AAPI is Real

With racist hate crimes on the rise all over the United States, Asian Americans now fear for their safety.

Former President Donald Trump referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus,” fanning flames of anti-Asian racism. From New York City to Los Angeles, Asian Americans have been spit on, pushed, abused, and even lit on fire. Random acts of violence have been perpetrated against Asians, and homes have been robbed as part of the most recent wave of racism.

Asian people of all ages are concerned for their safety. Asian families are all asking a similar question: can they raise their children in an environment where they might get attacked because of the color of their skin?

Attacks on Asian Americans have a long history. In the 1880s, Asian children were segregated in “Oriental” schools in California. The Chinese Exclusion act in 1882 barred all people of Chinese descent from entering the country. The 1892 Geary Act forced all Chinese people living in the US to obtain and carry government identification proving their legal status. Then in 1913, 13 states passed laws that barred “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning and/or leasing land. It wasn’t until the 1943 Magnuson Act that Chinese immigrants were finally eligible for naturalization.

Prejudice surged between March and December of 2020 due to President Trump’s repeated use of the term “Chinese virus” and the even more offensive “Kung Flu.” Advocacy groups estimated that there were about 3,000 incidents involving hate crimes towards the Asian community.

Examples of this violence are chilling. An 89-year old Chinese woman in New York was slapped and set on fire; a Filipino immigrant was killed in his mother’s home by police who knelt on his neck for five minutes a Thai immigrant was slain while walking in his neighborhood in SanFrancisco at 9 am.

The United States has a long and ugly history where a certain racial or ethnic group is blamed for current pressing issues and thus discriminated against. In 1982, Vincent Chin was murdered by disgruntled auto workers who blamed Japanese car imports for Detroit’s decline. Many turban-wearing Sikhs were killed following the terrorist act of September 11, 2001. Attacks and murders for the spreading of the so-called “Kung Flu” are the latest of both government-promulgated anti-Asian racism and violence against individual Asian Americans for a global catastrophe shared by all.

“For generations, Asian Americans have been enabling American society to ignore or dismiss anti-Asian racism. We’ve put up with all of the ‘Ching Chong’ name-callings as long as it doesn’t affect us getting to college.” Says Xiao Wang, co-founder, and CEO, Boundless Immigration. “I cannot sit silently on the sidelines anymore and I hope my fellow Asian Americans will join me.”

For more on the fight against anti-Asian racism, please visit Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

By Ping Melchior

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