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fucia_diascia1536
Boston, Massachusetts , US
Posts: 16

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in the Era of COVID

The Coronavirus affected so many people's lives and practically shut down the whole world for a couple years, and people wanted to take their anger out on something, so they decided to take it out on Asian people. It is suspected that COVID came from China, so people are attacking and threatening people from Asia, due to the stereotype of people thinking all Asian people look the same, because they think that they are spreading it and "ruining" their lives with the virus. It doesn't help that Government officials and senior officials have encouraged hate crimes and xenophobia, including Donald Trumps description of the virus as the "Chinese virus", and most hate crimes cases are dismissed, or the perpetrator is found not guilty. A lot of people commit hate crimes because there is usually no consequences, other people don't intervene, and they wont get into trouble. In response to these hate crimes and discrimination, Asian people have created advocacy groups, have hosted protests to try and stop the hate against them, and have shared their stories on social media.

Asian people should share their stories about hate crimes and discrimination that they have experienced and what was done in response to those incidents, as well as say how non-Asian people can help them. Non-Asian people should listen to Asian people's stories and do what they can to spread what is happening. If they see instances happening, they shouldn't just sit back and watch or ignore it, they should try and help and stop the hate.

Question: Why do you think people are so full of hate that they actively and physically attack/assault people because of their difference in views, backgrounds, and appearances?

Response to Martha $tewart's question: Is there any way to counter the racist and hateful beliefs or cut it at the root? I think that a lot of the problem is that instances of people sharing their hateful opinions are shared on social media, which gains attention and sometimes people with those same opinions are encouraged to also share their opinions, and the cycle continues. We can counter this by ignoring people's hate and instead of giving it attention, educate them, so no one else can be encouraged to spread more hate.

RockPigeon
Boston, Massachusetts , US
Posts: 21

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in the Era of COVID

As stated in Michael Eric Dyson’s article in the Washington Post, the rise in many of these acts of hate, as well as others, is due to a tendency towards “blaming the other.” When people feel threatened, many tend to lash out at others, and it is easier, however misguided, to “blame” an easily identifiable person or group of people than to try and understand or work to solve the ultimate cause of the problem. That does not mean that these actions are at all excusable, in fact quite the opposite. Especially considering the recent increases in hate crimes within the US and around the world, it is important to try and learn what can be done to remedy this problem.


Trying to limit this impulse across a large swath of a population would be very difficult, verging on impossible, but that does not mean that there is nothing that can be done. Regarding the recent COVID-related spike in hate crimes, I think that increasing the common knowledge of the large impact that AAPI people have had on the past and present of our country, as well as limiting the spread of misinformation would help with this ongoing issue. Several of the articles mentioned how absent AAPI history is from most US history books. A broader understanding of how significant AAPI people have been in the development of our country would be beneficial for everyone. There should also be greater consequences for those who promote a stereotypical, derogatory, or plain untrue image of AAPI people in the US, as this kind of hateful messaging can serve to incite further violence and anger.


Fucia_diascia1536’s Question: Why do you think people are so full of hate that they actively and physically attack/assault people because of their difference in views, backgrounds, and appearances?


In my English class, we recently read Lynn Nottage’s play “Sweat,” which includes an incident of this type. The play took place in an economically-run down town whose residents competed with each other for jobs at a local factory, which ultimately results in Oscar, a Columbian-American man who had accepted a coveted job, being attacked. The play seemed to make the point that people turn on each other, sometimes resorting to violence, when they feel like they have no other option in order to survive, despite the fact that their lack of opportunity is not due to any group of people, but rather it is the wider capitalistic system that is the root of all of their problems. I would agree that it seems like desperation would be a primary motivator for this kind of violence.


Question: What do you think would be the best way to decrease the number of racially motivated crimes in the US?
johndoe
Boston, MA, US
Posts: 14

Anti-Asian hate has been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Human Rights Watch, the virus has fueled anti-Asian racism and xenophobia worldwide. In the United States, hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased by 150% in major cities, with many incidents going unreported.

One example of this trend is the rise in hate speech and slurs directed at Asian Americans. Time Magazine reports that many Asian Americans have experienced verbal abuse, with some being told to "go back to their own country" or being called derogatory names related to the virus. This hate speech not only causes emotional harm, but can also lead to physical violence.

