The coronavirus pandemic had been spreading in the United States for a month, and Asian American community groups were warning of a disconcerting surge
DENVER — Helen Oh was walking down the sidewalk of the downtown 16th Street pedestrian mall in April when two young men approached from the other direction.
The coronavirus pandemic had been spreading in the United States for a month, and Asian American community groups were warning of a disconcerting surge of hateful and racist language directed toward them, tied to the virus’ origins in China. Oh, an attorney, was on her guard.
The two men drew closer.
“Infected and disgusting,” one called out as they passed, she said.
Heart racing, she ducked into a drugstore.
“I didn't think to say anything back when I heard it. It really only sunk in as I was walking away,” she said.
Stepping back onto the street, Oh, 30, walked toward her car as an older couple approached. The woman made a show of detouring around her, she said.
“The woman literally walked off the sidewalk to be as far from me as possible,” Oh said. “There was no one else around and it was so obnoxious.”
One incident, she might have written off as the kind of casual racism she has encountered all her life as the daughter of Korean immigrants. But two, in such a short time? It was clear, she said, that she was being targeted because she is Asian.
“You could feel the sense of hatred and scapegoating that was being built,” Oh said. “I avoided going out by myself for a while."
Asian Americans have been victims of increased violence and harassment since the coronavirus pandemic began, but recent attacks have prompted some to take extra precautions.
Asian Americans across the United States are reporting a significant increase in hate crimes, harassment and discrimination tied to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than a year after these attacks began, the pandemic has galvanized Asian Americans, many of whom have long felt invisible, to speak out about the hatred and racism being directed their way.
Community leaders are calling for greater enforcement of existing hate-crime laws, better connections with local police departments charged with investigating hateful incidents, and other Americans to consider the impact of their words and actions on the country’s estimated 21 million Asian Americans. Asian American entertainers are using their platforms to highlight the issues, Asian American journalists are sharing their own stories of discrimination on social media and a growing chorus of federal lawmakers are demanding action.
The pandemic has especially “struck a nerve” for the Asian American community, which has forced many to realize that simple discrimination can turn violent, said Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California, who is a member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. The fight against the “bamboo ceiling” is now also about physical safety, he said.
“For a large number of Asian Americans, especially the young generation, they’re now seeing for the first time actual violence directed at them or their grandparents,” Lieu said. “It’s highly disturbing.”
House impeachment manager Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate.
In January, President Joe Biden issued an executive order condemning the attacks — and without naming them, criticizing former President Donald Trump and other federal officials who repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as the “China virus” or the “Kung flu.” The order calls for better data collection about hateful incidents, and mandates federal agencies to fight “racism, xenophobia, and intolerance” directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, or AAPI.
“The federal government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin,” Biden said in his order. “Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons.”
Among recent incidents: In January, an 84-year-old Thai American man was brutally shoved in San Francisco and later died. That same month, police in Oakland, California, said a young man shoved three elderly people to the ground from behind in the city's Chinatown neighborhood, knocking out one. And this week, a 36-year old Asian man in New York’s Chinatown neighborhood was stabbed and taken to the hospital in critical condition. The suspect in that assault faces charges that include attempted murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime, among other charges, the New York Police Department said.
The surge in hate incidents against the Asian American community since the start of the pandemic was set aflame last winter when Trump began scapegoating Chinese people for the explosion of coronavirus in the United States.
“It gave a lot of people permission (to act on) their prejudice,” said Mabel Menard, president of OCA Chicago, a chapter of OCA, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for civil rights of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The racism and discrimination accompanying the pandemic comes atop the devastation the disease has had on some portions of the Asian and Pacific Islander community, including health-related business closures and the deaths of at least 67 Filipino registered nurses — a staggering 31% of all nursing deaths, even though Filipinos make up only 4% of registered nurses in the United States, according to National Nurses United. Pacific Islanders rank third in terms of coronavirus deaths, behind Native Americans and Black Americans.
https://zenodo.org/communities/monitorfour-83642/?page=1&size=20