Rising Violence Towards Asian Americans

By: August Oh '22

(Image courtesy of chicagotribune.com)

#StopAsianHate

There has always been a long history of racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), but with the recent surge of the pandemic, discrimination against this minority group has only gotten worse. Within just a year since the beginning of COVID-19, anti-Asian hate crimes have skyrocketed to a whopping 150% increase. Protests are being held all around the nation, calling to end Anti-Asian violence. Asian American celebrities and others have taken a stand on social media, so that the voices of millions can be heard.

Fear and outrage has flooded the Asian American community in reaction to the alarming amount of cases of attacks. A group established in San Francisco, Stop AAPI Hate, logged as many as 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobia from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021. 42.2% of those reports targeted Chinese Americans. Asian Americans of all ages were verbally and physically attacked in subways, stores, parks, streets, and even in their own neighborhoods. They would get beaten and bloodied, spit upon, robbed, and stabbed, as well as called racial slurs and told to “go back to their country.”

Former president Donald Trump has given nicknames to the coronavirus based on racial terms for “jokes,” such as the “Chinese virus” or the “Kung flu,” a play-on-words referring to the Chinese martial art of Kung Fu. Jennifer Lee, a sociology professor at Columbia University, said, "When you have a former president who stoked the flames of white nationalism by using ethnic slurs to refer to the coronavirus, you're going to incite hate against a vulnerable minority, in this case, Chinese Americans, and by extension, Asian Americans.”

Just last week on March 16th, eight people were brutally murdered during a mass shooting in three spa locations in Atlanta, Georgia. Six of the eight victims were Asian American, and four of the six were Korean. Their names were Daoyou Feng, Kim Young Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Xiaoje Tan, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Yong Ae Yue, and Paul Andre Michels. Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz was the only survivor, who is currently hospitalized in the intensive care unit and in need of facial surgery. Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year old white male, was taken in as a suspect later that day and was charged for murder. He claimed that the reasons for his actions were to eliminate the “temptations'' of his “sexual addiction.” However, police have not ruled out bias and racism as a motive despite Long’s denial in custody.

Many of these hate crimes have targeted the elderly. There have been several reported attacks of Asian people in their 70s-80s who have been violently shoved to the ground, leaving them with brain hemorrhages, which later caused death. A 70-year old elderly Asian woman, Xiao Zhen Xie, was attacked on Market St. in San Francisco on March 17. She fought back by wielding a wooden stick, leaving her and her attacker, 39-year old Steven Powell, with injuries that required hospital treatment. As Powell was loaded onto a stretcher, Xie exclaimed in Cantonese, “You bum, why did you hit me?” She cannot see out of one eye because it is still bleeding. Her family set up a GoFundMe, raising nearly $900,000, and donated it all to the AAPI community. Steven Powell attacked another person on the same day, an 83-year old elderly Vietnamese man, Ngoc Pham. Pham was attacked while shopping for groceries on 7th and Market St. in San Francisco. Pham sustained injuries with cuts and bruises on his head, as well as a fractured nose and neck. Despite the traumatic experience, Pham still keeps a positive outlook on life after surviving 17 years in a Vietnamese concentration camp.

On February 19th, Ying Ngov, a 56-year old Vietnamese pizzeria owner in Pennsylvania, confronted a group of teens who stole beers from her store. She was shoved to the ground, punched, and brutally beaten to the ground until she blacked out. On February 3rd, Noel Quintana, a 61-year old Filipino American, was slashed ear-to-ear across the face with a box cutter on a NYC subway. The assailant had been kicking his bag over and over again and Quintana asked, “What’s wrong with you?” Quintana moved to the center of the train car, but the assailant advanced upon him. He slashed Quintana through his mask and blood began to spill, but no one even moved a muscle or bothered to call 911 when he pleaded for help. Quitana had to go to a station booth himself and ask for help.

There have also been a number of horrifying incidents targeted at the younger generation as well. On December 23, 2020, a 30-year old Filipino American Navy veteran named Angelo Quinto sustained serious injuries after a violent encounter with the police. Quinto had been suffering from mental health issues and his family called the police when his behavior became erratic. Despite Quinto showing no signs of aggression, he was handcuffed and a police officer held his legs down while another knelt on his neck for five minutes. Quinto desperately repeated, “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.” Blood began to pool out of Quinto’s mouth and his eyes rolled back. He was quickly transported to the nearest hospital, but unfortunately never regained consciousness and died three days later.

On March 16th, a 13-year old boy in Queens, New York was playing basketball when he was attacked by a group of teens calling him racial slurs. One guy pushed him to the ground and they all began to throw basketballs at the 13-year old. The teens repeatedly said, “Go back to China” and “Stupid ******* Chinese.” The victim’s mom had to take her son to the hospital to treat him for his injuries. On March 12th, two 24-year old Asian women, Christine Yan and Isabelle Zhang, were run over and killed by a car in Lakewood, California. The driver hit the women as they were crossing the road, and then dragged them down the street for about 100 meters (about 328 feet) before stopping. Isabelle died at the scene and Christine was transported to a hospital, but died of her injuries later that day.

In Pennsylvania, Christian Hall, a 19-year old Asian American, was about to take his driver's license exam, but ended up getting fatally shot by the police seven consecutive times on December 30th. Hall was suffering from a mental health crisis on an overpass and posed no threat whatsoever. Police reports stated that Hall was being uncooperative and advanced towards the policemen while pointing a gun at them. However, a witness took a 20-second video that did not seem to match with the contents of the report. Hall had his hands raised above his head, following police orders, but things took a very dark turn. Bystanders on the street heard the shots being fired and witnessed the teen collapse onto the ground. Hall was desperately crying for help, yet he ended up with bullets in his body.

There are hundreds of other traumatizing and violent incidents that cannot fit within this article, but let this bring attention to the significant amount of Asian-American and Pacific Islander hate crimes not only in the U.S., but worldwide. Many of the assailants’ reasons for their hate crimes are due to racism and xenophobia, or for seemingly no apparent reason. With the upsurge of attacks against Asian Americans, the country needs to come together to fight back. People of all different kinds of backgrounds can join hands and help spread awareness. @asianfeed, @nextshark, and @asianswithattitudes are great Instagram accounts to take a look at. Please, shed light onto what is going on within the Asian community and stand up for what is right.

#HateIsAVirus