Asian Americans at ‘inflection point’ in movement to stop acts of hate

More than 4,000 people joined a discussion on Clubhouse Sunday February 21, to hear how journalists, politicians, law enforcement representatives, and community organizers plan to continue the momentum behind Asian solidarity and to help prevent future racist attacks. (This report was written originally after the event.)

Led by actors and producers Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu, journalist Lisa Ling, and NextShark founder Benny Luo, the three-and-a-half hour online rally was a follow-up to a February 6 Clubhouse room that also drew thousands of people but this week’s struck a markedly different tone.

At the time, media coverage of the rise in anti-Asian crimes (which has been notoriously hard to track) had been limited to local TV stations and newspapers, and a few digital publications, including NextShark and JackFroot. The lack of national attention frustrated many Americans of Asian descent who — on top of feeling pain and anger over the acts of violence — felt that they were still viewed as a silent, monolothic “model minority.”

Since that first room in early February, nearly every network and cable channel has reported on the recent attacks and has featured Kim, Wu, and activist Amanda Nguyen as guests. Kim acknowledged the coverage and thanked each outlet, beginning with MSNBC, at the start of Sunday’s discussion.

“We’re in the middle of an inflection point,” said Kim. “The question for us is: Can we make a…