The Biden administration this week updated measures it’s taking to address issues of importance to the nation’s fast-growing Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, among the president’s priorities since assuming office in early 2021.
The measures encompass efforts by 32 federal agencies – including all 15 executive departments in the president’s cabinet – to advance equity, justice and opportunity for AA and NH/PI communities. The report was issued by the White House Initiative on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, known as WHIAANHPI, which Biden created in May 2021 in the wake of rising anti-Asian hate incidents as the COVID-19 pandemic continued.
The efforts reflect the Biden administration’s “unprecedented commitment” to advancing racial equity throughout the federal government, said initiative director Krystal Ka’ai.
What areas need improvement?
The report cited two major accomplishments, including Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which has provided more than $5 billion in economic relief, housing support and health funding benefiting AA and NHPI programs, and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which in part tackled language barriers faced by AA and NHPI individuals when trying to report crimes.
However, it also singled out several areas in which progress remains critical – data disaggregation, language access and higher levels of anti-Asian hate.
“For too long, systemic barriers have put the American Dream out of reach for many Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders,” said Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra. “Now we have a choice: We can choose to stand for equity, justice and opportunity, or the status quo. We have chosen to move forward and stand with our Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters.”
Ka’ai, Becerra and others made their comments during a two-hour webinar in which participants spoke from their department offices or took part in short roundtable discussions.
How has data disaggregation affected AANHPI people?
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are often lumped in with Asian Americans in data collection despite roots in Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia – a situation that has cloaked unique issues affecting their populations. Similar issues plague Arab Americans, who the federal government has classified as “white.”
“We know that Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Asian Pacific Islander communities are often aggregated into one, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said White House deputy cabinet secretary Daniel Koh.
For instance, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were found to face higher rates of COVID-19 – when they were measured. According to a 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander children trailed only American Indian and Alaska Native kids in terms of infection.
“Part of the reason COVID-19 disproportionately caused so much harm to NHPI communities is because of a historic lack of access to adequate health care and a high rate of comorbidities among these communities,” said Estella Owoimaha-Church, executive director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles. “Even within the NHPI community, our people are as vast as the ocean from which our communities came from.”
Why is having good data important?
Erika Moritsugu, the president’s liaison to AA and NHPI communities, said more than a dozen federal agencies had committed to disaggregation efforts.
“Good data is critical to good policy, particularly when it comes to reaching underserved communities,” said Nani Coloretti, deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. “This is really about being seen and heard.”
Recommendations from an ongoing review of OMB data collection standards are scheduled to be released in summer 2024.
“If you don’t disaggregate, many disparities are masked,” said Julie Su, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Labor. For example, she said, once the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics began examining Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders more precisely, it found disproportionately high jobless rates.
“You can’t take action on something you can’t measure,” Koh said. “That information didn’t exist on paper, but it was there.”
What is being done about anti-Asian hate crimes?
According to the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center, nearly 11,500 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported between March 2020 and March 2022, the vast majority of them involving harassment – such as verbal comments or inappropriate gestures – that did not qualify as criminal.
“We have seen a disturbing uptick,” said Daniel Dae Kim of the president’s advisory commission on Asian American, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. “Our communities have experienced pain and trauma with lasting mental health impacts, including depression and anxiety. But I’ve never seen our community come together the way it has over the last few years.”
U.S. associate attorney general Vanita Gupta noted the department’s continuing pursuit of anti-Asian hate crime charges, including a man sentenced in August to 25 years in federal prison for attacking an Asian family he wrongly assumed to be Chinese, a nationality he blamed for the pandemic, at a Sam’s Club in Midland, Texas.
But while such prosecutions are important given the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes, Gupta said, “we all know prosecutions are not the fundamental answer to fighting hate in our communities. We don’t have enough good data or the kind of trust we need in these communities for vulnerable victims to report and for us to prosecute these crimes.”
The role of language access
In such instances, language access can play a crucial role in assuring justice.
“Language access can be the difference between life and death and being able to access public safety officials if anything is going on,” Gupta said. She noted that the DOJ last year added a language access coordinator to oversee the department’s access efforts.
Su, of the labor department, said language access issues can also produce worker inequities. More than 14 million U.S. workers, she said, identity as English-deficient – including speakers of Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog.
“They’re more vulnerable,” Su said. “If people can’t communicate with their government, then the government has to do better.”
Chiraag Bains, deputy director of the White House’s domestic policy council for racial justice and equity, said it was time to acknowledge that the federal government had played a role in erecting such barriers.
“Equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy,” Bains said.
