The rise in Asian hate crimes

If you’ve turned on the news or gone on social media these past few days, you would see that there has been a lot of hate aimed towards the Asian community. Many people have lost their lives due to the violence. There was a recent case where an elderly lady got shoved to the ground. Many other people have been getting racist language directed at them. Some people even fear to go outside knowing that something could possibly happen to them.

One of the most recent acts of violence in the news regarding the Asian community was when a woman was attacked in Queens, New York. The lady’s daughter who was attacked spoke to a reporter from the  New York Times as to how she felt about the attack towards her mother. The daughter, Maggie Cheng, stated, “I’ve never cried like that before,” describing her reaction to security footage that showed her mother being shoved to the ground last week on a crowded street in Flushing, Queens.” She also mentioned that she only watched it once because she couldn’t watch it again. This footage was showing that Cheng’s mother was getting shoved to the ground and getting a box thrown at her by a male who appears on the security footage. But no one around her helped, they were just looking at her.

Not only is there violence towards them, they are also getting racial slurs directed at them. According to USA Today, “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.” This has already been an issue, but due to recent events they have increased and have been noticed by the public.

When speaking to a journalist from the Texas Tribune, Mike Nguyen stated, “I can’t even go out and help a fellow person in the community because I’m afraid that I might get attacked.” His restaurant was vandalized and spray-painted with racist slurs after he spoke out against it.  This is showing us that this is one of the many people that feel fear. People shouldn’t have to fear going to work, going outside, or doing something they want because they are human and deserve to live a normal life.

The hate against the Asian community has increased so much this year and it has caused a lot of violence. This is making many people feel unsafe and scared for their lives. But the elderly people are the ones who are most affected. That’s why most cases involve the elderly. When the Covid-19 pandemic started, people started blaming everything on them, and that’s when they thought it was fine to do things like this.  Even Donald Trump would call it “China Virus,” making people think that it was okay for these verbal and violent attacks.

It is going to take a lot to fix these issues, but we just need time and need to make an effort to stop it.