S. Shyan never really identified herself as Chinese, an immigrant, or an Asian American.
Growing up in the Los Angeles area, the 45-year-old was used to living in a diverse community. She considered herself an American first and foremost. But that changed a few weeks ago.
Her roommate, with whom she decided to live to downsize her expenses, began making subtle comments about her race, tying her to the coronavirus. When she started volunteering to help certify COVID-19 test kits, Shyan, who didn’t want to share her full first name, said he attacked her, threatened her with a gun, and accused her of rigging the tests and being responsible for spreading the virus into the country.
Now, Shyan views herself as Asian American, one who is the victim of a hate crime.
“It was completely a hate crime because all he did was repeatedly say I’m Asian and this COVID thing this and this COVID test that, and he just wouldn’t let go. I was so shaken, I didn’t even know what to say to the police,” Shyan said.
ANTI-ASIAN HATE CRIMES HAVE RISEN 150% NATIONWIDE: STUDY
Shyan was connected to the Washington Examiner through the advocacy group Asian Lives Matter, an initiative that aims to combat racism against Asian Americans and share peoples’ stories. Shyan said that she is currently working with local law enforcement and a legal team, which she preferred to keep private, on bringing charges.
Even before she says she was attacked, Shyan noticed an increase in passing glances and comments toward her since the start of the pandemic. Living in an area that’s home to one of the largest Asian American populations in the country, Shyan now feels a heightened sense of her identity.
“Over the past year, I’ve never felt this much hatred,” Shyan said.
A study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked 150% throughout 2020, a year largely upended by the coronavirus pandemic that is speculated to have fueled some of the rise in violence after the virus was first discovered in China in late 2019.
The study found that between 2019 and 2020, crimes targeting Asian Americans went up 114% in Los Angeles and 833% in New York City, which recently created a task force to report incidents against Asian Americans with a strong focus on the city’s transit system.
In recent months, a number of high-profile incidents regarding violence against Asian Americans have pushed the issue into the public spotlight.
Last month, in New York City, a Filipino American man was slashed across the face while taking the subway last month. On the West Coast, an elderly Thai man was killed in broad daylight in San Francisco over what his family believes was a racist act.
This month, a 75-year-old Chinese American man in Oakland, California, was robbed and assaulted, leaving him brain-dead and with life-threatening injuries.
These kinds of stories are helping to propel more action on standing up to hatred toward the Asian American community.
National groups such as Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate and #IAmNotaVirus are asking people to report hate incidents online, while also providing educational materials and mental health resources for people during the pandemic.
For Marina Le, it inspired her to create Asian Lives Matter and work with state and local leaders to get a bill taken up by Congress that would form a national registry to report hate crimes against Asian Americans.
“Every one of us, when we tell a story, it’s just interesting because we just sweep it under the rug because, you know, we don’t talk about it,” Le told the Washington Examiner. “We just suck it up and move on, but then, the thing is it leads to what’s been happening now, so we need to speak up.”
Pandemic zeroes in on incidents against Asian Americans
When the coronavirus first emerged in the United States last year, Mike Kim, now of Austin, Texas, said he remembers someone calling him a slur and accusing him of causing COVID-19 while out in downtown Los Angeles.
Growing up, Kim said he was ashamed of his race and felt robbed of his identity over bullying. Even now, Kim said it’s disappointing to see the increase in targeted attacks of members of his community.
“It’s sad to see that 2021 is very similar into these hate crimes and making us feel scared of just being Asian,” Kim said. “Our parents [are] going out and being murdered, literally murdered, just for being Asian or robbed just because they’re Asian.”
Kim says he founded Some Neat Place, a group that aims to share stories about acts of kindness.
Some have tied anti-Asian American sentiment to rhetoric used by public officials. That includes former President Donald Trump, who tethered the virus to China in making a point of calling it the “China Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus.”
Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat who introduced a House resolution denouncing Asian American hate last year, argues that rhetoric like that can have real-life repercussions.
“We have seen the consistent use of these terms, and that has just led to people feeling that it’s OK to blame Asian Americans,” Meng told the Washington Examiner. “People sometimes look for a scapegoat, and even if you’ve only heard that term once or twice in your life, if you are looking for a scapegoat, and you don’t have accurate information about this virus, those are the types of people that will push this kind of hateful rhetoric into assaults.”
Peggy Huang, the mayor of Yorba Linda, California, near Los Angeles, believes that while rhetoric about the virus hasn’t helped the situation, the increase in anti-Asian American sentiment goes beyond political language.
“I think it might explain for a few instances where people have said, ‘Oh, it’s the China virus,’ but it’s been there for so long,” Huang, a Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “I find it very sad that people seem to pin it all on the Republican Party or President Trump. All of these things, they’ve been going on for years, just nobody paid it any attention.”
A transforming community
As a first-generation immigrant, Shyan said she was taught to lay low when it comes to issues related to race, and for most of her life, that’s what she did.
But after what happened to her, that’s changed, and increased activism is something she’s seen more of across the Asian American community with the rise of reported crimes against them.
“I would like to start speaking up because I don’t want this to happen to someone else, but at the same time, I’m trying to be a little more protective of myself,” Shyan said.
Meng recently reintroduced her resolution, expanding its reach to call on the Justice Department to work with state and local agencies, as well as Asian American communities, to expand education campaigns on the public reporting of hate crimes and urging federal health officials to mitigate racially discriminatory language in describing the pandemic.
She cited the support of the White House, which issued a memorandum last month condemning racism against Asian Americans, as well as community gatherings such as the February rally in New York City, where she joined with Mayor Bill de Blasio to condemn racism, as steps forward to create more visibility for Asian Americans.
“We can’t be invisible anymore,” Meng said. “I will say, as an Asian American who was born and raised here, that I have always been trained to stay quiet and to blend in and do whatever I can not to be noticed. This is part of my culture.”
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Striking an optimistic note, Kim, 43, said that he is reassured in witnessing a rise in advocacy on behalf of Asian Americans and hopes that people don’t stop speaking up for their neighbors who may not be able to themselves even after the U.S. emerges from the pandemic.
“[From] when I grew up in my 20s, it’s completely different now,” Kim said. “What we’re seeing is us having more confidence, changing our identity, and that model minority myth. We’re now seen as activists, so I see the future being extremely bright, not just a phase where it dies out and our voices get moved out.”
Editor’s note: Mike Kim initially told the Washington Examiner he was part of Asian Lives Matter but later indicated he was the founder of Some Neat Place. This report has been updated to reflect the change.
