Hatred, discrimination, and violence against Asian community are becoming increasingly severe ever since due to the fact that Covid-19 was originated from China. Even though President Biden banned the government officials from using words like "China plague", "China virus" and "Kung Flu", it didn't stop these words from being used to describe coronavirus. "Attacks like these have continued despite President Biden's executive action banning the federal government from employing 'inflammatory and xenophobic' language like China plague' and 'kung flu'". (Yoo, 2021) Even though this phenomenon started ever since Covid-19 was spread to the United States in March 2020, the mainstream media only started paying the attention it deserves three weeks ago. The news that raised the awareness was that an 84-year-old Asian grandpa was fatally shoved on the street of San Francisco by a passing stranger, and the victim later died from physical damage. To tackle xenophobic against Asian community resulting from Covid-19, a non-profit organization called Stop AAPI Hate was formed in March 2020. Their five major goals include recording the number of anti-asian incidents, providing multilingual resources for affected individuals, offering technical assistance to community members in need, providing support for safety measures and justice efforts, and advocating human right and civil rights policies to exert local, state, and national impact. "We started in March of last year and we were immediately flooded with hundreds of incidents per day and they were just horrific," Dr. Jeung, [the co-founder] of Stop AAPI Hate said. "That continued-- so last year we received over 2,800 cases of racism across the nation" (Yoo, 2021). During this difficult period, it is comforting to see supporting forces towards Asian community. Azevedo, a 26-year-old hispanic descent, tired of the racism violence, posted a supporting project on social media called “Compassion in Oakland”, offering to walk anyone in Oakland Chinatown neighborhood to help them feel safe. Hundreds of people reached out to him to join this project. "His idea quickly resonated throughout the community and within days he had nearly 300 volunteers reaching out to join him to protect the community"(Smith, CNN, 2021). Azevedo's intention is simple, he wants to offer some sort of comfort to people in need during this intense time. He believes people from all minority communities should stand together and offer support. According to him, people from all racial groups reached out to him offering to help. In conclusion, anti-Asian violence soured due to Covid-19 even though President Biden carried out policies in favor of racism against Asian community. An organization called Stop AAPI Hate was formed in response of anti-Asian incidents. Other than Asian community, a hispanic descent, Azevedo started a supporting project on social media called Compassion in Oakland, and 300 hundreds individuals from all racial groups reached out to support.
Yellow lives matter
Updated: Mar 18, 2021
And now, this yellow hate is keeping expanding. Recently, several asian got killed at a spa in Atlantic. Hatred cases are increasing dramatically during the pandemic. Many Asians said they were abused by haters by doing no harm to others. Most of these victims are actually American asians.
We are told to not judge people by their outfits. However, we are now judged by our skin color. These racist crime should stop.
Some of the racist attacks we've seen against the Asian community in recent times have been awful. One of my classes recently brought up a statistic from the bay area in San Francisco claiming over 80% of all crime was black on Asian crime. Worse yet, our discussion was accompanied by some videos of the attacks and they are horrific. As you also mention, lots of slang involving China and Covid has developed as of recent. While I could see how some of the phrases you've mentioned like "China Flu" might be used, the others are certainly not justified and should cease being used.
As an Asian, I am commonly regarded as a "model minority" or a more privileged minority. However, it is important to note that even as a model minority, I will still never be white. Because of that, white mainstream culture is quick to abandon other races when it becomes more convenient. When I met my ex-boyfriend's grandparents for the first time, he told me that they hated Japanese people. When my grandmother lived in California, her husband was placed in a Japanese internment camp. Sadly, these prejudices did not disappear as society progressed and they seem to have just taken a new form.
The racist crimes against the Asian community over the past several months are nauseating. I am not of Asian heritage, but I feel still feel so strongly about this matter. The way that the Asian community has been treated in this country is intolerable, and any small act of kindness to show support is necessary at this time. I love the story that you share in this blog post. It is a perfect example of how small acts of kindness can make all the difference in the path to healing. Azevedo’s initiative to support Oakland Chinatown and provide a sense of safety is a powerful way to show his alliance. His behavior offers an example of how to engage with…
Junru, I think you bring to light a lot of important issues here regarding hate against Asian Americans. As a journalist, I would love to discuss more about this topic and how the media can better cover anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic. I interviewed a member of the Troy Philippines last March who described how he was experiencing xenophobia on-campus. He mentioned how students would make faces or cringe when an Asian student would cough or sneeze. This was very disheartening, and it's sad that it took legal forces a year to recognize this xenophobia. Last week in my TV broadcast class, one of our producers (of Asian descent) shared how her experience in the newsroom was isolating when…