CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 Budget; changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels, and from various funds in the Budget; and adding provisos; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.
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WHEREAS, the racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian American and Pacific Islander ("AAPI") people is rooted in American history from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to prohibit the immigration of Chinese laborers; to the unconscionable internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II guided by an idea that Asian Americans are "perpetual foreigners;" to the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 and subsequent failure of justice that ignited a national coalition of Asian American activists to call for an end to anti-Asian bias and racial intolerance; and
WHEREAS, the recent mass murders of eight people, six of them Asian American women, in Atlanta, Georgia, has highlighted the violent, racist anti-Asian American sentiment that has been surging in our country; and
WHEREAS, inflammatory and racist rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic across the country has stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans, specifically Chinese Americans, and has contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons; and
WHEREAS, since the start of the pandemic, there has been a frightening increase in violence and discrimination against members of the AAPI community in cities across the country, including Seattle's Chinatown-International District, where an alarming random act of violence occurred against a Japanese American teacher who was out walking and shopping; and
WHEREAS, elder Asian Americans have been targeted by violent assaults and robberies, some of them fatal in other West Coast cities; and
WHEREAS, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State U...
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