In addition to hate speech, there have also been instances of physical violence against Asian Americans. The Marshall Project reports that there have been cases of assault and harassment in prisons, where Asian inmates have been targeted because of their race and the misinformation that they are more likely to carry the virus.

These instances of anti-Asian hate are not only harmful to individual Asian Americans, but they also have a negative impact on the entire community. The New York Times reports that the rise in hate crimes has caused many Asian Americans to feel unsafe and fearful in their own communities.

It is impossible to say why this hate is occurring, but one of the reasons that I think it is is because of a power dynamic between the white community and everyone else. The white community has shown a tendency to assert its power over others in forceful ways, and this trend has obviously continued into present day. People are minimally aware of Asian hate because it is rarely covered in mainstream media. Asians themselves seem to be less comfortable actually identifying as Asians, and try to avoid telling people about their heritage at all costs. It is important to recognize the impact of anti-Asian hate and take steps to address it. This can include supporting organizations that work to combat racism and xenophobia, speaking out against hate speech and discrimination, and educating ourselves and others about the harm caused by these behaviors. By taking action, we can work towards creating a more inclusive and compassionate society for all.

bigbear
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Posts: 21

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in the Era of COVID

The Asian community and many other communities are discriminated against today for many reasons. Still, due to Covid-19, they have used that to increase anti-immigrant, white supremacist, ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic conspiracy theories. As said in the Human Rights Watch article these groups of people have used this opportunity to direct all the hatred from covid towards the Asian communities, and implant ideas that these communities should not be welcome in this country, and should be kept out of their country. This happens in many continents worldwide, including Europe, North and South America, and Africa. Even though these things are happening to these groups of people the government does nothing about it. The government even referred to covid-19 as Kung Flu or the Chinese Virus almost as if they were supporting the hate groups against the Asian community and the comments made. What makes this hate worse is that instead of not knowing where some of the diseases originated we know that they originated from china so all of the hate will go to china, and the people living there even if they didn't do anything to start it. Covid-19 has strengthened the hate towards Asian communities because they are blamed for the start of Covid-19, and even if they don't care about that, it is just used as an excuse to create hate against the Asian community. The people are minimally aware of these things happening because the government has not addressed the problem as much as it should, and has taken a look at who these people are that are causing these problems for the Asian community. People also choose to ignore it because they don't want anything to happen to them, and the hate towards the Asian community to be directed towards them which they are scared of because people are harassed for being Asian or even supporting the Asian movement.

I believe that in order to be allies in this cause, the people should come together, and do what the government couldn't and rally against these comments, and find out who made these hateful comments on the internet in order to pick those people out one by one. Continuing to let these people on social media weakens our countries as a whole by separating the people and pitting them against each other. If the government continues to sit around as they have done, none of these problems can be fixed unless everyone bands together in order to find solutions against the hate towards these communities.

What can I, a high school student at BLS, do to combat these issues, and to stand up for the asian community.

Babybackribs
Boston, MA, US
Posts: 21

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in the Era of COVID Due: Mon 19 Dec

Asian discrimination is now more prevalent than ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept through the entire world, killing millions, and hurting hundreds of millions more. Asian Americans have become the target of xenophobic attacks, much like Muslims were blamed and scapegoated after the 9/11 attacks. When someone is going through hard times, they often try to find someone else to blame for their problems. Former president, Donald Trump being one of the most prominent figures to spread Asian hate and discrimination coining the phrase “China virus”, in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic-that saw his approval rating reach as low as 35%. After the backlash he received for his comments, he tweeted that he was in support of the Asian-American community, only to call COVID-19 the “kung flu” a few months later while at a Trump rally in Arizona. Using the platform that he has to spread misinformation against a highly marginalized group of people, is unjust and also unfair. It not just in the U.S. where this is xenophobia is normalized amongst political leaders, several political parties and groups, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have also latched onto the Covid-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist, ultra-nationalist, antisemitic, and xenophobic conspiracy theories that demonize refugees, foreigners, prominent individuals, and political leaders. If major political leaders continue to normalize this sort of hate speech, it will only spell trouble for the marginalized groups. We can already see how the normalization of xenophobia has a caused a 73% increase in Anti-Asian Hate speech. This history of anti-Asian hate speech stretches all the way back to the 1800’s when the United States was becoming an economic powerhouse were lots of jobs and job opportunities were open for a wide array of people. When immigrants first arrived here, they were not almost instantly not welcomed, a reflection of the growing anti-Asian sentiment that came to its climax with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The act banned the immigration of Chinese laborers, much as the Page Exclusion Act of 1875, the nation’s first restrictive immigration law, had prohibited the entry of Chinese women. In modern American history, Asian Americans have been regularly scapegoated during periods of war and duress. World War II saw the imprisonment of around 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast — an estimated 62 percent of whom were U.S. citizens — in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the Vietnam War, refugees from Southeast Asia faced discrimination and hate on a daily basis, including attacks by Ku Klux Klan members on shrimpers in Texas. As I mentioned above, it is way too normalized at the highest levels of government as well as around the world which means that media coverage is stagnant and infrequent.

