Exploring Hate
Asian-American hate receives attention following surge
Since a gunman targeted Asian Americans in Atlanta in March, the rise in Asian hate crimes has come into sharp focus. For many, what happened in Atlanta marks a grim turning point in anti-Asian sentiment.
'Whenever a disease arrived from Asia, Asians would be met with violence and racist policies', explains Russel Jeung, professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University. He started an online tracking system to document the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since the coronavirus pandemic began. With Trump himself labelling Covid-19 'The Chinese Virus', racism against Asian Americans rose as coronavirus hit the nation. 'It is constant and it is ongoing. It's people who look like me, it's people who look like my mother and father ... they feel so helpless', says Dion Lim, an Asian American news reporter.
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