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- The COVID-19 pandemic has set off a larger — and violent — pattern of hate toward the Asian American community.
- Insider wants our Asian American readers to reflect on how attacks on the community have impacted their identity.
- Scroll down to share your thoughts with Insider. We may contact you to hear more.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Asian American communities rang in the Year of the Ox with heavy hearts.
Two elderly Asian men became victims of violent hate crimes in Oakland’s Chinatown and San Francisco shortly before the Lunar New Year. One of them died. These incidents were part of a larger pattern of hate toward the Asian American community amid the pandemic.
Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center that has been tracking cases of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since March 2020, received more than 2,800 first-hand accounts of anti-Asian hate in 47 states and DC by last December.
Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, tied the bolstered hate against Asian people, in part, to former President Donald Trump and fellow Republican lawmakers’ “concerted effort” to blame China for COVID-19. This included the use of incendiary and factually incorrect language to describe the virus at the onset of the pandemic. More than 60% of Asian Americans have witnessed someone blaming Asian people for COVID-19, according to an Ipsos survey conducted last spring.
And there’s no sign that this racism is stopping anytime soon.
We want to know how the pandemic has impacted the Asian American life experience - and how the community and others can combat this hate. Using the form below, please answer the following questions:
What incidents of racism or bias have you experienced or witnessed since the start of the pandemic? How has the pandemic changed your idea of what it means to be Asian American? What can communities do to fight back against anti-Asian racism and bias?
Insider may use your responses to compile a story about the complicated relationship between race and society during the COVID-19 pandemic.