Hello, friends. Thank you for joining us on the Bill Press Pod. The past week's been a moment of reckoning for America.

The murder of eight people by a lone gunman in Atlanta has not only reminded us of the need for

tougher gun safety measures, the fact that six of

those eight victims at massage parlors were Asian American women has also forced us to reckon with

something we haven't paid a lot of attention to in the past. Discrimination, including acts of

violence against Asian Americans and especially against women of Asian descent.

Incidents of hate against AAPI Americans or Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

has been going on for a long time in this country, but has surged during the pandemic.

To get a perspective on how serious the problem of discrimination against Asian Americans is and what can be done about it,

we're joined today by the leader of one of America's most prominent Asian American civil rights organizations.

Mr. John Yang, President and Executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

John Yang, thank you so much for joining us on the Bill Press Pods. Good to see you.

Thank you very much for having me.

So let me ask you first, John, is there any doubt in your mind that the murders last week of eight workers at these spas in the

Atlanta area constitute a hate crime?

There's no doubt that they were directed at the Asian American community.

There's no doubt that they were directed at women.

And for us, that's all that matters.

That certainly this is part of the pattern that we have seen direct at the Asian American community for the

past year. And in response to that or shortly afterwards, there was a pretty tense hearing

on Capitol Hill where Congresswoman Grace Meng from New York spoke out towards

some of the Republicans who have, let's just say, didn't seem to be very responsive to the

...