Hate Crimes Against Asians and Asian-Americans in Relation to COVID-19
In the past year, the US has seen a significant increase in the number of hate crimes against Asian-American and Asian communities. The New York Times states that “the number of hate crimes with Asian-American victims reported to the New York Police Department jumped to 28 in 2020, from just three in the previous year.” Although this number seems rather insignificant compared to the statistic of attacks against other ethnic groups, this is only the amount of incidents reported to the NYPD, with many other attacks either not being classified as hate crimes or not even being reported in the first place. The motivation behind these hate crimes towards the Asian-American community closely correlates to the circumstances of the pandemic, as the COVID-19 virus originated in Wuhan, China.
When the Coronavirus first came to the US, some Americans responded with anger, racism, and aggression towards the Asian-American and Asian community. There was one account from last March of a 23-year-old Korean woman in New York being punched in the face and accused of having the Coronavirus, and there have been many more since then. Some Asian-Americans have been attacked with chemicals, beaten, clashed, or even spit on. This violence can also be directly linked to the remarks of the former president, Donald J. Trump, regarding the Coronavirus, using terms like the “China virus” or “Chinese virus,” and misplacing the blame for it on Asian-Americans, stereotyping and stigmatizing the community.
Not only in the past year has this been a prevalent issue for America, the violence has also continued into 2021. CNN reports that at a rally in New York against anti-Asian hate around the end of February, a protester was “slashed across the face.” The latest reported incident was “the stabbing of a 36-year-old Asian American man” on February 25. After this, many similar attacks were brought to the attention of authorities across the US.
The New York Times says: “the first step in addressing hate violence is to know its full scope and magnitude.” In order to reduce the amount of these horrendous attacks, it is necessary to be educated. If we spend more time informing ourselves and others around us about these acts of violence that most of the time fly under the radar, we can spread awareness and do our best to counter this rapid incline of hate crimes.
