The Rise of Xenophobia and Racism Against Asian Americans
Since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, there has been an increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans across the United States.
According to Pew Research Center, Asian Americans are reporting an increase in harassment since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Kimberly Fung, a student at the University of Colorado Boulder teamed up with other students on campus to create the #UnmasktheRacism campaign on campus to bring awareness to the hate crimes against the Asian community.
“The fact that the virus does come from China, the understanding for a lot of people is to you know, blame Asians for COVID-19, but they don’t understand that not every Asian person is from China,” said Fung.
Not only have hate crime increased since the COVID-19 outbreak, but many Asian restaurant’s across the Unites States have been financially affected.
According to Womply, a credit and debit transactions company in the United States, it has reported that about 59 percent of Asian restaurant's across the country have not taken a credit or debit payment, indicating they have closed their business.
The campaign #UnmasktheRacism, also helps raise money for local Asian restaurant's in the Boulder and Longmont area by using their #Wokitout challenge.
The purpose of the #Wokitout challenge, is to raise money to purchase food from Asian businesses and donate the food to essential workers in the community.
“We want to keep it local. We want to represent every kind of Asian culture and see how much we can do for our Asian community,” said Fung.
This upcoming Lunar New year, San Francisco authorities are warning people to be careful and not walk around with red envelopes.
The red envelopes are a symbol of good luck and prosperity and are usually filled with new dollar bills.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans have been on the rise since 2020 and the cases continue to increase in 2021.
According to Fung, it is important to start talking about xenophobia and racism towards the Asian community.
“I think that it is important to check on our biases, talk to people and have conversations that are meaningful and treat others with kindness,” said Fung.
Aggeler, M. (February 10, 2021). “The U.S. Is Seeing a Massive Spike in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes”. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/the-us-is-seeing-a-massive-spike-in-anti-asian-hate-crimes.html
Fung, K. (February 4, 2021). Personal Interview.
Smith, A. (February 3, 2021). “Asian community feels targeted by crime ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations”. KTVU Fox 2. https://www.ktvu.com/news/asian-community-feels-targeted-by-crime-ahead-of-lunar-new-year-celebrations
Song, Z. E., Vásquez, J. (February 11, 2021). “Study Shows Rise of Hate Crimes, Violence Against Asian Americans During the Pandemic”. NBC New York. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/study-shows-rise-of-hate-crimes-violence-against-asian-americans-in-nyc-during-covid/2883215/
