Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Rising

The Asian American community has been under significant attack since 2020 at the start of the pandemic, but in the past year alone, attacks have seen a sharp increase all across the United States. In New York City alone, xenophobic attacks against Asians have been occurring almost daily, and leave its victims either dead or severely scarred or injured for life. Nationally, violent hate crimes and serial attacks against Asians have spiked to 260% while the NYPD reports a sharp increase of 360% in New York City alone. In San Francisco, police have reported a staggering 567% increase of hate crimes in just one year.

Asian New Yorkers Suffer Everyday

Many Asians, especially the elderly, have been fatally stabbed, pushed into incoming trains, or violently knocked to the ground and beaten down with many of these incidents occurring in New York City. Asian Americans within the Big Apple have been living in constant fear and worry, often anxious to even leave their own homes to buy groceries, and not knowing if they’ll come home safely or become victims of another horrifying and violent attack. Many victims of such assaults are usually afraid to speak out or file reports. Language barriers, lack of mechanisms for accountability, and various other issues often discourage Asian Americans from formally reporting the racist attacks they experience every day.

Anti-Asian Sentiment is Long Rooted in American History

The seeming normalization of violent hate crimes against Asians may have been sparked by political rhetoric coming from the previous president regarding the corona virus. However, it may be possible that such hatred, long-present and brewing for many years within society since the Chinese Exclusion Act, was only encouraged by recent events and is finally manifesting itself in the sharp increase in hate crimes nationwide. Even a year after the previous presidential administration, the socio-political rhetoric that encouraged anti-Asian sentiment continues to fuel stereotypes and harmful language throughout social media and is beginning to insert itself into the cultural strata of the United States.

In separate incidents during the first week of March 2022, seven Asian women in Manhattan were attacked by the same man. So far in 2022, four Asian New Yorkers have died as a result of violent hate crimes. New York City mayor Eric Adams has vowed to make change for the Asian American community in New York City, but so far, violent and racist hate crimes against Asians continue to be a daily problem for New York.