Asian Americans describe ‘gut punch’ of racist attacks during coronavirus pandemic
“A man sort of lurched at me and shouted, ‘You people brought the virus. Go back to China.’"
www.pbs.org
The novel coronavirus pandemic has Americans across the country fearful for their personal health and well-being, but for Asian Americans, the virus has stirred up another threat: a wave of verbal and physical attacks.
Jeff Yang experienced what he calls his own “breathing while Asian” moment last week while shopping at his local grocery store in Los Angeles. Even as the host of a podcast about being Asian in America, Yang says he was taken aback when a woman leaving the store noticed him — the only Asian in line — and started shouting profanities.
“She pulled down her mask, coughed theatrically in my direction, pulled up her mask, walked away, got into a car and drove away,” Yang recalls. “I was too shocked to do anything.”
“It really was a bit of a gut punch,” Yang added.
For Jeni Erbes-Chan, an architect in New York, it was a trip on the subway on March 10, her last day in the office before the citywide stay-at-home order, that shook her.
“A man sort of lurched at me and shouted, ‘You people brought the virus. Go back to China.’ I was a little in shock,” Erbes-Chan said. “I just put my head down and tried not to make any eye contact after that.”
Like so many others, she went about her day and didn’t report the incident to law enforcement.
“You just bury your head and you move forward because no matter how hard you work, how successful you are, what friends you make, you just don’t belong,” she said. “You will always be looked at as foreign.”
Incidents like these have been on the rise in recent weeks, and some have escalated beyond these verbal assaults. A family of three were stabbed outside a store in Midland, Texas, last month. The FBI says the man who was arrested after that incident
may face federal hate crime charges. The FBI is also warning local law enforcement around the country of a potential surge in hate crime incidents against Asian Americans because of coronavirus fears, according to an
FBI analysis obtained by ABC News.
Some people who have experienced these verbal attacks believe the rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and members of his administration is exacerbating the problem. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly called the coronavirus the “Wuhan virus” while Trump regularly called it the “Chinese virus”, both referencing the viral strain’s early origins in Wuhan, China.
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