This of being referred to as other, all goes back to the idea of scapegoating and marginalization. The COVID-19 pandemic saw people of Asian descent marginalized into the “Chinese-looking” category, thus prompting a wave of hate crimes against all Asian people. This scapegoating stretches back During WW2, when Chinese and other Asian ethnicities wore shirts that said, “Please don’t hit, I am not Japanese.” It is very scary to see that marginalized groups today are still forced to live in fear that oppressors might hurt or kill them for looking like someone from China. Looking at a global perspective, Through March, there were also reported incidents of discriminatory actions against Asian-looking people in Nizhnevartovsk, Ekaterinburg, Tatarstan, and Makhachkala, among other places. In Italy, the civil society group Lunaria since February has collected over 50 reports and media accounts of assaults, verbal harassment, bullying, and discrimination against people of Asian descent.

Asians now more than ever, need to work together in the fight against Asian hate. Separated they are silenced, but together they are heard; using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, people of Asian descent can unite to make their voices heard. Small musicians like Rick Lee are using rap culture to bring to light the problems of Xenophobia. Even while filming the video, Rick Lee and his camera guy were given hate and it clearly shows how many people are against the movement to end Asian hate speech. People like me who are of Non Asian descent, should use our voices when we notice real hate being spread in school or on social media. Cancel-culture, originally used to de-platform the A-listers of our society for comments or things they have done and gotten away with without any repercussions, has turned into a far-left movement attempting to ruin the lives of people who have made one or two offensive comments. This far-left idea has proven to unite hate groups against the idea of progression and acceptance.

Question:

  1. Will the internet be the reason that Hate speech never dies? As it gives voices to those who do not deserve one.
  2. Do we as a nation really understand the difference between free speech and hate speech? Who should be the one to define the two ideas? Because the intersectionality between the two is prevalent now more than ever.
Babybackribs
Boston, MA, US
Posts: 21

Originally posted by autumnpeaches on December 16, 2022 14:06

People who are angry that Covid-19 is affecting their lives are projecting this anger onto Asian people instead of the virus itself. It doesn’t help that former U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo call Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus”. Once you group an entire ethnicity or country to something that is having a negative impact on people, then people’s ire will be directed towards that ethnicity/country. This is not the first time this has happened either. During WW2 in the 1940s, Japanese-American citizens were forced into internment camps and ostracized simply for being Japanese. In Mineo’s article, “The scapegoating of Asian Americans”, she goes more in-depth with how this “scapegoating” tactic has been going on for centuries. Whether it was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which blamed Chinese people for “stealing jobs”, the treatment of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam War, or the killing of Vincent Chin, who never got the justice he deserved, Asian Americans have been pushed out again and again to take the blame of crimes the U.S. have committed.

