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‘Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across US terrifies community members

  
Via:  Buzz of the Orient  •  3 years ago  •  24 comments

By:   Victoria Bekiempis The Guardian

‘Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across US terrifies community members
“These attacks are no accident,” Chu said. “It’s clear January 6 was not the only violence Donald Trump incited.”

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‘Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across US terrifies community members

As an increase in anti-Asian bigotry continues to sweep across America, politicians and community advocates have called for action to combat a disturbing surge in physical attacks and harassment.

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© Provided by The Guardian  Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images.  People walk in the Chinatown area of New York City on 5 February.

During a press conference last week, top congressional Democrats condemned the increase and said much of the blame lies in former president Donald Trump’s  racist rhetoric  about Chinese persons and the coronavirus.

The Asian American community has reached a “crisis-point”, said Judy Chu, a California congresswoman who chairs the  Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus . Community members are “terrified by the alarming surge in anti-Asian American bigotry,” she said.

Related:  Designer Phillip Lim speaks out against rise in anti-Asian attacks in the US

“These attacks are no accident,” Chu said. “It’s clear January 6 was not the only violence Donald Trump incited.”

Chu’s words come amid a wave of violent incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the US. Although it is difficult to prove that these violent incidents are purely motivated by bigotry, activists and community leaders, as well as victims and their families, think that race has played a major role.

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© Provided by The Guardian  Jessica Wong, front left, Jenny Chiang, center, and Sheila Vo, all from the Massachusetts Asian American Commission, condemn racism aimed at Asian communities during the pandemic on 12 March. Photograph: Steven Senne/AP

Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thailand native who lived in San Francisco, died several weeks ago after being shoved to the ground. The victim’s family reportedly  said  to  KTVU  that he was attacked because of his race and age.

“What else could have motivated him?” Ratanapakdee’s son-in-law said of the attacker.

Across the bay, a man shoved three people in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood. The victims – a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man, and a 55-year-old woman – were injured,  according to CNN .

In the Flushing neighborhood of New York City, a 52-year-old Chinese-American woman was attacked outside a bakery Tuesday. This woman asked a man in front of her about the line, and he then became “extremely angry, yelled and cursed at her, used his hand to touch her face and came face-to-face-with her”, prosecutors said in court papers.

The victim’s daughter said on Facebook that he shoved her “with such force that she hit her head on the concrete and passed out on the floor”,  according to NBC New York .

The same day, two Asian seniors were assaulted on the subway in separate incidents, the network said.

The man accused of involvement in the bakery incident was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment. He was not charged with a hate crime, records indicate.

Former president Bill Clinton also spoke out against increasing reports of anti-Asian attacks. “I’m deeply concerned about the rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans,” he  said  on Twitter. “We must speak out against discrimination of all kinds, reject the ignorant rhetoric driving this wave of violence, and reach out to support our neighbors.”

Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition documenting anti-Asian bigotry during the pandemic,  said  the organization had received more than 2,808 “firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate” from 19 March to 31 December. These reports are from 47 states and the District of Columbia.

According to Stop AAPI Hate’s data, physical assaults comprised 8.7% of these incidents, while coughing/spitting totaled 6.4%. Verbal harassment constituted 70.9% of these incidents; and shunning or avoidance were 21.4%.

Figures from law enforcement agencies are similarly disturbing. The New York police department’s records also show a troubling increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. In 2020, there were reports of 29 total victims – with 24 listed as having “coronavirus motivation”. In 2019, there were just reports of three anti-Asian hate crimes recorded by the department.

From 1 January to 17 February, the most recent NYPD data provided, authorities reported that there were two victims of anti-Asian hate crimes. In this same period of 2020, there were no reported victims of anti-Asian crimes.

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© Provided by The Guardian  Karlin Chan, a volunteer for the Chinatown Block Watch, patrols the neighborhood in New York City on 17 May. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

“No area really is immune. It’s urban, rural,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, to the Guardian. “Even when the country was largely sheltering in place, people were experiencing incidents at grocery stores, at pharmacies, at big-box retailers.”

“Those were the only places we were able to go … they had to worry that somebody might verbally attack them or physically assault them or refuse them service as they were just trying to sort of eke out an existence,” said Kulkarni.

“It has our seniors and the women more concerned. It seems like they’re picking on seniors,” said Karlin Chan, a community advocate in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “These people are opportunists. They’re not going to pick on a fit young man. It does have the community worried.”

Chan said that the community in Manhattan’s Chinatown was lucky to have experienced fewer incidents than Flushing had. However, residents were rattled by several incidents last winter, before the pandemic hit New York City.

