There were at least 3,795 hate incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic, a new report shows

Over the past year, Asian Americans have had to survive more than just a deadly pandemic: they have also faced an increase in verbal and physical attacks as a result of the racist scapegoat on COVID-19.

A new report from the organization

Stop hate AAPI

shows that there were at least 3,795 hate incidents reported against Asian Americans in the past year alone, from March 19, 2020 to February 28.

Although the report does not include figures from previous years for comparison, other data showed an extreme increase in these attacks. While general hate crimes decreased by 7% in 16 major US cities in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 149%, reaching their first peak in March and April, when COVID-19 began to spread, according to with the California State University Center for the Study of Hate and extremism.

Of the incidents documented by Stop AAPI, 68% involved verbal harassment and 11% involved physical aggression. Shunning, defined as the “deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans”, represented 20% of the reports. Violations of civil rights, such as discrimination in the workplace or refusal of service by a company, accounted for 8.5% of complaints, and another 6.8% for online harassment.

Women reported attacks at more than twice the rate of men, and Chinese-Americans accounted for more than 42% of victims.

Since the report looked at only self-reported attacks, the actual numbers are likely to be even higher.

“The number of hate incidents reported to our center represents only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it shows how vulnerable Asians are to discrimination and the types of discrimination they face,” says the report .

Racism against Asian Americans exploded in the past year, both at the individual level and at the top of the country. During the pandemic, Donald Trump repeatedly blamed China for COVID-19, calling it “China Virus” and “Kung Flu”. He continued to do so and denied that he was racist, even after a reporter questioned him about the increase in attacks against Chinese Americans.

The new report was published a few weeks after a San Francisco man was arrested on charges of assault for allegedly pushing three Asian Americans to the ground, including a 91-year-old. One of the others he attacked, a 55-year-old woman, was knocked out.

These attacks were just three of the many recently reported in the United States. In January, Thai immigrant Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, died of cerebral hemorrhage after a random attacker threw him to the ground in San Francisco. During the pandemic, Asian Americans were chemically burned, ridiculed, stolen on video and kicked in the face. In at least two other cases, including one from a family of three, the attackers would have tried to kill the victims.

The racism that Asian Americans are now facing is very reminiscent of the stereotype of the “yellow danger” that swept the United States for the first time in the 1850s, Russel Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and professor of Asian studies, told BuzzFeed News -Americans at San Francisco State University. .

“It is the fear that Asians will come and overcome the West with their hordes [of] racialize, sick bodies and take control – dominate, “said Jeung.” In the 19th century, this fear was fueled by the diseases of smallpox, cholera and leprosy, and [there was] the fear of the Chinese taking jobs out of white workers, so they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. “

A century and a half ago, this stereotype was as dangerous for Asian Americans as it is now, he added. “My great-grandparents’ house in Monterey, they had a village of 200 people and they were set on fire and burned and had to move to San Francisco’s Chinatown to avoid racism.”

It is part of a pattern in the history of the United States, he said.

“We had Japanese-American incarceration during World War II, [and] we had Islamophobia after 9/11, “said Jeung.” Time after time, we are seen as strangers to be excluded, incarcerated, deported. “

In a speech on March 11, President Joe Biden condemned “Cruel hate crimes against Americans of Asian origin who have been persecuted, attacked, accused and turned into scapegoats.”

“They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking the streets in America,” he said. “It is wrong, it is not American and it must stop.”

Jeung said he was happy to see Biden talk about the attacks and hopes to see the president’s words translated into concrete actions, such as expanding education in ethnic studies and protecting civil rights.

The Stop AAPI Hate report includes details of some of the victims’ stories, which include being harassed in public, coughing or spitting, called slander and several incidents in which people were told to “return” to China.

“A white man whistled at me, then aggressively followed me around the block and managed
inches from my face and I shouted ‘Ch * nk!’ and ‘C * nt!’ after realizing that I was Asian, “reported a person from Brooklyn.” Many neighbors were outside their homes and no one intervened. “

“My boyfriend and I were taking the subway to DC,” said another person, from Annandale, Virginia. “When he was on the escalator at the transfer station, a man repeatedly punched my back and passed us. At the top, he circled back towards us, followed us, repeatedly shouted ‘b ** ch Chinese’ to me, coughed fake
and threatened us physically. “

In some cases, the victims reported that they were visibly avoided or avoided.

“I entered the Mercato cafeteria and people started to leave the area where I sat, one by one,” said a person from Naples, Florida. “People started to enter and sat on the other side of the cafeteria, away from me. I was isolated on one side of the cafeteria.”