Since the start of Covid in the United States, crimes against Asian Americans have risen by 73%, as stated in Venkatraman’s article. This includes a shooting in a spa in Atlanta that killed 8 people, 6 of them were women of Asian descent. In New York, a Chinese woman was also pushed onto the train tracks. However, discrimination doesn’t just occur in America either. In the U.K., Brazil, Russia, and even Asian countries like India, South Korea, and Japan, Asian people (but more specifically Chinese in South Korea and Japan) have been getting physically and verbally assaulted. In India and Sri Lanka, even Muslims were blamed for the rise of Covid (Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide). This brings us back to the idea of “scapegoating” certain groups of people. Furthermore, the increase in crimes has caused some Asians who were not Chinese to come out and “clarify” that they were of so-and-so descent. During WW2, Chinese people + other ethnicities also wore shirts that said, “Please don’t hit, I am not Japanese.” We’re seeing a repeat of that history today. I don’t blame them for what they did because I understand their fear of getting beaten, or even worse, killed, but we need to address the bigger issue behind all of this. Instead of siding with the oppressor to “blame” Chinese people, we as a nation should start enacting federal laws to stop hate crimes and begin arresting racists committing these crimes. Let’s stop the victim blaming.

To combat this predicament, Asians and non-Asians have been protesting and sharing their stories online to bring light to the problem. One Korean-Swedish artist, in particular, Lisa Woo-Rim Sjöblom, has been shedding light on these issues through her illustration series: I Am Not A Virus. She says, “I find that a lot of things that I comment on, which are often seen as quite controversial, people tend to understand it better or show more empathy when they see my drawings.” Instead of reading words on paper, people tend to emphasize more with things they can visualize, and Sjöblom does exactly that. Other Asian artists who were not mentioned in the article but I think deserve recognition too are Kezia Gabriella, Jonathan Chang, and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.

My question is: We obviously know the issues of “us” and “them” and the divide between white people and Asian people, but there are internal problems within the Asian community too. Some people actively try to exclude certain ethnicities when discussing Asian hate OR they publicly show their support for racists such as Donald Trump. What do you think causes some Asian people (mostly older generations) to side with the oppressors despite what they’ve done?

I feel like across cultures, older generations are fearful of change. Even My grandfather, who was oppressed as a child for not speaking English, felt like it was important to "Americanize" immigrants when they come to the U.S.

fancyclown
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Posts: 21

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hates Crimes in the Era of COVID

I think one of the many roots of Asian hate in America is this idea that Asian immigrants "steal jobs" from (historically white, cis) American citizens. This extremely prejudiced idea comes from the gold rush era, with the influx of Chinese immigrants coming to California in hopes of striking a fortune in the gold mining industry. White American citizens felt threatened by this sudden competition for work opportunities and from that sparked centuries of Asian (and Asian-american) hate and mistreatment in this country. Anna Purna Kambhampaty and Haruka Sakaguchi mention in their Times article how these white labor unions claimed that Chinese workers carried “more harmful” disease strains through immigration than other races, in an effort to achieve an immigration ban. As Ivan Natividad wrote in his article “Coronavirus: Fear of Asians Rooted in a long American History of prejudicial policies,” in the early 1900s many Asian immigrants were detained, quarantined and oppressed in places like Angel Island. There, they were falsely diagnosed with incurable diseases like the Bubonic plague, smallpox, and many others just to prevent them from being allowed passage into the United States. In regards to people's awareness of this history of hate, I think that, like many other atrocities committed against a group of people over a long period of time, that minimal awareness is a result of the general mis-education (or the lack thereof) on the truth about the treatment of Asian people in the US throughout history.


More recently, I think the increasing hate towards Asian people has been a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. With the initial case of the virus’ transmission coming from China, many people started immediately blaming Asian people for the spread of the virus and hating them more for the effects the virus had on the world over the two years following the outbreak. Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom depicted this virus-related hate in her illustration, ‘I am not a virus.’ As she said, with the virus outbreak in 2020 the Asian community “went from being invisible to hyper-visible, but as a virus or carrier of this virus.” This is also an example of this “othering” seen throughout history, how Asian people are typically ignored by the government and society until it becomes convenient, when they can receive blame for something like this virus.


I don't think it would be too far off to say that the true history of Asian-american people and Asian immigrants to the US has been intentionally kept from school history textbooks and discredited by our very own government, in an attempt to maintain our reputation of being a "free" country to all people, as the constitution reads.