“Right before lockdown, Chinatown was very quiet,” Chan said. “These opportunists, or some racists, would harass people. On the Lower East Side, streets were very quiet.”

In response, Chan formed a block watch that walks around the neighborhood several times a week, “just to assure neighbors and residents that there are people from the community, and outside the community, who are concerned”.

Chu and other lawmakers attending the press conference, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, urged Congress to pass legislation that would provide federal grants to state and city governments to improve reporting of bias crimes and provide better support for victims.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee said everyone must work to “put a stop to hate and violence”.

“These tragic attacks are happening in communities across the country,” Lee said. “These attacks are just simply unacceptable.”

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Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1  seeder  Buzz of the Orient    3 years ago

Who said to the public: "China virus", "Kung flu", "Wuhan virus", "Chinese plague"?

 
 
 
Larry Hampton
Professor Participates
1.1  Larry Hampton  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1    3 years ago

American History will name it the Trump Virus. He will forever be associated with the horror of this Last year. 

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
1.1.1  Bob Nelson  replied to  Larry Hampton @1.1    3 years ago
American History will name it the Trump Virus. 

We hit a half-million dead today.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.1.2  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Bob Nelson @1.1.1    3 years ago

I can't bring myself to thumb that up - although what you posted is sadly true.  What excuse is there for such an advanced society to suffer more than so many others?  

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
1.1.4  Bob Nelson  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1.1.2    3 years ago
What excuse is there...

None.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
1.2  Tacos!  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1    3 years ago

Except for the Kung flu (come on, that’s a little funny) a lot of people used the terms “china virus” or “wuhan virus.” Politicians. News Media. Even scientists. It’s extremely common to describe an outbreak with terms like that are based on either where the virus originated or where the first strong outbreak was. That’s why the 1918/1919 flu outbreak is still referred to as the “Spanish Flu.” When I was a kid, I got the “Russian Flu.” It’s just an identifier. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone be offended by it. 

By the way, one of my grandfathers was Russian. Never occurred to me to be offended by “Russian Flu.”

Calling it something else, - like Covid - is fine, but it doesn’t eliminate our knowledge of where it came from. And considering a lot of the difficulty in getting full information from China, I think you would still have people who were angry at China over this even if we had never called it the China flu.

None of that makes violence against ordinary people ok, but a certain amount of that would probably have happened anyway. Unfortunately, I think we will always have some people who tend toward bigotry and violence.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.2.1  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Tacos! @1.2    3 years ago

Spanish flu - Russian flu - would you please point out to me a person on the street who is Spanish or Russian?  However, it's not too hard to identify a person as Asian, right?  You may think it's funny, but there are a lot more people in this world than there are in the USA who don't think it's a bit funny.  However, your former leader does have a sense of humour that is not exactly universal.

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Tacos!
Professor Guide
1.2.2  Tacos!  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1.2.1    3 years ago
Spanish flu - Russian flu - would you please point out to me a person on the street who is Spanish or Russian?  However, it's not too hard to identify a person as Asian, right?

Depends on the time and place you live. There was a time in this country when it was easy to identify an Irish person. And yes, they were discriminated against - often violently.

You may think it's funny, but there are a lot more people in this world than there are in the USA who don't think it's a bit funny.

I don't think you speak for the world. Lots of people disagree on what's funny. There are no absolutes. A lot of humor is dark or disrespectful. I don't endorse "kung flu." However, a nuanced approach allows a person to see that a thing can be simultaneously offensive and clever. That's all.

 
 
 
zuksam
Junior Silent
1.2.3  zuksam  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1.2.1    3 years ago

America is a big country with a lot of Asians and a lot of Criminals. I'm sure Asians were being assaulted by criminals long before this virus came around and they'll be getting assaulted long after it's gone. It seems like a very few assaults in a very big nation with no proof that Virus based Racism is the cause. Everybody has been talking about the virus for over a year but I haven't heard even one person say they feared or blamed Asian Americans or even Chinese Citizens, just some blaming the Chinese Government but that's to be expected "F them if they don't like it". I'm sure the Asian Community is very frightened by these questionable reports about virus blaming racist attacks on Asians but it's mostly bull. The Problem is Minorities in America have been trained by the Left Wing Media to assume everything bad that happens to them is because of Racism. If you get assaulted in must have been racism (pay no attention to the tens of millions of white people who have been assaulted), if someone acts like a jerk they must be a racist because white people never act like jerks to each other.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
1.2.4  Bob Nelson  replied to  zuksam @1.2.3    3 years ago
The Problem is Minorities in America have been trained by the Left Wing Media to assume everything bad that happens to them is because of Racism. 

