What is Asian Hate? What is the AAPI organization? Stop AAPI Hate is a nonprofit social organization that runs the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center which tracks incidents of discrimination, hate, and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. New data revealed that over the past years, the number of Anti-Asian hate incidents has been greater than previously reported. What’s worse about this is that a disproportionate number of attacks have been directed towards women which made them scared of going out by themselves.
Nearly 3,800 incidents were reported over the course of roughly a year during the pandemic alone. Women made up a far higher share of the reports, at 68 percent, compared to men, who made up 29 percent of respondents. The nonprofit does not report incidents to the police which means that not everyone gets the justice they deserve and it can be very hard to feel safe.
Roughly 503 incidents took place in 2021 alone. Verbal harassment and shunning were the most common types of discrimination, which makes up 68.1 percent and 20.5 percent of the reports respectively. The third most common category, being physical assault, made up 11.1 percent of the total incidents. More than a third of incidents occurred at businesses, the primary site of discrimination, while a quarter took place in public streets. Asian hate is a serious topic that not everyone is familiar with. Innocent people continued to get harassed and harmed just for being themselves.
As pandemic shutdowns and fear flooded the United States last spring, it brought a wave of hate crimes and incidents targeting Asian Americans. Some were prosecuted as hate crimes, including a woman in the Bronx who was hit on the head with an umbrella as her assailants used anti-Asian comments. However, incidents have not resulted in official charges, such as hurling of racist slurs. Researchers say they have seen a series of increasing hate crimes and hateful incidents targeting Asian Americans during the pandemic, documented by community members and journalists over the past year. A mass shooting at Atlanta-area spas on March 16 resulted in eight deaths, with the majority of the victims being Asian American women. According to the AP report, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent. Asians are known to be one of the vulnerable groups of people who have been going through racism. Not enough attention is being raised on this issue and time to start taking action. It is highly important that we all, whether we’re Asian or not, to start taking responsibility and raise awareness on this situation so the Asian community feels safe once again. It is time to step up and take action, now!
In May of 2020, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.” Nearly one year later, communities worldwide say that the situation hasn’t improved, with many countries reporting spikes in hate crimes. For many, the pandemic has only amplified longstanding and violent racism toward Asian people. Even though facts and scientists have proven that the virus has nothing to do with Asians, people choose to spread hate rather than educating themselves.
In the U.K, there was a rise of 300% in hate crimes toward Chinese, East, and Southeast Asians in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. Over the past years in the U.K., Chinese takeaway owners have reported being spat at and attacked; nurses of ESEA heritage working in the National Health Services have reported incidents of racial abuse from patients, and people of ESEA descent have been victims of violent and racially aggravated street attacks. Rhetoric from former President Donald Trump deeming the coronavirus “the China virus” made international headlines, and experts say the inflammatory comments helped fuel hate on social media and in real life. As TIME reported in March 2020, people deemed as “other” or “foreign” and of ESEA descent more broadly, including those who are not first-generation immigrants, have been targeted, blamed, and associated with the coronavirus.
Now, just over a year and thousands of incidents later, some of the early victims find moving forward to be difficult or, at best, bittersweet. A recent wave of attacks on elderly Asian Americans — including the death of an 84-year-old San Francisco man has fueled worries and hostilities have only worsened.
Kelly Yang, a mother who was in the park with her children experienced a horrible confrontation with an elderly white couple. Upset over her unleashed dog, they called Yang, who is Chinese American, an “Oriental” and said the words many Asian Americans dread: “Go back where you came from”. She was forced to discuss anti-Asian racism with her son, 10, and daughter, 7, a talk she didn’t think would happen for a few more years. Yang believes the couple felt emboldened by then-President Donald Trump’s use of racially charged terms like “Chinese virus.” She applauded President Joe Biden’s recent executive order condemning anti-Asian xenophobia as a good start. But Yang is afraid about the fact that a lot of non-Asians have already shrugged off the issue as though it ceased when Trump’s presidency did. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/victims-of-anti-asian-attacks-reflect-a-year-into-pandemic
You may be asking,“How can I help?” Creating change is a long process and every step matters in order to make Asian-Americans feel safe once again. Stay educated; do not follow words blindly but rather do your own research. Raise awareness around you, whether in your community or with your family/friends. Do not be a bystander and speak up if you see something happening! You can report an accident to one of the following links, donate to an organization below, or find more information and resources on anti-Asian violence.
Here is a resource on Anti-Asian Violence: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/
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