2020 was a year that highlighted a lot of problems within our country. One of the biggest social issues affecting the current climate of 2020 up until now is racism. It began with the Black Lives Matter protest after the death of George Floyd, but racism was also highlighted by our ex-president who relentlessly called the corona virus things such as “China virus” or “Kung flu”. As a result, Asian Americans across the country experienced higher probability of getting hate for being of Asian descent.
Over the past year hate crimes against Asian American has risen by 150% according to article by NBC news, “The analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, this month examined hate crimes in 16 of America’s largest cities. It revealed that while such crimes in 2020 decreased overall by 7 percent, those targeting Asian people rose by nearly 150 percent.” Although the increase its dramatic, according to the article some cities went from 4 hate crimes in 2019 up to 16-22. “Cities such as New York, where anti-Asian hate crimes rose from three in 2019 to 28 in 2020, an 833 percent increase. Los Angeles and Boston also experienced notable rises, from seven to 15 and six to 14, respectively.” it is also greatly affecting elders of this community, they are at higher risk of getting attacked. In a Time article by Cady Lang she highlights these attacks, "the assault of a 64-year-old Vietnamese grandmother who was assaulted and robbed in San Jose, Calif., and the attack on a 61-year-old Filipino man whose face was slashed with a box cutter on a New York City subway." All across the nation, we've seen security videos of Asian american elders getting attacked for no particular reason other than being Asian. The same article states that most of these acts of violence have taken place in major cities, "While anti-Asian violence has taken place nationwide and particularly in major cities, the uptick in attacks in 2021 has been particularly focused in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and Oakland’s Chinatowns."
This affects me because I live close by to prominently Asian American populated neighborhoods and have most of my life gone to school with many of them. I have had friends who have been affected by the rise in hate against them and the fear it brings them is saddening. My friends are very much afraid for themselves and more so for their elders. I remember when Mexican Americans across the country were getting victimized because of hate from our own head of government calling us “Drug Dealers, criminals and rapists”. I had those same fears for myself and my family during those insensitive times against people like me meet because of what people perceive we are like from the location we may be from. Most Asian Americans who have been attacked are attacked because people believe they are Chinese only because of the way they look.
I chose the title of #StopAsianHate because the hashtag brought awareness from social media into news media. In a UK Vogue article, “#StopAsianHate is calling for mainstream news to cover growing instances of racist and often violent attacks against Asians.” Social media has had an impact in spreading awareness up until it reaches the ranking for news media to actually bring attention to the problem of rising hate crimes against Asian Americans. This hash tag has also helped with spreading the awareness through means social media outlets like twitter, Instagram and also tiktok.
I discovered a Korean born artist through tiktok who is based in New York, Jason Lee is a public artist and usually uses fashion in his art. On March 21, 2021 he created his “Stop Killing Asians” sign he used these words instead of “stop Asian hate” because his words were harsher to bring attention to the bigger problem of Asians getting physically attacked.
Famous boxer, Manny Pacquiao even spoke out on twitter, “Stop attacking Asians who can’t defend themselves! Fight Me Instead”. He even used the hash tag which has now a full year later brought the awareness this issue needs. Although racism against Asian Americans has been prevalent since the 19th century in the US, it has risen at a drastic rate this past year. This hash tag has helped bring awareness and now we can join Asian Americans in fighting against the violence as we did with the Black Lives Matter movement.
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