Statement of Commissioner Gail Heriot in U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report: The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States

In September of 2023, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights published a report entitled “The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States”. This Statement is a part of that report. It critiques the staff-written part of the report. The scope of any particular Commission project is governed by the concept paper for that project. In this case, the concept paper broadly stated that, among other things, the Commission would hear from “[c]ommunity leaders” who could “inform the Commission from a variety of perspectives about their experiences with bias/racism, and their recommendations regarding federal, state, and local enforcement or lack thereof related to Asian American civil rights.” In fact, however, the only form of anti-Asian racism that witnesses were permitted to discuss was hate crimes. When some witnesses brought up university admissions policies that disadvantage Asian Americans, the briefing was interrupted by the Staff Director, who warned the witnesses to stay away from that topic. Weirdly, even with regard to hate crimes, the report is limited. It goes into exhaustive detail about the crimes themselves and the need for an accurate count. But it shows little interest in how to stop those crimes by getting the perpetrators off the streets. The only explanation I can see for all this is that the Staff Director did not want to let anything into the report that might conflict with the progressive agenda.