Asian Americans become hate targets

Study finds 3,800 racially motivated attacks across U.S.in the past year

Anastasia Antonius used to take her time getting from her car to the Seattle church where she works as an office manager. The Indonesian mother would often stand leisurely outside the vehicle while grabbing her belongings and unbuckling her child from the car seat before dropping him off at he church-run day care.

But a series of disturbing anti-Asian incidents outside the church, which has been targeted by racist graffiti four times this year, has forced her to change her routine.

“To tell you the truth, I just run from the parking lot to the building now,” she told the Daily News.

The minor change in Antonius’ daily life is just one example of how Asian Americans are shifting their behavior in light of a disturbing rise of anti-Asian harassment and violence across the country, with many of them staying away from public areas to avoid becoming targets..

The growing crisis made national headlines this week when a gunman stormed three Atlanta-area massage parlors on Tuesday and shot eight people to death, including six Asian women. Although authorities have not labeled the shooting spree a hate crime, Asian American leaders say the rampage was the culmination of decades of discrimination against their community fueled by national figures who blamed them for the coronavirus pandemic.

The racist rhetoric — frequently spouted by former President Donald Trump, who insisted on calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” or “Kung Flu” — helped stoke hate and embolden intolerance across the country, experts and advocates said.

“He was very deliberate in his choice of words to intentionally scapegoat and cast blame, and really hold Asian Americans essentially responsible for the pandemic to distract from his own lack of responsibility and leadership,” said Jennifer Sun, co-executive director at Asian Americans for Equality.

The racist language has had tragic consequences. Police statistics reveal that anti-Asian hate crimes went up by nearly 150% last year in 16 of America’s largest cities, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, which studied law enforcement data.

A separate study by the group Stop AAPI Hate found that about 3,800 racially motivated attacks against Asian Americans were reported nationwide since March 2020, with most of them targeting women. The report noted that the figure is “just a fraction” of the actual number since many victim don’t report the attacks.

New York hasn’t escaped the backlash. Just days ago, a man cursed and spat at an Asian woman who was walking her dog in lower Manhattan.

On Tuesday, another Asian woman in Midtown was doused with an unknown liquid by a racist attacker who snarled, “Go back to China,” police said.

The harm goes beyond the physical. Sun noted that many Asian women who lost their jobs, or were widowed during the pandemic are feeling “very fearful” about reentering the workforce because of the risk of being attacked during their commute.

“He (Donald Trump) was very deliberate in his choice of words to intentionally scapegoat and cast blame, and really hold Asian Americans essentially responsible for the pandemic to distract from his own lack of responsibility and leadership.” JENNIFER SUN, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ASIAN AMERICANS FOR EQUALITY