In response to the recent rise in hate crimes targeting Asian people in the United States, there has been an increase in activism surrounding anti-Asian hate worldwide.
This activism was encouraged by the U.S. protests following the Atlanta spa shootings on March 16th, in which a Georgia man went on a shooting spree and killed six women of Asian descent.
The shootings sparked a debate about anti-Asian racism and motivated rallies across the country. In the weeks following the shootings, there have been many more hate crimes committed against people of Asian descent.
In the days after the NYPD began deploying undercover Asian officers to help combat hate crimes against Asians, a 65-year-old woman of Filipino descent was punched and kicked in front of an apartment complex in New York City.
Also in New York City, a 38-year-old Asian man was punched in the face near Penn Station, and a 54-year-old woman was hospitalized after a man struck her in the face with a metal object. In California, an elderly woman received a letter in the mail threatening Asian Americans.
These attacks evidence that the anti-Asian bias and violence that has plagued the history of the United States—from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the Japanese internment camps of World War II, to the rise in hate crimes since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak—is still a prominent issue.
With the persistence of the attacks, the rallies calling to “stop Asian hate” have continued and spread to cities across the United States and abroad. In recent weeks, these rallies have sprung up in Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
Additionally, people have taken to social media to bring attention to the issue. The South Korean boy band BTS, for example, spoke out about their own experience on the Twitter platform, sharing how the members have endured expletives and mockery for how they look.
In response to the outrage and fear over the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and the accompanying activism worldwide, the White House has announced that it will take initiatives to address anti-Asian violence.
