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Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across US terrifies community members

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Reeko, Feb 20, 2021.

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  1. Reeko

    Reeko Member

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    As an increase in anti-Asian bigotry continues to sweep across America, politicians and community advocates have called for action to combat a disturbing surge in physical attacks and harassment.

    During a press conference last week, top congressional Democrats condemned the increase and said much of the blame lies in former president Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric about Chinese people and the coronavirus.

    The Asian American community has reached a “crisis-point”, said Judy Chu, a California congresswoman who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Community members were “terrified by the alarming surge in anti-Asian American bigotry,” she said.

    “These attacks are no accident,” Chu said. “It’s clear January 6 was not the only violence Donald Trump incited.”

    Chu’s words come amid a wave of violent incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the US. Although it is difficult to prove that these violent incidents are purely motivated by bigotry, activists and community leaders, as well as victims and their families, think that race has played a major role.

    Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thailand native who lived in San Francisco, died several weeks ago after being shoved to the ground. The victim’s family reportedly said to KTVU that he was attacked because of his race and age.

    “What else could have motivated him?” Ratanapakdee’s son-in-law said of the attacker.

    Across the bay, a man shoved three people in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood. The victims – a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man, and a 55-year-old woman – were injured, according to CNN.

    In the Flushing neighborhood of New York City, a 52-year-old Chinese-American woman was attacked outside a bakery on Tuesday. This woman asked a man in front of her about the line, and he then became “extremely angry, yelled and cursed at her, used his hand to touch her face and came face-to-face-with her”, prosecutors said in court papers.

    The victim’s daughter said on Facebook that he shoved her “with such force that she hit her head on the concrete and passed out on the floor”, according to NBC New York.

    The same day, two Asian seniors were assaulted on the subway in separate incidents, the network said.

    The man accused of involvement in the bakery incident was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment. He was not charged with a hate crime, records indicate.

    Former president Bill Clinton also spoke out against increasing reports of anti-Asian attacks. “I’m deeply concerned about the rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans,” he said on Twitter. “We must speak out against discrimination of all kinds, reject the ignorant rhetoric driving this wave of violence, and reach out to support our neighbors.”

    Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition documenting anti-Asian bigotry during the pandemic, said the organization had received more than 2,808 “firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate” from 19 March to 31 December. These reports are from 47 states and the District of Columbia.

    According to Stop AAPI Hate’s data, physical assaults comprised 8.7% of these incidents, while coughing/spitting totaled 6.4%. Verbal harassment constituted 70.9% of these incidents; and shunning or avoidance were 21.4%.

    Figures from law enforcement agencies are similarly disturbing. The New York police department’s records also show a troubling increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. In 2020, there were reports of 29 total victims – with 24 listed as having “coronavirus motivation”. In 2019, there were just reports of three anti-Asian hate crimes recorded by the department.

    From 1 January to 17 February, the most recent NYPD data provided, authorities reported that there were two victims of anti-Asian hate crimes. In this same period of 2020, there were no reported victims of anti-Asian crimes.

    “No area really is immune. It’s urban, rural,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, to the Guardian. “Even when the country was largely sheltering in place, people were experiencing incidents at grocery stores, at pharmacies, at big-box retailers.”

    “Those were the only places we were able to go … they had to worry that somebody might verbally attack them or physically assault them or refuse them service as they were just trying to sort of eke out an existence,” said Kulkarni.

    “It has our seniors and the women more concerned. It seems like they’re picking on seniors,” said Karlin Chan, a community advocate in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “These people are opportunists. They’re not going to pick on a fit young man. It does have the community worried.”

    Chan said that the community in Manhattan’s Chinatown was lucky to have experienced fewer incidents than Flushing had. However, residents were rattled by several incidents last winter, before the pandemic hit New York City.

    “Right before lockdown, Chinatown was very quiet,” Chan said. “These opportunists, or some racists, would harass people. On the Lower East Side, streets were very quiet.”

    In response, Chan formed a block watch that walks around the neighborhood several times a week, “just to assure neighbors and residents that there are people from the community, and outside the community, who are concerned”.

    Chu and other lawmakers attending the press conference, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, urged Congress to pass legislation that would provide federal grants to state and city governments to improve reporting of bias crimes and provide better support for victims.

    Congresswoman Barbara Lee said everyone must work to “put a stop to hate and violence”.

    “These tragic attacks are happening in communities across the country,” Lee said. “These attacks are just simply unacceptable.”

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/20/anti-asian-violence-us-bigotry
     
    #1 Reeko, Feb 20, 2021
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  2. adoo

    adoo Member

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    https://abcnews.go.com/US/violent-attacks-elderly-asian-americans-bay-area-leaves/story?id=75759713

    then-President Donald Trump helped fuel hate towards China and Chinese Americans since the beginning of the pandemic, often derisively referring to the coronavirus as the "China virus" or "Kung flu," and continuously blaming China for the pandemic.

    his successor President Joe Biden has since signed an executive order directing federal agencies to combat coronavirus-fueled harassment and called the attacks on the Asian American community "unacceptable," but still, the violence has not stopped.

    In a series of videos taken on Jan. 31, a caucasian man in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood is seen violently shoving three unsuspecting people. The assault left a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman injured, according to police.

    The family of an 84-year-old San Francisco man, of Thai heritage, killed in a seemingly random attack, believes it was a racist act. he, living w his daughter and her Caucasian husband, was walking on the sidewalk when wo youths walked across the street to attack him.
    ​
     
    #2 adoo, Feb 20, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2021
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  3. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    I’ve been warning about this for the past year.
     
