Reports of anti-Asian American assaults, harassment climbs to 2000

Views from the Edge

“If you can imagine having someone spit in your face. How awful that would be.” said Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best about a recent incident in Seattle against an Asian American couple.

Throughout the US, reports of attacks against AAPI have risen since the arrival of the coronavirus, spurred by a stream of anti-China rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration. In January and February Trump even called Covid-19, the “Chinese virus.” He has since refrained for that term.

In the absence of government intervention, Asian American and Pacific Islander civil rights groups created a website where victims can report such hate incidences. Stop AAPI Hate, is one of the websites by Asian American advocacy groups. Established with partners including SF State and Chinese for Affirmative Action, Stop the Hate has collected 1,983 accounts of anti-Asian discrimination and attacks in the US since it launched its site in mid-March. 

“We think that as shelter-in-place orders are lifted, people start going back to work, when schools resume, which is where we saw some incidents happening on school yards and on public transportation, that this is likely to increase,” said Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action Cynthia Choi.

Most of the reports, nearly 40% come from California, which has the largest AAPI population in the US, but the reports have come from all parts of the country.

While the FBI collects hate data, most cities have their own anti-hate units as part of its city structure.  

“Since March, when we first came under this COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had nine incidents that we tracked that were targeted toward the Asian community,” said Police Chief Carmen Best.

In New York City, 11 people have been arrested for suspected hate crimes against Asians.

The New York City Commission on Human Rights said it has received more than 300 harassment and discrimination complaints related to COVID-19 this year; 117 of which – nearly 40% – involved anti-Asian sentiments. 

In one incident, a Filipino American nurse was attacked on the subway by a man who shouted at him, “You’re infected China boy, you need to get off the train.” The assailant then grabbed the victim and attempted to pull him out of his seat. The nurse was unharmed and didn’t need any treatment, said police.

“The numbers alone are quite astonishing,” said Carmelyn Malalis, head of the commission.

Malalis said she has not personally experienced similar verbal taunts because of COVID-19, but she has heard from friends who have.

“What people have to remember is that … just because I’m a Filipino, just because someone’s Chinese, Vietnamese, what have you, does not mean they’re not going through the same kinds of challenges,” Malalis said. “Having to telework while taking care of children, having to take care of their loved ones, worrying about people in the community, experiencing loss. … Everyone is going through these exact challenges. Asian Americans should not have to go through, on top of that, be discriminated against.”

Reports have come to Stop the Hate website from across the nation. In San Luis Obispo, the Cal Poly Chinese Student Association’s Zoom meeting was Zoombombed by unidentified participants who drew swastikas and filled the chat box with xenophobic comments blaming the pandemic on people of Chinese descent.

A man was arrested after using racial slurs against Asian customers in a grocery store in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. According to police “the customers were called names and harassed for wearing masks because of their race.”

In San Leandro, Calif., a city just south of Oakland, a woman is arrested for posting flyers essentially telling her Asian American neighbors that they are not welcome here and to go back to their country.

“We have a large Asian population, and we have a lot of elderly Asian population who are getting scared to death about being preyed upon by somebody who’s willing to resort to that behavior,” said Nancy O’Malley, the district attorney of Alameda County, where San Leandro is located. “You have one ethnic group that’s targeted … and ignorant people who think they can just scream at somebody because of their ethnicity. … We cannot tolerate that.”

It does not appear that the hate attacks against AAPI will subside any time soon. Both campaigns of Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, have made attacks against China part of their election strategies.

The people prone to committing the hateful acts are not the type to distinguish between China and Chinese Americans and other Asian American ethnicities and nationalities.

NYC is committing $100,000 for an education campaign on how to report hate crimes using the city’s hotline established specifically for the anti-Asian hate incidents.

“People have to understand that this is not something that we are making up and they have to see racism for what it really is,” said Malallis. “They think that signaling out an entire people for a pandemic — that’s not discrimination or racism.”

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