Hate crimes towards asians.
Xenophobia has skyrocketed since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, turning ignorant people away from asian men, women and children because of remarks normalized due to the spread of covid. Skin colour is not a symptom of this virus, calling this pandemic the ‘kung flu’ or ‘china virus’ is not a joke, it is a real reason asians are being targeted and hurt.
Delian Yuan, Paul Andrew Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon C. Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim and A. Yue were victims of hate towards asians. Say their names, and spread awareness, their deaths were not by mistake, and they did not deserve this fate.
And it’s not just in the US either, in Vancouver alone police released a report saying asian hate crimes have risen by 717 percent from 2019-2020.
To make it worse people aren’t even just targeting Chinese people, but anyone who resembles an east asian, not only is it inconsiderate and rude, it is plain ignorant.
Do not think for a second it’s huge crimes like this shooting that are proof of this rise either, microaggressions towards asians have been present for the longest time and every asian child, teenager and adult can remember their own experiences.
Here are some of my own experiences,
since I was seven the first time people met me their first comments have been “do you eat dogs?” “ching chong” “what’s wrong with your eyes?” “your food smells awful.” or pulling their eyes back to ‘show me’ what I look like.
In the eighth grade I was speaking chinese for my class to tell them a little bit about chinese new year, and people laughed.
A boy asked me if I was going to stab him when I was eating lunch with chopsticks.
My mother was called a bitch because she was shopping with a face shield on. She was recorded and the video was on facebook before she got it taken down. She can still recognize the man who did it to her to this day. No one helped her in the store.
My friend was told her voice had a nasally sound bc she was asian, and that she ‘could tell’ english was her second language. This TEACHER went on to insult her family saying they couldn’t help her because they were used to how she spoke.
A teenager shouted ‘coronavirus’ at me while I was biking with a friend.
People would ask me if I had the coronavirus as a ‘joke’ because I am asian.
An adult, and a friend of my parents told me to brush off the racism I experience because ‘they are still young.’ as if actions don’t influence young minds into thinking what is right and wrong.
An eleven year old shouted racial slurs at me at the park for literally no reason.
“I thoughts asians are supposed to be smart” or asians mocking themselves to try and appease white peers “oh i’m just a dumb asian.” or “oh haha yeah I eat dogs.” do not think you have to put yourself down to appease others
Please. Educate yourself and stand against violence towards asian people.
And to the APPI community, let your stories and voices be heard.
Helpful Links.
educate yourself on the problem and learn what you can do
donate
historical context
helpful links by @amourtentiaa
ways to help asian americans by @wand3ringr0s3
