Anti-Asian hate crimes have risen sharply over the last year, thanks in large part to Trump and the MAGA Neanderthals (their permanent new name). Trump and the Republican chumps who ape him have implied, over and over again, the disgusting slander that the coronavirus didn’t just originate in China but that it was somehow released by the Chinese government on purpose. Combine that with the American public’s latent anti-Asian racism, and the result has been violence against innocent people, typically women or the elderly, on American streets, often in broad daylight. And because all Asians look alike to dumb parochial Americans, the Neanderthals have been going after Thai, Filipino, Korean, and anyone else of Asian ethnicity in addition to Chinese. Shockingly, disgustingly, it is dangerous to be Asian in America.
If you Google “attacks on Asians”, you get a long list of recent violent attacks, many of them in my home town, New York City. Here are just a handful from the last week or two:
- Filipino American man slashed in the face while riding NYC subway
- ‘Get the (expletive) out of my way’: Asian Woman assaulted outside Queens bakery
- Attack on Asian American man in LA’s Koreatown being investigated as a hate crime
- Anger And Fear As Asian American Seniors Targeted In Bay Area Attacks
- Shocking video shows 91-year-old man senselessly pushed to ground in Oakland’s Chinatown
- Family of 84-year-old South Asian man killed in SF believe attack was racially motivated
- ‘Hard to watch’: Video shows brazen, ambush-style attack on older Asian man inside SF laundromat
- Stranger attacks Asian couple in Chinatown as hate crimes spike in King County
- Asian American man beaten with own cane at Rosemead bus stop in ‘violent, random crime’
- Two Asian women attacked on NYC subways, cops say
- In latest attack on Asians, woman dragged by car in Oakland robbery
In addition to outright violence, the number of racist verbal assaults has surged. Asian Americans Advancing Justice, along with other civil rights groups, have documented over 3000 incidents since April — most of them specifically mentioning the coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic and the surge in Anti-Asian hate crimes is just the most recent in a long history of discrimination and racism against Asians in America, much of it sanctioned and guided by US Government law and courts. Here is an excellent summary of this history by Adrian De Leon, a Professor at USC.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought enormous pain, suffering, and death to millions of people, such that in some respects we’ve become numb to it. In addition, the extraordinary success of so many Asian immigrants to the US (and their massive contribution to this country) may lead some to view Asians as less in need of vigorous support compared to other groups experiencing racism. However, the hatred and violence against Asian Americans goes to the heart of who we are as Americans and who we aspire to be. It must be condemned and combated by all Americans.