Asian Americans Being Attacked in America

This topic has sparked my interest to compose a story. I’m going to compose the story on the informative aspect of Asian Americans being attacked in America.

Anti-Asian violence has been an important topic ever since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and the blame regarding the origin of the coronavirus. Former President 45 (I don’t really want to mention his name in this story) had the audacity to name the virus “The China Virus”. According to an article called “Anti-Asian Violence is Surging” on the Washington Post website, Andrew Wang mentioned that his uncle who immigrated from Zhejiang, China to be with his family in Houston, Texas was shot and killed by men in ski masks while walking with his great-aunt. Wang began to spread the news through random apps on his smartphone, i.e. WeChat, KaokaoTalk and a Facebook group called Subtle Asian Traits. He also described a woman in Brooklyn, New York suffered severe burns after being splashed with chemicals. A 84-year old Thai immigrant was assaulted and killed in San Franciso. An Anti-Asian coalition called “Stop Asian Hate” has calculated more than 2,800 incidents of harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans. There was a Facebook post that received attention describing an African American called Reginald Jackson in Berkley, California. Jackson was arrested after spreading hateful posts against Asians on social media. He composed these posts right as the Lunar New Year was approaching, which is an important holiday for all Asian Americans in the United States and all over China. An article called, “Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across US terrifies community members” written by Victoria Bekiempis described a certain lady called Judy Chu, a California congresswoman who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the Asian American community has reached a “crisis point”. She also explained that activists, bigotry and community leaders clarify that race plays a major role in these horrific attacks.

Relating to the horrific portrayal of the police officer’s behavior towards the tragic death of George Floyd in early 2020, a police officer exhibited similar behavior to a 30-year old Angelo Quinto Northern California Navy veteran. He was suffering from paranoia after serving in the military and was discharged due to food allergy. His sister Bella Collins called the police last December 23rd, 2020 due to Quinto experiencing a health crisis. When the police officers arrived to their home, they didn’t ask or have the ability to comprehend the situation or to request an ambulance to assist with Quinto’s health crisis. One police officer placed his knee on his neck for five minutes and another officer constrained his legs towards his back while his arms were restrained with handcuffs. Quinto-Collins was recording the entire video on her cellphone and then was published on YouTube as evidence on February 18th, 2021. His mother said this quote, “I trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing but he was actually passive and visibly not dangerous or a threat so it was absolutely unnecessary what they did to him. I was horrified to see my son snatched from arms without warning, taken down on my bedroom floor and brutally killed in front of my eyes.” The family filed a legal claim against the Antioch Police Department last week, which takes 45 days to be processed. Once that legal claims is completed, then the family is going to file a federal lawsuit. The police officers involved in this horrific incident failed to talk to Quinto, turn on their body cams and the camera in their patrol car.

I posted an image from a news article called, “The model minority myth is killing us’: Facebook exec calls brands, public to confront anti-Asian racism”. The article was written by Jennifer Liu on February 25th, 2021 and she described about the story of a Facebook marketing executive called Eric Toda. He has witnessed violence against Asian Americans from the Bay Area and throughout the country. Toda said 20 years ago his own grandfather was attacked by a group of teenagers in the Bay Area at a park and then was sent to the hospital. He took it among himself to confront Anti-Asian violence that has dated back to the 1800’s and has increased throughout the pandemic. He is also going to inform the advertisers to put money into social media campaigns that don’t tolerate racism against Asian Americans and improve the representation of Asian Americans for branding purposes. Liu described Nike, ESPN and HBO have created statements to support Asian American communities. They are encouraging consumers to contribute to groups like Asian American Advancing Justice, Asian Americans for Equality, Compassion Oakland, Send Chinatown Love and Stop AAPI Hate. Toda has also mentioned that he wants employers to examine the minority model in their workplace and explained how Asian professionals aren’t promoted to leadership. He also wants companies to do more for Asian Americans either through their HR or diversity/inclusion departments to support underrepresented and marginalized employees. Some researchers have mentioned that employers can incorporate promotional gaps for Asian Americans employees to be involved in paths like leadership training or mentorship programs. Michelle Kim, CEO of the diversity training provider Awaken said a statement by saying, “A vast majority [of DEI leaders] don’t know how to talk about issues around Asians of America in a nuanced and complex way.” Kim also wants leaders to read up on the history and discussions of Asian Americans living in America to better describe how they have been violently attacked ever since the 1800’s until the pandemic. Facebook has spread a statement about the Anti-Asian violence and discrimination by saying, “We stand with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, including our many colleagues at Facebook. We condemn any and all acts of xenophobia, violence, and intolerance — and given the rise in anti-Asian sentiment, we are staying vigilant of any threats. We prohibit hate speech and violence towards the community and our teams are working to keep it off of our platform. We are examining the investments we’ve made to support justice in the AAPI community and are exploring what more we can do.” When I was scrolling through Tiktok videos before taking a shower after a long day at work today, my friend (who currently lives in Tuscon, Arizona) sent me a Tiktok video through the messaging section. The video showed an elderly lady Asian named Ying Ngov, 56 year old owner of Mama Venezia’s Pizzeria was assaulted by a group of men that were wearing masks in Norristown, Pennsylvania. As I was scrolling through Facebook, I came upon this post from NBA basketball star Jeremy Lin. Lin was speaking out about the recent attacks against Asian Americans throughout the United States. He was called the “coronavirus” while playing professional basketball on the NBA court. Below the image of Jeremy Lin’s picture is his perspective on the Anti-Asian discrimination, hatred and violence against Asians. The State of California allocated $1.4 million to track down on violence against Asian Americans and place a ban on these atrocious acts.