Hate That Is Silent: Asian Hate Crimes Continue to Mesmerize Communities Even After COVID-19
The pandemic unleashed an unprecedented wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans across the U.S. Reports of violence have become more silent, but the problem hasn’t shrinked yet.
From 2019 to 2020, the FBI documented a 77% increase in hate crimes against Asians living in the United States. Many more statistics prove the scope of violence in the face of COVID-19.
Stop AAPI Hate reported roughly 9’100 incidents of violence between the beginning of the pandemic and June 2021.
In the face of the COVID-19 virus that spread rapidly across the world in 2020 and has people had stuck at home and on Zoom, massive hate against Asians has been accounted all over the world, but especially in the U.S.
This hate doesn’t only take the form of blaming them because the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, but can even lead to assault and downright murder. A trend of anti-Asian hashtags on Twitter followed then-President Donald Trump’s mocks about COVID-19, including calling it “Kung Flu” or “Chinese virus.”
Now that the pandemic has subsided a little, hate crimes haven’t stopped at all. In comparison to 2021, Americans were more likely in 2022 to denounce Asians as being somewhat responsible for the virus, and doubted their loyalty to the U.S., according to a report of the STAATUS Index.
Earlier this year, a man allegedly attacked three Asian Americans while speaking racial slurs in San Francisco.
The victims were of Korean descent, and the man was seen throwing a brick and metal grate at them. They were lucky enough to not be injured, but a 30-year-old man was charged with hate crimes, but he pleaded not guilty.
A more violent attack are the Atlanta spa shootings of March 2021, when eight people were killed, six of whom of Asian descent. 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long was sentenced to life in prison for the attacks, although they were determined to not have been racially motivated.
The deadly attacks have set off a number of debates, especially in regard to hate crimes and firearm reform. A number of protests were carried on in the aftermath across major cities in the U.S.
But how much did these protests and efforts actually bring, when talks about justice for all have silenced even though hate continues to run down the streets?
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