The pandemic saw the start of a surge of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.
"In the previous administration, they were constantly referring to the 'China Virus' and the 'Wuhan Virus', and that kind of rhetoric demonizes Asian-American people who are not at all responsible for the Coronavirus pandemic," explained Dusty Hoesly, the Associate Director of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at UC, Santa Barbara.
Events all day Wednesday at the campus will focus on anti-hate activism.
"We've had an unprecedented spike in instances of bias, violence and harassment of AAPI people here in the United States," said Hoesly.
The event's panel discussion features several AAPI activists who will discuss how they became activists, their work on the leading edges of activism, and how more people can get involved.
The keynote lecture is by Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks and responds to bias, harassment and violence against Asian Americans nationwide.
Free and open to the public, the events were organized by the Walter H. Capps Center For the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life; both will also be livestreamed on the center’s YouTube channel.
