Rise in Violence Against Asian Americans

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the United States has witnessed a significant surge in acts of violence against members of the Asian American community. From belligerent verbal harassment to physical assault, anti-Asian hate crimes have risen over 150% in the country, and over 830% in New York. Several Asian American homeowners have reported being abused with racial slurs and having rocks thrown at their homes. Furthermore, elderly Asian Americans have been primary victims of this violence – they have been slapped and even set on fire. In the past month, violence has escalated to heinous murder of Asian-Americans in Atlanta, Georgia. Needless to say, Asian Americans have faced an appalling amount of injustice and discrimination in recent weeks.

This rise in violence against Asian Americans can be attributed to the racist rhetoric leveraged by the Trump administration and other conservative outlets who frame the narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic in a manner that continues to foster hatred toward the Asian American community. To quantify the impact of the words of Trump and his allies, their rhetoric has led to a 900% increase in anti-Asian twitter traffic. Even the night of the shooting of Asian-Americans in Atlanta, the former president continued to use “China virus” in an interview with Fox. Riya Palkar ‘22, a co-leader of Asian American Affinity (AAA), argues, “with the most recent presidency, the situation has been heated and made an unnecessary controversy.” Specifically, phrases such as “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus” have been used to scrutinize and ultimately blame Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic. The attitudes and behaviors of political leaders and media outlets have contributed to a shift in how people perceive Asian Americans, and serves as justification for those committing heinous racist crimes. Consequently, Asian Americans are led to feel alienated from many American communities.

Moreover, mainstream news coverage of the racism Asian Americans are facing has been minimal. The lack of information has made it much more difficult for individuals to educate themselves and combat anti-Asian sentiment and violence. However, racially driven hate against Asian Americans is not unprecedented. It has been a longstanding issue in American society. Riya Palkar ‘22 argues that “Asian history is often overlooked and even inaccurate. Students should be educated properly about Asian discrimination that still remains today.”

Classroom environments would benefit by integrating a more authentic perspective on Asian American history and its relevance today. Searching for more reliable sources that come from Asian creators is one way that our community can implement a more authentic perspective on these issues. Historical tragedies such as Chinese Exclusion and Japanese Internment, which are not widely recognized, are just a couple examples of the bigoted hate against Asian Americans. Emily Wang ‘21, another co-leader of AAA, notes that “Asian Americans’ attitude in coming to America is you just take the hits, move forward, and don’t retaliate. Asian response to violence and racism in general is kind of passive. I think that’s how Asians often deal with things.”

Another concern that AAA holds is that “there aren’t systems in place to protect Asian Americans in particular.” To this end, AAA hopes that younger generations will help amplify the voices of the Asian American community through actively advocating for these protections. One of the easiest, but nonetheless impactful, actions to take in order to help remedy these issues is consuming content from Asian creators, which can diversify your own perspective. Fortunately, extensive education on these issues is something the GA community has taken into account in the curriculum. As of a couple of years ago, Asian-American affinity groups in the GA community created a podcast titled “21 Mil & Rising.” The podcast covers information from Asian-American representation in the media to the cultural pride of Asian-Americans. This podcast is an excellent medium to listen to and amplify the voices of Asian-Americans at GA. Mr. Ferrier, an Upper School faculty member who teaches an elective on Asian-American literature, regularly sends new episodes via email, and there are also older episodes on GA’s Academy Monthly website.

The GA curriculum has also witnessed an influx of Asian-American literature in past years. For instance, the novel When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka has been a recent addition to the English curriculum. The novel centers around the experiences of a Japanese-American family as they traverse through the forced internment of 1942 during World War II. Moreover, the history department has also been working to bring attention to this rising prejudice. For example, Mr. Moyer’s modern Chinese history elective, China from Mao to Now, has made an effort to cover these recent acts of violence in its curriculum. Mr. Moyer contends that it is important that he makes an effort to “provide students with the chance to ask questions and also to express their feelings on how it is affecting them and their learning at this school.” Mr. Moyer further mentions, “I know that these issues are addressed in other classes not just specifically as they may connect to content that is covered but also addressing them as current events that are happening.” Outside of the classroom, Mr. Moyer hopes that the students of the GA community will continue to facilitate these conversations and express their concerns about the rise of hatred towards Asian-Americans. Mr. Moyer believes that in order to make our Asian-American community members feel more safe within the school’s walls, a concerted effort must come from everyone.

To this end, earlier this month, GA offered a statement of solidarity for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, standing united as an expression of our shared humanity and in fulfillment of our school’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This position our community stands behind has been vocalized by Head of School Mr. Schellhas in an email sent out last month. Mr. Ferrier says that Asian-American affinity groups at GA “are providing programming for students, faculty, and parents, including a series of dialogues and Community Conversations, to bring attention to the recent rise of hate crimes towards Asians and Asian Americans.” He also goes on to say that “the goal is to give our community members the language and open the door to talk about race and racism, and to partner with our AAPI community members in strategic action to combat hate and advance racial equity and justice.” To mark the start of AAPI Heritage Month in May, AAA and AASA will co-host events that will address the history of racism towards Asian Americans and facilitate dialogues and action groups about anti-Asian microaggressions and violence. An important feature that GA hopes to offer will be bystander intervention and conflict de-escalation strategies.

However, large scale reform of violence against Asian Americans must come from the government and executive action. Luckily, the Biden-Harris Administration has been directing federal agencies to combat the resurgence of xenophobia that proliferated the country during the Trump administration. The recognition of these issues by the Biden-Harris Administration is a vital step in combating these hate crimes and in making way for legal reform and protections for the Asian American community. Emily Wang ‘21 ultimately emphasizes that “it’s important to acknowledge the past, but just as important to look into the future.” While our community and the United States have a far way to go before diminishing these issues, increased awareness of these issues has been rising in the mainstream media, which lays the framework for fruitful reform and justice to come.

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