As the 2020 Human Rights Watch suggested, with the uptick in hate towards Asian people with the COVID-19 virus, one powerful way to combat this would be for the UN’s committee focused on eliminating racial discrimination to set plans in motion towards better protecting POC from hate crimes and discrimination in their daily lives. However I do also think that true education is the proprietor of peace, and that if the true history of racial discrimination and atrocities committed against different groups of people were properly taught in schools from early education, discrimination rates would significantly decrease.
fancyclown
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Posts: 21

Originally posted by fancyclown on December 19, 2022 14:12

I think one of the many roots of Asian hate in America is this idea that Asian immigrants "steal jobs" from (historically white, cis) American citizens. This extremely prejudiced idea comes from the gold rush era, with the influx of Chinese immigrants coming to California in hopes of striking a fortune in the gold mining industry. White American citizens felt threatened by this sudden competition for work opportunities and from that sparked centuries of Asian (and Asian-american) hate and mistreatment in this country. Anna Purna Kambhampaty and Haruka Sakaguchi mention in their Times article how these white labor unions claimed that Chinese workers carried “more harmful” disease strains through immigration than other races, in an effort to achieve an immigration ban. As Ivan Natividad wrote in his article “Coronavirus: Fear of Asians Rooted in a long American History of prejudicial policies,” in the early 1900s many Asian immigrants were detained, quarantined and oppressed in places like Angel Island. There, they were falsely diagnosed with incurable diseases like the Bubonic plague, smallpox, and many others just to prevent them from being allowed passage into the United States. In regards to people's awareness of this history of hate, I think that, like many other atrocities committed against a group of people over a long period of time, that minimal awareness is a result of the general mis-education (or the lack thereof) on the truth about the treatment of Asian people in the US throughout history.


More recently, I think the increasing hate towards Asian people has been a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. With the initial case of the virus’ transmission coming from China, many people started immediately blaming Asian people for the spread of the virus and hating them more for the effects the virus had on the world over the two years following the outbreak. Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom depicted this virus-related hate in her illustration, ‘I am not a virus.’ As she said, with the virus outbreak in 2020 the Asian community “went from being invisible to hyper-visible, but as a virus or carrier of this virus.” This is also an example of this “othering” seen throughout history, how Asian people are typically ignored by the government and society until it becomes convenient, when they can receive blame for something like this virus.


I don't think it would be too far off to say that the true history of Asian-american people and Asian immigrants to the US has been intentionally kept from school history textbooks and discredited by our very own government, in an attempt to maintain our reputation of being a "free" country to all people, as the constitution reads.


As the 2020 Human Rights Watch suggested, with the uptick in hate towards Asian people with the COVID-19 virus, one powerful way to combat this would be for the UN’s committee focused on eliminating racial discrimination to set plans in motion towards better protecting POC from hate crimes and discrimination in their daily lives. However I do also think that true education is the proprietor of peace, and that if the true history of racial discrimination and atrocities committed against different groups of people were properly taught in schools from early education, discrimination rates would significantly decrease.

I forgot to write in my question; is there anything you think we as individuals should be doing in our daily lives to try and minimize discrimination? Aside from educating those around us and contininuing to grow ourselves, I mean.

Sharka
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Posts: 14

Asians and COVID: Xenophobia and Hate Crimes in the Era of COVID

Ever since the beginning of Asian immigration to America, there has been a negative response from Americans - some of which immigrants themselves. It seems as though these Americans desire cheap labor, but don't want to give Asian immigrants the rights and citizenship that come with that. So instead they are vilified, mocked, attacked, and even killed. They become scapegoats for problems that often have nothing to do with them, even problems associated with a heritage that is not their own. The Harvard Gazette article “The scapegoating of Asian Americans” puts this point into words quite well. It details the history of problems being blamed on Asian American communities and the repercussions that have stemmed from that. From the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, to Executive Order 9066 which forced Japanese Americans into concentration camps, to the Muslim Travel Ban in 2017, Asian Americans have been systemically blocked from achieving full rights and citizenship in this country. Now racism is at an all time high again with the COVID-19 pandemic.


It affects anyone of Asian descent regardless of generation or country of origin. Racists don't discern between someone who is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Taiwanese. They don't care if you immigrated here yourself or if an ancestor long gone before your parents were even born came here first. And beyond America, this hatred and xenophobia is seen worldwide. In the Human Rights Watch article, there is a quote from the UN that encourages countries to put protections and precautions against racism. If the UN is acknowledging it, surely it must be a large issue.