    #3 rocketsjudoka, Feb 20, 2021
    Deckard, conquistador#11, rockbox and 5 others like this.
  4. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    My wife's aunt and her daughters got Covid a couple of months ago, apparently, when my wife's sister was over there babysitting recently she overheard the kids talking about nasty Asian people, her sister approached the aunt about it to let her know what they were saying, and surprise surprise she answered with something along the lines of - yeah I told them about the nasty Asian people and how they need to watch out for them in school, they gave us this virus.


    "Chinese virus folks, China did a very bad thing to us, very bad"
     
    #4 ThatBoyNick, Feb 20, 2021
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  5. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Most of the publicized attacks are upon the elderly.

    Many aren't even Chinese.

    Don't know what to say except record everything? :(
     
    #5 Invisible Fan, Feb 20, 2021
  6. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    it’s really everywhere too, including very left-leaning cities. Colleague of mine, 1st generation Chinese woman, mentioned someone spit on her and called her “dirty Chinese.” Never happened to her before in her life. WTF.

    pushing elderly people to the ground just blows me away. How was someone raised such that they could do that and not want to kill themselves?
     
    #6 B-Bob, Feb 20, 2021
    Deckard, mikol13, Richie_Rich and 6 others like this.
  7. deb4rockets

    deb4rockets Contributing Member
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    It's disgusting and sad that this is happening. You know it's just another nasty stain on America Trump left. He makes me sick. This is on him.

    Change MAGA to MAMR
    Making America More Racist.
     
    #7 deb4rockets, Feb 20, 2021
  8. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    #8 Os Trigonum, Feb 20, 2021
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  9. Roc Paint

    Roc Paint Contributing Member

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    All we need is love
     
    #9 Roc Paint, Feb 20, 2021
  10. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    "N.B.A. Investigating After Jeremy Lin Said He Was Called ‘Coronavirus’":

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/sports/basketball/nba-jeremy-lin-coronavirus.html

    excerpt:

    The N.B.A. G League said on Friday that it was investigating a report by Jeremy Lin, one of the best-known Asian-American players in basketball, that he had been called “coronavirus” on the court.

    Lin disclosed the slur in a Facebook post on Thursday in which he denounced the racism and discrimination faced by Asian-Americans. It was a prominent example of the rising tide of bigotry that many Asian-Americans say they have endured since last year, when former President Donald J. Trump began describing the coronavirus as the “China virus.”

    “Being an Asian American doesn’t mean we don’t experience poverty and racism,” wrote Lin, who plays for the Golden State Warriors’ affiliate in the G League, the N.B.A.’s developmental league. “Being a 9 year NBA veteran doesn’t protect me from being called ‘coronavirus’ on the court. Being a man of faith doesn’t mean I don’t fight for justice, for myself and for others.”

    A league spokesman confirmed that an investigation had been opened, but declined to comment further. The investigation was first reported by The Athletic.

    The investigation came amid a rise in attacks against Asian-Americans, according to government tallies. The number of hate crimes with Asian-American victims reported to the New York Police Department surged to 28 in 2020, from just three in 2019. Activists and police officials said many other incidents had not been classified as hate crimes or had not been formally reported.

    In August, a United Nations report found that racially motivated violence and other incidents against Asian-Americans had reached “an alarming level” across the United States since the outbreak of the virus. The report said that more than 1,800 racist incidents against Asian-Americans in the United States had been reported over an eight-week period from March 2020 to May 2020.

    The incidents involved people who said they had been spat on, blocked from public transportation, discriminated against in workplaces, shunned, beaten, stabbed and insulted by being called transmitters of the coronavirus, the report said.
    ​
    more at the link
     
    #10 Os Trigonum, Feb 27, 2021
  11. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    I had someone, that I've known before and have been friendly with, ask me if I was responsible for bringing COVID-19 to Minnesota as I had been in Hong Kong December 2019 and I and some other friends got the flu in early February.
     
    #11 rocketsjudoka, Feb 27, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2021
  12. Bandwagoner

    Bandwagoner Contributing Member

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    time for asian history month
     
    #12 Bandwagoner, Feb 27, 2021
  13. durvasa

    durvasa Contributing Member

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    Do you think this person would have asked that question (I presume it was done in a joking manner?) if you were white, or does that not matter in your view?
     
    #13 durvasa, Feb 27, 2021
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  14. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    #14 rocketsjudoka, Feb 27, 2021
  15. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    It wasn't done in a joking manner. Yes, this person was white. I don't know if they would've asked me if I had been white but it did take me by surprise that she would even bring that up.
     
    #15 rocketsjudoka, Feb 27, 2021
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  16. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    #16 rocketsjudoka, Feb 27, 2021
    tinman, superfob and London'sBurning like this.
  17. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    True. But starting with an absence of hate would be good.
     
    #17 FranchiseBlade, Feb 27, 2021
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  18. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    Which is better than simply ignoring it and having apathy towards the issue
     
    #18 FranchiseBlade, Feb 27, 2021
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  19. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    Also just caught myself as it was early February 2020 that I got the flu and not early January. So it would've been past the incubation for COVID-19 anyway if I had gotten it in HK.
     
    #19 rocketsjudoka, Feb 27, 2021
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  20. durvasa

    durvasa Contributing Member

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    I see. How recently did she ask you about this?
     
    #20 durvasa, Feb 27, 2021
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