FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 20, 2022
Media Contact: Mary Tablante, Asian American Scholar Forum, media@aasforum.org
Bloomington, Indiana – Last week, on a bus in Bloomington, Indiana, an 18-year-old student of Asian descent was stabbed seven times in the head by another passenger, Billie R. Davis. Davis told officers that she stabbed the victim because she appeared “Chinese” and that her intent was to kill, saying “it would be one less person to blow up our country.” A University of Indiana official stated that “the attack was a reminder ‘that anti-Asian hate is real’”.
AASF Executive Director Gisela Perez Kusakawa releases the following statement:
“Asian American Scholar Forum is outraged by the horrific stabbing of an 18-year old Indiana University student in what appears to be a racially motivated attack. On what should have been a normal bus ride, this young student was violently attacked. No one should experience hate and violence due to their background or ethnicity. We urge Indiana lawmakers to address hate crimes in their state which lacks a true hate crime law and take steps to address the very real problem of anti-Asian hate. Our thoughts are with the victim and her family, the student community of Indiana University, and the people of Bloomington who are still reeling from this attack.”
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Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) promotes academic belonging, openness, freedom, and equality for all and represents more than 7,000 scientists, researchers, and scholars in the U.S.. In response to heightened anti-Asian sentiments in the U.S. and increasing profiling of Chinese Americans and immigrants in science, AASF has been a leading national voice fighting for the rights of Asian American and immigrant scientists, researchers, and scholars.