9,000 anti-Asian incidents reported in US since pandemic began

Several thousands of anti-Asian incidents have been reported in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year, according to a new report.  

Several thousands of anti-Asian incidents have been reported in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year, according to a new report.  Seemingly, the incidents poise so far this year to surpass last year.

At least 9,081 incidents were reported between March 19, 2020, and June of this year, according to the report from Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that became the authority on gathering data on racially motivated attacks related to the pandemic, ABC News reported. The report was released on Thursday.

A total of 4,548 occurred last year, and 4,533 this year, so far. Following the start of the pandemic in the US last year, Asians, particularly the people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have been treated as scapegoats solely based on their race.

US President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, expediting Justice Department reviews of anti-Asian hate crimes and making available federal grants.

Stop AAPI Hate leaders said those who campaigned against the anti-Asian hatred should not feel discouraged because the data hasn’t shifted much.

“When you encourage hate, it’s not like a genie in a bottle where you can pull it out and push it back in whenever you want," said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. “There’s too much perpetuating these belief systems to make them go away.”

The reports aggregated by Stop AAPI Hate are from the victims themselves or someone reporting on their behalf, like an adult child. The report found verbal harassment and shunning make up the two largest shares of total incidents. Physical assaults made up the third. But their percentage of incidents this year increased from last year.

More than 63 percent of the incidents were reported by women. About 31 percent happened on public streets, and 30 percent at business places.

Trump’s racist rhetoric ‘key factor’ in rise of anti-Asian hate crimes in US: Analyst

Rick Staggenborg, a US-based political commentator, told Press TV that Trump’s references to the COVID19 as the “Chinese flu,” characterization of China as “the enemy” and blatant racist comments has made others feel that “expressing their own bigotry is acceptable”.

Most Asian Americans and activists have accused former US President Donald Trump for ratcheting up the hatred against Asians by talking about the virus in racially charged terms. Trump blamed the COVID-19 pandemic on China, using terms such as “kung flu.”

While Biden has refrained from such rhetoric but he has also ordered an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 that could lead to more hostility and mistreatment of Asian Americans as enemy foreigners if the American investigators concluded that the virus did originate from China.

“We understand that other nation-states are competitors to the United States, and a number of them do have authoritarian regimes,” Kulkarni said. "But the ways in which we talk about the people and the ways in which blame is assigned somehow looks different for communities of color than it does for, say, the Russian government or the German government."

Many of the headline-making attacks over the past year and a half have been against elderly Asian people on both coasts. In most of those cases, a senior was beaten, kicked, shoved or even stabbed out of nowhere. Several such incidents have been caught on video.

Attack on elderly woman reminder of gory hate crimes against Asians in US

The viral video released by the police drew widespread anger and outrage at growing incidents of hate crimes against Asian Americans in the US

Incidents such as stabbings, shootings and other attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals and their businesses have increased since the start of the pandemic.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Black and Indian, said such incidents had increased six-fold during that time.

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