AAPI Victory Alliance Executive Director Varun Nikore Joins CBS News to Discuss the 1-Year Anniversary of Atlanta Spa Shootings

By Jessel Thomas First Posted: Mar 20, 2022 09:39 PM EDT

CBS News interviewed AAPI Victory Alliance Executive Director Varun Nikore on the one-year anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings.

Varun discussed what that moment meant-and continues to mean-for the AAPI community, the alarming increase in anti-AAPI violence over the past year, and offered a message of support for AAPIs and Americans nationwide and discussed what drove the Victory Alliance to produce research and data to track anti-Asian hate.

(Photo : Fireside Campaigns)

Highlights of Varun Nikore's Interview on CBS News

"We took this horrific act that happened over a year ago and we are building a movement, we are building power, we are ensuring that we don't let these horrific deaths go in vain. A lot of work needs to be done to ensure that we study the community going forward."
"We are one of the most understudied demographics in the United States and I think only then when we spend more time and effort to study the community will we have an opportunity to get to the root causes of this hate and violence."
"There's a lot of angst still left in society as a tail end of the pandemic, but this gender-based violence perpetrated against Asian-American women continues to rise. Recent statistics also pointed to the fact that about 87% of Asians in the last year have faced some sort of discrimination, and so we need to continue studying this;only then can we come up with policy prescriptions and future legislation to curtail this at a more systemic level."
"We have not really ever had a movement for Asian Americans in this country. The term Asian American was coined in the late 70s, and so, from the indicators that I am seeing, more and more Asian Americans who, in the past, were not as civically engaged are starting to flex their muscles, and flex that power on the local level."
"This is really translating into political power for the AAPI community, whereas before 2016-before Donald Trump was President, Asian Americans, I think, just put their heads down. The large population of AAPIs were first generation immigrants, about 60-65%, and were not as involved in this day-to-day civic engagement process. That's changed, and that trend is going to continue. We saw record levels of engagement in the 2020 election by the AAPI community, we saw it last year as an early warning in the Virginia election, and this is only going to increase in the future and create further opportunities for engagement in the AAPI community."

Watch Varun on CBS News here.