Photo by Serge Melki via Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, April 12, the Indianapolis City Council passed a Special Resolution to condemn all forms of racist harassment, violence, or bias against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, according to IndyStar.
The Special Resolution was passed nearly two weeks after a rally supporting central Indiana’s AAPI community. The rally took place at Monument Circle on Saturday, March 27.
Indianapolis Chinese Community Center Inc. hosted the rally alongside several other AAPI organizations, including the Korean American Association of Indiana, the Burmese American Community Institute and the America China Society of Indiana.
Councillor Crista Carlino and Councillor Keith Potts released the following statement about the resolution in a WRTV report:
“Every resident of Indianapolis shares a common aspiration for the health and safety of ourselves and our loved ones, something that our collective experience of the past year has made very clear. In this moment, when so many of our Asian American and Pacific Islander neighbors have faced harassment, discrimination, and even violence, we want Indianapolis to be a community where our A-A-P-I neighbors feel safe, welcomed, and celebrated.”
The President of Asian American Alliance Inc., Rupal Thanawala, has celebrated the Indianapolis City-County Council for their actions. Thanawala encouraged people to speak up.
“Don’t be a bystander,” Thanawala said, according to WRTV. “Not speaking or doing anything is actually supporting the person who’s misbehaving.”
There have been over 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hate reported this year according to the Stop AAPI Hate National Report. If you witness or experience a hate crime, it is recommended you report the crime to the police and Stop AAPI Hate.
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