Standing in Solidarity with the AAPI Community

March 22, 2021

A Statement from the Director of Eagleton
“Affirming the humanity of all people is a core value of our work at the Eagleton Institute; protecting vulnerable populations is the mission of our Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience. We stand in solidarity with the Asian community and condemn all acts of hate and discrimination.”

– John J. Farmer, Jr., Director of both the Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Miller Center

A Statement from CAWP
“We have been stunned this week in the wake of the horrific murders in Georgia. But not surprised. The confluence of racism and misogyny has long been a potent recipe for violence, and the specific forms of otherization and fetishization of Asian women in our society created the toxic environment that led to this moment. We are infuriated that this same toxicity means that we know more about the life of a white, male murderer than we know of the lives that he destroyed.

At this moment, we are grateful for the voices of the Asian women in Congress and other elected offices that are forcefully denouncing anti-Asian racism. Our democracy, our country, is made better by their presence in the halls of power, not just in this moment when their voices move our hearts to understanding, but in all the ways their work improves our society for all Americans.” Read more.

Professor Farmer Spoke on News 12 New Jersey‘s “Power and Politics” About Anti-Asian Rhetoric And the Georgia Attack
“It’s part of a larger pattern that the Miller Center detected a year ago of sinophobic, anti-Asian rhetoric on social media. This is another example of how these social media engines drive extremism and drive hate. The Asian community has been victimized tremendously by this,” said Professor Farmer.

“We found that the anti-Asian rhetoric was still on social media, but it became a subplot of the larger conspiracy theories, like QAnon and others that were dominant during the election season. Once the election happened, and the disputed election happened, and the storming of the Capitol happened, the groups splintered. Now there is coalescing around something called ‘The New World Order,’ which has within its tent anti-vaccination and anti-Asian propaganda. This is the way the public square is working now and unless we clean it up, this kind of conduct and extremism is just going to get worse,” said Professor Farmer.

Watch the full interview.

Miller Center Research to Identify Threats and Predict Future Attacks
In April 2020, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States, the Miller Center and the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) released a report introducing innovative methodologies for tracking the self-organization of violent actors on social media in order to protect the Asian community.

In response to the recent rise in attacks against the Asian community, the Miller Center and NCRI will update the report with new information and solutions to help law enforcement agencies identify threats and predict future attacks. Read the full report.