COVID-19‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌Exponential‌ ‌Increase‌ ‌in‌ ‌Anti-Asian‌ ‌Sentiment‌

Written by Emilie Cooper

It’s 8:00 am. You’re sitting on a train, heading to work, minding your own business.

As the subway speeds along the tracks, a passenger kicks over your bag on the ground. You move the bag in front of you to keep it out of the man’s way, but then he kicks it over again. Frustrated and annoyed, you move to the center of the car and ask the man what's wrong with him. All of a sudden, everyone in the train car is gasping and covering their eyes. You feel a warm liquid drip down your face, and you look down to see your hands covered in blood.

This story may sound like it was taken straight out of a horror novel, but on February 3rd, 2021, Noel Quintana, a Filipino American, got his face slashed by a box cutter on his way to work on a New York subway. "I asked for help, but nobody helped," said Quintana, according to the article, “Filipino American Man Recounts Brutal Attack With Box Cutter on N.Y.C. Subway: 'Nobody Helped',” by Wendy Grossman Kantor in People magazine. This horrific incident is only one of 3,292+ anti-Asian crimes reported in 2020, many of which were targeting defenseless elders in our community (stopaapihate.org). Since 2020, hatred against Asian Americans and the normalization of this has exponentially increased due to blaming the Coronavirus on the Chinese, and prominent figures openly using hateful language. This will have a long-term impact on people.

Although anti-Asian sentiment has existed in the U.S. for centuries, this new wave of discrimination towards Asians is more obvious than before and directly related to COVID-19. Due to the continuous blame on the Chinese for the spread of COVID, hate towards Asian Americans has become excusable and normalized. According to a journal called “The Anxiety of Being Asian American: Hate Crimes and Negative Biases During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” “on April 28th, 2020, NBC News reported that 30% of Americans have personally witnessed someone blaming Asians for the coronavirus,” (Tessler et al. 2). This data was from only a month after President Donald J. Trump declared the pandemic as a National Emergency. The increase of blame on Asians in that short period shows how exponential the growth of frustration and hate towards Asian Americans has grown. Since then, these numbers have most likely grown even more, and every day there are more and more reports of crimes like the one committed against Quintana. Not only this, but our status as Americans has always been somewhat less than everyone else. For minorities, there is a constant need to prove one's ‘Americanness.’ “[T]he racial positionality of Asian Americans as foreign and Other persists, and that this pernicious designation may be a threat to the safety and mental health of Asian Americans,” (Tessler et al. 2). This idea of separation between Asian Americans and the idea of being American only furthers the blame placed on Asians for the pandemic, and effectively ‘allows’ hate towards Asians to be more ‘acceptable.’

Discrimination towards Asian Americans has also been fueled by those who lead and have power in this country. According to “‘Words matter’ as Asian American leaders urge action against hate crimes” by Vignesh Ramachandran from PBS, “The racist theory emerged in the early days of the pandemic, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s use of the term “China virus” to describe COVID-19.” Other figures like President Trump have labeled Coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus” or even “Kung Flu,” and have even gone as far as openly blaming China or Asian Americans for this pandemic. These inherently racist names for a disease promote blaming Asians all around the globe. In “Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Are on the Rise. Many Say More Policing Isn't the Answer” by Cady Lang from Time, “[t]he violence has continued into 2021, and President Joe Biden signed an executive order denouncing anti-Asian discrimination shortly after taking office in January.”

Other public figures have also denounced hate crimes against Asian Americans, but by looking at U.S. history, we can assume that the occurrence rate of these incidents won’t be slowing down. “The incidents follow a similar pattern to what happened after 9/11, when Middle Eastern, Arab and South Asian Americans were targeted, according to John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC,” (Ramachandran). Today, there is still heavy discrimination against Middle Eastern people and Muslims. I remember that one of my classmates, who is Albanian once told me that every time her family goes to the airport, her father gets stopped for a ‘random check’ because he has darker skin. If discrimination against Muslims and Middle Eastern people have lasted for 20 years since 9/11, how long will racism against Asian Americans last because of COVID-19?

On March 3rd, 2021 at 7 am, in Oakland, California, there was another horrific attack on an Asian American elder. The victim was a 75-year-old Chinese man who was taking his daily morning walk. He was robbed and injured by the attacker. According to “Suspect Arrested In Oakland Robbery, Assault That Left 75-Year-Old Asian Man Brain Dead” by Katie Nielson on CBSN, “An official in Oakland’s Chinatown community told KPIX the victim was brain dead from the critical injuries he suffered in the attack,” (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com). This past year has been especially hard on Asian Americans, and these violent attacks on us are only going to increase in both intensity and frequency without adequate intervention. As we move forward, fighting together for Asian American protection, and educating the public on these cases is vital. The plague of hate that Coronavirus has sparked is silently and swiftly killing Asian Americans.

Works Cited

Jeung, Russell, et al. “Stop AAPI Hate National Report.” Stop AAPI Hate, 26 Mar. 2021, stopaapihate.org/.

Kantor, Wendy Grossman. “Filipino American Man Recounts Brutal Attack With Box Cutter on N.Y.C. Subway: 'Nobody Helped'.” PEOPLE.com, 18 Feb. 2021, people.com/crime/filipino-american-man-recounts-brutal-attack-with-box-cutter-on-n-y-c-subway-nobody-helped/.

Lang, Cady. “Asian American Attacks: What's Behind the Rise in Violence?” Time, Time, 18 Feb. 2021, time.com/5938482/asian-american-attacks/.

Nielson, Katie. “Suspect Arrested in Oakland Robbery, Assault That Left 75-Year-Old Asian-American Man Brain Dead.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 10 Mar. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/oakland-asian-american-attacked-elderly-brain-dead/.

Ramachandran, Vignesh. “'Words Matter' as Asian American Leaders Urge Action against Hate Crimes.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 23 Feb. 2021, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/words-matter-as-asian-american-leaders-urge-action-against-hate-crimes.

Tessler, Hannah, et al. “The Anxiety of Being Asian American: Hate Crimes and Negative Biases During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” American Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 45, no. 4, 2020, pp. 636–646., doi:10.1007/s12103-020-09541-5.