Where do these mentalities come from? One possible source could be people in power openly speaking racist ideas. Their followers repeat after them. In an article by Anna Purna Kambhampaty and Haruka Sakaguchi entitled “’I Will Not Stand Silent.’ 10 Asian-Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality” One man, Jay Koo, recounted a story where he was followed and threatened by two men saying he had the “Chinese virus,” a term popularized by Donald Trump. Others share similar stories in the article. Ultimately we cannot blame Trump for every racist incident and those guilty of terrorizing and attacking Asian Americans should be held accountable. Trump never made them bigots, but perhaps they wouldn't be so open about it if their beliefs were not backed by the most powerful man in the United States.


Anti-Asian discrimination is spreading to every corner of society, even prison systems, says Felix Sitthivong. But he is part of an effort to teach others cooperation and anti-racism. These programs exist elsewhere too and are one of the ways Asian Americans are fighting against discrimination and bigotry. While, yes, some people are too far gone for help, others can be rehabilitated into allies and anti-racists. If we started young with children, teaching equality and factual history, maybe racism would not be such a large issue in this country and elsewhere.


Lastly, to answer the question asked of me by another classmate, I think none of us can be bystanders. If we hear someone joking about “kung flu” we need to say something. If we believe a classmate is being treated unfairly by a teacher or another student, we shouldn’t stay silent. We should intervene when we see racism on the streets. We should be active in politics and vote for politicians committed to addressing racism in their and our communities.


If I had to ask a question to someone else, it would be - How much of a role do you think politicians play in influencing racism? Do racists put racist politicians in power, or do racist politicians spread racist ideas? Is it a mix of both?
EyeAin'tNoGrinch
Boston, MA, US
Posts: 17

Asians and COVID

Asian hate was born from historical acts of discrimination against asians that created biases that have stuck and it continues to grow. Between 1910 and 1940 over 225000 Asians were detained on Angel Island when trying to immigrate to America and invasive medical exams were done on them. Public health authorities then misrepresented them all as carriers of incurable diseases. This was one of the many things that created the demonizing of Asian Americans and shows exactly when/how the racism and xenophobia started. They were people of color from another country trying to entire ours and we labeled them as a disease. This was deliberately racist false information that has a bias stuck on asian americans to this day. There is a current “heightened state of bias” because of the corona virus and because it started in china. They were already targeted as disease carriers but for a pandemic to have started in china did immense amounts of damage to asian communities all over the world. In the news clip I watched it said that when Covid started and asians were immediately being targeted, the CDC even said asians are no more likely to get it than anyone else, but that one public health statement unfortunately couldn't get rid of years of bias and racism. Also, if people have what they think is a valid reason to be racist, they’re gonna use it and ignore anyone who says otherwise.

In terms of how asians have confronted this discriminatory treatment, its a mixed response. There are many people who cant stand up for themselves and are killed because of it. There are also many instances of people facing racism and not knowing what to do, so they do the best they can at sticking up for themself. An example would be Felix Sitthivong who, in the article I read, spoke of a time a student said something racist towards asians when talking about covid. In the article he wrote it says, “So I used a few choice expletives and requested that he go do something with his "saltines" self. He sat in silence, embarrassed but not apologizing. I went next door to the library feeling disappointed that I let an ignorant comment get me out of my character.” There have also been many protests from asian americans holding signs that say things such as “stop asian hate”. The Stop AAPI Hate initiative is also an important group that works to protect asians, asian americans, and pacific islanders. The Stop AAPI Hate initiative is a way asians have confronted the hate and tried to stop it, but also a way that non asians have gotten involved to help stop it. As of the time this article was written, they had reported nearly 3800 anti asian hate incidents in the US.

In response to all of this, I can’t decide what Asians should do. All I can say is that Asian Americans need to do what they can do to keep themselves and their families safe. In Sitthivong’s article, he talked about how when he called his son who had recently gotten his license he started to tear up as he expressed how “after all of the anti-Asian racism I’ve been seeing lately, I was concerned for his safety out on the road by himself. My son listened reluctantly as I went through the do's and don'ts of his reaction if he ever found himself in a sketchy situation.”

