, 2021

By Matt Hughes, Sonya Gurwitt

Dismantle anti-Asian values and systems.

The Roosevelt Rundown is an email series featuring the Roosevelt Institute’s top stories of the week.

Defend AAPI Life

The murder of eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta this week is a profound tragedy—for the families and loved ones of those lost, for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, and for all those who grieve and relive enduring traumas.

That loss is made only more devastating by the broader forces it reflects: a rise in hate crimes against AAPI people in recent months, and a far longer history of white supremacist and anti-Asian beliefs and systems.

“Exclusionary and incendiary government policies and rhetoric have both ignited and fanned those flames. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the FDR administration’s incarceration of Japanese Americans, the Trump administration’s xenophobic language against AAPI people during this pandemic: Our history brought us to this moment,” the Roosevelt Institute noted in a statement yesterday.

“Today, we are led by a Chinese American woman, and thus especially recognize the deep and sometimes invisible wounds caused by anti-Asian racism.

We fight—for values, policies, and systems that will honor those we’ve lost, prevent violence, and end bigotry in all its forms.”

End the Filibuster

That fight currently faces a significant—and historically racist—hurdle: the filibuster, which threatens the Senate passage of a renewed Violence Against Women Act, the Equality Act, and the For the People Act, among other long-stalled bills.

This week, Democratic leaders signaled the filibuster’s days could be numbered, with President Biden now supporting a “talking filibuster” and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declaring that “everything is on the table” in efforts to pass the For the People Act.

Learn more about the filibuster’s antidemocratic policy outcomes in “How the Filibuster Has Hurt Workers and Protected Corporate Influence,” by Roosevelt Program Manager Emily DiVito.

And for more from DiVito, read her latest blog post: “How the American Rescue Plan Is a Blueprint for Gender-Conscious Policymaking.”

Good Policy, Good Politics

Removing the filibuster would also make way for legislation on energy efficiency and infrastructure—like the Economic Recovery Begins at Home plan, outlined last week in a Roosevelt Institute and Evergreen Collaborative report.

Per new Data for Progress polling on the report’s proposals, the plan is pretty popular.

Almost two-thirds of Americans support including funding in the next infrastructure bill to weatherize homes and buildings and make them more energy-efficient, as Roosevelt Fellow and Evergreen Collaborative co-founder Bracken Hendricks discussed on The Hill’s What America’s Thinking.

“As the Congress moves to advance a package of infrastructure investment [and] building retrofits to lower energy bills and put Americans back on the job, building a smarter, more advanced clean energy economy is a winner with Republicans, with independents and Democrats,” said Hendricks.

“It’s a winner in every state in the union, and it’s a winner for urban and rural voters. This is something the American people want.”

2021 Distinguished Public Service Awards

This Monday, March 22, 2021, at 7:00 PM ET, join Roosevelt’s virtual Distinguished Public Service Awards, which honor individuals whose careers exemplify FDR’s extraordinary dedication to public service. This year’s recipients: Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)—Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee—and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler. Register now.