Anti-Asian hate crimes rise on both sides of the border
There’s a growing chorus of opposition to anti-Asian racism south of the border. The latest to speak out is Jeannie Mai, a California fashion expert and syndicated daytime talk-show host of Vietnamese and Chinese ancestry.
Mai, who has millions of followers on her social-media accounts, delivered a lengthy blast on Instagram. In her post, she acknowledged that when she was younger, she felt she had to accept racist remarks as a first-generation immigrant to America.
“Racism has no hierarchy!” Mai declared. “COVID-19 and the hateful rhetoric of Donald Trump have catalyzed a surge in anti-Asian violence.”
Mai’s comments followed Gran Torino star Bee Vang’s op-ed piece denouncing the 2008 Clint Eastwood movie’s repeated use of racial slurs, as well as how audiences responded in theatres.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned a surge in antiAsian racism after police reported 28 hate crimes against Asian New Yorkers since the pandemic began. In nearby Flushing,
New York, actor Olivia Munn helped nab a suspect accused of shoving a Chinese woman to the ground.
The Asian American Federation has described the spate of anti-Asian attacks as a “second pandemic” after logging more than 500 reports of “bias incidents and hate crimes directed at our community in New York City”.
“On February 3, Noel Quintana was on his way to work when another subway rider slashed Mr. Quintana’s face from ear to ear, simply for asking the attacker to stop kicking his tote bag,” the AAF said in a statement. “Just a week earlier, Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai man, was shoved and killed while out for a walk in his San Francisco neighborhood. Another 91-year-old Asian man was violently pushed to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown.”
In Vancouver, police reported that the 98 anti-Asian hate-crime cases last year amounted to a 717 percent increase over the 12 such cases in 2019.
The Vancouver incidents included people being physically attacked for being of Asian ancestry.
This prompted Premier John Horgan to promise on February 18 that antiracism legislation will be brought forward.
Public officials have linked the rising number of hate crimes to the pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China. But over social media, two Canadians of Chinese ancestry, former federal NDP candidate Victor Wong and occasional Straight contributor Ng Weng Hoong, have repeatedly asserted that distorted mainstream-media coverage of the housing market and money laundering are also contributing factors to anti-Asian racism. To date, there’s been no effort by B.C.’s human rights commissioner or provincial officials to determine if there’s any validity to these allegations.