The Rise in Racially-Motivated Crimes Against Asian Americans
Medina Iljazi
As the COVID-19 pandemic steadily improves day by day, Asian Americans across the United States are still being targeted by domestic terrorists. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Stop AAPI Hate (Asian American Pacific Islander) group — a team created by the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University to fight against discrimination towards Asian Americans — recently reported a significant spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans. The recent surge has inspired people across various internet platforms to rally together to express their alliance to Asian communities nationwide.
In their latest national report, the Stop AAPI Hate organization received over 3,800 reports of racially-motivated verbal and physical attacks against Asian Americans from March of 2020 to February 2021. According to AAPI’s report released on March 16th, 2021, verbal harassment was the most common type of discrimination that Asian Americans face. What's more startling is the fact that many of the verbal assault cases occurred in public areas like businesses and other heavily trafficked centers. The majority of the cases were reported by women, and the specific ethnic group that was reported to have faced the most significant rise in hate crimes was Chinese.
The most recent and horrifying of the attacks against Asian Americans occurred Tuesday, March 16th, in Atlanta, Georgia. A man by the name of Robert Aaron Long traveled to three different spas within a few miles of one another and killed eight people in three separate shooting sprees. Shortly after, the Cherokee County police department released surveillance video of one of the shootings in the hopes that the public would be able to help identify the shooter. Long was identified as the man responsible when his family saw the video footage and contacted police. Long was arrested later that same day. According to CNN, Long told police the reason behind his actions came from a belief he had about himself that he was addicted to sex and visiting the nearby spas gave him “a temptation ... that he wanted to eliminate…” (CNN). Prior to the release of this information to the public on March 18th, many believed that the crimes were racially motivated. But even after Long revealed his alleged motive, many people pointed out that of the eight people who died that day, six were of Asian descent, which was a major cause for concern in Asian communities nationwide.
In response to the horrific attack, President Biden spoke out about the string of hate crimes against Asian Americans. In his speech, held on the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden discussed his contempt for those responsible for attacks on innocent individuals. Biden referred to the Atlanta shooting as "unacceptable" and "un-American.” Many companies like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, and HBO have also spoken out about the hate crimes by creating social media posts declaring their support of the Asian community using the hashtag #StopAsianHate, which quickly gained popularity on sites like Twitter and Instagram. With the help of social media, hate crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans in the United States will no longer be tolerated, and Asian Americans will receive the support they deserve.
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