Asian American leaders in San Francisco are warning of a new round of hate crimes against their community as the lock downs begin to lift, reports San Francisco Public Press.
“With this pandemic, people are losing livelihoods AND lives. The misguided outrage is bound to explode,” Helen Zia, author, journalist and outspoken community leader said in a recent social media post.
According to KCBS, there were 1500 cases of violence and harassment against Asian Americans in the first four weeks of the pandemic. That began to ease during the shelter in place, but some don’t expect that to last.
“We have an assumption that when these orders get lifted and when we return to work, taking public transportation when schools open, that they’ll will be a surge,” said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action.
CAA hopes to develop strategies people can use if they witness these acts of hate against others or themselves.
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“These incidents are going to rise,” said Russell Jeung , chair of the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University. “People will be angry for being sheltered in place, more people will be unemployed and because the Republican Party is using US-China relations as a campaign theme, people are going to be more and more angry.”
SF State’s Asian American Studies Department joined together with CAA and the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council to put together the hate crime reporting site, Stop AAPI Hate. So far 43 percent of the incidents took place at private businesses and AAPI women are 2.3 times more likely to be victimized than Asian men.
“The mayor won’t tolerate any of that and is very proactive in preventing more violence,” said James Caldwell of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Street Violence Intervention Program said to the Public Press.
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RE: Asian Americans fear new surge in hate crimes against AAPI: This is America. No one is truly accepted here. Everyone except for rich White males had to fight for a place at the table. If you research the history of this country, you will understand why things are the way they are today.
The Whites stole this country from Native Americans who originally migrated from the Asian continent. Poor White males and all women had no rights when this country was created even though they shed blood during the War of Independence. The Whites brought African Slaves with them who were ripped from their continent. After the end of slavery, the Whites needed cheap labor in the West so they hired cheap Chinese laborers but denied them citizenship. Poor immigrants from Europe were also discriminated by White Americans. During WW2, the Chinese were no longer discriminated against because America needed their help fighting another Asian people: the Japanese. Afterwards, Asian Americans were labeled the “Model Minority” by White Americans in their fight with Black Americans. America still needed cheap labor so it opened its’ door to Hispanics. Now it wants to close those doors. Women and LGBT of all colors and creeds had to fight for their rights in this country.