... and they're so fucking stupid that they believe that media. Is that your thesis?

They listen to the media? They don't just listen to what happens to their friends and neighbors... or to themselves??

Good thing us White folk can 'splain it to them.

 
 
 
Thomas
Senior Guide
1.2.5  Thomas  replied to  Tacos! @1.2    3 years ago

The Spanish Flu originated in Kansas . It was called the Spanish flu because the Spanish were the first people to write about it after it had been transported to the Europe by soldiers from the US.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.2.6  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  zuksam @1.2.3    3 years ago

I agree with you that discrimination against Asians is nothing new, but you have ignored the fact of a great INCREASE in it - how do you rationalize that?

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.2.7  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Thomas @1.2.5    3 years ago

Isn't THAT interesting, and did the Chinese government and people call it the Yankee Plague, or the Round-eye Flu or the Whitie Disease?

 
 
 
MsAubrey (aka Ahyoka)
Junior Guide
1.2.8  MsAubrey (aka Ahyoka)  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1.2.7    3 years ago

Maybe they should have.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
1.2.9  Kavika   replied to  zuksam @1.2.3    3 years ago
The Problem is Minorities in America have been trained by the Left Wing Media to assume everything bad that happens to them is because of Racism.

Thank you so much for informing us (minorities) that we don't have the sense or brainpower to make decisions on our own but follow what the media tells us to do. I'm sure that the tens of millions of minorities can free themselves from the clutches of the ''Left Wing Media'' if we understand your astute comment.   It's quite amazing that you have this unique ability to know what all minorities think and how and why we respond the way we do. I'm sure that you honed this ability with your extensive interaction with the minorities that reside in the US. Asian, Black, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islander. You probably even have friends that are minorities. I'm guessing that is how you were able to come to your conclusion. 

In any case, you're quite privileged to have this ability. 

Thanks so much for 'splain this to me.

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
1.2.10  Perrie Halpern R.A.  replied to  zuksam @1.2.3    3 years ago

Well geeze zuksam, if I go rolling into a northern CA town and the first thing I see is a  bar that says "No dogs, No Indians", I must be imagining the racism. Or If someone tells me that they are going to "Jew them down", that is a compliment to Jewish people. See, being on the other end of this, is walking a mile in their shoes, and as far as I have gleened from your comments, is that you are not part of any minority group (although anyone can claim anything on the internet), but I am. Further more, let's back up some of the things I said with stats:

The report, citing NYPD data, states that between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, 2020, 24 coronavirus-related hate crimes were reported -- a crime category that did not exist in 2019. However, this number is eight times that of hate crimes reported against Asians in the same period the year prior to the start of the pandemic. The report goes on to say that in the first quarter of 2020, 23 arrests were made for racially motivated crimes -- 39.1 percent of which were of an anti-Asian bias nature, compared to 6.1 percent in 2019. In the third quarter, 19 hate crime arrests were made, with 20 percent being for anti-Asian crimes. The report also points out that the NYPD reported a decrease in hate crimes against other groups during the same time period.

I think the NYPD knows what they are talking about. Since when are cops part of the "Left wing media". 

 
 
 
Raven Wing
Professor Guide
1.2.11  Raven Wing  replied to  Kavika @1.2.9    3 years ago

jrSmiley_13_smiley_image.gif   jrSmiley_91_smiley_image.gif   jrSmiley_79_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
2  Perrie Halpern R.A.    3 years ago

It's worse than the Asian community is saying. My kids told me that most of their Asian friends have either been verbally accosted in public or even had snide comments made to them by people they know. It's really sad. 

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
2.1  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A. @2    3 years ago

The number of incidents is much higher than reported because the Asian people are extremely reticent about reporting them.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
3  Bob Nelson    3 years ago

Fascism includes xenophobia. Asians are ''other''. They must be hated and attacked. 

This is at least thirty percent of America today.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
4  Kavika     3 years ago

American has a long history of scapegoating Asians. We are carrying on a tradition, sadly.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
4.1  seeder  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Kavika @4    3 years ago

Yep, it goes WAY back...

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Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
5  seeder  Buzz of the Orient    3 years ago

I have decided to lock this seed for the rest of the (my) night, and will unlock it in about 6 hours.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
6  seeder  Buzz of the Orient    3 years ago

This seed is now unlocked for civil commentary, and compliance with the group RED RULES.

 
 

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