By Ti-Hua Chang, AsamNews Staff Writer
Vice President Kamala Harris just gave the welcoming address to the United We Stand Summit at the White House. The summit is focusing on how, “…to counter the destructive effects of hate-fueled violence on our democracy …” Five civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton of New York, called for the summit.
Harris noted that 59 years ago White supremacists bombed a church in Birmingham Alabama killing four African-American girls. The Vice president then emphasized that a year later then President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the historic Voting Rights Act.
Harris mentioned twice the massacre of 10 African Americans this past May in Buffalo by a white supremacist. She did not mention the Republican party.
She concluded, “ Years from now , our children and our grandchildren, they’re going to ask what did you do at that moment. What did you do to help protect our communities?” Harris, who is part South Asian, did not mention anti Asian hate crimes, which surged since Covid19 by 330%.
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The summit has gathered the victims of many of the massacres in the United States since the 49 LGBTQ+ people murdered in the Pulse Nightclub in 2016 in Orlando, Florida up to the Tops Grocery store massacre in Buffalo to the son of a victim in the Sikh Temple Massacre in Wisconsin 10 years ago.
In addition to victims, the summit also involves many hate crime experts and community leaders, especially religious ones, fighting against hate. One key mentioned is education … as little as 10 minutes of research on hate violence can make a difference understanding the sources of hate.
All ethnicities Black, white, Jewish, Asian, Latinx and Native Americans are included in this summit. The emcee is Ann Navarro of Florida who is a Republican. Journalist Lisa Ling spoke and mentioned anti-Asian hate just before she introduced a former White Supremacist who described how the sense of belonging drew him in the Neo-Nazi movement.
The summit will go on until 5pm. President Biden is scheduled to address the summit around 4:30pm.
This is a link to the live video of the summit.
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