The aftermath of the March 16 shooting which took the lives of eight people, six of
whom were Asian, has sparked many conversations on the rise in violence and racism directed
towards Asian people during the pandemic. In the days following the shooting, protests
denouncing anti-Asian sentiment were held in large cities across the country, such as New York
and Washington D.C.
According to and analysis done by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism,
crimes that targeted Asian people in America rose 150% in 2020, even though overall crime
decreased by 7%. Karthick Ramakrishnan, who is the director of demographic data and policy
research nonprofit AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Data, told NBC that former President
Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the coronavirus was partially to blame for the rise in anti-Asian
crime. Ramakrishnan told NBC that Trump’s rhetoric helped to set a narrative, and that his
frequent use of terms such as “China virus” helped to foster hate towards Asian Americans.
Other countries have also seen a rise in anti-Asian crimes. According to Time, “the Asian
Australian Alliance received 377 reports of Covid-19-related racism between April and June last
year”, and the founder, Erin Wen Ai Chew, said that more than 500 reports have been
documented since last year. U.K. police data suggests that there was a 300% rise in hate crimes
against Asians in the country in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019. According
to Time, Chinese business owners in the U.K. have reported a variety of crimes such as being
attacked, spat at, and some nurses of Asian descent reported racial abuse from their patients.
On Tuesday March 29th, President Biden announced that he will “reinstate and expand
the scope of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” It was also
announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will provide $49.5 million to
institutions helping AAPI survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The National Science
Foundation will also spend $33 million on studying bias and xenophobia. The Department of
Justice will establish an initiative to respond to anti-Asian violence that will help spread
resources on national hate crime statistics, and promote accurate reporting of hate crimes.
Biden spoke about the violence towards Asian Americans in a speech earlier this month,
saying that the violence is “wrong, its un-American and it must stop”.
