Address anti-Asian hate crimes.
Happy Monday, and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! A rise in violence against the Asian community this past week prompted me to revisit this article from July, where I outlined the rising anti-Asian sentiment prompted by COVID-19 and the previous administration. I've included it below, with the addition of new sources to follow and the latest ways to take action.
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TAKE ACTION
If you or someone you know experiences an anti-Asian attack, report it at stopaapihate.org.
Raise awareness and learn more by following the hashtag #StopAAPIHate on social media.
Ensure your company has implemented anti-discrimination policies that protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders using this PDF.
GET EDUCATED
By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
Over the past week, a series of attacks against the Asian community, particularly in the San Francisco Bay area, have led calls for justice. In SF, an 84-year-old man from Thailand, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was tackled to the ground. He ultimately died from his injuries (Yahoo). In Oakland, a 91-year-old man was senselessly knocked over. According to the Chinatown Chamber president, there have been 20+ robbery/assault incidents reported in the neighborhood over the past week (ABC7). These acts of violence match others that have sparked in cities across the country, as reported by @nguyen_amanda on Twitter. Despite the severity of these attacks, many major news sources have not yet reported on them.
The onset of COVID-19 in early March set off a dramatic spike in anti-Asian racism. The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, organized by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, has tracked over 1,900 self-reported acts of anti-Asian incidents from March 13 – June, and hundreds more from California and Texas since (A3PCON). 58% of Asian Americans feel it’s more common to experience racism now than it was before COVID-19, and 31% have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity (Pew Research). A recent Pew Study reports that since COVID-19 about 40% of U.S. adults believe “it has become more common for people to express racist views toward Asians since the pandemic began” (Pew Research).
Former President Trump played a role in this, applying his divisive approach to conversations around COVID-19. He chose to refer to it as “Chinese virus,” or “kung flu,” consistently. Press noted he used “Chinese virus” over 20 times between March 16 and March 30 (NBC News). And there’s a long history of North America and its leaders using false narratives to associate Asian Americans with diseases to "justify" racial discrimination and violence.
In the late 19th century, many Chinese and Japanese people immigrated to the U.S. and Canada for the gold rush, along with immigrants from the UK and Europe. Their labor was indispensable for the growth of infrastructure alongside the West Coast, but they were also paid terribly compared to their white American counterparts (The Conversation).
As Chinese communities began to grow, white communities turned against them, fearing they would take their jobs and disrupt their quality of life. They ostracized them by blaming Chinese people for diseases – like syphilis, leprosy, and smallpox – growing in the region. This was entirely untrue; poverty, not race, is more accurately correlated with the spread of diseases.
Despite that, Canada created a Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration and concluded that "Chinese quarters are the filthiest and most disgusting places in Victoria, overcrowded hotbeds of disease and vice, disseminating fever and polluting the air all around,” even though they knew themselves it wasn’t accurate (The Conversation). This spurred violence and hateful rhetoric, but political changes, too: the U.S. passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and Canada followed with their own Chinese Immigration Act in 1885. These were the first law for both countries that excluded an entire ethnic group (AAPF).
To see the same type of discrimination and violence rise yet again is terrifying. For our original piece last summer, I interviewed my friend Katie Dean, an educator currently working in the tech space, to get her thoughts. Dean, who has been self-isolating since March, expressed her frustration for the violence her community is experiencing.
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Right now, who I actually am, doesn’t matter. When I walk out into the world, I am judged by my face. And currently the face of an Asian person, to some, is synonymous with COVID-19, the virus that has taken loved ones, the virus that’s brought the global economy to a crashing halt, the virus that has exacerbated every conceivable racial and socioeconomic disparity. And this hurts, on a profound level.
Katie Dean for the Anti-Racism Daily
Our country needs to take more direct action to protect the AAPI community. In just the past month, President Biden signed a memorandum to combat bias incidents toward Asian Americans, issuing guidance on how to better collect data and assist with the reporting of anti-Asian hate incidents (NBC News). But the work truly starts with each of us. We must continue to raise awareness and admonish this violence in our own communities.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A rise in anti-Asian sentiment only further stresses the need for accountability from individuals and the government alike
The onset of COVID-19 in early March set off a dramatic spike in anti-Asian racism.
The U.S. and Canada have a history of accusing Asian Americans of disease as one of many ways to discriminate and incite violence against them.
RELATED ISSUES
10/13/2020 | Support Chinatown during COVID-19.
11/4/2020 | Understand intergenerational trauma.
11/22/2020 | Stand against hate crimes.
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