Asian Hate and Awareness

The Asian Hate in America + Awareness

Good afternoon readers! I am back after a long hiatus, but I hope to start updating again. Anyhow, happy belated President's Day! Here's the Quote of the Week:

"If you cannot be a poet, be the poem."

- David Carradine

(This quote is one of my favourites! Leave what you think it means in the comments :))

When the COVID-19 pandemic first arose during March 2020, several caucasian Americans began to dub the coronavirus as the "China Virus" or the "Wuhan Virus," including then president Donald Trump. This evidently discriminating moniker began to spread throughout America and made it to the ears of white supremacists and anti-Asian racists alike. They blamed Asians (specifically Asian-Americans whose ethnicity were Chinese) for the initiation of the global pandemic and its effects on the US. Many other politicians and significant government officials had also spoken about Asians and people of Asian descent in a condescending manner, making us out to be filthy mongrels who are implicitly inferior to other countries and ethnicities. 

In fact, Human Rights Watch reported last year that, 

"The governor of the Veneto region of Italy, an early epicenter of the pandemic, told journalists in February that the country would be better than China in handling the virus due to Italians’ 'culturally strong attention to hygiene, washing hands, taking showers, whereas we have all seen the Chinese eating mice alive.'" 

The official's apology came shortly after, but the damage had already been done. 

However, the anti-Asian racism did not cease there. Despite the already increasing hate crimes in 2020, there was an additional surge very recently, particularly in regards of a multitude of physical abuse towards Asian-Americans in just the past three weeks. For instance, on January 28, eighty four year old Vicha Ratanapakdee was assaulted on his daily morning walk in the city of San Francisco. When he was violently tackled, his head bashed right onto the concrete pavement. The senior died just two days later due to his injuries. 

That case alone was not the only recent one. A sixty four year old Vietnamese woman in San Jose had parked her car in front of an ethnic supermarket when two suspects attacked the elderly woman and stole her purse (which was filled with one thousand dollars worth of Lunar New Year's lì xì, a type of monetary gift).

From the evidence above, derogatory comments and violent physical behaviour towards Asian citizens of any country has most definitely spiked since the pandemic started. To be exact, hate crimes against the Asian-American community in New York City alone has gone up by 1900% in the past year. As a reader, you may be wondering, 

"But why are you telling me this?"

Well, I am here to inform you about the racism and hate happening in our country in order to spread awareness. Although there is already a movement set in place to stop the Asian hate in America (the #TheyCantBurnUsAll movement, named in honor of the event in July 2020 where an eighty nine year old Chinese-American woman was set on fire in New York City), it is necessary to inform people and spread awareness before asking other races to help us take action. Therefore, I hope that this article has aided you in understanding the hate against Asians in America today. If you would like to help, spreading awareness via social media and word of mouth would be the best thing to do. When speaking about the topic of Asian hate, heed in mind that our slogans are not "Asian Lives Matter," as the "Black Lives Matter" slogan is already used for the Black Lives movement, but rather "Asians Are Humans" and "#TheyCantBurnUsAll." 

Anyways, thank you very much for reading today's article! I wish you all a great President's Week. 

- Tina P.