Attacks on Asian Americans On The Rise

By Iracema Navarro, Editorial Intern

It’s no surprise to many Asian Americans that their community has become a target of domestic terrorism, particularly in the wake of the Atlanta, Ga. attacks in which eight people were shot and killed, six of which were Asian American women, who worked in a spa.

The sheriff’s department’s Capt. Jay Baker serving as the department’s spokesman described the shooter as one man struggling with sex addiction “having a very bad day.” The captain didn’t misspeak, nor was he taken out of context. Indeed, he exhibited the very racism and misogyny Asian Americans and Asian American women in particular face.

Robert Aaron Long, 21,  killed eight people at three massage businesses in Atlanta, six of them were Asian women on March 16.

The motive for the events are still being determined after the initial investigation determined Long has an “issue with porn” and saw the businesses as a temptation.

In Los Angeles County there were 245 hate incidents reported from March 19 to Oct. 28, 2020, according to Stop AAPI Hate. The organization received 2,800 reports in 2020 in 47 states and the District of Columbia.

“The rhetoric of the past administrations, specifically former President [Donald] Trump exacerbated the very unnecessary target of Asian Americans in general,” said Mary Lacanlale, an assistant professor of Asian-Pacific Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

On Jan. 31, a 28-year-old suspect shoved random Asians to the ground including a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, all left unconscious. 

An 84-year-old Thai American, Vicha Ratanapakdee was pronounced dead after being violently pushed to the ground in San Francisco. A 64-year-old Vietnamese American grandmother was robbed of $1,000 of her Lunar New Year money in San Jose. A 61-year-old Filipino American Noel Quintana was slashed from eye to eye in New York. 

The acts of violence upon Asian Americans in this particular moment is not new.

Chinese immigrants were the first undocumented group to be restricted in the country in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese laborers, mostly men and who did not speak English were sent to the other side of the railroad if not deported or imprisoned because of the country’s economic crisis and the decrease in wages and jobs. Being segregated, Chinese immigrants had to establish a new society within a country they were not welcomed to survive. Asian immigrants struggled to adjust to a new environment and government policies found a creative way to hide Chinatowns’ exploitation in America. 

“In Chinatowns, there is a common ignorance of people who settle where they settle because they immigrated from one place or another in the United States or outside the United States,” said Kerry Shannon, an assistant professor of history at California State University Dominguez Hills. “American policies frequently zoned people to live in certain communities. Chinatowns exist for a policy reason not only because people wanted to live in Chinatowns. Verbal assaults occur in all parts of the country, connecting them to Asian Americans and their communities, such as their Chinatown. 

According to the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations 2019 hate crime report, anti-Asian hate crime targets grew 32% from 19 to 25 crimes. Although there is a 15% of Asian Americans in Los Angeles county’s population, 25 crimes in 2019 was the largest number reported in 12 years.

The incidents are not at all random but a result of xenophobia. 

“It’s horrifying when looking at something on Instagram or Facebook or even local news, seeing violent reactions; it is a logic[al] reaction but as a historian, one must try to investigate where these social tensions come from historically,” said Shannon.

With divisive actions recorded throughout this nation’s history and witnessed in the country, such as the Civil War that began in 1861 and the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, the repetitive xenophobic attacks from former President Donald Trump have fueled racism in America.

Before his one-time presidency, former President Trump attacked Mexican immigrants in 2015, introducing his candidacy by stating, “they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

The dangerous terms used by then-candidate Trump and more than  62 million U.S. citizens voting for him in 2016 for president, people felt that they had the right to spew racist language and their actions were backed up.

The coronavirus’s origin was reported from Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, unleashing the backlash against Asians in America. Former President Trump, during his last year of presidency and the pandemic, has repeatedly changed the COVID-19 term as the “kung flu”, the “Chinese virus”, or the “Wuhan virus”. 

With the need to blame a group, Trump pointed to China.

Trump doubled-down on his change of terms at a White House briefing in March 2020. 

“It did come from China,” Trump said. “It is a very accurate term.”

It is easy to make Asian Americans “the other”. When an Asian American can be Korean, Japanese, Filipino, or Vietnamese, not Chinese. Lumping them all into the same category is inaccurate and damaging in the data collected and recorded.

“The whole focus on the origin of the pandemic in China, that combined with just general ignorance about where Asian Americans come from,” said Lacanlale about the different attacks on Asian Americans on the derogatory remarks towards the Chinese. “That encouraged not just his supporters, but it really played off the American public’s ignorance against Asian Americans.” 

Asian Americans in Trump’s era had to endure hate crimes and verbal harassment but much more during the pandemic. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation reports, 7,314 hate crimes and 8,559 related offenses were recorded in 2019. The related offenses are considered bias or hate incidents that are discriminatory acts that involve violence, threats, or property damage but are not considered to specifically hate crimes.

In his first weeks in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive action for the Department of Justice to follow new guidelines to collect data and reports of Asian American hate crimes and incidents. Multiple letters from both the House of Representatives and the Senate had sent the department wanting more action on the issue. 

“This is unacceptable and it’s un-American,” Biden said.