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Why Asian American being Attacked

Ever since it came to light that the COVID-19 virus originated in Wuhan, China, incidents of hate against Asians in America have been steadily on the rise. According to a study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, there has been an increase of 150 percent in hate crimes against Asians in the US in 2020 — more than double of 2019. These include attacks on people of Asian origin as well as the businesses run by them. The study found that two of the cities, where Asians have been targeted the most are Los Angeles and New York.

Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting centre for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, has received nearly 3,800 reports of anti-Asian racist attacks since March 2020. Of these, 68 percent were reported by women. In 2019, it received 2,600 reports of hate incidents.

Experts such as Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and director of demographic data and policy research non-profit AAPI Data, believe that part of the hatred against Asians has been fuelled by the repeated use of “China virus” and “Kung Flu” by former US President Donald Trump, conservative media outlets as well as his supporters when referring to COVID-19.
Referring to the history of Asians in the country, Doris Chang, Associate Professor at New York University and a clinical psychologist studying racism’s impact on the AAPI community, said, “During times of social, political, economic instability,” she continued, “then we are marginalised again and seen as a ‘perpetual foreigner’ and therefore a threat to national security.”

This hate, marginalisation and stereotype assumed a horrific shape on March 16, 2021, in Georgia which sent shockwaves among Asians living in America and other parts of the world.
Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white American, shot dead eight people at three massage parlours in Cherokee County and Atlanta city. Six of those killed were women of Asian descent. Long has been arrested and charged with eight counts of murder — four each in Cherokee and Atlanta, besides charges related to aggravated assault, attempt to murder and use of a firearm. Though Long claimed he was not motivated by the race of the victims and hate crime is not part of the charges against him, many, including Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, believe the mass shooting was an act of hate crime.

Multiple attacks on people of Asian origin have been reported across the US in the week since the Georgia spa shootings. A day after the incident, a 75-year-old woman was brutally assaulted in San Francisco. In three separate incidents on March 21 in New York City, a 54-year-old was hospitalised after being attacked, a 41-year-old was attacked from behind and a 37-year-old was assaulted on her way to an anti-Asian violence protest. While a man has been charged in the San Francisco incident, two men and a woman have been charged in the three NY incidents.

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