Non asians should be doing everything they can to help stop the extreme asian american hate in america. Everyone should work on publicizing the biases that are false and reteach people that asians are no different than anyone else in order to erase the stigma. In the Harvard article, it talked about acts of asian american hate on campus, and a student stated, “Harvard must stand as a bulwark against hatred and bigotry. We welcome and embrace individuals from every background because it makes us a better community, a stronger community. An attack on any group of us is an attack on all of us — and on everything we represent as an institution.”

Do not believe biases, educate yourself on the truth and the history of the biases to understand just how wrong it is, be part of fighting for a solution to this problem, and never be a bystander.


If you were walking down the street with your friends and you saw someone beating up an asian person while yelling racial slurs, what would you do?
EyeAin'tNoGrinch
Boston, MA, US
Posts: 17

Originally posted by autumnpeaches on December 16, 2022 14:06

People who are angry that Covid-19 is affecting their lives are projecting this anger onto Asian people instead of the virus itself. It doesn’t help that former U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo call Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus”. Once you group an entire ethnicity or country to something that is having a negative impact on people, then people’s ire will be directed towards that ethnicity/country. This is not the first time this has happened either. During WW2 in the 1940s, Japanese-American citizens were forced into internment camps and ostracized simply for being Japanese. In Mineo’s article, “The scapegoating of Asian Americans”, she goes more in-depth with how this “scapegoating” tactic has been going on for centuries. Whether it was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which blamed Chinese people for “stealing jobs”, the treatment of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam War, or the killing of Vincent Chin, who never got the justice he deserved, Asian Americans have been pushed out again and again to take the blame of crimes the U.S. have committed.

Since the start of Covid in the United States, crimes against Asian Americans have risen by 73%, as stated in Venkatraman’s article. This includes a shooting in a spa in Atlanta that killed 8 people, 6 of them were women of Asian descent. In New York, a Chinese woman was also pushed onto the train tracks. However, discrimination doesn’t just occur in America either. In the U.K., Brazil, Russia, and even Asian countries like India, South Korea, and Japan, Asian people (but more specifically Chinese in South Korea and Japan) have been getting physically and verbally assaulted. In India and Sri Lanka, even Muslims were blamed for the rise of Covid (Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide). This brings us back to the idea of “scapegoating” certain groups of people. Furthermore, the increase in crimes has caused some Asians who were not Chinese to come out and “clarify” that they were of so-and-so descent. During WW2, Chinese people + other ethnicities also wore shirts that said, “Please don’t hit, I am not Japanese.” We’re seeing a repeat of that history today. I don’t blame them for what they did because I understand their fear of getting beaten, or even worse, killed, but we need to address the bigger issue behind all of this. Instead of siding with the oppressor to “blame” Chinese people, we as a nation should start enacting federal laws to stop hate crimes and begin arresting racists committing these crimes. Let’s stop the victim blaming.

To combat this predicament, Asians and non-Asians have been protesting and sharing their stories online to bring light to the problem. One Korean-Swedish artist, in particular, Lisa Woo-Rim Sjöblom, has been shedding light on these issues through her illustration series: I Am Not A Virus. She says, “I find that a lot of things that I comment on, which are often seen as quite controversial, people tend to understand it better or show more empathy when they see my drawings.” Instead of reading words on paper, people tend to emphasize more with things they can visualize, and Sjöblom does exactly that. Other Asian artists who were not mentioned in the article but I think deserve recognition too are Kezia Gabriella, Jonathan Chang, and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.

My question is: We obviously know the issues of “us” and “them” and the divide between white people and Asian people, but there are internal problems within the Asian community too. Some people actively try to exclude certain ethnicities when discussing Asian hate OR they publicly show their support for racists such as Donald Trump. What do you think causes some Asian people (mostly older generations) to side with the oppressors despite what they’ve done?

I think Asians supporting racists such as Donald Trump is a problem of being misled. It's safe to say Trump made a lot of emtpy promises and said a lot of things he didn't mean. If he ever said something that gave them false hope they might not want to let go of that. It might be a coping or defense mechanism to use whatever reasoning they can find to support someone who is part of a problem that is putting them in danger because it gives them, like I said before, false hope that they want to hold on to.

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