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6 ¦ FEBRUARY 1, 2021 NEWS

¦ From GO BACK TO CHINA on PAGE 5 president because of the origins of COVID-19. How
maximum measure of accountability is extracted dangerous were those threats and what have we
from the individuals and corporations who profit- learned about how to treat one another during dif-
ed from the death and devastation of thousands of ficult times?
Connecticut victims. Tong: Racism, which is what those verbal assaults
CLT: One of your goals was to establish a Civil and threats are, is incredibly dangerous.

Rights Division within your office. That needs leg- Racism threatens people’s safety and the Asian
islative approval and has yet to happen. What’s American community felt that acutely when the for-
your pitch on why that office is needed? mer president started calling COVID-19 the “China
virus” or “Kung Flu.”
Tong: We introduced legislation to establish a
Civil Rights Division within our office in 2019 and I heard from a constituent who was sprayed with
the events of 2020, whether it was the protests over Lysol at a grocery store in Connecticut. CNN re-
the murder of George Floyd or the flood of racism porter Amara Walker was harassed at the airport for
against Asian Americans in the wake of the COV- being Asian. On my own social media pages, I saw an
ID-19 pandemic, made it clear why a Civil Rights uptick in anti-Asian hateful rhetoric. I was told to “Go
Division is so necessary. back to China” and called the “Manchurian AG.”

Our office needs the authority to bring civil rights At the core of these racist tropes was a president
lawsuits to stop large-scale, systematic violations of seeking to deflect blame for his own failed response
existing constitutional and statutory rights. to COVID-19. Ultimately, racism will never cure CO-

In the last year alone, we took action to defend a
woman’s right to choose, the rights of LGBTQ peo- VID and hate is never a cure to difficult times. ¦
ple, Dreamers, immigrants, and other vulnerable
communities. Robert Storace covers legal trends, lawsuits and

CLT: You have said verbal assaults, threats and analysis for the Connecticut Law Tribune. Follow
criticism of Asian Americans, such as yourself, him on Twitter @RobertSCTLaw or reach him at
were fueled from rhetoric coming from the former 203-437-5950.

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