China News Service, Beijing, April 9th, title: Asian Americans should not live in anxiety and fear
China News Agency reporter Wu Kan
Recently, the cover of the American "New Yorker" magazine published a painting titled "Late", depicting a pair of Asian mothers and daughters waiting anxiously on a subway platform. The mother stood guard and frowned and held her daughter's hand tightly. , The daughter stood close to her mother and looked around vigilantly.
The scene in the painting is a microcosm of the real situation of Asian groups in the United States. In the more than a year since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the intensified racial discrimination and hate crimes have made Asian Americans living in anxiety and fear.
"You are the virus", "You don't belong here", "You damn immigrant"... Amidst insults and verbal abuse, Asian Americans are constantly being pushed down, spit, beaten, and shot to death. These violence incidents have nothing to do with gender, age and Occupation.
On March 16, a series of shootings occurred in three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, killing 6 Asian women. On February 3, a Filipino man was cut and stitched with a knife on the face of a New York subway with more than 100 stitches; On January 28, an 84-year-old Thai man in San Francisco was maliciously knocked down and died...
Racism and hatred have developed into a "spiritual plague", which has caused the living environment of Asian Americans to be perilous, and tragedies of injuries and deaths continue to be staged.
The California State University "Hate and Extremism Research Center" released a research report in March that stated that in 2020, the rate of hate crimes against Asians in 16 major cities in the United States increased by 145%.
According to a March poll conducted by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Data Center, more than a quarter of Asian respondents said they had experienced hate incidents.
"If the status quo does not change, who can guarantee that the next victim is not me, or my relatives?" An Asian citizen left a message on the Internet.
When yellow skin becomes a reason for violent crimes, Asians can only live tremblingly, keeping a high degree of vigilance against the dangers that may occur around them at any time.
In fact, the history of discrimination against Asians is as long as the history of Asian groups coming to the United States. From the earliest Asian immigrants to the United States in the mid-19th century, Asians have always struggled with all kinds of explicit and implicit discrimination.
In the context of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the combined effect of various factors has brought racial discrimination against Asian Americans to a climax. Some politicians have ignored the facts and maliciously hyped the so-called "Chinese virus", making Asians a target of public criticism.
All along, Asian immigrants have used their diligence and hard work to expand their living space and contribute to the development of American society.
At present, Asians are also working hard to fight the epidemic. Among them, there are medical staff who treat patients, scientific researchers who develop vaccines, and people from all walks of life who silently contribute... They should be proud of being Asian, but they are because of racial discrimination. Become "scarred".
After the Atlanta shooting, the long-hidden issue of hatred of Asians was finally brought to the "table". Demonstrations and demonstrations to "stop hating Asians" were set off across the United States to protest discrimination against Asians and hate crimes; Asian groups are in Widespread publicity on social media, the topic of "Stop Asian Hatred" has repeatedly topped the list of social media topics; the Asian community spontaneously set up street patrols to protect people's safety, and at the same time strengthened communication with the local government and police on public security issues.
In the face of boiling public grievances, US councilors are pushing for hate crime-related legislative proposals, and the Biden administration is also responding to anti-Asian hate crimes by "upgrading" measures such as inter-ministerial coordination and strengthening law enforcement.
But fighting the "mental plague" of racism is not easy, and the deep-rooted racism disease in the United States will hardly disappear in a short time.
The obstacles are long, and the lines are coming. In the future, Asian groups need to unite and speak together, continue to fight against discrimination to the end, and bravely defend the safety and interests of the ethnic group.
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